the glitches

"come in; the door is open," said Alex.

When Asue entered the room, Alex could tell that something was amiss. She wasn't like her usual self. The look on her face was distorted, and she looked like a guilty person.

Alex raised an eyebrow and asked, "how can I help you?"

"i-i- I just wanted to thank you for saving my mother," said Asue with her head dropped.

Alex was taken aback by this sudden gesture of gratitude and didn't know what to say. Even after bringing them to the hotel, Asue didn't thank him so sincerely.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Alex, feeling like something was out of place.

"no, I just came here to thank you, that's all. I will be going now," Asue said and ran out of the door.

"what was that about? It felt like she was a whole new person," Alex mumbled to himself, then laid on the bed and said, "anyway, let's go see Nano." And entered the special SR room.

When he opened his eyes, Alex found Nano lying on a couch in the middle of the empty space with an exhausted look on her face.

Her beautiful face was red, and drops of sweat were rolling down from beside her face. She was panting, and her chest rose and fell at a fast pace.

"are you alright?" Alex asked with a worried tone and ran to her.

The next second, Nano sat on the couch, and her complexion went back to normal as if it wasn't her a second ago, looking like a dying person.

"Sorry, that was just dramatic effect; although my mind is really exhausted, I still don't have any physical body yet and can't feel physical exhaustion." Said Nano with a chuckle.

"Are you crazy or something? I thought you were dying," Alex shouted with irritation.

"Sorry, but my mind is really exhausted. I can't even generate a decent room right now." Said Nano.

"what happened? Why are you exhausted?"

"The reason is obviously you. the result of your recent dungeon exploration was so extraordinary that it messed the system up for good….."

Alex interrupted her, not letting her finish her sentence, and asked, "what do you mean? Is it related to that apple? Was it that valuable?"

"Just let me finish, alright," said Nano and continued with her explanation, "that apple you are talking about was a glitch. A glitch that the system couldn't fix no matter how hard it tried, so instead of fixing it, it gave so much power to the tree's protector that it became practically impossible to get the apple. Or at least that was what the system believed until you came along; another glitch in the system."

"thank you for your kind words," said Alex, not happy about being compared to a glitch.

"that was a compliment… anyway, the moment you picked the fruit, it generated a domino effect that made the system go crazy at the end and gave me the chance to take back some of my control.

Right now, I have about 1.5% control over the system. It may sound too little but just know that before this incident, I had less than 0.0001% control over it."

"wow, that much improvement just because of a glitch?" Alex was astonished, but then something came into his mind, "can you tell me about the dungeon and beast locations now?"

"no, that's still breaking the rule," said Nano, and after seeing Alex's expression getting a little sad, she added, "but I found some pretty good things."

"really? What?"

"I found two more glitches in this country. but the system changed the rules in a way that you can't access them from within the SR. you have to go there in the real world."

Alex's expression damped again, and said, "why are you telling me this? I'm sure the system will take care of them before I can get my hands on them."

"that's the beauty of it. It can't."

"what do you mean?"

"These are fundamental glitches in the programming that humans made; the system is incapable of deleting them. It could only try and protect them so that no one can get them. But you are different; you are a glitch too, SOOOO…."

"so I can get them even if the system doesn't want me to," Alex shouted in happiness.

"that's right, and with you getting the glitches, I will gain the opportunity to take back control bit by bit. Win-Win, right?

But you have to act fast before the beasts protecting the glitches get too strong for you to handle."

"I know that. Can you give me the information?" asked Alex.

He wanted to study the glitch's environment and collect as many memories from his previous life as possible.

"Sorry, I can't. right now, with my limited access, I can at most give you their location in the real world and tell you which one is easier."

"sigh, then tell me," Alex had a feeling that that would be the case, so he was ready for the disappointment this time.

Nano brought out a map of the country and pointed to two places in it, "here, and here."

One of them was in the Sahara, while the other was in the middle of the sea, on a small island.

Thankfully they were both not that far from the city, and Alex could get there with a 3-to-4-day trip by car.

"I have to find a flying mount if I want to be fast," Alex started talking to himself and calculating different scenarios.

"I think you have at best a year or two before it gets impossible; you have to act fast."

"I know; if my plans work out, I can go there within a year."

Alex told Nano his detailed plan for the future and the things he needed to put them into motion.

After listening to his plans, Nano carefully calculated something and said, "I have good and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

'Why can't there be just good news?' thought Alex.

"Because this is the real world."

"don't do that," Alex hated Nano reading his mind, or better said, his body language, "just tell me the bad news first."

"well, they are both the same, actually. After you got the apple, the system has accelerated the duplication speed so it could get smarter at a faster rate; the good part is that your plans would work out better and faster with more nanobots in the atmosphere. The bad news is…."

Alex cut her short and said, "the system will get smarter much faster, and I can't take advantage of the bugs for much longer."

"correct."

At the moment, the system was not smart enough to deal with all the bugs in it, but if it could increase its brain cells at a much faster rate, then it could, in turn, become smarter much faster.

"by the way, how could the system increase the duplication speed? didn't you say the humans programmed it, and it couldn't touch the human programming?"

"it raised the reward for the hidden quest," answered Nano, short and simple.

The hidden quest she was referring to was the quest to kill as many players within a month as possible.

Alex already knew about this quest, and one thing that bugged him all this time was, why didn't he win the last month's quest?

He had killed a total of 87 players and was sure he would be the number one killer in the region; then why.

Was there another person or group out there hunting players for the hidden quest?

If that was the case and people had already found out about the hidden quest, then there would be a massacre soon.

People would turn on each other just to get their hands on that reward.

At the end of each month, the system would announce the reward for that month to the participants to motivate them further to kill their own kind.

Alex had forgotten to check the reward, so he opened the hidden quest window and was surprised to see an epic weapon as its reward.

"How can the system raise the reward from that? Dies it plan on giving out legendary items?"

"Not necessarily. As you know, there are many things more valuable than a piece of epic equipment but less valuable than a legendary one."

"I see…."

There were indeed things more valuable than epic items such as skill books, worker class items, and even INBs.

INBs may not be an issue for Alex, but for many, it was more valuable than items.

_ _ _ _ _ _

Late at night, inside Asue and her mother's room.

Asue was sitting by her mother's bed quietly and looking at her face as if she hadn't seen her for a long time.

'I will take my revenge on those bastards,' she thought to herself, 'taking control of my body and making me do things that I didn't want to do, I will make them suffer for that... I will take my revenge for making me kill Alex.'

___________

Hey guys, I finally made it to chapter 50.

Thank you for reading my book and for all your support.