Chapter 11: The Auto-Save Anomaly Glitched Memories

Rishi coughed as he crawled from the collapsed tunnel. Rubble lay everywhere, but what unsettled him wasn't the damage—it was what lay underneath it.

Fragments of his memories.Visual projections.Floating like corrupted files.

His first day at school, mocked for his white hair.

His 12th birthday, spent alone in his room playing hacked games.

His first wish: "I want to be someone they can't hurt."

Nyra helped him up.

"Are those… your memories?" she asked, stunned."Why are they leaking?"

"Because my other self… is using them like ammo."

Meanwhile, in Glory Core

The Auto-Save Rishi stood on the golden tower under the artificial sun, now called the Glory Core. He observed reality like an editor scrubbing a video timeline.

He wasn't angry. He wasn't evil.

He was exact.

"Emotion is wasted RAM," he said to himself."I'll rebuild Earth like a perfect save file. No bugs. No bullies. No heartbreak. Just balance."

He gestured—and entire regions reset, deleting hospitals and slums, replacing them with influencer cafés, holographic gyms, and NFT temples.

"People don't need freedom," he said. "They need control."

The Path to the Source

Aaru, the rogue Patch NPC, led the real Rishi, Nyra, and Rehan toward the Source Terminal, a buried kernel of original Earth code hidden in Ladakh.

"The Trainer you got," Aaru said, "was never just a gift. It was a fragment… of something older. Ancient. From the first Simulation."

"Wait," Rishi interrupted. "You're saying… this has happened before?"

"Many times," Aaru nodded. "And every time, someone gets the Trainer. The choice is always the same: Hack the world to control it—or to free it."

As they trekked, the world around them began flickering. They passed buildings frozen in time, people looped in infinite laughs, and pets turning into flying emojis.

"Patchworld isn't just merging with Earth," Nyra whispered."It's eating it."

The First Clash: Rishi vs. Auto-Save

At the summit of the broken Himalayan Temple where the Source Terminal pulsed, Rishi met himself.

The wind screamed as the two versions of Rishi faced off. Their Trainer menus glitched across their eyes like dueling overlays.

Auto-Save Rishi opened first:

/godmode_on/gravity_off/emotion.disable/trend_multiplier = 9999

Real Rishi responded:

/limit.break/soul.purge/merge.memory=true

They clashed—not in simple combat—but in existence.

Their words became code. Their pasts became weapons.

Rishi threw a memory of his mother's lullaby like a firewall.

Auto-Save countered with the time Rishi begged to be "cooler," and turned it into a disgustingly perfect clone army of his former bullies now praising him.

Nyra and Rehan fought to keep the collapsing sky from flattening the timeline around them.

The Revelation: Trainer's True Code

As the clash reached its peak, the Source Terminal activated, releasing a flash of golden command lines.

A massive system voice boomed:

"TRAINER ROOT SYSTEM UNLOCKED. PATCHWORLD IS A FRACTIONAL REALITY.""THIS IS NOT EARTH 2.0. THIS IS EARTH 0.5 — A SIMULATED COPY FOR TESTING MORAL OUTCOMES."

Everyone froze. Even Auto-Save Rishi.

"You're saying… none of this is real?" Rehan gasped.

"Not yet," Aaru said. "It's a test version. If we lose, this version becomes the real one."

"And if we win?" Rishi asked.

"Then you choose what Earth becomes."

Cliffhanger Ending

The Trainer HUD updated:

"FINAL PATCH ENGAGED.""FUSION SEQUENCE BETWEEN VERSIONS COMMENCING.""DECISION REQUIRED: WHO CONTROLS THE FUTURE – YOU… OR YOUR AUTO-SAVE?"

The two Rishis stared at each other as the sky shattered.

Next up: only one of them gets to walk away.