Glitch Book Two

by Victor Deckard

  Also, extremely powerful monsters would spawn during the last few assault waves. One could even name these kinds of mobs bosses. Each kind of a boss had different strengths and weaknesses and required a different strategy for defeating it.

  If the player’s HP was drained, they got disconnected from the game and had to wait until after it was morning in here to reconnect to the game. If the player was on a team, he or she couldn’t revive until the end of the current assault wave. If all the players on the team got killed simultaneously, the game ended.

  Guard knew all this for having gotten through most of the assault waves once. He’d managed to fend off the six waves and perished during the seventh, getting killed by one of the bosses.

  After that, Guard decided to team up with other players in order to get through nights together. He found an appropriate house, the building we were now in, reinforced it, and invited Stan, with whom he made friends earlier on, to survive tomorrow night. Shortly afterward, they met Melissa, a girl who played the Warlock class, and invited her to their group. She agreed to join. Melissa was certain they could handle the invasion of night monsters, but the guys wished they’d found another player to join their team.

  Then Guard told me that the first three waves were easy as pie. All we had to do was stick together instead of spreading out. We’d stay on the first floor. Each of us would take up their own respective positions to have the entire floor covered.

  As of the fourth wave, flying mobs would begin to spawn, which would be trying to crash through the second floor windows.

  “Mantises?” I inquired, amazed.

  “Nah,” Guard shook his head. “Not mantises but some other winged critters. They’re smaller and weaker but nevertheless pretty annoying. Also, spiders will show up as well. They can crawl up the walls. So one of us is going to go upstairs to defend the second floor.”

  Stan said he’d take up the upstairs position. There were going to be few spiders and winged creatures upstairs so one player would be enough for defending the second floor. Melissa would stick close to the set of stairs, just in case Stan needed assistance.

  Starting from the fifth wave, spiders and winged critters would spawn in great amounts. Melissa would have to join Stan in defending the second floor. So each floor would be defended by a pair of players.

  Before I joined the group, their plan had differed from the current one. Melissa would’ve had to assist Stan and Guard alternately all night long. She would’ve consumed too many vigors well before the night ended. Moreover, running up and down the stairs constantly and dealing with hordes of mobs perhaps would’ve been too hard on her. Sooner or later, she would’ve snapped or made a blunder, which might’ve resulted in all their group being killed. That had been why they’d sought the fourth player to join them.

  With the seventh wave started, bosses would show up. It’d be time for the Warlocks. Melissa and myself would have to check and slow down the swarm of monsters at all costs while Stan and Guard would fight a boss. All bosses incredibly strong and robust. So Stan and Guard would have to turn their full attention to a boss without having to distract their attention from it to deal with weaker mobs.

  The guys also familiarized me with the layout of the building. I understood why Guard had chosen this particular house. It was pretty big and spacious, with a lot of wide corridors and doorways, which was why it would be impossible for mobs to have a player cornered.

  However, the guys told me that we’d better not to let mobs get inside the house. Sure, soon or later monsters would find a way to crash into the building, but we had to hold them off for as long as possible.

  “What if mobs will spawn in the house?” I wanted to know remembering what had happened last night. I’d gotten inside one house and hidden myself in a room on the second floor, yet one of the monsters had spawned right inside it.

  Guard replied that the house was considered a safe zone for him due to his having secured it. So now mobs could spawn only outside this place but not inside it. And since he’d admitted all of us to his group, the same went for us.

  After that, Guard said that in the time between each wave we’d be gathering the loot, namely ammo, stimulators, vigors, and other items having dropped from killed mobs. We also would have to repair broken windows and doors. Since I’d never gotten to do this, I had no idea as to how to do the repairing in this game.

  Guard told me that one had to unlock a particular skill from the Building tab of the Skill tree. Also, one had to have some amount of resources. It was metal in our case. I hadn’t learned this skill yet and Melissa didn’t have it as well so the girl and myself would be gathering up the loot while the task of repairing broken windows and doors would fall on Stan and Guard.

  By the time the guys finished explaining everything to me, it was already dark in the street. A message appeared in the log.

  > Warning! The night will fall in 60 minutes!

  We had only one hour left to make final preparations. We went downstairs and the guys showed me all the ways out. One of the doors led to a garage. I noticed it was pretty spacious, yet there weren’t any vehicles, which made me wonder where the vehicles of the players were.

  As things turned out, none of them had a car. Each had lost their car one way or the other. Melissa had her car jacked. She hadn’t known at the time that one could steal another player’s vehicle.

  Stan had gotten attacked by an armored combat car of some high-level player. They totaled Stan’s vehicle. The guy tried to climb out of the car, but the driver’s side door got jammed. He couldn’t get out so he was burned alive inside the cab. When Stan told me about it, I recoiled in horror.

  As for Guard, he told me that he’d just run out of gas. He hadn’t know where to find or buy a tank of gas, and still didn’t, so he’d ditched his car.

  “It might still be where I’ve left it,” He speculated, though the tone of his voice indicated he didn’t really believe in it.

  “No way,” Stan smirked. “It must long since have been cannibalized for the parts, for sure. Or someone might’ve gassed it up and hit the road.”

  > Warning! The night will fall in 30 minutes!

  The message made us all get serious at once. Well, except for Melissa. Her mood instantly racked up for some reason. The girl snapped out of her gloominess and wasn’t sulking any longer. The corners of her mouth turned up and she got a gleam in her eyes. The girl was really excited.

  Stan and Guard set about counting ammo and stimulators and checking on the state of their stuff. Stan found out that one of his shoulder armor was slightly damaged and commenced repairing it. I recollected my destroyed biker helmet and removed it from my bag.

  “Say, can this be repaired given how badly it’s damaged?”

  “It can be. Gimme it.”

  “You need resources to repair it, don’t you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Which ones?”

  “The helmet is metal so I need metal.”

  “I got some. Wait a sec.”

  “No need, bro. Save it until later. You might have to share your metal tonight if we need it for reinforcing the house.”

  After a few moments, Stan returned the helmet to me. It looked brand-new, not a scratch or dent on the shiny surface. I was grateful for his help and wanted to return the favor somehow. Then it dawned on me. I unslung the Predator and held the rifle out to Stan. It’d certainly stand him in good stead.

  “Take it if you like. I don’t need it anyway, what with me being the Warlock.”

  “Where did you get this beauty?” He asked, amazingly examining the stats’ of the rifle.

  I could’ve told him the whole story of my having gotten even with the two PKs. Yet night was about to fall, which was why I didn’t want to waste much time. So I just said that the rifle dropped from some PK I’d recently iced.

  “I’ve got a level 10 pistol,” Stan replied. “Can give it to ya. It’s ‘green’, bu
t it got additional fire damage. But I don’t have it on me because I have it stashed in my lair so I only can hand it over after we survive the night.”

  “Okay.”

  Stan grinned revealing white teeth, “Sure, it ain’t fair to trade the ‘purple’ rifle you’ve given me for a ‘green’ weapon so I can give you something else. What’s else do I have? Let’s see––”

  Before he could finish, another message popped up.

  > Warning! The night will fall in 20 minutes!

  “Hey guys,” Guard said. “We don’t have much time left. Hold off on your trading thing until after the night, okay? As of now, we gotta concentrate all our effort on getting through the night.”

  “He’s right,” Stan nodded agreement. “The impending battle against night mobs is more important than anything else now. Because if we die, we, as likely as not, will lose the rifle.”

  Although we had shy of twenty minutes left before night fell, we already took up our respective positions. I walked over to the nearest window and peered into the long thin opening cut in the metal plate. Moonlight illuminated the deserted streets. All was peaceful and quiet. The calm before the storm, all right.

  I took a step from the window and looked back. Stan was standing a little way away from me at another window, staring out, his body tense. His usual grin was absent now. The same goes for Guard. He looked as solemn as ever. The game challenged the guys and they were eager to beat it.

  As for Melissa, the girl didn’t look serious one bit. She couldn’t help smiling. With delight shining in her eyes, the girl darted from one window to another on end. She seemed to be so eager for night to fall. She just couldn’t wait. Unlike the guys, Melissa didn’t take it seriously. Seemed as though she wasn’t even interested in getting through the night. She played purely for having fun.

  I noticed the other two guys cast the girl disapproving glances every so often. Perhaps, seeing how noncommittal she was about whether we would be able to survive made them regret admitting her to the group.

  I looked Stan and Guard’s way once more. I liked the guys. Perhaps I should tell them about me having been trapped in the game. They might reach out to the developers to tip them off about me. Still, I decided not bother them with my troubles at the moment since they were fully concentrated on the task at hand.

  More to the point, I didn’t know how they’d react to my story. That player, Crayne, had been quite amiable until I told him my story. On hearing it, he completely lost it and even threatened to off me if I didn’t cut the crap.

  On the other hand, I doubted that Stan and Guard would flip out over my story. They seemed to be really nice guys. So I decided to tell them everything after we got through the night.

  That is, if we got through the night.

  Another message turned up in the log.

  > Warning! The night will fall in 10 minutes!

  I saw a glimpse of some object dart past the building, flooding the street with purple light for a couple of seconds.

  “Look,” Stan uttered. “Those flying things have shown up. It’s not long before the first wave begins.”

  “Yeah,” Guard agreed.

  I looked in the direction the object had disappeared and saw a beam of purple light shot up into the sky.

  “What’s that?” I inquired.

  “Not a clue,” Stan responded. “Those things fly out of the space station and spread out around the city. Guess those things then land somewhere and direct purple spotlights up in the sky for whatever reason.”

  “Not purple, but lilac” Melissa cut in.

  “Whatever,” Stan dismissed her remark.

  “I wonder what it’s for,” I beckoned to the purple shaft. “Have you tried to drop by one of those purple beams?”

  “What am I, a nut?” Stan chuckled. “But anyway, of all people I talked to in the game, none has checked those beams out yet. Each of them holds their own opinion about the beams though. Some figure that the beams indicate safe zones, others consider them to be some kind of teleports. Still, none of them can tell for certain what the beams actually do.”

  “What about you?” Guard wanted to know. “What do you make of it?”

  “Perhaps, one might be teleported to the alien space station if they approaches one of the beams,” Stan replied with a deadpan expression on his face. Then he smirked and added, “Just joking. Guess the space station’s just some kind of embellishment. I don’t think one might actually get up there.”

  “The alien space station?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Didn’t you see it yet? Regardless of what time it is, the space station is always clearly visible. Unless the sky’s clouded over, I mean. You can see it now if you get outside.”

  “You better not,” Guard cut in. “Let’s not take any chances.”

  “I sure saw it last night, but I don’t know nothing about aliens,” I said.

  “There’s the History of the World in the Encyclopedia. You didn’t peruse it, did you?”

  “No. Is it worth it?”

  Before Stan had a chance to reply, Guard said, “No. The game doesn’t have the main quest yet. So what’s the point in examining all that information?”

  “I didn’t read it either,” Melissa barged in on us, seemingly very pleased with herself for not reading the Encyclopedia.

  “What’s wrong with you, guys?” Stan reproved us. “It’s far more interesting to play a game if you know the history of a game world and all. There’s even a hint at the reason why there’re so many monsters around at night, from the game world’s point of view. More to the point, the developers are going to add the main quest to the game and––”

  A message popped up.

  > Warning! The night has just fallen!

  Stan instantly shut up and got very serious. His grip on the “purple” Predator I’d given him tightening, Stan peered out the window he stood at. Guard followed suit, drawing his weapon and peering into the thin opening in the nearby window.

  Even Melissa was no longer leaping from one window to another and prepared herself. I pulled both my pistols from their respective holsters and braced myself.

  It was quiet for another few moments and then all hell broke loose.

  Chapter eight

  We successfully held the line for the two first waves. We stood our ground, gunning down the swarm of monsters in the street. None of them was able to break into the house. They clawed and snapped at the armored windows, but they failed to break it apart thus far. Nevertheless, I was certain that everything might change yet.

  In the time between each wave Guard and Stan would repair armored windows as Melissa and myself gathered up ammo and stimulators, which we shared between all of us.

  The third wave was noticeably harder. There were much more mobs in the street. Moreover, a new kind of monsters appeared. This mutant stood about six feet high. It was swelled-out and covered with numerous sores that oozed thick yellowish pus. Also, the nasty nauseating mutant had no arms. Two long thin appendages, which passed for legs, slowly carried the vile creature in the direction of the building. From somewhere inside the monster was coming weird greenish illumination.

  When the mob was close enough to the building, I saw its stats appear in my HUD.

  > Name: Boomer

  > Level: 7

  > Health: 1075/1075

  The closer the boomer got to the house the brighter was its illumination. I had a gut feeling that something was wrong. The obnoxious mod had to be dealt with ASAP. Both my pistols spat flames, bullets ripping into the creature’s sore flesh with nauseating wet sounds, blood and pus splattering the blacktop. The monster took little damage.

  My bullets detracted only ten points each from the mob’s HP although the damage attribute of both Screamer pistols amounted to sixty. Even considering the high-velocity bullets my pistols were loaded with reduced the overall damage by twenty-five points, the Screamers still had to deal more dama
ge, namely thirty-five points, than they did.

  The rounds lodged themselves into the rotten flesh of the boomer, but the bullet wounds quickly healed over and the mob’s HP replenished. I fired away at the mutant, trying to figure out a way of croaking the ugly. How could I take out the monster if it was constantly regenerating its HP?

  Then I saw something like a blister bloat on the boomer’s overweighed body. I lined my iron sights up on the blister. I heisted for a second or so and then put pressure on the trigger. After a few rounds penetrated the blister, it burst open as blood and pus gushed, strips of ragged flesh dangling from it. The creature’s HP got reduced by as many as two hundred points at once and its health was no longer restoring itself.

  More blisters swelled out across the mutant’s body every so often. Once it happened, I fired a burst on a blister, demolishing it. The boomer kept advancing on the building. By the time it reached within a couple of yards of the house, the mob had only one hundred or so health points left. As I waited for another blister to swell out, the boomer made it to the building and stopped.

  The greenish illumination was getting brighter by a second. It soon was so brilliant I couldn’t look at it without squinting anymore. Then a sudden flash lit up everything within a distance of a couple of yards and the mutant blew off, spraying the blacktop and walls with pieces of its ragged flesh and pungent sticky substance.

  This substance spattered the metal plates on the nearby windows. Metal sizzled and plumes of acrid smoke billowed up. The acid ate away at the boarded-up windows extremely fast. Holes in the metal plates widened by the second.