> Pieces of giant bug meat: 8 pieces (BAGGED)
I was interested only in the jacket. Once I fixed my gaze on it, its stats appeared before my eyes. I shifted my gaze toward the line.
> Condition: 586/700
The jacket was somewhat damaged. As I had the Repair skill and enough chitin, I could fix the jacket.
A message popped up.
> To repair this item, you need:
> Chitin: 97
> You’ve got:
> Chitin: 107
> You’ve got enough resources for repairing this item.
> (Do you want to repair Chitin jacket: Yes/No)
I fixed the jacket and checked Character Menu. My character had already warmed up. I was good to go.
Rising to my feet, I surveyed my surroundings. No one was around. Where were other players? Although it was several hours since I got out of the Arena, I hadn’t met another player yet. It was strange.
I set out.
Giant bugs spawned around me every now and then. My experience bar filled as I gunned the mobs down. Soon I happened to find a vending machine. I bought two drop leg holsters, web gear, plenty of stimulators and vigors to restore health and mana respectively.
I had also bought high-velocity bullets.
> Name: Pistol bullets
> Type: High-velocity
> Level: 3
> Damage: –55
> Bullet velocity: +450
> Special quality: None
This done, I continued with my journey. Giant bugs charged at me from time to time. I tested my Fireball psi-power on them. It was a pretty good skill. Not only did it deal damage to several mobs at once but it also placed a Burning debuff on some mobs, setting them on fire.
Soon I noticed something up ahead in the distance. It looked like a vague spot. At first, I consider it to be another rock. However, after I got closer to the object, it turned out to be a house built by some player. Instead of windows, the house had long thin openings. The heavy-duty door was closed tight.
I stopped, regarding the building and wondering how many resources one needed to create such a building.
Then I noticed movement. There was a player at one of the windows, staring back at me. I decided not to push my luck and walked off. I glanced behind me from time to time, yet the player never got out of the house.
I came across more buildings. Most of them were two or three stories high.
Everything was quiet awhile. Then a humming came from 20 or so yards away. I looked around vigilantly but aside from several rocks in the distance, didn’t see anything.
I almost relaxed when I heard the sound again. It was closer this time. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed movement on my left. Glancing that way, I saw one of the rocks move. As it turned out, it was no rock. It was a car. And it headed my way.
Well, seemed like I finally encountered another player. I had better prepare myself for a fight. Sure, they might not attack me, but I had been playing this game for long enough to know better than that.
I braced myself for confrontation.
Chapter six
The big off-road vehicle bore down on me. Judging by a rate of speed at which the car was driving, there was no way I could outrun it even if I utilized Acceleration.
So I employed Invisibility. Although I could still see myself, the player shouldn’t. In my HUD appeared an icon of a countdown. When it reached zero, I would become visible again. Yet the countdown didn’t start yet because I stood still at the moment. My mana was gradually being depleted, though. It was a good thing that I had bought plenty of vigors.
The vehicle still approached me. I dashed to the side. After covering a dozen yards, I stopped. The car still rolled in the same direction as it had before. So the player couldn’t see me. That was good.
The huge vehicle was getting closer by a second. Not that it worried me. From the direction in which the car was heading, it was obvious that the car wouldn’t run me over. Instead, it would pass me with several yards to spare.
Then the unexpected transpired. The driver swerved the car to the right, aiming it at me, and accelerated, the engine roaring. I got stunned for a moment by the unexpected turn of events.
Yet the vehicle thundered harmlessly past me. The vehicle started to turn around. The turret gun mounted on its roof swiveled around as well, pointing in my general direction, and opened up, stitching a weaving line of slug holes in the ground.
As told in the description of the Invisibility skill, players having special skills could detect me. Yet it seemed as though the driver was aware of an invisible player nearby, but they didn’t know exactly where I was.
The big off-road vehicle had already executed a tight U-turn. But it was heading the wrong way again. Now I could tell without the shadow of a doubt that the player was aware of my approximate whereabouts but didn’t know my exact location.
The car darted past me, brushing against my body. I was hurled onto the ground. The turret gun kept firing. Some stray rounds caught me in the chest, reducing my HP by ten percent each.
The vehicle started to turn around in a tight circle again. I got to my feet, eyeing the vehicle intently. The turret gun kept on firing, the earth around me erupting into geysers of dirt.
I used a stimulator to restore my HP and got my brain in gear. Although the driver didn’t know where exactly I was, they were aware of my whereabouts and sooner or later would whack me. So I had to come up with a plan of action real quick.
I surveyed the terrain. There were only desert vegetation and some small boulders. Then I noticed a rock the size of a one-story house. Should I get over there and try to climb to the top of it?
I had no time to come up with another plan so I dashed toward the rock. The vehicle was right behind me, gaining. If I had used Acceleration, I would’ve become visible again. Besides, even with Acceleration active, there was no way I could outrun the vehicle. So I didn’t do so.
The roar behind me become louder. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that the vehicle accelerated all of a sudden. The driver must have activated the turbo. No sooner had I leaped to the side than the car darted past. Yet it grazed me in passing, spinning me around and causing me to collapse onto my buttocks.
Gnashing my teeth in pain, I checked my HUD. I had about ten percent of HP left. That was really bad. I groped for stimulators, hoping I would heal myself before a line of spraying dirt reached me.
Luckily, all the bullets missed me this time. I used two stimulators to heal myself up and got to my feet. The off-road vehicle was turning in a circle again.
I looked in the direction of the big rock and calculating the distance to it. The huge boulder was a hundred or so yards distant.
There was one second remaining until the end of Invisibility. When I started moving, I would become visible almost instantly. Which was why I stood still, trying to decide if it was worth trying to get to the rock.
And then I came up with a plan of action of sorts.
The big car was roaring in my general direction. I burst into a run toward the rock. Once the Invisibility effect wore off, I used Acceleration. Sure enough, it didn’t do much good and the vehicle was still gaining on me. Glancing back, I used Stasis on the vehicle behind me. Yet it was so powerful and drove so fast that the power field almost didn’t slow the car down.
Since Stasis had almost no effect on the vehicle, I resolved not to use this psi-power anymore so that not to waste my mana on it.
The rock wasn’t far away. About 30 yards separated me from it. This close, I realized it was no rock but a big pile of boulders. Yet I know it wouldn’t break apart even if I were to fire at it with a bazooka, for one could destroy only those objects that were created by other players in this game.
The volume and clarity of the engine meant that the vehicle was very close. Moreover, the driver activated the turbo once more. The roar of the motor was so loud I couldn’t hear the p
ounding of my feet on the hard earth. I kept on running straight toward the rock, glancing behind me every now and then to gauge the distance between me and the car. The vehicle was narrowing the gap way too rapidly.
When the huge vehicle was about to ram me, I employed Teleportation. After materializing some way away from the rock, I instantly looked around.
My disappearance had happened so unexpectedly that the driver failed either to employ the brakes or to swerve in time to avoid a head-on collision. The vehicle slammed against the pile of boulders, its hood crushing, metal screaming against rock. Both the front tires blew out. Black smoke billowed from the ruined hood.
The turret gun didn’t seem to have taken any damage, though. Swiveling around, it opened up on me, dust kicking from the earth all around me. I darted to the side, using a vigor to restore mana. This done, I yanked my revolvers from their respective holsters and returned fire, a line of ragged holes bursting open in the turret gun side, shards of metal flying every which way.
When the turret gun exploded, I darted around the pile of boulders to get some cover to reload my revolvers. It was then that I saw a huge doorway and realized that this heap of rocks was actually an entrance to an underground cave. Then there was the pounding of feet on the ground and a moment later, the driver jogged into view around the pile.
> Name: Barbarian
> Level: 30
The player was pissed off and willing to take me on.
“My car’s broken,” He snarled. “It’s your fault, asshole!”
“You had it coming, noob,” I answered back.
It had gotten his tits in a wringer.
“You’re a dead man,” He yelled as he charged at me.
Yet I wasn’t going to fight back. Since my level was only 18, there was no way I could defeat a level 30 player.
So instead of bringing my revolvers into play, I utilized Surge. The wave of dark energy shoved the player backward. Not waiting for him to get up, I used Acceleration, placed a Vortex Trap by the entrance, and dived into the cave.
Chapter seven
After racing down the long slope, I found myself in a huge chamber. It was well illuminated although there weren’t any sources of light.
I heard a player screaming in frustration behind me. Had to be Barbarian who had just gotten in my Vortex Trap.
Lifting my left hand so the crystal was at eye level, I brought up the map. It was concealed by gray smoke so aside from the green triangle representing my character, there wasn’t anything else on it. I marked the exit so that I could find if I got lost and continued with my journey.
I navigated the tunnels of the cave for a while. The cave turned out to be enormous, with plenty of chambers and hallways.
Giant bugs spawned and attacked me from time to time. I killed them, getting experience points and gathering up the loot.
I also came across the bodies of dead players every now and then and examined the loot dropped from them. More often than not it was common items, which I didn’t bother to pick up. But sometimes I chanced on uncommon stuff like chitin boots and chitin pants.
> Name: Chitin pants
> Armor type: Light
> Rarity: Uncommon (green)
> Level requirement: 18
> Condition: 407/450
> Physical resistance: 65
> Fire resistance: 40
> Frost resistance: 70
> Corrosive resistance: 20
> Electric resistance: 25
> Name: Chitin boots
> Armor type: Light
> Rarity: Uncommon (green)
> Level requirement: 18
> Condition: 384/480
> Physical resistance: 75
> Fire resistance: 55
> Frost resistance: 35
> Corrosive resistance: 30
> Electric resistance: 15
Sure, the stats of these items were low, but I pick them up anyway as they surpassed my common pants and boots, which I had on me. After changing into chitin pants and boots and discarding the common ones, I went on with my trek.
Soon I met other players. As it turned out, there were lots of them wandering around the underground tunnels. This was why I hadn’t met any players before. All of them were down here.
Yet with there being so many players in the underground cave, resources and mobs were very scarce. Once they spawned, one of the nearby players got them. Which was why players around here were pissed off and constantly attacked and killed one another.
Luckily, I could handle myself by this point so I warded off the attackers without even breaking a sweat.
However, I barely got any resources or exp down here. I was starting to ponder on whether I should leave the cave. On the other hand, resources were almost nonexistent up there, which was why most players preferred to wander around these underground tunnels instead of traversing the desert itself. Moreover, after I had had the encounter with Barbarian, it was clear that owning a car was necessary for this location.
Soon a notification popped up, saying that Flynn was online. I told him that I had gotten rid of the slave collar, whacked Christine, and sent him the girl’s stuff, namely her rare armor and unique shotgun. Sure enough, Flynn was very glad to lay his hands on such excellent armor and weapon.
I also told him that I had been presented a legendary shotgun for beating the Arena. Yet I didn’t use it as I played as a Warlock and Warlocks couldn’t use shotguns.
“Guess I’ll try to sell it at an auction,” I said.
However, Flynn had a better idea. He said that if I were to sell the shotgun at an auction, I would get only money, which I could use to buy ammo, consumables, and such. But there were much easier ways to get money.
So Flynn suggested I post a thread on the official forum to find a player who would be willing to trade a legendary item for my class for my legendary shotgun. I liked the idea. Since I couldn’t quit the game, Flynn agreed to do everything for me. He quitted the game, posted a thread on the forum, and got back online. I thanked him and after that, we didn’t write to each other for a while.
I continued to wander around the tunnels, penetrating deeper and deeper into the cave. I rarely encounter mobs and almost didn’t find resources. I wasted my time here.
When I was about to turn around and retrace my steps to get out of the cave, I suddenly found myself in the big chamber where there were no players whatsoever. The cave had a complex network of tunnels and passages. Perhaps this chamber was so well hidden that seldom players chanced on it. Hence, mobs and resources were abundant in here.
I wasted overgrown bugs, gathered up the loot and resources. Until two other players happened to discover this chamber.
> Name: Slim
> Level: 17
> Name: Nomad
> Level: 19
The two players didn’t bother to say anything. When they saw me, the two guys brought up their guns and opened up.
Sure enough, I took them on. However, I didn’t take any chances. For a few minutes, I just ran around the two players, with Acceleration active, trying to ferret out what they were capable of. As it turned out, Nomad was a way more experienced player than Slim was. Hence, Nomad was a more dangerous opponent.
Nomad played as an Engineer. He created lots of various flying robots. Some of them attacked me and others healed the twosome. There were even drones that repaired the other robots.
As for Slim, he was a pretty weak player. He mainly stayed behind his teammate and the robots so that to be out of harm’s way.
I also learned that Nomad was invulnerable to most of my psi-powers. The only skill that had an effect on him was Blow.
Soon I came up with a plan of action.
I used Blow on Nomad, causing the player to be lifted up in the air. Sure enough, he continued firing at me with his shotgun. Not that it bothered me. I just wanted to immobilize him for a spell.
I ran awa
y from Nomad. When I was just outside of the range of his shotgun, I shifted my full attention to the swarm of flying robots and employed the Jammer psi-power. The robots got deactivated, tumbling to the ground.
I whirled around and ran toward Slim, firing my revolvers at him. That freaked him out and he raced away. I kept on shooting, the bullets tearing into the player’s back.
Then the Blow psi-power wore off and Nomad was hurled down to slam against the ground. He took some damage. Without bothering to heal himself, he ran across the chamber to come to his teammate’s aid.
And so it went.
I used Blow on Nomad to immobilize him, then used Jammer on the robots to get them out of commission, and then started chasing Slim, firing at him with both my revolvers.
Finally, Nomad couldn’t create any more robots due to the cooldown. This was good. Once again, I employed Blow on Nomad and dashed after Slim. Sure, he fired back and sometimes his bullets tore into my body, but most of the bullets went wide as I constantly used Acceleration to increase my movement speed.
Soon the player was taken care of. When he went down, I spun around to face the other player. The blow had already worn off, dropping Nomad to the ground hard. He used stimulator to heal himself and charged at me.
I took him on.
We ran around the chamber, firing at each other and healing ourselves when necessary. After some time passed, Nomad realized that he couldn’t bring me down and decided to retreat. I could’ve let him go. But I didn’t.
Using Telekinesis on the player so that not to allow him to run away, I continued squeezing the triggers of my guns. Bullets smacked against his armor one after another and soon Nomad died.
Both the players had dropped plenty of resources, which meant that they either had been wandering around the underground tunnels for a way long time or killed lots of other players, picking up their loot.
Glitch Boxset Page 45