The woods should've been noisy.
Alder Forest, even this close to the village, was usually full of small rustles and chittering, the soft calls of early-area beasts, the hum of insects. The kind of sounds that blended into the background until you only noticed their presence when they stopped.
Right now, they had stopped.
Utterly.
Kai felt the absence like pressure behind his ears.
Sproutail pressed against his neck, trembling faintly, leaf-ears pinned tight. Flarekit had tucked itself halfway behind Mira's legs, tail-flame tiny, barely flickering.
"Kai," Mira whispered, "is this… normal?"
"No." His voice came out too quickly. "Stay close. Keep Flarekit near you."
She obeyed without arguing. Good. He didn't need to waste time convincing her.
The flicker had vanished, but the silence remained. The air felt too still, like it had been pressed flat. Even the sun filtering through the trees felt dimmer.
Kai stepped forward, slowly, one foot at a time. Sproutail clung to his shoulder but didn't try to stop him.
A memory tugged at him from the original game:
A forum post from years ago.A screenshot of a corrupted spawn point.A warning that the corruption always started with a "static shadow" in the grass.
He'd laughed at it then.
Now he didn't feel like laughing.
Mira followed close behind, swallowing hard. "Are you sure we should be going toward it?"
"No," Kai said honestly. "But leaving it alone would be worse."
"…Why?"
Because in the game, ignoring the glitch made it spread.
Because if the corruption took hold here, it could consume the entire beginner zone. Players could respawn. Villagers—NPCs—couldn't.
And Kai, despite being an NPC, felt every inch of fear like a real human.
They moved past the first row of trees. Leaves rustled under their feet, the only sound left.
Then a soft crack echoed ahead.
Mira jumped. "What was—"
Kai raised a hand. "Wait."
Another crack.
Closer this time. Sharper. Like claws striking bark.
Sproutail growled, a tiny, desperate sound. Its tail leaves shivered, shedding faint green motes.
Flarekit arched its back, flame flaring weakly.
Kai peered into the dim light filtering between the trunks.
A shape crawled from behind a fallen log.
Not big. Not threatening in size.
But wrong.
Its body jittered—even as it moved. Like frames of animation skipping. Like its existence couldn't fully settle into place. Its eyes glowed a dim, sickly purple, hollow but furious. Thin lines of black static ran across its fur, shifting like cracks along glass.
A corrupted Chirril.
Early. Too early.
Mira gasped. "Oh my god—what happened to it?"
Kai stepped in front of her instinctively. "Back up. Slowly."
The corrupted Chirril jittered again, jerking in two directions at once before its body snapped into alignment. Its movements were fast, unpredictable, distorted.
In the game, corrupted beasts had boosted stats. They were dangerous in the real world even without that.
"Kai?" Mira whispered. "What do we do? Should we run?"
Running was tempting.
But if the creature slipped past them toward the village…
He pictured children playing by the fountain.
NPCs repeating their idle routines.
None of them prepared for something like this.
"No," Kai said quietly. "We can't let it go that way."
He glanced at Sproutail. "You ready?"
Sproutail's eyes sharpened, fear written in its trembling but resolve firm underneath. It nodded.
"Flarekit," Mira whispered, voice shaking, "stay by Kai and don't go ahead unless I say."
Flarekit chirped nervously but held its ground.
The corrupted Chirril turned its head in a broken, jerky motion, eyes locking onto them. A distorted squeal erupted from its throat—high-pitched, like a corrupted audio file glitching.
Then it lunged.
Fast.
Too fast.
"Mira, move!" Kai shouted.
He shoved her sideways as the Chirril shot past where she had been standing. It hit the ground, scrambled up, and turned again, purple eyes blazing.
"Sproutail—Calming Dust!"
Sproutail leapt, twisting, but the corrupted creature anticipated the movement. It darted left—skipping a few frames of motion—and avoided the green motes Sproutail scattered.
Corrupted beasts didn't behave like normal ones.
They didn't hesitate.
They didn't fear.
They didn't get affected by calming skills.
Mira clutched Flarekit. "Kai, it's too fast!"
"It has patterns," Kai said through clenched teeth. "They always have patterns."
He remembered the corrupted event well: early corrupted beasts always zig-zagged twice before lunging straight.
The Chirril flickered to the right.
"Sproutail! Guard left!"
Sproutail braced—
The Chirril zig-zagged left.
"Now right!"
Sproutail pivoted, green aura flaring.
The corrupted creature jittered right again.
Then—it lunged straight.
"SPR OUTAIL—ROOT SNARE!"
He didn't know if Sproutail even had the move yet.
In the game, it learned it around level five.
But instinct wasn't tied to levels anymore.
Sproutail cried out, slamming both paws onto the ground.
A surge of green energy erupted outward.
Thin roots shot up in a sudden burst, wrapping around the corrupted Chirril's legs mid-lunge. Its body jolted, momentum cut off, and it crashed forward, snarling in glitchy static pulses.
Mira gasped. "Kai, you—Sproutail—how—?"
"No time!" he snapped. "Tell Flarekit to help—now!"
Mira startled but nodded, voice cracking. "Flarekit—Ember, low power!"
Flarekit bounded forward, flame flickering nervously. It took a stance, tail flaring—then fired a small burst of heat, striking the corrupted creature's side.
The Chirril screeched, thrashing violently. Static crackled along its fur, burning the surrounding roots. Its body twisted unnaturally, half phasing through the ground before snapping back into place.
Sproutail recoiled, scared.
Kai dropped to a knee, placing a hand on its back. "I know. But you're doing great. Stay with me."
The corrupted Chirril ripped free from the burnt roots and twitched into an unstable stance. It looked weaker. Fading. Already breaking apart along its edges.
Corrupted beasts didn't bleed. They fractured.
Mira's face was pale. "Kai… is it dying?"
"It's not alive the same way normal beasts are," Kai said. "But yes. We need to end this."
The creature hissed—a fractured, layered sound. Purple energy surged around it, coalescing for a final lunge.
Kai knew this part.
Corrupted beasts always ended with a suicide charge.
"Mira! On my mark, order Flarekit to fire high, diagonal! Sproutail—follow the Ember burst!"
Mira nodded shakily. "Okay. Okay, tell me when."
The Chirril's body jittered, compressing like a spring.
Kai timed the motion.
Three…
Two…
One—
"Now!"
"Flarekit—EMBER UPWARD!"
Sproutail launched forward simultaneously.
Flarekit fired a bright arc of flame upward, scorching the air.
Sproutail used the brief flash of heat and light as cover, leaping in its shadow directly at the corrupted creature.
The Chirril lunged at the same moment.
Both collided—
And then—
A burst of shattered purple energy ripped outward.
The corrupted Chirril's body cracked like broken glass, fragments dissolving into drifting static. It let out one last distorted squeal before its form unraveled completely, fading into the wind like dust.
Silence fell.
Real silence this time—followed slowly by the sounds of distant birds returning.
Sproutail tumbled back and skidded across the dirt. It shook its head wildly, then staggered to its feet.
Flarekit collapsed onto its belly, panting, tail-flame slowly growing brighter again.
Mira sprinted forward. "Flarekit! Oh god, are you okay?"
Kai hurried to Sproutail, scooping it gently into his arms. "You did amazing. You're alright."
Sproutail chirped weakly, but its eyes were bright—scared, yes, but proud.
Mira pressed her forehead to Flarekit's, relieved tears building in her eyes. "I thought—it moved so fast—I didn't know if—"
Kai placed a steady hand on her shoulder. "You handled yourself well. Both of you."
She sniffed, wiping her face. "What was that thing?"
Kai hesitated.
He could lie. He could soften it. He could say it was just a rare variant or a glitch or something unusual but harmless.
But if corruption had truly started already, Mira—and everyone else—needed to know the truth.
"It was a corrupted beast," Kai said softly. "A monster created by a system bug. In the game, it was just a weird enemy with extra stats. Here… it's something else."
Mira held Flarekit closer. "Is it going to happen again?"
Kai looked into the forest.
The silence had returned.
And from somewhere deep inside the woods came another faint, glitching crackle.
Not one creature.
More than one.
"Yes," Kai whispered. "It's going to happen again."
Sproutail pawed at his chest, whimpering.
Flarekit hid behind Mira's legs, flame flickering nervously.
Mira swallowed. "Kai… what do we do?"
Kai straightened slowly.
He was just an NPC. He wasn't built for this. He had no official role, no questline, no combat training.
But he had memories.
And he knew the original event.
And he knew that if nothing was done, Alder Village would fall.
"We prepare," Kai said quietly.
"For a glitch that shouldn't be happening."