On my way home from the encounter with the two glitch creatures, I randomly stumbled over an empty deo spray - and promptly stepped onto the road and sank in it because I was distracted from a triggered memory.

It was about the day I arrived here. But for some reason, Elly was completely missing in it, or most unbelievably, Therese was nice! If that isn't clear proof of tempering, I don't know what is.

Also, I didn't interact with that Evan guy, did I? Nor do I recall that strange smell of him...

But if this out-of-place deo spray is here... maybe I should have him investigated. In the false memory, he admitted to being a liaison for the Devas, so leaving that unaddressed can only be cause for trouble.

But where did all that info come from...

Did one of my skills develop a new relevant defect? ...doesn't seem like it.

What about the titles? Wait... I have the Demon Lord title, why can't I remember what it does? Did I seriously never look at its description? That sounds... unlikely...

Urgh, for the love of Tink, fuck that noise!

I close the menu but can still recall what I just read. Maybe it worked once but it doesn't seem to anymore. Why? Is it because of all the infections in my soul? Again and again, I have to wonder what I have become through that accident...

If only I never met Dan... It is all that monster's fault...

"Hey, what are you thinking about?", asks me Eclaire from behind.

Seems like I walked quite a distance 'underground' while I was lost in thought. Despite it being supposedly solid ground below a road, this secret passage provides barely more resistance than regular air. Vision is weird as well, like a half-transparent overlap of the ground over what I'd see if there was no glitched ground around me.

With that, it is kind of hard to identify where exactly we are, but I can see people walking above us and that might be the market area. At least I think that is Lucy's smithy over there.

It is weird. The last time I interacted with this glitchy space, it was more like a swamp where I could sink about halfway, but now it acts more like an illusion for me, at least I'm now completely below ground. If I was just half a head taller, I would stick out again.

For everyone else, it is still a regular road they can walk on. Well, everyone but Eclaire and me it seems.

"Just some false memories, but how are you down here? I thought I was the only one that has an intimate relationship with this road."

My wife answers, "No clue. I was just on my way home and once I stepped on the road, I sank into it. I was curious, so I started exploring where this secret tunnel leads, and then I ran into you."

"It seems to mostly follow the regular main road. Maybe if you drunk-walked it would match exactly to it. But aside from that, I've not seen any point in it. Not that I really expect one, glitched stuff rarely makes sense after all."

She shrugs, "That might be so. But I've seen that it doesn't only follow the main road, there were splits to some side roads at least. Though not all of them. Anyway, we're running late, so let's move on before Lucy gets angry with us."

"Yeah, you're right."

While we walk, we exchange what we've experienced today, except I leave out the part where the Features are considering me to become their 'Customer', or that they are looking for one in the first place. That whole topic is still too weird to me.

It seems both of us encountered two glitch creatures. I hope they are the same, two are already two too many. But imagine if there are four or even more - yeah, no thanks. We'd fill the customer quota way too soon. And I've no intention of ever doing so.

However, I feel like it is already too late for that...

Before reaching our house we finally find a split in this underground road that doesn't match to the real road above.

Eclaire points at it, "This split doesn't match what we've seen so far... Do you want to explore it? I'm kinda curious where it leads."

I quickly look above, "That would be right into someone's house. Yeah, I'm curious as well. Let's go."

We follow the new split, and after about half a house's length it starts descending like a mining tunnel. Eventually, the glitched mine shaft ends in a small normal space. A room walled off by rock walls and with a familiar portal in front of us. A dusty marble frame around a massive metal door which hides the actual entrance. Someone wants this to stay shut and unused.

"A dungeon entrance down here?"

Could be one of the several thousands of lesser dungeons I read about in the Beginner's Guide to Dungeons.

Eclaire agrees, "The border at least looks like the one we have above. Well, before... you know..."

Yeah, I broke it. No thanks to the Marca-like boss monster forcing my hand.

"I thought our area currently already counts as a dungeon. Can you even enter a dungeon while inside another dungeon?"

She checks the heavily dust-covered symbols on the entrance's frame, "No clue. How would that even work? Is then time stopped inside the 'outer' dungeon?"

"It is more likely that everything breaks. This doesn't sound like an occurrence the System accounts for."

She calls me over, "Don't just stand there. Help me check the symbols on the frame, they are different from ours up above."

She seems very fascinated by this discovery. I didn't think she'd care about dungeons this much.

"They had a meaning?", I walk over to the portal as well.

"At least according to the teachings at the church, they have one. Supposedly something about a certain deity wishing us good luck. But nothing specific."

"And do you seriously believe that?"

She thinks for a moment, "Maybe, not sure. No one could reach the runes. Can you? Maybe whatever lets you speak our language also includes those symbols."

I think back and get nothing, "They were at least nothing I could recognize. I doubt it is different here."

I wipe off some of the dust and try to read what is written here.

L'OISEAU D'HERMÈS EST MON NOM. MANGER MES AILES POUR M'APPRIVOISER.

"Yeah, sorry, I don't know that language..."

But I vaguely recall... something.

When I look at it, a few memory fragments flash before my eyes. It seems someone was studying these exact symbols in an archeological class - or should've been, they didn't pay much attention. They couldn't decipher the meaning if their life depended on it. A waste of time...

My gut feeling tells me, this memory was ancient and they were studying this as part of a long-lost civilization; how old does this make this writing, and why is it here? ...well, neither of us is smart enough to find out, nor would it really change anything.

Where's a Daniel Jackson when you need one...

But some of my instincts are screaming that someone important to us is sealed on the other side, and we must get them out of there - and it's not the vampiric ones doing the talking...

"We have to get out of here. Now!"

My shouting wakes Eclaire out of her daze, "What, why the hurry?"

"I told you that I own memories that don't belong to me, right? I saw this writing in some of them, though not the meaning. We shouldn't be here, this was a setup."

She's confused, "I don't follow. What does that mean?"

I grab her and we start walking back, "No clue, but someone expected me to be here. If I had never been in that glitch accident, the fabricated memories might've been more complete and I might've been able to decipher the words. It would likely have been clear whether we should open it, and how. The fact is, I would've probably thought that this was an additional language I learned back in school and mostly forgot about. I would've simply let my guard down, and we'd have followed the instructions. Someone planned for this find and I don't like it one bit."

"But how could someone know that you of all people would find this?"

"I don't know, but one thing is clear: this is currently a Schroedinger's Pandora's Box. If we let it stay closed, there's a powerful ally waiting behind it. But if we break it open, an enemy is waiting for us we can't handle. Either way, we would choose poorly."

I look back and the portal is suddenly gone, there's just an empty room behind us. Eclaire notices it as well.

She asks me, "Go back a bit. If you still had the false, complete memories, wouldn't it have made you think? There are probably thousands of languages out there and you just happen to know this exact one? Isn't that way too unlikely?"

"Unlikely, yes, but not impossible - people win the lottery all the time."

She sounds as if I was mad, "I... don't understand the comparison."

"Not important. The thing is, while it is unlikely I would've still rationalized it as likely enough to be possible. But seeing it from this side now, it is all too clearly a setup. I can't even guess if it is an invitation or a warning. Either way, it is not something we should carelessly interact with now."

Eclaire agrees, "Right, especially since we have no clue how a dungeon inside a dungeon would work. ...say, did you also just get a strange system message?"

"No, what did it say?"

She shakes her head, "No idea, it is just an unreadable mess. Not even the system message has the correct color. Ah, forget about it. Probably just another system error."

"Yeah, sounds like it. Don't worry too much about it. The glitches have done quite a number on the System, just a messed up info box is the least of our worries. I mean, just look at our most recent skills and classes..."

"But I thought you made them?"

Did I? I mean, yes, I did but I used a System menu for that, right? Yeah, glitches can't create such complex, functional menus out of nowhere, the framework for it must've already existed. So it can't really be considered 'my' creation, the System is at least to 50% at fault here for offering the option, more like 90%, 99% if I'm honest. I'm just hitting the gacha button after selecting some sacrifices, right? Right.

"Yeah, but the System let me, it gave its OK for that! You can't get more official than that!"

Eclaire sounds unsure, "...if you say so..."

While continuing the walk home, I have to think - aren't the Features the only ones around here that have any clue who their parents are? The people here were messed up by their fear of nobles who for some reason considered commoners unworthy of having a family and thus allegedly oppressed them. I haven't seen any such family hunts myself, but when Therese told me about it, a Truth Gem was present and confirmed it, so it is likely the truth.

As for me, this body wasn't born but created, so I don't have parents in this world in the first place. As for my life before... I have no memories of parents where I can say with certainty that they really are mine. Pitiful.

So all things considered, I fit right in with the people here.

And then there are the Features who kinda know how they could get reunited with their mother, and I've decided to be the bad guy who wants to prevent that. Consider me scum all you want, it isn't even out of jealousy. I promise. Maybe.

Eventually, we finish our journey through the glitchy passage and arrive in front of our house. We wait until no one looks and then climb out of the road.

If the glitch road was a bit heavier and stuck to us, we'd have captured a nice recreation of a swamp monster movie. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Not a single trace of the illegal passage was visible on us. At least it serves as a hiding spot should shit ever hit the fan.

And with that thought, I've jinxed it...

We enter our house and Lucy is already waiting for us.

3QGN73

Honestly, I just never found a good spot to have Jared look at what his demon lord title does, and then it became just awkward to do that 30+ chapters after he's acquired it. And this seemed like a good/funny reason as any.