Chapter 26: Midnight Files and Glitched Realities

System: [New Mission: Investigate the Glitch] Reward: +100 Perception, Hidden Skill: "Code Sight" Penalty: System Shutdown for 24 Hours]

The message blinked on my screen at exactly 3:00 AM.

I groaned, buried under two blankets, a body pillow, and the weight of regret.

"Can't this wait until morning?"

System: [NO.]

Okay then. Rude.

The apartment felt… off. The lights flickered slightly. My phone, the source of all this chaos, displayed unreadable code instead of the usual peppy UI.

I tapped it.

System: [ERROR. ERROR. LOCATION BREACH DETECTED. TIME LOOP ANOMALY—]

"What the actual hell…"

Then everything froze.

Not in the 'oh no the Wi-Fi's dead' way.

In the literally suspended in time way.

Cynthia had been halfway through stealing my chips. Frozen. Luna was floating slightly mid-jump from the stairs. Frozen.

Me? Still awake. Still regretting life.

A shadow passed through the wall.

"Ethan Cross," a voice called.

Low. Familiar. Modulated, like someone speaking through an old cassette tape.

A figure stepped into view—cloaked, glitching at the edges. Like static formed a human.

"You've accessed a restricted layer of the Supreme System."

"I didn't even press anything!"

"You were never supposed to be the Host. This system was meant for someone else."

"Uh, cool. Can I return it? No refund needed."

The figure raised a hand, and reality cracked like glass.

Images flashed before me—Celia standing in a crimson-lit hallway with a blade, Cynthia crying in the rain, Luna staring blankly into a mirror that didn't reflect her.

"This system is more than a game. It connects to the Root Code of your world."

"…So what? I'm the protagonist of a corrupted dating sim?!"

"No. You're the glitch."

System: [WARNING: Unrecognized Entity Detected. Attempting to Reboot.]

Everything turned to static.

When I came to, it was daylight. Everyone was acting normal. Too normal.

Cynthia handed me toast. Luna yawned. "You look like you saw a ghost."

I opened my phone. The UI was back.

System: [Morning, Host! Ready for your daily embarrassment? ❤️]

"…You glitched out last night."

System: [No idea what you're talking about! ^_^]

Liar.

I looked around the room. Celia entered, hair tied up, holding a USB stick.

"You dropped this," she said.

I took it.

System: [WARNING: Unauthorized Code Detected on USB. Would you like to open Pandora's Folder?]

Suddenly, this rom-com was starting to feel like a thriller.