Chương 5: Beta Testing

Ch 5: Beta Testing It took me two days to rebuild the system's modules and another day to add a status recording subsystem, but now I stood beside Sahirah in what looked like a storage room filled with old cleaning supplies and abandoned kitchen equipment. This was where I planned to finally beta-test my creation with students from various species.

"How did you find this place? Don't tell me this is where you come to eat your raw-meat diet without people giving you disgusted looks."

"You talk as if I care what those soft-willed, pointy-eared leaf-lickers think about my eating habits, human." Sahirah's words were as sharp as her teeth today, though I couldn't really complain. Not only had she found this place for me, but she'd also helped me clean it, and now she was here to watch me activate the newest iteration of the system, hopefully proving that the adjustments I'd made were enough to make it resistant to her presence.

"Seriously, how did you find this place?"

"Gark and Zarg love playing hide-and-seek in here. Amazing as I am, I've had to come retrieve them more times than I can count after they left the other kids behind."

"You mean Little Scales and Furball?" She frowned, staring at me with her mismatched eyes as though I'd just committed a crime.

"Are all humans like this, or is it just you who's too slow in the head to remember people's names?" I smiled proudly.

"Oh, trust me, it's not just people's names. It gets waaay worse." Enjoying her expression of disbelief, I continued.

"Those soft-willed, pointy-eared leaf-lickers you mentioned? I can't even be bothered to learn the name of their species. And if they don't change their arrogant attitude, you can bet I won't hesitate to call them elves in my system, regardless of how offended they get." She smirked, though she quickly hid it behind what I was starting to recognize as fake outrage.

"Do you call me the Sharp-Teeth Girl when I'm not around to defend myself?"

"Bullshit." With a level of deadpan seriousness worthy of an acting award, I added, "If I had any other friends, you can rest assured I would never call you that." I waited just long enough for her to start believing me. Then I delivered the punchline.

"I'd call you the Mana Bomb Girl. That's much more accurate, isn't it?" The fake anger instantly vanished, replaced by a chuckle. Once again, she proved that my sense of humor could reach her occasionally, though I'd yet to earn a full laugh.

"Not my fault everything the Grey make is terrible and can't handle a little mana from a fragile Nadiri girl," she said proudly.

"And since we're talking about flimsy things, are you sure your little orb isn't going to explode this time?" That question forced me to swallow. My gaze drifted toward the ugly, imperfectly spherical orb resting atop a stool, waiting for the spark of mana that would bring it to life. Whether it wanted to or not, the poor thing was about to be born only to face the final boss immediately afterward. I really hoped it survived long enough to be tested by the other students.

"Time to find out," I said. My mood for jokes evaporated as I approached the folded sphere. By now, I knew the location of the Mana Drain spell by memory alone. I knew exactly where to touch to kick-start the heavily modified Passive Mana Absorption spell. Every change had been made with a single goal in mind: making it resistant to mana surges. That had required adding runes such as Mana Tranquility, Limiter, Linear Flow, and several others that I'd never imagined combining before.

Now all that remained was to discover whether those modifications had been enough. When I crouched beside the stool, my hand already reaching for the orb, I closed my eyes. The moment I touched it, a wave of dizziness crossed my bones. Yeah, it sucked. And despite spending nearly a month on Navar, I still wasn't used to the sensation of mana leaving my body. But on the bright side, as soon as I opened my eyes again, I was greeted by the sight of the floating orb.

The ugly paper core had vanished beneath a beautiful blue glow, wrapped in a thin layer of mana. A status window quickly appeared in front of me, but nothing had changed there. [SYSTEM STATUS] Name: Eric Nevermore ATTRIBUTES ‣ Strength: 5 ‣ Agility: 7 ‣ Constitution: 5 ‣ Mana: 11 So, instead, I crouched lower to check something beneath the stool. What I found surprised me, in a good way. The small data crystal I'd salvaged from the Grey's trash and glued to the center of a data-transfer spell was active.

A crack still ran through its middle, but the intact half glowed alive as the spell recorded the magic equivalent of a screenshot of my status window. Or, as I preferred to call it, a log file. I smiled. This was exactly the tool I needed to debug future problems if the system reacted strangely with other species the same way it had with Sahirah.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to collect people's private information, Eric?" When I turned toward her, she crossed her arms.

"You'll have a really hard time selling your... huh... System... if people suspect you're using it to spy on them." Forgetting about the data crystal for the moment, I stood and walked to a nearby shelf, retrieving a stack of papers I'd handwritten specifically to solve the problem Sahirah was hinting at.

"This document," I announced, "is called the Terms of Use." I handed the pages to her and watched as she flipped through the first few sheets filled with legal jargon, data collection authorizations, and various disclaimers written in the finest software-license tradition that Earth had to offer. With a smirk, I continued, "I'm going to leave this on a second stool by the door.

And it clearly states on the very first page that by entering this room and using the system, you authorize me to collect your data for debugging, maintenance, and future feature development. It also assures you that I won't share it with any third parties except myself or future employees of my company." It took a moment for Sahirah's gaze to travel from me to the document and back again.

"But..." she said slowly.

"But... do you really think everyone will stop and read all of this before walking up to the sphere?" I chuckled.

"That's the beauty of it, isn't it?" She gave me a look with those mismatched eyes that almost made me feel like a terrible person. Almost. The feeling passed quickly. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Now," I said, stepping away from the sphere, "since your status is already old news to me, please get closer and pray this thing doesn't explode this time." Setting the Terms of Use aside, Sahirah let out a long sigh. As she approached the sphere, she muttered under her breath, "The things a girl has to do these days just to get a meditation partner." My attention sharpened as she drew closer. I waited a few seconds, suppressing every hint of excitement rising inside me.

The last thing I wanted was to celebrate too early and relive the unpleasant experience of laughing right before something exploded. And yet, nothing happened. No flashes of light. No mana surge. No freaking explosion. When several more seconds passed without incident, I stepped forward until I was standing shoulder to shoulder with her.

"I'm not seeing your floating window, which means the privacy bug is fixed." A grin spread across my face.

"And this version of the system is officially Sahirah-proof." It was something I'd said on a whim, but I stood there in awe of my own genius. Sahirah-proof. That had just become a very important term in my personal lexicon. Aiming at my flesh but hitting my own ego, an elbow slammed into my ribs, obviously playful instead of violent. As I winced, pretending it hurt far more than it actually did, she ignored my theatrics and asked, "So, what's the plan to get the other students to come here again?"

She stared at me with complete indifference, seeing right through my exaggerated suffering. I straightened up and abandoned the act.

"The plan," I said, "is for you to attend language class and publicly complain to the teacher that the crazy human got his hands on a forbidden illusion spell and is showing it off in the cleaning supply room." I patted her shoulder as if she were a toddler and began explaining.

"The best publicity stunts are always built around a gimmick that distracts people from the actual product being marketed." The look on her face made it clear she was rapidly reaching the limit of her tolerance for my nonsense, so I stopped teasing her and got to the point.

"And once they try it, they'll get addicted to checking their status before and after every training session. And when they realize what's happening, the system will have become a vital part of their daily lives and they won't be able to live without it." She didn't seem to be amused.

"As long as you keep your promise to attend every single meditation class from now on, you can count on me, Eric Nevermore." She looked me straight in the eyes before adding, "But why do I suddenly understand Principal Zorik's concerns about humans spreading dangerous ideas?"

I stood outside the cleaning room, leaning against the wall as I watched the hallway. And I was slightly anxious as I waited to see whether those arrogant elves, the furballs, or the scaled people would take Sahirah's bait and come to see what this so-called forbidden illusion spell was all about. It took a while, but to my utter surprise, the first group to arrive was the clique of lizard people. Six of them approached from the far end of the corridor, walking cautiously in an orderly formation.

As they neared the cleaning room, most of them seemed to avoid eye contact with me.

"Sssay it, human. Is it true you found a forbidden tome in the library and are teaching illusion magic in sssecret?" The one addressing me was the largest male among them. Unlike the other, he stared at me with the yellow eyes of a predator, making it obvious they'd all interpreted our publicity stunt in their own way.

"Something like that," I replied.

"Why don't you come inside and see for yourselves the revolutionary tool I made? It'll improve your training and help you keep track of your progress after every session." The six of them exchanged suspicious glances before forming a tight circle to discuss whether they should enter. They kept their voices low, but I still caught snippets of the conversation. Some thought it was obviously a trap.

One of them, however, argued that I clearly knew my runes and that they might regret walking away without at least taking a look. In the end, they split into two groups. Three remained outside, watching me to make sure I didn't lock the others inside, while the remaining three entered the room to investigate what had convinced the mismatched-eyed loner to complain to a teacher about me.

Nothing in my expression betrayed it, but I was extremely anxious as the three of them disappeared inside and closed the door behind them. The three who stayed outside weren't exactly comforting company either. The large male was among them, and all three had deliberately extended their claws, making it abundantly clear they were there to ensure I didn't try anything while their friends investigated.

"Boss, you have to see thisss." The voice came from inside the room. I couldn't stop myself from grinning. A few seconds later, all three guards hurried inside as well. And now all six of them were gathered around the system, and I could only wonder what they thought of it. More importantly, I wondered whether they saw the same potential I did. My system still couldn't level people up, translate languages, distribute status points, or awaken skills. But it could already do something incredibly valuable.

It could accurately track individual progress. Before I could think of a way to ask for feedback, another group appeared at the far end of the corridor. This time it was the adult furballs. Eight of them, males and females alike, who would probably be deeply offended if I actually called them furballs. But honestly, who could blame me for not knowing their species' name? I'd attended exactly one class so far. The rest of my time had been spent studying runes, building the system, and teasing Sahirah.

Learning interspecies etiquette and politically correct terminology had simply fallen lower on my priority list. Almost on cue, the six scaled people emerged from the cleaning room. Seeing them walk out unharmed, I immediately seized the opportunity.

"What are you waiting for?" I called out loudly.

"Do you really want to risk falling behind these fine scaled gentlemen? They just finished testing the greatest training tool ever created." I whispered to myself, "The system. The very favorite tool of lazy game developers and lazy authors alike." To my surprise, the sales pitch worked even better this time. Perhaps encouraged by the fact that another group had already gone in without incident, all eight of the furred students entered the room together. The scaled people, however, didn't leave.

Instead, they crossed their arms and lingered nearby, as though they either wanted to speak with me privately or compare opinions once the furred group finished. If I'd been slightly anxious that nobody would show up earlier...... now I was anxious because there was only one of me and far too many of them. And I had absolutely no idea what kind of conversation awaited me once they all came back out.

As if the universe wanted to mock my already overworked brain, the largest group yet appeared at the far end of the corridor. Around twenty elves. Even the scaled people stiffened, their wary expressions revealing they were just as surprised as I was to see such a large group of those arrogant pointy ears gathered in one place. The tallest female among them stepped forward. She looked at the scaled people first before turning her blue eyes toward me.

"What exactly is the human who cheated in runes class doing here that's attracting this much attention?" I didn't let anyone answer for me.

"Why don't you go inside and find out for yourselves? Or are you people too scared to do what everyone else already has?" The provocation worked. Without even waiting for the furred students to leave, the elves pushed open the cleaning room door and walked in. That immediately sparked an argument. The elves complained about the room smelling like wet fur, while the furred students fired back by calling them weak-bodied prey. I stood there in silence as the insults flew back and forth.

Eventually, the furred students gave way, allowing the elves their turn with the system. As if the corridor weren't crowded enough already, the furred group didn't leave either. They lingered nearby, watching me like abandoned puppies waiting for a private conversation once the elves were done. What would I do if things went wrong now? There were... just too many of them here. As if to add fuel to the fire consuming my already overworked brain, the elves soon emerged from the room.

And the tall female immediately addressed the other groups.

"The strongest among us has forty-six mana, and our average is thirty-three." She wasn't even looking at me anymore. Her eyes were fixed on the others.

"Let's see which one of you losers comes anywhere close."

"Mana?" the largest of the furred males scoffed.

"We don't need mana to beat you. I have over forty Agility. I'd snap your frail neck before you could even cast a spell." The tallest of the scaled males joined in immediately.

"Ssstrength and Conssstitution are what truly matter in a fight. I have over twenty in both. Which one of you would dare face me during the next mock combat exercise in Combat classss?" On one side, I was extremely happy they all understood what the system was about, on the other a question bothered me deeply. What the heck was combat class? I'd really screwed myself over by skipping so many classes, hadn't I?

A wry smile spread across my face as I realized, in the worst possible way, that this academy was more than simply competitive. It was full of species from who knows where in the cosmos that were genuinely powerful. And compared to them... My human status was pathetic, with everything except mana below ten, a fact proven by the very tool I had created.

Just as I was considering quietly slipping away before I had to negotiate with all these people, or worse, before a fight broke out, someone remembered I was still standing there.

"That was quite an interesting tool you made, human," said the largest furred male.

"But what exactly are your own stats? They must be impressive, considering how much attention you're drawing to yourself without fear." As every pair of eyes turned toward me, I swallowed. The lump in my throat felt like I was forcing razor blades down it.

"Everything is... above fifty." Even to my own ears, the lie sounded insane. Still, I was the creator of the system. And as far as I knew, the status sharing bug was fixed, and nobody else had access to my status. That reassurance lasted about five seconds, and voices immediately rose among the crowd.

"His body feels too weak for someone who claims to have fifty Strength."

"Everyone else's numbers matched what they claimed. Why would the human be different?"

"Even if he really has fifty in everything, he's still alone. We have nothing to fear from him during combat training." Cold sweat ran down my back. My body locked up. I'd seriously underestimated my potential customers, which meant the Grey weren't my only concern anymore. They never were. It was just me, too locked away in my own little world to notice... Thankfully, when the sharpeners of those gazes got unbearable, I felt a hand land on my shoulder.

And when I turned around, Sahirah was standing beside me, smiling at the crowd.

"All of you. You've already checked your status, now scram!" she said cheerfully.

"Because if you don't leave, I'll tell Teacher Niori you're all volunteering to be my meditation partners." Her grin widened just enough to show her sharp teeth.

"Oh... and I have two hundred and three of mana, by the way." Wide eyes appeared all around the corridor. And unlike my own claim, not a single person questioned hers. Somehow, that made it even scarier. From somewhere in the crowd, I heard a horrified voice.

"Anything but that. If she does THAT to training equipment... what would she do to our bodies?" I watched the corridor empty almost instantly. Her mere presence worked like a repellent, though none of them were willing to openly admit they were afraid of her. Within moments, only the two of us remained. Sahirah looked at me and smiled.

"No backing out of our deal now, human." She folded her arms.

"Though I suspect you can finally see that you might need me just as much as I need you as a training partner." I only managed an awkward smile. If "be my meditation partner" was terrifying enough to function as a threat... then there was obviously something about meditation class and Sahirah that no one had bothered to explain to me.