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

I haven't heard from Guidance in probably over twelve hours by now. All the while, Shizu was busy showing me everything her city had to offer. If I was any lesser being, I would've practically fallen in love with the girl for how energetic and cheerful she was whenever we stopped by a supposed landmark. Fortunately for me, I pride myself on self-control and lack of care in regard to people that simply want to be friends. I guess that's what I get for being surrounded by women for over four years.

"And here's the [Town Square]!" the green-haired tour guide proudly pointed towards what looked to be a gigantic fountain. "This is the very center of the city, and where most people go to if they want to go to [Yagokoro]!"

[Yagokoro]?... "I'm assuming that [Yagokoro] is the giant floating rock above us?"

"Of course!" she beamed. "It's also where the [Kattleynan Imperial Palace] is located!"

I raised an eyebrow at the description as I found myself looking up. From sheer size alone, I couldn't help but gawk as I struggled to internalize the possibility of it being real. Unfortunately for the laws of physics, such things were always possible so long as the game could handle the design. And sure enough, Guidance made a fine job of making it look pretty. And this was coming from someone that hadn't even seen it up close yet.

"And the fountain?" I asked, my attention now going to the water fountain- wait... "Is... Is the water going up instead of going down?"

Shizu looked at me funny as she tilted her head, "Huh? Are fountains not supposed to do that?"

I felt my brows scrunch up as I focused my attention on the peculiar sight in front of me. For some goddamn reason, the water coming out of the fountain was shooting straight up into the air. I probably would've chalked it up as intriguing design if not for the way that the water was behaving.

I mean, water wasn't supposed to look like it's struggling to stay inside the pool.

"You mean this is normal for fountains here?"

"Well, it's just this one, really," Shizu took on a thinking pose as she placed a finger on her chin. "Most just attribute it to one of the numerous [Eld Gods] having fun with us mortals, but I personally feel like there's more to it, y'know?"

[Eld Gods]... Lore stuff, I take it...

Looking at the fountain, I highly doubt that Guidance would make a literal god mess with a poor fountain just to have fun. Is this a bug then? Must be... Heh... Now I'm curious.

"Say, any other places here that you could say is... odd?"

I wouldn't put it past Guidance to hide her screw-ups behind her admittedly beautiful design work. Not that I should really fault her for trying; it was a normal tactic for game development if I recall. But to see glitches happen in what these NPCs consider to be their real life was fun to imagine.

"Hmm...."

Shizu hummed curiously with her melodious voice. A part of me still feels like she had a copy of Guidance's tone, but without the woman herself, I couldn't pull a direct reference yet. Maybe later, but- Ooh... I just had another idea that'd be game-breaking for these NPCs. It'd have to happen later when Guidance inevitably returned after recovering her source code though.

"Anything coming to mind?"

"There's a lot, really," she frowned. "I'm trying to see how we can route our path so that we can see them all."

Wow, that many? "We don't need to see them all. Just some of them, really."

"But they're all so interesting to look at!" Shizu complained with a cute pout. "Imperial researchers have been studying these phenomena for years! We can't just skip some of them. Who knows what we'll miss!"

Ookay? "I guess it's your call then."

Shizu grinned, "Of course!"

[CHIME!]

I froze mid-step just as I was about to follow my tour guide. What the hell? Did I just hear a bell ring in my head?

[Side Quest Accepted: Princess Escort!]

Wait, what?!

"Is there a problem, Stranger?"

"Oh? I-it's nothing!" I quickly waved her off. "I just... saw something, is all."

Hold up! I currently have a prompt floating in front of me. And I'm pretty sure it says that I'm escorting an actual princess. So questions first: Who's the princess?!

"Let me read this thing...."

"You're saying something?"

Crap! "Nothing! It's nothing."

Yikes. I better make sure that nobody sees me looking straight into the air like an idiot. Now let's see....

[Quest Details: Princess Caris Zenoia needs someone to help her investigate various places around Kotosa! See to it that she can do her investigation in peace!]

What the hell? Who's this Caris Zenoia fellow?! I haven't met an NPC with that name, let alone found someone that looked like a princess yet! Was the game bugging out on me?! Seriously?!Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m nov𝒆lb(i)n.c(o)m

"Stranger?" Shizu turned around to look at me with worry. Her cute face scrunched up just behind the prompt, her expression coming through the prompt's translucent surface. "Is there something wrong?"

I shook my head as I tried to clearly look at my tour guide. Unfortunately, I haven't tried removing the quest prompt yet, causing the window to follow my vision despite me trying to avoid looking at the damn thing!

"Get out of my sight, dammit...."

"S-stranger?"

Oh no! "I-I didn't mean you, Shizu! It's nothing!" No! Not like this! I can't fall victim to miscommunication humor now!

I found myself swiping helplessly in the air, doing random swipes at the prompt just to get it to close.

"Uhh.... Are you okay?"

Close, dammit! Not like this! I haven't met this Princess Caris something yet!

"It's nothing, Shizu," I shakily assured her. "I'm just... swatting a fly away!"

...

.....

....What kind of half-assed excuse was that, me?! You dumb idiot! Haven't you watched something that had a better excuse for what you're doing?!

"A fly?" Shizue tilted her head beside me as she looked at the space where the errant prompt floated in front of me. "I'm not seeing anything though."