POV: Zerik
Current Objective: Follow Mayor BribaldLocation: Crown City Sewer Subnet – Layer 1Mood: Moist Regret
Sewer water smells like wet ferns and unfinished side quests.
I'm up to my knees in what I'm hoping is just rusty water, following the golden-glow outline of Mayor Bribald's heels as he floats ahead, muttering to himself like a man late to his own scripted death.
Patch, still perched on my shoulder, conjures a glowing UI orb to light the path.
"You do realize," he says, "that the mayor may explode at any time."
"Great. We'll get confetti and clues."
We turn a corner, and the tunnel opens into an underground chamber lined with glitching statues—pixel-stretched likenesses of every mayor from Patch Note 1.1 to the current build. Most of them are... melting. One is literally upside-down.
Mayor Bribald floats to the center pedestal and taps a hidden rune.
The platform descends.
I grab a loose ladder and cling on like a regretful barnacle.
[New Area Discovered: Executive Overflow – Access Restricted][Password Accepted: ADMIN?LOL][Warning: Political Subprocess Instability Detected]
We descend into darkness, and I finally ask, "What exactly are you hiding, Bribald?"
He doesn't turn around. "A history the devs tried to rollback. And the reason this city never finished the tutorial arc."
We reach a vault.
Inside?
Holograms. Bugged AI cores. Shelves stacked with event banners and sealed patch scrolls labeled things like:
"CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT (DEPRECATED)"
"STABILITY PROTOCOL: KAEL_v1.0"
"MAYOR.EXE – DO NOT DUPLICATE"
Patch whispers, "Zerik. That's protagonist code."
My stomach drops.
"Why does the mayor have backup files for the original hero?"
Bribald finally turns to us. His smile's gone.
"I was supposed to train him," he says quietly. "Before the devs wiped the mentor role. They locked the hero's core behind too many triggers... and now he's missing."
[Quest Update: Ghost in the Build – Major Branch Discovered]You have learned that the original hero, Kael, was a test build with mentor dependencies. The narrative collapsed without him.
I stagger back, bracing myself on a nearby console labeled "Emotional Backstory, Do Not Touch."
Patch floats toward a sealed vault door. "This city never finished its onboarding questline. No hero. No system anchor. Just drifting logic."
"Which means...?"
Bribald looks me dead in the eyes.
"This city needs someone to anchor it, Zerik."
I step back.
"No."
[Offer: Accept System Anchor Role – City-Level Narrative Authority][WARNING: This may result in becoming a localized Final Boss.]
"Oh absolutely not."
But even as I decline, the terminal glows red.
Because someone else just broke in through another route.
POV: Snipe, Crown City Plaza, Phase Cake
Current Objective: Steal the HovercakeRole: Party Crasher / Cake Technician / Explosives OptionalMood: Maximum Gremlin
Snipe lives for chaos.
She's 4'10" of high-speed rogue energy, dressed in glittering stealth gear and equipped with the rarest mount in the city: a sentient hoverboard with abandonment issues.
Right now, she's crouched behind a pile of ruined gift boxes, watching guards swarm the plaza as the Cleanser's failed purge sends the entire event into full-blown disaster mode.
And in the middle?
The Cake.
Glowing. Spinning. Hovering gently above a shielded pedestal. Occasionally muttering:
"I contain secrets.""You should not frost secrets.""I feel... betrayal."
Snipe licks her lips. "I'm gonna eat that cake."
[Quest: Cake Protocol Intercept]Objective: Hijack the event-exclusive artifact cake.Reward: ???Difficulty: High / Stupid / Delicious
She dashes forward.
Dives under a table. Rolls behind a stunned bard. Slides beneath a flailing cultist caught in a "divine confetti" loop.
Two guards spot her.
She flips a toggle on her belt.
[Ability: Performance Mode]You become 200% more fabulous for 10 seconds. All enemies stunned by flair.Cooldown: 1 minute or until someone groans audibly.
She cartwheels into the air with a backflip so extra it glitches her outline into golden sparkles.
Guards: stunned.
Audience: confused.
Hovercake: unguarded.
She lands beside it, cracks her knuckles, and rips open the underside panel with a hairpin and pure disrespect.
[Hidden Compartment Accessed][Item Acquired: Dev Room Admin Key – Obfuscated Format][New Optional Questline Unlocked: Ascend to the Patch Layer]
"Oh-ho-ho, jackpot."
The Cake spins faster. "I told you I had secrets!"
Then it lights up like a party nuke.
[FAILSAFE TRIGGERED: Cake Defense System Online]
"Oh crap."
It starts firing tiny burning cupcakes.
Snipe sprints out, dodging what can only be described as a dessert-based war crime.
POV: Zerik (Vault)
The vault alarms wail.
Bribald stares at the blinking console. "Someone just breached the admin override."
Patch: "They accessed it through the Cake."
Zerik: "Why does that sentence even make sense here?!"
[Optional Path Activated: Synchronize with Cake Protocol Hijacker]
Patch turns to me, suddenly serious. "Zerik. That wasn't a random player."
"What do you mean?"
"I think that was another debugged entity. Like you. But smarter. And faster. And possibly more deliberate."
I clench my jaw.
Because if they're chasing secrets tied to the dev room...
…I'm already three steps behind.