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

I didn\'t think that I\'d be this knee-deep into a fight. Sure, I was a pacifist in the old world, but that wouldn\'t really fly in a world that was already at war. Then again, there were also a ton of wars back home, but none of them had been on a scale where the entire world was essentially embroiled in a battle for their very existence...

Oh, wait... That was literally what both world wars were all about...

Nevertheless, the modern world knew just how bad war could be for the economy. Sure, a country could get more land and resources if they tried and invade their neighbor, but their domestic economy, as well as public dissent, would just plummet to the point that it just wasn\'t worth the land they were trying to grab in the first place... Or maybe it would be, depending on just how bad things were going for said country. I know for a fact that war for food and water would happen in a few hundred years or so depending on how hot the earth was going to get, but why even think about it if I wasn\'t going to go back there in the first place?

"Ready?"

"Ready..."

I shook the random thoughts out of my head as I gave out one last ready check to Guidance and Shizu. The two of them were already rested enough to move quickly, so all that was left to do was to execute the plan and hope for the best.

"Let\'s crack some skulls," Shizu beamed, her feral smile almost making her look scary. "I\'m excited~"

"We know you are, Shizu," I chuckled. "Just don\'t go overboard, alright?"

With the princess nodding in approval, I gave Guidance one last look in preparation. The dev simply nodded at me, her keyboard already slung behind her as she waited for my signal.

"Right, on my mark, Shizu will go out there and pave our landing," I called out, describing our entrance strategy one last time. "I\'ll follow shortly, then Guidance will go up and heal any injuries the two of us might\'ve sustained."

"And again, I expect the two of you to not die the moment you get up there," Guidance quickly added. "I might just not heal you if you sustain too much unnecessary damage."

"I\'ll be fine, Lady Guidance! I can fight my way through them no problem," Shizu proudly puffed up her chest. "Just you two wait."

"I\'m sure you will," I shook my head in appreciation. "Now, on three, we\'re going up there and start fighting."

At my final words, the three of us tensed up for our final preparations. Shizu cracked her knuckles, while Guidance ran her fingers through her [Keystroke] one last time. I myself got a feel of my pistols just to be sure that I was ready.

"One..."

The world seemed to slow down, my words coming out in slow motion.

"Two..."

The fighting in the distance seemed to get louder. Our friends might be getting overwhelmed, but we knew for sure that they were still alive.

"Three!"

At my mark, Shizu dashed forward, jumping up towards the crater before reaching out to a piece of metal sticking out of the ruined ceiling. Swinging up and out of the crater, the princess disappeared to the surface, the sound of alarm quickly ringing out alongside the sickening sound of fists hitting against flesh.

"My turn..."

Repeating Shizu\'s feat of athleticism, I didn\'t manage to stick the landing in that I found myself almost falling into the crater instead of outside of it, but I still made it to my destination before I quickly drew out my guns and prepared myself for a fight. Only...

"Shizu?"

"Not a lot of enemies up here, Moriya," the princess pouted, her knuckles dripping with blood as she stood over three downed bodies. "They didn\'t even fight back."

I let out a sigh as I weakly chuckled, my weapons still raised in an effort to keep my guard up. "That\'s because you caught them by surprise, Shizu."

Behind us, Guidance had already emerged from the crater as well, her expression probably being the same as mine as she looked at the damage Shizu had just done to our enemies.

"Wow, Shizu. You didn\'t even leave a single one of them alive," the dev awkwardly scoffed.

"That was the plan though, right?" Shizu asked, a hint of worry replacing the lust for battle she was sporting just earlier. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Nah," I chuckled. "You did more than fine. Anyway, we should keep moving."

"Right."

"Of course."

Keeping down on the ground, the three of us began our trek toward the other side of the crater. Using the information we got from Shizu earlier, as well as the current information we now had using our own eyes, we did our best to keep to the shadows despite the fact that there was a glowing pillar of white light practically bathing the entire area. Even so, we used it to our advantage by making sure that we were against the light at all times, forcing anybody trying to look at us to be blinded by the light itself before spotting us.

"This is going well," Guidance commented, a hint of surprise coloring her voice. "I didn\'t think it\'ll be this easy..."

"Don\'t jinx us just yet," I weakly chuckled. "We might just come across a-"

"You there!"

And there it was... I didn\'t even have any time to sigh as I quickly trained my weapons at the poor sap that just spotted us. But as usual...

[*THUD! THUD!*]

Shizu was just too fast on the uptake. Bolting at the speed of a cheetah, the princess had already connected her fists to the poor guy before he even got a chance to scream for help. With his face bloody and broken on the ground, Shizu then dragged the body towards a more hidden location before quickly making her way back to us.

"Done," she beamed, the bloodstains on her face only making her more formidable despite the innocent smile on her face.

"You really should relax, Shizu," Guidance weakly scoffed. "Leave some for us and all that."

"But both of your [Manifests] are kind of loud," Shizu innocently pointed out. "My fists do the job quietly as we want them to, right?"

I gave Guidance a knowing look as I chuckled. "Well, we can\'t argue with that."

"Yep," the dev sighed. "Still, we should keep moving."

Nodding, Shizu resumed her position of taking point, with Guidance and I moving behind her as we did our best to remain hidden. Every once in a while, we took down a patrol of Marqueans surveying the area, but otherwise, things had been smooth sailing so far.

"Stop..."

Guidance and I both froze, Shizu\'s low tone telling us that she spotted something using her eyes.

"This is more than what we\'ve been dealing with. There are more than fifty people right in front of us," the princess called out in hushed whispers. "I don\'t think we can sneak our way past this..."

"Any other alternate routes?" Guidance asked.

Shizu squinted against the light, trying her best to give us an answer that might save us from all the trouble of fighting. "We can move away from the crater and hide in the nearby alleyways, but it\'ll take too much time. Shen and the rest are starting to get tired."

That news was more than enough to throw away the safer option out of the window. If Shizu said that they were starting to tire, then they for sure were starting to get whittled down. Maruki and Shen could only hold on for so long, and Shade, while powerful enough, didn\'t have enough power on him like Shizu to try and fight an army all by himself.

"We\'ll have to fight through this then," I sighed. "Then again, wasn\'t that the plan from the start?"

"Unfortunate, but what else are we supposed to do?" Guidance sighed with me, her keyboard already glowing. "This is going to be a doozy, isn\'t it?"

"We can take em," Shizu chuckled, her confidence surging despite the odds being stacked against us. "There\'s nothing we can\'t beat as a team, right?"

I couldn\'t help but chuckle. "You\'re right about that, I suppose. Still, we won\'t have a tank with Maruki still on the other side of the crater."

"I can keep Shizu alive, Moriya," Guidance scoffed. "Why are you even thinking about that anyway? I have it all under control."

The three of us shared a quiet laugh even as we began positioning ourselves for our assault. It\'ll be long and bloody, but if we wanted to save our friends, it was something that needed to be done.

I took a deep breath as I asked, "Again, ready?"

"Ready~" Shizu beamed.

"Yep," Guidance nodded.

"Alright then. Let\'s do this."

With one last nod, we swiftly broke out of cover and ran headfirst into the breadth of our enemies.

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛