Mark's journey through the neon labyrinth of Sector 12 was anything but smooth. The moment he stepped out of the rooftop garden, he realized the System Administrator's Office wasn't going to be an easy place to find. The streets below stretched endlessly, filled with crowds, floating delivery drones, and strange advertisements that tried to guess his mood in real time.
He paused near a vending machine—only, instead of selling snacks, it was offering "instant personality upgrades" for the low price of 50 credits.
"Do people actually buy this crap?" he muttered, tapping the vending machine's screen just to see if it'd glitch.
[System Error: Out of stock.]
"Out of stock on personalities... That sums up this city."
Mark shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets and kept walking. Despite how surreal this world felt, one thing was clear: He needed to get to the Administrator's Office fast, or he'd end up either arrested or worse—debugged into oblivion.
His eyes flicked to the glowing Quest Log hovering at the edge of his vision.
[Quest: Meet the Admin.]
Location: Sector 12-B | Estimated Time to Arrival: 60 minutes by foot.
The task seemed straightforward enough, but given the strangeness of this world so far, Mark knew better than to trust the simplicity. And with the way those agents had hunted him earlier, he doubted this was going to be a pleasant stroll.
Rewriting Reality—One Glitch at a Time
As he reached a crowded intersection, Mark noticed something odd. People were moving in perfect synchronicity, their steps perfectly timed, their conversations looping the same phrases every few minutes.
"Is that a glitch… or are people just this boring here?"
Curious, Mark squinted at the crowd, and sure enough, a tiny red exclamation mark appeared above several individuals' heads. Their code seemed off, as if someone had copy-pasted their actions over and over.
Mark smirked. "Time to test the limits of this power again."
He opened his glowing interface and pulled up the scripts controlling the pedestrians. After a few clicks, he found the error—a repeating loop buried deep in their code.
"Let's have some fun..." Mark grinned and added a new line to the script:
if (npc_mode == "boring") { action = "random_dance_move" }
He hit Enter. Instantly, the entire intersection descended into chaos. Pedestrians stopped walking and started breakdancing, spinning on their heads, doing backflips, and busting out moonwalks that would put Michael Jackson to shame. A businessman in a suit leapt onto a bench and did the worm, while a grandmother next to him flawlessly executed a pop-and-lock routine.
Mark doubled over in laughter. "Okay, maybe this place isn't so bad after all."
Unfortunately, his fun didn't last long. A glowing red message popped into his vision:
[System Alert: Unauthorized Reality Manipulation Detected.]
Deploying Stabilizers...
"Oh, crap."
When Things Go from Bad to Glitchy
Before Mark could make his next move, the air around him shimmered again, and two Stabilizer Drones materialized out of thin air. The drones hovered menacingly, their glowing red sensors locking onto Mark.
"Target identified: Reality Hacker. Stand down and prepare for stabilization."
Mark had no idea what "stabilization" meant, but he was pretty sure it wasn't a free back massage.
He threw up his hands. "Hey, can we talk about this? Maybe discuss it over some coffee?"
The drones ignored him and began charging up what looked suspiciously like plasma cannons.
Mark cursed under his breath and summoned his code interface again. His mind raced as he searched for a way to shut them down. He could feel the hum of energy building inside the drones—he had seconds to act.
"Think, Mark. Think! You're a programmer. What's the easiest way to stop something from running?"
Suddenly, it hit him.
He quickly typed:
for (int i = 0; i < drone_count; i++) { drone[i].shutdown(); }
The drones froze in mid-air. Their lights dimmed, and with a mechanical whirr, they powered down completely.
Mark wiped the sweat from his brow. "Thank you, programming gods."
But before he could celebrate, the drones suddenly rebooted.
[Error: Unauthorized User Override Detected. Initiating Combat Mode.]
"Are you kidding me?"
Making a Quick Exit
Realizing he couldn't out-code these things forever, Mark spun on his heel and bolted down the nearest alley. The drones gave chase, their thrusters roaring as they zipped after him.
"This is insane! I'm being hunted by flying toasters!" Mark shouted, weaving between dumpsters and delivery robots as the drones fired bolts of plasma in his direction.
He rounded a corner and spotted a narrow door marked "Maintenance Access." Without thinking, he slammed into it, yanking the handle.
Locked.
Mark groaned. "Not today." He summoned his code interface again and typed:
door.access_level = 0; door.open();
The door clicked open, and Mark dove through, slamming it shut behind him just as a plasma bolt scorched the ground where he'd been standing.
He leaned against the door, panting. "Okay. I've officially had enough of this nonsense."
A New Ally?
As Mark caught his breath in the dimly lit maintenance tunnel, he heard a voice from the shadows.
"You're new here, aren't you?"
Mark jumped and spun around, fists raised. Out of the shadows stepped a young woman, her dark hair tied into a messy bun, wearing a leather jacket with glowing circuitry patterns.
"Whoa, relax." She raised her hands in mock surrender. "I'm not here to hurt you. In fact, I might be the only friend you've got in this screwed-up world."
Mark narrowed his eyes. "And you are...?"
The woman smirked. "Name's Aya. Let me guess—you accidentally hacked your way into this world, and now everything's trying to kill you?"
Mark blinked. "That... is disturbingly accurate."
Aya chuckled. "Yeah, that happens more often than you'd think. Come on, rookie. I'll show you how to survive in this place."
Mark hesitated for a moment, but then decided that having an ally—especially one who seemed to know her way around—was better than going solo.
"Alright," he said. "Lead the way."
Aya gave him a sly grin. "Welcome to the glitch life, Mark Veil. Things are about to get... interesting."
With that, she turned and led him deeper into the tunnel, leaving the chaos of the city streets behind them—for now.
Mark followed, still trying to process everything that had happened. One thing was clear: If he was going to survive in this reality, he'd need more than just quick coding skills. He needed allies, answers, and—most importantly—a way to stop the system from treating him like a bug to be squashed.
As the two of them disappeared into the shadows, Mark couldn't help but grin.
"Let's see where this glitch takes me."