I look around the pale beach. Everything is littered with leaking oil barrels, car wrecks, and other garbage, but once again, I don't see the point where I've arrived, so going back is out. This glitched reality is giving me a headache.

  If I truly believed that I was one of these Glitches, would I have to consider this mess my new home? No, fuck that noise. None of that is true. It can't be, it mustn't.

  Damn, the sun is annoyingly bright as well...

  Uh, wasn't it gone before? Allegedly blown up by me? Fuck, what do I know, the pathing here makes no sense at all. Maybe I'm now on the other side of the world and this pnet has half a dozen suns? It would expin why I never saw nighttime despite being allegedly here for years...

  I walk around the dumpster of a beach until I suddenly hear someone talking, "... Don't you dare order me around, or did you forget that you work for me, old man? ...Gimme a moment, some idiot's here."

  The next thing I know, my face is violently pushed into the dirty sand, "I don't take kindly to trespassers on my beach, you know? ... Ugh, don't tell me..."

  Suddenly, the glitch creature lets go of me and continues their conversation on the phone, mostly screeching, "What did you say that idiot was like? ... Great, he's here. And no, I'm. Not. Doing. That. Not today. Not on the day of our reunion!! ...No, fuck you! ... Argh!"

  After wiping the sand from my face, I see the creature throw away the phone, which then explodes. Must've been a product of a very primitive world.

  I try to get up from the ground and look towards the glitch creature. I can almost see this person clearly, barely blocky or blurred like the other glitches. She looks like a tanned woman in her mid-twentieths, kind of on the short end, twin-tails with violet and green strands, and from her back sprout wings made of syringes filled with substances of all kinds of drippy colors - did I hit my head that hard? No, she did, half her head is blown off. Glitch creatures continue to be impossible, nothing else could live like that.

  What the hell did I get into this time, "Who are you? What is this pce?"

  She gets all in my face, "M/Il1ce, and I'm not dealing with you today. Go grab a towel and drown in the sun, or whatever, but stay out of my business until tomorrow! Or never, that'd work even better."

  "I didn't pn on staying here longer than needed. Just point me towards the exit and I'll be gone."

  "Not happening. That bastard Seba already told me too much and made that whole mess my problem. But I don't want to deal with that today, freak, I have a reunion to attend to."

  "What, like a css reunion?"

  "Apocalypse reunion. The three of us are the only remains of our universe, you know, before it was wiped out and reset. But then, how much we really count as remains is up for debate since we got converted. Either way, don't really care."

  "Uh, err..."

  She shoves me a good bit, "So if you got that, just sit over here and be a good little Bug, and don't bother us."

  "Hey, w-"

  Before I can finish my sentence, she silences me by pushing a towel into my face, "Here, since I'm so nice, you may take this. Now be quiet and let me enjoy my day off!"

  By the time I removed the cloth from my face, she had already put quite a big distance between us.

  Damn, if you want to get rid of me, why not tell me the direction? I'm not asking for much, and you seem to know where I have to go. Is that really too much to ask?

  ...

  So, should I now py along or rather run for it?

  Well, she doesn't want me to go, and I'm afraid as fast as she was, I wouldn't get away once she notices. Not unless I find a convenient entrance that brings me somewhere else, but seeing the state of this trash beach, that is out.

  Well, if it is true that I have been here for years, waiting just one more day can't make it worse than it already is.

  It just feels weird to rely on Glitches, to accept their help. Doesn't their very existence destroy reality? Why should I trust them to help us fix that issue?

  But then, wouldn't my mere presence there make things worse as well? I've already caught a nasty dose of that infection. What am I even doing anymore...

  As a vampire, the sun should've destroyed me long ago, but as in my home, the fortress, it doesn't hurt in the slightest. Probably because it isn't a proper sun anymore, but a glitch-infested mockery of one. Maybe it is high time I enjoyed the sunlight for once. Just this once.

  I grab the beach towel I got from... M-ssh-alice? Maise? How the hell do you pronounce her name? Whatever, I put that damn thing on the beach-ridden garbage dump and lie down.

  ...

  Nope, bored. I'm not enjoying this beach episode, something important is missing. Lucia, Ecire, ...

  It is weird. I was under the impression I only retained the skills I gained from Hybrid skills, and maybe the glitched ones. But titles? I don't know, I don't feel like the Happily Married title still works. But then, why do I still feel for them? Did I really fall for them?

  That would be a first for me...

  Maybe I should take this opportunity to look into my subconsciousness again. I haven't done that since before I succumbed to the infection, and I want to know if it even made a difference.

  I sit down and start to meditate like st time. This time, there's some resistance like crawling through a tunnel of mud, but despite that, I arrive in the mental hellscape moments ter.

  A lot of glitchy goo is dropping from the ceiling, the walls and ground seem to pulsate as if alive with veiny cracks all around them.

  The space itself reminds me of the glitch passage in my fortress, like it should be filled but somehow you can walk through it anyway.

  What about my memory crystals? They are partially molten, running into the ground. I'm confident that I still remember most everything, so that doesn't seem to cause an issue. Or rather, they'd be safe from interference from our two saboteurs, Elly and the nameless glitch.

  Speaking of, where are these two?

  I walk and look around for a while, but the glitch-spider webs from before are gone, as is the pool the bastard sat in. I guess it was finally completely absorbed into me, despite being turned into a statue by the System - it was probably freed in the same way as the people on the beach; the shell was eaten by glitches. Either way, the mere thought that it got what it wanted makes me sick...

  But what about Elly? Her statue is still here, maybe a bit worse for wear but still intact.

  Is the difference that Elly was only recently turned into a Glitch creature and is so less corruptive to her environment? But then the droplets of glitch goo from the ceiling should do the majority of damage, I think. Strange...

  Just looking at her like that makes me consider crushing her statue and finally being rid of her for good. It would be so easy, exactly like at the beach, one mere spell should be all it needs. Just one.

  I raise my arms to cast the spell but then stop. My gut tells me that this would be a bad idea. It might create more tiny gremlins and who knows what damage they could cause.

  Fine, Elly, you may live for now, traitor.

  I wander around for a while longer but find nothing else worthwhile. If everything is out of the ordinary thanks to the glitch infection then nothing is.

  More confused than satisfied, I wake up from the meditation.

  Damn, the sun is even brighter now than before. Did so much time pass that it is now a different part of the day?

  I look over to where the braindead woman went and see that there's now a second person, who seems to have butterfly-style wings. No idea, can't really see much from here, but they seem to be arguing with each other. I wonder what that is about. No, forget it, it is none of my business.

  I grab my beach towel and move a bit further away from them until I can't see them anymore.

  After lying down again, I try to interact with my menu for the first time in a long while. It is even more cumbersome than usual. Unless I concentrate very hard, I'm not able to control it. If my focus is even slightly off, it merely produces a wave of static across the whole window or an error message.

  But most importantly, my status is completely shot. It merely shows one thing:

  NO DATA.I don't know about the passive skills, but I'm definitely still able to use the active skills at least. So what does that mean for me, what am I now?

  I do not feel at home with the Glitches and I can still use most of the stuff from before, but...

  I just don't know anymore...