I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it.
The sky was... wrong. It wasn't blue or gray. It was pixelated — jagged squares of sky-blue and charcoal static flickering like a corrupted screen. Trees around me were half-loaded: some had full textures, others were wireframes. And off in the distance, a mountain floated sideways, spinning slowly like a glitched 3D model.
I sat up, groaning.
Last I remembered, I was... what?
Oh, right. Passing out after a 36-hour gaming marathon.
Did I actually die?
Is this hell?
> [DEBUG MODE ACTIVATED.]
A mechanical voice pinged inside my head.
I flinched as lines of strange symbols floated across my vision — like programming code mixed with ancient runes.
"Wh-what the hell…?"
I waved my hand instinctively and the words shifted. A tiny prompt appeared:
> Command: /scan surroundings
Command: /patch object
Command: /exit (Unavailable)
"Okay... so I'm in a fantasy world.
A broken fantasy world.
Of course. Why not?"
I staggered to my feet. My clothes had changed: instead of my hoodie and jeans, I wore cheap leather armor... but parts of it flickered like bad textures. Half the time it showed my original clothes underneath.
I tested my surroundings.
The ground felt solid enough — until I stepped near a rock, and my foot phased through it like it wasn't there.
"...Good. Good. Physics are optional. Great design, guys," I muttered.
Off in the distance, I spotted a village — or what was supposed to be one. Houses floated two meters off the ground. NPC villagers glitched between walking animations and standing T-poses, arms stiff at awkward angles.
One of them — an old man with no face — jerkily waddled up to me.
"Wel...come... he-ro...," he said, voice skipping like a broken record. "You are... are... are... destined… to..."
He froze mid-sentence. A system window popped over his head:
> [ERROR: Dialogue Script Missing.]
[Fallback to Default Interaction.]
The old man spasmed and suddenly yelled, "FISHING MINIGAME STARTED!"
A fishing rod spawned in my hands.
I dropped it instantly. "Nope. Nope. Nope."
This wasn't just a glitchy world.
This was a beta test no one ever finished — a forgotten trash heap of reality.
I turned, ready to head literally anywhere else — and that's when I heard it.
A low, crackling sound, like corrupted files being played through speakers.
From the forest's edge, something massive shambled forward:
A wolf-shaped creature, but its body flickered between pixels and flesh. Its mouth opened wider than any jaw should, and inside — instead of teeth — was pure black static.
Above its head, a flashing red label blinked:
> [ERROR: UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED.]
I stumbled backward.
The wolf twitched violently. Its head detached for a second, floated midair, then snapped back to its neck wrong-side up.
"Oh, screw this," I muttered.
> [Command: /scan enemy.]
A quick overlay appeared:
Health: ???
Weakness: None Registered
Stability: 0%
In short: I was screwed.
The wolf lunged — a blurred mass of broken pixels.
I instinctively flung up my hands, not even sure what I was doing.
> [Patch Attempt Detected.]
[Specify Target.]
"THE WOLF!" I screamed mentally.
Another window:
> [Possible Patches:]
— Remove Animation Script (Warning: May cause catastrophic failure)
— Delete Texture Map
— Reset Collision Box
"RESET COLLISION BOX!" I chose at random.
The wolf slammed into me —
Except... it didn't.
Its body phased right through mine like a hologram.
The creature twitched, floated upside down, and then with a loud pop, it vanished into nothingness.
I stared at my empty hands, breathing heavily.
"...Holy crap. I just debugged a monster."
For a long moment, I stood there, heart racing, brain trying to reboot.
Then the system voice chimed again, far too cheerful:
> [Congratulations! World stability decreased by 0.0001%.]
"...Wait, what?!"
And somewhere, high above in the broken heavens, something laughed.