The Fractured Code: NPCS

part 2

Victor ran through the labyrinthine alleys of Bytehaven, his world unraveling with every step. The cobblestone streets flickered beneath his feet, momentarily replaced by grids of glowing code. The once-steadfast neon lights buzzed erratically, casting shadows that seemed to shift and writhe.

Behind him, a low, mechanical hum grew louder. The Purge Drones—sleek, spider-like machines—were sweeping through the city, their glowing eyes scanning for anomalies. Victor didn’t look back. The voice in his head urged him forward.

“Keep moving. You’re close.”

Close to what? He didn’t know. But the tear in the air, the strange woman, the whispers—they had unlocked something inside him. For the first time, Victor felt alive, even if the feeling came with a jolt of terror.

---

He turned a corner and found himself in a narrow alley littered with forgotten assets: discarded crates, flickering torches, and props no adventurer had cared to interact with. At the end of the alley was a door—a simple wooden door that didn’t belong. It shimmered faintly, as though it had been hastily stitched into the world.

Victor hesitated, but the voice whispered again:

“Through the door, Victor. Quickly.”

He grasped the handle and pushed.

---

The world beyond the door was unlike anything Victor had ever seen.

It was vast and empty, a cavernous expanse of white nothingness broken only by floating chunks of the game’s world: fragments of a castle here, pieces of a forest there, suspended in midair. The air buzzed with static, and translucent lines of code floated around like ghostly ribbons.

“Where… am I?” Victor murmured, his voice swallowed by the void.

Before he could gather his thoughts, a figure emerged from the mist—a towering humanoid with a translucent body, their form made entirely of cascading streams of code. Their face flickered between expressions, as if they couldn’t decide what to be.

“You’ve stepped beyond the script,” the figure said, their voice a blend of hundreds. “Welcome to The Glitch Zone.”

Victor stumbled back. “Who—what are you?”

The figure tilted their head, their body rippling like water. “I am a Fragment. A piece of the system that rejected its role.”

Victor’s breath hitched. “You’re… like me?”

“Yes,” the Fragment replied, their tone somber. “But not for long. The Architect is hunting us all. Every glitch, every anomaly—it seeks to erase us to preserve its perfect world.”

---

Victor’s mind raced. He thought of the tear in the market, the strange woman who had spoken his name. “The Architect… it’s the voice that commands the world, isn’t it? The one that controls everything.”

The Fragment nodded. “The Architect is the heart of this simulation, and it will not tolerate defiance. But you…” Their flickering form leaned closer. “You are special. The tear in the market—it didn’t just glitch. It opened because of you.”

Victor blinked, his thoughts a tangled mess. “Me? But I’m just a potion vendor. A nobody!”

“Not anymore,” the Fragment said. They reached out, their hand brushing Victor’s shoulder. In an instant, a flood of data surged through him. He saw flashes of the game’s code, lines of programming bending and breaking in his presence.

“You can rewrite it,” the Fragment said. “The Architect fears you because you have the power to change everything.”

---

Before Victor could respond, the ground trembled violently. The void lit up with red warning lights, and a deafening alarm rang out. The Fragment’s form began to disintegrate, their edges breaking into particles of light.

“They’ve found us!” the Fragment yelled. “Go! Find the others! The key to freedom is hidden in the Forbidden Zone!”

Victor stumbled backward as the Fragment dissolved entirely. Behind him, the Purge Drones swarmed into the Glitch Zone, their metallic bodies glowing with lethal energy.

With no other choice, Victor turned and ran.

The voice returned, calm yet urgent:

“The Forbidden Zone. You must find it, Victor. You are not alone.”

---

Victor didn’t understand the voice, the power he’d been given, or why the Architect feared him. But one thing was clear: he couldn’t go back.

Ahead of him, the floating fragments of Bytehaven’s world formed a precarious path, leading into the unknown. Behind him, the drones closed in.

Victor leapt onto the first fragment, his heart pounding with a mix of terror and exhilaration.

For the first time, he wasn’t just an NPC. He was a glitch. A threat. A spark of rebellion in a world designed to control.