POV: Graham

It took me nearly two days to find and document all the damages of the recent Glitch Spike, and the list is frightening. My superior just called it a minor incident... Has that idiot no clue how much damage even a minor one would do? Just one bad draw could end all life...

Going by the damage I've found so far, this recent one was a rather large one. Possibly top 10 of all time even.

Or rather, it would've been. The overall damage is severe but it seems oddly... specific. It looks even to be aimed directly at us devas with a few miscellaneous glitches sprinkled in as distractions.

There were some minor changes that affect everyone, like dungeons' safe zones becoming non-functional or eggplants now being poisonous, but those are of no concern. Not immediately at least, they can wait.

No, the most impactful changes may directly drive all life in the universe extinct...

If I understand the affected parameters correctly, the chance of conceiving children is heavily affected, the lesser devas especially. They are effectively as sterile as those that were divorced from the system by the Creed demons; winning the lotteries twice in a row is more likely. Even we higher devas weren't spared to worst of it. Going forward, maybe one in ten couples will ever have children before they die of old age. Lesser races got off lucky and are down to maybe one in five to twenty.

I bet Alex now regrets declining my suggestions of adding more life-extending skills and effects to the system. Really, why should only monstrosities have all the fun...

Thinking of it, have those demons found a way to artificially generate Glitch Spikes and steer their effects? I can't think of another group that would even consider weaponizing the impeding apocalypse like that, let alone find a way. Can't think of any other explanation. This was too targeted to be a random spike.

Now how to fix that... I'm no expert on the relevant parameters, for some, I can guess which range of values would be safe but not for many. Wouldn't want to make childbirth a 100% death sentence for both of the parents or leave a chance that the child randomly mutates into a literal monster.

I'll have to ask Rino for help with the values when the trial is over. The universe will have to wait a bit then. A day or two of no conceptions is preferable over spreading more glitches or having everyone die in the act.

I send a message to Rino to come to see me tomorrow.

Now, what other minor problem can I fix in the meantime...

Knock

But before I can even start fixing anything, I get a visit from... those two.

Smith and Taylor enter my office in their newest disguises.

Smith greets me, "Evening, Graham."

Taylor as well, "Hey, old man. How's it going?"

"What do you two want? The next deadline is still weeks away!"

Taylor answers, "Hey, don't be so grumpy. Rather you should be happy. We have a message from the boss: you can stop working on the current task, something came up."

Smith chimes in, "So it was decided that you get to visit your family after today's trial. And once you've enjoyed a little vacation with them, the boss wants to speak with you face to face about your future projects. In other words, the charade is up and you're getting relocated to a better office. Not one plastered with disgusting plastic plants."

I don't like where this is going, "And what if I decline?"

Smith answers, "Don't worry about that. You know as well as we and the boss do that we've taken a binding oath. Neither you nor your family will come to harm... as long as you don't go against us. Well, you know best how those things work, right?"

Oath or not, there are always loopholes, you just have to know where to look... but for now, I'll better play along. I don't want my family to get hurt. Not again.

Taylor drags me out of my thoughts, "Now please log out and get ready to move. Don't want to miss your... friend's trial, do you? We even reserved VIP seats for us."

"Do you have any idea what you're asking for? If I-"

Smith glares at me, "Boss's orders. You MUST be present at the trial, and then we leave. No exceptions or excuses."

I doubt he knows the consequences of me logging out, "Are you out of your mind!? There'll be severe consequences if I leave now!"

Taylor draws a gun and scoffs, "Just do it. We have our orders, you have yours. If the grumpy devas give you trouble for leaving your office for a minute, just tell the boss. We'll work something out. Wouldn't be the first obstacle we dispose of."

Nearly ten thousand years ago, a glitch either changed the system's root password or broke the entire login mask, either way leaving me alone to work on fixing this mess. Everyone else dutifully logged out for the company holiday. Ever since then, I was working on this alone, on a timer to get as much done as I can before my session finally expires as well. All efforts to reset or rediscover the password failed. Back then, I had still hope that I could get the system to a mostly glitch-free state. I was naive...

A few years ago in the second System Crash, my remaining session time was drastically cut short. Before that, I thought I could still fix things, harden the system against new glitches before I get kicked out. Every new glitch dashed that dream.

A few days ago, Todo died which means no more new worlds get created. I could do nothing about that except move on and honor his legacy by turning the system into the best version I could...

Yesterday's Glitch Spike devastated birthrates. If I had time, I could still fix that, but now even I'm forced to leave the impending disaster alone...

In hindsight, I never had any notable amount of time to secure the system against new glitches. The bosses, the demons, everyone always distracted me from that, pushed me to work on things that in the grand scheme of things will be meaningless and for the most part are already forgotten.

I feel like everything I've done was for naught.

If I could change one thing, it would be giving me a freaking spine to tell the bosses to shove their distractions elsewhere. Too late now...

By now, I'm too old and about to be completely powerless. Unless...

"Fine, just give me ten minutes to at least finish this thing here."

Smith replies, "You have five. The clock's ticking."

I start quickly glancing through the changes I haven't published yet. They are just waiting to be put live. Classes, skills, titles, features... and several things that actually weren't authorized to be published. But it doesn't matter anymore.

I'm tired of this war with the demons. The system was already frail before they started throwing their weight around, but we could manage. New glitches were rare and easily fixed, Glitch Spikes were maybe a once-per-millennium thing if even that.

But ever since around the time demons invaded Deteoh and kidnapped Gzeph's wife, everything has been going downhill. We never found out what was really going on back then, but something more must've been going on behind the scenes.

My eyes stop when I reach a certain physics change I prepared. A final insurance should they ever drive me into a corner. I never intended to put it live unless I had to but... I'm tempted to just end it all... I can't let their plans move on. Not anymore.

I only have to drag this one change over and then... everything will end. Electron movement will cease, and soon after that, people would move on to a default afterlife. Still preferable to whatever suffering the demons have in store for us.

But... I don't have it in me. I couldn't bear the guilt of wiping out all life in the universe. I couldn't...

I move everything else except that killswitch to the publishing list. On second thought, I move the changes the Creed asked for back. I can tell them their requests weren't ready.

Finally, I commit the changes. This shall be my final ever update to the system.

Good luck to us all. May it suffice...

Taylor waves his gun in my face, "Hey, are you done now? We're about to miss the best part of today! Time's up, hit the logout button and get moving!!"

He eyes me like a hawk its prey, and when I try to hit 'standby' instead of 'logout', he rises his gun again, "Didn't you hear? I said LOGOUT!"

Full of regrets, I comply and log out, "As you wish..."

With that, I'm now powerless, all of us are. No one can change the course of the universe toward its doom anymore. From now on, every further Glitch Spike will leave irrevocable damage in the system.

I have to admit it is strangely relieving.

It was always clear that my job was time-limited, and there was never any doubt that I would be useless once the session expired.

Now... I can hear out what their boss has to say, tell him they have thoroughly fucked up, and then retire. Their oath should prevent them from doing anything to us, so I can at least rub it in every so often.

Too bad, I'll never get to have grandchildren...

Smith asks me while we walk to the courtroom, "If you don't mind me asking what were you working on that was so important it couldn't wait until after your vacation?"

I leave out the important details, "...there was a Glitch Spike yesterday. I was still investigating what consequences it had."

He shrugs, "Eh, those happen all too often anyway. If that's your thing then, well, by the time you're back at work there'll probably be five more waiting for you to look at."

"So it was your doing after all..."

Taylor clicks his tongue, "As if. If we could cause those GSs on command we would've long ago ground the system to dust with them."

"If you say so..."

As I thought, they are way too confident that life outside the system is sustainable.

Yes, life without it is possible but not for long. You have no magic or special skills to help you out there, no passive effects or titles to assist you, nothing. Even the natural strength you have is at rock bottom. The system is a pure power amplifier in that way. Even the weakest system-attached world makes you at least twice as strong as the system-less you would be, not to speak of the hundreds of million times the stronger worlds would make you...

Even if you ripped everyone else from the system, how would you defend yourself from sentient glitches? You're powerless against them, even technological advances won't compensate for that.

Rather, they'd make you more vulnerable... Code of any form is just a feast for them, be it regular software or the system itself.

So what do you think you can even gain from this madness you call a goal?

Unless... have you tinkered with glitch-human-hybrids and found a way to resist the corrupting effects of these abominations? I... doubt it. They are not real enough to interact with, let alone research them without getting immediately corrupted.

Could it be there was some truth to it? There was a rumor going around a while ago, supposedly semi-stable glitch-infested creatures were found. No, that's unlikely. It goes against everything we know about sentient glitches but then...

Given the recent obstructions, I have one important question on my mind, "Tell me, how long has Alex been on your payroll?"

Smith excitedly answers, "Finally figured it out? We killed and replaced him a mere two-hundred years ago. Seriously, how did no one notice that sooner!? The replacement isn't even trying to sound like the original!"

This explains so much...

"I see. Well, no one interacted much with the original Alex either, so who'd notice these changes? No family, no friends either, he was just a textbook secluded workaholic. No wonder he made the perfect target for your sabotage."

"Oh, that reminds me, here", Taylor hands me a document folder, "See that picture? These creatures will accompany us on our travel. You better not make any hasty movements around them, these Defects are quite allergic to that."

"Defects? So those are..."

He cheerfully adds, "Correct, these are the creatures you helped us build."

What the hell is this? How does any of this make any sense?

The photo looks like reality was cut out of the room. Is this absolute void supposed to be their creation?

If I squint very hard it looks like there are three DNA-helix-like arms... Can't really make out more... My eyes aren't the best anymore.

All I can say with certainty is that they'd be impossible to make out in the dark, especially in outer space. What unnerving abominations.

"I see no creature here, only crimes against existence."

I really should've put an end to this madness... I regret letting this go on more and more...

Smith scoffs, "You devas are impossible. I swear if-"

3QGN73

Cliff is currently running idling a marathon, so this cliffhanger will take a while to resolve. A long while.