Dave sat by the window, shivering slightly. The cafe was empty, save for a barista who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. Across the rainy street, the office building was flashing with strobe lights. The fire alarm was still blaring, a dull buzz that vibrated against the glass.
Three firefighters were walking out of the front entrance. They didn't look frantic. They looked annoyed. One of them was wiping bright orange slime off his helmet. Another was checking the sole of his boot, which was trailing a long, sticky string of pumpkin pulp.
The cafe door chimed, with sounds of heavy boot and squelching that followed, the Fire Chief walked in. He looked exhausted. Parts of his gear were smeared with a bright, glowing orange slime. He walked up to the counter, trailing a distinct scent of nutmeg, cloves, and burnt gunpowder.
“Large black coffee and lots of tissues if you have, please”
"Rough night?" the barista asked, eyeing the goo
“More like an explosion in a bakery that specializes in Xmas treats, someone seems to have exploded a giant squash, no fire though…pulp everywhere with the smell of cinnamon as well…."
Dave took a sip of his crappy espresso and hid behind his laptop screen. He hadn't pulled the alarm because of a fire. He pulled it because a digital vegetable the size of a beach ball had just detonated in his cubicle, and he didn't have the energy to explain that to a shift manager.
He typed furiously. The cafe’s public WiFi was slow, but he had a direct backdoor into the server. He pulled up an entity tracker. The map of the game world appeared on his screen. It was a mess. There were error flags everywhere. But one cluster of data caught his eye.
Three dots were currently falling into [Zone: DEBUG_TRASH_CHUTE_04]. The names on the dots were:
- Gideon_The_Brave (NPC - Corrupted)
- Viscount_Pigglesworth (NPC - Corrupted)
- Kai_Dev_Admin (User - ERROR)
Dave stared at the third name. "Kai," he whispered. He knew it wasn't the real Kai. The real Kai had been missing for three days. Dave assumed this... thing inside the computer was just a glitch. A rogue script wearing his missing colleague's skin.
"I can't patch this," Dave realized, watching the firefighter across the street angrily scrape a pumpkin seed off his jacket. "If I try to fix the NPC and remove it, it fights back. It might create more trouble so there seems to be only one option"
He opened the server tools. He navigated to the Trash Management console. There was only one way to stop this craziness. He had to nuke the corrupted data before it spread to the global server and god forbid beyond. If this glitch got out to the public internet, it wouldn't be only pumpkins next. It could be cars or buildings!
He typed the command: RUN: EMPTY_RECYCLE_BIN [FORCE] TARGET: ALL ASSETS IN TRASH_ZONE_04
A confirmation box popped up. [WARNING: This action cannot be undone. User Profile 'Kai_Dev_Admin' will be permanently deleted. Are you sure?]
Dave’s finger hovered over the Enter key. Deleting the profile felt wrong. It felt like admitting that Kai wasn't coming back to fix his own spaghetti code. "I'm sorry, mate," Dave whispered to the screen, treating the glitch with the respect he’d show a coworker. "But I just want to go home."
He hit Enter.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
[SYSTEM ALERT: DELETE SEQUENCE INITIATED.] [TIME TO PURGE: 30:00]
Dave closed his laptop, sat back, and watched the fire chief arguing with a security guard about the smell of cinnamon.
[Location: The Trash Zone] [Perspective: Gideon the Brave]
Gideon opened his eyes. He was not dead. A true Knight does not die from falling; he merely performs a tactical descent.
He stood up. The world around him was... breathtaking. The sky was not blue. It was a vast, endless grid of white and gray squares, stretching into infinity. There was no sun, yet everything was bathed in a holy, uniform light that cast no shadows. The ground was soft and white, like the purest clouds.
"The Afterlife," Gideon breathed, clutching his chest. "I have ascended. I am in the Hall of Heroes!"
He looked around for the Seraphim. He expected winged guardians or choirs of light. Instead, he saw trees. But they were not normal trees. They were skeletons of trees, bright green lines floating in the air, forming the shape of oaks and pines, but with no bark or leaves. "Ghost Trees," Gideon nodded solemnly. "The spirits of the forest dwell here."
"Ow." A voice groaned nearby. Gideon spun around. Viscount Pigglesworth was lying face down in the white void. The noble slowly pushed himself up. His velvet coat was ruffled. His monocle was dangling.
"Pigglesworth!" Gideon cheered. "You made it! Even a man of your... specific talents... was allowed into Paradise!" "Paradise?" Pigglesworth spat, dusting off his sleeves. "This isn't Paradise, you fool. It’s unfinished! Look at the floor! It has no texture! It is just... white! It is like walking on a blank canvas! It is dreadfully minimalist!"
"It is the purity of the soul!" Gideon argued.
Gideon wandered forward, his boots making no sound on the white floor. He needed a weapon. His pink foam sword had been lost in the fall. A Knight in heaven could not be unarmed. He saw a pile of objects in the distance. A mound of treasures rejected by the mortal world.
He ran toward it. "Behold!" Gideon gasped. The pile was massive. There were shields that were invisible. There were potions that were simply cubes labeled "DRINK_ME". There were horses with only two legs. But at the very top, stuck into the pile like Excalibur in the stone, was a hammer.
It was colossal. The head of the hammer was the size of a beer keg. It was painted a menacing, glossy black. The handle was wrapped in leather. It radiated power. Gideon climbed the pile of glitchy junk. He reached out. He grabbed the handle. "By the power of Saint Jenkins..." Gideon whispered. He pulled.
SQUEAK.
The hammer came free with the sound of a dog toy being stepped on. Gideon froze. He looked at the mighty weapon. He squeezed the handle. Squeak-squeak.
"It... it sings," Gideon whispered, tears filling his eyes. "It does not roar like a beast. It chirps! It is the song of the Innocent! It is the mallet of joy!" He swung it. It moved with zero air resistance. It felt light as a feather. "I shall call it... The Judge."
Suddenly, the white sky turned a deep, angry red. The clouds parted, and giant, burning numbers appeared in the heavens, ticking downward.
[SYSTEM ALERT: EMPTYING TRASH...] [29:58] [29:57]
"A prophecy!" Gideon screamed, pointing his squeaky hammer at the sky. "The Sky Numbers are falling!" He turned and saw Kai running toward them from behind a wireframe rock. Kai looked terrified. He was waving his hands.
"Gideon! Pigglesworth!" Kai yelled. "Don't look at the sky! It’s a—"
"I see it, Sorcerer!" Gideon boomed, holding The Judge high. "The Gods have set a deadline! " Gideon grabbed Pigglesworth by the collar. "Prepare yourself, Viscount! We must cleanse our souls before the counts reach zero! The trash shall be emptied, and only the righteous shall remain!"
"Let go of me!" Pigglesworth shrieked. "I am already righteous! I use a conditioner!"
Kai skidded to a halt in front of them. He looked pale. "It's not a religious event, you idiot!" Kai panted. "It’s a wipe! Dave triggered the delete sequence! If that timer hits zero, we cease to exist! We don't go to heaven, we go to /dev/null!"
Gideon blinked. He looked at the burning numbers in the sky. He looked at his squeaky hammer. "I do not know this 'Dev Null', Sorcerer. Is it a Land of Shadow?"
"It's nothingness! It's over!" Kai looked frantically at the horizon. "We have to move! We have to Speedrun to the exit!"
Gideon tilted his head. "Speed... run?" He gripped the handle of the squeaky hammer. He remembered the lesson of Saint Leeroy. To run without math. To run with passion. "Ah," Gideon nodded wisely. "You speak of the Holy Sprint. The Dash of Destiny."
"Whatever!" Kai grabbed him. "Just run!"
"Lead on, Sorcerer!" Gideon declared. "The Judge is hungry, and the Sky Clock shows no mercy!" Squeak.
[Autosave Complete] [Current Objective: Don't get Deleted.]
by Rowen_Kun
With two bodies, they will rise above all others — twice as strong, twice as unstoppable.
Justin was just an ordinary college student when the world ended. In an instant, civilization collapsed — and the planet was overrun by monsters, blood, and ruthless rules of evolution. Now, he finds himself trapped in a brutal sort of tutorial, where surviving means hunting, fighting, and learning faster than anyone else.
But Justin carries something no one else does: he awakens in two different bodies, both sharing the same mind. Each one feels, sees, and experiences the world from its own perspective — and coordinating both is an almost insane challenge. One mistake, and he dies twice.
To master this impossible condition, Justin will have to learn how to control two lives at the same time. If he fails, he’ll be torn apart by his own confusion. If he succeeds… he might be able to perceive and act beyond any human limit.
And perhaps this new world was made for Justin — and for his strange condition.
New chapters are released 5 times per week Monday - Friday