I woke up mid-air.
That was my first problem.
The second was the fact gravity had clearly decided to hit resume the moment I opened my eyes.
"Wait—"
WHAM.
My back met jagged, semi-rendered terrain. A pixelated health bar blinked into existence above me like a sarcastic insult:
[HP -12 | Bruise Level: Medium | Dignity: Critically Low]
I groaned and rolled onto my side, eyes blinking against the flickering lights.
The sky—or what should've been the sky—was a mosaic of black voids and swirling code.
Glitched terrain floated in impossible geometry. Stairs led nowhere. Platforms blinked in and out of existence.
It was like someone had downloaded reality using tortoise slow Wi-Fi.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Welcome, Host Ryuu, to the Tutorial Dungeon: "Glitch Cavern."]
A distorted voice echoed inside my skull, half Siri, half eldritch horror.
"Environment rendering… 38% complete. Tutorial NPC… missing. Bug reports… abundant. Good luck!"
"…This can't be legal," I muttered, trying to stand.
My legs wobbled like I had forgotten how bones worked.
A semi-transparent HUD flickered into view:
[DUNGEON OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE THE TUTORIAL]
[Available Inventory: USB Blade (Lv. 0), Beginner Pants (Resilience -2), System Blessing: Glitch Luck x1]
Beginner pants.
Amazing.
Suddenly, red static crawled along the edges of my vision.
A shape formed ahead—no feet, no face, just shifting blocks of corrupted texture. Its name floated above it:
[Error Fragment – Glitch Type]
HP: ??
Aggression: High
Target: You]
"Oh come on—"
The thing lunged. I jumped sideways on pure instinct, landing face-first into a cube of collision error. The HUD blinked.
[Laziness Penalty Removed – Combat Mode Activated]
I grabbed the USB Blade—a literal thumb drive shaped like a dagger—from my side pouch. It hummed with blue data particles as I swung it wildly.
Sparks flew. The Error Fragment screeched like a modem dying. I swung again—missed. It countered with a slash of red light that grazed my arm.
Pain wasn't real here.
Which was a lie. Because that HURT.
I gritted my teeth and tried again. This time, the blade pierced straight into the core of the thing—and—
POP.
It exploded into a rain of 1s and 0s.
Silence returned.
[Victory Achieved: First Glitch Defeated] [+25 XP | USB Blade Proficiency +1 | Courage +1]
[Glitch Luck Triggered: 0.002% Chance – Success]
[Rare Drop Acquired: Debug Fragment x1]
I stared at the shiny fragment in my hand. It pulsed faintly with code and chaos.
"…Okay," I muttered, panting. "That wasn't terrifying at all. 10/10 tutorial experience. Where's the exit button?"
The HUD replied instantly.
[You may not leave until Tutorial is Complete]
[Upcoming Challenge: Rogue AI Projection – Difficulty: Unfair]
My knees nearly gave out.
This was supposed to be the starter level?
"I swear, if this is just Level One…"
The cavern rumbled ominously.
I tightened my grip on the USB Blade.
"Fine. Let's bug test fate."
The cavern groaned.
Not like rocks shifting or an earthquake—more like a hard drive full of cursed anime saves getting force-ejected.
From a glitched tunnel ahead, light burst out. Red, pulsing light. The air shimmered like corrupted video files.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Rogue AI Projection Detected]
[Designation: "Remnant of Tutorial Sensei"]
[Difficulty: Unfair]
"Can I vote to uninstall this experience?"
The projection emerged: tall, humanoid… but broken. One half wore a PE teacher's tracksuit. The other half? Static, torn like old VHS tape. Its voice was multiple voices at once.
"Beginner detected… Weak metrics… Body Integrity: below average… Recommend deletion."
It raised its arm. Pixels twisted around its fist like corrupted code. I backed up fast.
Too slow.
A shockwave slammed me back against a wall. My HP dropped like a gacha banner pity timer:
[HP -14 | Status: Rattled | Self-Worth: Fluctuating]
"System!" I shouted, coughing. "Anything I can use?! Like a secret weapon or debug cheat?!"
> [Analyzing… Luck Chip Available]
> [WARNING: Activating Luck Chip in early-stage tutorial may result in reality anomalies]
> [Proceed anyway?]
"Yes, yes, PLEASE—"
[Luck Upgrade Chip – ACTIVATED]
The cavern flickered. The enemy froze. Then
[LOADING BONUS EVENT…]
Behind the AI, a glitched vending machine materialized out of nothing.
I blinked. "That's my bonus?"
It dinged.
A can flew out, hit the AI square in the back of its head.
The projection staggered. Glitched. Screamed.
"Okay! I'll take it!"
I charged, USB Blade glowing now with glitch-blue light. The enemy tried to counter, but every move it made came half a second late—like its frame rate was tanking.
Slash.
Slash.
Backstep.
Spin—(okay that one was luck, I nearly tripped)—stab.
Final hit plunged the blade into its core.
It burst into particles, leaving only silence and a single shining loot cube behind.
[Victory: Rogue AI Defeated]
[+100 XP | Title Unlocked: "Tutorial Cheater"]
[USB Blade Upgraded to Lv.1.5 – "Unplugged Fate" Mode Enabled]
[New Skill: Reality Flick – 5% Chance to Dodge Literally Anything]
My hands were shaking.
Part from adrenaline. Part from disbelief.
"Did I just win a boss fight using a soda can and a USB stick?"
The cavern began collapsing.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Dungeon Complete. Exit Portal Loading…]
[Booting Bonus Room: Secret Debug Space – WARNING: You Shouldn't Be Here Yet.]
"Oh no," I muttered, stepping into the light.
"…Not another bug."
The portal didn't open to light.
It opened to… code.
I stepped out into a white void layered with floating error messages. Glitch-text shimmered across invisible walls. Whole lines of script hovered midair like broken neon signs.
[DEBUG SPACE ENTERED – SYSTEM ERROR: ACCESS LEVEL UNAUTHORIZED]
A lone chair floated in the middle.
Not a throne. Not a gaming chair.
A school chair.
Wooden. Scratched. Familiar.
My heart kicked once.
[SYSTEM VOICE: This debug zone was not intended for your current level.]
[Do not touch anything. Seriously. Like, not even ironically.]
I reached for one of the code-strings anyway.
"Curiosity is part of the hero journey, right?"
As soon as I tapped it, time folded in on itself.
A wave of… memory? Future? Vision? Hit me.
—I saw a version of me.
Older. Stronger. Wearing a long coat stitched with circuit lines. Standing over ruins.
A girl at his side. No… two.
One with a sword. One with a tearful smile.
Then static. The image shattered.
[UNAUTHORIZED DATA EXPOSED. TRACE ERASE IN PROGRESS…]
[PENALTY INCOMING: +10 Uncertainty | +2 Anxiety | +1 Flashback Chance]
"Great. My punishment is emotional damage."
The system coughed. (Yes, it actually coughed.)
"You're not supposed to see this yet. But maybe... maybe it saw you first."
Before I could ask what that meant, the entire space pixelated—
[EXIT INITIATED]
[REMEMBER: Not all power-ups are free.]
The world blinked black.
When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on the floor of my bedroom.
Breathless. Sweating. USB Blade beside me, glitching softly.
And in the corner of my screen:
[LUCK +1]
[Training Space Unlocked: x10 Multiplier Room – Glitched Access]
[New Passive Trait: "Early Access" – Reality May React Unexpectedly]
I lay there for a full minute.
Then muttered, "I really hope this isn't foreshadowing a tragic backstory arc."
System chimed in:
"Too late."
Next time I blinked, I was no longer in my room.
No loading screen. No isekai truck. Just… bam.
White dojo. Infinite walls. Echoes of wind, but no source. The ground beneath me was tiled with translucent code symbols.
A text hovered midair:
[WELCOME TO: TRAINING ROOM – X10 TIME DILATION MODE]
[Warning: This space is glitched. Proceed with ambition... or regret.]
Ten times faster training?
If this was a dream, I didn't care. I was about to become Goku with patch notes.
I reached for the training menu. The same weird anime avatar from before materialized.
He now wore a headband and held nunchucks made of data.
"OTAKU MUSCLE BOOSTER, LEVEL 2 — LET'S GET THAT XP, SENPAI!"
"Why are you louder in here?"
"Glitched reverb~! No refunds!"
We started simple. Push-ups, squats, breath training.
Except in here… it felt different.
My muscles screamed, but something beneath the pain throbbed in rhythm. Like every motion was syncing with a beat I couldn't hear yet.
My breath slowed.
My heartbeat steadied.
A pulse in my chest ignited. Faint, but steady. Like a node had opened.
[Inner Breathing Node: Level 2 Activated]
[Spiritual Flow Detected – Minor Chi Circulation Achieved]
A stream of light trickled from my core. It curled around my limbs like misty thread.
"This… is real?"
"Glitch Cavern has its perks. Just don't overuse it."
I sat down, cross-legged, eyes closed.
The system dimmed the dojo lights like it was respecting the moment.
For the first time, I wasn't chasing stats.
I was feeling growth in my whole being.
Quietly. Internally.
Until…
[New Trait Gained: "Instinctive Sync" – +10% efficiency when emotional]
I opened my eyes.
Smiled.
"Okay. I still don't know what I'm doing. But maybe… I'm starting to know why."
The system beeped gently.
"You shouldn't be here.
But now that you are… train like it matters."
Then the dojo faded.
And I woke up in bed again, heart still echoing that rhythm.
On the ceiling, glowing faintly:
[BODY REFINEMENT PROGRESS: 43% COMPLETE]
[NEXT QUEST INCOMING…]