You ever walk into a dungeon and immediately get the vibe that it wants to crash?
Because that was Fragmented Dungeon Level 3.
Walls flickered between textures. Floors were missing. The torches? They lit upside down.
Basically: it was held together with hope, duct tape, and broken JavaScript.
Rina looked around. "Are we… safe?"
I stepped on a tile. It disappeared.
"…Define safe."
---
The First Room: Tutorial Glitches
The first room had skeleton mobs.
Easy, right?
Except these ones were… frozen mid-animation. Like they were stuck dabbing forever.
> [Enemy Status: "Animation Loop Error" – Harmless]
One skeleton turned its head slowly, as if saying, "Kill me pls."
I tapped one with my sword. It crumbled into XP and loot.
> [Loot Acquired: Bone, Bone, Extra Bone, Error Tag (??)]
Rina stared. "You're farming broken mobs."
"Hey, I take wins wherever I can."
---
The Mid-Boss Room – Laggy McStabby
About halfway through, we entered a glitched hallway full of mirrors. At the end stood a figure that looked exactly like… me.
But his body glitched every few seconds. Like he couldn't decide what animation to load.
> [Mini-Boss: Lagged Reflection – Your Past Data Gone Wrong]
HP: 300
Skills: Copy Player, Mirror Dodge, Delayed Rage
I groaned. "A corrupted copy of me? Ugh. This dungeon knows my trauma."
---
Battle: Me vs. Me
He charged, and for a second — just one second — I couldn't tell who was real.
Then he tripped on a glitch tile and faceplanted.
"…Definitely not me."
I activated Data Pulse to expose his weak code spots — and followed up with Inventory Toss.
The item?
A rusty spoon.
It bounced off his head. He glitched backward and fell into a mirror, shattering it — and himself.
> [Mini-Boss Defeated. Glitch Points +1]
> [Item Acquired: "Mirror Fragment – Memory Trace"]
Okay. That was unsettling. And kinda sad.
Rina helped me up. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah… Just weird fighting a version of me with worse posture."
---
The Boss Room – Let's Get Hacking
The final chamber was huge. A circular arena made of broken tiles and floating code panels. At the center: a knight in half-loaded armor, surrounded by red error symbols.
> [Dungeon Boss: Corrupted Guardian – System Locked]
HP: 800
Threat Level: High
Status: Bugged… and angry.
I took out the Hacking Scroll Zell gave me.
Rina read over my shoulder. "You sure about this?"
"Nope."
> [Quest Activated: Hack the Dungeon Core]
Here we go.
---
Boss Battle: Code vs. Chaos
The boss launched a giant corrupted sword swing.
I dodged. Lag Clone activated automatically — and distracted him long enough for me to start the Hack Protocol.
> [Injecting Glitch Code… 23%… 47%… WARNING: Boss is resisting]
It roared and warped behind me.
I barely dodged thanks to Packet Skip — but the scroll burned in my hands.
Rina stabbed it in the knee. "Focus, nerd!"
> [Hack 88%... 94%... COMPLETE.]
The boss froze.
Its armor flickered.
Then—
---
SYSTEM OVERRIDE COMPLETE
> [You have overridden the Dungeon Boss Core.]
New Option: Reprogram
A glowing interface appeared.
It asked:
> [Rename Boss? Y/N]
Naturally, I typed:
Sir Bugsalot.
Rina: "You're unbelievable."
I hit enter.
---
The boss dropped its sword.
And knelt.
> [Sir Bugsalot has been pacified. Dungeon Cleared.]
[Reward: XP + Glitch Points + System Upgrade Token]
We did it.
We actually hacked a boss.
And gave him a stupid name.
I love my life.
---
Back at the Guild
Later that night, back in Aeronfall, I updated my status screen:
Name: Yuto Kurogane
Race: Codeborn (Glitched Core)
Level: 10
Title: Boss Hacker, Loop Breaker, Cheese-Fu Master
HP: 42/42
Strength: 14 | Agility: 14 | Intelligence: 20
Traits:
- Data Sense
- Debug Mode
- Crash Override (1x/week)
- Glitch Core
- Static Immunity (Minor)
Resources:
- Glitch Points: 3
Skills:
- Glitch: Random Buff
- Lag Clone (Lv3 – Independent)
- Rollback (1x/day)
- Sound Lag
- Packet Skip (1x/day)
- Inventory Toss
- Data Pulse
- System Rewrite
Inventory:
- System Upgrade Token x1
- Mirror Fragment (Memory Trace)
- Debug Fragment x1
- Renamed Boss: Sir Bugsalot (Friendly)
---
But Of Course, There's a New Problem
Just as I was getting comfy, a new alert pinged:
> [WARNING: The Architect has detected unauthorized system access.]
[Tracking signal initiated. Countermeasure: en route.]
Rina looked over.
"Is that… bad?"
I stared at the screen.
"Oh yeah. Very bad."
---
To be continued...