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

Walking up to the entrance of the engine room, it honestly felt as if an invisible barrier was separating the room from the rest of the [Rig]. The ominous orange glow in front of us was kind of off-putting, but it was probably just some kind of flavor ambiance or something.

"There\'s still nothing in here," Shizu curiously pointed out. "It\'s just that massive engine standing in front of us."

"Are you sure you didn\'t see what the boss would be like?"

Hearing Guidance\'s question, I shook my head, "No. If I did, then I would\'ve already told you all what to expect."

"Fair," the dev sighed. "If all else, the least we can do is to be careful. This might not go the same way as the first two bosses, so no taking the avoidable hits, Maruki."

"Of course, Lady Guidance!" our tank shouted out his agreement. "I shall make sure to avoid such things should I see them."

"And Shizu, don\'t be greedy," the dev then followed up with a faint smile. "If you take a hit just so you can get a few more hits in, that just makes my job harder. And we don\'t want to make my job harder now, right?"

"R-Right," the princess awkwardly nodded, her guilt apparent as she blushed against the dark red lights. "I\'ll be extra careful this time."

I almost let out a chuckle at her words. I guess all of those times that she took unnecessary hits all came in at once while I was talking with Guidance earlier.

"And as for you, Moriya..."

I raised an eyebrow at our healer. "Yes?"

"Don\'t think too much," the dev pointed out. "You keep spacing out whenever the fight\'s too easy. We can\'t let our guard down until the boss is dead, do you understand?"

"Yep," I chuckled. "What can I say? What else am I supposed to do when the boss isn\'t even trying to kill us too much?"

"I don\'t know, learn?" Guidance soundly rebutted. "There are tells in this ga-world that you should know. That we should all know. And like we talked about earlier, you might just have to take over in case I\'m too busy keeping you all alive."

Hmm... Damn, she had a point there. "You\'ve made your point, Guidance. I\'ll keep my eyes sharp then."

The dev let out a resigned smile. "That\'s all I can ever ask of you right now, is it..."

"If it happens, then it happens," I shrugged. "There\'s no use being too afraid of the future when the present can kill us just as easily."

It was true as well. Even back in the old world, having a pessimistic outlook on life was frowned upon. Always be positive, some might say. And while I was far from being the most optimistic guy in the room, I at least managed to perfect the art of not caring about the consequences when they mattered.

"So, let\'s get this show on the road, yeah?" I chuckled as I waved towards the engine room. "Who goes first?"

"Allow me!"

I... I was joking. "Wait-!"

"Let us complete this dungeon-!"

[Loading...]

All of a sudden, the world faded to black, a small loading bar popping up in front of me as I waited on my lonesome. What the hell was this now?

[Engine Room]

[Infernal Engine]

Before I could even shout out, another prompt replaced the loading bar. The world blinked back into my view, my vision going into cutscene mode again as it showed the entirety of the engine room. Showing how dim red and dank it was, it circled around before zooming in on the angry orange glow emanating from the metal engine itself. Its metal grates crackled and shook before swinging open, revealing what looked to be a burning orange man coated in hot embers. It was even dripping flames and molten metal as it... flexed at us?

Wait, was this thing a giant orange Pepsi-man?

Once again, before I could even yell out my disbelief, the world zoomed back out and faded to black, my vision returning back to my body as I fell to the ground panting.

"M-Moriya?"

"It... It happened again," I weakly smiled at Shizu\'s concern. "Some kind of cutscene... Guidance?"

"It was probably just introducing you to the boss," the dev quickly supplied. "That\'s gonna always be the thing whenever we first encounter a notable boss. And speaking off..."

"The enemy! It finally appeared!"

The tension in the room almost disappeared as Maruki comically pointed out the obvious. He was pointing his sword at the flaming giant, his shield already glowing with anticipation as he visibly stopped himself from engaging. Wait, what even happened while it was all grandstanding during the cutscene?

"If you must know, it just suddenly appeared in front of us," Guidance sighed. "Apparently, we designated NPC don\'t need to see the cutscenes. I really have to change that now, huh..."

I could only chuckle at her words. "Well, we have a lot of stuff to do after we finish this dungeon, so we might as well get it over with, right?"

"Right," Guidance scoffed before turning her attention to Maruki. "Maruki, time to pull."

"Of course!"

I couldn\'t help but smirk as I watched Maruki do his thing. With a [SHOUT!], he took the boss\'s attention all for himself while the three of us left behind took to our usual positions. Guidance gave us all a few [Medica] for regen, and we began wailing at the thing like there was no tomorrow.

"So far so good," Guidance muttered to herself, her [Keystroke] actually casting something damaging for once. "There\'s no raid-wide just yet, and its attention is focused solely on the tank."

"And yet you\'re still frowning," I pointed out. "Something wrong?"

"This isn\'t how I design a boss at all," she clicked her tongue in apprehension. "It should\'ve unleashed a raid-wide attack already, and it\'s not even showing any mechanics."

"Huh," I nodded, my trigger fingers firing nonstop as I talked. "Then I suppose that\'s-"

[SELF-DESTRUCT!: 69%]

What the?!-

"That\'s- It\'s going so fast!"

[*BOOOOOMMMM!!!!*]

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