Glitch Boxset
Page 3
> (Show Engineer’s skill tree: Yes/No)
> (Hide the clarifications of the classes: Yes/No)
> (Return to the Main Menu: Yes/No)
I went over skills of all three classes to get it straight in my mind’s eye. So the Soldier could wear heavy armor and handle all sorts of weapons and upgrade it all. The Warlock, on the other hand, could use only pistols and revolvers and wear only light armor. But the Warlock had quite a few various deadly spells at his or her disposal, called psi-powers in this game. So the Warlock was something like a battle mage. The Engineer could invent various combat drones and useful robots that protected the player from foes and assisted the player to survive, find, gather resources, discover the world.
I didn’t rack my brain too long. I’d always played a battle mage in fantasy roleplaying games. So I was well accustomed to playing this class. So I chose the Warlock class. In the Skill tree were four tabs.
> Warlock
> Mechanic
> Survival
> Building
> (Return to the Main Menu: Yes/No)
I looked into the Quests menu to recall what skills I had to unlock. Then I switched back to the Skill tree and unfolded the Mechanic tab. The so-called skill tree appeared before my eyes. Due to my past rich roleplaying game experience, it didn’t take me long to figure the skill tree out. It consisted of several levels. For the time being, I had only the skills from the lowest, or first, level available for learning. All the skills on higher levels were gray-colored, which meant they were unavailable for now.
I found the ‘Simple machine gun’ skill and selected it. A piece of info emerged in my HUD.
> Name: ‘Simple machine gun’
> Description: Allows you to craft the heavy machine gun and mount it on a vehicle.
> Ingredients:
> 1. Pieces of machine gun;
> 2. Metal: 10 pieces.
> (Learn the skill: Yes/No)
> (Return to the previous page: Yes/No)
I spent one point to learn the skill. It instantly changed its color from white to green. The page refreshed.
> Name: ‘Simple machine gun’
> Description: Allows you to craft the heavy machine gun and mount it on a vehicle.
> The skill state: 1/3;
> Required ingredients:
> 1. Pieces of a machine gun;
> 2. Metal: 10 pieces.
> The stats of the machine gun (1 level):
> Damage: 100
> Accuracy: 25
> Fire rate: 750
> Magazine size: 1000
> (Return to the previous page: Yes/No)
The ‘The skill state: 1/3’ line seemed to mean that I could assign two more points to this skill to improve the machine gun stats. Well, okay. I returned to the Skill tree, unfolded the Survival tab and learn two more required skills.
First this:
> Name: ‘Cooking mutant roach meat’
> Description: Allows you to cook mutant roach meat on a fire pit.
> The skill state: 1/1;
> Required ingredients:
> 1. Pieces of mutant roach meat.
> The stats of a cooked mutant roach meat:
> Reducing hunger: 10
> Restoring health: 10
> (Return to the previous page: Yes/No)
Than that:
> Name: ‘Fabric outfit’
> Description: Allows you to create the fabric outfit consisted of a shirt with short sleeves, a pair of pants, and a pair of shoes.
> The skill state: 1/1;
> Required ingredients:
> Fiber: 90 slivers;
> The stats of each article of the ‘Fabric outfit’ set:
> Physical resistance: 5
> Fire resistance: 5
> Frost resistance: 5
> Corrosive resistance: 5
> Electrocute resistance: 5
> (Return to the previous page: Yes/No)
So I had only two more points at my disposal. Having switched back to the Warlock tab, I commenced going over skills available for learning. After giving the matter a little bit of a thought, I decided to assign one point to the Surge psi-power.
> Name of the psi-power: ‘Surge’
> Description: Dark energy coagulates into a dense mass in front of the player. On the player’s cue, the mass dashes forward and jolts everything it touches backward.
> The skill state: 1/1;
> The stats of the Surge psi-power (1 level):
> The strength of the jolt: weak;
> The distance at which foes are hurled backward: 1 meter;
> The maximum number of foes the Surge can hurl at once: 3;
> Mana consumption: 10 points.
> (Do you want to spend one point to upgrade the Surge psi-power to level 2: Yes/No)
> (Return to the previous page: Yes/No)
Instead of upgrading the Surge psi-power, I decided to spend the last point to learn the Shield psi-power.
> Name: of the psi-power: ‘Shield’
> Description: Dark energy creates the power dome around the player that absorbs all the damage and prevents foes to go inside it.
> The skill state: 1/3;
> The stats of the Shield psi-power (1 level):
> Duration: 10 second;
> The maximum amount of damage the shield can absorb: 100 points;
> The size of the dome: 3 meters around;
> Mana consumption: 30 points.
> (Return to the previous page: Yes/No)
So all the five points had been assigned. Well, time to deal with the attributes. I switched back to the Character menu.
> You have got 30 points! Allot them into the following character attributes:
> Strength: 0
> Endurance: 0
> Agility: 0
> Perception: 0
> Intelligent: 0
> Charisma: 0
> Luck: 0
> (Show the clarifications of the attributes: Yes/No)
> (Return to the Main Menu: Yes/No)
After I gave it some thought, I allocated the points.
> Strength: 2
> Endurance: 5
> Agility: 5
> Perception: 10
> Intelligent: 0
> Charisma: 3
> Luck: 5
The Perception attribute was the most important for the Warlock class, so I had upgraded it maximally. I had added five points to the Endurance attribute since I didn’t want my character to get tired too early. I had added five points to the Luck attribute for the same reason, which was my desire to find rare items more often. My having chosen the Warlock class notwithstanding, I had added two points to the Strength attribute. I had no desire to play a too weak character who could carry too little things. The Charisma attribute was necessary for getting discounts, so I had increased it a little. I had increased The Agility attribute by five points so that my character could move and reload guns faster. And I had ignored the Intelligent attribute since only the Engineer class needed this attribute for producing various gadgets.
This done, I went over the rest stats of my character.
> Health: 120/120
> Mana: 200/200
> Fatigue: 150/150
> Hunger: 25/100
> Freezing: 45/100
> Heating: 0/100
I then looked into the Inventory menu and saw two tabs. One of then was named General and the other was named Ingredients. I unfolded the former one and saw the new information.
> ‘T-shirt’ (DONNED)
> ‘Pants’ (DONNED)
> ‘Shoes’ (DONNED)
> Simple bag (DONNED)
> Simple belt (DONNED)
> Simple holster (DONNED)
> ‘Newbie’s Punch’ (HOLSTERED)
> Pistol ammo: 45 cartridges/3 magazines (BAGGED)
> Morsels of mutant roach meat: 10 pieces (BAGGED)
When I let my gaze fall on one of the lines, the information of the item appeared in my HUD. I switched to the Ingredients tab, yet it was empty. But I observed two more lines at the bottom of the Inventory menu.
> Money: 0
> Weight: 17/300
While I was learning the classes, assigned the points to the attributes, and unlocking the new skills, a few more notifications of some players’ deaths appeared in the log. I glanced at it and then finally lowered my left hand.
Another message appeared.
> The ‘First steps’ quest accomplished! You have received the award: +50 exp!
A quiet sound came from the far end of the room. The elevator door hissed open. Well, with all the points assigned, necessary skills unlocked, the quests accomplished, I can move on.
I entered the elevator car. At the center of the control panel was a green arrow pointing up. I tapped it and the car began to go up. Having taken a step backward, I leaned my back against the rear wall and placed my hand on the pistol butt jutting out of the holster. I thought that although this was just a game, everything seemed so real, genuine. The elevator car slightly trembled as it ascended and the pistol grip felt pleasantly cool against my skin.
It took some time for the elevator car to reach the required floor. Eventually, it stopped ascending and shook once. Then the double door parted and slid open. Warily looking around, I got out of the elevator car.
It was pretty dark. Dust hung in the air. The room I found myself in was quite different from the ones I had been traversing a few minutes prior. It was jerry-built and ramshackle. Long irregular cracks ran across the walls and the ceiling. There was spiderweb in the corners. The room looked like a hallway in some condo. The entrance door was locked. Two windows on either side of it were boarded up. Shafts of faint silver light seeped into the room through the thin slits between the boards.
While I was looking around, another message turned up in the log.
> The player Melissa didn’t make it through the night! He was skinned alive!
The message seemed to send chills crawling up my back. Taking care not to ponder on the reason why so many players had been dying during this night, I turned my gaze away from the log and caught a glimpse of stairs ascending up at the far end of the room. Yet before heading for the set of steps, I was willing to do something else.
Lifting my left hand, I looked at the crystal. The Main Menu appeared and I switched to the Map. I just wanted to consult it to make sure I was heading in the right direction, but there was no dice. A message appeared before my eyes.
> The map is unavailable in this location!
Well, okay. Lowering my arm, I walked over to the stair and took them up. Once I reached the landing I saw a door. Tried it, but it turned out to be locked. I went on to ascend the next flight. It was only when I reached the last floor that I encounter an unlocked door. I pushed it and it swung open with a terribly loud creak.
The door admitted me to a spacious room. A dense layer of dust hung in the air. Windows were boarded up and cracks of light were filtering in through the thin gaps between the boards. But it was too faint to lit up the whole room. Yet it didn’t take long for me to adjust my eyes to the half darkness. I saw a few pieces of old shabby furniture sitting by the walls. And I also spotted three people.
Yet on taking a closer look at them, I realized they were hardly human beings. They were in the raw and their extremely pale, the ashen skin had them stood out. They were also scrawny, nothing but skin and bones really. Sharp ribs strained against their sheer skin, which seemed to be teetering on the brink of being ripped.
I was regarding them ugly creatures for some time. When I let my gaze linger on one of them, a creature’s stats appeared.
> Name: ‘Pale mutant’
> Level: 2
> Health: 30/30
From the corner of my eye, I saw a new message appear in the log. At first, I thought it was just another notification of some unfortunate player dying a horrible death. But I was wrong.
> You have got new notes in the Encyclopedia!
I directed my gaze toward the mutants once more. They still stood at the same spots and almost didn’t move at all. They paid me no attention. Seemed like they wouldn’t attack me unless I aggravated them. Well, okay. Having lifted my left hand, I looked at the crystal. The Main Menu appeared before my eyes. I switched to the Encyclopedia and two more tabs emerged.
> History of the world
> Creatures and beings (*)
> (*) Note: New notes are available!
I neglected the history of the world and unfolded the second tab. It held only two lines.
> Mutant roaches
> Pale mutants
I figured the description of mutant roaches had appeared some time prior, but I failed to notice the notification of it for some unknown reason. Alternately, I selected each of these tabs and perused information. Then I lowered my hand. So I learned that some venomous energy had caused insects to mutate. Some of them, such as roaches, had just gotten bigger and others had turned into huge deadly creatures. The same venomous energy had caused some people to transform into pale mutants. They had completely lost their marbles, gotten unable to speak, and become very aggressive. Still, they seldom charged first unless one came too close to them or started to assault them.
Having pulled the pistol from the holster, I took careful aim. When my index finger began squeezing the trigger, a thought came to my mind. I’d just unlocked two psi-powers, the Surge, and the Shield. So why don’t I try and test one of them out on these mutants?
I lowered the gun and suddenly realized I didn’t have a clue as to what I needed to do to employ a psi-power. No tip appeared. However, in a second I learned that I didn’t need any. As soon as a thought of applying the Surge psi-power and propelling the dense clot of dark energy toward the mutants formed in my mind, the creatures suddenly were lifted off the ground and hurled through the air backward. The mana bar at the right bottom corner of my field of vision reduced somewhat.
Slowly and awkwardly the mobs were getting to their feet. When they eventually stood up, the mutants blundered my way. They were constantly staggering and it seemed as though they were about to tip over any minute now. Mumbling something unintelligible, the mobs stretched their arms out as if they were going to grab at me once I was within reach.
I took aim and set about squeezing off one shot after another. The head of the closest mutant exploded on the third impact, gory pieces going flying every which way. The decapitated mob kept walking toward me for two or so seconds more, fumbling in the air in front of him with its hands. Then the mutant plopped heavily to the floor.
A message popped up.
> +15 exp!
I moved the pistol slightly to the side and had the next mob lined up in my iron sights. I wasted the mutant and then finished the last one. After that, I looked at the experience bar. It was all but full now. I let my gaze linger on it and a piece of info appeared.
> Exp: 100/150
I commenced tossing the room. It was pretty spacious, yet other than a few extra clips for the pistol, I didn’t find anything useful. At the far end of the room was an elevator. It was open. I entered the car and glanced at the control panel. It showed a green arrow pointing down. I tapped the button and the car began to descend, vibrating and rumbling.
Finally, the door slid open with an ear-splitting creak. I found myself in another pretty large room. It appeared to be a garage. Rusty, wrecked vehicles lay scattered around the room. Engines, crumpled and scraped doors, totaled fenders, rusty bumpers, and other car parts were strewn all over the place.
While keeping looking around, I walked across the room toward the center of it. Nearly in the middle of the room sat another heap. It had a turret mounted on its roof. After I took a few more steps forward, the turret rumbled to life. It swiveled around
and directed its big black muzzle toward me. I came to a halt, suspiciously staring at the turret.
A piece of info appeared.
> Name: ‘Sentry gun’
> Level: 5
> Health: 175/175
After a second the turret opened ear-piercing fire. Two or three rounds tore into my side. It hurt a lot. I whipped around and burst into a run for nearest cover, which was a half-rotten body of an off-road vehicle. Another message popped up before my eyes:
> You have just received a new quest!
> Name: “New obstacle”
> Goal: Destroy the turret mounted on the roof of the wrecked car.
> Reward: +60 exp
As I was racing for cover I was wounded once more. In my right shoulder this time. Clenching my teeth in pain, I buckled my knees and launched myself into the air. Dropped to the floor right behind the vehicle bullets immediately began pounding on. I lowered on my knees and looked my body over. My side and shoulder wounds had blood gushing out like from a faucet. It looked exceptionally realistic and plausible. And it hurt. It hurt a great deal, dammit! My shirt was stained dark red where rounds had hit.