I hummed in agreement as I listened to the dev mumble about her own game. At that point, I just let her ramble about what she still needed to fix with her code. All the while, I just let out a grunt or word of acknowledgment every time she gave me a lull. It was kind of therapeutic, listening to someone gush about their passions while you yourself are doing some menial braindead work. There was just a way with how animated she sounded whenever she actually talked about her work, no matter how buggy or broken it might be.
*Oh right... You might've noticed something in your [Manifest] bar before? Something about [Manifest Points]?*
"Hmm?" I looked up, my attention peaking up as I remembered. "Wait a sec, [SS2]"
[SS1][STAT SCREEN 2][SS3]
[MANIFEST: Blanc and Noir]
[MANIFEST LEVEL: 1/10]
[MENTAL FORTITUDE: 0]
[MANIFEST POINTS: 0]
[MANIFEST QUIRKS]
[Blood Bullets: [Blanc and Noir] utilizes the Somatic's blood as ammunition. Drains 3% of Max [HP] per shot.]
Opening up the window, I quickly trained my gaze on the aforementioned points that Guidance told me. It was still firmly at zero though, so I won't be doing anything with it anytime soon. "Yeah? I see it now."
*Okay...* the dev sighed as she then explained. *This... might sound strange to you, but that actually correlates with the [Moves] system.*
I actually stopped midstep, my brows furrowing in growing confusion. "Come again?"
Guidance let out another sigh as she replied, *[Manifest Points] are spent to acquire [Moves]. I... just forgot to move the UI element of it to the [Moves] tab.*
My face scrunched up at what she was saying. What? "You mean... I should treat these points as skill points? They're not even directly related to the window that they're at?"
*Please don't remind me...*
Wow....
I couldn't help but let out a laugh, my utter disbelief translating to genuine humor as the weight of the bug slowly settled in. It wasn't that dangerous of an error. In fact, it was only a minor inconvenience in the long run. But the fact that it even existed just further cemented the fact that this wasn't a world with logic... Wait, why am I only now even realizing this...
*Moriya?*
I blinked as Guidance's dejected tone echoed through the back of my head, my attention solely back on the land of the real as the swamp below me slowly settled back into solid ground. Huh... I guess I made decent progress. "Yes?"
*Are you... Are you mad?*
Huh? "I'm not? What makes you think that?"
*Well, you keep screaming at me for one...*
Ouch... That actually made guilt flare up inside my chest. "Oh..."
*The game's a mess, and it keeps trying to make your life in there miserable, right?* she whispered out, her voice almost drowned out by the train she was riding. *I just thought that.... that you might be mad at me.*
"Don't think that," I quickly replied. "I might be annoyed, but don't think I'll be mad at you. And even then, I'm pretty quick to forgive. Don't worry about it. I'm managing right now, right?"
*Y-Yeah...*
I let out a sigh, "Look, just focus on what you can do. I'll keep telling you stuff that you might've missed, and you can work to fix them on your end. Sound fair?"
Guidance didn't reply to me with words, but her hum of reluctant acceptance was just as good as a nod of assent. Either way, I guess this was gonna be our dynamic for the foreseeable future.
A comfortable silence followed suit, the sound of the marshy swamp barely filling in the idle quietness around me as Guidance's surrounding background noise faintly threatened to spill over to the pristine quiet of the nature around me. Eventually, my feet finally stopped sinking into the muck as I found myself back on solid ground once more.
*Oh! M-My stop's here...* Guidance suddenly chimed up. *I honestly don't have the energy to do things tonight... Can the fixes wait till I get some free time?*
I nodded despite knowing she couldn't see me. "Sure thing. Take care of yourself out there, wherever you are."
*T-thanks...*
Letting out a sigh, I tuned out Guidance's ever-present aura as I returned to the task at hand. The forest was thinning out the more I pushed myself forward. Shizu was still quietly snoring on my back, and judging by the salty smell in the air, I could only surmise that we were near some kind of sea or ocean... or whatever a body of water inside a world-spanning cave was called.
"I'm liking where this is going..."
With a grin, I picked up my pace through the surrounding trees and shrubbery. Using the [Midasean Star] as a guide, I kept going north, the smell of the sea only getting stronger as faint ocean waves began crashing against my ears. It was a good thing then that I never seemed to get tired as I practically power-walked through the brush, still making sure that Shizu's beauty sleep wasn't getting disturbed. Finally...
"Oh wow.... this is really nostalgic..."
Predictably, the strong aroma of salt water hitting my face made some memories from my childhood pop up in my head. They weren't relevant, but I just couldn't help the correlation as I moved past the last brush barring my way and... and....
What...
I stood dumbfounded, my eyes wide open as my brain struggled to process just what the hell I was supposed to see. "Eh... Am I seeing this right?"
Standing just above a sheer cliff, the strong sea breeze hit me right in the face even as I failed hilariously in recognizing just what was even in front of me. A sea of red stretched out all the way to the distant horizon, the same five-letter word repeating all jumbled together in what I could only describe as a literal ocean of utter hilarity.
"Seriously, Guidance? How?!" I yelled out in disbelief. "This is just embarrassing!"
I mean, how could someone screw up simple water textures?! It's literally just water!
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
In any game, one could always expect a few visual glitches here and there. There will always be some minor screw-ups in the presentation no matter how hard a dev would try and polish it. A stray code here, a missing file there, the likelihood of a screw-up only lessens up to around ninety percent even if you throw in all the resources you can in the development cycle. Then again, I'm saying all of this despite not even having a passing semblance of experience in game development in general, but I can only assume as much based on what general knowledge I had with machines and computers in general. After all, when something breaks, it can either be inconsequential, or something so hilariously bad that you just have to laugh at how it even happened.
And right now, I was definitely on the latter part of the equation.
"HAHAHA!!! W-What the hell is this?!" I couldn't even stop myself from laughing out loud, the utter ridiculousness of the sight before me just breaking my funny bone in ways I hadn't thought possible. "It's a literal sea of errors!"
After all, what else could you describe a sea of red words all spelling out the damn word? Even as the waves below lapped at the cliffside, small red errors floated up into the air, what was assuredly supposed to be water particle effects being completely replaced with tiny errors as they then disappeared into the wind.
"M-Mmmhhmm...."
I felt Shizu stir behind my back. I guess my outburst woke her up. "Back to the world of the living, Shizu?"
"W-Where are we..." she blearily whispered out. "Are we..."
"Well, I followed a [Star] all the way up north," I casually explained. "We're in front of a vast sea right now. Well, at least I think it's a sea."
Blinking at my words, Shizu shuffled out of my back, her one hand holding onto my shoulder for support as she gathered her bearings. Dusting off her kimono, I could see her eyes widen in slow-motion as she stared out onto the laughable sight.
"Is... Is this the [Shallow Deep]?"
"I don't know," I shrugged. "I was about to ask you about it, but I guess you also don't know anything?"
"No no! I've learned about it during my studies," she insisted, her eyes still glued to the sea of errors. "It's just that... I didn't expect it to look so..."
"Red? Wrong? Incomprehensible?"
"W-well.... yes?" the princess almost questioned. "The [Shallow Deep] is the sea that contains the three [Great Powers] of the world; [Kattleyna], [Marquee], and [Vestyge]..."
I nodded at her words. More lore for me to digest then. "And I'm assuming that there's more to it than that?"
"The war is currently being fought for supremacy over this very sea..." Shizu trailed off. "I knew that it was important, but I never thought that we were fighting for something so... simple?"
Huh... Then again, "Wars are fought for a lot less, Shizu. Trust me on that."
Still, I guess we were going out to sea? I didn't even know why I was doing this quest in the first place beyond making some progress and getting levels. I wasn't really that much of a story person unless I really psyched myself up to read it. Heh, I guess my story-skipping tendencies were coming back to bite me right now.
Looking around, I surveyed our current surroundings as I looked for this mythical Kattleynan Outpost that I was supposed to go to. Barring the vast error vomit below us, the cliff we were standing on was apparently the highest point in our vicinity. We seemed to be in some kind of natural opening, with two peninsulas jutting out from either side of us with an open mouth leading out to sea right in front of us. Huh... If I were to build an outpost, I would've built it right where we were standing...
"Shizu?"
"Yes?"
"Do you have an idea where this outpost would be located?"
Despite my question, the princess's gaze still locked itself out to sea as she replied, "It would probably be somewhere around here... Kattleynan Imperial Doctrine states that we make ports in defensible places such as these..."
Oookay? Her voice came out more restrained and absent-minded than usual. I guess she was just overwhelmed with her first foray out to sea. I suppose that's how every person that hadn't seen something so vast would react.
Still, we needed to move. "Are you gonna stay here?"
"I'll... I'll follow behind you..." she practically whispered out. "I... Can I just look at the sea for a moment?"
I let out a chuckle, "Sure thing, Shizu. Although, that isn't even what it's supposed to look like. It'll be more beautiful once Guidance gets to fixing it."
"I see..."
I sighed at her answer. If she was already this mesmerized at the sight of a broken sea, then what more once it actually looked the part? "I won't be far, okay?"
Leaving Shizu to daydream to her heart's content, I set off towards what looked to be a way down the cliffside. There weren't any small animals or monsters of any kind as I scaled down the cliff. Then again, when was the last time I even saw a stray animal or monster walking about since the last time I saw them a few days ago?
Another bug? I scoffed at the thought. I guess this Re:Mind Engine was already chugging to its limit with me being the ultimate wildcard in this world.
"Oof... Steady...."
Pacing myself, I grabbed on to whatever outcrops of rock I could use as support, scaling the cliffside with nothing but my wits and surprising dexterity as I made my way down. To be honest, I didn't even know I was capable of such a feat, let alone actually complete it as my feet touched solid rock. Huh... I guess pumping a bit of [DEX] actually helped?
"Yay me..."
Shrugging at the thought, I gave Shizu a passing look as I turned my eyes up above. Sure enough, she was still looking out to sea, her kimono billowing in the breeze as her green hair shimmered in the starlight. Aaand I saw an upskirt of her. Great. I'll just pretend I didn't see the silk.
"Moving on!"
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
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