Chapter 29 5.8 Debug?

I carefully watched Shizu flailing about as I listened intently to Guidance's movements. With each passing second, her keyboard raged on faster and faster, her focus audibly lasered in as she worked.

[CHIME!]

*Okay, I'm in.*

[CHIME! CHIME! CHIME!]

I stood by as a massive window of code appeared right in front of Shizu. The tour guide immediately averted her gaze, only to be flanked by even more code windows as she was slowly enveloped in what I could only describe as a quarantine facility made entirely of command prompts.

"W-What're you gonna do to me?!"

"Calm down!" I shouted out to Shizu, who was now cowering low on the ground even as her finger dug deep into her face. "It'll be over soon!"

[CHIME!]

Another command prompt appeared out of thin air, completely smothering the poor NPC underneath a sea of ones and zeroes as Guidance's fingers rattled on. Her keyboard sounded like a rabid machine gun, each key clack beefy and purposeful as nothing but its sound echoed through the ether.

*W-What the hell am I seeing....*

I raised an eyebrow at Guidance's words, "What is it?"

*D-Don't talk to me for a sec....* Guidance stuttered, a wavering tone audibly present in her voice. *I need to focus. Just ignore me rambling...*

Huh... "Got it."

With a shrug, I found myself crossing my arms over my chest as I stood by patiently for the fix to happen. I couldn't hear Shizu inside her prompt prison anymore, but I could only hope that she wasn't suffering inside there. Still, it was a decent concession for her almost killing me earlier.

*T-This is all wrong...*

*W-What in the...*

*How?!*

I understandably did my best to ignore all of Guidance's worrying outbursts. Even if Shizu was an NPC, I still didn't want her to just fade away from existence because of some kind of random event. Although, I'm sure Guidance would know what in the world happened back there...

⬛⬛⬛

Some time has passed, and I was pretty sure that Guidance was getting frustrated based on how forceful her inputs were becoming.

*No, dammit... Why aren't you compiling right?!*

That, and her outbursts were becoming far more volatile than usual.

*For the love of- Compile, dammit!*

With a loud clack which I was sure was the enter key being brutally destroyed, I let out my own sigh as the symphony of keyboard inputs finally stopped. I turned my attention back on the prompts, now noticing that the windows were now spitting out code at high speeds.

*There,* Guidance let out an exhausted sigh. *That should fix it.*

About time. "Thanks, Guidance," I sincerely complimented before fielding the burning question in my mind. "So... What's the prognosis?"

Hearing me, her voice came out absolutely oozing with sarcasm. Not that I blamed her for it. *Just wonderful, Moriya. I've never seen this kind of error happen with this engine before.* She clicked her tongue, *I couldn't even understand half of what's wrong with Shizu's code.*

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

Oof... That bad, huh. "What's wrong then?"

Guidance let out a tired sigh as she explained, *Somehow, an event flag triggered in her sequence that wasn't supposed to happen until way later in the game.* She audibly clicked her tongue, *I honestly don't even know how it happened.*

I winced. Immediately, I knew where the problem came from. "I think that's when she asked me to go on a tour around the city with me."

*H-Huh?! That isn't supposed to happen at least until level 50!*

I could only let out a sigh as I refused to match Guidance's frantic energy. I'll just assume that the code was screwed to all hell then. "And yet it still happened. Even unlocked a dungeon out of it too."

*Dungeon?*

Everything stopped in my head. All thoughts drained out of me as I took in Guidance's clueless tone. Was she seriously implying that she didn't know when one of her dungeons unlocked? "[Eld Alley]? It's a level 60 Dungeon I somehow unlocked while doing Shizu's side quest."

*W-what....*

I blinked at the dev's astonished tone. Seriously? "Did you forget that you somehow placed a high-level Dungeon in the middle of the starting city?"

Rolling my eyes, I let out a sigh as I waited for Guidance to explain herself. My irritation from earlier was back in full force, and I wasn't letting her get away with some answers.

*M-Moriya... * she finally responded, her lips smacking together as she spoke. *I... I don't remember making an [Eld Alley] as a dungeon...*

...

...."Huh?"

The boredom that was starting to seep into me from earlier was quickly replaced with sinking dread as I heard Guidance's keyboard return in full force. Taking a glance at Shizu's command prompt prison, I could tell that what the dev was doing now was different from her fixing Shizu's case. I could only take a guess that she was validating my claim about the dungeon I unlocked earlier.

*Oh.... Oh dear me....*

Well, that wasn't a good sign. "What is it?"

*It's all wrong.... It's all wrong!*

A massive thud echoed from the back of my head. That poor desk... "Hey now. Calm down, Guidance."

*How?! How did this thing even write itself?!*

Before I knew it, I found myself placating another woman as I heard the panicked dev practically abuse her desk in audible frustration. If the subtitling system worked for sounds from beyond this world, then surely my HUD would be full of thuds and smacks right about now.

*What in the world is happening to this engine?!* Guidance ranted out loud, disbelief coloring her tone as she continued. *It somehow wrote in an entire dungeon by itself!*

I hummed in seeming understanding. I wasn't a game dev by any chance, but I still understood the terms she used. "So you're telling me that the engine you're using is affecting things that aren't supposed to be touched? And what's a [Star] anyway?"

The dev paused in between her constant ranting, her voice level as she spoke. *A [Star] is the name I used for planets in the game. Also, you're correct on your first assumption.*

I sagely nodded in response, "I see. So the A.I. is the one responsible for our current problems then?"