The park, the most common place in the game and often occupied with NPCs. Its huge diversity of areas made it a great place for dates, also it was in the middle between many locations in the game, meaning you would cross the park many times in order to reach them.

It was in the plaza that the players would be more often. A huge fountain was placed in the middle of it, the trademark of this location and the spot where you would wait for the heroine to come before the date.

But, that was in the day-time. In the night time, the park was close to a dead area. No events, no shops open, nothing to do but waste time if you wanted to come here. The only option to do here was the mini-game that happens inside the forest.

Now, exiting the forest entrance, was a figure clothed in black. Its height was normal, not very tall and nor very short. It walked to the middle of the plaza.

Perhaps, it was thirsty, so it went to the vending machine. It looked at the water's number and dialed the correct formation, but no sound was heard from its actions. When the bottle dropped, it extended its gloved hands to pick it up, but, the moment it grabbed the bottle, a series of glitches appeared around the item, making it disappear from its hand soon after.

The figure watched as the bottle was disappearing from its hands. It looked again for the water inside the machine, but the reflection of its pumpkin's head was shown in the mirror. Many think it's just a sadist killer who doesn't think twice before striking its victims, showing only pleasure while it killed, but, the usual smile of pleasure wasn't there. All one could see from the gap of its pumpkin head was sadness.

But, there wasn't time for being sad. Something, or rather, someone was near it. The figure turned around and had found "it". Since the game was made from a first-person perspective, the main character, or the protagonist, wasn't created with a body. Instead, it was just a block of data with a white screen for a head. And what lays behind that white screen was the only thing it didn't know who it truly was: the "player", its enemy.

The killer was trying to figure out "his" unusual pattern. This was the third time it happened. After playing a certain amount of time in the mini-game, the figure would allow the player to skip since it would be almost impossible to win afterward. Normally, any player would just have accepted the skip and progress in the story or challenged the mini-game again and hope to beat it.

But "he" didn't follow that logic. He chose to explore after being allowed to skip the mini-game. For the AI, it was an illogical act, seen there wasn't anything else to do in that place, and yet he did it, now, for the third time. It didn't matter anymore. It was a program and the program had been instructed to do one thing regarding the player: kill him.

With small and quick movements, Midnight Pumpkin launched itself towards the player with the scythe in hands. Maybe it was too quick, but the avatar of data didn't move an inch and just waited for the attack.

When it got near the player, Midnight Pumpkin could feel some discomfort in its body. It was something it felt before, in the backstreets when the player chose to gift it. He managed to stop its attack for a while, but now the killer already knew about it.

It refused the gift and cut down the avatar with a swing of its scythe. The avatar's white screen goes red as the [Game Over] message is displayed for the player-

[!!!]

-Or, so it thought. Instead, the avatar was still there, in Midnight Pumpkin's front, still in the game. Did it miss? No, impossible, he didn't move an inch. A glitch? There wasn't a sensation of it. Cheat code? It would notice. What could have been?... There was one answer to this question, and it knew what it was.

[][][][][]

-So, how do you like that?

A malicious smile appears on his face. Red-shot eyes from being awake over 10 hours in front of the PC up to 2 AM with dark circles under them. That was how Chris looked at that moment.

After experience defeat over Midnight Pumpkin three times in the "glitch", he made a new save file to try again talking with it. Learning what he experienced with the three other times, he managed to get the way of how the glitch works:

1. You need to make the Skip button available after dying many times in the mini-games.

2. Midnight Pumpkin would be around the area of the mini-game.

3. Upon sighting the player avatar, it would attempt to kill it on the spot.

4. If you reload in the same area that Midnight Pumpkin was, the glitch would still work until the killer or the player exits the area through the loading screens.

5. After the glitch happens in one area, it can't be done again in that spot.

Fortunately, this theory paid off and Chris managed to get the effect one more time.

(Maybe now it's a good time to think of this as an in-game feature)

He didn't have the internet to confirm this, but Chris believed this was a special system in the game after clearing all the heroines routes. When the internet comes back, he would definitely search for this.

-Well, this is not important right now.

He focuses on the game again. Waiting for the killer to kill him, he does the "trick" again.

[][][][][]

Once again, there was no [Game Over] screen. Once again, the player escaped from his death. Once again, the sensation was felt. Once again, it tried to kill him.

An endless circle of patterns. The killer knew this but there wasn't a way to avoid it. It swung it's scythe down every time, but the player did that again.

There is no mistake in its attacks as the calculations said. The target would be hit every time, but he escaped. Even so, it didn't stop trying.

A useless pattern to follow. Swung up, down, left or right, nothing would strike. And that sensation, what a weird feeling. A feeling trying to change it. A feeling trying to play with it. A feeling it didn't like.

Again, the scythe was swung down and again the players used the trick. It was a simple in-game exploit that players could figure out by themselves after some time playing.

In the game, when you load the save file, some NPCs could be in the exact same spot as the player's avatar, so the developers made so that the avatar would move to the next empty space in order to avoid bugs and glitches.

But this also allowed that the players could quick save and quick load to avoid damage from in-game fights, making them just in range to not get hitten.

Usually, this trick is simple but tedious to repeat since you would need to know when was the exact moment the NPC would be near enough to do so. The best way of doing this trick was to not move the avatar and wait, but it would lose the fun of the game so many players don't use it.

In other words, the trick would always put the NPC in the disadvantage over the player, no matter how much stronger they were or how near the hit was.

Another miss. Another sensation. Another try. It became an endless loop. It didn't make sense, so why continuing? The killer didn't have a thought to it. It wasn't programmed to do so. The game just said it was pointless to continue.

And yet, the killer followed its program. Hit. Kill. Game Over. But the game said again it was pointless, it should stop. Reset the game before the crash.

Missed again. The killer tried again. Stop, the game tried to tell. Give up. The feeling happened again. What was this feeling? Why does it continue? Last warning, stop. Who? Who is causing this feeling? Another attempt to strike.

It looked at the black body standing on its front. A body made of a black block of data with a white screen. The avatar, a puppet whose will is commanded by other. Who is the other? It didn't know. What is his objective? It didn't know. Shutting down initiating.

Something, something is happening. What is this? Data corrupted, resetting. No...no...Countdown initiating...3...Wait...2...I want to...1...I...I...I...0.

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