Akashi: Commander, Have You Heard This Saying?

The fire had already spread through the entire village, and most of the houses had been burned down! So... obviously, if Su Luo and the others did not figure something out, they would most likely be sleeping out in the wilderness tonight!

Before coming to this village, Su Luo had already looked around. The village was surrounded by mountains and forests, with only one road leading who knew where. Su Luo guessed it might lead to a town, or perhaps another village. In any case, the result was... they needed to find somewhere to stay.

If it had only been Su Luo and Akashi, spending the night outdoors would not have been a problem. But now, there was a child with them.

The current situation was that this world did not seem safe, and as a repair ship, Akashi was not particularly skilled at combat. Protecting Su Luo, her Commander, was already about all she could manage. If they also had a child wandering around outside...

Therefore, Su Luo believed that the most urgent matter was to determine exactly what the so-called armaments the game development system had given him and Akashi were.

If they were the kind of genetic technology Su Luo was imagining, then what effects did they have? What kind of combat power could they grant him...

Under these circumstances, building a simple shelter on the spot for them to rest in became the best option.

The ever-useful Manjuus were once again assigned a difficult task by the unscrupulous merchant Akashi. The short Manjuus began running back and forth between the forest and the clearing outside the village, constantly cutting down trees to build a simple wooden house.

The Manjuus worked quickly. Or rather, perhaps because they had trained so much in the port, such a simple wooden house posed no challenge to them at all. In any case, before Akashi could confirm that the little girl they had rescued truly could not speak, the house was already finished.

It was not large, just a small single-room house. Akashi did not intend to separate from her Commander. At the very least, until she could ensure that her Commander was absolutely safe, she would not stray too far from him. Otherwise, if something happened to the Commander, never mind what the sisters at the port would do to her—even she herself would never forgive herself.

When Su Luo came out after taking a look around the house, he saw Akashi standing by the door with a disappointed expression.

"What's wrong, Akashi?"

Su Luo had rarely seen his unscrupulous merchant cat show that kind of expression.

"Commander, it's confirmed. That child can no longer speak, or rather, she temporarily can't speak."

"Why?"

Su Luo glanced at the girl standing not far away, blankly staring at the still-burning village while hugging a Manjuu that was acting as a body pillow and looked somewhat dead inside.

"Most likely because she saw her family, relatives, and friends suffer right before her eyes. The psychological trauma was too severe, and the shock made her unable to speak!"

Perhaps because she sympathized with the girl, Akashi had even forgotten her usual verbal tic!

Akashi turned back to look at the girl.

"After all, Commander, you saw what the village looked like. For a girl who might only be a little over ten years old... that scene really was... somewhat cruel and bloody!"

Su Luo nodded and reached out to rub Akashi's head, casually giving her cat ears a stroke as well.

His Commander's warm fingers gently kneading her cat ears made Akashi feel a little lightheaded, but very comfortable. As Su Luo kept stroking her ears, Akashi temporarily forgot her empathy for the girl.

"Alright, since that's the case, don't dwell on it. We'll find a solution eventually. At worst, we can raise her for now... and when it's time to return to the port, have Valkyrie come over!"

Su Luo moved past the subject and steered the conversation toward something else, using it to divert Akashi's attention.

"Akashi, do you remember the armament system the Game Maker mentioned when we first arrived here and encountered those monsters?"

Akashi nodded, affirming Su Luo's question.

"Akashi remembers, nya!"

Hearing Akashi use her verbal tic again, Su Luo knew that his unscrupulous merchant cat's attention had been successfully redirected.

"That's good. Akashi, do you know the details of this armament system?"

Akashi thought for a moment, as though recalling something. After a while, she nodded at Su Luo.

"While repairing the Game Maker, Princess Lala and I talked. I learned a little about the programming of Princess Lala's Game Maker, nya."

Akashi paused, apparently feeling that this was not a good place to talk, then gestured toward the room for Su Luo to go inside. As for the girl outside, she had the Manjuu she was hugging for company, and Akashi could sense her condition at any time, so there was no need to worry about her safety. As for the other Manjuus, the unscrupulous merchant Akashi had already sent them off to work again!

This time, they were not cutting down trees to build a house, but putting out the fire and digging pits to bury the people who had been killed. The Manjuus had flown fighters and bombers to kill enemies... in short, they had done plenty of killing and arson before, but digging pits and burying people was a first!

Inside the room, Akashi took out the Game Maker, turned on its screen, and examined it for a while. Then she shook her head and spoke to Su Luo.

"The game Princess Lala originally wanted the Super Game Maker to create was something like a fantasy-world hero's dungeon-crawling adventure. So, the Super Game Maker's armament system only included the most basic things, like swords, shields, and magic staffs! Our situation is similar to when Princess Lala and the others first came to our world and the Game Maker gave them ship rigging, nya!"

"You mean the console gave us armaments suited to this world's power system based on the circumstances here? This Game Maker even has an adaptive system?"

Akashi pondered for a moment, then shook her head.

"Mm... Commander, this is probably a bug... The monsters created by those Game Makers that have power systems similar to this world's are probably bugs too, nya!"

"You mean... Lala did not actually add anything like adaptation, and this is only because there was a bug in the programming she wrote when making the machine?"

"Mm... After all, Princess Lala had not completely finished making the machine at the time. It was only a half-finished product, nya..."

Su Luo looked at Akashi and raised an eyebrow.

"But I clearly had you help Lala complete and fix the Super Game Maker, didn't I? You didn't discover these bugs back then?"

Akashi did not care about Su Luo's doubt in the slightest. Instead, a meaningful smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"Commander, have you heard a saying?"

"What?"

Seeing the smile Akashi was clearly having trouble suppressing, Su Luo grew curious.

"The saying goes: when a project runs on bugs, if the code runs, don't touch it, nya."

"After all, according to Princess Lala's design concept, these unexpected situations are all bugs in the Super Game Maker. If I modified them carelessly... there might be even more bugs, nya. The entire Game Maker system might even crash! So... the best choice was to leave it alone, nya!"

Su Luo opened his mouth and looked at Akashi, wanting to complain about something, but in the end, he did not know what to say.

He sighed, accepting reality.

"Tch... forget it, let's not talk about that. Based on what you just said, the abilities the game system gave us are related to this world itself. So the question is, what abilities were we given?"