The arcade's broken neon sign flickered erratically, casting jagged shadows across Yamete's face as he stared at his Cheat Engine. The words on the screen had taken on a worrying passive-aggressive tone, alternating between helpful suggestions and sarcastic commentary. His latest attempt to input a command had been met with:
Really? /spawn_taco again? You just ate.
GLich-chan floated nearby, her usual vibrant glow dimmed to a faint pulse. Ever since the memory dive, she'd been quieter, more distant. Occasionally, her form would glitch, pixels scattering like startled insects before reforming.
Gary, meanwhile, had taken to drawing faces on his silver-painted surface with a marker he'd found. "Look! Now I can express my emotions!" He rotated to show them a crudely drawn smiley face. "This is me being happy about impending doom!"
Yamete was about to respond when his tongue suddenly felt heavy. His mouth moved on its own, forming words he hadn't chosen:
"Forward slash gamemode spectator."
The Cheat Engine beeped cheerfully.
Command recognized! Activating spectator mode.
Yamete's body immediately turned translucent. He floated upward involuntarily, passing through the ceiling like a ghost.
"WHAT THE—" His voice echoed strangely as he phased back down through the roof. "I didn't mean to say that!"
GLich-chan's eyes widened. "The corruption's spreading. It's not just interpreting your thoughts anymore—it's rewriting your speech."
Gary rolled closer, his newly drawn eyebrows furrowed in concern. "So... does this mean Yamete's gonna start randomly summoning llamas mid-sentence?"
As if on cue, Yamete felt another wave of unnatural pressure in his throat. He clamped his hands over his mouth, but the words forced their way out anyway:
"Forward slash summon llama named Steve."
A very confused-looking llama materialized in the middle of the arcade, blinking at them with long lashes.
GLich-chan facepalmed. "This is bad. Really bad."
Steve the llama spat on Gary.
Outside, the mysterious entity from the pristine world had grown closer. Its form still defied description, but now faint patterns moved across its surface—shifting lines of code that hurt to look at directly. The ground trembled slightly with its every movement.
Yamete fought against another wave of verbal corruption. "We need—" He choked, then spat out: "Forward slash set worldborder center tilde tilde."
The Cheat Engine executed the command before he could stop it. An invisible wall snapped into existence around them, forming a perfect square that began slowly shrinking.
Gary yelped as the barrier passed through a nearby trash can, cleanly slicing it in half. "Yamete! Less doom commands, more helpful ones!"
Yamete gritted his teeth, trying to focus. With immense effort, he managed to type rather than speak:
/effect clear
The verbal corruption lifted momentarily. He gasped. "Okay. Temporary fix. But we need to—"
A new sound cut through the air—a high-pitched whine like a computer processor overheating. The pristine entity had reached the edge of Glitchvale, and where it touched, the world... changed.
The vibrant, chaotic colors of their home drained away, replaced by sterile whites and grays. Glitches smoothed over. A screaming chicken mid-flight suddenly became an ordinary, quiet bird. The floating pizza box that had been a permanent fixture near the arcade dropped to the ground like a normal piece of trash.
GLich-chan's glow flickered wildly. "It's purging the glitches. Making everything... normal."
Steve the llama let out a perfectly ordinary llama noise. No sparkles. No sudden transformation into a rocket-powered alpaca. Just mundane, realistic llama-ness.
Gary made a noise like a deflating balloon. "This is the worst thing that's ever happened."
Yamete's Cheat Engine suddenly displayed a new message without prompting:
Warning: Purity corruption at 37%. Suggested countermeasure: /give @s resistance 100
GLich-chan read the screen and paled. "It's not just affecting the environment. It's rewriting the rules. Soon, cheats won't work at all."
As if to demonstrate, Yamete tried typing a simple command:
/time set day
Nothing happened.
The shrinking worldborder reached the arcade's walls, shearing through the building with terrifying precision. They had minutes before it reached them.
Yamete looked at GLich-chan, then at Gary, then at the very normal, very unmagical llama.
"We need to get to the core of Glitchvale. Before we all become... boring."