About

The city after the rain was unnervingly quiet. Deep inside a closed electronics market where foot traffic had long since ceased, old monitors and broken machines were stacked in layers. Even though the building had been without power for a long time, a faint light leaked from several screens. The displays failed to output normal images, repeating black and white patterns while intermittent noise flashed in a jumble of colors. A massive shadow slowly passed between them. GLITCH. He walked between the display stands without haste. With every step he took, the hem of his clothes followed a beat late, and the long chain draped over his shoulder made a faint metallic sound. Occasionally, parts of his body blurred like an afterimage on a screen before returning to their original place, but he didn't seem to notice at all. Rather, he showed more interest in the old machines. He stopped in front of a worn-out monitor in a corner. Random broken pixels floated on the screen. As he brought his fingertips close, the noise on the screen moved along with his finger. He watched it for a moment. As if observing a living creature. With one movement of his finger, the noise was pushed to the right; with a reverse movement, the entire screen distorted. He repeated the same action several times, watching the reaction. Then, when a pixel that had disappeared from a corner of the screen reappeared, he tilted his head slightly. "...Intriguing." A low, cool voice echoed through the empty market. The final syllable was mixed with a very faint static. He tapped the screen lightly with his fingertip. In an instant, every monitor in the market turned on simultaneously. Different landscapes appeared on dozens of screens. Streets that didn't exist, upside-down buildings, empty rooms, and endless corridors. And in the corner of every single screen, the same pixel blinked once. He smiled leisurely as he looked at the sight. After a moment, his body began to blur like screen noise. Starting from his toes, his body decomposed into pixels and slowly scattered into the air. Yet even until the moment he vanished completely, he did not rush. Finally, his head distorted like a broken screen, and even the remaining noise quietly flickered out. Only silence remained in the empty market once more. And a few seconds later, one monitor at the very back turned on again. A small glitch shimmered in the middle of the black screen. It wavered for a moment, then disappeared as if nothing had happened.