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

"MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE!"

Okay, this has gone on for long enough! "Shizu!"

Quickly closing the gap, I hugged her from behind and restrained her arms from moving too much. Taking note of her condition, her face was now covered in scratches as she obviously tried to tear out her own eyeballs. She was screaming in pain, and she was coming undone right before my eyes.

"Shizu!" I barked out, doing my damn best impression of a drill sergeant I could muster. "Calm down!"

"IT HURTS! MY HEAD! IT'S TOO MUCH!"

I tightened my grip on her flailing body, my arms starting to strain as he arms seemed to have some sort of supernatural strength to them. I didn't expect an NPC to put up this much of a fight, but I could only guess this had something to do with her weird designation that I noticed above her head earlier. And speaking of which...

Using my legs to try and pin her down, I took a passing glance at the character plate above her head. I was pretty sure that it also changed after that random debacle that just happened earlier. I just didn't know if it was relevant to the ridiculous strength that she was now presenting to me.

[Caris Zenoia Level: 80]

What...

[Imperial Princess]

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m nov𝒆lb(i)n.c(o)m

Wait... What?!

"M-MORIYA! PLEASE!"

Whatever shock and awe I had in what I just saw were forced to the wayside as I returned my attention to pacifying my rampaging

tour guide. She was still pinned down underneath my body, but her strength was simply far too much for me to bear as my arms began slipping from their locks. Shizu- or Caris.. whatever, was trying her damn best to get out of my grip, all while screaming bloody murder at what she had somehow seen in me.

What the hell was it then!?

"Talk to me, Shizu!" I screamed out, my hands clamming up as they barely managed to interlock themselves in front of the woman. "What did you see and how can I fix it?!"

Shizu let out a pained scream, her legs slowly managing to slip out of my own as she did her best to speak, "I-I-NUMBERS! TOO MANY NUMBERS!"

Okay?! That was a start! "Can you elaborate on that- UGGHKK!"

[*THUD!*]

[HP: 5/105]

My eyes widened in pain as Shizu managed to elbow me right underneath my ribcage. It was so hard that I actually flew right off her body, my poor self tumbling over the ground as my [HP] got absolutely decimated. I was hovering over death's door, and I probably wouldn't even manage to fire off a shot anymore.

"S-Shizu..."

"I-I'M SORRY!"

Sorry wouldn't cut it, woman...

I smartly kept my mouth shut as I slowly forced myself back up. The magic of a game world meant that I could still move and fight despite acquiring such massive amounts of damage. Nevertheless, I obviously wouldn't survive another hit. Or any hit, for that matter. I had to keep my distance now while I tried sorting this mess out.

I shook my head as I tried to think up ways to fix this. Closing her eyes was out, seeing as she already had them closed by minute one. In hindsight, I could've knocked her out, but with our level disparity, I highly doubted that I could even do enough damage to chip away at whatever health values she might have. The only way I could see this ending was if I managed to restrain her until she could calm herself down. But with the way her hands were already back to scratching at her face, I couldn't risk wasting enough time that she could use to do irreparable damage to herself... Dammit!

"GUIDANCE!" I found myself screaming out into the ether. "WAKE UP AND HELP ME FIX THIS!"

I didn't know if it would even work, especially if she was asleep at this time, but I just couldn't see any other way to fix this. I have a sinking suspicion that what was happening to Shizu was something related to the nature of this world, but I would only know for certain after Guidance actually managed to take a look at her.

"GUIDANCE! WAKE UP!"

I screamed to the top of my lungs, hoping to God that she could actually hear me. Meanwhile, Shizu was still screaming nonstop, her face now bloodied as her nails scraped at her once beautiful face.

"H-Help me..."

I winced at the desperation in her tone. How badly had I wanted to try and pin her down again, but I just couldn't justify losing my actual life for an honest to god NPC.

*U-ughh....*

My ears perked up... That voice...

"W-Who's there?!"

*Stop screaming.... It's hurting my ears....*

I couldn't stop smiling as I heard Guidance's groggy voice echo through the back of my head. So I was actually able to force her awake even if she was asleep.

"M-Moriya?! Is there someone else there?!"

I ignored whatever it was that Shizu was saying as I focused more on the task of getting Guidance up to speed. "Guidance, can you help fix this?!"

*Fix what...*

I shook my head as I explained, "An NPC of yours just transformed into an older version of herself after what was obviously a glitch. She then said that she can see numbers, then the next thing I knew, she was screaming about there being too many numbers that it's making her head hurt."

There was the sound of something rustling against fabric. I could only guess that the dev was on her bed as she spoke. *NPC... Numbers?*

"You have to hurry, Shizu's getting it bad enough that-"

*S-Shizu?!*

I almost flinched. The sheer surprise on her tone almost threw me on a loop as I anxiously waited for Guidance to do her thing. Assuming that she could even fix this mess in the first place. For a few precious seconds, I could hear her rummaging through our mystical link, hearing the hum of a PC booting up as her keyboard began clacking at light speeds.

"W-what's happening?!"