by Deck Davis
In Autumn Steampunk, Dad had left a secret juicier than the juiciest peach on the juiciest peach farm in the world. He’d hidden a secret cache of loot weapons that were powerful enough that if someone found them, they’d have the mother of all advantages.
The only thing was that Dad had hidden these weapons in the strangest place, in a place where nobody would ever check. I don’t think he ever banked on anybody actually finding and using them; he just liked his little secret of knowing they were there. So…where were they?
He hid them in my bedroom, underneath a floorboard.
Yep, when Dad had designed the houses for Autumn Steampunk, he’d given one of them a childhood bedroom exactly like the one I had at home. In a joke aimed at me, he’d hidden the weapons underneath the floorboards, in the place where I used to stash my secret cigarettes in real life (ones that I didn’t think he and mom knew about).
That was his joke, you see. He was laughing about the fact that I had a secret hiding place, and that he knew about it. And although he kept my stealthy cigarettes secret from Mom, he designed it in a VBR map that would see hundreds or even thousands of people running through it.
So, once we entered the VBR, all I had to do was find my childhood bedroom. That presented the biggest problem; Dad designed the map so that my bedroom spawned in a different house each time. This meant that I had to check every single dwelling on the map until I found it.
Now, after killing Rynk and checking nearly every dwelling on the map and finding nothing, there was just one house left to check. The weapons had to be there. It was just to the south of my position. Simple. A quick in, find the maps, and out.
“Err…Harry? Checked your map lately?” said Sera.
There was some interference on my headset. It sounded like her words were being spoken underwater.
“What’s up?” I said.
“The wave’s coming.”
I brought up my map.
Wave Completion: 03:59, 03:58, 03:57…
Sure enough, way south of my position at the edge of the map, I saw a wave of blue forming at the edge. Right now, it was a few minutes from my position, and spreading.
Shit. That meant that I had to get to the house before the wave hit.
My headset crackled.
“We’ve got company!” shouted Clyde.
There was the same interference sound. It must have been the wave; the rest of the team was north east of me now, and since the wave was heading my way, it was interfering with my team chat. It wouldn’t be long until I was cut off from them completely.
“Screw this,” said Vorm. “I’m fighting them! No more sitting around.”
“Cool him off a little will you, Sera?” I said. Then I added, “And do it nicely.”
“Do not bloody engage, you chronic waste of oxygen,” said Sera.
I could always rely on Sera to keep her cool. I couldn’t rely so much on Vorm; although he was careful with his bits and was a responsible parent out of the game, ten minutes of VBR sent him into a bloodlust. It was like it unleashed a side of him that the responsibility of parenthood locked away. It let loose the wildness of youth, a yearning for excitement and adventure. It made me think that there was a whole other side of parents that they locked away as soon as their children were born.
The oncoming wave sent a sense of urgency flooding through me. My map showed that there was just over three minutes before the first wave reached its resting point. The problem was that it’d submerge over a quarter of the map in an HP-sapping field of energy, swallowing me in the process. I had to get the weapons before the wave hit completely.
I ran down the stairs, almost losing my balance on the second-to-last step, before grabbing the bannister and righting myself. I opened the front door and stepped outside. My instincts made me look around for trouble, but I couldn’t see any sign of other fighters.
Outside, the air was crisp enough that it felt like it was stretching my skin with icy fingers. There were trees on either side of the cottage, each bearing golden leaves that shook in the breeze. There was something wholesome about it all. It was the kind of place I would have liked to vacation in, were it not for the roaming NPC monsters and blood-thirsty VBR fighters. It was the very picture of autumn, modelled with love because it used to be Dad’s favorite time of the year.
Beyond the cottage garden there was a thin, single-track road that led east in a twisting path, through fields and over hills. There were abandoned vehicles along the way, but not like the kind of cars that were on the roads in real life. None of these cars were solar powered. Instead, they ran on fossil fuels and had engines that were powered by burning large deposits of coal, with thick exhaust pipes on the roofs that puffed out ozone destroying smog into the air. Some of the bonnets were opened to show their insides, made of a series of large and small clockwork cogs and chains. It was a pity that none of them were working.
The last house to check was directly opposite me, five hundred meters away. There was a giant oak tree beside it, its limbs completely bare save for one which held a gigantic bronze leaf the size of a car.
I started running. I’d only covered a hundred meters, when I heard a panicked voice in my ear.
“We’ve been spotted!” said Vorm.
“Cool it!” said Sera.
“Come on guys,” I said. “I’m a few hundred meters away. I’ll grab the weapons and be back before you know it.”
Just as I said those words, I heard a low rumbling sound. I heard rocks scraping on the floor, and then the screech of metal. To my right, a car was flung up and tossed into a nearby field before landing with a crunch as the metal twisted.
What was it? Another Storm Knight with a levelled-up Wind Hands? If you got Wind Hands to level five, it’d certainly be powerful enough for you to flip a car.
Just then, sunlight peeked through a cloud and shone on the road to my right, and I saw the petrol-rainbow color of a serpent, translucent except for the thin ray of light hitting it.
Serpent – Level 22
HP: 1123 / 1123
It was headed my way, no doubt about it. The serpent was 600 meters to my right, the house a few hundred in front of me. The serpent was going to reach me, and when it was locked into combat mode, there’d be no escaping it.
Should I fight it? No. Even with my new katana and armor, it’d be suicide. AI beasts on VBR maps were made to be killed. They were programmed so that even with high-level monsters, a player who hadn’t levelled much up yet could at least try to make a kill. However, this match-up wasn’t what I’d call balanced. A level three Storm Knight versus a level twenty-two serpent? Just send me into the ring with a heavyweight boxer; it’d be a better fight.
The problem was that I couldn’t run either. Even if I somehow found a working steam car, of which there were a few dotted around the map, it wouldn’t help. My team needed the weapons. Unless we won the VBR, we would go bust.
I activated Gale Rush and aimed at the house. I heard a warning buzz in my ear telling me that my skill mana was draining.
Mana at 80%
Man, I was glad that I’d levelled up and topped up my bar. Gale Rush ate mana quicker than I licked my plate clean at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The terrain flew by me as if I were in a moving car, and my mana bar fell further. Just as I reached the house, I came to an abrupt halt. Since I hadn’t stopped with any kind of grace, the sudden switch in speed catapulted me forward, and I smashed into the front door of the house.
My nose exploded. I felt the warm trickle of blood on my face.
10 HP Lost [302/312]
Behind me, I heard the loud scrape of the serpent. I turned to see its shimmering translucent shape snaking its way toward the house.
I grabbed the door, opened it and ran in the house, letting it slam behind me.
For a second, I couldn’t move. I sucked in air. I felt my nose, and when I pulled my fingers away my fingertips were coated in blood.
No time for a po
tion. I needed the weapons.
Gotta get to the bedroom. I saw the stairs just down the hallway. As I ran down it and reached the first step, I heard the serpent thud against the front door of the house.
There was another thud, and then a crash.
I heard the sound of wood snapping.
I turned to see the front door bending impossibly inwards, with the wood cracking and splintering.
I activated Wind Hands and commanded a wooden table to slide away from its position against the wall and into front of the front door.
After another giant thud, the front door exploded. The table flew out of the way, having done its job as a barricade as well as a piece of Lego.
Then the serpent was in the house with me, rushing down the hallway, its giant body almost filling the space, but it was still moving unhindered. It knocked a couple of paintings off the wall as it slid through the house.
As I ran up the stairs, I heard the serpent close behind me.
I activated Gale Rush to add a burst of speed to my movements. I stopped just short of full speed, the sting of my nose reminding me what happened when you didn’t leave enough room to slow down properly.
The serpent tried to turn the corner toward the stairs, but the tight space made it crash into a wall. The whole house shook. I heard the groan of wood. It felt like the whole place was going to split apart.
I bolted to the top of the stairs until I was on the upper landing, there were three rooms.
Wood cracked behind me. I heard rhythmic thuds. The serpent was coming up the stairs! The house vibrated as if it stood on an earthquake fault line.
“So…door one, two or three?”
I ran to the first door and opened it. It was a bathroom. Damn it.
I felt a presence behind me. I turned around. In such a cramped space, the serpent wasn’t so translucent. I couldn’t see all of it, but I could sense it was there. I could sense its thick body filling the hallway in a grim reminder that snakes, even thirty-foot long ones, could fit into the smallest of spaces.
The serpent rushed at me head first. I crouched and dived out of the way. I heard a crash as its head collided with the bathroom sink, smashing the porcelain. Little jagged pieces of sink rained down on the floor.
So…what now? Tornado Strike? Use it to start spinning with my katana and hope I do enough damage to trigger the serpent’s ‘Flee’ action?
Nope. That would be suicide.
As the monster adjusted itself, I opened door two and saw a bedroom. There was a double bed with daisy patterned bedsheets, like in my mom and dad’s old bedroom. Opposite it was a wardrobe with dozens of cardigans hanging from the hooks. It was a carbon copy of the bedroom in the cottage.
Well, Dad wasn’t above copy-and-pasting assets when he needed to. Lazy design didn’t always mean bad design.
That left one last room. I ducked out of the master bedroom and turned to door three when a giant shape smashed into my chest.
148 HP lost! [154/312]
It knocked all the air out of me. My vision started to turn black. I was going to pass out.
Fight it. Fight it. Don’t black out.
I tried to suck in air, but my stomach felt like it was crushed, and my lungs refused to cooperate. This creature’s attacks were brutal, but I guessed that was the point. To beat a serpent, you weren’t really meant to get hit by it. There were different ways to fight every map monster, and evasion and counter-attacks were usually a solid tactic for things much bigger than you were. Here, though, in this cramped hallway, evasion was tough.
With every last trace of energy I had, I forced a sense of calm upon myself, and I breathed in. The air passed into my lungs. My vision started to clear. I raised my katana, and the red pulse ran up and down the blade. I quickly checked my stats.
Hitpoints: 154 / 312
Stamina: 98 / 140
Mana: 102 / 178
Just as I felt the serpent rush toward me again, I rolled to my left, letting it whoosh by me. I stood up and grabbed a health potion from my inventory bag. I uncorked it and lifted it to my mouth. Just as I was about to drink, the serpent turned so that it could strike me again. It whipped its tail into me as it moved, slapping my wrists and knocking the potion from my hands.
It was readying itself for one last strike. By now, the creature had thrashed and smashed around so much that the upper landing of the house looked like a bomb had hit it. Wood had split. Dust crumbled from the roof. The walls were filled with dents. Broken porcelain littered the carpet.
I darted to room three, pushed the door open, and saw it - my old childhood bedroom. There was a single bed with Star Wars bed sheets, a bookshelf filled with Roald Dahl books, and an acoustic guitar in the corner. I’d begged my parents for a year straight to buy it for me, and then I proceeded to play just once and never touch it again. That was another one of Dad’s jokes, it seemed. Mom was furious that I never played it after asking for it so much, but the story always made Dad laugh. Maybe that was why he’d put the guitar in the map.
Okay. Weapons first, nostalgia later. I saw the floorboard that I needed. It was under my bed. It looked perfectly normal at first glance, but I knew that it was loose. I rushed toward it and crouched down.
I heard rattles and smashes coming from the hallway behind me. Somehow, I knew that the serpent had righted itself. That it was ready to rush at me again. I’d somehow survived one attack, but right now my HP was low enough that it only had to flick me, and I’d crumble.
I lifted the floorboard and threw it to one side. Then I lifted another, to create a big enough gap. I reached inside and felt around. It was empty!
I sensed the presence of the serpent behind me, heavier than ever. It was angry, blood-thirsty. With only 154 hitpoints, another direct hit from it had the potential to knock me well and truly off my mortal coil.
I felt around inside the hole under the floor again, and I touched on something solid. I reached inside with both hands this time and grabbed the edges of a box. I took hold of it and heaved it out.
It was wooden chest five feet long, which was impossible since the gap under the bed wasn’t that big. This was just another one of Dad’s tricks. Who said the physics in a VBR map had to be consistent? Where would the fun be in that?
I opened the box.
Come on. Please be the weapons…
With the lid off, I was rewarded with the sparkle of four weapons. There they were. Four beautiful weapons made from solid gold. They gave off a shimmer so bright that I had to blink a few times to adjust my eyes to it.
There was no doubt that anyone watching my personal battle feed right then would have seen the wide smile creeping across my face. It was a smile of relief, one that was born from the knowledge that I hadn’t gotten the team to make a big gamble for nothing. It was like the smile of a kid who’d just gotten the acoustic guitar he’d wanted for months and had found that it was even more awesome than he could ever have imagined. (Whether he played the guitar after that was beside the point.)
I picked up the golden sword, hefted it in my hands, and I turned to face the serpent.
- Golden Broad Sword Equipped
[+605 Att]
“Looks like the odds aren’t even after all,” I told the serpent. “I’m beyond the odds, buddy. I’ve got something that nobody else has.”
Chapter Four
Hacking through the sinewy skin of a serpent was surprisingly easy with a golden, level-five sword. A one-of-a-kind, never-before-seen-on-this-map blade, one that felt like it belonged in my hands. I liked it so much I could have kissed it.
After killing the serpent with my new sword, I took a second to bask in the tinkle of bells that indicated a level-up, as well as the usual tide of information.
- Level up to Level 4!
HP: 344/344
Stamina: 165/ 165
Mana: 201 / 201
- Upgrade a skill:
Wind Hands – 1/5
Tornado Strike – 1/5
Mana Swirl – 1/5
With all my skills unlocked, it was time to be offensive. Tornado Strike would let me spin around and around with my weapon, scoring a dozen cuts for the price of one. I now wielded one of the best swords on the map, and this was the skill that would let me take the best advantage of it.
Tornado Strike upgraded to Level 2!
- Speed inc by 15%
- Accuracy inc by 8%