The Misaligned
1127 Words
(voice-over) Cold winds swept across the shattered plains, dragging silence with them.
(shivering and glanced around the endless cracked tiles) … Hmm. What was that just now?
(hand tightened around the chipped, jagged sword) I killed that skeleton… with a healing spell.
That’s… definitely not something I’ve ever heard of before. Healing is supposed to recover HP, right? Restore life, mend wounds, kiss boo-boos better, all that junk. I’ve never heard of it being able to melt a skeleton from the inside out.
Alright… let’s check the status window again.
[Status Window]
Name: Kaien Rook
Class: Healer (Sync Error)
Level: 2
Title: The Misaligned
Trait Detected: [Sanctioned Error]
Sync Rate: 5.3%
Whoa! (surprised)
(blink) I actually leveled up. And… I even earned a title?
(tapping the glowing words)
[Title Acquired: The Misaligned (Rare)]
“You were never meant to walk this path, yet you walk it anyway.
The system cannot comprehend your existence, but the world will remember your error.”
Classification: Glitched / Error-Blessed
Effect:
- +5% Damage to Undead and System-Corrupted entities
- Increases Skill Mutation Chance by 12%
- Enables hidden [Desync] dialogue options with certain NPCs
- Grants passive resistance to system anomalies
(froze)
…This… this is actually rare?!
(pumping a fist into the air) Yes! (excited)
A rare title on the first level up. This is the part where every other gamer in the world cries in envy. The Silent Demon King does not disappoint.
So… +5% damage to undead, hidden dialogue options, and higher mutation chance? And resistance to ‘system anomalies’?
What the hell even counts as a system anomaly? Whatever, it sounds badass.
(looked down at the Bonejack’s remains) After it disintegrated, it left behind two drops.
First, a fractured glowing shard labeled Bonejack Core. Looked like junk, so… yeet.
Second, the jagged sword it was dragging.
[Rusted Jagged Sword]
Durability: 9/40
Finally, something I can use.
Not great, but better than nothing. At least I don’t have to slap monsters with my bare hands anymore.
Now, what exactly happened with my healing skill?
[Touch of Restoration Lv.1]
Base Effect: Heals 20 HP
Casting Condition: You need to say "Heal".
Current Output: Reversed (Deals 20 Magic Damage)
Inversion Trigger: Passive [Invert Output]
Mutation Potential: HIGH
(rubbing chin) So, basically… because of this passive, my healing is reversed into damage. That’s why the Bonejack exploded.
“Mutation Potential: HIGH” it says.
Yeah, that’s not ominous at all.
So, I’m not really a healer. I’m more like… a DPS cosplaying as a support, which would have been fine if I wasn’t built like wet toilet paper with 50 HP.
(sighs) Alright… direction. Where do I even go now?
The Bonejack came from that broken archway, right? Maybe there’s more stuff that way. Monsters, loot, or at least a chest. Hell, I’d settle for an apple at this point. Anything, as long as it's not this endless wasteland.
So, I will walk. One foot after the other, across cracked stone.
(voice-over) Minutes turned to what felt like hours. Nothing but silence.
If I don’t find anything soon, I swear… I’m logging out. And I’ll leave a bad review. Scammed me out of my money, damn it…
[System Alert]
New Zone Discovered: Cradle of Glitches
Environmental Status: Stable (Unverified)
Possible Event Trigger: [Active Scans]
Security Level: -5
(Warning: This area has not been debugged by the system.)
(froze mid-step)
… Security level negative five?!
What kind of game even has a negative security level?
(Voice-over) Before he could process, a noise bled through the air. Static. Like a broken radio. Except buried under it were faint whispers. He spun around. Nothing. Just shattered stone and empty sky.
Then---
BOOM. (sound effect)
(voice-over) A pulse of blue light cracked through the air, followed by a thin wire of code snapping like lightning, then vanishing.
(Inner thought) Every instinct is screaming at me to run. But where would I even go?
(crouching low, gripping the sword tight) What was that…?
No mobs. No terrain interaction. No tutorials. No guides. And now I’ve found a zone the system literally says hasn’t been debugged.
(gulp) This isn’t just a glitchy game.
(whisper) … This place is abandoned. Like the devs gave up halfway through.
(voice-over) He forced his legs to keep moving, dread crawling in his stomach. Every few steps, his HUD flickered off, then back on. His mana bar twitched downward randomly. Eventually, I saw something on the horizon. Something tall. A metallic spire, cracked halfway up, sticking out of the ground like a broken antenna. Bits of glowing code shimmered across its surface, like heat haze.
[Interactable Object Detected]
Object: Bugged Tower Root (Ancient Data Spike)
Function: Corrupted Data Access
Do you wish to interface?
• Yes • No
A… data spike? Is this a tower?
My gut is saying, nope, nope, bad idea, but… curiosity rolled a natural 1. And satisfaction brought me back.
Yeah. Let’s interface. I don’t have anything else to do anyway. How bad could it be?
(Reached out his hand)
[Touch Activated]
Initiating System Dive…
(voice-over) A surge of light ripped through him. The cold vanished. His vision blurred. And suddenly, a new interface slammed into his brain like a memory he never lived.
[SYSTEM ECHO: INITIATING ERROR LOG ACCESS]
...
...
Log #0001
Subject: Class SYNC attempt failed.
Error Code: 0419-G
- Auto-assigned skill functions incompatible with spiritual frequency.
- Error detected in limbic circuit translation.
- Passive ‘Invert Output’ automatically applied.
Diagnostic note: “Subject Kaien Rook registers as acceptable anomaly.”
Sanction Level: Tolerated
(staggering backward) What the…?
This system knew it was broken. It logged it. It allowed it.
It literally sanctioned the error.
My heart is pounding like crazy. I need to reread it.
‘Acceptable anomaly.’
Me? An acceptable anomaly?
And then the kicker: Sanction Level: Tolerated.
(twitch) … Even the system is making fun of me now.
[Ding!]
[Skill Acquired]
Group Heal (Processing...)
...
[Error]
...
[Title Bonus Activated]
'The Misaligned' allows mutated skill retention.
Skill Changed to → Error Pulse
Skill 2: Error Pulse Lv.1
- Emits a corrupted burst from within, dealing AoE magic damage.
- Not affected by passive skill.
Cost: 30 MP
Casting Condition: You need to say "Error Pulse"
Note: This is a glitched variant of [Group Heal].
[Skill saved]
(staring at the glowing text)
… So now… even more healing spells hurt things.
(smirk) That’s fine. That’s just fine.
(clenching the jagged sword and laughing under breath) Pfft...
I guess I’ll just keep collecting these bugs… until I become the biggest glitch in this whole damn world.
If this was a broken game… then I’d break it further.
And if they abandoned me in a world like this… then they’d regret not deleting me.
- Writer
