Welcome to yet another chapter of Glitches and errors saga.
Enjoy
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The atmosphere in the Morning Harmonization Square shifted from jubilant celebration to bone-chilling dread in less than a second.
The sky, which had been a clear, pillowy blue, began to stutter.
That was the only way Han could describe it. The clouds didn't move; they jumped.
One moment they were above the eastern peak, the next they were ten feet to the left, trailing jagged lines of static.
[WARNING: Frame-Rate Drop Detected!]
[Local Environment is experiencing High Latency]
[Enemy Type: The Virus.(Senior Auditor from a Rival Firm).]
"A rival firm?" Han hissed, his knuckles whitening as he gripped his pitchfork handle...his Divine Scepter, "System, is this a cultivator or a computer program?"
[Analysis: Both. Target has Downloaded a Corrupted Script]
A man ascended the final step of the jade staircase.
He didn't walk so much as glide, his movements jerky and unnatural.
He wore robes of a deep, oily black that seemed to absorb the light around him.
His face was a mask of pale skin, but where his eyes should have been, there were only flickering red rectangular boxes.
"Azure Cloud Sect," the man spoke, his voice sounding like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.
"Your License has expired.
I am here to... Liquidate your assets."
Elder Wu stepped forward, his caterpillar eyebrows bristling with lightning-blue Qi. "Who are you? This is the territory of the Azure Cloud!
We are currently under the protection of the Regional Manager!"
The black-robed man turned his flickering red eyes toward Han.
[SCANNED: Target Han.]
[Status: Unlicensed User.]
[Threat Level: Minor Bug]
"A Manager?" the man rasped, a cruel grin splitting his face.
"This sector is End of Life.
I am Elder Gui of the Bone-Wither Sect, and I have come to install a New OS. "
"Bone-Wither Sect?" Elder Wu gasped, turning to Han.
"Young Master, they are our greatest rivals! They practice the Forbidden Arts of the Void! We heard they had found a Gritched power, but we didn't believe it!"
"It's not Gritched , it's Glitched " Han muttered to himself.
He realized that in this world, people were interpreting the "Malware" of his System's futuristic world as a new form of dark cultivation.
[QUEST UPDATE: The Hostile Takeover]
[Objective: Defend the Office from Malware.]
[Hint: You cannot win a Physical Conflict. You must use Social Engineering.]
Elder Gui raised a hand.
The red static around him intensified, forming into jagged blades of dark energy. "Die, little manager.
Your Audit ends here."
He fired.
A bolt of red-static energy streaked toward Han, moving with a speed that defied the laws of physics....because it was literally skipping frames.
"Young Master, look out!" Ling cried, reaching for her sword.
Han didn't move.
Not because he was brave, but because his legs had turned into jelly.
Ding!
[NOTIFICATION: Firewall Trial Version Activated!]
[Duration: 3 Seconds.]
A translucent blue hexagon appeared in front of Han.
The red bolt hit it and vanished with a sound like a wet sponge hitting a radiator.
Sizzle.
The Square went silent.
Elder Gui froze, his red-box eyes flickering rapidly.
"You... you blocked a Void-Static strike? Without even a Hand-Seal?"
Han felt his heart trying to exit through his throat.
He had three seconds.
The timer on his screen was already at [0:01].
"Is that the best your Software can do?" Han said, his voice dripping with a fake, bored arrogance he had learned from watching too many corporate recruitment videos.
"That wasn't even a DDoS Attack.
That was a Pinging error at best."
"You... you mock my Corrupted Dao?" Gui roared.
He began to gather a massive ball of red static between his hands.
The air around him began to tear, revealing a black void beneath the reality of the mountain.
[ALERT: System Overload Imminent!]
[Current Defense Status: Expired)
[Recommended Action: Gaslighting ]
"Stop!" Han shouted, pointing his broken pitchfork at the dark Elder.
"If you release that Packe, you will trigger a Universal Hard-Drive Wipe!
Do you have any idea how much Data.is stored in this mountain?"
Elder Gui paused. "Data? You mean... the ancestral spirits?"
"I mean everything!" Han bluffed, stepping off his hovering Segway and walking toward the dark cultivator.
Every step felt like he was walking on a tightrope over a pit of fire. "This Sect is currently Cloud-Synced, If you attack me, my System.will automatically Uninstall your existence from the Mainframe.
Do you want to be a Null Pointer?"
The disciples of the Azure Cloud Sect watched in awe.
They didn't understand the words, but the tone was unmistakable.
Their Regional Manager was threatening the very soul of the enemy.
"Null... Pointer?" Gui whispered.
The static around him flickered. He was a powerful cultivator, but he had gained his power by "Downloading" a strange, ancient scroll he didn't fully understand.
He was terrified of the "Terms and Conditions" he might have missed.
"Yes," Han said, closing the distance.
He was now only five feet away from the terrifying dark Elder.
"Look at your robes.
Look at your eyes.
You're already Buggy.
You're Crashing, Gui.
Your Core is at ninety percent CPU Usage. One more strike, and you'll Blue-Screen into eternity."
[System Note: This is a bold-faced lie.
He is actually at 100% health.
But his Confidence.exe has stopped working.]
"I... I am not Crashing!" Gui screamed, but his red eyes were pulsing nervously.
"I have the Patch of the Thousand Sins!"
"A Patch?" Han laughed, a cold, corporate laugh.
"I am the Developer, Gui.
I don't need a patch.
I am the Update."
Han reached into his sleeve.
He didn't pull out a sword.
He pulled out his [Stress Ball].
To the eyes of the cultivators, it was a perfectly round, yellow orb with a strange, smiling face...a Dreadful Totem of Joy.
"Do you see this?" Han whispered.
"This is a Portable Server.
It contains the Fix for your Corruption Or... it contains a Virus that will Delete your Sect. Which do you want to find out?"
Gui stared at the stress ball.
He saw the smiling face.
He saw the yellow skin.
To him, it looked like the head of a decapitated sun-god.
"I... I..." Gui's hands began to tremble.
The red static around him flickered out.
[NOTIFICATION: Malware is retreating!]
[Psychological Warfare: 100% Success.]
"This... this is not over!" Gui shouted, backing away toward the stairs.
"My CEO will hear of this!
The Bone-Wither Sect does not accept 'Cancellation'!"
With a final, glitchy hop, Elder Gui vanished into a cloud of red static, fleeing down the mountain as if the devil himself were chasing him.
The silence that followed was heavy.
Then, a single disciple began to clap.
Then another. Within seconds, the entire Azure Cloud Sect was roaring with his name.
"MANAGER HAN! MANAGER HAN! MANAGER HAN!"
Han stood at the edge of the stairs, clutching his stress ball, his body drenched in cold sweat.
[CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully 'Quarantined' a Threat.]
[Reward: 5,000 EXP & 1x 'Corporate Credit Card' (Limit: 50 Spirit Stones).]
[Level Up! Current Level: 5 (Junior Manager).]
Han felt a sudden surge of warmth in his chest.
For the first time, he felt a faint trickle of something... real.
It wasn't the System's digital light.
It was a tiny spark of actual Qi, born from the massive amount of "Faith" the disciples were currently projecting onto him.
"System," Han whispered.
"Did I just... did I just actually cultivate?"
[Error: 'Cultivation' is not a recognized company benefit.
You have simply Optimized your Internal Battery]
"Whatever," Han breathed.
Elder Wu approached him, his eyes wet with tears of gratitude.
"Young Master! You drove him off without even shedding a drop of blood!
Your Audit is truly the most powerful Art in the five kingdoms!"
"It was nothing," Han said, trying to look cool while his legs still felt like noodles.
"Just a bit of Troubleshooting"
"But Master," Ling said, stepping forward, her eyes shining with a new, dangerous light. "If the Bone-Wither Sect has Malware... shouldn't we Install a Counter-Measure?"
Han looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
"We should Infiltrate their Branch Office" Ling said, using his terminology with terrifying precision.
"We should 'Audit' them... to death."
[NEW QUEST: The Hostile Merger.]
[Objective: Attack the Bone-Wither Sect.]
[Goal: Steal their Server (The Ancient Glitched Scroll).]
[Sinker: Warning! Your Credit Cardmhas a high interest rate.
If you don't pay it back in 7 days, the System will Reclaim your organs.]
Han looked at his new "Credit Card" and then at the fanatical warriors of the Azure Cloud Sect.
"Well," Han sighed, rubbing his temples. "I guess it's time for a Field Trip."
Authors Note:-
Well that's it .
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
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