The world was crashing—well, not the whole world, just Mark Veil's.
He sat in front of his second-hand laptop, its fan whirring like it was about to lift off into orbit. A half-eaten cup of instant ramen balanced precariously on the corner of his desk, threatening to topple at the slightest nudge. Sweat trickled down his temple as he stared at his code.
Compile Error.
Mark let out a groan and slapped his forehead against the keyboard.
"Why? Why now?!"
It was 2028, the world was supposed to be all high-tech and sci-fi by now—hoverboards, brain implants, self-driving skateboards, or whatever. But here he was, still stuck debugging some stupid backend project for a side gig that barely covered his rent.
"Genius," they said. "You're destined for greatness!" That's what the scholarship brochures promised. Destiny, my ass. Greatness never showed up at his crummy door, just a notice saying his rent was due in three days.
Life wasn't hard for Mark Veil—it was bugged.
He had maxed out every ounce of his talent in computer science, mastered algorithms that would make Google's engineers sweat, and could hack into anything short of a nuclear facility (not that he'd tried... yet). But in the real world, talent was worth jack unless you were born with money or connections—and Mark had neither.
"Just gotta push through," he muttered, cracking his knuckles.
He opened his IDE again, fingers blazing across the keyboard, hoping to finish this damn project and get at least enough money for food. Just as he hit ENTER to run the final code, his laptop froze. A strange black screen appeared.
[SYSTEM ERROR: You have been randomly selected for a cross-dimensional transfer.]
Press any key to continue...
Mark blinked. "What kind of weird malware is this?"
He clicked out of it, but the message popped back. This time it glitched, and strange characters filled the screen. Before he could even think about pulling the plug, the laptop speakers crackled with a voice.
"Greetings, Mark Veil. Welcome to the Hero Installation Process. You have been chosen by the Grand System."
Mark scowled. "Hero? Dude, I can't even afford groceries, and now I gotta save the world?"
The screen flashed bright white, and suddenly his tiny room dissolved around him. The ramen cup shattered on the floor as reality bent like a corrupted file. His body tingled, his skin buzzing like static. Then everything—laptop, walls, floor—was replaced by an endless void of glowing binary code.
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me..." Mark muttered, floating helplessly.
A panel materialized in front of him, listing out some game-like attributes.
[Initializing Hero System...]
Name: Mark Veil
Class: ???
Status: Poor, Overworked, Mentally Exhausted
"What kind of class is that!?" Mark snapped, flailing his arms uselessly in the void.
[ERROR: Invalid configuration detected. Applying emergency buff...]
His stats glitched and shuffled, numbers multiplying exponentially.
[New Class Assigned: OVERPOWERED ERROR]
Skills Activated: Infinite Computation – Process all scenarios instantly.
Abilities Loaded: Reality Hack – Modify the environment like code.
Mark barely had time to register what was happening before a huge notification filled his vision.
[World transfer complete. Welcome to... Earth?]
And just like that, Mark Veil crashed back to solid ground—only, it wasn't his cluttered apartment.
He found himself standing in the middle of a gleaming, futuristic city street. Neon advertisements floated mid-air, drones whizzed overhead, and self-driving cars zipped past, emitting soothing engine hums. People walked by, dressed in sleek outfits, chatting away as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Oh no, not another isekai trope..." Mark whispered to himself.
But this wasn't a fantasy world with knights or dragons. He was still on Earth—just a different version of it.
His laptop, now fused into his hand like a cybernetic glove, hummed with energy. A blue holographic interface projected in front of him, showing quest logs and system notifications.
[New Quest: Get Your Life Together]
Objective: Find out what the hell is going on.]
"Yeah, that's a great plan," Mark grumbled, brushing dust off his worn hoodie. "Where's the logout button?"
Before he could take a step, two men in black suits sprinted toward him, shouting into their comms.
"We've located the anomaly! Send reinforcements immediately!"
"Anomaly?! I just got here!" Mark yelped.
The men pointed high-tech rifles at him, and Mark panicked. His mind raced—then a strange sensation washed over him, like coding an entire program in a single blink.
Reality Hack Activated.
With a flick of his fingers, he rewrote the laws of physics. Suddenly, the men's rifles turned into bouquets of flowers. They stared in confusion, looking down at roses instead of weapons.
Mark grinned. "Well, I guess this won't be boring."
Just as he was about to bolt, a loud ding echoed in his mind.
[Achievement Unlocked: First Glitch]
Reward: +10 Intelligence, +100 Luck]
"Oh man," Mark whispered, realizing the absurdity of what he'd just stumbled into. "I think I just hacked the universe."
And with that, his new life—full of overpowered glitches, quests, and ridiculous misadventures—had officially begun.