However, the girl seemed to have predicted such a turn of events. As I materialized next to the door, I noticed the barely visible outlines of a small drone hovering in the doorway.
Out of the blue, I realized that I had already encountered such a drone the other day. I instantly dashed to the side––
But it was too late.
The small drone became fully visible as it fired, the shot connecting. As the paralyzing debuff was placed on my character, I got glued to the spot, unable to budge.
The girl started in my direction with a grim smile on her face. She stood by my side and said playfully, “Gotcha! Told you it was no use resisting. Or fleeing, for that matter.”
I figured that Christine must have deployed the drone while we had been talking.
The girl took out the slave collar and stepped up to me. The girl then wrapped the collar around my neck and fastened it up. The collar felt cold to the touch. The girl took a step backward and admired her work for a spell.
The debuff wore off. I debated drawing my revolvers and firing at Christine. Would I be able to take my revolvers of their holsters and kill the girl before she employed the slave collar?
Yet before I could reach a decision, I felt a horrendous jolt that shoved me off my feet. Then a surge of electricity lanced through my body, jarring my senses. I writhed as power speared through me with great force. I felt my body shudder uncontrollably and then even blacked out for s few seconds.
It sure was something that I never wanted to experience again.
As I recovered consciousness, I realized that I had died. However, I revived not in a Resurrection Pod but in the same room. My character was naked and my level had dropped from seventeen to sixteen.
Christine was in the process of gathering the loot that had dropped from me. After she was done, the girl said to me, “Why don’t you stand up already?”
I got to my feet, saying nothing.
“Sorry about that, by the way,” Christine said.
“About what?” I wanted to know.
“Getting you killed,” The girl elaborated. “I just figured that you wouldn’t be willing to strip off all your armor and hand over all your weapons and other stuff.”
I didn’t bother to reply. What had me troubled was the way Christine had me electrocuted. I wondered how she had done that.
Crayne had electro power surged through Bigman’s body by pressing a button on a bracelet around his wrist.
But Christine had no bracelets wrapped around her wrists. And she hadn’t pressed any buttons before electrocuting me. Not that I noticed, anyway.
Perhaps he could send thousands of volts through my body by sheer force of will. If that was the case, then I was in serious trouble.
“Looks like you already know how a slave collar work, right?” The girl asked.
I nodded.
“Good,” She said. “So the bottom line is that you’re my slave from now on. You have to obey me. You know what will happen if you don’t. I can kill you over and over again until your level is downgraded to naught. So yeah.”
I said nothing.
“Sure, you can quit the game but when you reconnect to it, you’ll pop up by my side. The same holds true for dying. Moreover, this collar is purple so it lasts for a pretty long time, namely ten days spent in the game.”
I refused to say a word, brooding over my predicament.
“So you really don’t have much choice,” The girl went on. “Either you obey me or you quit the game and create a new character to start again from scratch.”
I couldn’t create a new character because I couldn’t quit the game. But there was no point in telling Christine about it so I asked instead, “From what I can gather, you want something from me, right?”
“Like I said, you’re a very bright boy,” The girl said sarcastically. “Yes, you’re right. I need you to help me out with something.”
“What is it?” I asked with little enthusiasm.
“I’ll fill you in on the details when we arrive at some place,” The girl answered enigmatically.
“Can’t you be more specific?”
“Sorry but I can’t,” She replied, with a wicked smile on her lips.
“How come? And why can’t you have one of your friends lend you a hand with this?”
“The answer to both of your questions is that no player would ever have agreed to participate in the event I want to take part in.”
I liked it all less and less by a second.
“Don’t sweat it,” She said, with a smile that indicated I have all reasons to be worried. “We will get what I want to without encountering much trouble if you follow all my instructions to the letter. And after we complete the event, I’ll take the collar off you and give all your stuff back to you.”
If she had thought that her words would reassure me, then she was totally wrong. It only stressed me out even further.
“Sound good?” Christine asked.
I didn’t want any of this at all. But the girl had me. I couldn’t quit the game so I had no choice but to obey Christine. If I didn’t, she would electrocute me again. And I wasn’t very fond of experiencing that pain once more.
As I opened my mouth to answer the girl, I received a text message from Flynn. “What’s taking you so long to get here, bud?”
“Okay, I’m in,” I replied to the girl and then wrote a short message to Flynn, explaining what had befallen me.
“All righty, let’s go then,” Christine said cheerfully. The girl started for the door to the building.
“Where are you at?” Flynn texted again.
I replied to him.
The girl suddenly stopped and glanced at me over her shoulder, a dead serious expression on her face now. “But don’t try anything foolish, you hear me? Or else I’ll reduce your level.”
I nodded compliance.
We got out of the building and headed for the Lighting. Flynn texted again, “You’re not far at all! We’ll get to you in no time! Try to stall her if you can.”
I wasn’t sure if that was such a good idea. I had decided not to fight the girl, for she was a very experienced player, not to mention an extremely dangerous opponent to take on. If Melissa and Flynn would be able to defeat Christine was anybody’s guess. I didn’t want them to take this chance.
“Don’t,” I texted back to Flynn. “It’s too risky. She’s too strong. I don’t want you two to get killed and lose everything you have.”
“We’re en route already,” He answered almost instantly. “Don’t sweat it, bro. We’ll whack her.”
I didn’t need to ask what they were driving in. The answer was too obvious. I wondered how long our bus would be able to withstand against the Lighting. We hadn’t even gotten to test the bus out.
Yet before I could reply, a roar of an engine came from behind. I glanced over my shoulder in time to see our bus turn around a corner and roar toward us.
Christine spotted the bus as well and ordered, “Get in the car! Now!”
I got in the passenger seat. Christine jumped into the Lighting as well. Once the girl slammed the driver’s-side door shut, she tore off. Gripping the steering wheel firmly, she executed a tight U-turn.
Sure enough, the girl wasn’t going to flee. No, she intended to pick a fight with the bus instead. The armored bulk of the huge vehicle didn’t discourage the girl from engaging the opponent at all.
Christine opened fire on the bus barreling toward us. The slugs tore into its armor, exploding on impact and splintering it.
There were three turret guns mounted on the roof of the bus. All of them were pointed at the small car, yet they didn’t fire yet.
“Max, I saw you climb in the car. What do you want us to do?” Flynn texted.
You shouldn’t have come here, I thought. Now it was too late for Melissa and Flynn to turn back. They wouldn’t be able to flee the Lighting if they wanted to, what with the Lighting
greatly exceeding the bus in speed.
“Return her fire,” I texted him.
“But what about you? If we destroy the car, you’ll be killed as well.”
I thought grimly that it wasn’t as such an easy task to defeat the Lighting as Flynn considered it to be.
“Doesn’t matter,” I replied. “Having my level reduced is a low price for getting rid of the slave collar. Open fire.”
“Let’s roll then,” Flynn exclaimed with excitement.
He sincerely believed Melissa and he could take Christine out. Well, he would get real soon. Very soon.
The turret guns on the roof of the bus roared to life all at once.
The Lighting executed a tight U-turn and pulled abreast of the bus. The three turret guns were unleashing streams of gunfire ceaselessly, yet they didn’t inflict any serious damage on the small car yet.
The turret gun of Christine’s car took aim at one of the bus’ guns and resumed firing.
We were driving along the road, pouring into each other. The Lighting would get hit a few times, taking damage. After that, Christine would accelerate to get beyond the range of the bus’ turret guns and deploy her repairing robots. After the car would get patched up, Christine would return to battle.
Soon one of the three turret guns exploded. Flynn texted me, “Max, she destroyed the gun Melissa remotely operated.”
That left two automatic turret guns. Yet it wasn’t long before they got obliterated too.
Flynn pushed the bus to its limits, trying to get away from the Lighting. But it was impossible. Christine drove alongside the bug, raking the bus with heavy gunfire and ripping its armor apart.
And I couldn’t do jack to prevent her from doing so.
The armor-plating on the bus was soon reduced to shreds. Christin’s turret gun kept on firing, puncturing the sheet-steel skin of the bus. Ragged holes dotted the bodywork of the bus. The bullets saturated the interior of the bus. I wondered how Melissa and Flynn were doing.
As if he had read my mind, Flynn texted, “Max, we’re on the line in here now that the armor is gone. We’re gonna brake now and take cover in one building.” There was a two-second pause and then he texted again, “Sorry about the bus, btw. I was sure we would defeat that girl. It was a mistake on my part. I’ll fix the bus later.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I replied. “Just try not to get into a fight with Christine. She’s too strong. Once out of the bus, run for your lives.”
“Got it.”
The bus ground to a halt in the middle of the street. Almost instantly, Melissa and Flynn burst from the bus and raced for the nearest building. The girl was in the lead. Seemed like she had utilized Acceleration.
The turret of the Lighting started to fire at my friends. Flynn staggered as a bullet punched him in the back. The guy corrected his balance and managed not to topple over. Then he continued for the doorway. Melissa was already through. Flynn ducked as more bullets zipped past him and dove into the building, disappearing from sight.
Contrary to my expectation, Christine didn’t brake the Lighting. Instead, she pushed the acceleration harder and passed the building Melissa and Flynn had gotten in.
“You ain’t gonna to chase them down, huh?” I asked, radiating carefree air so that Christine didn’t get aware that Melissa and Flynn were my friends.
“What for?” She replied shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t care about them. It’s just novices so they don’t have anything useful to me. Chasing and killing them would’ve been a waste of time.”
I sent a message to Flynn, saying that Christine wasn’t going to chase them.
“They’ve created such a big vehicle but neglected to do something to compensate for its low speed,” She went on. “At least, this accident may teach them a valuable lesson.”
I said nothing. I was brooding over my predicament.
I couldn’t create a new character, for the Quit button didn’t work for me. So I would be her slave until we succeeded in accomplishing some task. But even if we managed to do so in a couple of hours, it wouldn’t necessarily mean that Christine would keep her word and free me. The collar wrapped around my neck would last for ten days. Which meant that Christine could force me to comply with her orders for as long as ten days. And I would have to obey Christine to the letter so that not to piss her off and avoid being electrocuted unless––
Unless I found a way to get rid of the collar somehow.
I asked Flynn if he could help me out. He answered that he had never handled slave collars and knew little about them, but he promised to gather as much information about them as possible.
I thanked him and we didn’t write anything to each other for the rest of the ride.
Christine guided the Lighting onto the road leading over to the next location. We drove in silence for some time. After a few minutes passed, she slowed down somewhat, reached into the back of her car, grabbed some clothes, and tossed them in my lap.
It was a low-level fabric T-shirt, a pair of pants, and a pair of boots. The stats of the clothes were pretty low. I shifted my gaze toward the T-shirt. A line appeared in my HUD.
> (Do you want to use the item: Yes/No)
After I looked at the “Yes” button, the T-shirt was put on my character. I did likewise with the pants and boots.
After getting dressed, I looked Christine in the eye and asked, “How about giving me a gun as well?”
“Dream on!” She snorted. “And where we are going, you ain’t gonna need a gun.”
“Really? Given the armor of sorts you’ve just given me, I’m gonna need some protection. But at the same time, I don’t need a gun. This is kinda confusing. So what exactly are you planning on doing? Can you tell me this now that I’ve already agreed to assist you?”
“You’re going to be something like a bait,” She divulged without elaborating. “Or a trigger. It would be a better word for it.”
“A bait, huh?”
“Yep.”
“How do you mean? Am I going to aggro mobs or what?”
“Not exactly,” The girl said as she grinned. I didn’t like her grin at all. I had really bad vibes about it.
“Can’t you be a little more specific?” I asked.
She gave me an evil eye. “I’ve told you everything you need to know for now! I’ll tell you the rest when we arrive. So shut up already. We’re gonna need to cross the thrashers’ territory in a couple of minutes. It’s very dangerous mobs so don’t distract me from driving, will ya?”
I stared out the windshield. We were driving across the second location now, which was a part of the vast desert. The barren terrain was devoid of anything but the hard ground and dust.
I clammed up, engrossed in deep thought. Although I didn’t know what Christine needed me for, it was painfully obvious that I wasn’t going to like it. Not at all. I had to find a way to get rid of the collar ASAP.
As the Lighting kept racing through the desert, kicking up dust, the city––the first location in the game––was rapidly vanishing in the distance behind us.
THE END OF THE BOOK FOUR
TO BE CONTINUED…
Glitch Book Five
Chapter one
I stood at a junction. A few yards to my rear, next to the left-hand wall was a level 5 acid trap. Off to the right was another one. Since each trap had the maximum upgrade level, its range was pretty long. No way I could skirt the traps without activating them.
So I couldn’t take either a left or a right. Neither could I retreat farther down the corridor, for I already had difficulty in breathing as if someone had clamped their hands around my throat, cutting off my air. The choking had my HP reducing gradually. The good thing was that with a medical drone hovering above my head and healing me constantly, I wasn’t going to be smothered to death anytime soon.
I couldn’t move up the corridor either since the way forward was cut off by a huge monster bearing down on
me. I could see its stats in my HUD.
> Name: Giant
> Level: 17
> Health: 1650/1650
It was another example of inhuman experiences conducted by the cruel aliens. The mutant was huge, ugly as heck, pus-covered, and had a .50-caliber machine gun embedded in each shoulder.
The mutant was slowly approaching. The monster currently was in the Normal mode but once it got within ten or so yards of me, it would switch its behavior to the Aggressive mode.
When in the Aggressive mode, the mutant’s movement speed got considerably increased, the mutant began firing its machine guns and swing at a player with its fists the size of a mallet.
So I had to come up with a plan of action for extricating myself from this fix before the monster got too close to me and got all aggro’d.
Yet being armed only with a low-level common––“white”––pistol, I couldn’t defend myself against the monster. My teammate had given the pistol to me not because she wanted me to be able to defend myself with it, but rather so I could aggro’d mobs when needed.
The pistol was totally useless. I didn’t even bother to pull it from its holster on my right hip.
I had been racking my brain for a while, but there wasn’t much that I could do. There was no way I could get out of this jam in one piece. I was going to get killed, for sure.
If I were to choose the way that I would die, I would rather get killed at the hands of the huge monster instead of getting into one of the two traps. The mutant could take me out quickly and almost painlessly.
As for the acid traps, it was altogether different matter. Activating an acid trap would place a debuff on my character, resulting in acid eating away at my sheer fabric armor and causing me to suffer extreme pain.
Which was why I just stood there, waiting for the giant to approach and put me out of my misery. Sure, I could have moved toward the mutant so that to get myself killed quicker, but I didn’t do that because of my teammate. She was very suspicious and pissed and I didn’t want to piss her off further.
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