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

Going abroad was something that I had only entertained more as a vacation than for finding job opportunities. I knew full well that I already had something decent going on in my life despite the below-average wages I was earning doing my job, so why bother uprooting and risking everything I had for a chance at a much higher-paying job elsewhere? I mean, I\'ll take the opportunity if it came to me, but I wouldn\'t bother chasing it around and risk becoming much more destitute than I already was. Besides, the costs of living would just scale up if I ever decided to live in a richer country.

Or maybe I was just afraid of change... Who knows?

"I\'m going to assume that I\'ll be the one to open dialogue?" Shade asked, taking his position near the communications kiosk.

"Yep," I nodded. "You\'ve proven time and again that you know how the world works. And our [Rig]\'s callsign alone would probably already raise concerns, let alone having Shizu do the hailing on top of that."

With the Marquean shore coming right over the horizon, all hands were on the bridge as we took stock of how we should approach. With the Empire still being at war with Marquee, I could only guess that the [Rig] being called [Empire\'s Wrath] would not only raise some eyebrows, it might also have us taking a fight that we\'re far from ready to receive. Although judging from how Shizu and Maruki weren\'t frothing at the mouth to have a scrap the moment we went to shore, the animosity between the two nations wasn\'t as bad as with Vestyge\'s.

"I\'m really going to set foot on a different nation..." Shizu breathed out, her eyes glued onto the port on the horizon. "It\'s Marquee, thankfully, but I can\'t help but still feel unease at the whole situation..."

Looking out, the blue glow of the port was starting to grow brighter the closer we drifted to shore. From what little I could see, it seemed as if the entire port town was electrified somehow, maybe comparable to that of a modern country as opposed to Kattleyna\'s rather primitive port. Did that mean we\'ll get actual showers this time? Maybe we could get some new modern comforts installed in the [Rig]. God knows bathing in hot water all the time was-

[BZZT!]

What the- "Nggh!"

I keeled over the console as I clutched my head in pain. That sound... Did the world change again?

"Moriya?! What\'s wrong?!"

"U-UGH-BLEAUUGHH!"

"Lady Guidance!"

"Shizu!"

"My Princess!"

Chaos erupted as the expected results of whatever change happened came to pass. I could barely look around, noticing that Shizu, Guidance, and myself were the only ones affected as per usual. Meanwhile, the rest of us did their best to look after us, Shen\'s shouting and constant thwacks alerting me to the fact that she was using her [Manifest] to whack us up in the head again.

Thankfully, I had recovered fast enough before she was even finished trying to heal Shizu.

"[Fix]! [Fix]!" Shen frantically shouted, hitting Shizu again and again with her healing [Move]. "Why isn\'t it working?!"

"I-It\'s because it can\'t be healed, Shen," Guidance panted out, still clutching her head as she leaned on the nearest kiosk. "The world had changed... but how?"

"That\'s the question now, isn\'t it," I mumbled aloud, my head still partly throbbing in pain. "You clearly didn\'t do anything, so what was that then? Some kind of random event?"

"It could be the Engine itself sputtering out again," Guidance postulated. "I didn\'t think it can do that on its own. Then again, I\'ve worked with more temperamental software in the past."

I could only shake my head as I stared at Shizu vomiting her guts out as per usual. Looking back, we were always on some kind of backfoot whenever these things happened. We said that we\'d try fixing this world whenever we could, but when was the last time Guidance had done such a thing? Then again, I was also the one that tried to stop her from fixing every little thing that she could...

Ugh... Temperamental software was always such a pain...

"I-I\'m fine..." Shizu breathed out, wiping her mouth as she slowly stood up. "T-Thanks, Shen."

"I didn\'t even manage ta heal ya," the girl sulked.

"You tried your best," the princess chuckled. "That\'s all that matters."

"But..."

I couldn\'t help but sigh at the sight before me. Everyone was talking amongst themselves again, mostly just the three others apologizing to Shizu about how they couldn\'t even help her through her pains. Still, it was at least a lively sight, one that was sure to make the atmosphere liven up after that sudden attack against the very fabric of the universe. Well, I say that, but was it even an attack in the first place?

"That\'s enough," I called out, breaking off the constant apologizing that was happening to the two women in my current life. "We\'re still approaching port, and we\'re still burning fuel the longer we\'re not sure that we can even dock in the first place."

"I\'m on it," Shade quickly nodded, taking his place near his kiosk once more. "I\'m going to assume that you want us to obfuscate our callsigns."

I raised an eyebrow. "Can you even do that?"

Shade nodded as he picked up the microphone. "From what I\'m seeing, the Marquean technology we have can possibly allow us to spoof our designation enough that we\'d be considered a Marquean merchant vessel." He shrugged, "I wouldn\'t think they\'d miss us being a full-blown [Rig] by the time we reach port, however."

"Can\'t we just say that we\'re just a well-protected merchant then?" Shen chimed in with her pride returning to her tone. "Big guns and all that, yeah?"

"I... that might actually work," Shade pondered. "Still, what would be selling then?"

I hummed in thought as I quickly turned to Shen. "Shen, you did inventory, right?"

"It was boring, but yeah," Shen nodded. "Why?"

"How much of everything do we have?" I asked. "Do we have a lot of one thing that we can sell?"

The girl crossed her arms over her chest as she tapped her feet in thought. "Weeellll.... We got food and a bit of fuel..."

"And?"

Shen pouted, "That\'s it."

...

.....

"Huh..." I knew we were strapped for supplies, but I didn\'t think we were that much on dire straits. "How much food do we have left then?"

"Just about two days\' worth, I guess," Shen shrugged. "Why?"

I couldn\'t help but chuckle as I looked back at Shade, the man visibly paling as he shook his head in denial. "Please don\'t suggest that we sell off what little food we have left."

"What else are we supposed to sell then?" I shrugged. "It\'s not like we have anything else left to pawn off."

"Perhaps we can sell our services as mercenaries!" Maruki suggested with his usual loud tone. "Marquee has always had a history of buying sellswords for their army!"

"That can work," I hummed in thought. "It would also explain why we\'re in a [Rig] in the first place."

"But that would mean masking the callsign to something else," Shade sighed. "I\'ll see what I can do. But for now, I suggest you all start practicing how to act like mercenaries."

And with that, the bridge returned to its peaceful state, Shade busily contacting the nearest port with what we could only hope was a solid ruse to hide ourselves with. The girls were all huddled together on one side of the bridge now, while Maruki took it upon himself to clean up the vomit that Shizu left on the floor.

"Moriya?"

Turning around, Guidance was looking at me with a serious look on her face as she visibly restrained the urge to pull me off the console. Behind her, Shizu had her [Code Watcher] opened, the frown on her face already telling me that there was some bad news to be had.

"Lay it on me then," I sighed. "What\'s the problem?"

"Shizu can\'t see anything."

...

....

"Huh? But that\'s impossible," I frowned. "She\'s looking at something right now."

"And that\'s precisely the problem," Guidance gravely described. "It\'s because she\'s seeing too much that she can\'t see anything."

"So she\'s being blinded then," I postulated. "By what?"

Instead of answering, Guidance decided to point back out towards the horizon. Shrugging, I followed her trail, expecting to see that our heading hasn\'t changed and that we were still well on our way... to...

...

"What am I looking at..."

I almost let out a gasp as the port town that we were heading towards had been utterly replaced with something that was... far too hard to explain using proper words. It was like the entire skyline of the town had been replaced with blue static, the buildings crawling with blue lines in a way that was comparable to neon circuits. Based on how nobody that was native to this world except for Shizu was being bothered by this, I could only assume that it had been like this for their entire lives. Only...

"Wasn\'t that port just fine a few minutes ago?"

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