We stood there listening, waiting to hear if there were any noise again. Something clattered.

“There is definitely something down there,” Max said.

I nodded. There was indeed something down in that dark place. It was one thing to play a game and know you had to go down into the spooky place for treasure. It was something else entirely to be standing, feeling the stones beneath your feet, the warmth of a torch behind you, and the prickles of a million goosebumps on your skin, knowing that you might die. I didn’t want to go down there.

“Let’s go,” Slade whispered, pushing me from behind closer to the black pit.

I spun, smacking him, “Asshole! Why do we want to go down there?”

“It’s part of the game,” he shrugged.

“We should check it out,” Max said. “That’s why we're in the game, right?”

Nervously, I started talking, more to myself than anyone else, “Okay, maybe it's part of the quest. I mean, the devs, when they write this stuff, usually have multiple ways to accomplish a goal. Maybe something down there will bring the goblin king to us or give us an advantage when we’re dealing with him. Or… I don’t know… anything that might help on this side-quest.”

“What do you mean - multiple ways?” Max asked in a low voice.

“MMOs and quest games.” I whispered back, speaking in a rushed cadence like a machine gun, “There’s usually more than one way to solve a quest. You can go in Slade style, swinging an axe, but most devs include additional ways to accomplish the same goal. Like, maybe you charm the king with a song. Or you befriend his brother, who tells the king you aren’t such a bad guy.”

“You think this is related to the goblin king?” Max looked dubious.

“Of course,” I said. “Goblins were here. We’re looking for a goblin. It’s the way devs do it in most games. Multiple paths.”

“Do enemies run away in your MMOs?” Max asked.

“Typically, no. Encounters, you know, fight to their deaths even when it becomes obvious there’s no hope of winning against the players.” I said.

“But the goblins we fought did run away. Almost like they were afraid of dying.” Max said.

“There are encounters where that can happen. Usually, to bring another wave of mobs in.” I explained. But I realized that didn’t happen when those goblins ran away. There was no second wave.

“So, this game is not acting consistently with MMOs?” Max said, “And that potentially means that whatever is down below may not be related to what we are doing.”

“Good point,” I said. “But this is a game. They brought us in to beta-test, to look for bugs. Doesn’t that imply that the game itself is inherently like other games?” Realizing, as I said it, that my own logic was inconsistent. We were in the game. It was already unlike all other games.

Max reached over and pinched my arm.

“Ouch. Point taken. Literally.” I said. “You know, I was trying to talk myself out of my fear by convincing myself it was a known game element. Thanks for robbing me of that.”

“Whenever you two are ready… it looks like we got us a dungeon to explore,” Slade said. He put his arms out around Max and me, ushering us a little closer to the stairs.

I smacked him in the chest. There was a lot of chest, so as expected, he didn’t flinch much. “We get it, asshole. Just give me a moment to collect my nerves.”

“Fine,” Slade said. “I’ll go first.”

Max held up a hand, “Let me. Scouting’s my jam.”

Slade nodded, and Max started down the steps, fading away as he went. Slade brushed me aside pretty easily and followed with his axe, ready to cleave some skulls. Emma didn’t look like she wanted to go but dutifully followed the others.

They’d all get killed without me, so hating every footstep, I followed. Emma's torch gave off just enough light to see the stairs curled inwardly to the keep. I had an arrow notched but not pulled back. A few dozen steps down, and we had turned enough that the light from the opening behind us vanished around the curve of a wall.

The stairs spilled out into a large room. One wall was lined with casks. There was a heavy table and a couple of knocked-over chairs but nothing else. Except for the door on the far wall. It was a heavy door with a thick pull ring. Underneath the door, light flickered.

Max stood to one side. He was invisible but clearly outlined in a blue glow. I assumed we were the only ones that could see it. He gestured to the door, and Slade stepped up. I pulled back on my arrow and tried to line up to shoot around Slade. When Max nodded, Slade yanked the door open and charged in, screaming his warcry.

He stopped immediately inside the door.

The room beyond was dimly lit. I could see a torch flickering on the wall. If I peered around Slade, I could see a heavy wooden table with what looked like a chessboard on it. Slade was looking past the table to something just out of view.

“Guys, you may want to come take a look at this.” he said, then added, “Carefully.”

Max crept in beside Slade, and his stealth vanished. “I’ll be damned.”

Emma peeked her head in, and I pushed past to see what everyone was gawking at.

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Past the table was a wall with rows of triangular shapes drawn or painted onto it. In the corner of the room next to that wall was a glitch.

There was no other way to describe it. It was a graphical glitch. A tear in the rendering of the game. The glitch was roughly triangular, about the size of a person, and floating midway between ceiling and floor. It was hard to look at, a black mass undulating frantically. At each of its corners, fingers of black lightning flickered out, touching the wall, table, and chessboard. It made a sound like crinkling cellophane. A picture-perfect definition of a glitch.

“Our first bug,” I said.

“Operator,” Slade called out.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“What? This is literally our job. To report bugs.” Slade replied.

“Go for Operator.” A disembodied Kane said.

“We’ve found our first bug,” Slade reported.

“Exercise extreme caution,” Kane said.

It was precisely at this moment that I noticed there were a number of blue cubes floating very close to the glitch. Whatever the glitch was, it had a body count. I backed up right into the unyielding Slade.

“We are monitoring this development.” Kane continued. “If possible, please observe and report anything unusual.”

“Do you need me to describe it?” Slade asked.

“We’ve got you on our screens. But if you could describe any unusual behavior, that would be helpful.”

“What sort of unusual behavior?” Slade asked.

The glitch moved, and I may have screamed, loudly. We all backed up to the door. I was quite content to have Slade shove me back, shielding me from the glitch. I still peered over Max to watch what it was doing.

“The glitch is moving back and forth in the corner. There’s like fingers of black spaghetti shooting out from it touching the wall, and a nearby chessboard.” Slade reported. “Wait, it's not a chessboard. There's too many pieces and too many squares. I’m going to move in for a closer look.”

“No,” I said, grabbing one of his meaty biceps to hold him back.

“This is our job. A half mill.” Slade hissed at me and then returned to reporting, “Okay, the chessboard is oddly shaped. It’s a nine-by-nine grid with three rows of pieces. There are two rows of pawns, and the outermost row of minor, major, and royalty have one too many pieces. It looks like a normal setup, but there's another royal piece besides the King and Queen.”

“Slade,” I whispered, “They don’t care about the chessboard. Describe the glitch.”

“Yeah, but it's weird.”

“Nobody cares… the glitch!” I hissed.

“Right, okay, the glitch,” he continued. “It's sort of bobbing around like it's gotta go to the bathroom. And it keeps pointing its noodly bits at the wall.”

“Understood, continue,” Kane said.

“On the wall are a bunch of triangles arranged in rows—like lots of them. Some point up, some down. None point left and right, though. Oh wait, there are some pointing left and right, but they aren’t full triangles, more like chevrons.”

“Slade, they know what's on the wall. They made the wall. Describe the glitch.” I said.

Slade moved into the room around the table, keeping it between him and the glitch.

“Those cubes mean things have died around this thing,” I said.

“Yeah, yeah. I get it.” Slade said. “It’s moving a little differently now. Instead of going back and forth between the table and the wall, it's now moving to mimic my position.”

Emma pressed in. When she saw the glitch, she seemed mesmerized. “It’s so beautiful.”

I looked at the glitch and squinted. No, it was not beautiful. It looked like black static constantly trying to eat itself. Max looked over at me with concern. We both seemed the only ones with sense enough to stay far away from this thing.

“And it’s just repeating that pattern,” Slade reported. “It keeps moving to those three spots. Wall, table, and slide to be closer to me. And repeat.”

“There’s a book on the floor,” Emma said, walking straight towards the glitch.

I gasped, but she stooped down and plucked the book up before I could stop her. When she stood up, she looked right at the thing.

“It's now moved to a new position. Emma has walked right up to the thing.” Slade continued reporting.

Emma’s voice went up a note as she talked directly to it, “Why, hello there.”

She waved to it, and it touched her with a tendril of black lightning.

“Shit!” Slade yelled, “Emma touched it.”

Emma went rigid as if being electrocuted. Her whole body stood there convulsing. I watched her health bar appear, but it flickered and warped, spitting off static bits.

Slade leaped forward.

“Don’t touch her!” I yelled, fearing he’d be electrocuted as well.

He grabbed her and yanked her backward, dragging her back to us against the wall furthest away from the thing. Her health bar continued to waver with ripples of static.

I started reporting as Slade dragged Emma away from the glitch. Her whole body was rigid, every limb stiff and unyielding.

“Emma touched the glitch and is having some sort of reaction. Her limbs have locked up like she’s having a seizure. Any advice on how to treat it?”

Kane responded, “Move her away from the anomaly if possible. Lie her down somewhere comfortable. Check pulse and breathing. Try to keep her as warm as possible.”

Slade dragged her through our group and out into the other room. I followed, continuing to report. “We’ve removed her from the room with the glitch. We don’t have anywhere comfortable.”

“What about the barracks?” Slade asked.

“No mattresses,” I replied.

Kane added, “Best not to move her any significant distances.”

Slade laid Emma down gently on the stone floor. She was shivering as if still having convulsions, with her eyes rolled back, showing only whites.

“Is this fatal?” I asked the disembodied Kane. “There were a bunch of blue cubes around the glitch.”

“No. It’s not fatal for players. Most likely, those loot markers are from non-player characters.” Kane replied. “At this point, keep her warm. She should recover in time.”

“Slade,” I called out, “There are blankets in the saddle bags.”

He took off at a run, taking the stairs three at a time. I knelt down next to Emma. Her glitching healthbar was so outside the realm of any health emergency I’d ever experienced I wasn’t sure what to do. I took her hand, and she gripped it tightly. Her chest labored, so she was breathing.

“She’s breathing, and she grabbed my hand, but she’s still unresponsive.”

Kane asked, “Can you elevate her legs? Or loosen any tight clothing?”

I let go of her hand and scrambled around her legs. Kneeling, I lifted and laid them across my thighs. “I’ve lifted her legs. But she’s wearing chainmail and I don’t see any way to loosen it.”

With a quick blink, I thought about Emma’s inventory. A panel opened in my vision. I spotted three potions. They were the ones Emma was carrying.

“Should I give her a health potion?” I asked Kane.

“That won’t help her. Mr. Peterson has the blankets and is returning now,” Kane said.

On cue, I could hear Slade sprinting down the stairs. He dashed over to Emma and flung a blanket around her.

“What happened to her?” I asked.

There was a moment of silence before Kane replied, “We’re looking into the data.”

“What does that mean?” I raised my voice.

“It means we don’t know entirely. We’re working on it.”

“How can you not know? Why are we here if you don’t know?” I said.

“Mr. Pendergrast, please exercise extreme caution as you approach the anomaly,” Kane announced.

I looked around, Max was still in the other room. I barked, “Slade, check on Max.”

Party Gained: Spear x6

Leather Armor x2

Strange Tome

Coins, Copper x71

Jerky x9

Slade rushed to the door but didn’t go in. Max came out, and they both came over and joined Emma and me.

“What were you doing in there?” I asked Max.

“I wanted to make sure,” Max said. “That the only loot in there belonged to goblins. It was.”

“How can you tell it’s just goblin loot,” I said.

“If I looted you, there would be a lot more variety. Like your real clothes.”

“What’s the point of that?” I said.

“To make sure no real people died because of that glitch.”

I wanted to ask more questions, but Emma convulsed. She coughed hard and then opened her eyes.