Glitch Boxset

by Victor Deckard

> Your name is Max Calm now! This nickname will be visible for other players when watching you.

  Some nasty sound suddenly ripped through the air as if a bolt had been tossed into a working blender. I even got frightened into thinking the engine broke down on me. But then I realized I was wrong. The sound was coming not from behind but from directly ahead of me. The double door was crawling open with an awful creak. A slit was widening as the door slid aside. A narrow shaft of light sipped into the garage through the widening crack. Seemed like the night had already been over and the sun had risen. Only then did I notice a red button on the right half of the wheel. What was that? The horn, perhaps? Or nitro? Nah. Come to think of it, I somehow knew the buggy didn’t have a nitrous oxide engine. Besides, it was turned on differently anyway.

  I hesitated for a moment and then gently pushed the button down. The heavy machine gun on the hood opened up with an ear-splitting rattle. Bullets bounced off the metal surface of the door, leaving small dents in it. I jerked my hand away from the button. The machine gun got silenced.

  Eventually, the creak ceased and the door was wide open. Well, time to start off. Having taken a long breath, I put my hands on the steering wheel and slowly rolled out of the garage.

  Chapter one

  I was slowly driving in my buggy through the desolate streets, looking in all directions.

  I had seen a few post-apocalyptic flicks, yet none of them had impressed me nearly as strongly as this game. The enormous deserted city made me feel uneasy and inspired despair. It was bleak and gray. Black voids of windows gaped at me from all directions. Huge creases ran across all buildings. The road was a wreck. It was full of large potholes so I was forced to brake to crawl over the worst ones or dodge through it. Every so often I encountered ruined, rusty, long since abandoned vehicles. Some of them sat still on one of the shoulders of the road and the others were right in the middle of the road.

  As I drove on, I looked around but failed to find any plants. There weren’t any trees, bushes, or even a wisp of grass. The weather was awful as well. Thunderclouds were vigorously boiling, blotted out the sunshine and progressively sinking the city into darkness. It seemed to be about to start raining. Piercingly cold gusts drove dirt blobs, shreds of paper, and other litter along sidewalks.

  I still had no knowledge of what had happened to this world according to the plot of the game, World War III, some natural cataclysm, alien invasion, or something else altogether, but it was obvious that the city had sustained very little damage. I didn’t saw any skyscrapers yet though. They might have been damaged much more than all the other buildings, having been demolished down to the ground.

  I saw a few quite tall multilevel buildings up ahead though. All the other homes I had come across so far stood no more than ten stories. So on the other hand, maybe the city was devoid of skyscrapers due to its being not an enormous megalopolis but a relatively small city.

  I kept on rolling down the bleak empty streets. Still, I could tell the streets weren’t completely empty of occupants. Every now and then I heard the cracks of gunfire and malevolent inhuman yells from far away.

  I didn’t run across anybody for some time. Then mobs started to appear out of nowhere. They leaped out of windows and burst from dark alleys. Their scrawny bodies and ashen skin made them look somewhat similar to the pale mutants from the Training Location.

  When another mob rushed out of the nearest alley into my lane, I stared at it and saw a piece of its stats pop up in my HUD.

  > Name: “Fiend”

  > Level: 3

  > Health: 50/50

  The mob charged at the buggy. I thumbed the red button. The machine gun mounted on the hood unleashed a devastating barrage of heavy gunfire ripping the fiend’s gaunt body to shreds. The buggy jolted up as the wheels ran over the bullet-riddled body of the dead monster.

  > +10 exp

  Not too much exp, I thought. Fiends’ similarity to pale mutants notwithstanding, they were nonetheless faster, more agile, more robust and stronger, i.e. they possessed more HP and inflicted more damage on the player. However, the player received fewer experience points for killing fiends than they received that for killing pale mutants. The latter gave the player fifteen exp. Maybe, I thought, the player got fewer experience points for killing mobs for using a vehicle. Maybe it was some sort of the penalty, which cut some part of exp received. I’d already encountered such rules in other video games. So in order to receive the full experience portion from each mob I had to ditch my car for a while. Still, I wanted to tool around the city first so as I could familiarize myself with the layout of the location.

  Fiends spawn from time to time and charged my vehicle headlong. I dealt with some of them with my pistol while the others, that which run into my lain just in front of the buggy, perished from the machine gun gunfire. Heavy rounds tore into mobs, ripping their scrawny bodies to shreds.

  I even spied some huge winged and, beyond the shadow of the doubt, quite strong creature once. It’d happened when I was pulling to a four-way intersection. It was quiet and nothing happened for a few moments. Fiend didn’t spawn, distant gunshots were nonexistent. At this exact moment of a temporary truce, the winged beast appeared suddenly. It rushed to the intersection from the left and bolted forward. This creature bore some similarity to a bat enlarged in size a few times.

  The winged monster neither changed its direction nor did it look around. It glided through the air in a straight line and after a few moments, passed out of my sight, disappearing into the distance. The mob flew so fast I guessed it might have been chasing someone down. Or it might have been its usual movement speed. Either way, it was a good thing that the winged creature hadn’t noticed me. I didn’t have time to read its name, yet I was able to spy its level, 15. Due to my character being only level 2 now, I was too weak to engage such a monster.

  As I was tooling around, messages would appear in the log.

  > Warning! The Outbreak in Riverside is due to cease in shy of 20 minutes!

  > The delivery quest is available! Remaining time: 59 minutes!

  > Warning! The Reaper is respawning in 43 minutes!

  I could only conjecture on the meaning behind these messages. The delivery quest was easy to figure out though. It seemingly was some kind of a rare quest, which spawned at regular certain intervals. The Reaper message was easy to decipher as well. It more likely than not was one of the raid bosses or extremely tough mobs. And the Outbreak may have been some game event. Still, what it consisted of I didn’t know yet.

  Fiends carried on their assault on my vehicle. I simply ran over some of them and gunned others down with my guns. The experience bar was slowly but surely filling. It wouldn’t take long for me to gain level 3.

  Suddenly I remembered I had a map. Might as well consult it. When there weren’t any mobs nearby, I decelerated dropping gears to the lowest one and then lifted my left arm to look at the crystal. The Main Menu, as usual, appeared before my eyes. My gaze swept across it to find the wished-for button. In a heartbeat, the map turned up in my HUD.

  However, I didn’t get a chance to look it over thoroughly. The reason for my inability to do so was that the gray mist blocked the map out. Yet it wasn’t completely untransparent, so I was able to make out some features. The map was similar to a satellite snapshot. The left, bottom corner of it held a city. Nearly in the middle of it was a green triangle, which, without doubt, represented my character’s whereabouts.

  I also noticed that there wasn’t the gray mist around the spot the green triangle was at. For that reason, I could easily see the city streets. It stood to reason that the mist had been erased from the places I had already visited.

  I gave the rest of the map a swift once-over. Beyond the city borders, a great desert swept across the map. Dark spots were scattered here and there around the desert. The mist made them vague, unclear, so I couldn’t quite make them out. It might have been small towns, mountains, oases, or some
thing else. The right, top corner of the map was taken up by another big city.

  Moreover, the entire map was broken into several equal rectangles, of which each one was a separate location. When I fixed my eyes on a particular location, the information about that place popped up. I looked at one of the locations, which was in the middle of the map, and a piece of information appeared before my eyes.

  > “Great Valley”

  > Recommended Player Level: 30-45

  It meant that as long as the player’s level was less thirty he or she had better not to go over there.

  The place at the left, bottom corner of the map, the location I was in, was for players ranged in level from 0 to 15. In other words, it was the location for newbies like me, who had just started sinking themselves in the game. As for the city situated at the top, right corner of the map, it seemingly was the last location in the game. Players whose level wasn’t close to the final had best not to enter that place. I locked my gaze on the location and info appeared in my HUD.

  > “Dead City”

  > Recommended Player Level: 90-100

  Having examined the map, I lowered my arm and the image disappeared. I then floored it and the buggy began quickly picking up the speed.

  After some time I realized that I’d gotten beyond the city borders and found myself in the desert. The wheels sunk in the sand. My vehicle didn’t seem to be designed for such difficult driving conditions. Probably I’d have to learn particular skills and upgrade my heap before it could be driving around in this desert location.

  Out of the blue, a bellow reverberated through the air. It was muffled and pretty weak, but at the same time, it was daunting enough to make me feel uneasy. After a couple of moments the ball ripped through the air once more but this time it was much closer. And I got aware it was coming from under the earth.

  A frightful thought came to my mind. Quickly raising my left hand, I brought up the Main Menu, switched to the Map, and looked at the location I’d found myself in. Yeah, my gut feeling had served me correctly. I had accidentally gotten out of the first location and entered the location for players ranging in level from 15 to 20.

  The ground trembled suddenly. I lowered my arm at once and directed my gaze forward. A mound of dirt quickly began to grow twenty or so meters ahead of the buggy. Something big was scrambling up out of the ground.

  Seemed like I had gotten myself in a bit of a jam here.

  Chapter two

  It took only a couple of moments for the mound to grow to the size of a jenny’s. Then it suddenly popped sending clods of dirt in every direction. I saw a pretty big strange beast. Around its head was a wide bone and a seemingly hard hood, which blocked out my view of the rest of the creature’s body.

  As I regarded the beast, a new piece of info appeared.

  > Name: “Underground warcid worker”

  > Level: 16

  > Health: 500/500

  Sixteen level! I’d best haul ass asap! I found the gearshift, shoved it into reverse, and gunned the engine. The motor roared to life, the buggy vibrated as usual, and backed up. The wheels spun in the sand every now and then causing the buggy to get stuck temporarily.

  The underground warcid worker gave out an angry shout and gave chase. It ran awkwardly and pretty slow, yet it was gaining on me gradually. I punched the red button on the wheel. The machine gun opened up violently. The mob kept on running forward paying the firing weapon no attention.

  Bullets chaotically darted past the mob. We were separated by the distance of mere two or so meters between us, yet most bullets went wide. Few hit the bone hood but they caused little to no damage. Having no idea what was wrong, I let my gaze fall on the machine gun. Info appeared.

  > Damage: 100

  > Accuracy: 25

  > Fire Rate: 750

  > Magazine Size: 862

  Duh, how could I have forgotten about such the low Accuracy attribute! If I wasn’t mistaken, even the peashooter of a “Newbie’s Punch” had the better Accuracy attribute. So it was no wonder the machine gun bullets hardly ever hit the bone hood of the creature.

  And still, the Damage attribute of the machine gun was equaled one hundred points! So from a theoretical point of view, the warcid must have long since perished, for he had taken at least five rounds already, yet it turned out to be quite different in practice. The rounds torn into its body deducted no more than twenty points from its health points. The bone hood shielding the creature’s body seemed to absorb most of the damage received. So the creature was still alive and hell-bent on dealing with me.

  I would’ve tried to get around the warcid had I had a more efficient off-road vehicle. Surely the armor didn’t cover the creature’s entire body. The beast had to have a vulnerable point somewhere and one just had to find that soft point on its body. Yet my heap wasn’t constructed for negotiating desert landscape; on the contrary, my buggy could barely wade through knee-deep sand.

  When the pissed mob made it close to the hood, it had way more than half of its health points left. Emitting a menacing bellow, the warcid butted the vehicle with its solid head so hard it actually left a deep dent in the hood. If the fight was going to unfold that way, my buggy would soon turn into a crumpled piece of tortured metal.

  I mentally drew a stream of dark energy and directed it toward the warcid. Considering my Surge psi-power was upgraded to the max level 3, it had to snatch the warcid and hurl it three meters backward. However, it didn’t pitch the creature farther than one or one and a half meters. Perhaps the distance at which a mob was being hurled depended on its weight. And the warcid was surely quite heavy.

  The mod, having turned sideways, fell to the ground due to the Surge hitting it. Finally, I got to see its trunk and short, pudgy limbs. As expected, its abdomen wasn’t covered with armor. Here we go! I instantly pressed the red button. The machine gun clattered to life. As the warcid was getting to its feet, two of three rounds tore by chance into its belly. The monster bellowed, not in pain, but in rage.

  Having gotten to its feet, the mob broke into a run after the buggy once more. Once it was too close again, I re-employed the Surge psi-power. The monster slumped as the machine gun blasted away at it. Two or three more rounds penetrated its belly with wet sounds. Dark-red blood sprayed the sand.

  The mob got up the second time and burst after me. But it ran slower now, a pronounced limp in one of its legs. The machine gun clattered ceaselessly. The deafening crack of the gunfire drowned out even the rough growl of the engine.

  Finally, one of the bullets finished the warcid off. This time it didn’t even have a chance to get to the buggy. Having grunted mournfully and winced, it died.

  A line appeared before my eyes.

  > +95 exp!

  A message popped up in the log.

  > There are new notes in the encyclopedia!

  Seemed like it was a note about the mob I’d just wasted. But I decided to read it a tad later on, for it was too early to relax. The ground trembled suddenly and numerous muffled yells filled the air. Around me, many more mounds began to raise. I spun the steering wheel manically, throwing the vehicle in a wide U-turn and headed back for the city. On either side of the buggy, warcids clambered out of the earth, kicking up clods of dirt. I employed the Shield psi-power. The translucent, bluish dome surrounded the vehicle. The mobs couldn’t go through it, so they just raced alongside it.

  Lucky for me, the city wasn’t all that far away from me now. The Shield had barely worn off before the buggy already rolled down the wrecked blacktop. Warcids didn’t bother to chase me any farther and disappeared from view behind me. Looking in the rear-view mirror, I caught a glimpse of them burrowing themselves in the earth.

  Phew, what a relief! I was fortunate enough to get out of this jam in one piece. I could barely believe it. But I had to be twice as careful from now on. If this happened again I might wind up dead.

  As soon as I entered the city an icy wind b
egan to blow. I felt cold. Moreover, I felt pricking sensation in my stomach. Easing up on the throttle a bit, I checked the crystal. The Character menu had three lines I was interested in.

  > Hunger: 45/100

  > Freezing: 53/100

  > Heating: 0/100

  Looked like my character had been getting hungry and cold. My gaze never leaving the road before the buggy, I dug into the bag with my right hand, fumbling blindingly for the cooked mutant roach meat. Since it reduced the Hunger only by 10 points I had to guzzle down five pieces of meat. So I had only two morsels of meat left after I ate five. Well, it was time to get done with tooling around. Now I had to set about scouring the city for food, warm clothes, and, of course, getting exp.

  After a short time, I got to a street lined with shacks on either side of it. Most of them stood two stories tall. All of them were in various states of destruction. Some were almost intact and some of the others were wrecked to the ground.

  As I slowly rolled forward, I looked around. When I reached the end of the street, I slowed down even further. A house on my right had an opened garage, which had enough space to accommodate the buggy.

  I was mulling over something. Was there hijacking in this game? On the one hand, it was quite easy to pull off. All you had to do was take out the player and relieve them of the key, is all. On the other hand, did anyone really need a second car? Since each and every new player was given a buggy in the Training location, there was no point in stealing another car. The more vehicles you had the more tinkering you had to mess around with.