Glitch Boxset

by Victor Deckard

  And I could do absolutely nothing to assist my teammates. Sure, I could’ve fired at the mutant to distract him from the girl, but it would’ve been suicide, being that I still could neither run or use my psi-powers. He could’ve reached me and torn my character to ribbons in nothing flat.

  Flynn’s desperate trying to aggro the Raid Boss notwithstanding, the mutant kept chasing the girl until he caught up to her and tore her to shreds.

  Finally, the debuff wore off. I instantly burst into a run after the mutant, discharging both my revolvers at him. Reaper took a swing at Flynn, but the guy was able to get out of the way in time. Then the mutant whirled to confront me.

  Instead of bursting after me, the Raid Boss stopped and let go with a thunderous roar, which indicated that he was about to spit out acid. It was the moment I had been waiting for.

  Here goes nothing!

  After using Stasis on the huge mutant, I barreled toward him, having utilized Acceleration. I fired both my guns, aiming for the gaping mouth, as I run. Once I made it over to the mutant standing still and slowed down by Stasis, I inserted fresh cartridges into my revolvers, snapped the cylinders shut on them, and resumed shooting.

  I used the high-velocity level 3 bullets so their speed almost didn’t get affected by Stasis. Each of them traversed the Stasis field in a second or so and caught the mutant in his mouth, inflicting critical damage on the mutant and visibly reducing his health bar.

  Both my revolvers clicked empty. I replaced the spent cartridges with the fresh ones as fast as I could and continued to fire.

  Flynn had deployed his turret guns next to the mutant to add to our damage output, yet they didn’t do much good to us. The heavy slugs leaped from the muzzles had their speed reduced to a crawl when they entered the Stasis field. None of them even reached the mutant so far.

  As I was firing away, I intently watched an acid ball grow inside the mutant’s oral cavity.

  My revolvers ran out of ammo again. I was getting jittery. It was about ten seconds since the mutant had started to gather acid saliva. He was on the verge of spitting it out. I would have to get out of the way in time. If I didn’t, acid would burn me to death in nothing flat, for sure.

  As I reloaded my guns, I noticed a flash of greenish faint light out of the corner of my eye. I wasn’t sure as to whether I had really seen that or it had just been my mind that played tricks on me. Either way, I elected to err on the side of caution and utilized Teleportation.

  On materializing several yards from the mutant, I glanced back at him in time to see an acid ball erupt from Reaper’s mouth and dash across the room.

  So there had really been a flash of greenish light in the mutant’s mouth after all.

  The mutant got out of the Stasis field, stamped on Flynn’s turrets, pulverizing them to nothingness, and dashed after me. Although I had activated Acceleration, the mutant was gaining on me. After checking my HUD, I got aware that I was running low on Mana.

  The cooldown of Teleportation wasn’t over yet. So I employed Stasis on the mutant instead. After some time, I glanced back again gauging the distance that separated us. Reaper was pretty far off so I used up two vigors to restore my mana and ran on.

  Flynn’s shotgun barked almost ceaselessly, yet the Raid Boss paid my teammate no mind. The mutant seemed to have resolved to deal with me first.

  The pounding of his feet was getting louder by a second. He was almost on me already. Luckily, the cooldown of Teleportation finally was over. When I was about to utilize the psi-power, Flynn shouted to me, “Max, I aggro’d him!”

  I looked over my left shoulder. Reaper was no longer after me. Now he was chasing Flynn down.

  Checking my HUD one more time, I whipped my revolver up and opened up on the huge monster. Since the Ice Volcanos dealt much damage, it took only a few slugs penetrating the mutant’s flesh to aggro him. Reaper spun around and raced after me again.

  At this exact moment, Melissa got revived. I nodded at her and ran on. When Reaper got dangerously close to me, I employed Teleportation to cover a hundred or so yards at once. After that, I delved into my bag for another vigor and found out that there were few left.

  Reaper seemed to have changed his mind and broke into a race toward Melissa. Either she aggro’d him or I had just gotten too far away from him after having used Teleportation. Either way, I was glad to have a brief respite. I reloaded my guns and looked around.

  Reaper was chasing Melissa down. She seemed to be getting tired. The Raid Boss easily caught up to her and commenced swinging his blades at her. It took only a few blows for the girl to die. Then the huge mutant turned his attention to Flynn.

  I ran over to the dead body of Melissa’s character and picked up a few vigors, hoping the girl wouldn’t mind.

  The Raid Boss was almost on Flynn by then. I employed Stasis to slow the mutant down and opened fire. He burst from the Stasis field, then came to a halt, and gave a familiar roar. He was getting ready for another acid attack.

  I used Stasis on him again and ran toward the mutant. Halfway to the Raid Boss, I suddenly realized that the cooldown of Teleportation wasn’t over yet. I would have to manage without this psi-power then. It sucked.

  I decided not to wait for a flash of greenish light since without Telekinesis I might not get away from the Reaper before he ejected acid. So after emptying my guns into the mutant’s mouth, I raced away from the Raid Boss. Flynn ran over and stood at my side.

  “The cooldown of Teleportation wasn’t over yet,” I explained my actions to him.

  “Thought as much,” Flynn nodded. “Don’t sweat it. He has so little HP left. Next time you’re sure to finish him off.”

  After checking the mutant’s health bar above his head, I realized that Flynn might be right.

  Reaper soon ejected an acid ball and darted toward us. We scattered.

  Everything went according to plan. We would take turns to aggro the monster. Truth be told, I almost got affected by the debuff called Stunning again when Reaper jumped and landed nearby once. Aside from that, everything was fine.

  Finally, the Raid Boss bellowed once more. Another acid attack was imminent. As usual, I slowed him down with Stasis, ran up to the immobile monster, and opened up aiming for his mouth.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spied Flynn running toward me. I caught his eye and shook my head, indicating that I didn’t need his help. Sure, he wanted to assist me in finishing the mutant off, but his slow buckshot would be sure to just hover in the Stasis field, without inflicting any damage on the mutant. So there was no need for Flynn to run a risk of getting too close to the mutant and getting hit by an acid ball.

  I was casting a glance at Reaper’s health bar every now and then. It was getting shorter and shorter. Just a few more critical hits and the Raid Boss would be taken care of.

  And then my revolvers clicked empty. Cussing under my breath, I started to replace the spent shell casings with the fresh cartridges. Then I brought my guns up and squeezed the triggers, aiming for the mutant’s mouth.

  I fired twice and then there was a flash of greenish light in the mutant’s mouth. I instantly utilized Teleportation to get away from the Raid Boss. The next moment he ejected an acid ball, which dashed across the room toward the far wall.

  I glanced at Reaper’s health bar. It was almost nonexistent. I would’ve surely finished the bastard off had I had just a second or two more.

  Flynn seemed to have read my mind. “Don’t worry. Next time you’ll get him, for sure.”

  Before I could say something, Reaper dashed our way. We spread out. The Raid Boss ran after Flynn.

  Reaper got pissed off for some reason. Perhaps when he had too little HP left, he got enraged. The Raid Boss started to use his jumping skill way more often that he had before.

  He almost crushed Flynn once, landing next to the guy. My teammate got the Stunning debuff placed on his character. Every time the Raid Boss got out of a Stasi
s field, I used Stasis on him again. Due to my constant employing the psi-power I was able to extricate Flynn from his jam.

  However, Reaper kept leaping toward the guy. My teammate managed to get away from the pissed mutant every time mostly thanks to my using my Stasis psi-power.

  But then my mana was depleted. As I delved into my bag for a vigor, the monster bent his knees and leaped, landing near Flynn and stunning him with the debuff. Reaper wasted no time racing up to the slowed-down player and swinging his blades at him. The mutant slashed one time, two times, three times in quick succession and then my teammate was dealt with.

  The next moment Melissa finally revived next to the body of the guy. Unfortunately, she had shown up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Reaper instantly turned his attention to the girl who had taken off a moment earlier, having utilized Teleportation and then Acceleration to get herself a bit of a head start.

  While she was desperately trying to get away from the ticked-off mutant, I used vigors to restore my mana to the full.

  Melissa successfully avoided being caught by Reaper. She employed her psi-powers and timely used vigors to restore her mana. I fired away at the mutant, doing my best to aggro him. But there was no dice.

  Eventually, the girl ran out of vigors. When the Raid Boss jumped again, he landed near the girl, stunning her. It took her only two blows to her body to die.

  I was one-on-one with the pissed-off mutant now.

  I was well aware that all I had to do was just do my best to stay alive and wait for Reaper to roar, which would indicate that he was going to spit out acid. So I was running away from the huge mutant, utilizing Teleportation and Acceleration alternatively and using the remaining vigors to restore my mana.

  I successfully evaded Reaper. But then luck ceased smiling on me.

  After employing Teleportation another time, I checked my HUD to find out that mana was nearly depleted again. As I was about to remove another vigor, the pounding of feet behind me ceased, indicating that Reaper had just leaped, launching himself into the air.

  I instantly employed Acceleration and dashed to the side. Yet I was too late. Reaper landed nearby, the shock wave expanding stunning me. The debuff had my movement speed reduced and my head spinning. I was barely able to keep my balance.

  Reaper wasted no time charging at me. Since my psi-powers had been rendered useless by the Stunning debuff, there wasn’t much that I could do now. So I made a one-eighty to face the quickly approaching Reaper, brought my revolvers up, and started shooting, hoping that I would croak the mutant before he reached within striking range.

  The Raid Boss covered the distance that separated us in a few huge strides and stood towering above me. I kept squeezing the triggers, aiming for the mutant’s head, dealing damage to the sonofabitch. His HP was nearly nonexistent by then. Yet there was no reason for me to feel joy since Reaper drew one blade back for the final deadly strike.

  Reaper swept the blade downward to slash into me. I ducked under the blow and, oddly enough, was actually able to avoid being slashed. Yet the mutant swung the other of his appendage-swords, the blade connecting, slicing across my chest.

  Gnashing my teeth in pain, I glanced at my HUD. The health bar had gotten reduced by half. Another such a blow and I would be dead.

  Everything seemed to have slowed down.

  As I pulled the trigger of the revolver in my left hand, the cylinder rotated to bring the last bullet under the lifted hammer. The gun barked and then clicked empty. I squeezed the trigger of the other gun, yet it ran dry as well.

  Both my revolvers were empty. There was no point in reloading the guns now. I wouldn’t have done it before the Raid Boss had swung his blades at me again anyway.

  I watched Reaper draw one blade back for the coup de grace. Then the last slug to have leaped from the muzzle of the left revolver punched into the mutant’s ugly face. The Raid Boss winced and stood still for a moment, his blade frozen in midair halfway over to me.

  Then the world was back to operating at normal speed. The monster sighed heavily and tumbled to the ground with a tremendous noise.

  Only when a whole lot of loot appeared all around the dead body of the Raid Boss and Melissa along with Flynn materialized at my side, patting me on the back did I realize that Reaper was indeed dead.

  We had nailed it.

  Chapter four

  There was plenty of loot scattered on the floor. Yet most of it was assorted recourses. We divided it as well as several uncommon––green––items among us. There was also a unique––purple––shotgun, which was picked up by Flynn, and rare––blue––pistol. My Ice Volcanos still packed quite a punch, so I didn’t need the pistol and allowed Melissa to take it.

  “Do we have enough resources now?” I posed a question to Flynn.

  “Certainly,” Flynn replied. “Now we can craft turret guns and some other useful gizmos for the bus.”

  Melissa stood by his side. The girl cast a glance at him. Flynn nodded and looked at me again. “Look, to maintain such a big vehicle as a bus ain’t gonna be very easy. How about we take Melissa in? She’d love to join our crew, so to speak.”

  Flynn must have told the girl about our bus IRL via a social media when he had been offline. Anyway, although I hadn’t considered Melissa to be a very good player to begin with, the girl had proved me to be wrong during the fight with the Raid Boss.

  So I nodded and said, “All right. Good idea.”

  Melissa brightened. The girl played the game for pure fun, so sure she’d love to participate in such a promising activity. Yet she had been worried that I might turn her down, what with us not getting along all that well.

  Now that she had been admitted to our group, the girl was very pleased. Sure, she tried to look indifferent and nonchalant, but she couldn’t resist an urge to smile. Truth be told, the girl looked quite attractive when she was smiling.

  Then a thought struck me out of the blue. What if Flynn had suggested that we take Melissa in not because we needed another member but rather because he liked the girl? Yet I wasn’t sure if that was the case.

  We drove through the city and came across a vending machine. We sold all the items we didn’t need and drove on. Halfway to our garage, a message popped up in the log.

  > Attention! The Death Race will begin in 25 minutes! The number of participants: 12/15

  Flynn facepalmed. “The Death Race! How could I forget about it?” He looked at me and said, “The first notification about the race popped up when you were fighting Reaper on your own. Did you see it?”

  “Nope,” I shook my head. “I was a little busy to check the log, fighting the pissed-off Raid Boss, and all.”

  “Figures. I was in the Spectator mode so I saw the notification, but I forgot to tell you about it. Anyway, you could take part in the race if you like.”

  “Is it worth it?”

  “You bet. You got an awesome car so you got good chances of achieving first place. If you win, you’ll get a unique item for your class. The prizes for second and third places are pretty good as well. Sure, there’re certain conditions to be met, but you’re sure to pass it.”

  “What conditions?” I wanted to know.

  “You can learn of them by means of a quest terminal.”

  I consulted the map and guided the car in the direction of the nearest quest computer terminal. When I pulled over, another notification emerged in the log.

  > Attention! The Death Race will begin in 15 minutes! The number of participants: 13/15

  We got out of the car. I had little time left, so I raced up to the quest terminal and perused the piece of information that popped up on the display.

  > The requirements for entry to the race:

  > 1. Your level has to be within the range 13 to 18

  > 2. Your car must have a turret gun and a computer installed

  Both my character’s level and Christine’s car met all requirements.

/>   I also learned from other information on the display that the Death Race began at the outskirts of the city and the route would take the racers through the city. The racers would have to drive through checkpoints. No player was able to learn beforehand where the checkpoints would appear.

  Moreover, the players would have to navigate three obstacle courses, every time a different one. Obstacle courses could include such challenges as a minefield or high-level mutants.

  If a player died during the Death Race, they was expelled from the competition.

  While I read all this information, another player signed up for the race. Only one more player was needed. As I lifted my hand, about to press the button to sign up for the Death Race, I looked at Flynn at my side and asked, “Is Melissa going with us? What I mean is that there’re no seat belts in the rear.”

  Flynn’s looked surprised for a moment and then he replied, “Neither Melissa nor I will go with you. You’ll have to do it on your own.”

  My finger hovered in midair halfway toward to button. “You ain’t gonna to assist me?”

  “There’s no point in my going with you, Max. Only the driver can operate the turret gun on your car. So I’d have nothing to do if rode shotgun. Instead, Melissa and I could upgrade your bus while you race if you like.”

  I trusted Flynn completely. He wouldn’t betray me and hijack my bus in my absence, for sure. Yet I wanted to oversee the process of upgrading the bus so that to make sure that it was done properly. On the other hand, Flynn had read plenty of guides on the subject, so he sure knew how to upgrade the vehicle way better than I did.

  So I handed the key to my garage over to Flynn. Only then did I realize that I still didn’t press the button. I hastened to do it. My nickname and level appeared on the screen. Below it was a blank space that I had to fill in with the name of Christine’s car.

  I dumbly stared at the display for a moment. I had been tooling around in her car for a few hours but still had no idea what Christine had named her car.