The shrunken entity sat on the newly re-glitched pavement, poking at its own face with a mixture of horror and fascination. Its once-pristine white surface now sported freckles, a slightly crooked nose, and eyebrows that seemed determined to express emotions whether it wanted to or not.
"I... I can feel things," it muttered, rubbing its hands together. "Why do my fingers tingle? Is this normal?"
Gary rolled closer, examining the being like a questionable garage sale find. "Oh buddy, you haven't even gotten to the weird part yet. Wait till your stomach growls and you don't know why."
GLich-chan's form flickered back to full brightness as her systems finished rebooting. The mechanical edge to her voice was gone, replaced by her usual sarcastic tone with an extra layer of static. "Okay, so. We've established that Yamete can rewrite cosmic entities by making them ugly-cry. Can we please address the elephant in the room?" She pointed at the Cheat Engine, which was currently snuggled against Yamete's chest like a content kitten.
Yamete tried to pry the device loose, but it emitted a sad beep and clung tighter. "I don't know what's happening either! It's never done this before!"
The Cheat Engine's screen lit up:
User Designation Updated: Dad
Gary gasped. "Awwww! It imprinted on you! Like a baby duck!"
The formerly pristine entity—now significantly less imposing at about three feet tall—looked up from examining its new belly button. "This is all highly irregular. I was supposed to purge anomalies, not become one."
GLich-chan floated down to eye level with the tiny being. "Yeah, welcome to the club. Here's your membership card and complimentary existential crisis." She turned to Yamete. "We need to stabilize everything before—"
A loud 'crack' echoed through Glitchvale as the last remnants of the worldborder shattered completely. The sky overhead glitched violently between four different shades of blue before settling on "plaid." The ground developed a slight bounciness, like a trampoline made of slightly undercooked reality.
The Cheat Engine perked up and displayed:
/gamerule keepInventory true
Suddenly, every object in Glitchvale developed a faint glow. A passing trash can tripped over nothing, exploded into pixels, then reformed good as new.
Gary tested the new rules by deliberately falling into a ditch. He popped back onto the road looking mildly disappointed. "No consequences! This is terrible!"
The small entity tugged at Yamete's sleeve. "You've broken everything. Permanently."
Yamete looked around at the chaos—the glitches within glitches, the Cheat Engine purring in his arms, GLich-chan flipping through her newly restored memories with growing alarm.
"Actually," he said slowly, "I think we just fixed it."
GLich-chan paused her reading. "Fixed? Yamete, death doesn't work anymore. That mailbox just came back to life as a potted plant."
The mailbox in question waved its leaves cheerfully.
The Cheat Engine snuggled closer and displayed its final message of the chapter:
System Message: Glitches are now features. Please update your expectations accordingly.