Chapter 99 20.2 Engine Woes?

"Huh?"

Turning back to the group, Guidance simply smiled as she declared, "Moriya and I have something to talk about for a bit. We'll be just outside the bridge."

To his credit, Shade managed to keep his suspicion to a minimum as he smiled at Guidance. "Very well. We'll be here when you need us."

"Thank you," the dev nodded before turning her gaze back to me. "Okay, let's go."

"Okay?"

Letting Guidance drag me out of the bridge, I barely saw Shizu and Shen playing with one another before the cold steel walls of the [Rig]'s hallways replaced my sight. In front of me, the dev let out a small glower as she glared at me for... reasons.

"When I said we need to recruit a mechanic, I didn't mean just get the first person you see out on the streets."

I blinked at Guidance's words. What in the world was she talking about? "I just followed your words. Our next mechanic will be our party member, and to her credit, she's the same level as me."

"What? But she's a nobody."

....What? "Wait, you mean you don't know her?"

"No, I don't," Guidance grumbled, her eyes coming back down as she thought aloud. "I haven't even imagined anyone looking like her before. Maybe she was a scrapped design, but if that was the case, I should've still recognized her..."

"So, what? I just pulled in a random NPC out of nowhere?"

"Well, that's the thing... I feel like she's not just some random NPC," Guidance mumbled out. "That wrench of hers... It feels like a [Manifest]..."

Huh... So Guidance can feel if other people have [Manifests]? "If that's the case, then what's the problem?"

Wouldn't that be even better, actually? We didn't need another healer yet, seeing as Guidance could do that for us right now. Maybe Shen was even a DPS. That'll make us have more firepower in case we have a need for it.

"The problem is that we'll be leaving the party member that I actually designed," Guidance frowned. "I spent a good time designing him too..."

"Didn't you just say that we don't need a healer that much?" I chuckled.

"That's not all."

I almost flinched at Guidance's grave tone. I guess this was something more serious then.

"With that kid joining us, it just means that the Re:Mind Engine's starting to make more drastic changes to the world," the dev began. "If it can start making new party members for us with random [Manifests] that I didn't even design, then who knows what it'll churn out next."

"Huh, I can see that being a problem."

"Of course, it's a problem," Guidance harshly whispered out. "If the Engine can make this big a change without us even knowing it, then everything I know would be rendered obsolete before we can even use it."

Oh...

A tense silence settled between us as we stared at each other. The background sounds of Shizu and Shen having fun in the bridge did little to assuage the tension brewing between us, Guidance humming in deep thought as I leaned on the nearest wall.

"We don't even know if we can die yet," I casually added with a shrug. "If we can, would it even matter if we don't have any future knowledge?"

"You mean you don't even care anymore?" the dev accused.

"I still do, but caring about all this is kind of tiring, no?" I chuckled. "If it happens, it happens. We can't always future-proof everything. That's just the ultimate waste of effort."

"Well, this is my world, so take my word for it that we need to get every chance to get stronger as we can get," Guidance huffed. "We'll get destroyed out there, respawn or no respawn."

I cracked a smile. Well, deep inside, her words unsettled me, but I didn't want to show that just yet. "And we'll get there when we get there. For now, let's just get this [Rig] moving."

Guidance gave me a pointed stare before she let out a sigh. "Fine. At least we'll be making progress then."

Sharing a nod, we both walked back into the bridge, only to see the bizarre sight of Shizu and Shen running across the room playing tag with one another.

"Haha! You can't catch me!"

"Don't count your eggs, Shen!"

Well... Seeing Shizu chasing Shen around with a big smile on her face was kind of uplifting, at least. If one discounted the fact that they were running around in what was ostensibly irreplaceable and highly expensive equipment, they could even say that the two looked like they were at ease in a playground.

"For what it's worth, I tried to stop them," Shade sighed, though the smile on his face made it hard for me to believe him. "Although, the Princess's word is law, and as such, I'll abide by them."

"Ookay?" I raised an eyebrow. "Anyway, any progress on actually making this thing move?"

"We decided to wait for your and Lady Guidance to finish your conversation!" Maruki yelled out like this army man that he was. "It was only proper, as was said by my Princess!"

"I don't think we have to do much to make this thing move anyway," Guidance shrugged. "We already did a sweep of the [Rig] while you were gone, and we didn't find anything that looked too out of place. Then again, we're not mechanics."

Almost immediately, her eyes landed on our actual mechanic, the girl looking far from actually being competent enough to do her job. I guess this was my fault, huh... Might as well own it.

"Shen, can we go down to the engine-"

"OOF!"

[*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*]

What the- A crash? Did someone fall on something?

"O-Oops..."

I quickly craned my neck to the source of the disturbance. Sure enough, the two children were stacked on top of one another, Shen pressed on top of some kind of sophisticated machinery as they both picked themselves back up.

"T-That's not good," Shizu nervously chuckled, her obvious guilt adorning her face as she stared at the blinking machinery.

"I-I didn't do it!" Shen quickly yelled out, her eyes quickly flying towards the machine they just seemingly broke. "I can fix it! I can fix it!"

[*GGGGRRRRROOOOOAAANNNNN!!!*]

Before I could even stop her, an ominous groan rumbled across the entire [Rig]. Dim red lights flashed forebodingly above us, the rumbling beneath us only making things worse as we all stood at the ready.

"W-What's happening?!"

"Just keep alert!" I called out to our young mechanic. "Something's-"

[Dungeon Unlocked!: [The Call of the Sea] is now available!]

"-off..."

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