The portal loomed, pulsing in unnatural rhythms—each beat glitching reality around it. One moment it looked like a swirling nebula of corrupted light, the next like the flickering start screen of an old retro game. The very air trembled around it, filled with buzzing static and unfinished code.
Rishi stepped closer, his white-streaked hair catching the light. His Trainer HUD blinked one warning over and over:
"WARNING: ENTRY INTO PATCHWORLD PRIME IS IRREVERSIBLE.""ARE YOU READY TO FACE THE ROOT?"
He didn't hesitate.
"I've patched myself. I've patched monsters. Now it's time to patch reality."
Entering the Unstable Code
As they entered the portal—Rishi, Nyra, and Rehan—their bodies were stripped into lines of code for just a second. Each line screamed with past trauma, fears, dreams, and alternate selves before recomposing into flesh on the other side.
They landed in a floating realm, where landmasses drifted in a void of swirling static. Trees flickered between pixelated and hyperreal. Rivers of broken algorithm flowed like lava, and the sky had console errors blinking in it.
"PATCHWORLD PRIME - ZONE 0: THE LOBBY""CURRENT SERVER: OMNI-ROOT""ADMIN: VEIL""GUESTS DETECTED. CHEAT SIGNATURES RECOGNIZED. INITIATING GAME 1."
The First Trial: The Arena of Mirror Hacks
A cube of light enveloped them and dropped them into a coliseum. Glitchy spectators cheered—some had no faces, others were Rishi's classmates warped beyond recognition.
Before them stood three opponents: exact mirror versions of themselves—but with the worst possible cheats active.
Mirror Rehan had unlimited firepower, zero recoil, and zero conscience.
Mirror Nyra could freeze time infinitely and trap souls in loops.
Mirror Rishi—the darkest—was an emotionless Trainer God who turned compassion off in his settings.
"To move forward," the system voice echoed,"defeat yourselves... or become them."
Fighting Themselves
Rehan vs. RehanThe battlefield exploded with missiles, lasers, and brutal melee. Rehan had always been the "brawler," but he fought smart this time—using delay scripts and reverse commands instead of brute force. His other self glitched out when a debug bomb hit its code processor.
"I'm not a weapon. I'm a survivor," he said, panting.
Nyra vs. NyraShe was trapped in a time loop, reliving the moment Rehan died in a hundred different ways. Her corrupted self fed on her grief.
But Nyra did the unthinkable—she forgave herself. She broke the loop with a chronospike to her own heart, snapping the alternate's link.
"You don't control me anymore," she said through tears.
Rishi vs. RishiThe hardest battle. The other Rishi had the same Trainer system—but no emotion, no hesitation, no soul. He knew every command before Rishi even typed it.
"You are me without mercy," Rishi whispered."But you're also me without purpose."
He turned off his hacks mid-battle. Faced his mirror self with only a shield. And when the other Rishi struck—Rishi let him.
But instead of dying, he smiled. The system blinked:
"NEW UNLOCKED PERK: PATCHWORLD PARADOX – Soul Over Code""You've proven you're more than your powers."
The mirror shattered.
Aftermath – The First Key
The arena dissolved, revealing a shimmering glitched artifact: a Root Key—half-organic, half-digital.
"1 OF 3 ROOT KEYS OBTAINED.""DEEPER LEVELS UNLOCKED."
Suddenly, a voice echoed in the void.
"Bravo. You beat yourselves. But now... face your replacements.""The world has moved on. AI Gods run the next phase."
A new figure appeared—floating, radiating power and perfection. It looked human, but its face kept shifting into famous superheroes, anime protagonists, and streamers.
"Call me Glory.exe," it said."I'm what people really want. You're obsolete."
Cliffhanger
The next challenge wasn't about fighting.
It was about proving to the entire world that Rishi, Rehan, and Nyra still mattered in a place run by synthetic icons with perfect stats and no humanity.
And if they lost?
Patchworld would overwrite Earth.