At first, it was subtle—just a flicker, barely noticeable despite the flood of notifications flashing in front of his eyes.
A faint distortion at the corner of his vision, like sunlight catching on cracked glass.
But then—it spread.
The familiar blue tint of the system interface warped. Colors bled into each other, dripping like wet ink on paper until the world itself began to fracture.
The trees shimmered, the air bent, and everything in his sight started glitching.
'System…?'
He barely got the thought out before thin, jagged lines of static ripped across his vision—fracturing everything.
The forest. The people. Even the light.
And then came the text.
Not the neat, sterile squares of text he was used to.
This was broken.
Corrupted.
Twitching violently in bursts of garbled symbols that looked like they were trying to claw their way into meaning.
[SYSTEM ERROR: #!a9&@8!UN$%LO@#D]
[SYSTEM ERROR: 9#1!##9@R%$^#@!!]
[SYSTEM ERROR: %$@#–!!!@9(#]
