The jungle of shifting code behind me pulsed like a living thing, still echoing with the cries of mobs I’d either mimicked or melted. My system buzzed in satisfaction, the EXP gain boosting me just past another checkpoint.

  

[Level Up: 42 → 43] [EXP Balance: 28,050] [Skill Craft Points Earned: +2]

  My map lit up with a new objective marker—“City of Gladris - Glitched Kingdom Hub”—embedded directly into the corrupted landscape. A kingdom. A real, structured one. Something grounded, or at least pretending to be.

  I followed the path, a dirt road half-consumed by static vines and floating geometry. Each step clicked against the pixelating gravel. Then, in the distance, a silhouette formed: stone towers piercing the skyline, each twitching with light from glitched fire runes. The walls were fortified but unstable, like they were syncing with an alternate version of themselves from a broken timeline.

  A city that couldn’t decide what era it wanted to exist in.

  Two guards stood at the gate.

  Or rather, they flickered at the gate. Clad in silver-and-blue knight armor, the heraldry on their chests kept glitching: one second a lion, the next, a question mark. Their eyes burned with mana—but their code signatures were stable.

  Mostly.

  “State your designation, traveler,” one asked, voice auto-tuned like a corrupted vocal modulator.

  “I’m… Kai. Just a wanderer. Looking for passage.”

  The second knight’s eyes narrowed. His spear vibrated with an enchantment I didn’t recognize.

  “Echoform… Glitchwalker.” He whispered it like a curse. “You carry forbidden traits.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I’m not asking for permission.”

  

[Passive: Mirrorbyte Protocol – Threat Assessment Engaged]

  

  
• Opponent Skill Detected: Spellbind Array (Area Denial)


  

  I braced, preparing for a fight—until a third voice intervened.

  “Let him pass,” it said. Smooth. Noble. Cold.

  From behind them strode a figure cloaked in digital silk and magic. A young man, maybe mid-20s by Earth standards, with silver hair and a crown that hovered slightly off his head—like the system was unsure if it belonged to him. His name tag pulsed red:

  

[NPC: King Revalis the Unstable]

  

  
• Title: Monarch of Gladris, Keeper of Broken Law


  

  “You’ve stirred the world’s attention, Kai,” he said. “Even the Deep Code speaks your name.”

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  “I didn’t know royalty handled gatekeeping personally,” I replied.

  He smirked. “When you rewrite skill parameters just by walking, I like to be the first to greet you. Come. There’s… protocol to discuss.”

  The throne room was breathtaking—and by that, I mean it looked like a cathedral mid-crash. Columns floated, some upside-down. Magic sigils rotated at random. The stained glass windows played looping scenes from different eras of Gladris, glitching between peace, war, and… something darker.

  Revalis sat on a throne that shimmered between obsidian and pure code. Several Magic Knights lined the hall, armored in more elegant variants of the gatekeeper’s style—runes carved directly into their gauntlets.

  “You’ve likely noticed the… instability,” Revalis said.

  “Hard to miss.”

  “It’s the world. The gods. The law itself. When the system shattered, kingdoms like mine were left to improvise. We stabilize what we can. But the world resists.”

  I tilted my head. “So you keep a kingdom running on half a firewall and hope?”

  He smiled grimly. “Something like that.”

  He gestured, and a floating console appeared beside him.

  

[QUEST: Royal Accord - Sync with the Kingdom of Gladris]

  

  
• Assist with stabilizing a Sector Node beneath the palace


  
• Bonus Objective: Identify the source of a spreading corruption


  

  

Reward: EXP x30,000 | Rare Craft Material: Arccore Shard | Relationship Boost: Gladris +40

  I accepted without hesitation. A dungeon beneath the throne room? Delicious.

  We descended into the sub-palace via an ancient lift made from gears and glowing memory cubes. The Magic Knight escort—a woman named Serah—watched me like a ticking time bomb.

  “I don’t trust outsiders,” she said, blade resting against her shoulder.

  “Fair. I don’t trust kingdoms built on crashing software.”

  That got a smile.

  The depths opened into what used to be a sacred hall—now corrupted. The pillars were weeping black data. The floor was cracked in binary patterns. And in the center: the source.

  A Corrupted Wyrm, easily twenty meters long, covered in glitchy scales and breathing out logic errors.

  

[BOSS MOB: Syntax Wyrm X01]

  

  
• Skills: Loop Crush, Bugfire Torrent, Backup Spawn


  
• Threat: Lethal


  

  The fight was chaos. Spells rained down. Code twisted. I used Firewall Breath, Echo Howl, and even mimicked its Bugfire Torrent halfway through the fight thanks to Mirrorbyte.

  Serah covered me when the Wyrm tried to trap me in an infinite loop. Together, we brought it down.

  

[BOSS DEFEATED] [Skill Acquired: Loop Crush] [EXP Gained: +31,400] [Level Up: 43 → 44] [New Skill Craft Point +1]

  Back in the throne room, Revalis nodded in approval.

  “You’re more than a glitch in the system,” he said. “You’re becoming a variable.”

  I turned toward the window—toward the horizon.

  “This was just one city,” I said. “How many more are out there?”

  Revalis smirked. “Dozens. Some friendly. Some hunting anomalies like you.”

  I didn’t flinch.

  “Let them come.”

  END OF CHAPTER 12