Glitch Boxset

by Victor Deckard

  A notification popped up.

  > Attention! You’re approaching the third obstacle course, the alien zone.

  So I had to navigate the last obstacle course. After that, the finish line would surely soon be in sight. I checked the log. Only one player was competing against me now. I wondered who that was. The Lighting? Or maybe one of those two players had survived the assault of the mantis for all my trouble?

  It wasn’t long before a blip emerged on the scanner, indicating a player was somewhere behind me, gaining. I cast glances at the rear-view mirror from time to time and soon saw a car emerge out of an alleyway behind me. The vehicle was gaining on me. If it was either the Goblin or the Punisher, then I would be as good as dead, for my car was in bad shape.

  As the car drew nearer and I could make out its silhouette, I recognized the vehicle as the Lighting. Which meant that the twosome hadn’t made it.

  After it pulled abreast of me, I realized the small car had taken a savage beating from the mantis. The winged creature must also have destroyed all the repairing robots; the player would have deployed them to patch their car up otherwise.

  I wondered if we would be able to navigate the last obstacle course, what with our severely damaged cars.

  As it turned out, I shouldn’t have fretted none. The player must have participated in a whole lot of Death Races so he or she had gotten the feel of it. They knew exactly what the third obstacle course looked like and how to deal with difficulties it was going to pose to us.

  Having no opponents to compete with by that point, we took our time navigating the alien zone, detecting and skirting mines and traps as well as taking care of various mutants charging at us from cover from time to time.

  Eventually, we navigated the last obstacle course and headed for the finish line. Up ahead was the last checkpoint. Unlike all the others, it was highlighted in green. The Death Race would be over once we crossed it.

  The question was who was going to take first. If the Lighting decided to take me out, I could do absolutely nothing to protect myself, what with my broken-down turret gun and tattered armor-plating.

  All of a sudden, the Lighting picked up its pace, putting distance between itself and me, and soon it reached the finish line. The car didn’t slow down after crossing the finish line. Instead, it kept driving along the street and it soon disappeared in the distance.

  So I took second. A respectable finish for a novice, all right. Sure, I might not have made it through the Death Race but for the Lighting. I wished I knew the nickname of the player.

  In the log emerged a notification of my reward. I’d just gotten ten thousand dollars, a few rare recourses for upgrading vehicles, and a “purple” level 16 armor set. I had also gotten a lot of exp and my level upped to 17.

  I could get the armor and resources by means of a quest terminal. After consulting the map, I headed for the nearest one.

  As I pulled over next to it, I looked to the left and the right. I had hoped to meet the Lighting again, but the small car was nowhere in sight. Either the player had already been here or they had driven to another quest terminal to receive their reward for having won the first place.

  After getting the armor, I examined its stats.

  > Name: Chitin jacket

  > Armor type: Light

  > Rarity: Rare (blue)

  > The player’s required level: 16

  > State: 700/700

  > Physical resistance: 120

  > Fire resistance: 95

  > Frost resistance: 135

  > Corrosive resistance: 70

  > Electric resistance: 70

  > Special quality: Your HP gets restored at a rate of 1 point per second when you’re not getting hurt and no debuff is placed on your character.

  There we go! I put the jacket on.

  This done, I brought up the skill tree. Since I had leveled up during the Death Race, I now had five skill points to assign. Which skills to unlock?

  A psi-power named Harm caught my eye. I pondered on whether or not I should unlock the skill. On the one hand, it dealt good damage to an enemy. It was good.

  On the other hand, it could affect only one foe at a time. This was bad. Moreover, Harm had a pretty slow cooldown, not to mention mana consumption, which seemed ridiculously high to me.

  Nevertheless, I decided to unlock the skill. Due to the high mana consumption, I would surely employ Harm on rare occasions. If anything, it could come in handy when low on ammo.

  So I learned the skill and upgraded it to level 3.

  > Name of the psi-power: Harm

  > Description: This psi-power uses dark energy to inflict some damage on a foe. Bear in mind that only one foe can be affected by it at a time.

  > The stats of the Harm psi-power:

  > Level: 3 out of 3

  > Damage: 30

  > Cooldown: 10 seconds

  > Mana consumption: 500 points

  That left two more skill points to assign. I wondered if I should save them for later. This location was designed for players with level 1 to 15. My character’s level was 17 already so I might as well travel to the next location.

  There had to be new creatures there that I had never met before. I was surely going to need to unlock new cooking skills from the Survival menu.

  So I decided to save the two remaining skill points for a later time.

  At this moment, Flynn texted me, “How’s it going?”

  “Fine. Took second,” I answered him.

  “That’s great!”

  Then I asked him about the bus. Flynn replied that Melissa and he had already created three turret guns and mounted them on the roof. The bus was fully upgraded now.

  “So we’re ready to go,” Flynn concluded. “Melissa and I are waiting for you to return so we can travel to the next location in the bus.”

  Even though I could neither see his facial expression nor hear his voice, I could tell Flynn was very excited and couldn’t wait to tool around in our armored bus.

  “On my way.”

  As I drove through the city for my garage, I received another message from Flynn. “Max, I gotta tell you something. When you were at the race, I went IRL once to check the guide dealing with crafting. And I also checked on the thread I’d posted. At least, I attempted to, but the thing is, there ain’t the thread on the forum anymore.”

  It took me by surprise. “How so?”

  “The moderators deleted it.”

  “What? How come? Did they at least explain why they deleted it?”

  “No. The moderators didn’t say a thing about it. But the developers themselves got in touch with me. They said that they had already checked you out for any issues preventing you from exiting the game. They’d done it at the request from the players from the Desert Wanderers clan the other day. But they’d found none. They said that there no glitches in your character and that you’re just fooling around. Also, the developers warned me not to mess with them, or else. They said that if I post another thread about the player trapped in the game, they’ll punish me by banning me from entering both the game and the forum.”

  “That’s what they said, huh? Don’t mess with us, or else?”

  “Well, they conveyed the message in a pretty polite manner. But they were dead serious about punishing me if I don’t comply, that’s for sure.”

  “Then you better not to post threads about me anymore.”

  “Thought as much.”

  We lapsed into silence for a spell. The news drained me. I was deep in brooding when Flynn texted me again, “Max, what is going on? Are you really trapped in the game?”

  “Unfortunately, I am.”

  “But why do the developers pretend to have found no issues then?”

  “I have no idea.”

  I was starting to think that the developers had to have a finger in the crooked pie after all. The developers couldn’t help but be aware of the player who had stuck
in the game. I had initially thought that they didn’t want the rumor of the player trapped in the game to spread so that both not to stain their reputation and not put their income in jeopardy.

  But I’d realized something now. If the developers had really been willing to help me out, to fix the issue preventing me from quitting the game, they would long since have gotten in touch with me, for sure. And instead of intimidating Flynn, they would politely have asked me to wait for them to fix the issue and not to spread the word.

  But they had never gotten in touch with me. Which might mean that they were somehow involved in my having been trapped in the game.

  Yet I didn’t know what I needed to do to extricate myself from my predicament. What I know for sure however was that I was going to have to deal with the problem all on my own. The players form the Desert Wanderers––the clan that supposed to help players––didn’t believe my story. Flynn––a friend of mine––couldn’t help me as well for fear of being punished by the developers. And speaking of the developers, they weren’t on my side, for sure.

  I decided to concentrate entirely on game events for the time being. Perhaps I came up with a plan of action for dealing with the problem later on.

  I pushed harder on the accelerator, picking up speed and heading for the garage where Melissa and Flynn were waiting for me to arrive.

  Chapter six

  Being deep in thought, I didn’t notice a car get on my tail. Only when I cast a glance in the rear-view mirror did I see the vehicle. Although the Death Race was long since over and the name of the car no longer hovered above its roof, I recognize the small sports car at once. It was the Lighting.

  I wondered whether the player had found me by chance.

  The small car drew level and slackened speed to keep pace with me. The driver had already repaired their vehicle so the Lighting looked brand-new again.

  I thought that the player was going to pull over and climb out of the car to finally make my acquaintance.

  But I was dead wrong. Something altogether different happened.

  The turret gun mounted on the small car’s roof swiveled around to zero in on me and opened up. It took only a few slugs for my turret gun, which was heavily damaged at that point, to explode. It didn’t even get a chance to pop off a shot.

  Then the player set about obliterating what was left of the armor-plating covering the hood of my car.

  I was pushing my car to its limits, but it was to no avail since the Lighting excelled me in speed. Or in everything, for that matter.

  It wasn’t long before the slugs obliterated the armor and wrecked the engine, which caused my car to grind to a halt in the middle of the road. The Lighting braked as well, yet its turret gun kept on unleashing devastating fire on my vehicle.

  The armor-plating was gone by now. The heavy bullets easily punched holes in the sheet metal on my vehicle. Immediately afterward, the interior was saturated by the bullets.

  I hunched down in my seat as the slugs zipped over my head. None of them hit me yet, but I was well aware that luck wouldn’t be smiling on me for long. I had to get out.

  I fumbled for the handle, shoved the door open, and got out. Only then did I realize that I had made a mistake. I had just done what the player had wanted me to all along!

  If the player had wanted me dead, they would’ve whacked me already. But they didn’t do that. They had wanted to flush me out of the car. They wanted me alive for some reason.

  I glanced left and right before racing for the nearest cover, which was a two-story dilapidated house. After bursting in the building, I quickly looked around.

  There was plenty of room to maneuver in here. It would work to my advantage if I decided to pick a fight with the player. Should I? They were a very dangerous opponent, all right. Perhaps I’d better run away.

  Yet before I could decide what to do, there was the pounding of feet on the ground behind me. As I glanced back, the player raced through the door.

  It was a girl with the shapely figure and long jet-black hair tied into a ponytail. Although her face rang a bell, it wasn’t until I looked at her nickname hovering above her head that I recognized the girl.

  > Name: Christine

  > Level: 19

  It was the girl I had stolen a car from. She stood a few feet distant, staring at me. Although the girl concealed her emotions very well, I figured that she must be pissed.

  We were just eyeing each other in silence for a few seconds. The girl was the first to break the silence.

  “Gotcha,” She said as a wicked grin touched her pink lips, which foreboded bad things to come.

  I was still confused by the unexpected encounter with the girl, which was why I couldn't think of a more appropriate reply other than to state the obvious, “So it was you who was driving the Lighting during the Death Race.”

  “Attaboy! Such a bright guy you are!”

  “But how did you find me after the race?” I inquired, ignoring the girl’s barb.

  “It was easy. You can mark a player with some skill and see their location on the map for a few hours. I marked you at the beginning of the race. When I saw the Brute rip you to pieces, I realized that you––noob––wasn’t going to finish the race without my help.”

  She was right. But for Christine, I wouldn’t have lasted for long during the Death Race.

  “Why would you take part in the Death Race, anyway?” She wanted to know.

  “Your car––Death Wish––was pretty good, so.”

  “It was pretty good when my level was 13. But as you level up, you need not only to unlock new skills for your character but upgrade your vehicle as well. Why didn’t you? You stole my car but never upgraded it. Why?”

  “Didn’t have skills for that,” I explained.

  “Duh,” The girl rolled her eyes. “But you decided to participate in the race, running a risk of encountering better-upgraded cars, anyway.”

  I didn’t bother to explain to the girl that when I had learned about the Death Race, I hadn’t had enough time to reflect on whether I should participate in the race or not, for there hadn’t been enough time for this.

  “You can take your car back if you like,” I changed the subject.

  “Do you really think I need the totaled Death Wish now that I’ve already created a new car––the Lighting?”

  She had a point.

  “So what’s now?” I quizzed.

  The corners of Christine’ mouth curved upward. The smile the girl gave me was so evil it sent shivers up my spine. By way of a reply, she reached for something and produced a slave collar.

  “Come here and put it on,” She said casually.

  I didn’t budge. “You may deem me to be a noob, but I’m not that dumb. I know what it is. No way I’m gonna put it on.”

  “Look, sweetie,” She said, still smiling, “either you’ll put it on by yourself or I’m gonna make you. I’m playing the game for the second time. The first time I played I was a Warlock and got to level 80. So I got the hang of the class. I know all its strengths and weaknesses. Believe me, there’s no way you can defeat me. If you put the collar on by yourself, you’ll save both of us time.”

  “Look, you’re mad at me. I get it. But––”

  The girl interrupted me, “I ain’t mad at you. Not anymore. Sure, I was pissed the other day when I got disconnected from the game during the night on account of some glitch. I spent all night trying to reconnect to the game, but it wasn’t until after the morning that I finally managed to do so. Once in the game, I raced for my car only to find out that someone had already climbed behind the wheel. It was you. At that moment I was really pissed-off. But now I’m totally calm.”

  Her story explained neither her having ended up so far from her car nor the Lighting having wound up unlocked, but I elected not to clear these matters up. Instead, I finished what I had initially intended to say, “But I was eager to return the Death Wish to you.”r />
  “Really? You could’ve fooled me!”

  “I ain’t messing with you. I really wanted to give your car back to you. I even wrote a letter to you. If you check a mailbox, you’ll see it.”

  “I don’t check a mailbox,” The girl suddenly snapped.

  “How come? With your playing the game for the second time, you must have a lot of friends.”

  “That’s the reason for my starting a new game and changing my nickname! I don’t want to run into the old acquaintances of mine!”

  I wondered why Christine was hiding from her acquaintances. What had happened between her and them?

  Before I could say something, Christine held the slave collar up and said, “That’s enough chitchat. Come here and put it on.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “I need you to put the collar on, dummy,” She replied as she smiled ever so sweetly.

  “But why?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough.”

  “I don’t get it,” I shook my head. “You said that you weren’t mad at me. Why do you want me enslaved then?”

  “I ain’t mad at you, all right,” The girl clammed up for a brief moment before continuing. “I just want to take a bit of revenge against you.”

  That was it. I couldn’t seem to reason with her. Christine refused to be pacified. She wanted vengeance for the loss of her old car, all right. I had either to fight her or flee from her. I prepared myself.

  “I’m gonna ask you one last time,” She said. “Are you gonna put this on by yourself?”

  “How dumb do you think I am?”

  “Do you really want me to answer this?” The girl asked, with a vulpine smile on her face.

  I said nothing.

  “Guess I have to make you put it on then,” Christine said as she suddenly reached for her weapon.

  Once the girl jumped into action, I made my move as well. I whipped around and employed Teleportation. I had decided not to take Christine on since engaging such an experienced and dangerous player would have been suicide.