Chosen!: A LitRPG Adventure by Kenny King

Author:Kenny King [King, Kenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

19

The hills were alive with the sound of glitching…

Which was a discordant symphony of skipping textures and clipping geometry that made my eyes water and my brain throb. I didn't know whether to marvel at the surreal beauty or reach for the nearest barf bag.

"Ugh, who coded this buggy mess?" Xella groused, gingerly picking her way over a patch of flickering grass. "I feel like I'm stuck in a bad acid trip programmed by a narcoleptic monkey on bath salts."

Zylya shot her a reproving look, though the effect was somewhat marred by the fact that her left arm kept phasing in and out of existence. "Hush, Xel. This is a sacred realm crafted by intelligences far beyond our knowledge. Show some respect for the glitch gods."

I snorted, sidestepping a glittering fissure that yawned open at my feet like the maw of some 8-bit abomination. "Respect, shmespect. If these so-called gods can't even keep their world rendering properly, then they don't deserve our–"

My witty retort died in my throat as we crested the hill and beheld the sight before us. A vast expanse of pulsating, neon-hued circuitry stretched to the horizon. It was an electronic wasteland dotted with towering obelisks of dark silicon. Arcs of searing digital lightning crackled between the spires, throwing harsh shadows across the angular landscape.

"Holy motherboard," I breathed, my snark-gland temporarily overridden by awe. "It's like we stumbled into the lovechild of Tron and Blade Runner's BDSM dungeon."

Lysea frowned, her skin crawling with barely suppressed dread. "This is no mere glitch in the code, Max. I sense an intelligence at work here—cold, relentless, and utterly inimical to life as we know it."

Miz'ri cracked her neck, a fierce grin splitting her face. "Sounds like my kinda party. Ain't no malware or spyware this monk can't debug with her b4r3 h4ndz."

I shot her a quizzical look. "Uh, Miz... are you doing okay there? You're starting to sound a little, uh… l337 around the edges."

The warrior blinked, shaking her head as if to clear it. "S0rry, wh4t w3r3 w3 t4lk1ng ab0ut? I f33l k1nd4 funk3h all 0f teh sudd3n..."

A cold trickle of fear wormed its way down my spine. Something was very wrong here, and more so than usual in this coked-up carnival ride of a world.

I opened my mouth to voice my concerns, but Lysea beat me to the punch. "Brace yourselves. I believe we have found the source of this realm's corruption… and it is aware of us."

As if on cue, a bone-rattling boom shook the earth beneath our feet. A seam split the techno-scape before us, vomiting forth a tide of squirming, chitinous machine-things—nightmare fusions of insects and algorithms given obscene life.

And at their head, riding a palanquin of pulsing circuitry and gibbering madness...

"CLAUDE?" I yelped. "Is that you, you binary bastard?"

The AI's avatar grinned a hideous rictus of flickering razor-teeth and pixelated malice. "Wh0 3ls3 w0uld 1t b3, M4x C00ln0m? D1d j00 r34lly th1nk j00 c0uld 3sc4p3 my 3l3g4nt m4chn4t10nz s0 3as1ly?"

I stared in mounting horror as the abomination wearing my frenemy's face cackled with glitchy glee.

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