The canyon battlefield was a graveyard of glitching monsters. Polygons lay scattered like shards of broken glass, their edges pulsing faintly before dissolving into nothing. Arin stood at the center of it, chest heaving, blade dripping with static energy.
[HP: 34%]
[Stamina: Critical]
Every muscle in his body screamed, but his will refused to bend. He couldn't stop — not when the countdown timer burned at the edge of his vision, reminding him how little time remained.
Lyra stepped up beside him, her clothes torn from the fight, yet her calm aura unshaken. She studied the fractured canyon ahead, where the pulse of the Core was strongest.
"We're close," she said, her voice steady but tinged with something Arin had never heard before. Fear.
Arin tightened his grip on his blade. "Then let's move before more of them spawn."
They pressed forward. The canyon narrowed until the walls felt like jaws closing in, jagged and glitching, threatening to collapse with every step. The hum grew louder, vibrating through Arin's bones.
Suddenly, the world froze.
Not because of his exploit — but on its own.
The sky above flickered, blue turning black, black turning white, then glitching into lines of code that danced like lightning across the heavens.
[System Interference Detected.]
[Warning: Unauthorized presence approaching.]
A cold shiver ran down Arin's spine. He scanned the canyon, blade raised. "What now…?"
From the shadows ahead, a figure emerged. At first, it was shapeless — a blur of static, like a corrupted file trying to render. Then, piece by piece, it solidified into the form of a man clad in fractured armor, a helm hiding his face.
His presence was suffocating.
Lyra's hand tightened around Arin's arm. Her calm mask cracked. "No…" she whispered.
Arin glanced at her sharply. "You know him?"
She didn't answer.
The figure raised a broken sword, its edge jagged, glowing with crimson glitches. When he spoke, his voice echoed like thousands of overlapping files.
"Unauthorized entity detected. Bug anomaly confirmed. Termination… required."
Arin's blood ran cold.
This wasn't just another corrupted monster. This was something designed to erase him.
A Patch Enforcer.
The ground shook as the armored figure stepped forward, every movement bending the canyon walls like reality itself was cowering from his presence.
[Boss Encounter – Patch Enforcer]
[Level: ???]
[Objective: Survive]
Arin cursed under his breath. Survive. Not defeat. The system itself was warning him that this fight wasn't meant to be won.
"Lyra, run—"
"No." Her eyes blazed with determination. "If you fall here, there won't be another chance. We face this together."
Arin didn't argue. There wasn't time. The Enforcer lunged, moving faster than his eyes could track. Instinct screamed, and Arin activated Pause Function.
The world froze — but only for a split second. The Enforcer shattered the exploit like it was nothing, his blade slicing through the frozen air as if tearing reality itself.
Arin staggered back, sweat dripping down his temple. He broke through Pause? That's impossible!
But the truth was clear: the Enforcer was built to erase bugs like him. His tricks wouldn't work the same.
Still, Arin refused to give in. He layered Exploit Fusion, combining Gravity Anchor with Force Redirect. The canyon floor surged upward, jagged rocks slamming toward the Enforcer like missiles.
The armored figure raised his sword, cleaving through them effortlessly, each strike bending space with glitching sparks.
But it was enough to buy Arin and Lyra a breath.
"Arin," Lyra said, her voice urgent. "Listen to me. The Enforcer won't stop until one of us is destroyed. But there's a path around him — a bypass. I can open it, but it won't last long."
Arin's heart pounded. "Then do it. I'll hold him off."
Her eyes widened. "You'll die!"
"Better me than both of us."
But Lyra shook her head violently, tears flickering in her eyes — not data tears, but something real. "No. That's not what you're here for. You're not just fighting for yourself. You're fighting for this world, for me!"
Her words cut deeper than the Enforcer's blade.
Before Arin could answer, the Enforcer raised his sword again, glitch energy swirling into a catastrophic strike. The canyon walls cracked, reality itself warping around the blow.
Lyra thrust out her hand, code unraveling from her fingertips, weaving into a glowing doorway of shifting light.
"The bypass is open!" she cried. "Go, Arin!"
The Enforcer's strike descended.
Arin clenched his teeth. Every instinct screamed at him to keep fighting, to never run. But one look at Lyra's desperate face made him move.
He sprinted toward the doorway, every step tearing at his heart. At the last second, he grabbed Lyra's wrist and pulled her through with him.
The doorway sealed shut just as the Enforcer's blade obliterated the canyon.
For a moment, there was nothing. Silence.
Then Arin and Lyra stumbled into a vast, dimly glowing chamber. The air was heavy with static. And at the far end pulsed a massive crystalline structure, fractured yet alive, each beat shaking the chamber like a heartbeat.
The Glitched Core.
Arin stared, his chest heaving, realization crashing over him. This was it. The center of the world. The source of everything.
And somewhere deep inside… the truth about who he really was.