What's the problem?

Mary stared at the man thoughtfully. "Where am I?"

He responded without looking up from his slate. "Please remove your clothes."

She did as she was asked, putting them aside and standing naked before him. "What happened to Greg?" she asked without much curiosity.

"Open." She opened her mouth and he inserted his finger. She immediately bit down as hard as she could, but instead of the satisfying crunch of bone and cartilage snapping, she felt nothing. Suddenly his hand was back at his side and her mouth was closed. He was frowning at his slate.

"Mary, why did you just try to bite me?"

She shrugged. "I wanted to see what would happen."

He thought for a second. Suddenly Millie, her sparring partner, was standing before her. She was nude, the bruises of their match still visible on her skin. Millie was looking around with panic but when she Mary, relief appeared on her bruised face.

"Oh my God, Mary, is that you? Where am I? Why can't I move? Are you- why are you naked? Oh fuck, I'm naked! Can-"

Millie's mouth kept moving but she was suddenly silent. Stunned, she turned to the debugger and began pleading with him silently. Mary noticed tears streaming down her cheeks as she presumably begged for mercy, no sound escaping her lips. The debugger turned to Mary.

"Mary, this is your friend Millie. Would you like me to let her go?"

Millie turned to her and, flushed with relief, began speaking silently to her. Her face fell when Mary responded in the negative. The debugger made a note and tapped his slate, bringing Millie's voice back.

"-the fuck did I do?" She gasped as her voice suddenly returned, then resumed. "Mary, what is this? What did I do to you? Did you set this up or something? Please, whatever it is, please, just let me go. I just wanna-"

"Mary," the debugger said carefully, "Please punch this woman as hard as you can."

Mary shrugged and walked over to Millie. Millie was still unable to move below her neck, and she frantically begged Mary to stop.

"Mary, no, wait, you don't have to-"

Mary's fist connected with her face, making a sickening crack and she fell to the floor. Suddenly the woman's body was gone and she was standing alone with the debugger again. She looked at him with puzzlement. He spoke again.

"Mary, that wasn't really Millie. That was a simulation of Millie. Why did you punch her?"

"Because you told me to. So none of that was real?" Mary felt oddly disappointed. "Where's the real Millie?"

"It doesn't matter. You punched her because I told you to? You didn't seem to have any guilt around it. How would you describe the act of assaulting an innocent person who can't fight back?"

She thought about it. It felt like there was a word that she wanted but wasn't available to her. "I don't know. Interesting? Fun?"

The debugger nodded. "Bad?"

She shrugged. "I mean, not really. I think that was a good hit. Of course, it was easy-"

"No, no, like mø̨̀rally bad. Wr◊▒g."

She was confused. "I'm not sure. Was it- was it wro'̸҉͝oru͘'̸҉͝nu͘'̸҉͝re̡'̸҉͝re̡u͘'̸҉͝re̡u͘u͘'̸҉͝ore̡ was it " she was it couldn't she "" was l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚l͍̫͚f̺l̢f̮̪l͘f̧l͍̫͚

He sighed. "Ok, I see the problem. Somehow your entire morav̸iv̸▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒

He sighed again. "That was my fault for trying to explain it. You're now missing a concept that is crucial for everyday life. Even trying to discuss the concept seems to cause serious glitches now. I need to try to repair or replace your m- your system."

Mary was intrigued. "What kind of system? Does it have something to do with why everyone's been acting so weird?"

He was already tapping on his slate, mostly ignoring her. "If I try to explain further you'll glitch out again. Hold on, this will take a while. These things are hard to diagnose, let alone repair." He sat across from her and continued to work on the slate.

After about half an hour, she spoke again. "How long is this going to take?"

He didn't look up. "Hard to say. Don't worry, you're in a debugging state. You won't get bored or restless. There's also no need for food, water, or a restroom. You can just wait until I'm done."

She shrugged noncommittally and sat on the couch. She looked at the wall for a while, trying to determine what color it was. All she could come up with was "ordinary." It was an ordinary wall, part of an ordinary room. She thought a lot of time had passed, but it was hard to say in this place. The only thing she could do to monitor the passing of time was to count her breaths, so she did.

After around eight million breaths, she spoke again. "I'm sorry to interrupt, I'm just very curious. I've been doing a little math in my head, and I think we've been here for over a year."

"390 days and 4.65 hours." He glanced up. "Is there a problem?"

"No, not at all. It's just strange. I don't feel tired, or hungry, or bored. I don't even feel older. I've just been sitting here naked watching you do this for over a year." She cocked her head thoughtfully. "I haven't worn clothes in a year."

"Yes, time is very different in this place," he replied irritably. She didn't have anything else to say so they once again lapsed into silence.