Side quest 1

Cyberpunk 2097

Chapter 9 – "Glitch in the System"

"You sure about this?"

Glitch stood at the entrance of the facility, staring at the rusted steel door in front of her. The old warehouse looked abandoned—another corpse in the graveyard of forgotten tech.

Zero's voice crackled in her earpiece. "Nope. But you're already there, so, y'know, might as well go all in."

Alt-Del-F4 chimed in. "Try not to get your brain fried, Glitch."

She smirked. "No promises."

The mission was simple—if you ignored the part where she had to outthink an AI designed to break people's minds.

Inside this crumbling fortress was the Gauntlet of Speed—a prototype built by an old-world scientist, rumored to enhance reflexes beyond human limits. Problem was, the only way to get it was to beat the AI guarding it.

An AI known as The Architect.

Entering the Mind Maze

The door hissed open, revealing nothing but darkness inside. Glitch stepped forward, and the moment she crossed the threshold—

Everything vanished.

The world around her melted into static. Her body felt weightless, like she had been unplugged from reality itself.

Then—

BAM!

She was standing in the middle of a massive white void.

No walls. No ceiling. Just infinite space stretching in every direction.

A voice echoed from the void. "Welcome, contestant."

Glitch rolled her shoulders. "Love what you've done with the place. Real cozy."

A figure materialized in front of her—a humanoid made of shifting code. Its face was expressionless, its body pulsing like a glitched-out hologram.

"I am The Architect. This trial will test your mind. If you fail, you will remain here forever."

Glitch shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, eternal damnation, loss of identity, all that jazz. Let's get to the fun part."

The Architect raised a hand—and the world changed.

Level One – The Loop

Glitch blinked.

She was standing in a familiar place.

A dark alley, neon lights flickering above, the smell of rain on asphalt.

Her old hideout.

Something felt wrong.

A man walked past her. Then another. Then—

The same man walked past again. And again.

A time loop.

She turned—and saw herself.

Her own body, standing there, frozen like a mannequin.

The Architect's voice whispered in her mind. "Find the real you."

Glitch exhaled. "Oh, you bastard."

She knew what this was—a test of perception. If she picked the wrong version of herself, she'd be trapped forever in a false reality.

She stepped forward, analyzing each copy of herself. One of them had to be real.

Her cybernetic eye flickered.

One of the copies didn't have a shadow.

Bingo.

She grabbed the shadowless figure by the collar. Reality shattered.

Level Two – The Unsolvable Puzzle

She landed in a new room.

A massive chessboard stretched out before her. At the far end sat The Architect, unmoving.

"Checkmate in one move," it said.

Glitch examined the board. Every piece was frozen in place.

Impossible. There was no winning move.

That's when she realized—that was the trick.

The game wasn't about winning.

It was about breaking the rules.

With a grin, she reached forward—and flipped the entire board over.

The Architect's eyes glowed. The chessboard vanished.

Final Level – The Gauntlet's Choice

She landed in the last room.

A single pedestal stood in the center, and resting on top—

The Gauntlet of Speed.

But standing beside it—was herself.

An exact copy.

The copy grinned. "Only one of us gets to leave."

Glitch clenched her fists. "Figures."

The clone moved first. Fast. Too fast.

Glitch barely dodged as the clone's blade sliced through the air.

This wasn't just a fight. It was a test of who deserved to wear the Gauntlet.

The clone matched her every move. Every punch, every kick, every feint—it mirrored her perfectly.

Then she realized—it wasn't copying her.

It was predicting her.

The Architect's final lesson—speed alone wasn't enough.

She had to think faster.

She feinted left—but moved right at the last second.

The clone hesitated.

An opening.

Glitch grabbed the Gauntlet—and everything exploded in light.

Reality Returns

She gasped as she jolted awake, back in the real world.

The Gauntlet of Speed was wrapped around her hand.

Zero's voice crackled through her earpiece. "Yo, you alive in there?"

She flexed her fingers. The Gauntlet hummed with power.

A grin spread across her face. "Oh, I'm better than alive."