Yamete's first thought upon entering the portal was that someone had turned the universe's graphics settings down to "potato mode." Everything had that distinct low-polygon look of early 3D rendering—blocky trees with flat, repeating textures, skies that were just gradient blurs, and ground that seemed to be made of a single stretched image of grass tiled infinitely in all directions.
His second thought was that the air smelled suspiciously like fruit snacks.
"GLich? Gary?" Yamete called out, his voice echoing oddly in the artificial-feeling space. A faint squelching noise from behind made him turn just in time to see Gary tumble out of what appeared to be a floating error message, landing face-first in a puddle of what he desperately hoped was just oddly colored water.
Gary popped up immediately, shaking liquid from his lid. "Oh COOL, we're in the tutorial level!"
Before Yamete could ask what that meant, GLich-chan phased through the portal with significantly more grace, her glow reflecting off the blocky surroundings. "Well. This is... a thing." She poked a low-resolution bush, which immediately popped like a balloon, scattering pixelated leaves everywhere. "A very poorly optimized thing."
The trio's exploration of this strange new dimension was interrupted by a high-pitched chittering sound. From behind a conspicuously cube-shaped rock emerged a small group of the gummy creatures—now fully formed into what could only be described as sentient gummy bears with slightly too many eyes.
One of them, a vibrant red specimen with one eye significantly larger than the others, waddled forward and sniffed at Gary's base. Then, with a sound like a stretched rubber band, it spoke.
"GREAT TASTY ONE HAS RETURNED!"
Gary blinked. "Uh. What."
The gummy bears erupted into excited squeaking, swarming around Gary like particularly jiggly groupies. One began polishing his lid with its gelatinous body. Another offered him what appeared to be a tiny crown made of hardened syrup.
GLich-chan floated closer to Yamete. "I think... they worship him?"
Yamete watched as Gary, ever the opportunist, immediately leaned into it. "FEAR NOT, MY CHEWY SUBJECTS! YOUR KING HAS RETURNED TO— wait, what exactly am I king of?"
The lead gummy bear gestured grandly at their blocky surroundings. "GUMMY REALM! LAND OF ETERNAL CHEW!" It pointed dramatically at a distant, glitching structure. "AND HOME OF... THE FORBIDDEN SNACK."
The way it said those last words sent a ripple through the gummy crowd. Several bears whimpered. One burst into tears (which were, naturally, tiny gummy droplets that tasted like lemon when Yamete accidentally stepped on one).
GLich-chan's eyes narrowed. "Okay, what's the 'Forbidden Snack'?"
The gummy bears all shuddered in unison. The red one lowered its voice to a whisper. "THE ONE WHO CRUNCHES."
A distant rumble shook the ground. Somewhere in the direction of the glitching structure, something moved—something that definitely didn't belong in a world of soft, chewy creatures.
Gary's lid clattered nervously. "So... just to be clear. When you say 'crunches'..."
A gummy bear near the back suddenly screamed as a shadow fell over them. Yamete turned slowly to see it looming behind them—a monstrous, jagged thing that looked like someone had crossed a crocodile with a bag of tortilla chips.
"OH NO," the red gummy bear squeaked. "IT'S THE NACHO DORITO LIZARD."
The creature's scales glinted unnaturally in the low-poly sunlight, each one a perfect triangle of artificial orange. When it opened its mouth, the sound was like a thousand chips being crushed at once.
Gary immediately shoved several gummy bears behind him. "RUN, MY LOYAL SUBJECTS! SAVE YOURSELVES!"
Yamete grabbed the nearest weapon—a suspiciously stick-like branch that turned out to actually be a floating glitch in the shape of a branch—and brandished it at the advancing beast. "Any bright ideas?!"
GLich-chan was already typing furiously on her debug screen. "Working on it! Maybe if I can—"
CRUNCH.
The Nacho Dorito Lizard took an experimental bite out of the ground beside them, leaving behind a perfect bite-shaped void in reality.
"OH COME ON," Gary yelled. "THAT'S JUST CHEATING."
As the creature prepared for another bite (this one alarmingly close to Gary's left side), salvation came from an unexpected source—the Really Big Spoon, which had apparently followed them through the portal, came sailing through the air like a javelin and bonked the lizard square on the nose.
The effect was immediate. The creature recoiled like a cat that had been sprayed with water, letting out a sound like a bag of chips being sat on. It backpedaled rapidly, clearly terrified of the utensil now hovering threateningly between it and the gummy bears.
"USER 'DORITO LIZARD' DETECTED," the spoon announced. "PROTOCOL 'NO SNACKING BETWEEN MEALS' ENGAGED."
With one last pitiful crinkle, the lizard turned tail and fled, its jagged form disappearing into the low-poly distance.
Silence fell over the gummy crowd. Then, all at once, they erupted into cheers, swarming Gary (and, to his dismay, the spoon) with celebratory hugs.
The red gummy bear wiped away a syrupy tear. "GREAT TASTY ONE HAS SAVED US!"
Gary, ever the humble hero, puffed out his... well, his entire can. "ALL IN A DAY'S WORK FOR THE KING OF THE GUMMY REALM!" He paused. "Wait, do I get tax benefits with this title?"
Yamete was about to point out the numerous flaws in this plan when GLich-chan suddenly gasped. "Guys. Look."
She pointed to where the Nacho Dorito Lizard had taken its bite out of reality. Through the tear, they could see...
"...Is that Sigma?" Yamete squinted at the image of their former foe currently sitting cross-legged in what appeared to be a gummy bear therapy circle. One particularly small green bear was patting his knee reassuringly.
GLich-chan's debug screen pinged. "The cores! They're—"
Before she could finish, the entire world lurched. The sky flickered between three different shades of blue. The ground became briefly transparent before snapping back to its low-poly self. And from the direction of the glitching structure came a deep, resonant thrum that shook the very air.
The red gummy bear whimpered. "THE FORBIDDEN SNACK... IT WAKES."