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

"Shizu! You okay?"

The cacophony of battle rang throughout the abandoned outpost as I kept raining fire on the mechanical spider. Its lacking leg meant that it was now even slower than before, but that didn't mean that we could lower our guards around it. It might still have an ace up its sleeve, and if the prior battle with the wolf was any indication, I was already expecting something flashy or fear-inducing to just appear the moment it loses enough health.

"Ughh..."

"Shizu?!" The princess groaned behind me as I kept her to my back, shielding her from any potential threats as we kept our distance. I still haven't seen if her levels had gone down, but surely a level 80 wouldn't be this hard-pressed if I was still holding my own despite being a level 4. "Come on. Can you still fight?"

"Y-Yeah..." she trailed off, her voice still clearly out of it despite what she just said. "The moment I broke one of its legs, it felt as if... I was being hit by my own attacks..."

I blinked at the information. Reflective shielding of some sort? A parry mechanic? Was that how this thing worked?

[*whiissttleee....*]

My eyes widened, "We have to move!"

Darting out of the way, I could barely see Shizu return to form as she waded into the fray once more. Delivering blow after blow to the spider, she wasn't focusing on a single limb anymore as she distributed her blows throughout the machine's entire body.

[*BOOM!*]

The cannon fire made contact with the field once again, kicking up more dust into the air as the already shoddy visibility became even more obscure by the second. And as someone that relied on range, bad visibility meant bad accuracy.

"Dammit!"

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

I cursed as I shot through the dust cloud, barely making out the general silhouette of the enemy as if flashed in and out of combat. I could still hear Shizu doing work, but this was something that couldn't continue for long if we wanted to stay ahead of the fight.

"Shizu!" I called out. "Can you keep that thing busy?!"

"Y-You know I can!" the princess immediately replied, her fists ringing out against metal as she yelled.

[*BANG!*]

Delivering one more shot for good measure, I then turned away and set my sights on the ship floating just by the horizon. It wasn't that far, seeing as it still had to be at range to actually shoot at us, but it was pretty far off considering our current situation.

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"Keep that thing busy!" I instructed as I ran towards the shoreline. "I'll take care of the cannon fire!"

"Got it!"

Sprinting to the shore, the sea of red errors lapped at my feet as I set my sights on the annoying nuisance making our fight harder than it should be. If we wanted to be safe, that ship just had to go.

[HP: 55/125]

"Fifty five, huh..." I clicked my tongue as I checked my health. "It could be higher, but I guess I've been firing off too many shots lately..."

In reality, it was already pretty good. I've been firing on the spider nonstop just earlier, and I was only now getting below fifty percent in my overall [HP]? I guess pumping [VIT] did make a difference.

"And now for the hard part...."

I let out a breath as I rapidly went through my options. I could just swim to the damn thing. I've already established that I couldn't get tired even if I tried, which would mean that I won't drown and die like an idiot. However, the time it'll take me to even reach the ship might be more than what Shizu's capable of stalling for. At best, I could maybe shoot at it from a distance? But I wasn't even sure if my bullets could even reach the damn thing. Then again...

"I might as well try..."

[*whiisstttlleee*]

Raising my pistols, the faint whistle of cannonballs soaring through the air made a bit of worry pop up within the pit of my stomach. It was now or never, me...

[*BANG! BANG! BANG!*]

[HP: 43/125]

Three shots, three streaks of red streaking across the darkness as they made their way to the ship. With them being so small, I didn't expect anything to happen beyond maybe puncturing a few holes on the thing. Hell, it might even be made of metal, which meant that my efforts would even be more useless than it was now.

Seconds passed since my first shot, nothing remotely substantial changing on the battlefield as the ship kept on firing cannons. Then again, I didn't know why I expected anything-

[*boomm...*]

-to happen...

My eyes widened as a distant boom filtered across the sea. The ship had suddenly exploded, raining burning bits and pieces of it onto the sea of red as I stood by the shore completely dumbfounded. I found myself looking at my [Manifest], utter disbelief washing over me at how my peashooters even managed to hit such a far target.

"How..."

[EXP: 99900z99]

Eh...

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

"What the hell?!"

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVeL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LeeVVL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEeEEL UOP!]

The level-up fanfare kept repeating itself over and over inside my head as the halo above my head grew brighter with each repetition. The prompt in front of me started superimposing in on itself, the engine clearly chugging as hard as it could as it gave me levels that I wholly didn't deserve.

[LE3V3EL UP!]

[LEVs aEL UP!]

[LEVie73EL UP!]

[LEdf sVEL U124P!]

[LEVEL Uas dP!]

...

....

[LEVEL UP!]

For a solid minute, the sound effects of prompts kept repeating themselves, my stats going higher and higher as the world around me seemed to glitch out again. With each prompt that went on top of the other, the very words seemed to disintegrate as the air around me seemed to bend from the sheer weight of levels I was accruing. By the time the levels finally petered out, I could only stare at my new stats, worry and excitement fighting against one another as my heart couldn't decide whether or not I should celebrate or be nervous about what I just did.

[Moriya: Level 23]

[EXP TO NEXT LEVEL: 350/1200]

[HP: 220/220]

[MP: 210/210]

[38 STAT POINTS AVAILABLE FOR ALLOCATION]

[QUIRKS AVAILABLE]

[MANIFEST LEVEL 3]

[MANIFEST QUIRK UNLOCKED]

[MOVES AVAILABLE]

"U-Ughh..."

My mind was flooded with random information, the raw influx of new stuff to read just throwing me for a loop as I held my head to steady myself. This was too much to take in... This'll clearly have to wait until after we're done fighting this thing.

"Have to get back to Shizu..."

With staggered steps, I made my way back up to the outpost, the faint sputtering hiss of the mechanical spider getting louder the closer I got to my destination. It wouldn't be-

[BZZZZTT!!!]

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