The day started normally.
Which should have been my first warning.
No random system alerts.
No divine bosses trying to vaporize me.
No villagers asking, "Are you the laggy guy who fell into our chicken coop?"
Just a peaceful morning at the Aeronfall Adventurer Guild.
I was sipping soup. Rina was quietly sharpening her daggers.
Then a bell rang at the quest board.
And everything went downhill. Again.
---
The Quest Board… Breaks?
Literally. It glitched.
The screen blinked like a bad internet connection, then displayed:
[Emergency Quest: Frog Trouble in the Whispering Swamp]
Difficulty: E-Rank
Reward: 400 gold + 1 Random Glitch Token
Status: Glitched (Unstable Data Found)
Rina leaned closer. "Glitched quest? That's new."
I smiled wide.
"Which means I'm the perfect guy for the job."
"…That's what I'm afraid of."
---
Welcome to the Swamp
The Whispering Swamp looked exactly like it sounded—muddy, spooky, and full of bugs.
The annoying kind. Not the system kind. I mean literal mosquitoes the size of soup bowls.
We followed the trail to a clearing where something croaked loud enough to make my ears ring.
And there it was:
A GIANT frog. No—scratch that. A king-size toad with a monocle and a crown.
He blinked at us like we were the weird ones.
[Glitched Boss: Duke Ribbitus the Third]
HP: ???
Level: 6ish??
Status: Unstable | Glitch-Aware
Rina: "…Why does it have a monocle?"
Me: "Why does it have better fashion than me?"
---
BATTLE STARTED – Kinda?
Duke Ribbitus opened his mouth…
AND SPOKE.
"Who dares enter my buggy domain?!"
I blinked. "Wait… boss monsters can talk now?"
"Only during unstable code hours," the frog said dramatically.
I turned to Rina. "This is the best day of my life."
---
[Skill Activated: Glitch – Random Buff]
Result: "Hyper Focus Mode" – For 15 seconds, your reaction time is multiplied.
My eyes widened. Everything slowed.
I saw the frog's tongue shoot toward Rina like a missile. Without thinking, I shouted:
"ROLL LEFT!"
She dodged perfectly.
I used Lag Clone, and my clone tackled the frog's tongue mid-air.
It screamed. "You dare interrupt my slurping?!"
---
Rina dashed in with a dagger strike.
The frog hopped backward—then glitched mid-air and reappeared upside down.
[WARNING: Physics Error Detected]
[Duke Ribbitus is now considered airborne AND aquatic simultaneously.]
Me: "What does that even mean?!"
Rina: "It means don't think about it and just keep hitting him!"
---
Time to Test the Glitch Token
I opened my inventory mid-fight.
[Glitch Token x1 – Use to unlock a new unstable skill]
Clicked it.
[Skill Unlocked: "Inventory Toss" – Random item from inventory is thrown at high speed. Damage and effect… unknown.]
I activated it.
My broken wooden spoon from Day 1 launched out of my inventory at 300 km/h and hit the frog's monocle.
[CRITICAL HIT – Style Point Damage +500]
The monocle shattered.
The frog croaked in pure rage. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT, PEASANT!"
---
It jumped—and glitched—and landed on its own tail.
Rina stabbed it. I followed up with another Lag Clone Slap Combo.
Then—
POP.
The frog disappeared in a burst of green smoke and data fragments.
---
QUEST COMPLETE
[Duke Ribbitus defeated.]
Reward: 400 Gold ✅
Glitch Token x1 ✅
Title Unlocked: "Frog Slayer Supreme" ✅
New Skill Fragment Obtained: "Data Pulse" (???)
I wiped my brow. "Rina… I think we just defeated the most stylish frog in existence."
Rina sat on a log, exhausted. "And broke the system. Again."
A moment of silence passed.
Then:
"Hey," I said, "how come my system is the only one that unlocks ridiculous skills like 'Inventory Toss'?"
Rina glanced at me. "Because the universe is afraid of you having real power."
"Fair."
---
Back at the guild, the cat-eared receptionist raised an eyebrow as I turned in the quest.
"You smell like swamp," she said.
"I smell like victory," I replied proudly.
"Same thing."
She handed me my reward and muttered, "May the system gods help us all…"
---
Status Update
Name: Yuto Kurogane
Race: NULL (?)
Level: 6
Title: Frog Slayer Supreme, Bugged but Breathing
HP: 24/24
Strength: 10 | Agility: 9 | Intelligence: 10
Skills:
- Glitch: Random Buff
- Lag Clone (Lv3 – Independent)
- Rollback (1x/day)
- Sound Lag
- Packet Skip (1x/day)
- Inventory Toss (NEW)
- Data Pulse (Fragment – Incomplete)
Inventory:
- Gold: 600
- Glitch Token x1
---
Just before sleep, my system buzzed again.
[System Update Available: New Race Path Detected – "Codeborn"]
[Do you wish to begin evolution? Y/N]
I sat up in bed, eyes wide.
"Rina?"
"Mhm?"
"...I think I might be turning into software."
---
To be continued...