[ti]closed[/ti][C/Morpheus] That's Never Happened Before!

How long has Morpheus been sleeping in UNOVR lately? What started out as a mere curiosity became a habit whenever he only logged into the game after school or part-time work. It wasn't like his comfortable bed, but something about touching virtual grass more than the real one made him at peace. Away from the stress of schoolwork and the bustling city. Instead, he could only see a grassy plain, trees, blue skies, a few Bulbasaur walking upside down...

Wait...

Morpheus quickly got up from where he was napping to take a closer look at this strange phenomenon. He played a few 3D Pokemon games before and he knew even before that, there was no such thing as a Bulbasaur who could walk like a spider, let alone in thin air. An insane player would call it a "curse". However, Morpheus was still thinking logically even after waking up from his nap. There was no way he could ignore a glitch in the system.

But every report had proof to ensure he wasn't making it up. So he took a few steps closer to the glitched Bulbasaur with the screenshot function, unaware that a certain glitch hunter behind him also saw them.

Morpheus gasped just as he took a screenshot of the strange upside-down Bulbasaur.  He turned around to see a woman with long green hair and the same upside-down Bulbasaur with her. She didn't seem to be fazed at seeing the glitched Pokemon and the wild ones already fled when he noticed them again. Besides, it seemed like the other Pokemon weren't affected after seeing her Yanma. He might as well chat with her while taking screenshots of her Grass-type.

"Looks like your Yanma is unaffected by the glitch," he said while he approached her. "The glitch seems to be harmless to the game itself. But just in case, I should report it to the mods." After taking a quick screenshot of the woman's Bulbasaur, Morpheus turned his attention to the player herself. "By the way, it's been a while since I logged in to this game and I haven't seen you before. I'm Morpheus, Dream Seeker. What's yours?"

Thanks to the woman named Shalin, Morpheus wrote a concise report and sent it to the mods. If what she said about the upside-down Bulbasaur being a visual glitch was true, there was nothing to worry about. Once he did so, he turned back to the woman and scratched the back of his head once she introduced herself. "Glitch hunter, huh? That's the first I heard about that hobby. Most of the time, I always heard about speedrunners or gamers deliberately breaking the game out of curiosity or boredom."

Now that Shalin mentioned it, he noticed there were some new faces since he last logged into UNOVR. UNOVRCon and the Zapdos raid aside, those marketing and aggressive ads on the net were really attracted a lot of new players. "I see. Well, I'm not much of a veteran since I'm mostly focused on real life lately. But I hope I can be some help with your experience here. But I have to ask: Why are you hunting for "glitches" in UNOVR? Is it something to do with it being a virtual reality game?"

Morpheus raised his eyebrow after hearing about the strange game based on an old Pokemon DS game. "Never heard of "TAS" before. Then again, I'm out of the loop when it comes to those topics. Sorry..." Again, he was much of a casual gamer as Shalin suspected. Even if he did, he might be overwhelmed by its possible difficulty and gameplay. Not to mention it might waste his time finishing it in one run.

Then, there was the topic of glitches and exploits. Morpheus raised his eyebrow at her explanation. Sure, he understood those said exploits might cut some time for the main story of the game. But this was a live service game, let alone a VRMMO at that. He has a few doubts about her goals. "I don't know... There's a chance those exploits might get fixed during the next patch. I get the ease of the game. But I've witnessed those things and I know the devs will have a hard time balancing out the game without those glitches ruining it. No offense, but that's my realistic take on them."

Morpheus raised his eyebrow once he heard her explanation about TAS. He was still confused, yet he understood most of it. "In other words, it acts like a digital assistant for speed runs, correct? I think I understand." He looked at Shalin again and hummed. "Although I'm worried about the legality of using them, especially in those speedruns. Are you worried someone might make a TAS that just simply manipulates the controls and mechanics to get the fastest time?"

He was surprised when Shalin brought up a trainer subclass he never heard of before. A class that let her abuse glitches... Now he was worried about the health of this game if a few players with Beta Tester might abuse them too much to the point of literally breaking it. "Do you know how to get that subclass? From your description alone, there might be several requirements to obtain it just like the advanced ones I heard about."

Morpheus hummed after hearing more of Shalin's answer. So there were rules imposed in the speedrunning community to ensure the fairness of the runs. He wasn't surprised since most of the communities he knew such as FPS, MMOs, and even niche genres such as point-and-click adventure games and browser games have rules to ensure peace between players and community members. He hoped some of those speedrunners wouldn't do any crazy stunts such as faking their controls while a video of their doctored run played on stream.

Back to the Beta Tester topic, he was surprised when Shalin told him that he needed to go to Beta Island to obtain the subclass. "I bought the ticket weeks ago. But I only did it because I heard there are rare Pokemon only available there." As soon as he said this, he slowly realized what Shalin was trying to say. "Don't tell me that place is ridden with bugs and glitches even today?"

As Morpheus suspected... Again, he hadn't been to that island, but just hearing Shalin's words was enough to confirm his suspicions about it. "I...don't want to know what happens if you go through them..." He then sighed before hearing about something called "C0D13". "Uh... Right... I'll keep that in mind..." Now that she said it, something about that name sounded familiar. He recalled it from UNOVRCon, but that was all he could remember.

"But as much as I wanted to search for glitches like you, I have other goals in mind. Have you heard of the rumors regarding the dream world existing in UNOVR?" He took a deep breath before continuing. "I've technically been there on two occasions, but I want to see what it entails for me as a Dream Seeker in this game."