Sector D Cable Shafts.
A vertical mess of busted walls and platforms, climbing until it disappears into fog.
I stood at the base of the silo, tilting my hood back to scope the climb.
My neck motors whined—like a glitchy sound loop repeating the same grind every few seconds.
Above me, a kilometer of tangled cables, rusted pipes, and Core-Tech lines twisted into the dark—like someone yanked the wiring out and left it hanging.
The draw distance here was garbage.
Past fifty meters, everything turned into flat gray fog—like the game couldn't load what was up there.
My HUD flickered.
`[SYSTEM WARNING]: Too steep. Auto-path disabled.`
"I know," I muttered, my voice synthesized and tinny.
"Manual override."
My HP bar was blinking red in the corner of my vision.
`HP: 47 / 1250 [CRITICAL]`
`STATUS: Data Leak (Active)`
Forty-seven.
Every few seconds, a chunk of my data got shaved off.
Each tick hit like a cold spike at the base of my skull.
If I didn't find a repair station or a quick fix soon, the game would mark me as missing data and delete me.
I gripped a thick, twitching data-cable.
It felt greasy, coated in Sink-born muck-slime the game simulated a little too well.
My hand— a blocky claw in minion robes—clipped into the cable texture.
Hitbox bug.
The weight on my back was a straight-up grief.
The `[Core-Tech-Mutagen Cannon]` was Elite-tier gear—high-detail, high-res, and way too clean for my trash-tier build.
My minion body was built cheap and light, and it was maxed out under the weight.
Every time I moved, the cannon clipped through my robe and the game freaked out.
It was like trying to run Cyberpunk on a toaster at 3% battery.
I pulled myself up.
`HP: 46 / 1250`
Above, the first platform hovered in the gloom.
Security-Orbs floated there too—silent as patch notes.
Spherical drones, cheap geometry—jagged polys with a single red eye slapped on.
They were idle, but their proximity scan was still on.
I caught their scan lines sweeping back and forth.
Tick. Sweep left. Tick. Sweep right.
"Stutter-stepping," I whispered.
Back in the office, it was ranked-player muscle memory—kiting for free DPS.
Here, it meant moving in the refresh gaps.
I watched a bead of condensation drop from a pipe above.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
It hit a grate, splashed, and then glitched.
The splash animation reset mid-spray, like somebody mashed rewind.
The bead respawned mid-air.
Loop error.
I timed my move to the loop.
Step.
I ascended.
To my left, the wall was a full-on texture flicker nightmare—two surfaces fighting for the same space.
A rusted iron plate and a smooth copper pipe overlapped, flickering between brown and gold like the game couldn't decide what to show.
It flickered hard enough to make my eyes water—just pure glitch in brown and gold.
Pause.
A Security-Orb drifted past, its red scanning cone washing over the spot I had occupied a millisecond ago.
Step.
`HP: 45 / 1250`
I reached a narrow gantry.
Below me, The Dregs was a black void—unloaded map. One slip and I'm gone.
"Keep the rhythm," I hissed.
My internal fan noise—probably in my head—still screamed like a cheap PC under load.
I felt it in my guts—every input landed heavy.
`HP: 44 / 1250`
I hauled myself up another meter.
A nearby vent fan was out of sync—the screech hit a full second after the blades spun.
Clunk-whirr-snap.
It was maddening.
My right hand started glitching.
My glove texture couldn't keep up when my fingers moved.
I clenched my fist, forcing the render to stabilize. The flickering stopped—for now. Blue wireframe showed underneath.
`WARNING: LAG SPIKE. PACKET LOSS.`
The world lurched.
Rubber-banding yanked my character back like I hit an invisible leash.
For a split second, I snapped three meters down—back where I’d just been.
My stomach dropped as the game yanked me down, then ping-ponged me right back up.
"Come on," I wheezed.
"Hold together. Don’t you crash on me."
`HP: 43 / 1250`
I reached for the next rung.
Then the air turned on me.
The ambient audio dipped. Red light bathed the catwalk.
The Security Orbs woke up.
`WARNING: UNKNOWN UNIT DETECTED. INITIATING PURGE.`
Panic hit—my body locked up for a beat.
The Orbs pulsed, charging a delete beam.
I couldn't tank that.
I sprinted for the edge of the catwalk, already at my move-speed cap.
The Orbs fired.
I threw myself off the edge as the platform behind me flickered into wireframe—then got deleted.
`HP: 42 / 1250`
I dropped into the fog.
The fall made my screen freak out.
The smoke turned into chunky pixels as the game dropped resolution just to keep running.
I aimed for a lower rusted platform, a dark shape in the gray smear.
`LAG: MASSIVE`.
Lag spiked like a gut-punch.
I landed, but the game took forever to register it.
I stood frozen on the platform for a full second—then the impact finally caught up.
CRUNCH.
The sound was crunchy and distorted, like the audio got wrecked mid-hit.
My hitbox felt off, like my model got shoved sideways.
`[-12 HP]`
`HP: 30 / 1250`
I scrambled backward, pressing my small, robed form into the shadows.
My vision jittered like a dying stream.
I didn’t vomit—I spat raw data, white static spilling under my cowl and down my chest.
I looked up.
The Orbs were scanning the fog above, their beams cutting through the low-res mist.
They hadn't tracked me down here. Yet.
I forced myself to stand.
My legs felt heavy, like my animations were stiff.
The floor panels flickered again—more busted textures—and I ignored it.
I locked onto the only stable thing in this trash heap.
The Core-Tech Gate.
It stood twenty yards ahead, a pristine ring of gold and sapphire that didn’t belong in this junk map.
It hummed with a low, steady thrum.
Even that was wrong: the blue pulse hit first, then the sound came a second late.
Audio lag.
The match felt like it was crashing in slow motion.
I limped toward it, the `[Tox-Mutagen Cannon]` dragging on the floor.
`HP: 29 / 1250 [-1 HP]`
I was one auto away from getting deleted.
One more lag spike or damage tick and I’m getting wiped.
The gate was my only exit—up and out, toward Zenith.
To hardware that didn’t hate me.
Generated by GlitchWriter.
::: SYSTEM NOTIFICATION :::
If you are enjoying the glitch, please help keep the process running!
A Follow and a Rating (?????) feeds the algorithm.
ADVANCED CACHE DETECTED
Discuss builds, check the math & join the dev log.