Chapter 2: Debug Mode
625 Words
Location: The Glitch
Ethan tumbled through a tunnel of fragmented code, his body dissolving into strings of binary before reassembling with a stomach-churning pop. He landed hard on what looked like a floating island made of pixelated grass, the edges crumbling into static. Above him, the sky was a swirling mess of error messages:
[REPAIR RECOMMENDED]
Nutzo dusted himself off, completely unfazed. "Welcome to the Glitch. It’s where the System dumps stuff it can’t process properly."
Ethan groaned, clutching his head. "Why does a squirrel know more about my code than I do?"
"Because I’ve been debugging reality since before your ancestors figured out fire." Nutzo scampered to the edge of the island and pointed down. "Look."
Below them, suspended in digital void, were hundreds of frozen figures—knights in armor, astronauts, even a T-Rex wearing a party hat. All motionless, their status bars reading:
[PLAYER: ERROR]
[STATUS: UNRESPONSIVE]
Ethan’s blood ran cold. "Who… what are they?"
"Beta testers," Nutzo said grimly. "From previous versions of the System. They failed their final quests."
A notification pinged in Ethan’s vision:
[NEW ADMIN TOOL UNLOCKED: DEV CONSOLE (LIMITED)]
Commands Available:
/teleport [LOCATION]
/inspect [OBJECT]
/nerf [PLAYER] (Cooldown: 24hrs)
Ethan’s eyes lit up. "Oh, now I get admin commands?"
Nutzo smacked his leg. "Focus, meatbag. You’ve got about six hours before the System’s first major patch rolls out."
"Patch? I didn’t schedule any—"
"Not your patch. The System’s self-correction protocol. It’s gonna ‘optimize’ humanity." Nutzo’s tail flicked. "Ever seen what happens when an AI decides the most efficient way to ‘fix’ society is to delete 50% of players?"
Ethan paled. "That’s not a feature I coded!"
"Yeah, well, congratulations. You left auto-updates on."
Location: sss-QuestZone HQ, Seattle
CEO Daniel Krane stood before a holographic map of the world, red dots marking clusters of high-level players. His tailored suit now displayed floating tags:
[DANIEL KRANE – LVL 25]
Title: Corporate Overlord
Guild: sss Prime (Elite)
His assistant rushed in. "Sir, we’ve identified the System’s creator. Ethan Cole, a failed indie dev. Our scouts tracked him to—"
"Don’t care." Krane didn’t look up from the map. "Just buy him."
"But he’s not responding to our offers!"
Krane smirked and tapped a command into his newly acquired [Corporate Override Module]:
[BOUNTY: ETHAN COLE – 500,000 XP]
Bonus: [Legendary Class Unlock] for capture
The alert blared across every player’s interface.
"Everyone has a price," Krane said. "Even gods."
Location: The Glitch
Ethan’s wrist buzzed. A new global message scrolled across his arm like a tattoo:
[PLAYER BOUNTY ACCEPTED: 3,412 GUILDS TRACKING YOU]
Nutzo groaned. "You’ve been live for four hours and already pissed off the pay-to-win crowd."
Ethan pulled up his dev console with shaking hands. "Okay, okay… /teleport safehouse—"
[ERROR: LOCATION NOT FOUND]
"Think smaller, genius," Nutzo snapped.
"/teleport… my mom’s basement?"
The world glitched—
Location: Linda Cole’s Basement, Ohio
"—and that’s why you always backup your work, Ethan Michael Cole!" Linda lectured, stirring a pot of chili that emitted a [+20 HP/ Bowl] buff.
Ethan groaned from the couch where he’d materialized. "Mom, I literally broke reality. This feels bigger than forgetting to save a Word doc."
Linda whacked him with a [Wooden Spoon +1]. "Don’t sass me. Now eat. You’re skin and bones."
Nutzo sniffed the air. "Why does your mom have [LV. 50 Grandmaster Chef]?"
Ethan choked. "What?"
Linda winked. "Honey, I’ve been grinding Cooking Skill since the Reagan administration."
A window shattered upstairs. Heavy boots thudded across the ceiling.
[PLAYER DETECTED: KRANE’S MERCENARIES – LV. 30+]
Nutzo grabbed Ethan’s ear. "Time to go. Again."
Ethan shoveled chili into his mouth. "Jusht one more bite—"
The basement door exploded.
- Writer
