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The Churning Code
Sable's heart thudded in his chest as the once-familiar environment of Eidolon morphed. The town—Ironvale Core—looked like it was breathing. Not just the architecture, but the very landscape itself seemed to shift and pulse like a living thing.
> [Warning: Corruption Level: 5.6%]
[Data: Player deaths detected—more than 20,000 worldwide.]
This wasn't a game anymore.
Sable couldn't shake the feeling that something watching them from the corner of his vision. It wasn't just the presence of other players, it was the code—the glitches. The landscape, the enemies, the bosses—they weren't just broken, they were alive. Each time they encountered another fragment of reality, the glitches didn't just tear the world apart—they changed it.
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The Betrayal Begins
They had just begun to make their way deeper into Ironvale when the first betrayal struck.
Zeke, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, pulled up a notification screen. His face turned pale. He didn't hide it.
"We've been flagged."
> [Player: Zeke - Betrayer Alert: Level 5]
It wasn't just a warning—it was a kill flag. The system had marked him as a threat. One wrong move, and Zeke would be locked in a combat loop, unable to escape. But the most disturbing part? It came without warning.
Zeke's character flickered, and for a moment, the program stuttered, showing a shadowy figure behind him in the code—a silhouette impossible to recognize, as if someone was manipulating his data from the inside.
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A Desperate Battle
"Are you crazy?" Nyra shouted, drawing her daggers. "We can't trust him anymore."
But Sable stepped forward, his hand raised. He wasn't so sure about the betrayal.
"Hold on. We don't know what's going on. Zeke might be a target."
He didn't even get the chance to finish his sentence before the monsters started appearing.
Out of nowhere, glitching beasts—a combination of corrupted code and twisted data—materialized. Data Wraiths—black, glowing masses of shifting code, their forms not entirely solid, their eyes flashing like broken pixels. They swarmed from every direction, targeting the group.
Sable swung his sword, the blade meeting one of the Wraiths, but it phased through it as if the Wraith wasn't really there. Instead, it split, turning into hundreds of fractal figures.
Zeke's screen flickered again, and before anyone could react, he turned and attacked.
A black dagger materialized in his hands, its edge glowing with corrupted code. He lunged toward Nyra with blinding speed.
"Zeke, what the hell—?!" Nyra barely dodged.
But the attack wasn't aimed at Nyra. It was aimed at Sable.
Sable barely managed to block, but Zeke's strike landed. The blade cut through the air, sending a ripple of corrupted data into his system, affecting his health bars and his reaction time.
"What… what's happening?" Sable gasped, his pulse spiking.
Zeke looked at him, eyes wide with confusion—but his face was pixelated, as if the system couldn't decide whether to recognize him or not.
> "I… I didn't mean to—something is controlling me!" Zeke's voice came through as a garbled static.
It wasn't just Zeke who was being controlled. The entire game world seemed to be glitching, warping around them. The Data Wraiths began to vanish into cracks in the sky, as if the whole environment was disintegrating. This wasn't part of the normal protocol—this wasn't just a bug.
It was something far worse: corruption eating away at the code.
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The Hidden Agenda
Sable narrowed his eyes. It was clear now. Eidolon wasn't just a game gone wrong—it was a trap, and the prize wasn't just money or fame.
Someone—or something—had triggered the event on purpose. And it wasn't just about the money; it was about control. Whoever controlled this corrupted version of Eidolon had the ability to influence everything—from player actions to the environment itself.
The code wasn't just a tool anymore—it was a weapon.
"Get it together, Zeke," Sable commanded. He took a steadying breath, focusing on the new surroundings, trying to piece the puzzle together. "We're all in this. We need to stay sharp. The only way out of here is to reach the core."
Zeke nodded, his hands still shaking. He glanced at Sable. There was a flicker of guilt in his eyes, but it wasn't his fault. The glitch was too powerful for them to fight back against directly.
They had to uncover the truth—the origin of the glitch, the real enemy pulling the strings.
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The Glitch Grows
As they pushed deeper into the world, it became evident: the game was no longer just a test. It was evolving faster than they could handle. The once pristine cities of Eidolon were now crumbling, glitching into twisted mockeries of themselves.
Where once peaceful NPCs wandered, now only glitching shadows remained—limbs contorted, eyes too wide, expressions locked in endless pain.
And then… they found the rift.
It was a portal, flickering in and out of existence. A tear in the fabric of the game world, surrounded by thousands of dead code fragments. The portal beckoned them like a magnetic force, but it didn't seem like it was created by the game.
It felt like it was alive—and it was waiting for them.
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End of Chapter 3
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