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

Technology was something that I thought I was always good at. Well, it was true, of course, but I wasn't good enough to the point that I can code my own stuff. I can put together a decent PC and install all the good stuff in it without resorting to paying someone to do it, but that was pretty much the extent of my technological prowess. Maybe if I had the tools I could start fiddling with laptops and cellphones, but that was it. Hardware was the most I could do. All the software side of things was far beyond my capabilities.

"N-Nghh... Ahhh..."

"Just hold still, okay? I'll pull this thing out of you yet."

Standing by the sidelines, I was relegated to just watching as Guidance went to work extracting whatever it was that was currently lodged inside Shizu's chest. After they were done talking to each other in code, the dev prompted to do something that I didn't expect her to, which was to forego the easy way of just coding the thing out of existence. Instead, she typed something into her keyboard which made her right hand glow green with her usual energies.

So there they were now, with Guidance's hand currently knuckle-deep into Shizu's chest, the princess gasping and moaning as the dev tried her best to take the thing out of her.

"C-Can you stop moaning?" Guidance stammered out, a blush forming on her cheeks as she detrimentally averted her gaze away from Shizu's bare chest. "It's kind of distracting..."

"S-Sorry... I-It's just... Ahhh~"

It was kind of ridiculous, really. All three of us were blushing now; with Shizu doing so because of Guidance's hand visibly undulating inside her, the latter being distracted by Shizu's reactions to her attempts, and myself having to witness two of the most beautiful women I know practically enacting a rendition of a scene that should really only be done inside the privacy of the bedroom.

"O-Oh..." Guidance gasped, her eyes widening as her blush spread across her cheeks even further. "Is... Is this..."

"H-Hah... T-That's... my heart, Lady Guidance...."

"I'm sorry! I-I must've overshot!"

I let out a sigh as I turned my attention back to the more pressing tasks at hand, turning away before my own arousal grew too much for me to handle, especially in such a tense situation like this. We were still inside a burning facility after all, and while we were relatively safe for now, it was only a matter of time until we had to face the music that our party members must already be busy dealing with. It kind of felt surreal, knowing that we were here causing so much havoc for our companions on the ground, and yet we didn't even seem fazed by it all. We were still going at it at our own pace, moving along like we weren't in the middle of enemy territory being borderline terrorists.

I mean, that was what we were now, right?

"You can turn around now."

Hearing Guidance's call, I turned around, only to blush further upon seeing Shizu leaning on the wall for support, her face completely red as she panted for breath. Her top was still bare for all to see, and her chest heaved in a way that almost looked like... Well, I really didn't want to go to that place just yet.

"Huh... What is this thing?"

Quickly turning to Guidance herself, my girlfriend had a slight blush of her that was quickly receding the longer she stared at the spherical object in her hand. It looked like some sort of probe with a red and green light flashing alternatively on it. If it was letting off a small hum, I couldn't hear any of it. Instead, my mind helpfully supplied me with possible answers as to what it was based on appearances.

"Maybe it's what Shizu says it is," I shrugged as Guidance held onto the spherical device that she had just pulled out of Shizu's chest. "Looks kind of hi-tech, isn't it?"

"A bit too hi-tech, if you ask me," Guidance frowned. "The most Marquee should only be at around the atomic era in terms of technological level. This... I'm pretty sure this goes beyond that."

"W-What... do you mean?"

"She means that Marquee has access to things that they really shouldn't," I helpfully answered Shizu, moving to help the princess up from the wall. "This also means that they're really capable of making weapons of mass destruction."

"Of which, I'm sure that I've just unwittingly activated somehow," Guidance quickly supplied. "Well, at least we've confirmed that already."

That was one way of putting it. The fact that we exploded was looking to be an entire segment of Centrax was kind of alarming, but there was nothing we could do about it now. The best option we had left was to go up and see what carnage we had created, possibly finding the rest of our group and running away before we get swarmed by the inevitable response to this disaster.

"So... can we destroy it then?" Shizu asked, the princess regaining enough composure to fix herself up. "If we've already found it, we should destroy it before it can pose as a threat against the Empire."

"I already tried doing that, remember?" Guidance weakly chuckled. "Look how that turned out. Maybe if we had more firepower on us somehow, or... Can you see its code?"

Shizu frowned, her eyes squinting at the light before quickly turning away. "I can't. It's too bright, and its numbers are so condensed that I can't differentiate anything from one another."

"That rules out me being able to code it out of existence for now then," Guidance sighed in annoyance. "Maybe if we can somehow power it down, but I don't even know how to begin to do that."

"Well, we can always come back to it now that we know it's a thing," I voiced out, trying to keep our group on track. "For now, our priority should be on how in the world are we going to get back up there?"

"Can't we just walk our way back to where we came from?"

"I don't think that's possible now," I voiced out, shooting down Shizu's suggestion. "We didn't exactly map out way down here, so we'll just waste our time relocating the hatches that we used."

"Then we just have to climb this crater then," Guidance quickly postulated. "Only, if we're currently in the center of the city, that would mean facing whatever authorities might already be trying to investigate the crater."

"Which means fighting our way out of this mess," I quickly added. "Maybe we can try and find a section of the perimeter that isn't still locked down?"

"Why not just fight then? If Marquee is as powerful as I think it is, then they might already have some of their forces waiting for us everywhere," Shizu casually suggested. "I'm sure we can take 'em on anyway."

"Us three against an entire army? I wouldn't take those chances," I scoffed. "Besides, we still don't know where the others are in relation to us. We have to connect to them, otherwise, we risk leaving someone behind."

And that was probably the worst-case scenario that we could have. We were already well understaffed on our [Rig], and we were pretty much an already decent unit with skillsets invaluable to our current roles. If we lost either one of our groups, the damage it would do to both morale and our party would be pretty catastrophic.

Well, that, and the fact that we were all actually starting to become friends was going to be a bummer and a half.

"What do you suggest then?"

I hummed in thought as I considered Guidance's question. It was a loaded one, sure, but it was still something that needed an answer and fast.

"We have no other choice than to climb the crater, I think," I mumbled. "Going back to where we came would take too much time, and by then, the authorities might just dive in and try and find us before we even get out."

"So we're going to fight then?" Shizu asked, her excitement clearly rising from the prospect of it.

"Unfortunately, yes," I sighed. "We'll also have to be alert for any other disturbances throughout the city. If our companions are out there, they might already be trying to look for us. There will be no splitting up now. Not today."

Looking up, I narrowed my eyes at our current objective. Despite the situation being stable for now, the party must be running on fumes for a while now, and it was only a matter of time before everything falls apart. This was too loud, and there was no way we'll get out of this unscathed.

For the time being, all I could do was mitigate the inevitable fallout of this disaster.

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The title is a tribute to the valiant team that played despite being sick on the International. They could've won, but luck just didn't like them for some reason. (And that xNova walking out there alone is just way too sad. He was a Champ)