Cipher sat in the center of the crater, staring at the system screen before him.
The sunlight filtering through the hole in the canopy was gone now. Hours had passed.
He'd been sitting here the entire time, just looking at the skill description.
He could go back. Return to the past. To before everything fell apart.
But he wouldn't remember any of it.
What scared him more than that, though, was the thought that kept circling in his mind: What if he'd already done this before?
If he didn't remember, wouldn't he always end up at this exact point? Living his life normally, surviving the apocalypse, wandering alone for ten years, finding this crystal, and making the same choice over and over again?
How many times had he sat here? How many times had he stared at this same screen, had these same thoughts, pressed the button anyway?
There was no way to know. No way to prove this was his first time or his thousandth.
His entire life felt like a lie. Was he really trapped in an endless loop with no exit.
Several status effects appeared on his screen.
[Status: Hopeless, Despair, Severe Anxiety, Mental Breakdown]
They glitched. Flickered. Then cleared.
Cipher let out a bitter laugh. He couldn't even have a mental breakdown in peace.
But... he was thankful, in a way. He didn't want to give up. Not really.
Using the skill might mean nothing. It probably meant nothing. But he couldn't help it - he still hoped. Maybe something would be different this time. Maybe he'd come across someone who could see through him, realize he'd regressed. Maybe the universe would throw him a bone just once.
He didn't even know what he was thinking anymore.
But he still wanted a chance.
Cipher reached out and activated the skill.
…
After Cipher activated the skill, the entire world around him became enveloped in a bright golden light.
He found himself floating in a space filled with analog clocks. They were everywhere - hanging in the air, spinning at different speeds. Some moved forward, others backward, some stood still.
It actually worked?
But suddenly, the world around him began flickering. Glitching.
That's right. How could he have forgotten? His Glitch Class was acting up again.
The clocks started distorting, their faces warping and splitting apart.
The golden light fractured into static.
He wondered if he really had no chance after all. If even divine power couldn't escape the corruption of his class.
As he thought this, the world of clocks was devoured by the glitches. The space collapsed inward, and he fell into absolute darkness.
…
"Stop struggling, you brat!"
A male voice cut through his consciousness.
People?
Was he dreaming?
"Hey, what are you doing? We need to move quickly before those dogs from the Association show up!"
Another voice, urgent and impatient.
"I know, it's just that this one is a little hard to control. He keeps squirming."
"Just kill him. He'll die once we bring him back anyway. What's wrong with him going a little early?"
Association? Kill?
Cipher's thoughts were still scrambled. Nothing made sense. Where was he? What was happening?
"Hehehe, I forgot about that. Well then, for the Goddess..."
As the man said that, everything clicked into place.
He had chosen to regress to the point where he awakened.
And he still had his memories.
No - that wasn't important right now.
His eyes snapped open.
Back then, he'd awakened the Glitch Class after dying. That was the first time he saw it erase his death status effect. These people - they were the ones who'd killed him the first time. Some cultist group that kidnapped people to sacrifice to their goddess.
As his vision cleared, he saw a knife descending toward him.
Before he could react, the blade plunged straight into his heart.
…
Cipher found himself floating in darkness once again. This time though, his mind was clear.
He summoned his system.
[Name: Cipher]
[Level: 1 (0/1000)]
[Species: Human]
[Class: @^&$%^&%#]
[Status: Dead, Tired, Bleeding]
[Health: 500/500]
[Mana: 70/70]
[Strength: 5]
[Stamina: 5]
[Agility: 6]
[Intelligence: 7]
[Stat Points: 5]
Nice. It was just as he'd suspected.
His Glitch Class had actually done something useful for once. Instead of disabling the regression skill, it had caused it to malfunction - helping him maintain his memories and abilities. Well, at least with this he could confirm that this was his first time doing this.
He wasn't stuck in an endless loop after all.
He was relieved.
Then he looked around. What was happening? Wasn't the system supposed to glitch and erase the dead status effect by now?
Suddenly, the system began glitching. Finally, he thought.
The status effects cleared.
But something was strange. He remained in this darkness.
The system suddenly began glitching again.
[You have met the requirements: Awakening @^&$%^&%# Class]
The message appeared before him.
"What?"
He was surprised. It was true that he'd met the requirements - this had happened before. But didn't he already have the class? Why did it awaken a second time? Was it even possible to have two classes at the same time, let alone a duplicate class?
Well, this was the Glitch Class they were talking about. Nothing was off the table.
[ERROR]
A message appeared. The system began glitching even more, and error prompts were spammed across his vision, filling every inch of space.
The overload made him feel as though his head was splitting apart.
Suddenly, he witnessed the incomprehensible symbols of the two duplicate classes begin moving. The symbols twisted and writhed, then smashed into each other and started rearranging themselves rapidly.
As they did, he was able to make out some of the characters.
The first character was a C. Then an H followed.
And when all the symbols had rearranged themselves completely, a word appeared:
Cheater Class
Before he could even make sense of what was happening, the glitching and failing system suddenly returned to normal.
He opened his eyes.
He was in a cage.
He recognized this place. This was one of the bases of the cult worshiping the Goddess of Light - or the Church of Eternal Brilliance, as they called themselves. Next to him in every direction were other cages, all filled with people.
Some were dead. Some were unconscious. Some were conscious, screaming to be let out.
The scene was disturbing, and the smell was horrible, but he was used to this after witnessing the end of the world so it didn't faze him much. He still felt bad for them, though.
He sighed. He'd been in this situation before, so they should be able to survive. The Association was going to save them. The Association was an organization formed by top-ranked awakeners that acted as some sort of government, watching over awakeners to make sure things like this didn't happen.
Anyway, that wasn't important right now.
What was that Cheater thing anyway?
He wondered as he summoned the system.
[Name: Cipher]
[Level: 1 (0/1000)]
[Species: Human]
[Class: Cheater]
[Status: Hungry, Thirsty]
[Health: 500/500]
[Mana: 70/70]
[Strength: 5]
[Stamina: 5]
[Agility: 6]
[Intelligence: 7]
[Stat Points: 10]