Chapter 2: The Logic of Qi
Hunger was the first critical error Han had to resolve, and perhaps the deadliest.
His stomach emitted a roar that echoed against the stone walls of the alley—a biological reminder that his new body was on the verge of a total system shutdown. He leaned against the cold wall, feeling the mold and dampness seep through his tattered robe. He tried to stabilize his vision, but the world was vibrating. The floating labels were still there, flickering with a faint blue light that only he seemed to perceive, tagging the environment with metadata that no one else in this city could comprehend.
He shuffled out of the alley, feeling like a system process consuming too much memory, causing the entire machine to lag. The City of the White Crane hit him with a chaos of sounds and smells that his programmer's mind struggled to process. Carved wooden buildings with emerald-tiled roofs towered over cobblestone streets, defying gravity in ways that made no architectural sense. The air was thick with the scent of exotic spices, incense, and something else... an electrical vibration, almost like static, that made the hairs on his arms stand up.
Han stopped in front of a mansion surrounded by a white stone wall. In the center, an engraved formation glowed with a mystical light that pulsed like a heartbeat. To the passersby, it was a sacred protection seal. To Han, it was a poorly optimized line of code full of security holes.
[OBJECT: Protection Barrier (Level 1) | Status: Active]
[VULNERABILITY DETECTED: Buffer overflow at Southern Node]
Han reached out his hand, drawn by the compulsive curiosity of someone who sees an improperly installed lock on million-dollar software. He was about to touch the engraving when a harsh voice, laced with venom, stopped him in his tracks.
"Hey, you! Slum trash!"
Han turned slowly, his joints protesting with every movement. Three young men dressed in grey silk robes, with the emblem of a crane embroidered in silver on their chests, were approaching. The leader wore a smirk filled with a contempt Han knew all too well; it was the same look executives at his old company gave him when they didn't understand his work, only magnified by physical power.
[ENTITY: Lu Chen | Level: 3rd Grade Qi Refinement]
[STATUS: Hostile / Aggressive]
"It seems this morning's beating wasn't enough to teach you manners, Xiao Han," the youth said, clenching his fist.
Xiao Han. Apparently, that was his name in this environment. And by the looks of it, this body was already well-acquainted with the taste of the dirt thanks to these guys. Han didn't respond; he had no energy to waste on words. He simply watched as Lu Chen raised a hand. A faint white light, almost translucent, began to glow in his palm. The air around the disciple began to hum, distorting the sunlight.
To Han, it wasn't a display of mystical power. It was a slow, inefficient loading process full of unnecessary noise.
[SKILL: Wind Palm (Loading... 40%... 70%...)]
"I'm going to break your teeth," Lu Chen roared, throwing the strike with blind confidence.
In Han's mind, the information became so sharp that the response was a logical reflex. He didn't need to think about vectors or physics; his "Debugger" vision projected a red trajectory in the air, marking the exact point of impact a second before it happened.
Han took a minimal side-step—a movement so precise it looked like pure luck. Lu Chen's hand passed millimeters away from his torn robe, striking only thin air. Due to the momentum of the missed blow and the dead weight of his own misdirected Qi, the young disciple stumbled forward, his boots slipping on the cobblestones until he nearly fell face-first.
"You damn...!" Lu Chen spun around, his previously pale face now flushed blood-red with rage. "Stay still, trash!"
"You move too much," Han replied in a flat, emotionless voice. It wasn't an insult; it was a technical observation of a faulty system.
Lu Chen lunged again, this time with a series of rapid punches. Han dodged once, twice, three times, moving his head or torso just enough, as if he were following an invisible script. The other two disciples watched with their mouths agape, unable to process how a starving beggar could dance around a trained cultivator.
"Enough games!" Lu Chen unsheathed a short sword. The metal vibrated with a bluish light that promised to slice through flesh and bone with equal ease.
[ALERT: Critical physical damage threat detected]
[OPTION: Execute Code Injection? Y/N]
Han grit his teeth, feeling cold sweat run down his back. Yes.
As Lu Chen swung a downward slash aimed at his shoulder, Han didn't retreat. He stepped forward, invading his aggressor's personal space. He extended two fingers, pale and trembling, and touched Lu Chen's wrist with surgical precision—right at the point where the Qi light was most intense.
There was no explosion, no epic battle cry. Only a black flicker, a speck of absolute darkness that jumped from Han's fingers to the disciple's skin.
[COMMAND EXECUTED: /force_stop]
Suddenly, Lu Chen's arm went rigid, as if it had turned to stone. The light of the sword died instantly, returning to dull steel, and the weapon hit the ground with a metallic clang that drew the eyes of nearby merchants. The disciple let out a shriek of pure terror, stumbling back while his arm hung uselessly at his side, devoid of any sensation or motor control.
"What... what did you do to me?" Lu Chen screamed, staring at his own hand as if it were a foreign object attached to his body.
"Just a system error," Han said, though his own vision began to fill with red static. He felt a sudden wave of dizziness and the bitter taste of bile in his throat. His body was paying a heavy price for that maneuver. "You should regain movement in a few minutes... if the registry hasn't been too badly damaged."
Han didn't wait to see the reaction of the others. Taking advantage of the confusion and fear he had sown among Lu Chen's followers, he turned around and vanished into the crowd filling the main street. Each step felt as heavy as if he were walking through molasses. His vision fluctuated between reality and a waterfall of system warnings.
[WARNING: Vital energy critically low (3%)]
[STATUS: Imminent hardware shutdown]
"Food..." he gasped, entering the first inn his eyes could focus on.
The place was crowded, but Han headed straight for the counter. A burly man looked him up and down with disgust, ready to throw him out, until Han placed a small silver coin on the wood—one he had found in his robe upon waking up. It was his only resource, but he had no other choice.
"The densest thing you have," Han said, collapsing onto a stool.
As he waited, his vision focused on a plate of meat being carried to another table. He didn't see the sauce or smell the aroma; he saw an "Energy Recovery" progress bar. His new life as the "Glitch" of this world was just beginning, and he already understood that to survive in this living code, he didn't need to be the strongest—he just needed to know where to insert the right virus to make the whole system collapse at his feet.
He closed his eyes for a second, and in the darkness of his eyelids, the code kept running.