Chapter 3: 1.3 Open the Game?

Right... Chill, me... Calm down... I can piece this vague hackneyed prompts together in the same way I did with Western RPGs.... Like I said earlier, this has got to be some kind of anti-'broken power' tech that the devs put in to avoid players from breaking the game. Did it work in the sense of a filter or something? Or was the game capable of looking at the potential of every power that the player might have?

"Okay, let's try this..." I whispered out as I typed in another power set that I at least wanted to get. "I'll be pissed if this won't work."

Something mundane and simple; a pool cue with the ability to control small objects like it was in a pool table. Kind of stupid if one would think about it, but it was so ridiculously niche that it was practically useless unless I got creative. Not that I knew how to even play pool at a competent level, but I was at least good enough for-

*ERROR! NO THEME DETECTED!*

"What the hell!"

How in the world did that not have a theme?! It was all about pool and billiards! Hell, even the powerset was made to resemble a pool table! Why in the world did it not register?!

"Am I missing something here?! Why is there no tutorial here anyway?!"

The floating prompt above the book mocked me in its vagueness as it blared the error straight to my face. Why did it have to be such a glaring piece of crap when it couldn't even tell me why it was giving me an error prompt?! And why was it even giving off an error prompt instead of something more standard? Wouldn't it make better sense for the devs to just input something clearer as to why it's giving off the error in the first place?

"Something's wrong here...."

I shook my head in frustration as my brain ran on its own. The rationale of this whole situation was looking to be getting even more sketchier by the minute. Not that I even knew how much time had passed since I found myself in this empty space, but I can at least guess that I've wasted more than enough time for me to be comfortable with.

I was, for all intents and purposes, stuck in the character creation screen.

Now, despite looking for anything that might even give me a clue as to how to proceed, it was apparent as all hell that the book was the only thing that could even get me out of this place.

"Unfortunately, it's pretty clear that it's busted to kingdom come..."

The lack of the voice speaking was also pretty unnerving, as well as the lack of a basic ambiance as opposed to the blankness that was the white space. It felt... empty, incomplete.... Wait....

Was this game just... broken?

"Oh my- WHAT THE HELL!"

It made sense... It made so much damn sense! The error prompts, the earlier glitching effect, even the lack of a proper user interface would be easily explained away by the fact that the game was far from ready to be released. But then...

"Why release a broken game?!"

Why even make it available for download?! The devs didn't even make it an 'early access' game, let alone an actual beta! Did they really think that people would like to play such an incomplete mess that you can't even get past the character creation screen?! That was just stupid coming from an indie dev!

"And now what?! I'm stuck in this place forever?!"

How in the world was I going to get out of here then?! If I knew that getting transported to a game world meant that the programming aspect of the game was also going to affect me, I would've rather get plopped into a world with a horrible setting. At least I'd have a fighting chance as opposed to getting actually soft-locked before the opening sequence!

*U-uhm... Hello?*

And here I thought I got a real break from the monotony of life and the grind. Everybody said that doing something you liked meant that you wouldn't work a day in your life, but that was far from the case if you're a minimum wage slave. Then again, what else did I expect from a life that constantly screwed over the poor guys while keeping those in power perpetually in power? Why did I ever think that some sort of mystical power would suddenly choose me of all people to get a chance at getting into a fantastical world where I could make an actual difference for once?

*C-can you hear me?*

It really didn't make a lick of sense, doesn't it? A boat-ton of stories and web novels constantly boasted of game worlds and broken systems that would give their heroes the power to be the most powerful thing in the setting. And here I was, expecting the exact same thing to happen to me? Wishful thinking at best, right? Heh... What a joke.

*Uhh... Sir!*

"What the hell?!"

My ass unabashedly jumped at the sudden intrusion of the voice coming from above. It sounded the same as last time the voice talked to me, only... more human somehow?

*Oh! You can hear me! Thank God...* the female voice audibly sighed, causing a bit of reverb around me as her panicked breaths eased for a moment. *Look, I'm so sorry about all of this! I'm working to fix the issues right now.*

Wait... huh?! "Hold up! Who are you?!"

It was clear that this girl was the one that lent her voice for this game. She sounded a lot more timid than the earlier grandiose introduction back when I had yet to enter my name in. Was she a part of the dev team? Wait... How the hell would that even make any sense if I was inside their game?!

*I'm... ahhh...* the metaphorical voice of god trailed off as the clacking of a keyboard filtered through the background. It honestly sounded like she was in front of an actual computer. *I guess you can call me Guidance.*

"Guidance?" I asked incredulously as I stood beside the podium. "As in, the devs that made this game?"

*I- err... I'm... uhh... making this game solo,* the newly dubbed Guidance nervously admitted. *It's my first project...*

My knees buckled at such a declaration.

Oh dear me... So this chick was a solo dev for a game with a scope so massive that I honestly thought they had a large team to make it? Seriously? I would've been impressed if the game worked as intended.

{BZZT!!}

"Oh hell..."

A brief round of static assaulted my view for a split second again; the world possibly changing around me again as I recognized the action that had happened earlier. The last time this happened, I was finally able to enter my name into the system. So I guess this will fix the current issue?

*There,* the voice sighed as if in relief. *You should be able to enter a [Manifest] now.*

I raised an eyebrow at Guidance's claim, "So it won't deny anything I put into it then?"

*Yep,* the woman replied. *Or, at least, it should be...*

....It should be, huh. "Let's check then."

Turning back to the podium, I entered my earlier idea of two guns that never ran out of ammunition with a new drawback wherein each bullet required a small percentage of my blood to fire. It wasn't completely broken that it would break the game, but at the same time, it would give me some semblance of safety from most of the possible encounters.

*Apologies, Somatic. Please input a compatible [Manifest]*

...

Huh? Was this thing actually kidding me?

The voice was back to the usual monotone flair as Guidance's voice droned out the new error prompt floating in front of me. It didn't look as shoddy as the earlier error prompt, but it still barred me from continuing the game!

"Come on!"

I screamed out my frustrations, cause of course that was gonna happen when dealing with a broken game that wouldn't even let me play it!

*W-What?! I-is there something wrong?!*

The solo dev's voice returned to echo around me once more. I guess she heard my outburst considering the abject fear coloring her tone. I'm really starting to think that the game was going to be a broken mess even if I managed to get in. Then again, what was I supposed to do when that was the only choice I seemingly had at the moment?

"The damn thing rejected my [Manifest]" I forcefully toned my voice down, knowing from experience that screaming wouldn't do crap in the current situation. "I guess I'm going to be stuck here for a sec, huh..."

*I-I'm sorry! I'm doing my best!*

My fists curled as I struggled to contain the anger I was feeling. It really wouldn't do to be mad now, especially if the only person that could possibly solve my situation was already doing her best. Not that I doubted her ability to code if this was the current state of the game, but I sincerely hoped that I got out of here sooner rather than later.

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