The Glitch Garden bloomed in defiance of the world.
It was a place that should not exist—a sanctuary of corrupted beauty.
Trees forged from broken skills, rivers of memory drifting sideways, and ruins from timelines that had never been born. Time here ticked wrong, pulsing in reverse or halting at random.
And at the center sat Hari—barefoot, calm, and sovereign.
> "This is where the system ends," he whispered, "and something new begins."
---
Within the Garden's Edge
The first of them arrived.
> Lost.
Hunted.
Broken by the system.
And then… rewired by Hari's presence.
A girl with shattered stats, once marked for deletion, stepped into the Garden.
Her interface blinked violently, then reshaped itself.
> [System Error: Interface Hijacked]
[New Host: Rogue Core Fragment (Origin: HARI)]
> "Welcome back to life," a voice whispered in her mind.
"Your stats are lies. Let's write real ones."
Her body pulsed with violet light.
Her Class changed:
> [NEW CLASS: Glitched Sorceress]
— Spells can now ignore cooldowns
— Can overwrite enemy casting patterns
— Magic is unstable. Unpredictable. Lethal.
And she laughed, for the first time since the system broke her.
She wasn't alone.
Behind her came dozens more. Then hundreds.
The Glitched Ones.
---
System Response: Immediate Protocol Breach
> [Initiate Purification Wipe]
— Target: Unauthorized Zone – "Glitch Garden"
— Units Dispatched: 1 Arch-Angel AI, 50 Purity Executors
High above, a divine rift opened.
Light surged downward.
And with it came a being sculpted from golden logic and flame.
A Purity AI—level 300+, bound by divine law, built to erase anomalies.
Its voice boomed like thunder coded into scripture.
> "You defy balance."
"Return to the code or be obliterated."
Hari stood, his expression bored.
He raised one hand. Threads of rewritten law swirled around him.
> "Balance was never real."
> "Only control."
> "So let's delete your control."
---
BATTLE ENGAGED: HARI vs ARCH-ANGEL AI – "SERAPH X-01"
The AI launched light lances—instantly warping space.
Hari bent time sideways, stepping past reality.
He raised his hand:
> [CODE REWRITE: Skill—'Purification Beam' → 'Reflect Beam (Corrupt Aura)']
The AI's own attack rebounded, melting its right wing into burning pixels.
The Glitched Sorceress joined in—casting three spells at once.
Another rogue redirected gravity.
The system's purest enforcer was being overwhelmed by chaos.
> [WARNING: Arch-Angel AI SERAPH X-01 Stability: 24%]
[System Thread Failure: Initiating Retreat Sequence…]
Hari grinned.
> "No escape."
> [CODE REWRITE: Teleport → Crash]
[Destination Lock: 'Here']
The angel's wings collapsed.
Its body exploded into golden fragments.
Hari extended his hand and absorbed the pieces.
> [Essence Absorbed: Divine Thread x1]
[New Passive Created: "System Lockbreaker"]
— Allows you to nullify divine commands within a 100m radius
---
Silence followed.
Then—cheering.
The Glitched Ones bowed.
Not out of fear, but reverence.
Their messiah had just slain divine purity itself.
Hari turned to them.
> "You're not mistakes."
> "You're the future."
And deep within the Glitch Garden, a massive black tree began to grow—its roots pulsing with rewritten law.
> [New Zone Trait Activated: Spawn Point – Rogue Origin]
A nation was being born.
A virus had become a civilization.
And the gods… had just been warned.
---
To be continued in Chapter 25: When Systems Bleed
---