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

Making our way back to the fountain with weird water physics, Guidance immediately took note of the anomaly as she shoved her way out to the front of the pack.

"What is this? I didn't program the water to flow like this!"

Sure enough, I sighed as the dev in her quickly came out to the forefront as she whipped out her keyboard and started typing. Not that I would even let her anymore.

"Shizu, can you-"

"Guidance, can you just leave it alone for now?"

The dev quickly shot me an agitated glance, her fingers hovering anxiously above her keyboard as she spoke. "How can I leave this alone? It's right in front of me!"

I winced at the borderline obsessive tone in her voice. I guess that was to be expected, seeing that this was her life's work. But... "You can't fix every little thing, Guidance. It'll take too much time."

"I know! That's why I should do it now while we still have time to spare!"

Shizu slowly inched herself to my side, her apprehension apparent as she somehow made herself scarce from the dev's field of view. I guess anyone would be if the one asking for them was already raving for their attention.

"Look, if it doesn't affect gameplay, maybe you can leave it alone?" I suggested. "Not every bug needs fixing, right?"

"But what if it affects some other line of code?" Guidance shockingly reasoned, a crazed look on her face coming out to mar her otherwise beautiful features. "This way, I can fix it before it becomes a problem!"

"Err... Isn't that exactly why you shouldn't mess with it in the first place?" I hesitantly fired back, knowing full well that I was only speaking through third-hand experience. "Like any machine, messing with one thing can set off a chain reaction of other stuff that'll need fixing. As they say, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it,' right?"

The dev actually looked like an addict suffering through withdrawal as she gave the fountain one longing glance, her hands balling themselves to the point of her knuckles turning white before relaxing themselves.

With a deep breath, Guidance holstered her [Manifest] and sighed, "Sorry..."

"It's fine," I chuckled. "You can come out now, Shizu."

At my reassurance, our tour guide meekly walked back to the front of the pack, her usual energy quickly returning as she led us to... Wait...

"We're here!" Shizu announced. "This is how we go to [Yagokoro]!"

I blinked at what we were staring at. It was the exact same fountain that I was just scolding Guidance about not fixing. And to my dawning apprehension, the dev was giving me knowing looks as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Still don't want me to fix it?" she teased.

I shook my head in denial. "If Shizu uses it all the time, then why fix it?"

Surely, the gravity-defying waters of this thing weren't hiding some kind of secret flaw in it that could prove fatal for some reason. After all, if it was constantly being used, then it was definitely safe... Right?

"So, how do we do this?" I asked as I put on a brave face against the coming ride. "Do we just jump, or..."

At my question, Shizu jumped right at the rim of the fountain. With a radiant smile, she pointed at the massive city floating above us as she explained, "The key to using this is to stand at the rim and point upwards for around say.... five sec-"

[*ZOOM*]

The princess didn't even manage to finish her sentence when motes of white light suddenly whisked her away from where she stood. Just a bit in front of me, Guidance looked utterly proud of her own creation, her eyes shining with delight as she quickly followed Shizu's lead.

"Wait up!"

"You better hurry then," the dev teased as she stood on the fountain and casually pointed up. "At least this thing works as intended-"

[*ZOOM*]

And just like that, I was left alone with nothing but my weapons and my wits. "Didn't even bother waiting..."

Casually standing on the rim of the fountain, I repeated their actions as I waited for the whimsical teleportation system to get me to where I needed to go.

[*ZOOM*]

Woah....

Somehow, being whisked away felt kind of soothing as I felt myself soaring at high speeds toward our destination. The concept of gravity seemed to turn on its head as my body felt weightless, my sense of balance recalibrating itself before I even noticed that I was standing on yet another fountain still keeping the same pose.

[Yagokoro]

The prompt of the place flashed itself in front of me as I blinked away what little nausea I just experienced. Stepping down, I immediately looked up, only to see the capital city staring right above me as if all sense of rightness were just thrown out the window. Seeing the forest from this kind of angle was kind of trippy; the lacking starlight above making the job of the lamps around us easier as they illuminated the area.

"Wow..." I whispered out, my eyes quickly noting that the fountain on this side didn't have any water trying to float out of it. "At least this fountain's fine."

"Thank you," Guidance preened, obviously ignoring my last remark as she herself took in the view. "It looks good, I know."

I blinked at her confidence, "Since when are you this confident?"

"If there's one thing I'm good at, it's graphical design," the dev proudly declared, placing a hand on her chest as she let out a smirk. "I spent years conceptualizing this place, and to see it firsthand is just... amazing."

Chuckling at the dev's self-praise, I quickly gave Shizu a passing glance, ushering her to continue our trek towards the palace. We were already wasting time as it is, and we could always just appreciate our surroundings while we walked.

"Welcome to [Yagokoro]," the princess proudly beamed. "If you would please follow me, the Imperial Palace is just ahead."

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AN: Kindly vote so that I can get back to 2 chaps per day ^^