The arcade had become significantly quieter since the Cheat Engine incident. Yamete sat cross-legged on the floor, carefully avoiding any thoughts that might be interpreted as commands. He'd already learned the hard way that even idle musings like "this place could use more windows" resulted in explosive structural modifications.
GLich-chan floated in tight, agitated circles around the malfunctioning Pac-Man cabinet. "Okay, let's think logically. If my code has a termination protocol, there must be a trigger. Maybe a specific phrase, or a—"
A loud metallic screech cut her off as Gary attempted to pry open a snack machine with his lid. "I'm just saying, if we're gonna have existential crises, we should at least have corn chips."
Yamete was about to respond when the arcade's front window shattered inward. Not from an explosion this time, but from something sleek and geometric hovering outside—a floating tetrahedron covered in blinking blue lights.
The object rotated silently, scanning the room with a beam of cold white light that lingered on each of them just a second too long to be comfortable. When it spoke, its voice was the audio equivalent of a sterile white room.
"Unregistered anomalies detected. Beginning system cleanup."
Gary gasped. "Is that a roomba?"
GLich-chan's glow flickered violently. "Worse. Debug drone. They're like... anti-glitch janitors."
The drone pulsed, and suddenly three more identical drones materialized beside it. Their lights shifted from blue to red.
Yamete instinctively reached for his Cheat Engine, then froze. "Uh. How do I fight something that exists to delete errors... with cheats?"
"Carefully," GLich-chan muttered, already backing away. "Very, very carefully."
The lead drone extended a thin probe that crackled with ominous energy. "Primary target acquired: Gary the Trash Can. Reason: Excessive memory allocation in trash sectors."
Gary's lid clattered in indignation. "EXCUSE ME? I'll have you know my trash sectors are beautifully organized!"
The drone fired.
What happened next unfolded in slow motion:
Gary ducked (a remarkable feat for something without knees)
The energy bolt vaporized the snack machine behind him
Six bags of corn chips rained from the sky
Gary screamed "MY CHIPS!" with the anguish of a man who'd lost everything
Yamete's fingers flew across his Cheat Engine. He needed something non-destructive, something that wouldn't trigger more drones—
/spawn_army 100 Gary
The arcade's air shimmered as one hundred slightly transparent Gary clones popped into existence, each with minor variations (one had googly eyes, another was inexplicably polka-dotted). The original Gary gasped in delight.
"MY PEOPLE!"
The debug drones froze, their lights strobing erratically. "Error. Multiple instances detected. Priority reassessment required."
Chaos erupted as the Gary swarm descended upon the drones. Some poked them curiously. Others tried to negotiate ("What if we compromise on 50% less trash?"). A particularly bold clone attempted to eat one.
GLich-chan grabbed Yamete's arm. "This is a temporary fix! We need to—"
A loud POP interrupted her as one of the drones overloaded and vanished in a puff of smoke. Then another. And another.
The remaining drone spun wildly. "Containment failure. Requesting backup. Initiating—"
A polka-dotted Gary sat on it. The drone sputtered and died with a sad beep.
Silence fell, broken only by the hundred Garys whispering excitedly to each other. The original Gary wiped an imaginary tear from his rim. "They grow up so fast."
Yamete's Cheat Engine suddenly beeped. A new command had auto-generated:
/cleanup_army
Before he could react, ninety-nine Gary clones vanished in unison, leaving only the original (now covered in what appeared to be debug drone glitter).
GLich-chan floated to where the drones had been, examining the residual code. "This is bad. They weren't just after Gary. They were cataloging everything." She turned to Yamete, her glow dim. "Including you."
Outside, the sound of hundreds of identical engines whirring to life filled the air.