“I’ve come here to help my buddy. He’s a novice like you. But he’s running late for some reason. So I got nothing to do now. Can give you a nickel tour if you like.”
I hesitated for a moment but then nodded agreement. “All right. Sounds good.”
“Let’s go. I’ll show you something.”
Cooper turned around and went down the street. I followed the player, lagging a few feet behind him just in case. He soon came to a stop and gestured toward a police station, “There a vending machine in there. If you got some money, you can buy ammo and med kits in there.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Something caught my eye. In a narrow alleyway between the police station and another building was parked a big desert-camouflage vehicle covered with tough armor.
“Is that yours?” I quizzed.
“Yep. What about you? Have you got a car?”
“Nope.”
“Why? You have it jacked? Or just ran out of gas?”
“The former,” I answered, not sure as to whether I should tell Cooper about Christine’s car I’d stolen from her.
“Have you started crafting a new one yet?”
“I’d love to but don’t know how to.”
“In order to create a vehicle, you’re gonna need to unlock some skills from the Mechanic skill tree. You also need a garage, builder, and a whole lot of various resources.”
“Doesn’t sound all that easy.”
“Yeah. But it’s worth the effort. Having a car is necessary in this game. Especially in big desert locations.”
Cooper raised his left hand and looked at his wrist. Through his armored glove seeped bluish light from the crystal embedded in his flesh.
“Have you been to the garbage dump yet?”
I checked the map and shook my head, “No.”
“There a lot of resources there. Okay, go to the vending machine, buy whatever you wanted to, and then I’ll lead you to the garbage dump.”
I used the vending machine to buy pistol ammo, stimulators, vigors, and a level 6 “white” pistol. Then I left the building and nodded at Cooper.
“Okay, lead the way.”
“It’s not far. We can get there on foot.”
Cooper enlightened me about the crafting in this game as we headed for the garbage dump. The player told me what skills I needed to unlock. He also said that a vehicle could be created only by means of a special device called Builder. Players could create it after unlocking a particular skill. A builder had to be placed inside some building or garage where a player would be crafting his or her vehicle.
“This is a location for novices,” Cooper said. “So everything is kinda dumbed down here. A novice doesn’t have to build a garage and builder because there’s already a lot of buildings where you can find a builder in this location.”
After that, the player taught me how to use a builder.
Finally, we made it to the garbage dump. The place was littered with rusty metal, totaled bodyworks, broken-down parts of vehicles, and whatnot.
According to Cooper, I needed only metal, glass, and rubber. I wandered around the dump, looking for these resources. Like Cooper had told me, there was plenty of various resources.
We occasionally met other players gathering resources. All of them took care to get out of our way once they spotted Cooper. Nobody wanted to mess with level 60+ player.
Cooper said that there a lot of players online now, but one can find way more resources in the garbage dump in the mornings, what with few players looting the place.
Something caught my attention. It was a rusted bodywork of a school bus. It reminded me of my plan for surviving at night. I told Cooper about my idea of crafting a big bus covered with armor and armed with several turret guns to fend off night mutants.
“You can create such a vehicle,” The player said, “but you’re going to have a hard time maintaining it all on your own. You’d need to repair it after each night you get through. I recommend you strike up a friendship with some other players and create such a vehicle together.”
Cooper also said that I certainly wouldn’t be able to create such a big vehicle in a short period of time. So I was going to need to build a house where I could store my resources.
“But this is a location for novices, so like I said everything is excessively simplified here,” He stated. “You don’t need to build a house, because there’s, ahem, a whole lot of houses in this location. All you need to do is find the one you like most, fortify its windows, and create doors.”
“Mutants easily crashed through reinforced windows last night, when we tried to hold out,” I said to Cooper. “What if some player breaks into my house and steals my stuff?”
“Not possible. For a player to break into someone’s house, they’d need to create a powerful explosive, which is quite expensive. It requires plenty of rare resources. No novice can find them in this location. By the by, you can destroy only those objects that were created by players.”
After some time, I gathered up plenty of resources. It was a good thing that resources weighed nothing in this game, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to carry that much.
As we turned around a pile of debris, I saw another player. He was in the process of picking up some resources, his back turned to us. I didn’t recognize him from behind, but once we get closer and his stats popped up in my HUD, I came to a stop.
It was Sullivan.
“Is something wrong?” Cooper inquired.
“It’s him who did me in.”
Cooper looked in the direction of Sullivan, who still didn’t notice us, and asked, “Wanna get even with him?”
“Yeah.”
“Need help?”
“Nope.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay then. But if you get yourself killed again, I probably won’t stick around.”
“It’s okay,” I nodded and started for Sullivan, drawing my pistols from their respective holsters.
The player picked something up and started to walk away, without glancing back. I could’ve shot him in the back, but I wanted him to see me.
“Hey,” I shouted to him.
Sullivan looked over his shoulder and got rooted to the spot once he saw me approaching him. His eyes flashed with anger as he recognized me. The player took a step forward toward me, but then he noticed Cooper standing a few yards from us.
The sight of level 60+ player scared the heck out of him. He probably thought that it was my friend whom I’d asked to come over to help me chase down and take care of my murderer.
Sullivan whirled around and took off. I dashed after him.
“Well, good luck,” Cooper grinned at me.
My movement speed increased after I employed Acceleration. The gap between us narrowed quickly. I outstretched my arms, aimed my pistols, and set about squeezing the triggers. The slugs tore into the player’s back but didn’t do much damage, what with him wearing good armor.
When Sullivan looked back, he got aware that it was only me who chased him. That encouraged him a great deal. The player skidded to a stop and turned around, ready to encounter me. The corners of his mouth turned upward. He was anticipating that the outcome would be in his favor.
He was armed with a powerful shotgun that packed a hard punch and wore pretty tough armor. As for me, I was dressed in light armor and didn’t have much HP. Yet my high movement speed, rapid-fire pistols, and high-velocity bullets made up for my lack of protection.
I would activate Shield and Acceleration as I unleashed one salvo after another in quick succession at Sullivan. The player would deploy his paralyzing robot from time to time, but I demolished it as soon as I saw it, not allowing the robot to get within firing range.
Sullivan wasn’t an easy opponent to defeat. It was a good thing I bought stimulators and vigors prior to my encountering the player. Defeating him might not have been feasible otherwise
.
Once he realized that he was on the line of being crushed, Sullivan whipped around and broke into a race. It wasn’t all that sharp thinking on his part given he couldn’t beat either me or my bullets.
I shot him in the back and finished the player off. He dropped some loot but not much. I picked up my “blue” Mantis Slayer, resources, ammo, and a few morsels of cooked meat. I also took his “green” shotgun. It was big and heavy and my knees buckled when I slung the weapon over my left shoulder.
There was also the key to Christine’s car in Sullivan’s bag.
Soft pads on the ground came from behind. Glancing back, I saw Cooper approaching.
“Winner winner chicken dinner!”
“Thought you went away already,” I said when the player reached my side.
“I got curious,” He explained his actions, grinning. “Wondered who’d be a winner.”
Cooper noticed the key in my hand.
“Wanna take his car?”
After some hesitation, I admitted to stealing the car from Christine. On hearing this story, Cooper burst into a laugher.
“So you jacked the girl’s car, and then almost lost it himself after that guy whacked you? That’s hilarious! However, I don’t approve of stealing, by the way. Crafting your own vehicle is way more fun.”
“As a matter of fact, I want to find that girl and give her car back to her.”
“That would be nice of you.”
When we left the garbage dump, Cooper looked around to get our bearings. Then he pointed at the shotgun slung over my shoulder. “What are you going to do with that?”
“I’ll just sell it. Warlocks can’t wield such weapons anyway.”
“Right. I just wonder if you already know how to sell items at an auction. I can show you where it is if you like. It’s not far.”
“Lead the way.”
We reached a decrepit three-story building and got inside. A flat panel display hung from a wall at the far end of the room.
“It’s an auction computer,” Cooper said when we crossed the room to the computer.
I looked at the display. There were various items for sale. Most of them were of uncommon rarity, “green” but there were also “blue” and “purple” ones. I noticed even a few “orange”, legendary, items.
The interface was user-friendly so I quickly figured out what buttons I needed to push. The computer scanned my character and brought up a list of all the items I had in my Inventory.
I picked the shotgun from the list and tapped the “Add” button. A few lines appeared on the display.
> Opening bid: ––
> Minimum bid: ––
> Buyout price: ––
I had to fill in the blank spaces. I looked at Cooper standing nearby. “Any hints?”
“Opening bid is the very first bid that is placed on a lot,” He explained. “Set it at $100. Minimum bid is the smallest bid that can be accepted. It can be as little as one cent. I recommend you set it at $50. Buyout price is a final price. That is, if it’s accepted by a bidder, the auction ends and the bidder gets the item. You can set it at Unlimited and the auction ends when no player’s willing to bid any further and the item is given to the last bidder.”
I filled the blanks per Cooper’s instructions. The shotgun disappeared from my Inventory.
“By the by, you don’t need to check the auction terminal. Once your item is sold, you’ll automatically get the money.”
“Got it.”
We split the building. By force of habit, I looked around for any threats. Everything seemed peaceful and quiet to me. However, Cooper suddenly shouted to me, “Run for cover!”
I dived into the doorway, back in the building we’d just left. The sound of echoing gunfire reached me from the street. As I strained my ears, I wondered who had dared to attack a level 60+ player. Judging from the sounds of gunfire, there were several players engaging Cooper.
As I peered out the nearby window another shot cracked across the street, the slug zipping past missing my face by inches. I caught a glimpse of Cooper releasing a stream of devastating gunfire to the west, but I couldn’t see who he was firing at.
“Stay inside!” Cooper yelled to me.
I decided not to push my luck and leaped away from the window. After some time, the gunshots ceased and there was silence again. I stayed in the building until Cooper said, “All right, you can get out now. Think I scared them off.”
I split the house and glanced to the west, the direction in which the player had been shooting. There was neither dead bodies nor sign of whoever had attacked us.
“Who was that?”
Cooper gestured toward a skyscraper a few blocks away.
“See that building?”
“Yeah.”
“Snipers holed up in there. I seem to have creased one of them. There are two or three of them in that building. Let’s check it out.”
“What levels are they?”
“One of them got level 57, the second 45. But I didn’t notice the level of the third player.”
“I won’t be of assistance to you then.”
“I don’t need your help, bud. And I ain’t gonna take any chances. If they turn out to be tough players, we’ll leave them alone and then I’ll return with my friends from the clan.”
“Okay.”
As we made our way toward the skyscraper, Cooper eyed the building ceaselessly in case those snipers showed up at one of the windows. A thought crossed my mind. The skyscraper was fairly far away and it wasn’t that easy to notice someone in a window. How come Cooper had spotted those snipers before one of them even got off a shot? I asked the question to the player.
“I play as Soldier and that class got one useful skill called Intuition. It’s something like the spider-sense, y’know. When someone aims at you, you can sense danger.”
We got closer and closer to the building.
“Get in cover,” He warned me once and brought his rifle to his shoulder, sighting someone.
“False alarm,” He said after a few moments. “Thought I saw someone in one window.”
We walked on. I eyed the building. As we forged forward toward the skyscraper, I grew anxious. What if one of the snipers suddenly looked out one window and got off a shot before Cooper could waste him? I wasn’t all that keen on getting killed again.
“What the point in your messing with those guys?”
Cooper shot a disapproving glance at me and replied, “I’m from Desert Wanderers. We don’t like player killers, nor do we like people taking pleasure in roughing up novices. We provide assistance to novices and players who have some problems. So if you’re a novice or troubled by something, feel free to reach out to us. We’ll do our best to help you out.”
I got excited. I couldn’t seem to disconnect from the game on my own. If I got in touch with the players from the Desert Wanderers clan, told them what had befallen me, and asked them to pass on the word to the developers, then hopefully the latter would fix the problem and remove me from the game.
I opened my mouth, but before I could say something, Cooper beat me to it. “Keep quiet for a while. We’re close.”
He was right. Only one hundred or so yards separated us from the skyscraper already. The high-rise building loomed over us. I felt nervous. I wasn’t very fond of getting croaked before I learned how to get in touch with Desert Wanderers.
The numerous windows gaped at us from above. Any might spit out sudden death. I activated Shield, feeling on edge.
We were not a few yards from the wide open door now. I had to resist the urge to dash inside. Who knew what the snipers were up to now. For all I knew, they had stationed an ambush near the entrance door inside the building.
Finally, we got to the building. Cooper walked through the doorway, his rifle at the ready. I waited outside until the player gestured for me to hurry inside.
“Clear,” He informed me.
<
br /> We checked the first floor but after finding nobody, we jogged up the stairwell and got to the second floor. Checked all the rooms. Found nobody again. Reached the next floor. Still no sign of the snipers.
We checked one floor after another but failed to meet the snipers. Aside from Cooper’s heavy boots pounding on the ground, it was all quiet. Most rooms were completely empty. Others contained a few tumbledown cabinets where we found some resources or food. Cooper left all the loot alone, letting me pick it up.
Eventually, we reached the top floor.
“Looks like they gotten outta here when they saw us approaching the building,” Cooper conjectured. “Guess they haven’t gotten too far away. They may be somewhere nearby.”
He leaped toward one window and peered out. The player then brought his rifle up and looked through the scope, scanning the streets below.
I walked over to the nearby window as well. Seen from so far above, the whole city was on display.
“Stay back from the windows,” Cooper suddenly warned me, a sharp edge to his voice.
I jumped backward.
“If they know that we were heading for the building, they may be observing it now,” Cooper explained.
Since I had nothing to do, I checked all the cabinets on this floor and picked up everything useful.
Cooper suddenly squeezed the trigger. The sound of the thundering gunshot echoed off the walls. The spent casing shell clinked to the floor.
I glanced back. Cooper was still at the window, sighting someone far below. Then he fired again. After two or three seconds, the player dashed to another window and brought his weapon up. The rifle barked once more.
When he fired for the fifth time, Cooper exclaimed excitedly, “Got him! One down two to go!”
I said nothing.
“There two more of them,” Cooper said after some time passed. “Level 57 and level 45. And I’ve just killed a level 50 player.”
He continued to survey the streets but didn’t discharge his gun anymore.
“Guess they won’t get in the open now that I whacked one of them,” Cooper finally said. “All right, wait here!”
Glitch Book Three Page 4