One moment, I stand in Stella's room, and the next, I am once again in the glitchy landscape of my subconscious. No warning, no sense of motion. Just an instant cut from my transformation to... here.

  The scenery looks quite similar to before, just a bit more of a red tint bleeding into the whole mess. The walls are still running together like molten cheese, something not entirely unlike a viscous liquid dropping from the ceiling, and the whole area should be impassable, seemingly filled with matter, like a massive, solid wall - yet I can still move around unimpeded.

  I take a quick look at my body, and as far as I can see, everything is still the same. My [Disguise] is still intact, more or less, including a bit of glitch-flickering that gives away my true nature. I hate it...

  So, what exactly just happened? I don't feel the slightest bit different. No surge of power, no revelation of new skills, not even a half-hearted "ding!" to signal a level up, just deafening nothingness.

  Maybe the process is still ongoing? With this like a freaking loading screen from hell.

  But then, what exactly will it do to me? Perhaps I chose wrong. I was too hasty, too greedy, as always...

  I walk around for a while, yet nothing out of the unordinary happens, but all this time, I feel a strange, faint pull towards something. It goes everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Like gravity in this fake reality. It exists, in theory, but it matters not for Glitches never studied.

  Is it the System? Maybe. It feels like it is dying, screaming for help one final time, yet knowing that it is futile. Stella is gone, her master nowhere to be found, and the only ones left are its natural enemies...

  Following a hunch, I try to open my menu. After an uncomfortably long silence, it finally opens and greets me with a veritable mess: the letters are nervously jittering about, even changing font mid-letter as if they can't even decide what language they want to imitate. All the while, several unrelated messages overwrite each other.

  And as a final touch, severe cracks ripple across the window and even leave it entirely, bleeding right into reality. You can literally feel how it doesn't want to be here anymore.

  Too much at once, too much to comprehend. But it is obvious that the System feels the same way.

  It cannot continue. This cannot continue. This cannot continue...

  Among the nonsensical error messages are snippets of code sprinkled in. If that is supposed to be part of the System's actual source code, it's no surprise if everything is always broken. There's no way in hell this compiles. The voices in my head tell me so - or the memories that don't belong to me, either of the two.

  Before I can fully understand the madness the System spat out this time, a strangely familiar voice suddenly speaks to me, "Liking your newest masterpiece?"

  I know this voice: it is mine - just distorted, as if you had dragged it through a glitched voice filter or two.

  "No, and what are you supposed to be?"

  An extremely glitched-up version of what I imagine I look like appears before me, a grotesque mockery of all my efforts. This could be what my final evolution is meant to be.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  It points toward a corner of the room, "I am that which it is not."

  In said corner lies a nearly uninfected version of myself, flayed and torn apart. Dead.

  I should feel nausea over the sight, but I am not. The emotional dampener of my vampire self is still at work, it seems.

  I facepalm, "Please don't tell me this is a shoulder angel situation. Good half, dead half?"

  "I honestly have no clue where it came from, but it was already destroyed when I found it. Well, if you want, we can feast on it later. You up for it?"

  I go over to the corpse and inspect it quickly. The sensation of the body doesn't fit to a former living person, it feels more like... one of the hybrid skills I worked on. Strange.

  The glitch creature begs for attention, "Hey, can you stop ignoring me? We've some business to go through."

  "What could we possibly have to talk about? Do you want to sell me some unlife insurance?"

  It sighs, "Listen, I only exist to guide your evolution into a Legacy. Normally, you shouldn't even be conscious during this process. For regular Features, everything is already clear; they know what they want, so I'd just do my thing and then merge into you to disappear without a trace. But... you're all wrong. You're a Feature, yet not."

  "You got that right, I'm a Hybrid. I started as a Solid -"

  The creature interrupts me, "That is of no concern; the way of Glitches is absolute. You are one of us, the only question is your future. Your past actions are inconclusive, so I have to ask you directly: What kind of power do you wish for? To corrupt, destory, or destroy?"

  "How about none of that? This isn't what I asked for!"

  "These are your only options. There is no abort or retry."

  I don't understand why they even care. The Glitches have already won countless times. You don't have to drag me into this, not on this wrong path.

  Damn, I'm so fed up with people telling what I can and cannot do all the time!!

  I let my true intentions slip, "None of that. I wish for the System to be restored and, if possible, to be fortified against future Glitch interference."

  It sounds clearly confused, "So, corruption then?"

  "No. I meant what I said. I wish to preserve the people the way they are."

  It thinks for a moment, "That... is impossible. The System is too weak to endure your influence."

  We'll see about that.

  When this Legacy process was started, I felt something particular. It felt like the System and I were one for a moment. And now I see this corpse here, which reminds me of a Hybrid skill. This can't be a coincidence.

  Regular people are extremely vulnerable to Glitches, but Hybrids are not. It may not be ideal, but it would at least be some protection for the people of the System against infection.

  But how do you get the System running again?

  Maybe corruption is the way, just not the way you expected.

  I wouldn't corrupt the System randomly, but targeted. I only have to destroy the maintenance mode itself so the System has no choice but to restart.

  Malice said it has never been done before, so I only have to be the first. Can't be that hard.

  "Alright, I've decided. I'll choose corruption, I can focus it on specific modules of the System, right?"

  "This is not a valid parameter."

  "I don't give a crap about your parameters. I can't solve the issue the way I am, fine, so be it. Corrupt me, if you have to, but if I say I'll only use it in that specific way, then I'll do exactly that, and only that!"

  The Glitch creature laughs, "You want to restrict that power? Don't be ridiculous! The System falls already apart if you only look at it funny."

  "Yeah, that's kind of exactly NOT the plan. But you you know what is?"

  I punch the creature in the nonexistent face, and it flies to the ground. With how high and mighty it behaved itself, I expected more resistance, but nothing. It doesn't fight back. This is almost disappointing. Almost.

  The creature stammers embarrassed, "W-what are you doing? Hey, where the fuck is my face!?"

  Most of its face is indeed missing, and I feel how most of it was absorbed into my fist when I punched it. Feels kinda powerful.

  "I'm making MY choice. Remember? You asked me what kind of Legacy I wanted to become. And I've decided that my 'Legacy' should be your downfall!"

  I try to grab the Glitch creature, but this is quite difficult when you keep absorbing parts of it. After calming down and employing the same kind of focus I used recently when interacting with the System, I finally manage to get ahold of the bastard.

  Then I drag him over to the other corpse.

  Damn, I'm already feeling full from this little twerp, don't want to imagine how difficult it must be to make a proper Feature disappear.

  I keep pushing the troublemaker face-first in the dirt with one hand. It tries to protest but only manages some muffled, impotent sounds.

  With the other hand, I reach for the corpse.

  I may have destroyed my [Essence Drain] skill, but this setup still gives me the same sensation as when I made Hybrid skills previously, so I do exactly that. I smash both of the bodies together.

  Within the resulting chaos, I can still feel the Glitch struggling with all its might, thrashing violently against the other essences. It tries to consume them as it always has, but it no longer can. They are becoming one, whether they want to or not.

  After a moment, the deed is done, and all lifesigns of the Glitch creature have disappeared. In the place of the two bodies now floats a single, ominous Core. It looks like the Class Cores of old, but pale red and silver instead of blue and orange.

  Heh, you could say these are my colors. Silver like my hair as a silver elf, and red corrupted blood. Kinda poetic for a vampire.

  It floats there, waiting to be used. It wants to be used, not by anyone in general, but me specifically. No one else has the necessary authority.

  I don't need [Appraise] or anyone to tell me; I can positively feel the power emanating from it. This has to be it, this has to be the key to all of this misery.

  I reach my hand towards it, and a sensation emanating from it tells me to stop. These were the final words of the Glitch creature. They were not hostile, but a warning. If I use this, I may lose myself forever. I'd become a part of the System. Depending on my willpower, I might become another cog in the machine or...

  One thing is clear: if I use this, I will return to the world, not as a Feature or Legacy, but as something different entirely.

  But can I bear the responsibility? If I do this, there will be no turning back. The System would be running again - but only as long as I live. Should I perish... better not think about it.

  There are still doubts in my mind that this is the correct course of action; I can still give up and fully become one of the Glitches - it would be quite easy, no one would ever find out. But I... I have to do this.

  I grab the Core and merge it with my being.

  I expect it to fight back, but nothing happens. It gets peacefully integrated within my soul as if we were always meant to become one. The mere thought is somehow terrifying.

  Of course, it doesn't fight back. The Glitch creature wanted to get absorbed once its job was done. That has to have carried over to the item.

  But why doesn't it conflict with my existing skills? It reacted violently to the dead body, an entity connected to the System; skills are based on the System as well. That should create the same hostile reaction, but it doesn't. Does that mean my skills were already damaged beyond repair - or even disintegrated?

  Honestly, that's... an issue for later. Repairing the System comes first.

  For a while, nothing continues to happen. An eerie silence suffocates the area, as if something was meant to happen but didn't.

  It only takes a few more moments, which feel like an eternity, before it finally feels like the integration is finished. Not complete, not perfect - just done.

  And my dear friend, the error message, heartfully agrees.

  Hello World to you, too.

  This is my life now, I'm that... thing keeping the System running. I don't know yet what that means, but at least one thing is clear to me now: I have become a Dependency.