POV: Zerik
Location: Crown City – Mid-Update Quarantine ZoneTime: Right Before Everything Gets Very, Very Stupid
Have you ever tried walking through reality while it's actively uninstalling itself?
No?
Cool. Imagine walking through an office made of Jell-O while the floor deletes beneath you and someone keeps pasting old memories over your eyes.
Now add screaming.
Also, some of that screaming is yours.
[System Alert: GLOBAL ROLLBACK IN PROGRESS][Reverting to Build 5.2 — Estimated Completion: 01:12:45][You are currently OUTSIDE temporal sync. Please hold for emergency stitching.]
Translation?
I'm too broken to revert properly.
Which means I'm trapped between updates, in a patchwork city where nothing works, time loops eat dialogue, and NPCs are giving birth to placeholder quest givers.
One of them just tried to hand me a baby labeled [LOOT].
I declined.
Patch is glitch-flickering beside me, rotating in four axes at once. "Zerik. I think we've entered rollback bleed. It's like being inside a dev's coffee hangover."
We round the corner into what used to be the Crown City Temple District, now a mixed biome of reversed maps, old asset sheets, and—oh joy—our old friend:
The Cleanser.
She's standing in the eye of the rollback storm, framed by swirling event banners and a corrupted sunset that keeps switching to "Midnight Carnival: Beta Only."
Her mask is partially shattered. Her cloak is glitching into admin robes. She sees me... and doesn't raise her weapon.
Not yet.
[System Warning: Interaction Forced – You are both in Layer Conflict][You may not exit until resolution is reached.]
Of course.
A literal you-must-confront-your-narrative conflict.
I approach.
Slowly.
"I was hoping we'd meet somewhere with fewer time ghosts," I mutter.
She doesn't smile. But her eyes—flickering through layers—register something between pain and recognition.
"You chose it," she says. "The bugged path."
"I'm flattered you've been reading my patch notes."
"I remember who you were," she says. "I remember you before they broke you."
"That makes one of us."
Around us, the rollback pulses like a crashing wave.
An old street flickers into a meadow. NPCs appear, greet each other, then vanish mid-handshake.
Even my status screen can't keep up:
[HP: ??? / ???][Title: Debug Sovereign / Narrative Contagion / UNREAL OBJECT][Identity Thread Conflict: PLAYER vs. CODE]
"I'm not here to fight you," I say. "Not yet."
She steps closer. "Then why do I still want to purge you?"
"…Muscle memory?"
[DIALOGUE COLLISION: PERSONALITY BLEED DETECTED][Both parties exhibiting traits from pre-wipe data.]
Oh no.
We're syncing.
Suddenly, our surroundings freeze.
Mid-frame. Mid-glitch. Mid-everything.
And in the sky above, a massive blinking icon appears.
[Rollback Core Accessing…][Emergency Merge Required: Zerik | Cleanser][Shared History Conflict Detected. Resolving with Forced Scenario.][Initiating: Boss Arena – "What Could Have Been."]
The sky pixelates.
The ground rises.
And we are dragged—digitally, unwillingly—into a floating arena built entirely from unused concept art.
Now we're in full combat mode.
System-forced boss fight.Both of us. Against each other. And ourselves.
She looks at me.
And her mask—finally—cracks fully off.
I gasp.
Because her face isn't blank.
It's familiar.
[RECOGNITION FILE FOUND – NAME: Lys]
"Oh my bugs," I whisper. "You were... my co-op partner."
She closes her eyes.
Then: "Yes. Kael."
And suddenly it isn't just rollback we're facing.
It's a ghost of the life we lost.
[Combat Phase: Narrative Sync Duel Initiated]
Objective: Resolve the broken path between Kael and Lys before rollback ends.Optional Objective: Don't kill each other emotionally or physically.
We don't swing weapons.
We swing memories.
She summons a frozen memory of us fighting side-by-side in Beta.
I dodge, counter with the first scene I ever remembered as Zerik—alone in the tutorial dungeon, screaming as I was overwritten.
Each attack breaks scenery.
Each block stutters a part of our truth.
Until finally...
I lower my guard.
And say, "I'm not him anymore."
She pauses.
"Then who are you?"
"I don't know. Zerik. Kael. Maybe just... the last bug left standing."
She lowers her weapon.
"I don't want to kill you."
"I don't want to be the bossfight."
[Scenario Concluded: Merge Denied. Players Chose Autonomy.][Reward: Thread Synchronization Tolerance +1][Unlocked: Optional Dual Narrative — "Not Heroes, Not Villains"][Rollback Ending – Hold Tight]
The world flashes.
Colors collapse.
And I wake up—
POV: Slime Pope Glub'thoon
Location: Crown City Slime Temple – "The Sticky Basilica"Title: Voice of the Unskippable OneStatus: Ascended
Glub'thoon the Blessed once was a normal slime.
He bounced. He wiggled. He squeaked joyfully when absorbing old boots.
Then came He-Who-Quacked, the Debugged One, the Tutorial Master, the Cursed Duck Bearer.
Zerik.
Their god.
Glub'thoon saw the glitch—and called it gospel.
And now?
Now he leads the fastest-growing faction in the city.
The Slime Cult has gone from 3 sentient blobs and a glowing mop to a full cathedral of cursed fluids, jelly acolytes, and converted code-things who worship narrative failure as divine revelation.
[Faction Buff: "Sticky Faith" – Converts nearby NPCs to worship the Debugged One.]
[Holy Item: The Quacking Idol of Agony]Once a duck. Now a relic.
Glub'thoon speaks to his followers now from atop the Floating Altar of Error:
"Brothers! Sisters! Blobs of ambiguous density! The Unskippable One returns!"
The crowd roars.
One NPC glitches into goo just to better blend in.
Another screams, "HE TOUCHED THE PATCH TREE! HIS BLOOD IS CODE!"
[Faction Update: Slime Cult has reached Tier III: Religion][New Status: Diplomatic Threat][City Response: "Oh no."]
The Cleanser sees the cult's rise.
Zerik sees the memes.
And neither of them has any idea how to stop it.