Grape looked back once at the quiet court of scrolls before stepping forward. The portal shimmered like a pixelated dream, but his thoughts were heavier than ever.
“I didn’t ask for any of this… Trials, memes, scrolls. I just wanted to run a shop.”
He clenched his fists.
“But if I run now, what happens to everyone else? What happens to SimSimi… to Brobot… to the scrolls?”
“Okay, let’s cook.”
He stepped into a surreal maze—a firewall temple constructed of glowing code, rotating text, and glitching symbols. Meme graffiti lined the walls:
“404 Fear Not Found.”
“Keep Calm and Spam On.”
The scroll pulsed. A portal opened at the maze’s center. From it stepped Mali.exe, poised and silent.
Mali.exe:
“Trial One will be conducted by direct engagement.”
Order meets chaos...
Grape:
“You mean a fight? Like… a real one?”
Mali nodded once. The firewall temple sealed itself with a hiss of code.
She moved with elegance and precision, summoning constructs of pure system order—laser grids, sync pulses, symmetrical traps. Grape dodged awkwardly, slipping between them.
Suddenly, a glitch tore through the firewall maze. A scroll burst open, unleashing a swarm of dancing baby .gifs that hovered midair, chanting distorted nursery rhymes.
Grape:
“Seriously? That meme’s prehistoric!”
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He ducked under one and rolled forward.
Grape (muttering):
“Time for meme magic.”
He conjured distraction memes: “Doge Swarm Protocol,” “Grumpy Cat Shield,” and “Distracted Boyfriend Mirror.” The arena became a ballet of chaos and order.
Sliding under a laser, Grape smirked.
Grape:
“Let’s goooo, ancient meme defense—activate: Vine Boom Barrier!”
Mali paused mid-combat.
Mali.exe:
“Why do you persist?”
Grape:
“Because this world needs someone to fight for it. Even if that someone is… just me.”
She paused. For a fraction of a second, her expression shifted—so subtle it was almost missed.
Mali.exe:
“You remind me… of someone the scrolls once trusted.”
Her eyes briefly shifted past Grape—toward Brobot. She said nothing more, but the silence lingered like a memory that didn’t want to surface.
She didn’t speak his name.
But her silence told the scrolls everything.
She raised her hand.
Mali.exe:
“Final move.”
She summoned a monumental beam—pure Order Energy.
[TELECOM TRIAL 01 – MALI.EXE: ENFORCER OF ORDER]
A holographic boss bar appeared briefly above her, glitching as the beam charged.
Grape’s instincts kicked in. He drew power from his favorite meme—the Rickroll.
The firewall trembled. Code symbols flashed overhead.
[EMOTION TRIGGERED: DETERMINATION × DREAD]
[MEME CORE UNLOCKED: LEVEL 2 – REACTIVE ABSURDITY]
[LOADING: CLASSIC LOOP… RICKROLL INITIATED]
With Shia LaBeouf yelling “Just do it!” and Nyan Cat streaking across the sky, Grape deflected the beam with a rainbow-tinted meme prism.
The blast exploded into harmless glitter.
Mali.exe… smiled. Just barely.
Mali.exe:
“You have passed.”
Respect earned in the aftermath...
Mali walked beside Grape.
Grape (thinking):
“All this time, I thought she was the boss to beat.
But maybe… she’s the one who stayed when everyone else left.”
Brobot’s voice hummed through the static.
“One trial passed… but not all threats ask permission to enter.”
Mali.exe:
“You are not a threat. You are a variable the system did not expect… but may need.”
Brobot appeared as a faint hologram.
“Prepare. The third trial comes soon. But it may not be one of your choosing.”
The temple faded. A warning scroll crackled in the air:
“FALSE_WALK.PROTOCOL detected…”
Grape stared at the shifting arena.
He wiped his brow and muttered:
Grape:
“That was worse than trying to cancel a subscription…”
Quietly:
“If that was just the beginning... what’s waiting beyond the scroll?”