Glitch Boxset
Page 48
> Weapon type: Explosive weapon
> Rarity: Common (white)
> Level requirement: 0
> Damage: 135
> Effective radius: 15
> Time delay: 3
> Elemental damage: None
When I took the grenade, a bunch of level 1 mutants materialized at the far end of the room. They glared at me, yet none of them moved. I pulled the pin, the safety lever springing away from the body of the grenade. I raised the grenade overhead to toss it. The mutants watched me intently but didn’t try to do anything.
I tossed the grenade. It arced through the air, clunked onto the floor, and rolled toward immobile mutants. Then it detonated, showering the mutants with shrapnel. The fragments of metal flew every which way, some of them tearing into the wall behind the mutants and puncturing holes into the concrete. All the mutants were reduced to gory pieces of flesh by the explosion.
A message appeared.
> Try another grenade.
I returned to the table and looked at another grenade.
> Name: Fragmentation grenade
> Weapon type: Explosive weapon
> Rarity: Common (white)
> Level requirement: 0
> Damage: 65
> Effective radius: 80
> Time delay: 3
> Elemental damage: Cold
> Description: This grenade can place a debuff on a foe that decreases their movement speed for a short period of time. While the debuff is active, the foe is getting hurt by cold damage.
> The chance of placing the debuff on a foe is 50 percent
> The duration of the debuff is 10 seconds
> The damage that is dealt to a foe is 5 points per second
Another bunch of mobs spawned. These creatures started walking in my direction. I tossed the grenade. A few mutants got ripped to shreds by the explosions. The rest of them took damage and a debuff that slowed them down. After I finished them off with my dagger, a message emerged.
> Aside from the two demonstrated types of grenades, there are some other types of grenades such as electric, corrosive, etc. You can buy grenades in vending machines or collect them when they drop from mobs.
> (Continue: Yes/No)
Another door slid open with a hiss. I walked through the doorway and found myself at the one end of a long tunnel a few yards across. The other end was far away. To my left were a builder and a table on which were piled ammo, grenades, stimulators, vigors, and various resources.
A message appeared.
> Create a vehicle and head for the exit of the tunnel. Mobs will start to attack you when you start to drive. If you get killed, you’ll revive by the builder.
I walked up to the builder. Since I had already crafted vehicles of my own, I know the ropes. Unfortunately, I had few resources at my disposal so I couldn’t create a too powerful vehicle. It took me less than a minute to create a one-seater car. It was small, armorless, and had no either doors or windows.
When I climbed in the seat and turned the motor over, some mutant screamed in a high-pitched voice to my rear. I glanced over my shoulder to see several mantises flew toward my car. I gunned the engine, but sure enough, the crappy car couldn’t drive fast. It was doing only twenty miles an hour, which was why the mantises gained quickly.
Luckily, they weren’t grown-ups but mere cubs. My car had no weapon so I used my right hand to pull one revolver out of its holster while gripping the steering wheel with my left. When one mantis pulled abreast of my car, I gunned it down with my revolver. It had taken only three bullets for the mutant to die.
And so it went.
I drove down the long corridor, firing at and killing the winged creatures. Some of them spat out fireballs and I spun the steering wheel to avoid being hit by the explosions.
Finally, I reached the end of the corridor. There was a door in the wall. However, it was too small for my car to get through so I slammed on the brakes, skidding to a halt. I climbed out, looking around. The winged mutants no longer spawned.
The door slid open. I stepped into a small room with a quest console. When I walked up to it, a piece of text popped up on the display screen.
> You have found yourself in a strange, hostile world populated by bloodthirsty mutants. Although you have no idea how you have ended up in here, you are determined to find out what is going on.
> (Continue: Yes/No) (*)
> (*) Note: After you leave the Training Location, you won’t be able to return to this area. So make sure that you have gathered up anything useful.
I read the text two times. Something was preying on my mind. These quest descriptions were very like my actual thoughts when I had just found myself in this game the other day. There seemed to be a deeper meaning to them, a hint that someone was trying to say something to me, to convey some secret message.
Sure, their resemblance to my actual experience might be a mere coincidence, but I didn’t think so. I was sure that someone was trying to establish communication with me, and I was eager to find out who and why.
After pressing the Yes button, I appeared in the city by the quest console. A message popped up in my HUD.
> The Main Quest 01: Awakening completed!
> Reward:
> Exp: +3000
> Money: +5500
As soon as the text vanished, another emerged.
> The Main Quest 02 is available! Check the map to find it.
I did. The icon of the next main quest was located not far away from the house I had built yesterday in the second location. Although I wanted to jump into it right away, I had bigger fish to fry at the moment. My meeting with Unkas was due in half an hour.
I wrote to Flynn, but he was still offline. Not that it mattered. I was sure he would enter the game very soon as he had promised. He was a loyal friend.
I tooled around the city in my car for a spell. Spotting a vending machine, I pulled up next to it and got out of the car. Aside from ammo, consumables and whatnot, there were various types of grenades for sale. I bought some of them.
As I climbed back into the Humvee, a notification popped up that Flynn had just gone online. He told me where he was at and I drove there to pick him up.
Chapter eleven
When Flynn got in the front passenger seat, I pulled onto the street again. While we drove through the city for the place where we were to meet Unkas, I filled my friend in on the details of my plan.
After we reached the place, I parked the Humvee and handed the legendary shotgun to Flynn. Then we climbed out of the car, Flynn heading for a garage where he was to meet Unkas and me walking in the opposite direction toward a two-story building on the opposite side of the street.
I climbed a flight of stairs leading up to the second floor, crossed the room I found myself in to a window, and looked out. Although I didn’t see Flynn, I know that he had hidden himself in the alleyway between the garage and another building.
Unkas should show up any minute now.
Soon I noticed two players walking up the street and stepped deeper into the room so that they didn’t notice me. Peering cautiously around the window frame, I watched the two players.
> Name: Titan
> Level: 20
> Name: Hunter
> Level: 19
Due to his wearing heavy armor and toting an assault rifle, Titan played as a Soldier. Hunter was attired in medium armor and bore a shotgun so he was either a Soldier of Engineer.
What were the level 20 and level 19 players doing in the location designed for the players whose level ranged from 0 to 15? They could be Unkas’ friends so I wrote to Flynn to warn him about these players. However, the two gamers passed both the garage and then the alleyway where Flynn was without even glancing that way. They soon turned around a corner and disappeared from sight into a side street.
Probably they weren’t buddies of Unkas after all.
Finally,
Unkas showed up. We were attired in light armor and carried a pistol, which he held in his right hand. The player walked down the street toward the garage. I wrote to Flynn and my friend got out of the alleyway to meet Unkas. Upon seeing Flynn, Unkas holstered his gun and strode toward him.
They stood for a few moments, facing each other and engaging in conversation and then headed for the Resurrection Pod in the alleyway. I watched them intently, ready to come to Flynn’s aid when needed.
The two players disappeared into the alleyway where the pod was. I waited. Nothing happened for a couple of minutes. Then out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement to the right of the alleyway. I looked in that direction to see two players, which were already familiar to me. Titan and Hunter. They walked down the street toward the alleyway where Flynn and Unkas had gone to.
Sensing trouble, I tensed. When the two players reached the mouth of the garage and were about to enter it, they stopped suddenly, looked at each other and exchanged a few words. Then the twosome turned around and headed across the street. Something was wrong, for sure.
“What’s happening out there?” I texted Flynn.
“I retrieved the legendary shotgun and showed it to Unkas,” Flynn answered immediately. “When I asked him to lead me to the bike he promised to give us, he answered that he doesn’t have the motorbike. So he lied to us. As soon as he said it, I uploaded the legendary shotgun back into the pod. After that, Unkas immediately said that he had plenty of resources on him to create it.”
“What about the unique biker outfit? Did he lied about having it as well?”
“Not exactly. He does have it. He’s attired in it. And it’s very suspicious if you ask me. Why would he put the outfit on if he was to hand it over?”
Now there was no doubt whatsoever that Unkas hadn’t planned on trading his stuff for my legendary shotgun to begin with. On the contrary, he had planned on taking the legendary shotgun away from Flynn by force.
It was a good thing that Flynn uploaded the legendary shotgun back into the pod. Titan and Hunter had been about to enter the alleyway to help Unkas rob Flynn when Unkas must have texted them that Flynn had hidden the shotgun in the pod. There was no way they could get the legendary shotgun on their own so Unkas must have told his friends to hid themselves somewhere until he figured out a way of tricking Flynn into retrieving the shotgun from the pod.
The two players were now striding across the street toward the building I was in. Its windows faced the street, so just like me, they must have figured that it was a good vantage point from which they could survey the section of the street with the garage and the alleyway.
I activated Invisibility so they couldn’t see me and texted Flynn, “Have him create a motorbike in the garage and inform me when the job’s just about done.”
“Okay.”
The pounding of feet came from the downstairs. The sound of the footfalls grew louder as the two players were ascending the stairs. In case they had skills detecting invisible players, I walked across the floor to the end of the room farthest from the stairs, hoping that I would be beyond the range of the said skills.
Finally, Titan and Hunter reached the second floor. They looked around but didn’t seem to be aware of me standing in the corner. Having found no one in here, the two players visibly relaxed and walked up to the window I had stood at minutes before.
I looked out the window nearest where I stood. Flynn had just left the alleyway and was heading for the garage along with Unkas. Soon they entered the garage and Flynn almost immediately texted me, “We’re lucky. There’s a builder in here.”
Specially designed for novices, this location had a builder almost in every garage.
Nothing happened for a few minutes. Titan and Hunter stood by the window, doing nothing. They almost didn’t talk to each other. Flynn texted me every now and then, informing me of the progress Unkas made. Soon he told me that the bike was just about done. Unkas must have texted his friends as well, for they ceased their idle conversation and tensed.
I decided it was time for action. I placed a Vortex Trap at the top of the stairs and then another next to the first one. The Invisibility skill instantly terminated and I became visible. The two players stopped dead in their tracks for a moment when they saw me appear out of nowhere.
Before they could do anything, I used Stasis on them. One of the two players froze completely, but the other one––Titan––instead of getting frozen, had its movement speed reduced somewhat. He must have some counter-skill.
I looked out the window and employed Teleportation to materialize onto the sidewalk. Without glancing back at the building with two players inside, I raced across the street toward the garage.
Flynn texted, “He’s finished. Where are you at?”
“Almost there.”
The crack of a gunshot ripped through the air from the garage.
“He’s attacking me,” Flynn texted.
“Get out of there,” the moment I said this, the garage door flew open, smacking against the wall, and Flynn flung into the street. Being a Warlock, Unkas must have used Surge on my friend.
Unkas dashed out of the garage, leading with his handgun trained on Flynn who had just started to get up. Unkas was about to fire but then noticed me out of the corner of his eye.
Since he wore biker helmet with the mirrored visor, I couldn’t make out his visage. However, he got perplexed for a moment because he didn’t know who I was and what to expect from me.
Whipping my revolvers up, I stroked the triggers. As soon as my guns barked, Unkas left Flynn alone and swung his pistol around to take aim at me.
When I was hit, a debuff was placed on my character, reducing my movement speed and dealing Cold damage to me, and pretty severe one at that. Every bullet hitting me added to the debuff duration. Not only Unkas wore unique armor but his pistol must be of unique––or rare at least––rarity as well.
I used Shield and healed myself with stimulators. Flynn finally got to his feet and discharged his shotgun, the buckshot tearing into Unkas. The player must have taken plenty of damage, for he raced away. I brought my revolvers up to and started firing.
Unkas used Stasis on Flynn and then activated Acceleration. I accelerated as well. However, since the debuff was still active, there was no way I could catch up to the player. He could have entered the garage, straddled the bike he had created, and taken off. We would never have been able to catch him.
However, he wasn’t going to flee. Unkas crashed into the building where his friends were. As I followed the player, I texted Flynn to warn him about Titan and Hunter upstairs. My friend answered that he would join me as soon as the Stasis field wore off.
Once in the building, I raced up the stairs. Unkas, Titan, and Hunter waited for me to arrive on the second floor. Two of them––Titan and Hunter––smirked. The odds were three to one in their favor and they didn’t have any doubts about the outcome of this clash.
I employed Stasis. The players were far apart so only Titan got affected by it. The player slowly but surely neared the boundary of the power field.
Shotgun-wielding Hunter tried to get close to me. I placed a Vortex Trap behind him and then used Surge on the player. Dark energy shoved him backward. He got in the range of the Vortex Trap and it triggered, lifting him a few feet in the air.
With two players out of commission, I had only Unkas left to deal with.
Suddenly, I felt something thrust me as if a sledgehammer had just smacked me on the chest. As I landed hard on my butt, I realized that Unkas had just used Surge on me.
I pulled one of the grenades I had recently bought from my web gear, yanked out the pin, and tossed it toward Unkas. The grenade hit the floor next to the player and exploded on impact.
This kind of grenades dealt no damage whatsoever. On the contrary, it sucked mana out of nearby players.
Titan had gotten out of the Stasis field by that point and opened fire on me
. I used Teleportation to materialize at the opposite end of the room. Dark energy still held Hunter in the air. I used Disarming to jerk the shotgun from his hands and then employed Telekinesis to send the weapon flying out the nearby window.
Flynn finally showed up on the second floor. He looked around, quickly assessing the situation. I noticed that Flynn held the legendary shotgun in his hands. He must have retrieved the weapon from the Resurrection Pod in the alleyway before getting in here. It was real sharp thinking on his part because the shotgun had extremely high damage output.
Flynn constantly discharged the legendary shotgun and created turrets and robots. I used my skills and alternatively fired my revolvers. Although the odds were three to two, Flynn and me held our own.
Unkas was the first to die. Being a Warlock, he had the lowest amount of HP. After I tossed a grenade and it exploded, Unkas was ripped to gory pieces. The other two players took some damage as well but didn’t get killed. Among the loot dropped from Unkas some items were highlighted in purple. Yet I had no time to examine the items’ stats.
The player must have revived in the Resurrection Pod in the alleyway, for it took him only a couple of minutes to get back in here. When he reached the second floor, he stopped abruptly. What he had seen amazed him.
Flynn cornered Titan, firing the legendary shotgun at the player. Having used Acceleration, I circled Hunter, sending two streams of lead toward him as he fired back, trying in vain to hit me.
Upon seeing this scene, Unkas realized that his posse all but lost the battle. He dashed across the room, dropped to his knees before the body of his previous character, and began hastily shoving his items into his bag.