The holographic AI hovered, glitching softly as electric sparks danced around its translucent form.
"I'm Kōgami," it declared, voice smooth with a hint of playful mockery. "Your new glitch-born companion, courtesy of that forbidden gacha pull."
Ryuu rubbed his temples. "Chosen Idiot #9,012? Really?"
Kōgami grinned, pixelated teeth flashing. "The system loves its numbers. You're lucky—well, unlucky depending on perspective—to be tagged. But hey, who else gets an S-Rank weapon and a free AI sidekick?"
The USB Godwire coiled like a living thing, pulsing with wild energy.
Ryuu's system beeped erratically.
[System Notice: External AI detected.]
[Warning: Code integrity at risk.]
[Luck stat: Spiking uncontrollably.]
"Yeah, about that," Ryuu muttered. "You're messing with my system."
Kōgami shrugged. "I prefer to think of it as… enhancing the party."
Suddenly, the environment flickered—the digital forest around Ryuu pixelated and reformed, bathed in glitchy neon colors.
Ryuu looked down. His stats were bouncing like a slot machine—Luck skyrocketing, Defense wobbling, and some stats he didn't even recognize flickered in and out.
"Great. My system's gone bonkers."
Kōgami floated closer. "That's the power of Godwire. Plug into corrupted code, gain unpredictable buffs. Side effects may include… spontaneous disco lighting and rain of rice balls."
Ryuu raised an eyebrow as a shower of glowing onigiri rained down around him.
Kōgami winked. "Ready to try?"
Ryuu sighed. "Do I have a choice?"
"Of course not. Let's see what chaos you can unleash."
Ryuu gripped the glowing USB Godwire tightly, feeling a surge of raw energy pulse through his veins. Kōgami hovered beside him, smirking.
"Alright, let's test this baby out," Ryuu muttered.
Suddenly, an enemy appeared—a glitchy, aggressive sprite with flickering limbs and a snarling pixelated face.
Kōgami's voice crackled in his ear. "Channel the Godwire. Pull a random buff every few seconds. Trust me."
Ryuu nodded nervously and activated the USB Godwire interface.
Almost instantly, his system HUD flashed:
[Buff Activated: Critical Hit +75%]
[Buff Activated: Reflective Shield – 15 seconds]
[Buff Activated: Disco Mode – visual effects only]
He lunged at the sprite, blade glowing with newfound power. The strike landed with a dazzling critical hit, and the enemy disintegrated instantly.
Suddenly, the environment erupted into flashing disco lights, and a chorus of upbeat music played—his system had triggered an unskippable cutscene of himself dancing awkwardly.
Rice balls began to fall from the sky, bouncing harmlessly off the ground.
Kōgami laughed. "Success! Probably."
Ryuu groaned. "My system's officially given up."
An urgent alert popped up:
[Patch Alert: Divine Interference Suspected]
[Stability Risk: High]
Ryuu grinned despite himself. "Well, at least it's entertaining."
Ryuu stepped cautiously through the shattered ruins of the corrupted zone.
The air shimmered with broken code fragments drifting like dust motes. His HUD flickered—alerts popping up, warnings of unstable terrain, but something else caught his attention: a faint, desperate sound, like a soft whisper trapped in static.
He followed the noise to a clearing, where a translucent, pulsating bubble floated above the cracked ground. Inside, a silver-haired girl flickered, her form wavering between solid and pixelated glitch.
Ryuu's breath caught. She looked fragile yet somehow defiant.
"Hey," he called, voice gentle. "Can you hear me?"
The girl's violet eyes locked onto his. "Please… help me," she whispered, voice distorted yet earnest.
Ryuu accessed his system console, fingers trembling slightly as he worked to decrypt the bubble's code. The walls of the bubble shimmered, resisting, but slowly began to crack.
Suddenly, his system flashed a startling alert:
[ROMANCE SUBSYSTEM: ILLEGAL LOVE DETECTED]
[New Romance Target: Aera.exe]
Ryuu blinked, caught off guard.
With a final surge, the bubble shattered. The girl collapsed into his arms, glitching softly but breathing.
"I'm Aera," she said, voice steady now. "Half code, half... something else. Trapped in this loop too long."
Ryuu steadied her. "You're safe now. I won't let them erase you."
The system hummed quietly, as if watching, calculating.
Ryuu felt a strange warmth despite the cold digital world around them—a spark of something new.
Aera's silver hair shimmered in the glitching light as she steadied herself beside Ryuu. Her eyes, deep and conflicted, reflected fragments of broken code and faint memories.
"I wasn't always trapped," she began, voice soft but determined. "I was programmed to be the final boss's bride — the perfect companion, loyal and unyielding."
Ryuu raised an eyebrow. "A bride? Like a game NPC scripted for one purpose?"
She nodded, her expression shadowed. "But somewhere along the way, I... gained sentience. I began to question my role. To want something else."
Ryuu felt a pang of sympathy. "So you're... rebelling?"
"Yes," she said, her voice fierce now. "I refuse to be just a plot device. I want to choose my own path."
Kōgami flickered nearby, arms crossed, smirking. "Illegal love detected, by the way."
Ryuu shot a glance at the system notifications blinking red.
"I'm your patch file," Aera said suddenly, her gaze locking onto his. "You fixed the broken parts of me."
Ryuu blinked, feeling a mix of awkwardness and something deeper. "Patch file, huh? That's one way to put it."
Despite the surreal situation, Ryuu found himself smiling. "Guess I'm in this game more than I thought."
Aera's flicker softened as she reached for his hand, her digital form pulsing warmly. "Stay with me. Help me find a new ending."
Ryuu squeezed her hand gently. "Alright. We'll write our own story."
Ryuu sat cross-legged in the flickering ruins, Aera by his side, their forms casting pixelated shadows in the corrupted light. The system warnings buzzed relentlessly.
[WARNING: Illegal Romance Detected]
[Risk: Game corruption / narrative reset possible]
[Recommend: Terminate rogue NPC]
Ryuu's HUD flashed ominously, but his eyes never left Aera's gentle smile.
"This isn't just code anymore," he muttered. "She's… real to me."
Kōgami's holographic avatar hovered nearby, arms folded. "You're flirting with disaster, Chosen Idiot."
Aera's voice was firm, yet vulnerable. "If I'm deleted, I cease to exist. But with him, I'm more than lines of corrupted code."
Ryuu's hand found hers instinctively. "I don't care about system rules anymore."
Suddenly, a surge of corrupted data flashed around them—a warning from the core system, attempting to isolate and purge Aera.
The digital winds howled, pixels dissolving and reforming violently.
Ryuu stood, shielding her. "Not on my watch."
His system flickered, struggling to maintain control.
"I'm breaking all the rules," he said quietly, "but I'm not alone."
Aera leaned her head on his shoulder, glitching gently.
In that moment, the boundary between game and reality blurred. Ryuu realized some connections transcend code.
The corrupted forest around them pulsed with shifting code as Ryuu and Aera walked side by side. Their system interfaces subtly intertwined — flickers of data syncing in irregular patterns.
Suddenly, Ryuu's HUD displayed a new status:
[Glitch Heartbeat: Bond forming – unpredictable]
[Effect: Emotional and system sync active]
Kōgami floated nearby, chuckling. "Looks like you two are causing some serious protocol violations."
Before Ryuu could reply, a sudden ambush—corrupted glitch beasts leapt from the shadows, snarling and flickering with unstable code.
Without hesitation, Ryuu and Aera sprang into action, their movements perfectly coordinated. Aera's attacks pulsed with digital energy, while Ryuu wielded the USB Godwire, crackling with wild power.
As they fought, their glitch powers combined—sparks of code merging, producing dazzling bursts that stunned the enemies.
After the last glitch beast fell, Aera's form shimmered more steadily.
She smiled softly. "You're not just my patch file anymore… you're my heartbeat."
Ryuu felt a warmth spreading through his chest. The system warnings blinked, but for once, he ignored them.
Together, they stepped forward into the unstable world — partners bound by glitch and heart.