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

Okay? Barring the fact that what she just said sounded utterly broken in terms of balancing, I guess I'll just have to take her word for it.

"Change of plans then," I nodded. "Maruki gets to be at the front again."

"Of course!"

Huh... He actually kind of sounded excited back out in front. I guess he really was made to be our tank.

"Anything else, Moriya?" Shade impatiently asked. "We're already burning through too much time as it is right now."

Right. "Not much else beyond us being on our guards, I suppose," I sighed. "Guidance will be in front of the middle group right behind Maruki, seeing as Shen can heal us just fine as well."

With two healers, we had some leeway in taking a bit of damage, assuming that we could tank a hit, of course. There was just no conceivable way for us to know if we would even be able to survive. Then again, if the quest fired up, that meant that I could possibly complete it... assuming it wasn't just the system bugging out again.

Or maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part. All assumptions... This was a really bad idea...

"Okay, let's go."

With an intrepid step, Maruki stepped us into the forest. There weren't any prompts that popped up, so I could only assume that the place was unnamed. Not that I was looking for it to have one, what with the multitude of words I could probably use to describe this place, and all of them being in the weird and creepy category too.

"Stay on guard..."

With that one reminder, we all kept our silence as our footsteps echoed against the dry grass underneath us. We couldn't exactly run, what with the entire place being pitch black with the sole exception of Maruki's shield illuminating the path. Shade had his whip at the ready, While Guidance and I kept looking around in an effort to try and scout out our location as much as we could. Shen meanwhile, was understandably creeped out by the encroaching darkness all around us. She held onto her wrench like a lifeline, her distance from me not going past a meter at most as she stuck to the group like an octopus.

[*whooosh.....*]

A faint wind blew past us, the notable sound of a howling breeze almost trying to make us stop in our tracks. Not that it did, with Maruki pushing onwards like nothing even happened. Still, the overall environment just screamed dark and dreary, an air of cold mystery wrapping all around us.

...

...

The silence was deafening. With each step that we took, the more prevalent the lack of noise became as the rustling leaves from the trees all around us made for a rather eerie background. I didn't know how long we had before we reached this manor, or if we were even going in the right direction, but the best things we could hold onto for now was hope and luck... if only to find where Shizu had gone to.

"How far do you think this manor is?" I found myself asking aloud.

"I... I don't know," Guidance nervously replied. "I just placed the manor somewhere on this island and called it a day. Even if I did put in some systems specific for this content itself, I just kind of copied and pasted it from another game I really liked."

I blinked at that. "Wait, there are more systems in here that we don't know about?"

"Systems that 'you' don't know about," the dev corrected. "And yes, I didn't tell you all yet because I don't even know if it'll even work."

"Wait, then why not tell us anyway, Lady Guidance?" Shade curiously asked. "Surely, if it's your work, it might just happen as intended."

Guidance sighed. "Because if it didn't work, then you all wouldn't have to deal with the stress that I'm currently having just thinking if it would even fire," she explained with a roll of her eyes. "Trust me when I say you all don't wanna know what I tried to replicate in this Island Sanctuary."

"But what if I do want to know?" I challenged. "We can't just expect things to not work when the world has been proven to try and recycle old content that you thought wouldn't even matter anymore."

The dev audibly clicked her tongue in response. "But that's with stuff that I've visibly tried to scrap. This is something I actively tried to make work, and I couldn't."

"So you're thinking that the Engine wouldn't be able to fix it?"

"Pretty much..."

Another biting wind blew past us, the rustling leaves above us chattering against their own branches. Somehow, the air grew colder with each step, an ominous feeling seeping into the very atmosphere around us.

"Look, let's just drop it. Shade already did," Guidance pointed out with a sigh. "If it becomes a problem, then we can figure out how to survive."

"That's not giving me any confidence at all."

"Then just imagine what I'm going through right now," the dev humorlessly laughed. "That's right. You don't want to hear what I'm thinking. It's pretty bad..."

The conversation died at that, with Shade content in simply moving forward and Guidance doing the same. Not that it did us any favors, what with Shen looking like she was doing her best not to cry despite the brave front she was putting up for us. Maruki either didn't care, or he did and he was just that courageous enough to keep going.

As for me though, I just had a feeling that we'll get to know what system Guidance put in place for this one specific island pretty soon. And somehow, at the rate that the game was seemingly falling apart, I had a feeling that the very system she was talking about wouldn't be confined to this island for long.

This was going to blow up on our faces. Of that, I'm sure.

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