2026-08-15 19:06:00"So, you’re saying I should call in sick tomorrow?" Bimo asked, staring at the swirling violet tear in reality.
Arka’s sword vibrated in his grip, the blade singing a low, mournful note. "You think tomorrow matters? If you don't close that rift, there won't be an office to report to. There won't be a planet."
"I just wanted a sandwich, Arka. Is that too much to ask? A turkey club, light mayo, maybe some chips?"
"You are infuriating. Your reality is collapsing, and you’re contemplating condiments?"
"Stress manifests in different ways, buddy! Some people have panic attacks, I get hungry."
Ding!
[SYSTEM ALERT: EMERGENCY TRANSPORT INITIATED. SUBJECT: BIMO. DESTINATION: ABYSSAL DEPTHS – SECTOR 7. DURATION: LUNCH BREAK.]
"Wait, what? No! I didn't clock out yet!" Bimo shrieked, his voice climbing an octave.
"Bimo, stand your ground—" Arka reached out, but the space around them folded like a cheap napkin.
The parking garage vanished, replaced by the damp, oppressive chill of a subterranean stone corridor. The smell of ozone and wet rot filled the air. Bimo stumbled, his heels clicking against obsidian tiles.
"Hello? Arka? Anyone?"
Silence.
"Great. Fantastic. I’m in a dungeon. Do I at least get a lunch break, or is this 'bring your own death'?"
[QUEST: SURVIVE THE DEPTHS. REWARD: LUNCH. PENALTY: ETERNAL DIGESTION.]
"Eternal digestion? That sounds like HR policy," Bimo muttered, clicking his pen—which had somehow turned into a glowing stylus. "Okay, Bimo. Map the space. Look for patterns."
He pulled up a digital interface, his fingers dancing over thin air as if he were typing a pivot table.
"Okay, trap floor layout. A-1 through D-4. Let’s see... the pressure plates have a rhythmic frequency. Left, right, center. It’s just a broken macro."
He stepped forward, side-stepping a scythe that swung out of the wall with clockwork precision.
"Too slow. You call that a hazard? I’ve dealt with the quarterly tax audit. That’s a real trap."
He reached the end of the hall, staring at a massive, iron-reinforced door. It groaned open, revealing a chamber filled with pulsing violet veins.
"Target spotted: Void-Knight Echo. Difficulty: Impossible for a normal human. Difficulty for a spreadsheet nerd: Manageable."
The knight charged, a towering shadow of plate mail and malevolence. Bimo didn't run. He opened a floating window and began dragging and dropping icons.
"Wait, if I shift the 'aggro' priority to the wall, and I adjust the 'gravity' coefficient to match the office breakroom's shaky floor..."
The knight lunged, but Bimo swiped left. The creature hit a patch of altered gravity, tripped over its own greaves, and face-planted into the cold stone.
"Too easy," Bimo whispered, stepping over the prone armor. "Efficiency is key."
He reached the pedestal in the center of the room. Sitting atop it wasn't a sandwich, but a shimmering, celestial gauntlet.
"Wait, that's it? Where's the turkey club? I’ve been fighting for thirty minutes, I’m starving!"
He swiped the gauntlet into his inventory.
[ITEM ACQUIRED: HAND OF THE FIRST ARCHITECT.]
"Does it come with a receipt? I want a refund."
Back in the parking garage, Arka stared at the empty space where Bimo had been. A rift opened, spitting Bimo back out onto the concrete. He looked disheveled, holding a glowing gauntlet like it was a dirty gym towel.
"Bimo? You… you’re alive?" Arka’s sword clattered to the ground. "And you reached the inner sanctum? That was a Tier-100 trial! How long did you take?"
"Longer than it takes to get a cold brew, that's for sure. And no sandwich."
Arka stepped toward the pedestal, his eyes widening. He scanned the room, his face turning ghostly pale. "The Arch-Gauntlet... it’s gone. You didn't just survive the trial. You cleared the entire sector."
"Is that good? Do I get a promotion?"
"You don't understand," Arka whispered, trembling. "That gauntlet was the only thing capable of binding the Void Lord. I spent years training for this moment. It was my destiny."
"Destiny, huh? Does destiny pay overtime? Because I’m pretty sure I’m missing a meeting."
Arka grabbed Bimo by the collar, his expression a mix of awe and pure terror. "You have no idea what you’ve done. By taking that item, you haven't just cleared the dungeon. You’ve claimed the power of a god—and you have absolutely no idea how to use it."
Bimo looked at the gauntlet, then back at the office building looming above them.
"Well," Bimo said, shrugging, "if I’m going to be a god, I’m definitely not doing it on an empty stomach."
"Bimo, look at the sky," Arka whispered, his voice cracking.
Bimo looked up. The clouds were parting, revealing a massive, floating eye made of stars and madness, staring directly at the parking garage.
"Oh," Bimo said, his voice flat. "Is that the boss?"
"No," Arka replied. "That’s the manager."
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 11: The Garbage Collector
The sky was a static-hiss of flickering grey and bruised purple, a void where reality had been rendered, discarded, and forgotten. Bimo stared at the horizon, where a river of glowing blue coolant flowed uphill, defying every law of physics he had ever filed a report on."Arka, I think I’ve reached my threshold for surrealism," Bimo said, shaking his head. "My brain is starting to feel like a corrupted ZIP file."Arka stood a few yards away, testing his blade against the air. Each time he swung, the sword didn't cut; it merely shimmered, leaving a trail of blue pixels that evaporated instantly. "The physics here aren't just broken, Bimo. They’re inverted. I feel like I’m fighting underwater with a toothpick."Bimo looked down at his own gear. His standard-issue office satchel was torn, but his thermos—the one he’d snagged from the breakroom just before the blast—was glowing with a faint, steady light. He unscrewed the cap. A thick, steaming liquid poured out, smelling faintly of synth
Chapter 10: Falling into the Void
The silence of the void wasn't empty; it was a deafening, static-filled roar.Bimo slammed into something that felt like cold, pressurized glass. He gasped, his lungs burning, his fingers clawing at the air until they locked onto a gauntlet."Arka? You still in one piece?" Bimo wheezed, his vision swirling with neon artifacts."I’m here," Arka’s voice was strained, distant. "But I think we just broke the map. Where the hell are we?"Bimo sat up, his limbs feeling like they were lagging behind his brain. The landscape was a fractured mosaic of half-rendered cubicles, floating office chairs, and jagged, violet-tinted clouds."Looks like the 'Unallocated Memory' folder of the universe," Bimo muttered, clicking his jaw back into place. "Great. I’ve gone from unemployed to living in a trash bin."Arka stood up, his armor flickering, patches of his plate mail turning into jagged pixels. "You’re an idiot, Bimo. You realize that, right? You blew up the server. You literally nuked our exit str
Chapter 9: The True Enemy Revealed
The massive, three-headed silhouette crashed into the room, its claws shredding the concrete walls like wet parchment. Bimo and Arka were thrown backward, their hands still locked in the frantic, magical synchronization."What is that thing?" Bimo shrieked, skidding across the debris. "It doesn't look like an intern!"Arka planted his feet, his sword vibrating violently as he braced for the impact. "It’s not an Overlord, Bimo! It’s… it’s the System itself! Can’t you feel the syntax in its aura?"The entity loomed over them, its form flickering like a corrupted video file. A voice—cold, digitized, and devoid of soul—emanated from the shifting heads. [System Error 404: User Efficiency Below Threshold. Purging redundant assets.]"Redundant assets?" Bimo yelled, his grip on Arka’s hand tightening. "I have a mortgage! I’m not redundant, I’m just underpaid!""It’s not talking about the payroll, you idiot!" Arka roared, dodging a swipe that leveled the remaining kitchen counter. "It’s cleari
Chapter 8: On the Run from Reality
The dust was still settling over the smoldering crater that had been a corporate office building. Sirens wailed in the distance, a chaotic symphony of emergency vehicles converging on the wreckage."We have to move," Arka said, his voice taut. He wiped a smear of soot from his cheek, his violet eyes scanning the perimeter. "The local authorities are already here, and the Void-stalkers will be right behind them."Bimo stared at the ruins, clutching his side. "My stapler is under there, Arka. And my favorite ergonomic chair. I worked so hard for that lumbar support.""Bimo, if you don't start running, you’re going to be a martyr for a failed Q3 report.""Fine, fine. Where are we going? Not the station. I’m pretty sure my face is on every 'Wanted' poster in the tri-state area by now.""To the Sanctuary. It’s a hole-in-the-wall near the docks. No one looks for heroes in the slums."*The safehouse was a windowless, concrete box that smelled of damp mold and old electricity. Bimo slumped a
Chapter 7: Betrayal in the Boardroom
The office lobby was a war zone of shattered glass and swirling, unnatural gloom. Bimo scrambled over the reception desk, his dress shoes slipping on stray staples and toner dust. Arka was right behind him, his broadsword humming a low, threatening frequency that rattled the fluorescent lights."So," Bimo panted, ducking as a jagged shard of obsidian whistled past his ear. "I’m assuming the 'mandatory emergency meeting' invite I just got on my phone isn't about the Q4 sales goals?""Hardly," Arka spat, pivoting to deflect a volley of shadow-daggers with his blade. "Your boss is calling every cultist in the building to the boardroom. If you step in there, you’re not getting a performance review. You’re getting sacrificed.""Sacrificed? For a mid-level manager role?" Bimo scrambled toward the stairwell, his heart hammering against his ribs. "That’s a hell of a way to trim the overhead.""They don't want your budget reports, Bimo! They want the Gauntlet. You’re the battery, and they’re l
Chapter 6: System Update: Overdrive
The closet door disintegrated, leaving Bimo and Arka standing in the wreckage of the living room, hands still locked, the golden pulse of the gauntlet fading into a frantic, rhythmic hum."Well," Bimo wheezed, staring at the dust where his pantry door used to be. "That’s coming out of my security deposit."Arka retracted his hand as if burned, his gaze darting to the shredded remains of the bookshelf. "Forget the deposit. The assassin is gone. We signaled them, Bimo. Every high-tier predator in this sector knows exactly where we are.""Great. I have a 9:00 AM meeting with the regional director. Do you think I can list 'fighting interdimensional assassins' as a valid excuse for being late?""You’re still thinking about your employment?" Arka barked, shoving his sword into its sheath. "The building is a target. We need to leave.""I can't leave! My stapler is still at the office. My car is in the lot. My entire life is currently organized by a filing system I haven't backed up to the cl
You may also like
Levelling Up The Weakest System
Matthew Harris24.7K viewsSystem Activated: Soldier's Returned
M_jief133.5K viewsSuper Rich System: From Loser to Tycoon
Enigma Stone48.8K viewsThe septillionaire's superstar system
Liam Michael25.3K viewsA Recipe for the Heartless
Raellye Len204 viewsRejected by Her, Chosen by the System
Holloway64 viewsABYSSFALL ONLINE
Cassian Starborn154 viewsLord Of A Thousand Systems
Jules293 views