You know that feeling when you fix one bug in a game, but five new ones pop up?
Yeah, my life was basically that—except the bugs tried to kill me.
---
The Debug Key Fragment
The shard I looted from Mr. Tech Support (a.k.a. the Debugger) was still glowing faintly in my inventory.
[Debug Key Fragment: 1/3]
A piece of the Architect's master key. Collect all three to force open locked system files.
Warning: May attract unwanted attention.
"Unwanted attention," I muttered. "As if nearly getting deleted by a walking antivirus wasn't enough."
Rina leaned over my shoulder. "What happens if you gather all three?"
I shrugged. "Best case, we get admin privileges. Worst case, we explode. Fifty-fifty chance, maybe."
Zell sighed, rubbing his temples. "Why do I feel like it's going to be the exploding option?"
---
Unexpected Visitor
Before we could debate more, something scratched at the guild hall door.
Cautiously, I opened it…
And standing there was none other than Sir Bugsalot.
Yes. The glitchy beetle boss I'd hacked, renamed, and accidentally turned into my loyal(?) minion.
Except now, he wore a little cape.
[Sir Bugsalot – Loyal Minion (???) ]
Level: Variable
Status: Overly Dramatic Entrance
"Behold!" the beetle screeched in his distorted voice. "Your knight has returned from his noble quest!"
I blinked. "Did you… give yourself a cape?"
"It was lying in the dungeon," Bugsalot replied proudly. "I deemed it fitting for a bug of my stature."
Rina facepalmed. Zell muttered, "We are going to die because of this thing."
---
Bugsalot's "Quest"
Apparently, Sir Bugsalot had been wandering around the dungeons while we fought the Debugger. And somehow, he found something important.
He spat out a chunk of glowing data.
[Debug Key Fragment: 2/3] Acquired!]
I froze. "…Wait, WHAT? You found one?!"
Bugsalot clicked his mandibles smugly. "The System may hate you, Master, but it loves me. I am destiny's chosen bug."
I hugged him without shame. "Never doubt the bug."
Rina groaned. "We're trusting our lives to a walking software glitch…"
---
The Warning
Before I could celebrate, my HUD flickered again.
A new message appeared:
[Alert: Architect has increased surveillance.]
[New Countermeasure: Trojan Entities Released.]
The floor beneath us rumbled.
Out of the ground, shadowy figures began crawling out, their bodies like corrupted NPCs—faces blank, limbs jagged, moving like broken animations.
"Trojan horses," Zell muttered grimly. "They infect whatever they touch."
One screeched, its jaw glitching sideways.
Great. Just great.
---
Power of Fragmented Soul
I activated Fragmented Soul again. My glitch-clones appeared: one serious, one goofy, and one holding a sandwich.
The serious one yelled, "Focus!"
The goofy one yelled, "We're so screwed!"
The sandwich one just… kept eating.
Together, we charged.
Bugsalot leapt into battle like a pixelated superhero, cape fluttering. Rina fired arrows of compressed light, Zell unleashed his dark magic, and I spammed every broken ability I had.
One Trojan lunged at me—only to glitch midair as my goofy clone yelled, "NOPE!" and slapped it away.
Another tried to infect Bugsalot, but the beetle shouted, "ERROR 404: Infection Not Found!" and headbutted it into data dust.
---
Aftermath
The last Trojan dissolved into static. I dropped to my knees, exhausted.
Two Debug Key Fragments in our hands… one more to go.
But the System wasn't happy. The Architect was watching closer now.
Rina wiped sweat from her brow. "We can't keep fighting like this forever."
Zell looked at the fragments. "Once we have all three… what then? Do we unlock the Architect's core? Or do we doom ourselves completely?"
I forced a grin, holding up the two glowing shards.
"Simple. We finish the set. Then we knock on the Architect's front door."
Bugsalot raised a claw. "And if he doesn't answer, we break it down!"
For once… I actually agreed with the bug.
---
To be continued…