I Reincarnated as an NPC Witch

Glitch in the System

Keeana’s words start to buffer and her appearance starts to glitch. The situation of Keeana knocks Abigail’s mind that she’s in a world that’s on a computer. “Keeana?” Lavena goes to her. She tries to hold her, she can hold her physically. Although, it’s a bit weird with the jittering pieces of hers swapping to each other. They all look at her terrifyingly. She’s like this monster that just has static body elements all misplaced to each other. It’s just mostly her texture or her skin, some 3D parts are misplacing. Although, she still retains her character 3D model. It’s like a horrifying scene of some of the games she has played.

“What’s happening to you Keeana?” Lavena said rather worryingly, Abigail can hear the c***k in her voice. She was suddenly held by someone. “Fix her, Crocus. Is this some curse that she’s in?” Gallant asked her as the only thing that Abigail could do is shrug. “I don’t know. It’s not a curse, Gallant. She’s getting corrupted differently. She’s glitching. Her code is malfunctioning or something!” “What do you mean? What code?” He lets her go and looks at Keeana. “She’s just there, not moving. And, look at the mess that she’s in!” Abigail sighs, “I don’t know what to do with her! She’s just that. This is my first time seeing this and I believe that my magic won’t do any damn thing. She’s broken.” “Then, what could we do? We can’t just let her be like that! And, we can’t continue venturing without Keeana and especially the map!” Edsel nudges Wren with his elbow and clears his throat, “—without the map and especially Keeana.” Wren awkwardly nods, “Yeah!”

“It doesn’t mean I am the magic practitioner here I know such things.” Catrina looks at her, “But, you know she’s broken. Taking from your word, you said she’s glitching, she’s getting corrupted differently. Obviously, you have some knowledge about it.” Abigail sighs, “I am afraid I don’t know how to get her back. I know that because that is what happens to an in-game character. Something might have happened to her files.” Gallant crosses his arms, “Is this some sort of voodoo thing you are saying? Files? In-game character? What is this gobbledygook you are speaking?” Abigail groans as she approaches Keeana, “Keeana, can you hear us? Can you at least give us something to know you are okay there?” She looks around as she raises her hand. “Can you do a high-five with me?”

Keeana’s arm slowly rises with a few glitches between them. The texture of her body is still glitching as they speak. As their palm meet each other, suddenly, Abigail can feel the world falling apart. Even she doesn’t want to, she feels her brain seems to shut down, bit by bit. Before she knows it, the world they are standing on fades out of existence. She fades out of consciousness as well.

It doesn’t feel very long when her consciousness went back. She retained her vision and all of her sense of reality. She looks around, they are in the same place. She can already hear the others chatting, but not about a topic she expected them to talk about. “We should go a bit east when we go as well. We don’t want to pass by or even go straight through Lesser Untamo. Since we need to be careful about Crocus. No one will die yet. It’s a shame we can’t visit that town now.” She heard Keeana said as she sets aside the map. She looks at her, “You’re okay now, Keeana?” Abigail asked which made the archer a bit confused with what she said. “Yeah… I mean, when was I never okay? I am alive and full of energy for this adventure!” She was strangely enthusiastic. “Well, you aren’t okay earlier.” Keeana tilts her head, “What?”

Abigail was surprised by her behavior. She’s acting like nothing bad has happened to her earlier. She sighs, “I am sure you wouldn’t know it because you were the one who is corrupted.” The brunette girl gasps, “What!? I was corrupted? Maybe that’s why I didn’t remember it.” Lavena shakes her head and snickers a bit, “I didn’t remember it as well, Keeana.” She looks at Abigail, “What are you talking about Abigail? We just came from the village and you are already having an adventure hangover?” Abigail keeps getting confused and surprised, “You guys didn’t remember?” All of them looked at each other, hoping to find a clue or catch someone who knows it. Seconds later, they shrugged. “What thing we didn’t remember?” Abigail is starting to freak out, “Keeana was just glitching earlier. Parts of her body are jittering in and out of her body and existence. I am sure you wouldn’t just plain forgot that. That’s the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life.”

All of them were visibly confused, “You are the one who seems not okay, Crocus. Don’t blame Keeana for that.” The witch glares at him and he received a nudge from Winsel. “We’ll hear you out, Crocus,” Lavena said as they lend all of their ears to hear. She sighs, “You guys really didn’t remember anything at all?” They shrugged again. It made Abigail a bit hysterical but she maintained her composure. “Keeana earlier was glitching, she was corrupted in a way that it’s related to computer.” Gallant faces the palm of his hand to her, stopping her for a bit. “Wait, what did you just say in the last there? You just completely went ballistic on me and just said words that I can not comprehend, at all.” The others agreed, “Yeah, you just said a word that I can’t process either. You just literally went gibberish for me.” Wren said as he crosses his arms. Abigail sighs, “I said, she was corrupted like how files are corrupted in a computer.” Lavena approaches her, she’s posing a worried face as she did earlier with Keeana. “Your speech is getting a bit slurry now. Did you slept well or have you eaten something bad?” Abigail’s confusion is imminent and she’s screaming internally. She can’t believe that all of them, especially Keeana forgot what just happened. She was speechless and frozen for some seconds. She can’t understand the feeling.

Everything that’s happening right now knocked her into her senses that she’s in a simulated universe. She’s trapped in a cursed wonderland. She’s still somewhere where she does not belong. Somewhere that she isn’t familiar with the mechanics of life. She remembers she was new here, but she was invested with all of the fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons-esque world that she’s in. She knows she’s someone who just came here and just plop into existence. But, she has forgotten that she’s in a simulation. She’s a living being inside a computer that she’s still questioning about. A computer, a technology, whatever it is, that could render all of these thought processes of anime-looking 3D people. She just remembered everything was just created by someone that’s one of her kind She remembers that the people that she’s communicating and socializing with right now are either AIs or…

Her eyes widen, she looks at the people that are surrounding her. They were either artificial intelligence which is pretty cool yet terrifying with how much they can do. Or, they are like her, trapped in this world. Both are all horrifying and she prefers neither of them. “Crocus?” She was snapped out of her thoughts as she noticed Lavena once more in front of her. “Yes?” The only word that was able to slip out of her mouth. The pink-haired girl sighs, “I really think you are very ill. Do you want us to stay in the village for a day once more? You are not looking very fine for us.” Keeana nods, “You just went frozen for a minute or two. You can’t even hear us or at least, you efficiently ignored us.” Abigail sighs, “No, I am fine. I am sorry, it seems my mind is in a different world or something.” She gulps as she makes up a story, “Maybe that’s just my witch intuition. Although, it was not a good one.” She looks at Keeana, “We’ll protect you at all cost. I am sorry and unhappy to be the bearer of this very bad news. I know danger will not be inevitable for such a long adventure, but I saw a terrifying vision that was so real that I thought it was the reality.”

Keeana holds her shoulder and smiles, “It’s fine, as they say, your abilities are both a curse and a blessing in one way or another. Besides, at least we have some warning that I will not be in a good shape, quite literally, sometime later.” Abigail sighs, “I think I am responsible for protecting you, ain’t I?” Wren laughs, “Not just you but us also! It doesn’t mean it’s magical it’s all on you. Besides, we don’t know what will happen certainly. I hope your vision could be changed or that’s full of it.” Abigail looks at Keeana, “I am surprised you aren’t afraid.”

The archer bursts into giggles, “It’s not something new to me, Crocus. Besides, I will not be alert when I am sad, afraid, and terrified of the future. If something happened to me, I willingly embrace it. The very last thing and even something I really don’t want to do is bringing negativity to my own grave.”

“There, there. You are already bringing some when you are talking about death here. You aren’t going to die, okay? Maybe it’s some curse that I hope Crocus could take care of.” Edsel looks at her as the witch sighs, “Could I do my reading and spell-casting while we’re on our way? I am already getting nervous about this vision thing.” She regrets that she used her ability if she really has one, of future sighting or her vision just to cover up what she just did earlier. She doesn’t know if it worsens everything or not. But, she believes in the initial option. “Well, you must be in the middle of the pack or else you’ll be the first target.” Abigail happily obliges with Lavena’s offer and plan. They switched places and formed in a circular formation where they surround Abigail. She grabs her grimoire and tried to multi-task which is her favorite thing to do. Her eyes are constantly looking at the ground she’s walking on and to the book, she’s reading. With the open space she has and the fact they are traveling away from civilization, she can test spells that are rather quite dangerous in places she doesn’t want to be destroyed.

Keeana was beside her as per request with the reason being: The danger that awaits her according to Abigail’s “vision” and she just wants to watch her cast spell and even possibly be a subject of it if needed to. They traveled all day and stopped in the night. They stopped in a small forest among the plains just to shelter them for the night. They started some fire and even decided to stay awake for a bit just to entertain themselves in this long adventure. “Where’s the next civilization, Keeana?” Lavena asked her as the archer looks at it with the moonlight shining on it. “Not too far but we don’t want to disturb them in their sleep, so we don’t want to go there right away. Besides, we still have plenty of food to eat.”

After their own little story and socializing session, they took their own personal space below the trees. Some slept very quickly and some don’t. Abigail is one of the latter options. She decided to practice some more until she’s tired. When she’s trying to cast a rejuvenation spell with a flower, she heard a rattling sound just nearby her. As she looks at it, he didn’t even try to hide again and play with her. He’s there standing, looking at her ominously. “What do you need?”