Glitchwave

As Jack woke up, his head was spinning. The sky above him glitched for a second -just a flicker- and then returned to normal. He sat up slowly, looking around. The place was familiar, but something felt… off.

“Nah… I was proper just in Parallax a sec ago,” he muttered, eyes darting. Then it hit him. This was Parallax. But not the menu, not the lobby-he was inside the game.

Jack had woken up in the MMO he’d only ever played from behind a screen.

Parallax: Eclipse was a newly released, and underrated MMO, but Jack had been obsessed since day one. He’d convinced some of his friends to give it a go-some stayed, some dipped-but Jack loved it to his core. The deep mechanics, the world-building, the endless freedom… it was his escape,

Now it was his prison.

No UI. No logout. No HUD. Just silence.

Jack stood up, brushing of digital dirt, his heartbeat starting to race. He needed answers. And he wasn’t alone… or at least he hoped he wasn’t.

Out of the corner of his eye, a faint blue flicker ran across the ground-like a crack in the world’s code. He narrowed his eyes. “Wass dat?”

Jack knew he had to find some players to survive this madness. No way could he do this alone.

So, he set out searching.

After a while, Jack spotted a wooden house, crudely built but solid, standing alone in the vast digital wilderness.

Inside, he saw three people-two guys and one lady-huddled around a flickering fire, their faces tense but alert.

As Jack stepped closer, the three inside snapped their heads toward him.

One of the guys reached for a weapon, eyes narrowing. “Oi, who you then? You lost or what?” The lady gave Jack a sharp look, crossing her arms. “This is not a playground. You better have a reason to be here.” The other guy stayed quiet but watched Jack carefully, like he was sizing him up.

Jack raised his hands slowly. ”Look I’m just tryna survive out here like you lot. Name’s Jack.” The tension in the room eased just a bit but the warning was clear-trust had to be earned.

They let Jack in, eyes cautious but welcoming. Sitting around a flickering in-game campfire, Jack shared his story – how he got trapped, the glitch, the madness. The two guys exchanged glances while the girl leaned forward.

Jack asked, “So, what’s your story? How long you man been stuck in here?”

One of the guys replied, “Been here since the update hit. Thought it was a sick expansion… till we couldn’t log out. The other added, we’ve been surviving off scraps and hiding from the anomalies. You aren’t the only one experiencing these abnormal behaviours in the code.” The girl nodded. “Whatever you’re caught up in… it’s bigger than us all.” Jack clenched his fists. “Then we better stick together.”

The girl smiled slightly. “I’m Aria. I patch wounds and break firewalls. Sometimes at the same time.” The other guy leaned back, arms crossed with a cocky grin. “I’m Kael. Don’t get any ideas – I’m not the friendly type.” The quiet one finally spoke up, voice low but steady. “Name’s Nova.” Jack smirked. “Alright then. Nova, Kael, Aria… looks like I’ve found my party.” Kael raised an eyebrow. “We’ll see how long you last.” Jack looked toward the pixelated moon in the sky. “Long enough to find a way out… or break the system trying.”

Nova shifted, eyes scanning the glitchy horizon through a cracked window. “You said game’s bleeding into reality. That true?” Jack nodded. “I saw code leaking into the air. The sky bent. I nearly lost myself. If we don’t stop it, it’ll spread beyond Parallax.” Aria stood, folding her arms. “Then we’re not just surviving anymore. We’re fighting back.” Kael scoffed. “You make it sound like we’re heroes. We’re just bugs in their system.”

Jack stepped forward. “Yeah? Well, I’m the glitch they didn’t plan for.” Nova looked at him, the corner of his lip twitching into the faintest smirk. “Then let’s corrupt the code.” Outside the wind howled through glitched trees, flickering like broken video. Aria tossed Jack a crude metal weapon. “You’re one of us now. Welcome to the corrupted zone.”

Jack caught it with one hand. “System Override” he whispered to himself, eyes glowing faintly. “Welcome to my world.”

Later that night, after setting up camp near a corrupted forest, Jack’s group stumbled upon their first major anomaly – a grotesque, shifting creature of corrupted data, with jagged code pulsing across its body and a static screech that rattled their minds. It charged!

Nova took point, blades in hand, Kael pulled out a shotgun, and Aria sniped from above. Jack? He just stared, eyes glowing faintly. They took it down. Barely.

Its body twitched, pixelated blood seeping into the grass, glitching the terrain around it. Jack approached slowly. Nova wiped sweat from his brow. “Leave it alone! It’s dead!” But Jack knelt by it, fingers brushing the broken data, and without warning, sank his teeth into the anomaly’s flesh.

“JACK?!” Aria shouted, stunned. Kael lunged to stop him, but Jack had already taken a bite – and suddenly, a violent burst of glitch energy erupted around him. His eyes widened. Code poured from his mouth like steam. His skin pulsed with glowing lines. The anomaly’s powers – the glitch step – became his.

He stood u, back turned, and muttered: “Proper tasty.” Nova’s face twisted in shock. “Did you just bite that thing?” Kael stepped back, reaching for his shotgun. “Oi, man’s munchin’ on corrupted code like it’s brunch…”

Jack stood, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. The weird, glitchy remains of the anomaly shimmered on his fingers like static. “Bruv proper tasty, no lie,” he muttered, his voice low and rough. Aria gagged. “Jack, that’s not normal. That thing wasn’t even alive. It’s not food –“

But Jack wasn’t listening. His body was reacting. Code flicked briefly over his skin. Not painful – not this time. More like a boost. His fingers twitched, eyes glowing faintly. Kael narrowed his eyes. “Wait… you’re absorbing it?” Jack blinked and nodded slowly. It’s like… every byte gives me something. Strength, speed, even memories and experiences.

Aria looked serious now. “You said this game was corrupting the world, yeah? Maybe… maybe you’re the antivirus.” Nova chimed in quietly, or the virus that adapted.”

They all stood there for a moment, silence falling over the glitchy forest. Then Jack chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck as the others stared him down. “Aight, lemme be real with you lot,” he said, stepping away from the steaming remains of the anomaly. “Back when I first dropped into this cursed game. I was starvin‘. Like, stomach-growlin’, vision-blurry type of starvin’.”

He sat down on a mossy rock, glitchy particles still flickering faintly around his fingertips. “I was searchin’ for anything edible, yeah? And then I saw this meat, proper cooked and smokin’, sittin’ on a stone slab like it was beggin’ to be eaten. No one around, no warning signs. Just vibes. So I grabbed it,, bit in, and… it was mad delicious.” Kael raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t think maybe it was sus?”

Jack shrugged. “Bruv, hunger doesn’t wait for logic. But the second I finished, man felt different. Like, the world around me started shiftin’. I blinked – and suddenly I could see things. Lines of code in the air, glitches in the trees. It was like my whole body started syncing with the game itself.” Aria looked shocked. That’s when the glitch started on you?”

Jack nodded slowly. Kael paced, hands on his head. “This is mad. First the virus beasts, now Jack’s syncing with the damn source code?”

Nova leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “If Jack’s changing, then the system’s changing too. What if he’s not just adapting… but evolving past it?”Jack flexed his fingers. Glitch lines sparked under his skin like neon veins. “I don’t think I’m the same anymore. I hear… voices. Not like people. More like the system whispering instructions.”

Aria’s voice dropped. “Then maybe we don’t just survive anymore. Maybe we fight back-with you leading the charge.” Suddenly a tremor shook the ground. Trees pixelated, then bent unnaturally, as if reacting to some presence. A low hum echoed-deep, mechanical, alive. From the corrupted forest, a towering anomaly emerged. It wasn’t like the last-this one wore a fractured player skin, pieces of old avatars glitching across its frame.

Its voice boomed, distorted: “GL1TCH-H0ST D3TECT3D. PURGE INITIATED.”

Jack’s eyes glowed brighter. “Guess we’re past the tutorial level now,” he muttered. Kael cocked his shotgun. “Right, purge this.” He fired, but the slug passed through the creature like it was smoke-no damage, just more distortion. “Useless!” Aria shouted, already repositioning to higher ground. “It’s not solid-it’s pure corrupted code!” Nova pulled Jack back as the Glitch-Host surged forward, pixelated limbs dragging corrupted terrain with it. “You said you hear the system,” she said urgently. “Can you talk to it? Control it?”

Jack’s eyes flickered rapidly, his vision filled with floating data strings and shifting parameters. It was like standing inside a broken firewall. “I think… I can,” he muttered. “But it’s not words. It’s more like... feelings. Urges”. ”Then feel faster!” Kael barked, diving out of the way as the monster’s arm swung through a glitching tree, shredding it into static. Jack stepped forward, ignoring the chaos. His hand rose, trembling, and the air around him bent. Glitch particles swirled violently as he reached out—not to attack, but to sync.

The Glitch-Host froze. Its form twitched. A fragment of code hovered between them like a puzzle piece. “I see it,” Jack whispered. “It’s not just a monster. It’s a corrupted player!”

Everyone froze.

“A player?” Aria echoed, stunned. Jack nodded slowly, voice heavy. “Someone else got stuck... but didn’t survive it. The system twisted them. And if we fail—” he looked at his friends—“we become this.”