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

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"Okay, Moriya, why in the world did you want to wake me up at this ungodly hour?"

I raised an eyebrow at Guidance's irritated look. I didn't even think it was still in the early morning in this world, seeing as there was no sun to even gauge the time, but I could only guess that the common folk still had their internal clocks telling them the time.

And apparently, it was still the equivalent of around three AM at the moment.

"Err... I wanted to ask you about the stuff I've unlocked," I hesitantly replied. "I guess I just thought now was a good time to check on them."

"Ugh... Not everyone doesn't need to sleep anymore," Guidance sighed, one of her hands still rubbing at her eyes as she shook her head. "Well, I'm already up, so we might as well."

"Sorry about that," I sighed.

The dev simply shrugged at me, her energy levels still far too low to argue against me, it seemed. Either way, at least we'll be productive.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road..." she shook her head in resignation.

Taking the lead, I walked Guidance out of her room and out towards the back of the inn. Thankfully, there was a bit of empty space we could use as some kind of a sparring arena, a junkyard of sorts where the inn's garbage went to be ignored.

"Great job picking this place," Guidance sarcastically scoffed. "Surely, there's a better place for us to do this."

"You did design this place, you know," I chuckled. "Don't complain that we're in a dump when you made it in the first place."

"Touche," Guidance rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest as she scoffed. "Well? What's on your mind?"

Taking out my [Manifest], I gave them a brief look before twirling them in my fingers. I then pointed my white pistol at Guidance, the dev simply giving me a look as she waited for my answer.

"I was thinking we could do a spar," I suggested. "We both have a few things we want to test out. And I'm sure you already have some combat capabilities baked into your [Manifest]."

"A fair assessment, and yeah... I have a few [Moves] that need some testing," Guidance nodded in agreement. "We might as well have a [Duel] while we're at it then."

I raised an eyebrow at her words, "A [Duel]?"

"A PvP duel," Guidance replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "While [The Seams] are more of a single-player game, I still added in some multiplayer elements just in case I needed them."

Huh... "Wouldn't that just add more problems for you to fix?"

"It's not even that much work to put in a [Duel] system," she shrugged as she pulled out her [Keystroke]. "On top of it not being much of a burden on the overall code, it enables the player to fight against certain NPCs. It also works for some of the stuff I put on the other nations."

"I see," I nodded, adjusting my feet at the ready as I stood in front of Guidance. "So... how are we supposed to do this?"

"Well, I'd say you should right-click me and select [Offer Duel] but... I don't think that'll work right now," she hesitantly replied. "I guess you can just... Hmm..."

I blinked at the dev's humming tone, my own mind already whirring as to what I should do to trigger it. "Well, since everything's responding to voice command, maybe I should just [Offer Duel]-"

[CHIME!]

"Oh!" I jolted in place, same with Guidance as she looked at me with curiosity. "That's convenient."

"You managed to get it going?"

"Yep," I nodded, my eyes gazing towards the floating prompt in front of me. "I'm guessing all that's left for me to do is to accept?"

[Duel: Guidance? YES/NO]

Floating in the usual window prompt, the Duel system wanted me to either touch it, or I just had to say yes for it to proceed. Looking beyond the window, Guidance was patiently waiting for me to go through with it, her hands already flying through her keys as her small screen ran through countless lines of code.

"Well?"

I raised an eyebrow at my fellow off-worlder's impatient tone. "You're awfully eager to fight."

"Don't think you're the only person here that's excited to be in a different world," she chuckled. "I've been waiting for this moment ever since I got here. I'm not gonna be some useless navigator for you to order about, you know."

"Heh, fair enough," I chuckled back, readying my arms as I eyed the prompt. "Well, I guess we'll just have to see how we fare against each other."

With a smile, I moved the barrel of my left-hand pistol towards the 'YES' prompt. Nudging it, I waited for the prompt to disappear and for the duel to commence...

A gust of wind seemed to blow past us, a stray piece of rubbish rolling past us as we stared at one another. Her fingers floated at the ready, her keyboard floating in front of her as she eyed me with the focus of a hardcore raider. Meanwhile, my pistols were aimed solely at the dev, my trigger fingers already itching as I mentally went through the [Moves] that I already have unlocked. I'm sure I'll have to cycle through most of them, especially if I had to fight an obvious healer.

Our eyes bore through one another as we waited for the system to pit us against one another in combat. The [Stars] above us glowed with a faint light, illuminating the small patch of junkyard that we decided to have as our arena...

....

...Any time now... This thing will kick in and actually show our health bars...

"Moriya, do you honestly think it'll be touch-based after almost everything we've come across is voice-activated?"

I blinked at Guidance's voice, a red blush forming on my cheek as embarrassment welled within my chest. "Oh right... Sorry about that..."

Cringing at my stupidity, I eyed the prompt once more, my lips smacking at one another as I finally accepted. "[YES]"

[DUEL ACCEPTED]

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