The Protagonist's Curse: The Love Triangle Trap Book 2: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance Fantasy Adventure by Delara Finch

Author:Delara Finch [Finch, Delara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2026-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

The laws of physics in Glitch Town were more like gentle suggestions.

Ivy walked past a baker whose head was spinning 360 degrees on his neck like a slow fan blade. He offered her a loaf of bread, but the bread was just a wireframe mesh of blue lines.

"Delicious," the baker said. "Eat. Eat. Eat."

"I'm full, thanks," Ivy murmured, sidestepping a puddle that was falling up toward the ceiling.

She walked the perimeter of the cistern, her boots squelching in mud that occasionally flickered out of existence, revealing a black void beneath the world. This was the trash bin. The server’s subconscious. It was where the System put things it was too lazy to delete but too ashamed to show.

Valerius walked beside her, holding his tattered suit jacket closed. He kept flinching every time a texture popped.

"That dog," Valerius whispered, pointing a trembling finger. "It is inside out."

"It's inverted," Ivy corrected. Her [Logistics Insight] was trying to categorize the chaos and failing spectacularly.

[Entity: Good Boy] [Status: Geometry Error] [Behavior: Bark.exe is looping.]

"It's a tactical asset," Ivy said. "Sterling’s algorithm relies on logic. It relies on hitboxes being where they are supposed to be. How do you parry a dog that exists on the Z-axis?"

"You don't," Valerius muttered. "You run away and call an exorcist."

"Exactly," Ivy said.

She stopped in the center of the town. The residents were watching her. Hundreds of broken, unfinished things. They peered from behind crates that floated in mid-air. They peeked out from walls they had accidentally merged with.

They were terrified.

To them, Ivy was a High-Res Monster. She was rendered in 4K. She had shadow maps and ambient occlusion. She represented the World Above—the world that had thrown them away.

"Patch," Ivy called out.

The Mayor buffered into existence in front of her. His wireframe legs buzzed with purple static.

"You look shiny," Patch accused, his voice echoing. "Shiny things break us. Shiny things bring the Delete Sweeper."

"I'm not shiny anymore," Ivy said.

She tapped the red icon floating above her head. The brand the Reflectionist had given her.

[Status: ANTAGONIST]

"The System says I'm the villain," Ivy shouted, her voice ringing off the damp walls. "It says I'm a bug. Just like you."

A murmur went through the crowd. A woman with no face tilted her head. A blacksmith whose arm was ten feet long stopped hammering.

"They threw you down here because you didn't fit," Ivy continued, pacing the mud. "Because you stuttered. Because you clipped through a wall. Because you weren't optimized."

She drew her Retcon Revolver. The metal was dull in the sewer light.

"They want a perfect story," Ivy snarled. "They want a world where everyone smiles on cue and nobody has a panic attack. They want to replace you with Clones who never make mistakes."

She pointed the gun at the ceiling.

"I say we show them what a mistake looks like."

"Fight?" Patch asked. "We... crash. We lag."

"I don't need you to fight," Ivy said. "I need you to exist. I need you to go up there and be so loud, so broken, and so wrong that their precious server chokes on it.

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