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

Chapter 160 30.4 Backtracking?

I watched as Shizu's eyes glowed black and green as she stared at the void in front of us. Shade and Maruki at least didn't look too disturbed as they took another path for their larger party, but they'd probably have to wait for us back in the Postmaster's office while we sort this out.

Or, maybe one of us should just go around the pit and walk on forward.

"O-Oh... This is new..."

Oh? "What is it, Shizu?"

The princess frowned as she squinted at the void, "It's no longer just ones and zeroes... There are a few more numbers in here now... And there are a few letters in them as well?"

"What?"

? Hearing Guidance perk up beside me, I could only assume that she had some idea as to what Shizu was seeing. Making way, I let the dev walk forward as I waited for this entire thing to resolve itself.

"Can you tell me exactly what you're seeing?" the dev asked, her keyboard already in front of her as she waited.

"Do... Do you think you can understand what I'm seeing, Guidance?" Shizu asked.

The dev smiled, "Only one way to find out, Shizu."

And with that, the two began their usual ritual of exchanging information between them. To their side, Shen was still visibly upset at her perceived failure. Not that she even failed in the first place, of course. Still, maybe she needed some support?

Walking to the girl, I affectionately rubbed her head, ruffling her hair ever so slightly as a way to-

"Mhmm... S-Stop that..."

Okay? Hands off then. "Sorry about that. Was just trying to cheer you up."

"I-I know..." Shen weakly murmured. "Thanks..."

"I try my best," I promptly replied.

...

...

Well, that was awkward. Still, was that disappointment I heard from her after I took my hand off her head? Then again, I already did that to her earlier back when we first met, right?

"T-That's.... That's so much easier..."

I blinked as I turned my attention back to Guidance and company. I guess there's been a development if our resident dev said something. Though, "Easier? So it's something you recognize then."

"Yeah," Guidance nodded, her hands already flying as she typed into her keyboard. "It might not be Binary anymore, but it's a whole lot easier to use... I might even be able to teach it to Shizu, assuming that she wants to learn it, of course."

"I-I can?!" the princess yelped out, her glowing eyes growing wide in surprise. "I-I can learn the Language of the Gods?!"

Guidance rolled her eyes. "It's not any language from any god, Shizu. It's just Hexadecimal code. Infinitely easier than Binary to understand with a bit of work put into it," she sighed. "Don't know how or why that happened, but I guess the Engine wants to humor us."

"Heh, at least that's solved," I chuckled. "You can start fixing things again, right?"

"Yep," Guidance popped with a click of her tongue. "It's gonna be faster too, what with me no longer having to translate another layer of language all in my head."

I raised an eyebrow in light curiosity as Guidance did her thing. Shizu was still staring out into space, her eyes still in [Code Watcher] mode as she visibly squinted at what she was seeing, while Shen visibly didn't know where she stood in the current situation. Well, at least I wasn't alone in feeling awkward whenever these two got into their respective trances.

"And done," Guidance shrugged just after she typed in her last line of supposed code. "All that's left is to punch it in. Shizu?"

"Yes?"

"Turn your eyes off."

Shizu blinked for a brief second before Guidance's words seemingly hit her. "Oh right."

"Should pay a bit more attention whenever we have to do things like this, Shizu," I lightly chuckled. "We don't want you throwing up more than you should, right?"

"Yeah..." she nervously smiled. "But I think I'm getting used to it, Moriya. I just have to keep my stomach tightly wound."

"That's... not the words I'd use, but sure," I smiled. "Just be careful, yes?"

"Of course, Moriya," she smirked.

"Eherm... If you two are done?" Guidance interrupted with a cough. "Shizu, brace yourself."

The princess nodded, and I did the same as Guidance hovered over the enter key. "Ready when you are."

Another round of nods went through the three of us. Shen even gave one herself even though she clearly didn't know what was even happening. Hmm... I suppose that the same thing that happened to Shizu might happen to her, but I highly doubt that would happen any time soon with Guidance being with us.

"Here we go."

[BZZZTT!]

"Ngh...."

I groaned as the loud sound of the world changing around us played itself in my head. The nausea that usually went along with the process kind of got stronger, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle without buckling down.

"Ugh... That was.... worse than usual," Guidance huffed, her hand going to her head as she gathered herself.

"Why? What happened?" Shen asked, clearly not affected by the changes Guidance has just done. "The black square's gone, but why are ya all hurting?"

"It's just part of the process for us, Shen," I weakly explained, my nausea still lingering for a bit as I stood up. "It's gonna pass in a bit, though..."

"BLEU- BLEUGH!!!!"

"Shizu?!"

And just like that, Shen's attention went straight to the princess as the latter puked her guts out on the now solid ground in front of us. I suppose that it'll never be not painful for her to go through a hotfix, but it was one of our bigger edges against whatever this world could throw at us.

"I-I'll fix ya!" Shen worriedly screamed, her wrench already in hand as it glowed. A power? "Don't worry!"

"Shen? What're you-"

[*WHACK!*]

"What the hell?!"

Before I could stop her, our little mechanic just whacked the poor princess right up in the head. Guidance quickly whipped out her keyboard for a heal, but she stopped when Shizu managed to... stop?

"I... I feel fine?"

?????????