Eryk sat slouched in his chair, his fingers gripping the edge of his cosmic pickle cart for support. The recent encounters with sentient pickles, awkward gargoyle dance battles, and the introduction of his ridiculous Pickle Shoes had left him more than a little weary. But today was different. Today, he wasn’t handing out quests or fighting bosses; he was sitting through a debrief on… everything that had gone horribly wrong.
A circular table materialized in front of him, accompanied by an assortment of bizarre cosmic entities, each assigned to “System Oversight.” Barry the Cosmic Scribe floated above the table, his quill hovering mid-air as he scribbled furiously in an ancient tome. Next to him, a gelatinous blob that glowed like a lava lamp wobbled, and beside that sat a floating hologram of a galaxy, spinning lazily as it pulsed with dim light.
“Right,” Eryk said, eyeing the group. “Let’s get this started. What… went wrong?”
Barry cleared his throat, his quill poised over the page. “Shall we begin with Universe 78593? We have reports of… catastrophic carrot mutations.”
Eryk blinked. “Carrot… what?”
“Indeed,” Barry continued, flipping through the tome. “A routine buff applied to plant life was accidentally amplified, resulting in sentient carrots growing to immense sizes and, well, waging war on the native rabbit species. The Garden of Eve has officially requested a ceasefire.”
Eryk rubbed his temples, trying not to laugh. “Alright. Sentient carrots, understood. I’ll look into… I don’t know, a ‘de-mutate’ option? What’s next?”
The gelatinous blob wobbled, its voice sounding like bubbling water. “Universe 983201: the ‘Buffering Quest’.”
Eryk groaned, remembering the brief brush with his controller that had spawned an endless quest prompt. “Right. I accidentally set up a quest that’s been stuck on ‘Buffering… 1% of 10,000,000%’.”
“It’s caused quite the disruption,” the galaxy hologram chimed in, its lights flickering as it spoke. “An entire planet has been waiting to begin that quest for what they perceive as decades. The economy collapsed, religious factions formed to honor the ‘Buffering God,’ and people have even started pilgrimages to… you.”
“Great,” Eryk muttered, “so I’m the god of loading screens now. Got it. Next?”
The galaxy flashed, conjuring a holographic screen in front of him. “Universe 547829: minor sun mishap.”
Eryk squinted at the report on the screen, his stomach flipping as he read. “Wait, what? It says here… a baby dragon became a cosmic giant, hurled itself into the nearest sun, and… destroyed it?”
“Yes,” the galaxy said matter-of-factly. “And that sun happened to be the primary energy source for an entire solar system, so now they’re in a permanent ice age.”
Eryk slumped in his chair. “So, to recap: I’ve created a world of war-hungry carrots, a never-ending loading screen, and plunged an entire system into freezing darkness.” He glanced at Dill, who floated quietly at his side, looking uncharacteristically subdued.
“Dill, any insights on why this is all… so incredibly broken?”
Dill’s briny little voice piped up, “Well, Creator, the system is very complex. You know, integrating every universe, every entity, every pickle…” He trailed off with a nervous laugh. “It’s natural that there’d be… glitches.”
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The galaxy flashed again, and another hologram appeared, displaying a huge, glowing red moon over a tiny planet.
“Universe 176300: the Vampiric Rabbit Uprising,” the galaxy said with a hint of resignation.
Eryk buried his face in his hands. “Let me guess more giant vegetables? Cosmic rabbits? What’s next, sentient salad dressing?”
The gelatinous blob burbled with what might’ve been a sigh. “Not yet, but the vampiric rabbits have declared dominion over all plant life. Reports indicate that they’ve begun enforcing their reign of terror across the galaxy.”
“Lovely,” Eryk muttered, making a mental note to somehow add “remove vampire carrots” to his ever-growing cosmic to-do list.
As Eryk struggled to comprehend the absurdity of it all, a notification flashed in front of him.
“System Prompt: Are you ready to initiate Multiverse Fix Mode?”
Eryk raised an eyebrow. “Multiverse Fix Mode? Sounds… promising?”
Dill chimed in helpfully. “It’s a new feature, Creator! You’ll be able to manually address these issues one universe at a time. Think of it as… cosmic customer service.”
“Customer service…” Eryk muttered, mentally bracing himself for the interdimensional complaints to come.
Barry the Scribe cleared his throat, flipping through his tome once more. “Universe 43987: Pickle Worshiper Cults.”
“Come on,” Eryk groaned, glancing at Dill. “Pickles again? Really?”
Dill avoided his gaze, his tiny brine-filled arms wringing themselves. “When we implemented the pickles-as-noble-beings setting, certain… groups started to form. They call themselves the Pickle Disciples. They… they’ve set up shrines. There are ceremonial baths in brine.”
“Right, so now I’m a deity and a condiment.” Eryk’s head was starting to spin. “What exactly do they believe?”
Barry adjusted his monocle. “Their doctrine states that you, the Pickle Sovereign, will one day lead them to the Great Jar Beyond.”
Eryk stared blankly. “The Great Jar Beyond?”
Dill shifted awkwardly. “Uh, yes. It’s rumored to be a realm of eternal brine. For all pickles.”
“Fantastic. So now I have a cosmic afterlife to worry about.” Eryk threw his hands up. “Can anything go right today?”
At that moment, the galaxy hologram flared again, flashing a new alert.
“Emergency Alert: Universe 12345. Widespread identity issues due to system integration errors.”
Eryk’s eyes widened as he read through the details. Apparently, a glitch in the race-assignment function had caused people to randomly change races every time they sneezed or coughed, creating a chaotic mess of ever-shifting identities.
“Imagine being a dwarf one second, then a goblin, then a cactus-person…” Eryk shook his head. “Is there anything that isn’t broken?”
Dill floated closer, placing a tiny metal arm on his shoulder. “It’s a lot, I know. But remember, Creator, each glitch is a chance to learn, a chance to make the system better.”
“You’re saying that like it’s some noble purpose.” Eryk snorted. “Feels more like a cosmic prank.”
The gelatinous blob burbled in agreement, while Barry scribbled away, muttering, “Cosmic Prankster, indeed.”
Eryk leaned back, rubbing his temples. “Alright, here’s the plan. We’ll start with the most catastrophic issues and work our way down. First, the vampiric rabbits and carrot overlords. Then the Buffering Quest. We’ll deal with the cult after that.”
The galaxy, blob, and Barry all nodded in agreement.
Dill floated beside him, handing him the controller with a proud little smile. “You’re getting the hang of this, Creator.”
“Sure,” Eryk muttered, glancing at the absurdly complex controller in his hand. “Piece by piece, one cosmic disaster at a time.”
The countdown began, preparing to drop Eryk into Universe 176300 for the first fix.
“Oh, and Dill?”
“Yes, Creator?”
“No more pickles.”
Dill gave a solemn nod. “Understood… though I cannot promise the multiverse will agree.”
Eryk tightened his grip on the controller, steeling himself for the task ahead. Fixing the multiverse would be no small feat, but with a deep breath, he was ready to dive headfirst into the chaos he’d created.
“Alright, multiverse,” he muttered, feeling a faint glimmer of determination rise within him. “Time to start fixing you, one glitch at a time.”
And with that, he tapped the controller, disappearing in a flash of cosmic light to face the first of many, many interdimensional disasters awaiting his intervention.