Once more, I enter the dungeon entrance behind the glitch passage, fully expecting to appear once again in the glitchy wasteland area. But to my surprise, I ended up in a thick forest this time.

A quick look reveals that, like in the wasteland area, glitch creatures are on patrol here. I even get spotted by them but they don't especially react to me, they simply move on. It seems like my disguise has no effect here...

Oh, shit, I never fixed it after the glitch gremlin incident. I still look like a glitch creature, no wonder they didn't bat an eye.

I think for a moment about whether I should switch back to my original wind-based disguise, but as long as they leave me alone, I think the current one is superior for now; the glitch minotaur could see me anyway—no clue how it did that.

I'm not happy with it but I'll keep my current glitch-like form, I need every advantage I can get on this stealth mission. It still feels weird to pretend to be one of these vaguely humanoid, featureless blobs. I hope I won't have to get used to it.

I continue to wander around aimlessly, area to area. I still have no lead for the correct direction. With how little sense the connections between areas make, Orpyne could be anywhere in this world. Or maybe even further out? I don't want to imagine how impossible that search would be.

My journey leads me to an observatory, several mountain ranges, lava caves, floating sky cities - by now, I think I've seen everything except my goal, wherever that could even be. And I could've certainly passed on seeing more giant abominations like the invisible lizard, I hate how it normalizes existential dread...

Eventually, I arrive at some open plains with barely any vegetation, but most notably, I find what could only be described as a crashed spaceship about the size of a village in the middle of some city ruins. The wreckage would be right at home in any space-faring B-movie.

The city ruins kind of remind me of the cinema from that one memory before the glitches broke out, but by now nature has reclaimed most of it. Could it actually be the location from that memory? Possible but unlikely.

Well, I see no other possible exits, so the spaceship is probably my next destination.

I continue to circle around the wreck looking for an entrance until I spot a little plate with something inscribed on it, the plate is covered in a lot of dust.

I try to wipe it off, but the plate's sensation is very wrong, touching the ship's hull also feels quite off. Not like metal or plastic, but more organic, like a massive lifeform. When I look closely at it, it even seems to be breathing. Does this mean this is not a spaceship but a gigantic creature with poor taste in body paintings?

One quick dedusting later, I can now see the inscription: CATTLE BRUISER NOADR 3

That's either more of that foreign language or something simply corrupted into unreadability. Most likely both. Nevertheless, it seems familiar.

I move on until I finally find a huge hole that was blown into the ship's hull. I can see the ship's interior through it, so it isn't the immediate transition to the next area I was hoping for - unless it is? I carefully enter.

Inside the ship, are a lot of corpses of humans in spacesuits and strange insect-like beasts I've never seen before, not even in one of the memories. It seems they've fought a brutal battle with each other. The beast corpses outnumber the human ones at least five to one.

There's a digital display with more nonsense shown on it: WARFIELD MANEUVER SUCCESSFUL. CRASH RATING 78.05%.

I guess this is something like an order to prepare for an emergency landing or evacuation.

None the wiser, I carefully sneak around the ship wreckage for a while looking for the next exit. There might still be some infected versions of those beasts around here, and with my luck, they could sniff out that I'm not one of them.

Suddenly, someone calls out to me, "It seems I finally have a new visitor. Welcome to my museum, fellow glitchling, do you like what you see? I've spent a lot of effort in preserving this historical moment. Truly one of the greatest turning points in history."

I turn around and see the glitch version of the butleriest butler that ever butled. All suited up, white hair, stache; if there's a butler cliche it is present. Well, minus the fact, that it still is a glitched creature, but you have to look quite closely to notice...

At first glance, he looks harmless, but my instincts tell me otherwise. He's easily more dangerous than that science cow. Gotta watch my manners.

"I don't think I know the event you're talking about. What exactly happened here? Oh, er, I'm Jared. Nice to meet you."

"Ah, right, I see now what is going on", he clears his throat, "I'm called Seba Stain, currently acting as history preserver, and before my infestation, I served as the personal assistant of the System's avatar, our mortal nemesis."

There's a good chance that Orpyne either is this avatar he worked for or at least someone she knows; she worked on the System itself at least, so she can't be too far off. And going by how he declared this avatar his enemy I should better not mention that.

And Seba Stain, really? Was every other iteration of 'Sebastian' already taken? Please don't tell me there really is a job requirement for all butlers to have a variant or pun on that name - I wouldn't put this stupidity past the System...

God, no, stop thinking about it!! I committed the same mistake with the damn cow already!

"Yeah, no, I'm not falling for that again. I already named a Glitch by accident just because it gave me a name it carried ages ago."

He waves me off, "I know. You don't have to worry about that, I already possess that name, I made the mistake of clinging to my old self so much that I eventually reacquired my old name. However, this carried only a fraction of the benefits a proper naming would grant. Compared to what a name given by a powerful Solid could achieve, I'm mostly harmless. But enough about me, you inquired about the historical event in question. "

I try to interrupt him, "Sorry, but I'm a bit in a hurry. I need to find a... friend of mine, she's in a lot of trouble. I really don't have the time to sit through several history lessons."

He sighs, "Only a fool would ignore what should've been learned from history, and willingly repeat it, and you're about to do just that. I can see that you've been on your journey already for years, what could a few hours more hurt? It is quite apparent that I should teach you a thing or two before it is too late."

"What do you mean years? It hasn't been nearly that long, at most two, three days. Certainly not years."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

I don't want to imagine the consequences of the System being down for years, even hours sounds dangerous once you consider how interwoven it seems to be with life itself...

Seba glares at me, "Young man, if you make such a poor effort, don't bother hiding it. Everyone with a bit of experience can easily tell what is going on. Through how you carry yourself and your introduction, you've told me everything I needed to know. You came here a Solid, looking for something unattainable. In mere moments, your entire being changed, now you're a Glitch. You're still clinging to your old self and a promise you made before you became one of us. I'm not saying I blame you, I made the same mistake. But you need to face reality, no one comes out of here unchanged. The average Solid wouldn't last half a second before succumbing to the infection."

"Bullshit, I'm still myself!"

"Are you sure? All I see is a stubborn glitch before me."

I try to cancel my glitch disguise and return to my original form - but nothing happens. What's wrong now?

I can still use [Disguise] to assume a different form, but when I cancel it, I return to the glitchy form I previously generated, not my original vampire body.

Did I really succumb to the glitch infection? Shouldn't the Hybrid classes prevent that?

Looking back at it, it always was only a resistance, not an immunity. I still felt the increasing pressure, but at one point it simply disappeared. That must've been when...

I vastly overestimated how much it would do in this situation...

Shit.

Old man Seba finally asks me, "Did it finally settle in? You're no longer a Solid, you haven't been for a long time. You're one of us now, you better get used to it, and quickly."

But did anything even change? I still feel like myself, and I can still use some of my skills.

Yeah, that's clearly a point against his claim. To my understanding, the glitch infection loves to consume anything related to the System, and that should include all skills, at least the non-hybrid ones. And I have still control over some of my skills at least.

As proof, I produce a tiny flame in my hand, "No, I've doubts about that. I still feel like I'm myself - like nothing has changed."

He accidentally steps into some monster guts and then carefully wipes them off, putting them back into their previous place while explaining, "That's the vicious part of the infection, that's how it was for me as well. It completely changes you, it overwrites your reasoning until even your former best friends can appear as your nourishment, and your heart tells you that it is right this way, nothing has changed, it has always been that way, it has to be this way. Tell me, what will you do with your friend when you finally find her?"

I sat out to help her fix the System... that I broke. And I still stand by that decision.

"The same thing I always intended to do, fix the mess I caused and she has to suffer from."

He sneers, "Is that so? Heh, I'd like to see that. Tell me, how did you intend to find her? This realm is vast. You must've had some plan when you came here."

I hesitantly answer, "Obviously, not as good a plan as I needed... I was just told it was right down the road."

"Right down the road, you say?"

"Yeah, by what she said, only the corridor between her house's entrance and the room she's trapped in was infected. It is obviously much more complicated than that."

Seba inquires, "Do you have anything else to go on?"

"Just her name: lady Orpyne."

He scratches his beard and hesitates before replying, "I see... Honestly, that isn't much of a lead."

I shake my head, "Yeah, it really isn't..."

"Hmm, I might have a hunch of who you are looking for. I know someone who could help you find your friend. You could call her an oracle, she knows way more than she should. Especially concerning a certain person. I suspect who you're looking for and that person are the same."

"That sounds way too convenient, what's the catch?"

"You'll probably have to perform a favor for her, but what that is, is between you two. And before I tell you how you can meet her, you'll have to listen to my lecture about the event depicted in my museum. I rarely get the chance to do so."

And there's the goose chase...

"I don't think I really have a choice here... But if what you said is true and I really have been here for years then I'll have to take this chance - but what exactly made you sure about the duration of my stay?"

"For a long while, there's been something on the news about a weird glitch appearing in unexpected places - and you fit the description to a tee", he suddenly pulls out what looks like an alien smartphone and shows me an article on it, but I can't read the characters.

I sarcastically remark, "Didn't know I was that famous. What are they gossiping about there?"

Seba scrolls through various articles while explaining, "A few things, like stealing pet rocks, vandalizing identities, extinguishing a sun - a celebrity really appreciated it as her reading lamp."

"Nah, that's not me, I'm definitely not powerful enough to wipe out a star."

"Are you sure? Well, even if that wasn't you, it still reminds me of my old mistress. Famous for all the wrong reasons, caused trouble wherever she went. But that all went away when we got to her, at least three times. You know, as a Solid, she never took to a permanent name, she changed it quite often. She used to have a particular fondness for the name Stella while she opposed us Glitches, but I doubt she'd make it so obvious with how desperate her current situation is."

I guess old habits die hard; Orpyne did admit to being a "Stella" at least, so she is likely the System's avatar and not just a random grunt in the System.

"Yeah, that'd be way too obvious."

"The first time she was corrupted, she went by M/Il1ce, after that, it was Q Crim-RaNs'm, and the last time she joined our side she was simply called Mother. If you meet any of three, you should show your reverence, she deserves it."

And if her third alter ego became "Mother", then Orpyne might also be the "mother" Para and his girl were looking for. This could be very problematic once we meet...

Seba suddenly pushes random buttons on his glitch-phone and starts a call, his accent changes so much I can barely make out half of what he says, "Hey, Q Crim-RaNs'm, dear, it's me, Seba Stain. Are your two twins nearby? ... Ah, our little queen of smiles is still like that, what a pity. Leave her be for now. Could you please come with your older sister M/Il1ce to me? We have someone here who's looking for someone. I suspect she is your most recent Solid counterpart. ... Indeed, you four will be reunited a few decades sooner than planned. ... I don't think we have to worry about him. He's probably not recovered yet either, the Hard Reset was too recent. ... Yeah, I understand. ... Ah, she's over there today, how about tomorrow? ... Great, I'll meet her at the usual place. Thank you, dear."

Once he's put his phone away, I ask him, "What the hell kind of names are those anyway? M-slash-one-lice? Kukri-something? I can't imagine a normal person would come up with them."

"Of course not, they weren't named by Solids. They acquired their names from the System itself."

Ex-fucking-cuse me, come again!?

"Did you just say the System gave them names? How, why?"

"Just a minor inconvenience occurred with the System, a Hard Reset."

"That doesn't sound minor to me."

He shrugs, "It is from our point of view. Soon even you will see the end of the universe as a minor Tuesday event not to worry about."

"Yeah, yeah, if you say so..."

"Now if you'd indulge me, we have some time until the meeting, and there are some things you simply must learn about what happened here before you continue with your little heroic tale", you can easily hear the mocking air quotes as he says that.

"Fine, then let's get it over with."

"No, not here. Everything has its time and place, and this one is unsuited. I prefer I hold this lecture on the upper deck with some tea and cookies. I imagine they'll fit your current palate very much."

"Uh, sure."

He leads me toward a nearby elevator which barely seems intact over the damage the wrecked ship has suffered.

He gestures to me to enter, "Now, if you'd please."

I step into the elevator chamber as instructed, but instead, I'm suddenly in the middle of a pallid beach, with no old man or door anywhere in sight.

I don't think this is right. Shouldn't Seba also be here with me?

It could be that he lured me into a trap here, but I doubt it. He seemed very enthusiastic about giving me a lecture, and I'm sure he could've easily overpowered me.

I wait for a bit, but he doesn't follow me, so I begin to look around.

----------------------------------------

POV: Seba Stain

It has been several decades since I showed someone all the intricacies of the event that ultimately led to the first System Crash.

The great EXP Leak. Mu's incompetent interference. Project Orpyne: Stella. The Deva's takeover. Cliff's evolution. And finally, the devastating intergalactic war with the Eyares Empire.

Ah, great memories, I can't wait to once again share my firsthand experience with someone.

After getting lost in thought for a moment, I focus my attention again on the young man entering the elevator, but he seems to be gone. How did he disappear like that from an open elevator? That can't be right, can it?

Did I space out so long that he went ahead? I doubt it, but I take the elevator to the top deck anyway. No, he's not here either, he has disappeared without a trace.