Now that I've become a Dependency - even repcing a part of the System with myself - I expect it to finally boot up again, but nothing happens.

  Well... not quite nothing.

  A faint stream of... something. I'm not certain what it is. Is it pin data, a set of instructions, or maybe some kind of forbidden knowledge? Maybe a mix of all of them, hard to say. But whatever it is supposed to be, it passes through the part of me that is injected into the System.

  Hmm...

  It seems to still wait for something, a signal. It is waiting for "me".

  Not metaphorically, but in a quite literal sense. The process is stalled because "I" do not respond the way it expects - that is to say, not at all.

  But thanks to my parasitic connection, I know what to do.

  Like with my skills, I will it to continue, and it does. The fg is set. I feel a process finally fring up. The sleeper has awoken.

  Took the zy bastard long enough.

  With that, the System should be live again in a minute. It simply has to be. There's no other acceptable outcome.

  I have come too far to fail now.

  But how do I confirm that? Maybe the status menu gives me a hint. Previously, it failed to parse my status because of the glitches - has that changed?

  I take a deep breath and flip through the menu like I always have - just a lot more carefully now. One mistake, one moment of weakness, and I might trigger more accidental glitches thanks to my new form.

  To my frustration, the System has a very clear response:

  Target not found.Not "No Data" or "No response", not even "Please stand by, I'm still getting dressed", but... that.

  I don't exist in its eyes anymore - that hurts.

  Come on, you pile of fractions! I've worked so hard, and you're kicking me out? Me?!

  I'm practically a part of you now, you cannot get rid of me like that!

  It seems that my frustration has caused a reaction with the new Dependency. It feels like a wave ripples from it through the rest of the System - the backsh gives me a headache.

  Damn, now I even have to be more careful with my emotions.

  I take a moment to calm down, then focus back on the knowledge I've seen in the initial echo. It was waiting for me, yes, but there were also other connections, other... programs?

  I close my eyes and analyse the surroundings of the fragment of me within the System. I can't see everything, probably only a tiny fraction, but I see enough for now.

  It seems there are multiple modules for handling our csses, most of them outdated, no longer in use.

  The only ones still active are:

  BetaRC-33.final-prerelease-v2RC-68RG-00(2)ZZ13-obsWhat the fuck are these names? Did someone roll their face across the keyboard, or is this supposed to be a sneaky advertisement for a rookie cyberpunk band?

  No, doesn't matter. What does matter is that there's even an official protocol to create a new one. I can't imagine why they would have that. Drunk programming? A dare gone too far? A government-mandated backdoor? Ugh...

  Either way, I should make use of that; another knowledge echo told me that this is the way to be reintegrated.

  But why bother? Simple.

  I want to be reunited with Lucia, Ecire, everyone - this madness has gone on long enough, I just want to get home. But no one would accept me the way I am now - not once the [Disguise] fails...

  I want to go back to something resembling normalcy. Is that too much to ask? Haven't I done my part already? I deserve that much...

  Now what do I do?

  Protocol CreateModule() engaged.Permission level: [unknown]Check failed... proceed.Loading: HFIL subroutine.........complete.Select initial module creation method:[λ] Initialize bnk module [z] Fork existing module (detected: RC-68)[y] abort[Default: q]So the protocol wants to know whether I start fresh or copy an existing module. Easy. I copy the one I was under - allegedly RC-68. That should keep the number of deviations to a minimum.

  Then another list of endless options appears. Dozens of fgs that tell me next to nothing.

  Forget it, just continue. The default should suffice. I hope.

  ERROR: [%HgV?=Gy??] not compatible with selected option.FATAL: LOG COULD NOT BE WRITTENI tell you, my toaster can program better than that, and it isn’t even plugged in. Why can't you produce fucking default options that work out of the box!? Goddamnit...

  And just to prove my point, not a moment ter, I'm bombarded with mental impulses. All the logs it allegedly couldn't write are now flooding my mind. Wonderful.

  But wait, let me guess without looking... Is it because I still carry fragments of the Hybrid csses and Glitches within me? That has to be it, right?

  Ah, so there are more problems. Many, many problems.

  For one, the System is almost out of resources, especially EXP is critically low, and my illegal attempt to create a Hybrid css st time didn't help.

  Two, while it can help me streamline the Hybrid process somewhat, they still cause an insane amount of strain on the soul - Elly already expined that much to me.

  And third, my permissions are undefined, limited. I never logged in properly, so it accessed random garbage data to determine my rights - I could try to brute force through it, but I'm just as likely to bring everything down again, possibly for good this time.

  So the solution? Concessions. A lot of them...

  Admittedly, I've never coded anything before in both of my lives, I think, but that wasn't all that hard - if you ignore the memory in the back of my head that was begging to be put out of my misery.

  A bit... what did they call it? Ache-tea-emel. A few Excel sheets overloaded with dark magic macros, and, for some reason, a couple of unsubmitted emails stuck in a reply-all loop. Why does that feel like Cthulhu already had to file for unemployment?

  The only thing that looked hard was the 65816.c file: a random mess of numbers and letters. I assume Ren would've been at home there - the .c stands for her expertise, COBOL, right?

  Either way, I'd still have liked for her to be here; she would've had a clue what we had to do. At the very least, a non-zero one.

  Anyway, the knowledge I gained from the System and the flood of Logs guided me towards the following patchwork solution:

  Titles are a thing of the past. No more 'Summon Master' making my spirits stronger, but also no more HP penalty from 'World Resident'. The jury's still out on what losing 'Fortress Lord' means for managing the actual fortress...Multi-cssing is also out. Members of my new System only have three entries: Css, Image, and Hybrid, all sharing the same level progression.Css is simply the old css entry, except limited to a single entry. Not ten, not five, just one.Image is a catch-all section for race and modifiers like vampire.Hybrid has two-ish entries; the actual Hybrid cssification, like Dependency in my case, and one of four Roles: Arbiter, Breaker, Corruptor, Devourer. Not sure where the data for them came from, or why adding them lessens soul strain, but that's what the System cims.As an extra kick in the teeth, we can now only have 20 skills, 5 for each Css, Image, Hybrid, and Common skills. Technically, I could've set a higher limit, but as we know, each skill causes a varying amount of strain on the soul, with Hybrid skills being especially bad. And since there's no way to properly measure that, it had to be hard-capped at such a frustratingly low value.Also, some skill assistants had to be stripped away. For example, casting a spell is now more difficult, but it no longer enforces a strict five-second cast time. We'll have to see how that works out in practice.On the upside, we can now gain new skills on every level up - supposedly selectable from two to five options, loosely based on our characteristics and efforts.Some skills are categorized as traits, mostly biological traits like [Undead]. They can't ever be removed, maybe upgraded if we're lucky.Once all skill slots are filled, further skill selections can be used to overwrite old skills, but not traits, and the target skill has to occupy the same skill category. According to what I've learned about skills and souls, this should be impossible, but I feel I have to thank the remnants of [Essence Drain] for that; even from the grave, it is doing its best to aid me. Thanks, old friend.As the module owner, I also have to deal with ten dedicated module slots. They hold skills that usually affect the entire Hybrid society, no matter whose side they stand on - and these skills can never be changed. So I have to pick them carefully, or they are wasting my level-ups for nothing of value.I also rolled back a bunch of questionable patches. Not sure what half of them did. Though some of them gave me the impression they only existed because there was a literal power struggle between several petty idiots.It seems like one of these rollbacks deleted the concept of skill levels and magic ranks. For example, [Fire Magic Rank 1] level 2, and [Fire Magic Rank 5] level 37 are both now simply [Fire Magic]. Not much of a personal loss, I was restricted to Rank 1 anyway.And stly, the acquisition of EXP is now restricted. No more passive EXP gain for non-combat activities or partial gains for inflicting damage. It is now all or nothing, either you or your party nds a killing blow, or you go home empty-handed.All said, I've designed a Frankenstein module that is somewhere between RC-28 and RC-68, hooked up on custom hacks and Hybrid juice - with a different sptter of bugs than before.

  I don’t like most of these changes, but it's either that or oblivion.

  It's kinda sad to see how far this deviates from the old design, but what can I do? I want to, I have to return - and the old version rejects me.

  I didn't get to choose. The Solids don't get to either. Not a true choice anyway. They either come with me or succumb to the Glitches.

  The old type of Hybrids didn't provide as much resistance to the Glitches as we've been led to believe, but this? This feels so much better. It gives us... a future.

  We'll be one big, happy family.

  Well, no time like the present.

  Input accepted.21496: TODO fixWARN: Compiling...ERROR: Success!Installing...Adding [newuser#0:Jared]Configuring [newuser#0:Jared]INFO: Incomplete...Please wait, contacting SysAgent...Of course it would go wrong - it is a day ending in 'y', after all.

  Uh, why did a different window boot up just now?

  Message from [System]: Hello, a bug involving [newuser] urgently needs your attention.Oh, a spontaneous promotion? How nice of you. It has been more than five minutes since I've been put in a position way above my pay grade - I hope at least this one comes with better benefits than the green abyss. That one had horrible dental.

  Well, no point in compining. It is finally time for some self-improvement, huh?

  3QGN73