The world around them felt… wrong. Every step Arin took seemed heavier, as if the air itself resisted their movement. The grassy plains beyond the collapsed dungeon had twisted into surreal, broken landscapes. Rivers flowed backward. Trees flickered between life and death in rapid loops. Time was no longer constant—it was fracturing.
[System Message: Patch Countdown – 3 Days 17 Hours Remaining]
[Warning: Environmental Instability – Critical]
Arin's jaw tightened. "Three days. If we don't find the Glitched Core, everything… everyone could be deleted."
Lyra's expression was grim. "The dungeon was just the beginning. The Abyss is spreading faster than before."
He swallowed hard, feeling the familiar tremor of adrenaline. Their exploits were already stretched to the limit. They couldn't rely solely on them anymore. It was time to think bigger, faster, smarter.
Their first stop was a city that should have been abandoned, yet streets teemed with looping NPCs. People walked in endless circles, shops rebuilt and destroyed repeatedly, and clocks spun backward and forward in maddening sequences.
Arin frowned. "It's like the city is stuck in a single frame… but looping millions of times a second."
Lyra pointed at a shop. "See those NPCs? They're stuck in micro-timelines. If we interact with them… maybe we can learn something."
Arin activated Pause Function, freezing the flow of time just long enough to analyze patterns. Using Glitch Bind, he anchored parts of collapsing buildings, creating a safe path through the chaos.
[New Skill Learned: Temporal Mapping – Predict short-term environment and enemy patterns]
"This… this could be useful," Arin muttered. "If I can predict loops, I can navigate through any unstable area."
They moved carefully, rescuing a few NPCs from endless loops. Each one who escaped glitched briefly, then blinked out of existence—another reminder of the patch's relentless approach.
Next came a desert that defied reason. The sun blazed continuously overhead, casting harsh shadows that never shifted. Sand dunes flickered in and out of existence, revealing jagged stone spires one moment and nothing the next.
Arin shielded his eyes. "No night… no break. This place… it's designed to wear you down."
Lyra's voice was steady but tense. "Stay focused. The Glitched Core isn't going to find itself."
Using Adaptive Nullpiercer, Arin destabilized patches of sand to create temporary footholds. The sun's glare made enemies harder to see, but with Temporal Mapping, he anticipated their attacks, dodging lethal bursts of corrupted fire elementals.
Hours—or what felt like hours—passed. Every step forward brought a pulse from the Glitched Core, faint but growing stronger. The closer they got, the more the world itself began reacting violently, as though it recognized Arin and Lyra as intruders.
In a narrow canyon, they were surrounded by a vortex of glitch storms, digital fragments of destroyed terrain swirling like tornadoes. Arin's mind raced. He couldn't rely solely on his current exploits—they were powerful, but the environment demanded creativity.
He experimented:
Glitch Bind to anchor moving debris and create bridges.
Pause Function to freeze high-speed hazards midair.
Gravity Anchor to redirect glitched projectiles toward collapsing structures.
Temporal Mapping to predict vortex patterns and avoid lethal collisions.
Each successful maneuver increased his confidence, and slowly, a new skill emerged: Exploit Fusion, the ability to combine two or more exploits into a single, more powerful effect.
[New Skill Acquired: Exploit Fusion – Merge multiple Bug Exploits to create advanced attacks or environmental manipulations]
"This… this changes everything," Arin whispered, testing it by fusing Pause Function and Gravity Anchor to throw multiple shards of debris at glitched fire elementals. They shattered spectacularly, clearing a safe path.
Lyra grinned. "Finally, we're leveling up in a way the system never intended."
Despite their success, the patch countdown loomed over them like a guillotine. Every glitch, every collapse, every unstable zone reminded them that time was slipping away.
[Patch Countdown – 2 Days 8 Hours Remaining]
Arin clenched his fists. "We can't waste any more time. The Core… it's close. I can feel it."
Lyra nodded. "Then we push forward. Every exploit, every trick… we use them all."
As they stepped into a canyon where the walls flickered like shattered mirrors, Arin felt the pulse of the Glitched Core thrum through the air. It was faint, almost imperceptible, but steady—a heartbeat buried beneath the corruption.
"This is it," he muttered. "The closer we get, the stronger the Abyss becomes. Whatever's waiting for us… it knows we're coming."
Lyra's eyes glinted. "Then we make sure it regrets it."
With a shared nod, they pressed forward, exploiting the broken world, fusing powers in ways no beta-tester could have imagined, racing against the ticking countdown that threatened to erase everything.
And in the distance, the faint glow of the Glitched Core pulsed stronger, calling them deeper into the heart of a world gone mad.