Tiger Gate Guild, Sublevel B2
Fang Unit Combat Simulation Room "The Cube"
Kang Jinho stood in the center of a perfectly cubic white room, surrounded by mirrored walls that hummed with mana. His fingers clenched around the handle of his frying pan, now upgraded with duct tape and misplaced reverence.
Across from him stood four other rookie hunters, each looking like they'd just walked out of an action movie. Polished armor, sleek weapons, eyes full of ambition.
And then there was Jinho in cargo pants, a hoodie that said "404 Not Found," and a pan that purrs when you pet it.
"Alright, gremlins!" barked the instructor, Instructor Yun. A scar-faced woman with cybernetic arms and no patience for nonsense. "You're all here to prove you're not dead weight."
She paced in front of them like a military-grade shark.
"One-hour dungeon sim. No deaths. No whining. And especially no glitching out and breaking the system."
Her eyes landed on Jinho.
"No promises," he said.
🔹🔹🔹
"Honestly, he shouldn't even be here," muttered one of the other trainees.
Tall. Perfect hair. Sword glowing faintly with enchantments. Shin Doyoon. The kind of guy who probably woke up every morning with a full UI update and perfect Wi-Fi.
"Do you even have a class?" Doyoon asked Jinho.
"I think it's called... Freelance Error?"
"That's not a class, that's a bug."
Jinho shrugged. "Worked on the librarian boss."
"Oh right. You hit her with kitchenware and made her question her existence. Very impressive."
Instructor Yun clapped once, making the mana lights flicker. "Enough. Sim begins now. Anyone caught sass-slapping mid-fight gets ejected and reclassified as baggage."
🔹🔹🔹
Simulation Start
Dungeon Manifest: "Crypt of Whispering Roots"
The cube shuddered.
The walls flickered, and suddenly, they were no longer in a white boxbut a dim forest clearing under a blood-orange sky. Dead trees loomed. Whispers crawled through the air like insects.
[Simulation Dungeon Type: Illusion/Curse Hybrid]
Objective: Cleanse the Heartroot Spirit
Bonus: Survive without screaming
The team spread out. Doyoon led with flawless form, cutting through corrupted vines like a hero out of an anime intro. Two others followed, throwing firebolts and barriers with practiced precision.
And Jinho?
He walked into a bush and got bitten by a mana snake.
"First blood!" he called cheerfully.
🔹🔹🔹
Glitch Detected
[Warning: Skill Recognition Failure Detected]
You are attempting to equip… a skill you do not possess.
Jinho blinked. His frying pan sparked. Reality bent a little.
Then
[Glitch Unlocked: "Skill Rewrite – RANDOM THREAD"]
You have hijacked a nearby spell and repurposed it.
Target Skill: "Barrier Ward" → Rewritten: "BARRIER: Extra Loud Version"
A sound barrier burst outward like a mana airhorn. Trees fell. Doyoon stumbled. The whispering stopped, replaced by the echoing shriek of a ward with stage fright.
Jinho smiled. "I call that spell 'Oops.'"
🔹🔹🔹
The corrupted Heartroot Spirit erupted from the ground part tree, part wraith, all fury. Its eyes glowed blue. It roared, scattering the team.
Doyoon moved first, slashing through spectral roots with elegance.
"Distract it!" he shouted.
Jinho tossed a rock. Missed.
Then his frying pan growled and yeeted itself toward the boss, ricocheting off a glowing root, triggering a physics error, and landing directly on the spirit's ethereal forehead.
[CRITICAL HIT – BUGGED DAMAGE MULTIPLIER: x99]
The Heartroot Spirit is... confused. And slightly offended.
[Boss Defeated]
Everything froze. Then—
[Simulation Cleared]
Reward: ???
Title Gained: "Problem the System Doesn't Know How to Fix"
🔹🔹🔹
Back in the white cube room, everyone stared at Jinho. Even Instructor Yun looked baffled.
Doyoon's eye twitched. "He just… bypassed the entire boss phase."
"I call it emergent gameplay," Jinho said.
Instructor Yun sighed like a woman who'd seen too much. "Hunter Kang. Your style is unorthodox. But effective. Maybe."
She turned to the rest. "The rest of you? You followed protocol. He followed a frying pan into a miracle."
Doyoon's jaw clenched.
[Rival Relationship Established: Shin Doyoon → Hostile/Competitive]
"I will defeat you. Properly. Without bugs."
Jinho waved. "Looking forward to it, Bugsy."
🔹🔹🔹
Later that night, Jinho checks his system window.
[New Skill: Glitch Branch – "Thread Reroute"]
Allows random rewriting of enemy or ally skills during battle.
Warning: May cause side effects, philosophical crises, or musical numbers.
[Passive: Data Noise Aura – Lv. 1]
Nearby enemies have a 5% chance to forget what they were doing.
[Equipment Sentience: Frying Pan (Bonded)]
"It really likes you. It's getting ideas."
Jinho closes the window.
Then opens it again.
"…Wait. Did my weapon just level up on its own?"
The pan winks at him. Or maybe it's just a UI glitch.