Run.
It was the only command that mattered.
Kaelen's boots pounded against the asphalt. Every step sent a jolt of dull fire up his freshly bandaged leg, but the pain was distant, muted by the adrenaline flooding his veins.
Behind him, the world was ending. Again.
The Deletion Wave wasn't loud like an explosion. It was terrifyingly quiet. It sounded like a billion whispering voices overlaid with the hum of a high-voltage wire.
He risked a glance over his shoulder. The white wall of static was eating the convenience store he had just left. The building didn't collapse; it simply dissolved. The brick walls turned into white noise, then vanished into the void, leaving absolutely nothing behind. No rubble. No dust. Just a flat, black "null" space where the data had been wiped.
[ WARNING: SECTOR DELETION IN PROGRESS ]
[ DISTANCE: 400 METERS ] [ TIME TO IMPACT: 08:30 ]
"Don't look back," Kaelen hissed through gritted teeth. "Look at the map."
The holographic grid in his vision showed the golden pulse of the Anchor Point. It was close. A large, fortified structure nestled at the base of a hill, surrounded by the ruins of what used to be a subway station.
But the path wasn't clear. The street was a maze of floating debris and "Missing Textures." Kaelen had to hurdle a three-foot gap in the road where the asphalt had failed to render, revealing a bottomless grey void underneath.
He landed hard, stumbling, but kept moving.
BANG.
The sound cracked through the heavy silence like a thunderclap. Kaelen skidded to a halt, crouching behind the husk of a rusted sedan.
That wasn't a monster. That was gunpowder. That was a gunshot.
BANG. BANG.
Two more shots. They were close. Coming from the subway entrance ahead—directly in front of the Anchor.
Kaelen checked his interface.
[ AUTHORITY: 15 / 100 ]
He was low on fuel. He had a pipe and a medkit. Entering a firefight was suicide.
But the Deletion Wave was closing in. The white fog was swallowing the streetlights behind him. He had no choice.
"Forward," he whispered. "Always forward."
He crept toward the subway station, moving shadow to shadow.
As he rounded the corner, he saw them.
In the center of the plaza, a massive shape was dominating the space. It was a Buffering Beast—a bear, or what used to be a bear. It was huge, standing eight feet tall on its hind legs. But its texture was wrong. It was a wireframe mess of jagged polygons and flickering fur.
[ ENTITY: URSUS GLITCH (TIER 1) ]
[ STATUS: BUFFERING ]
[ THREAT: HIGH ]
And pinned down behind a concrete barricade was a figure. A woman. She wore a tattered grey cloak over makeshift leather armor. She held a long-barreled rifle—a bolt-action hunting piece—tight against her shoulder.
She popped up, aimed, and fired. BANG.
The bullet struck the beast's chest. But the beast didn't flinch. It lagged. The bullet hit, but the damage didn't register until a full second later. The beast roared, a sound that stuttered and looped like a broken record.
ROAR-ROAR-R-R-ROAR.
It swiped a massive claw at the barricade. The concrete exploded. The woman was thrown backward, rolling across the ground. She came up fast, desperate, racking the bolt of her rifle.
Click.
She froze. She racked the bolt again. Click.
Empty.
The bear loomed over her, its polygonal jaws opening wide to swallow her whole.
Kaelen was twenty feet away. He saw the code. He saw the red knot in the bear's chest. It was buried deep, protected by layers of glitching armor. His iron pipe wouldn't scratch it. He couldn't kill a Tier 1 monster with brute force.
But he saw something else. He saw the blue wireframe of the woman's rifle. It was glowing with a faint orange warning light in his Admin Vision.
[ ITEM: HUNTING RIFLE ]
[ STATE: AMMO DEPLETED ]
The Deletion Wave was five minutes away. If she died, he'd be fighting that bear alone. And then he'd die.
Kaelen dropped the medkit. He gripped the iron pipe in his left hand and sprinted.
"Hey! Glitch-Face!"
He threw the iron pipe. It spun through the air and clanged harmlessly off the bear's shoulder. It did zero damage. But it did the job. The massive, glitching head snapped toward him. The empty white eyes locked onto the new target.
The woman didn't waste the distraction. She scrambled backward, reaching for a knife on her belt.
"Run, you idiot!" she screamed. Her voice was raspy, terrified.
Kaelen didn't run. He slid across the pavement like a baseball player, coming to a stop right beside her behind the half-destroyed concrete wall.
He grabbed the barrel of her rifle.
"Let go!" she snarled, trying to yank it back, swinging her knife at him.
"I can fix it!" Kaelen shouted, staring into her eyes. They were grey, sharp, and wide with panic. "The ammo. I can fix it!"
She paused. Just for a heartbeat. "It's empty," she hissed. "I don't have any rounds left!"
"Trust me."
The bear roared again. It was charging. The ground shook with every lagging step. Thump... pause... thump.
Kaelen placed his glowing hand on the rifle's magazine well. He didn't look at the bear. He looked at the code.
[ ITEM: RIFLE MAGAZINE (EMPTY) ]
[ ACTION: RESTORE TO PREVIOUS STATE ]
[ COST: 10 AUTHORITY ]
He had 15. It would leave him with 5. Almost zero.
"Restore," Kaelen commanded.
VRRRM.
Blue light flooded the weapon. The woman gasped, nearly dropping the gun as it heated up in her hands. The sound of metal springs compressing echoed inside the gun. The weight of the weapon changed instantly.
[ RESTORATION COMPLETE ]
[ MAGAZINE: 5/5 ROUNDS ]
[ AUTHORITY: 5 / 100 ]
"Shoot!" Kaelen roared, shoving her shoulder. "Shoot the red knot in the chest!"
She didn't ask questions. She didn't hesitate. She was a survivor. She shouldered the rifle, the bolt already cycling a fresh round that shouldn't exist.
The bear was five feet away. Its claws were raised.
BANG.
The shot was point-blank. The bullet slammed into the center of the beast's chest, drilling straight into the glowing red error that only Kaelen could see—but she had aimed exactly where he pointed.
The bear froze mid-swipe. Its roar cut off into a digital whine. The wireframe destabilized.
CRACK-SHATTER.
The massive Tier 1 beast exploded. It dissolved into a cascade of heavy blue cubes, raining down on them like digital hail.
[ ASSIST RECORDED ]
[ TARGET DELETED: URSUS GLITCH ]
[ +25 AUTHORITY ]
Kaelen slumped against the concrete wall, his chest heaving. "Holy..."
He checked his counter.
[ AUTHORITY: 30 / 100 ] (5 remaining + 25 reward).
He had made a profit.
The woman didn't relax. She spun the rifle toward him, the barrel leveled directly at his forehead. Her finger was on the trigger.
"Who are you?" she demanded. Her voice was cold, deadly calm. "Magazines don't just refill themselves. That's not... that's not how physics works."
Kaelen slowly raised his hands. "Physics is dead," he panted, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.
Behind them, the white wall of the Deletion Wave had reached the plaza. It was consuming the statue in the center. The sound of erasing reality was getting louder—a high-pitched screech.
"You can shoot me," Kaelen said, looking at the approaching fog. "Or we can get inside that bunker before we both get formatted."
She looked at the wave. She looked at Kaelen. She looked at the glowing blue eye that marked him as an Anomaly.
She lowered the rifle. "The door is locked," she said. "I've been trying to blast it open for two days. It's System Sealed."
Kaelen stood up, grabbing his medkit. He limped toward the massive, blast-proof doors of the subway station—the Anchor Point. A red holographic lock hovered over the heavy metal.
[ ACCESS DENIED ]
[ ADMIN CLEARANCE REQUIRED ]
Kaelen placed his hand on the cold metal. "Good thing I have the keys."
[ RECOGNIZING USER... ]
[ WELCOME, ADMIN ]
CLUNK. HISS.
The massive gears groaned. The doors split open, revealing cool, filtered air and darkness inside.
"Inside," Kaelen ordered. "Now."
They scrambled through the opening just as the white static washed over the stairs behind them. Kaelen slammed his hand on the internal panel.
SLAM.
The doors sealed shut. The screeching sound of the deletion wave cut off instantly.
Silence. Real, heavy silence.
They were in the dark. Kaelen leaned against the wall, sliding down until he hit the floor. His leg was screaming. His Authority was low. But he was alive.
A red laser dot appeared on his chest. He looked up. The woman was standing over him, the rifle aimed at his heart again. In the dim emergency lights, he could finally see her face. Sharp features, dark hair, eyes that had seen too much death.
"Start talking," she whispered. "What are you? A Glitch? Or a God?"
Kaelen let out a tired laugh. "I'm tech support."
[ QUEST COMPLETE: REACH THE ANCHOR ]
[ REWARD: MAP UNLOCKED ]
[ NEW OBJECTIVE: SECURE THE BASE ]