The bridge into the Last City wasn't stable.
Chunks of sidewalk flickered between textures — concrete, grass, molten metal — changing with every step.
I sprinted across, heart hammering, praying I wouldn't fall through some random missing file.
Behind me, the world groaned again.
Reality bent like glass under too much weight.
I had to move faster.
The first thing that hit me when I entered the city wasn't a monster.
It was silence.
A dead, hollow kind of silence that made the hair on my arms stand up.
Skyscrapers leaned at impossible angles.
Streetlights blinked nonsense error codes: #32F2, #AF09, #ERROR#
Floating debris — cars, benches, vending machines — drifted slowly through the air, caught in broken gravity loops.
In the distance, a massive black tower stabbed into the clouds.
The Nexus Core.
My goal.
I started moving — slowly, carefully.
But almost immediately, the system pinged again:
> [New Location Discovered: Error Town District.]
[Warning: Civilian Data Incomplete. NPC Behaviors May Be Unstable.]
"NPCs?" I muttered.
I hadn't seen another living thing since Elara left me.
As if summoned by my thoughts, something moved in the shadows.
I froze.
A man stumbled out from behind a shattered car.
Or what was left of one.
His skin was patchy and translucent — flickering between high-res texture and wireframe.
His mouth opened in a broken loop, words spilling out on repeat:
"Help–help–help–help–he–"
I backed up, heart thudding.
Behind him, more figures emerged — dozens of them.
Men. Women. Children.
All caught in endless animation loops, staggering through the streets like corrupted puppets.
Some twitched violently.
Others just... stared blankly ahead, drooling static.
The Lost.
That was the only word that came to mind.
Not enemies, not monsters.
Just broken fragments of what used to be people.
> [System Notice: Direct Combat Discouraged.]
[Patchbearer Priority: Locate Stability Beacons.]
A blinking icon lit up on my minimap — a faint green triangle.
The Stability Beacon.
A device meant to reinforce system structures in highly corrupted zones.
If I could reach it, I might be able to patch part of the city — maybe even stabilize these poor people.
"No pressure," I muttered.
I picked my way through the Lost, avoiding their glitching hands, their hollow stares.
Most didn't react to me.
Some lunged blindly, but I dodged.
One wrong move, I knew, and their broken programming might register me as a "corruption."
And then they'd swarm.
Faster.
Faster.
The green beacon pulsed ahead —
buried inside a half-collapsed convenience store whose sign flickered between:
[WELCOME]
and
[404: STORE NOT FOUND]
Charming.
I slid inside, heart racing, and found the beacon — a floating crystal device, half-buried in debris.
Without hesitating, I slapped my hand against it.
> [Stability Beacon Activated.]
[Patching Local Data Structures...]
[Corruption Rate: 92% → 57%]
The change was immediate.
The air shimmered.
The flickering stopped.
The ground beneath my feet solidified — at least for a few meters around the beacon.
Outside, the Lost paused mid-glitch, confused.
Some dropped to their knees.
Some simply blinked, looking... more human, for a moment.
But not fixed.
Not truly.
> [Patch Complete: 17% of Error Town Stabilized.]
[New Directive Unlocked: "Seek the Watcher."]
I leaned against the wall, gasping.
"Watcher?" I muttered.
Another cryptic title.
The system pinged again:
> [The Watcher Knows the Path to the Nexus Core.]
Great.
Now I just had to find someone in this nightmare city called the Watcher.
Easy.
Simple.
No problem.
If I don't die first.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a figure watching me from a rooftop —
cloaked in black, face hidden, a faint blue glow leaking from under their hood.
Before I could call out, they turned and vanished into the broken skyline.
I sighed and pushed myself upright.
No more running.
No more hiding.
If this world wanted to throw mysteries and monsters at me...
I'd throw debug patches right back.