I took the long way to my usual coffee shop the next day.
Because I needed to think. Not just dodge more Patchers.
I needed to figure out what the hell I'd stepped into.
The city was... off. More than usual.
People walked like NPCs stuck on a loop. The same conversations repeated on the street corner. A woman dropped her phone, picked it up, dropped it again. Three times. Same motion. Same breath.
A looping script.
Even the air tasted… recycled.
> SYSTEM NOTE:
"You are beginning to notice environmental inconsistencies. This may cause discomfort."
Discomfort?
I felt like I'd just peeked behind the curtain of the universe and found a 12-year-old coding it during lunch break.
The glitch menu offered no answers. But under "Root Settings," something new had appeared:
> [INFORMATION FILE - LOCKED]
"Project: Echo Reality"
Access Level: Denied
Estimated Unlock Time: ∞
Infinite?
"Cool," I muttered. "Exactly what I wanted. A mystery with a boss fight timer set to never."
But I wasn't going to stop.
If they wanted to erase me for seeing the truth?
Then maybe it was time I stopped just messing around and started pulling the whole damn simulation apart.
Line by line.