A deserted school playground stretched beneath a strange purple sky.
But this was no normal sky.
Between the clouds, neon glitches flickered—like a broken screen constantly trying to fix itself.
And in the middle of that empty ground…
Someone was running.
Kay Basal.
His dark indigo jacket fluttered wildly behind him as his feet pounded against the ground. But the expression on his face made one thing clear—
He wasn't just running.
He was trying to survive.
"Grrrrrr…"
The sound echoed behind him.
It wasn't the growl of any normal creature.
It was something metallic… mixed with electricity.
Kay turned back.
Two Glitch Hounds were chasing him.
Their bodies looked like they were made of metal and broken code. Red eyes glowed in the darkness like corrupted data.
Kay's heart pounded.
Faster… faster!
What are these things?
And how did I even get here…?
Suddenly—
His foot hit a rock.
THUD!
Kay fell hard onto the ground.
He quickly turned back.
The Glitch Hounds were only a few steps away now.
He dragged himself backward across the dirt.
Then—
The watch on his wrist suddenly lit up with a bright blue glow.
GG Watch.
The screen flickered violently.
ERROR…
ERROR…
CONNECTION LOST
Kay's breathing grew heavy.
But even in fear, his hacker instincts kicked in.
His fingers started moving rapidly in the air—as if typing on an invisible keyboard.
"This… code?"
He stared at the screen.
"Binary…?"
A spark lit up in his eyes.
"If this is a program… then it can be hacked."
He quickly tapped commands on the screen.
BEEP!
The red interface turned bright blue.
A robotic voice echoed in his ears.
System Reprogrammed.
User ID: Admin.
Enemy Detected.
Requesting Weapon Authorization.
Kay looked up.
The Glitch Hounds were about to leap at him.
"What—?!"
He panicked.
"What weapon do you even want…?"
A second of hesitation.
Then he shouted the first thing that came to his mind—
"SWORD!"
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind burst out from the GG Watch.
Binary numbers began floating in the air—
101010
110101
Dozens of glowing pixels gathered near his hand.
A bright flash exploded.
When the light faded—
A high-tech indigo sword was in Kay's hand.
Weapon Calibrated: The Glitch Blade.
At that exact moment, one of the Glitch Hounds lunged at him.
Kay didn't even realize what he was doing.
He just swung the sword.
SLASH!
A streak of blue light cut through the air.
And in the next second—
The Glitch Hound shattered into pixels instead of blood.
Kay froze.
His breathing was heavy.
He looked at the sword in his hand… then at the scattered pixels.
"This isn't a dream…"
Silence.
"And this isn't a game…"
He slowly looked up at the sky.
The purple sky glitched again.
His voice dropped to a whisper—
"Then…"
"Where am I…?"
Chapter 1 end