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

Chapter 6 2.2 Hello World?

Okay? How about a 'z' motion?

...Nothing again. And I can already feel the blood leaving my arm as I hold my position.

Sitting back up, I crossed my legs into a sitting position as I returned to my experiments. Raising my hand in front of me, I placed my guns on my lap as I focused more on how to even access this mythical stat screen.

"As if there was even a tutorial for this thing..."

I mean, I can understand not having one, especially if the game wasn't even meant to be played like it was real life. This was a PC game for crying out loud. I didn't have the luxury of having a mouse and keyboard just floating around in front of me to poke and prod. I didn't even have a HUD to see my health, mana, or anything. At best, I'd get some sort of prompt for me to press 'alt-s' to save despite having absolutely no form of paraphernalia to do so.

Which would leave me just brute-forcing every method I can think of and seeing what sticks.

"Oh dear..."

I have a long night ahead of me. Well, at least it was peaceful out. And even if I get attacked, I had my guns at the ready to destroy any kind of monster that might want to have a piece of me. Not that I was expecting anything to appear anytime soon, what with this place being assuredly the spawn point for new players.

Waving my hand with an 's' movement, I sighed as nothing happened once more. This was gonna be a nightmare if I wanted to really brute-force it. Did I really want to do it though, was the question; the answer being partly yes and no depending on my mood.

"Damn it..."

With each movement that I tried, the more frustrated and tired I got as the night seemed to stretch on forever. And that was assuming that this was night in the first place, seeing as the sky was bleeding purple for heaven's sake. Then again, Guidance slept as soon as she was sure that I was in the game world. Was this world in sync with the real world then? If so, then I should probably just sleep and save myself the time and energy. It wasn't like Guidance was going to leave me here alone. I might as well just ask her what to do.

"Not that one either..."

I should probably stop now. This was a waste of time. And besides, if this world ran in parallel with the real one, then taking a nap now would probably save me a ton of grief later down the line, especially if Guidance was going to be my navigator for this.

Yeah... I really should take the opportunity. It's not like anything bad will happen in a spawn area.

?????????

Rise and... shine?

Opening my eyes, the lack of the expected sun was the first thing that caught my attention as the cool breeze of the grassy plains washed over me still. The stars were still in their exact same place as last night, and somehow, a part of me felt like time hadn't even moved an inch since I slept. Was it something about this world that I didn't know about? Or maybe I just slept for a few minutes and it felt like it was hours?

"Why even bother thinking about this..."

Forcing myself to sit back up, I let out a tired sigh as I did my usual routine of stretching out every part of my body. Feeling my bones crack back into place had always been a treat after being stuck in a single position for too long. Having been used to sitting with horrible posture both at work and at home, my spine has been a piece of work for years now, even before I even graduated. Still, at least I had the bright side of... Wait a sec...

I twisted my body with my usual method, my back stretching in a soothing and supple manner as it usually did. Except... Why were there no cracks?

"That's odd..."

Switching towards the other side, I did the same thing as I did with the other, yielding the exact same result as last time as my spine seemed to just roll with the punches as opposed to being a stiff piece of cartilage.

Okay? No back cracking for me then. Not the first time that happened, but it was certainly the first time it's happened since I was a teenager. Did I suddenly get more flexible overnight?

"Heh, I wouldn't fault it..."

This was a game world, after all. If stats did have an effect on me, then I suppose that this was one of those side effects of being in peak physical condition. You wouldn't want a physically inept hero running around in your game, right? So maybe the system fixed my aching bones and weary muscles while I slept?

Going through the usual motions, I systematically tried cracking every crackable bone in my body. My neck, my fingers, my wrists, my legs; every usual joint that I can pop was stretched and gyrated for their usual amount of times. I got a few cracks from my fingers and feet, but the rest were surprisingly silent. And to top that off, I somehow managed to reach my hand through my back without any sort of shoulder pain!

"Holy crap, I feel like a kid again..." I whispered as I did the same for my other shoulder. "Haven't done this since high school..."

Okay, now I gotta see how far I can push this.

Lying down, I placed my palms down on the ground as I began to attempt an arch. I used to be able to do this back when I still danced, but lack of any real reason to do so had really put me out of shape since I started college. As I felt my back lift off the ground, the usual pains of yesteryear were surprisingly absent as I eventually reached the peak of my attempt. My back sang me praises as it stretched out into the air, my hips reaching the apex as I didn't even feel any sort of strain or exhaustion for holding the position.

"Cool..."