> [Anomaly Absorbed.]
[System Instability: Rising.]
[You have gained: ??? (Fragmented Trait)]
> Trait unlocked: Vortex Core (Unstable)
Trait Effect: Reality resistance +??% | Spatial memory unlocked.
Warning: This action cannot be reversed.
Kael's body jerked back as the anomaly burned its way through his chest—not physically, but deeper. Something inside him shuddered. Split. Reformed.
He staggered.
His vision flickered like a screen buffering too fast to keep up. For a moment, he saw everything—code beneath the trees, hidden formulas calculating spawn rates, the skeleton of the dungeon's AI trying to correct his presence.
It couldn't.
> [You are not recognized.]
[You are corrupting the system.]
Kael exhaled sharply. "Yeah? Get in line."
"Kael!" Dren groaned behind him, trying to sit up. "What was that light? What did you do?"
"I… think I broke something important."
A sudden gust of wind swept through the clearing.
Then everything shifted.
The trees screamed. Literally. Their leaves distorted into floating black squares before disintegrating. The sky cracked open again, spilling a torrent of purple energy like a bleeding server core.
> [DUNGEON COLLAPSE PROTOCOL INITIATED]
[10:00]
[All players will be forcibly expelled or terminated.]
"Oh, hell no."
Kael spun to Dren and the others. "We need to move. Now."
"But—"
"No time. Follow me."
They ran.
Kael wasn't leading—his body was. The new fragment, the unstable Vortex Core, tugged him through the environment like a compass. It was as if he could feel where the dungeon walls were breaking down, where the system was weakest.
Monsters clawed their way out of thin air behind them—half-rendered glitch-beasts screeching static, moving like corrupted files being fast-forwarded.
One lunged at Dren from the side.
Kael didn't think. His eyes flashed.
> [VORTEX STEP ACTIVATED.]
He phased.
One blink, and he was in front of the beast, gravity rippling out from him like an invisible wave. The creature shattered mid-lunge—no blood, no scream. Just fragments of pixel dust.
Everyone behind him stopped for a moment.
Dren stared.
"Kael... what the hell are you?"
Kael didn't answer.
Because the dungeon was collapsing faster now.
> [07:42]
[WARNING: Spatial Exit Unstable.]
They pushed forward, dodging collapsing terrain, dodging code. At one point, they had to jump across a gap in the world—literally. The ground ended, replaced by a spinning black void, glitch fragments floating like broken glass.
Kael jumped first.
He landed hard, rolled, then turned and yelled, "Go! Now!"
One by one, they made it across. Barely.
The exit was close. Kael could feel it.
But the moment they reached the final corridor, something stepped into their path.
Tall. Wrapped in shifting code and cloaked in red. No visible face—just a mask made from error messages and static.
> [??? has entered the Dungeon.]
> Classification: Anti-Virus Entity
Directive: Delete the Glitch.
Its head snapped toward Kael.
The system buzzed in his ear.
> [Target Lock: Vortexborn.]