This is a Beta Test?! - A Literally Broken System

Guidance stared at me with an awkward look in her eyes. I could only assume that she forgot again, to which I could only respond with a sigh as I let out a light chuckle.

"You're seriously going to put everything into chance?"

She hesitantly answered, "I'm... I'm gonna get to it, okay? It's just... don't you know how awkward it feels to even ask such a thing?"

I blinked. Well, she had a point there...

"Fair enough," I shrugged. "I just hope that you make the right decisions and all that."

"You make it sound like you don't want it."

"I don't mind it," I corrected her. "What I'm worried about is what's gonna happen in the future if it did come to pass. You wouldn't want to be running around swollen now, don't you?"

Guidance blushed at that, and a part of me also wanted to turn away at the sight of her being awkwardly attracted to me. It was just... Damn... Even I was starting to get embarrassed here.

"Look, just do what you think is best," I added, hopefully ending the conversation right then and then. "I'll be steering the ship now, thank you."

Focusing my attention back on the charts, I sighed as I steadily made progress toward this one island. We didn't know what was in store for us there still, but I'm sure that we'll be fine regardless.

"...Thank you."

I turned to Guidance, her meek voice making her sound cuter than normal as she awkwardly smiled at me.

Damn... I'm really starting to fall for her, huh...

"No worries," I smiled back. "Now let me not have us hit a random rock or something. I don't want us sinking so close to an island's shore."

"Fine then," she giggled. "I'll be doing some stuff then. Maybe trying to see if I can remember what's out there on the other islands."

And with that, the dev left me to my lonesome, Guidance leaving the bridge as she went to who knows where. I also spotted Shizu leaving behind her, so I could only assume that she put a word in on the princess to have a little chat with one another.

"Moriya, the island's not responding."

I raised an eyebrow at Shade's calls. "You mean..."

"They're not picking up our hails, or even any sort of communication," Shade elaborated. "Trying the opposite, we're not picking up any sort of signals from them either."

"So it's uninhabited then?" I curiously asked out.

"Most likely," Shade replied. "These Marquean sensors are top of the line, and if they're not picking up anything, I don't know what else could."

I took in a small breath as I stared back at the chart. The island we were approaching was right in international waters. It was closer to Kattleyna, at least, but that didn't guarantee that the place had friendly relations with its nearest superpower. For all we knew, this was actually some kind of hostile tribe that somehow managed to repel off any would-be invaders.

Or maybe it was just an empty rock with a few forests or something. We didn't really know.

"So, are we going to continue?"

I hummed out my thoughts as I replied, "We might as well, seeing as it's already right there."

"Ooh! Are we going ta land already?"

Oh, Shen was still here. "That's the plan," I replied with a half-smile. "We don't know what's out there yet, but we'll see what happens."

"That's exciting!" she squeed out. "I haven't been to an island before, so this is gonna be ma first time!"

I let out a scoff of amusement. Shen really acted the part of a kid out in the candy store huh... Even if said kid was actually fifteen already...

Okay, I'll stop thinking about that now.

"Keep in mind that just because it's uninhabited doesn't mean it's not deadly, Moriya," Shade reminded as he put down the comms device. "I've been to a few empty islands myself, and most of the time, they're just as dangerous as any hostile nation or army."

"I'm assuming that there could be some wildlife here then," I postulated.

"Most likely," he nodded, crossing his legs as he swiveled around his chair. "Some make for good game though, so we can maybe go out hunting to restock on supplies. Assuming this [Rig] has the means to preserve them, of course."

Preserve them, huh... A refrigerator, perhaps? Well, I found it hard to believe that this thing didn't have that much. The entire thing screamed of technology, so that was most likely a given already.

"Seeing as I'm no longer needed, I'll be going out on the deck," Shade shrugged as he stood up. "I'll be in touch using the [Rig]wide comms, yeah?"

"Sure thing."

And with that, Shade left me to my lonesome. Well, Shen was still there, but it felt like I was relegated to babysitting duty as she visibly vibrated with pent-up energy.

"Are we there yet?"

"Obviously not," I chuckled. "We'll get there when we get there, yeah?"

"Can't ya just make us go faster like last time?" Shen pouted. "I'll just fix da engines again if it stopped working."

I blinked at the stupid idea. "No, Shen. We won't risk our engines just for us to get there faster. Besides, are you sure you want to go back down there again? I remember you talking about how hot it was below deck. You didn't get burns from it though..."

I could only imagine how hot it was down there, especially knowing how hot the water seemed to get the deeper we went out in the sea. I was pretty sure that the water wasn't steaming hot back on shore, but now it was almost like it could fog us up if we weren't careful with our lights.

"Eh, it's nothin," she proudly scoffed. "I just fixed myself up while going through all that stuff. It was painful, yeah, but nothin I couldn't handle."

...

...

"Huh?" Did I hear her right? "You... fixed yourself while below deck?"

"Yep!" Shen grinned. "So get this thing moving! I wanna go to da island!"

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