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7.78% This is a Beta Test?! - A Literally Broken System / Chapter 18: 4.3 Sequence Break?

Chapter 18: 4.3 Sequence Break?

Great, now I'm imagining Guidance looking like Shizu, which I highly doubt given her chosen profession and interests.

Still, even as the dark-lit rock of [Yagokoro] hung over my head, the pleasant feeling of being held by a living breathing female was just as hard to shake off. And I should already be used to this too.

"Here we are, Stranger!"

Blinking at her words, I recalibrated my eyeballs as I focused my gaze on what Shizu was supposed to be showing me. Well, the keyword was 'supposed' here, seeing as I wasn't seeing anything.

"Uhm... Am I supposed to be looking at empty space, Shizu?" I hesitantly asked, my eyes still struggling to piece together the nothingness in front of me.

Shizu turned to me, adorably tilting her head as she flashed me a confused look, "Huh? You mean you can't see it?"

I blinked at her words. Way to state the obvious there... "The only thing I see is an empty alley with two bare walls on each side."

And I wasn't even lying. We were currently staring at a blank alleyway with nothing in it. Then again, when compared to the rest of the streets and alleyways I was passing through, it looked barebones in comparison.

"Exactly!" she beamed at me, her hand pointing towards the so-called mystery alleyway. "It's eerily empty! And no matter how much we try to put stuff in it, it disappears!"

I almost did a double-take, "Wait, seriously?"

"Yup!" she beamed, as if the anomaly in front of us wasn't even scary. "It kind of messes with reality too. The researchers say that one of the [Eld] probably used this place as its home once."

Ookay?

I found myself giving the alley another scrutinizing look. It really didn't look like anything, but if what Shizu said was true, then what was the case here then?

"Can we walk through it?"

"We can, but it might give you a headache afterward," Shizu shook her head in mirth. "I suggest you let me take the lead, Stranger."

"Got it."

Falling behind my tour guide, I trailed behind her as she approached the mysterious alleyway. Sure enough, something happened the first thing she set foot inside the boundary of the weird space. I honestly even thought I was still wearing glasses when I saw it.

"Uhh... Shizu?"

"Y-Ye-Es?"

Oh my lord... I can't believe what I was seeing...

"Are you okay?"

"w-W-hATt? i cCa-Nt hEa-0r Yyou8 sSt=angeR!"

My jaw almost dropped to my chest as I witnessed the horror taking place in front of me. Shizu was currently halfway through entering the alleyway when her body suddenly became fuzzy and unrecognizable. It was as if I was looking at multiple glitch filters stacked on top of each other made by an amateur using photoshop, and it wasn't even funny with how hard it was making my brain work in recognizing her shape.

"C90mE1 OnN!!"

To my surprise, the girl's hand suddenly latched onto mine, pulling me with her as we entered the glitched-out alleyway. I couldn't even see or focus as the world around me seemingly flipped itself over its head, the dark purple sky of [Kattleyna] being replaced with various shades of violet and white as the alleyway expanded in on itself.

"You okay, Stranger?"

I blinked at Shizu's clear tone. As opposed to earlier, she was back to being the hot woman that she was instead of being a glitch-hidden monstrosity. I guess the effect was only visible from the outside? "Yeah... I'm fine, I think."

"Good!" she beamed. "Now you can see for yourself!"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I got my bearings straight. Sure enough, we were inside the alleyway. Now it was the outside world's turn to look unnaturally clean as the alley looked downright dirty. Or at least, I think it was dirt that I was looking at. The entire place looked kind of blurry in comparison to the world outside.

"We call this place [Eld's Alley]. We're pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be this way, but that's the way the [Eld] just works," Shizu cheerfully explained. "We probably shouldn't venture deeper though."

Huh? Deeper? "Why? Doesn't it just end on the other side of the street?"

"Well, that's the thing. It doesn't seem to end." Say what now?! "Everyone that tried to walk deeper into the alley never came back. The researchers don't know why, so in the end we just closed it off!"

That's so careless! Wait... Closed off? "But I didn't see any signs that tell anyone to not come near here earlier?"

If this place was so dangerous, then why wasn't it protected or even cordoned off? Common sense would dictate putting up at least a sign telling people to not walk into the dangerous alleyway, and I didn't see any even while we stood in front of the damn thing.

"Well, that's because everyone knows not to go here."

I froze at Shizu's radiant smile; a smile so innocent that one would probably even forget that she just pulled me into a forbidden area. Well, Guidance probably wouldn't code something so dangerous in the middle of what was obviously the hub city in the area, so I guess it should-

{CHIME!}

What the hell! That startled me!

"Stranger?"

"It's nothing," I waved my guide off as I waited for the inevitable update on this side quest's status.

[Side Quest Accepted: Princess Escort!]

[Quest Progress: Oddities Observed: 2/10]

I couldn't help but shrug at the whopping one point of progress I made in this nonsensical side quest. I didn't even know this princess person, and I doubt it'd be Shizu here seeing as she had her own NPC name displayed front and center above her head. Well, even if this was optional, at least I had it unlocked for my future convenience.

{CHIME!}

Another notification? Well, I might as well see what it was.

[Dungeon Unlocked!: [Eld Alley] is now available!]

What...

[Minimum Level Required: Level 60]

What the hell?!

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
ChellyArks ChellyArks

Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

Chapter 19: 4.4 Sequence Break?

A Level 60 dungeon?! Right in the middle of the actual hub city?!

"We shouldn't stay here for too long, Stranger. We have more places to go to!"

No duh, we have more places to go to! This was way above my current level! "Y-Yeah, we should go."

"I know, right?! Isn't this exciting?" Shizu smiled with the innocence of a bright kid. "These places are hidden right underneath our noses. I just wish that we could explore a bit more of it soon."

"I-I don't think that's a good idea at the moment," I vehemently shook my head as I already walked ahead of my tour guide. "Can't we see a bit more oddities that are a bit, y'know, safe?"

The green-haired girl looked at me funny as she beamed, "Isn't this safe though?"

No! No, it wasn't! "People won't be forbidden from entering this place if it was, Shizu."

The NPC placed a finger on her chin as she seemingly pondered on my words. She was actually acting as if this was normal! "I suppose you're right there, Stranger. Father did tell me not to stray too far before..."

At least her father had a lick of common sense then. "That's right. We should go before something bad happens."

"Sure thing."

Watching Shizu finally take the lead again, I let out an honest sigh of relief the moment we stepped foot outside of the [Eld Alley]. I let out a nervous laugh, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of what just happened.

To think that I somehow unlocked a Level 60 dungeon in hour freaking one? I wasn't even Level 10 for crying out loud! Why in the world would Guidance place something so dangerous in the starting city?! And speaking of Guidance, where was she even? It honestly already felt like ages since she last showed up.

I let out a frustrated sigh as I let myself get dragged around again by my excitable tour guide. If all else, this was a decent pastime as opposed to me just walking around like a bright-eyed idiot around the place. Who knows? Maybe this side quest would give me a ton of [EXP] since it was clearly meant to be taken way later into the game. Wait...

Wouldn't this mean I'd be ridiculously overpowered after all of this?

"And here we are, Stranger."

Shizu's voice took me out of me thoughts as I found myself in yet another part of the massive city. We were still on the ground, of course, but [Yagokoro] wasn't looming over our heads as much anymore. Well, it was still there, but we were pretty far from the city center right now.

"This is... Err... It's kind of hard to explain, really," my tour guide struggled with her words as she pointed at... What is that.... "I guess you could say that it's the weirdest out of them all..." she hummed in seeming frustration.

No kidding. "I can see where you're coming from. I mean, I don't even know how to describe what I'm looking at."

It was no exaggeration. Currently, we were standing in front of... something that was sandwiched between two typical food stalls. It... looked like a stall? But it also wasn't? Damn... My head's starting to hurt just from trying to describe this to myself.

"Some Imperial researchers went mad after studying this place for prolonged periods of time," Shizu revealed with a disappointed pout. "Truthfully, I honestly think they're just faking it to escape punishment."

The implications of what she just said flew right over my head as I found myself focusing on the immediate anomaly in front of us. Shizu said that people went mad just from looking at it? Then why in the world was it still outside and in clear view of actual foot traffic?

"Well, it's something, at least," I heard Shizu mumble beside me. "Now that I think about it, this place is pretty boring."

I blinked, "Boring? How is that boring?"

I voiced out my well-meaning concern. How was that.... thing... boring? It was like I was looking at something that constantly changed its shape every half a second or so.

"It's just a curiosity, Stranger," my tour guide replied. "Like the fountain, but at least the fountain is one of its kind."

My eyes widened in disbelief, "You mean there are more of these things?"

Shizu huffed, "You really don't want to see them all, Stranger. They all only have a small variation of the same thing."

Okay? Weird dialogue, but I'll chalk that up to Guidance's writing. That, and this being my actual world right now.

{CHIME!}

[Side Quest: Princess Escort!]

[Quest Progress: Oddities Observed: 3/10]

As usual, the progress on this weird side quest announced itself with a chime as it tallied up my current so-called oddities observed. Looking at it now, I was honestly getting miffed that I got this way before what should be a decent tutorial. That, and skipping over the beginnings of the story Guidance actually wrote for her game. This was still an RPG, after all, and no RPG would be caught dead without a decent story.

"Should we get going, Stranger?"

Huh? "O-oh, sure," I absently nodded as Shizu returned to her usual duties of dragging me around on my feet.

"You're starting to space out," my tour guide frowned before flashing her now trademark smile. "I guess I should take you to some of the better spots to get your blood going again!"

I let out another sigh... "Lead the way, Shizu."

The energetic woman seemed to freeze at my response, her steps pausing mid-step as she turned to look at me. Why? Did I say something wrong?

"You... You're not annoyed?"

"Eh?" Where the hell did that come from?! "Should I be?"

...

.....

The silence between us seemed to stretch on for far longer than I wanted it to go. Flocks of NPCs passed us by, seemingly uncaring of the awkward pair parking themselves right in the middle of the street. All the while, my eyes kept on avoiding the earnest gaze that she was determined to give me.

"I... Never mind," Shizu broke through the stalemate, her current smile looking so fake that it was impossible to not take note of it. Not that I'd ever point it out, of course. "Let's just continue with the tour!"

"Ookay?" That was highly out of character. I wonder what that was about...

{CHIME!}

Another notification? What would this be about then?

[INSIGHT GAINED]

...

....

"What?!"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
ChellyArks ChellyArks

Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!

Creation is hard, cheer me up!

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