I died at 2:17 AM with my face in cold coffee and error messages everywhere.
The office was empty. Just me, the air conditioner humming, and my heart beating too fast. I hadn't slept in two days. One more bug to fix. One more deployment.
My computer screen showed.
FATAL ERROR: System crashed
I laughed, but it sounded wrong. Same, computer. I was crashing too.
I reached for my coffee mug but missed. The room got smaller and smaller. My chest hurt bad. A loud ringing filled my ears.
Then everything went black.
No bright light. No tunnel. Just darkness.
Then I heard it.
DING!
[GLOBAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT]
The System has started! Welcome, Users. Tutorial begins in 60 seconds.
My eyes opened.
I was on the floor next to my chair. Coffee was all over my hoodie.
All three of my computer monitors showed the same message—a window I'd never seen before, with a voice reading it out loud.
Outside, I could hear sirens. Dogs barking. My phone lit up and started counting down.
59... 58... 57...
I pulled myself up to sit. My throat was dry. My heart was still beating fast. I had died. I was sure of it. But here I was, alive.
Across the street, lights turned on in the apartments. People moved around in the windows. Someone screamed, then laughed.
DING!
[GLOBAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT] All Users will get a Starter Power. Please stay calm. Don't panic.
"Right," I whispered. "Easy to say."
My phone buzzed.
[User: Marcus Martinez]
Level: 0
Starter Power: —
Status: ...
ERROR: Cannot load status. Trying again...
Suddenly, text appeared in the sky over the whole city. Huge letters floated over all the buildings.
Welcome to the System.
Then windows popped up everywhere. In the building across the street, a woman screamed with joy and shouted, "Water Power!"
Someone else yelled, "Steel Skin!" Down on the sidewalk, a delivery guy held up his hand.
A small flame appeared above his palm like a tiny star.
People were getting superpowers. Clean ones. Easy ones.
My phone buzzed again.
Getting your Starter Power... ... ERROR: 0x000-DEAD-BEEF System Error: User health check failed
I stared at the screen. "Is this a joke?"
The countdown hit zero.
DING!
[TUTORIAL: PART 1] Monsters will appear outside safe areas. Use your Starter Power to survive. Good luck, Users.
The street filled with moving shadows. Something with wings landed on a street light and made clicking sounds.
Doors slammed shut. Car alarms went off, then stopped.
My computer monitors changed. A new box appeared.
[Admin Note] Users should not be able to see this message.
"What?"
Another line appeared:
Trying to fix...
On my phone, error messages scrolled faster.
Health check: FAILED
User heartbeat: 0
User status: Dead
Starting backup mode
Loading Debug Mode (USER ERROR)
Dead. The word just sat there.
I touched my neck. I had a pulse. The System thought I was dead. Or maybe I had been dead and got stuck in some weird computer glitch.
A new box appeared on my computer.
[DEBUG VIEW ENABLED]
Access Level: READ-ONLY
Warning: This view is not for Users. Seeing this may be dangerous.
My mouth went dry. I didn't get a power. I got a bug report.
A new window opened, showing lines that looked like code.
User: Get Starter Power → pick from list [Common] If health check = PASS → save changes. If not → send to garbage collector.
Garbage collector. Something cold ran down my spine.
When I put my cursor over "garbage collector," a small box appeared.
[Process: Garbage Collector]
Cleans up unused memory. Deletes orphaned Users.
Delete orphaned Users.
"Not today," I said to the empty room.
I clicked back to the DEBUG VIEW. There was a tiny arrow next to READ-ONLY. I clicked it.
[ACCESS REQUESTED] Reason?
I typed: System killed me by accident. Need to fix it.
Request denied.
But the DEBUG VIEW changed anyway. A new tab appeared: Hidden Interface. The cursor jumped to it without me moving it.
The tab name blinked. Locked. Locked. Locked.
Then one letter changed: Locked → Looked
A quiet ding sounded.
[Unhandled Exception] Two interfaces tried to do the same thing. Opening backup.
The tab got brighter. Hidden Interface.
I clicked it.
The screen filled with switches, toggles, and angry notes. I saw phrases like World
Seed, Version 1.0, Admin: Not Present.
One line pulsed at the bottom.
RenderOverride: OFF
A tooltip whispered: When ON, Users can see through the System's disguise.
I clicked the switch.
The office window disappeared. The glass, the night, the walls—peeled away like stickers.
Behind them, the city glowed in wireframes and numbers. Every creature was a bunch of variables. Every person was a neat card of stats.
And mine? Mine was chaos—two windows on top of each other. One was the normal System card with a blank Power field. The other was spilling secrets.
I wasn't strong. I wasn't fast. But I could see how the world actually worked.
[STATUS UPDATE]
Name: Marcus Martinez
Level: 1
Class: [ERROR - ADMIN ACCESS DETECTED]
Power:Debug Vision Special Ability: Can see System code and hidden information
[WARNING: ANOMALOUS USER DETECTED]
[DEBUG AGENTS INCOMING]
[ETA: 2 MINUTES]
My smile faded. "Oh shit."