Glitch Book One

by Victor Deckard

  There weren’t anything else in the house so I got out into the street and headed for the next one.

  The first floor had a few extra pistol ammo lying on the floor. The second floor held nothing useful. When I exited the building, I noticed the hatch that supposedly led down to the basement. I failed to notice it on my having approached the house earlier. Its set of doors wasn’t locked. I took the steps down to dimly lit basement. Here I was encountered by another overgrown aggressive insect.

  > Name: “Weak mutant fly”

  > Level: 3

  > Health: 45/45

  This creature was nimbly circling me and letting off thorns, of which each one was the size of a matchstick. One of them dug into my arm and deprived me of ten health points. After that, I activated the Shield and applied the Blow. But I missed. The fly was moving too fast. It was only when I employed the psi-power the third time that the dark energy lifted the fly up and arrested its movement. I took great pleasure in finishing the nasty creature off. It dropped nothing.

  In the next, the third, shack I was assaulted by two overgrown mosquitos on the first floor and other two insects on the second floor. So I gathered up two more pieces of meat and twenty pieces of chitin.

  Moreover, in the far corner of the room was some grayish threads. It might have originally been white but then dirt might have stained it. Either way, the clothes were slightly shinning which was why it had caught my attention to begin with. I walked over to it and a piece of info appeared before my eyes.

  > Name: “Fabric gloves”

  > Armor type: Outerwear

  > Rarity: Uncommon (green)

  > The player’s required level: 2

  > State: 150/150

  > Physical resistance: 10

  > Fire resistance: 10

  > Frost resistance: 5

  > Corrosive resistance: 5

  > Electrocute resistance: 5

  It seemed that fortune finally smiled on me. It was really useful item! Leaning over, I took a closer look at it. Although this article of clothing was dubbed “Fabric gloves”, it looked more like elastic boxing hand wraps. A line popped in my HUD.

  > (Use the item: Yes/No)

  Selected the “Yes” button. “Fabric gloves” disappeared from the floor and turned up on my hands, wrapped my forearms from the wrists to the elbows. I holstered my pistol and instantly withdrew it once more. The bandages didn’t slow down my movements a bit. Good. Besides, my arms were no longer getting cold. The bandages were of complete benefit to me, all right

  A message popped up in the log.

  > Take note, the supplies will be being dropped on Park of Despair in 15 minutes!

  Having looked at the crystal, I opened the map. The mist had vanished from the places I’d already visited. The map displayed the street names. I looked it over, yet I didn’t found Park of Despair. It might have been in the mist-covered area. Or in an altogether different location. It might have been possible. It was a shame. Although I didn’t know what manner of supplies would be soon dropped, it surely would contain lots of useful items.

  I got out into the street. I made to head for the next house but suddenly heard a noise that caused me to prick up my ears. I turned my head toward the source of the sound and saw a distant car, which was very similar to my buggy. It was another player, for sure. And he or she was racing in great haste. Maybe, they were dashing toward Park of Despair where the supplies were going to be dropped at. I got my brain in gear.

  If I dogged the player I might learn where Park of Despair was and, more to the point, could also inquire about the game, my having been inserted into it, and the error preventing me from quitting it. He or she might not know the answers to the last two questions but might still be able to clear up some other things.

  All these thoughts had crossed my mind in a matter of half a second. Turning around, I burst into a run for the garage where I had left my buggy.

  Chapter three

  By the time I pulled onto the main road where I’d last seen the player, he or she had already vanished from view.

  I had my right foot pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor, yet the needle on the speedometer wouldn’t move past sixty mph. The buggy seemed to not be able to accelerate above this speed. The engine roared deafeningly and the vehicle body vibrated hard and creaked loud. Looked like the buggy was teetering on the verge of falling to pieces.

  Negotiating the intersections, I eased up on the throttle a trifle so as I could looked around. Still, the player was nowhere to be seen. It was impossible for me to find them now. They had to be way far away from me by now, for the car had been racing at great speed when I’d first spotted it. The player must have spent a lot of resources to upgrade their car. So there was no point in trying to hunt the player down. They could be anywhere by know. Even if I had spotted the car somewhere far away, I wouldn’t have been able to catch up to it, due to my buggy being a useless heap.

  Furthermore, another thought crossed my mind. Only then did I begin realizing how big the city was. I’d been tooling around the city for more than an hour already but was still discovering more and more new streets I hadn’t been in before. Having dropped my speed, I quickly lifted my left hand to have a look at the Map. Most of it was still covered with the mist.

  And this city was just one location, just a small part of this world. The desert was at least fifteen times the size of the city. Owning a car was incredibly important in this game. It would have simply been impossible to roam such vast areas without a vehicle.

  I forced myself to cease mulling over that. It was time to decide what to do next. I immersed myself in thinking. Maybe I should retrace my steps to the street lined with those shacks to resume looking for useful items?

  Out of the blue, a nasty monster dropped onto the hood from above. The mob seemed to have sprung out of one of windows or jumped off the roof of the nearby building I was driving alongside. It had short trunk and four legs with long curved claws. Its skin was glossy and black. The head had three pairs of yellowish eyes, of which the top ones were situated at the creature’s bald skull. The mob had four more thin limbs similar to that of a spider, extending from the creature’s back.

  As I regarded this unattractive creature, its stats appeared in my HUD.

  > Name: “Spider scout”

  > Level: 3

  > Health: 55/55

  The monster opened its mouth full of nasty fangs and a gray glob erupted from within it. I had barely tilted my head to the side when the revolting lump hit the headrest. I concentrated my mind and cast the Surge. Dark energy shoved the creature off the hood to the ground. Buggy accelerated and ran the mob over.

  > +15 exp!

  Other spiders started jumping out of windows. There were a lot of them, yet they didn’t bother me much. The machine gun dealt with them quite efficiently. Still, one monster dropped onto the roof once, reached into the cab with its claws, and gave me a whipping blow. Sharp pain shot through my shoulder and my HP were reduced by thirty percent. I thrust the creature off the buggy by dark energy and shot it to death.

  I thought that even though spiders gave only fifteen experience points each, there were quite a few spiders in this part of the city, so I could linger here for some time, driving around and wasting these mobs to level up two or three times with no trouble at all. I deemed that there ought to be enough ammo for that on me.

  However, my plans didn’t come true. Long ears-piercing shrill came from somewhere above. The high-pitching sound was so menacing I even winced and cowered back in my seat. I lifted my head and looked around. A huge creature that was the size of a human and bore resemblance to a big bat perched on the edge of the nearby building. The mob was looking down.

  If my memory served me correctly, I’d already seen such a creature half an hour time prior. I’d been lucky enough to go unnoticed by the creature. This time, my luck was jinxed. The mod spied me. It spread its wings, let out with a bloodcurdling scream, and abrupt
ly jumped down off the roof, folding its wings. When the creature reached just above the power lines, it stretched out its wings once again, and rushed forward through the air. I caught a glimpse of the mob’s stats in my HUD before it barreled over the roof of my buggy.

  > Name: “Mantis”

  > Level: 15

  > Health: 1500/1500

  My skin became a field of goose bumps. I best leg it. My character’s level was only two, so I’d better avoid fighting such a powerful creature. Sure enough I’d managed to take out sixteen-level underground warcid worker, but at that time, fortune had smiled on me. Still, if something like that happened once more, it wouldn’t necessarily mean I’d get lucky again.

  The warcid had thick armor but possessed pretty low hp. Besides, those underground creatures probably more often than not charged at the player in large packs. If I had been attacked by two or three warcids, I would’ve had no chance of survival. So I’d gotten lucky to have wasted the warcid before other ones dug out of the earth and joined up with him.

  As for the mantic hovering in the air, I had absolutely nothing to defend myself against the threat from above. The machine gun mounted on the hood was useless against flying foes. Its aim was off and also it could shoot only in a straight line. So I couldn’t count on the machine gun now unless the winged creature was kindly enough to fly directly in front of the buggy.

  I floored it, having the vehicle roll as fast as possible. Due to the absent windshield, a cold wind blew in the cab and beat against my face like someone’s fist. Once again I marveled at the authenticity of the game. I glanced in the rearview mirror to see the mantis still tailing after me. The creature wasn’t gaining on me but it didn’t receded either maintaining a distance of thirty or so yards.

  The monster snapped its jaws wide open and let out with a menacing scream. Then a fireball erupted from the creature’s gaping maw and darted forward down the road at lightning speed.

  I spun the steering wheel hard, swerving the buggy to the left. The fiery glob slammed against the blacktop. The shock wave of a powerful gust and flying pieces of asphalt swept over the car. Fortunately for me, I wasn’t wounded by it, but the car’s motor took damage. It started to emit weird creaking noise. Quickly looking back over my shoulder, I saw thick gray smoke billowing from the engine.

  I turned on the Shield before the creature could hurl another deadly fireball after me. A protective dome appeared over the car. After some time the mantis screamed again and ejected a fireball. It smacked against the power field and blew out. The shield withstood the explosion. But it took damage, all right. It lost most of its density and was nearly imperceptible now. One more such a blow to the Shield would surely destroy it completely.

  True to form, this turned out to be the case. After another fireball crashed into the dome, it vanished. Fiery torrents, unhindered, splashed everywhere. It poured down not only on the engine but also on me. My clothes burst into flames at once. Pain was really excruciating. From the corner of my eye, I saw an icon of a de-buff appear in my HUD. The health bar was diminishing fast.

  Yet the torture didn’t last too long. After two or three seconds, the fire dissipated completely and the pain was nonexistent as if I’d never been set on fire. My clothes had scorched marks here and there now. As soon as the pain vanished, I recollected the Shield psi-power. But it didn’t appear. I tried a few more times to reactivate it, but it wouldn’t switch on. Then a thought crossed my mind. I let my gaze fall to the rightmost bottom edge of my vision and looked at the Mana bar.

  > 90/300

  I remembered that maximally upgraded Shield consumed one hundred mana points. Dammit! I was totally vulnerable without the Shield and the mantis could easily deal with me now.

  Still, having taken a look in the rearview mirror, I saw the giant bat was no longer following me. It wheeled around and flew away. Looked like game rules had mobs chase the player for a limited amount of time. Or the mantis might’ve spotted some other player and turned its attention to them. Anyway, I was only too glad to encounter such a lucky turn of events. Yet I best not slow down in case the winged creature pursued me again.

  Although I had pushed the accelerator all the way down to the floor, the buggy couldn’t do even fifty mph now. The engine seemed to have taken damage when the fireball had exploded nearby. I wondered what I needed to do to repair the car. I would most likely have to find resources and unlock some skill.

  Up ahead farther down the road I clocked a dilapidated building with big letters on its roof. Some of them were missing, but due to the most letters being intact, it was easy for me to guess that the whole word would’ve read “Auto service”.

  That brought a sardonic smile to my lips. There would surely be nothing useful in the building but I decided to stop by the auto service just in case. My heap desperately needed to be repaired so it’d be nice to find something I could patch the car up with.

  The building sat in the open. Unfortunately, there was no place to hide the buggy so I pulled to the very entrance. Having withdrawn the key from the ignition, I stepped out of the car. Looked around before entering the building. Neither mobs nor other players were nearby.

  I made to get inside but suddenly heard some rustle of fabric or something off to my left. In my peripheral vision, I saw a movement. I instantly jerked the pistol out of the holster and whipped the gun around. Yet there was no one nearby. Aside from the whistling wind sweeping litter along the sidewalk, no sound broke the silent. Guessed it just were shreds of paper being swept by the blustering wind that freaked me out. I calmed my nerves.

  Out of the blue, I felt cold. Raised my hand, directed my gaze toward the crystal, and looked at the Freezing line in the Character menu.

  > Freezing: 67/100

  Damn, I seemed to be getting cold. Had to find warm clothes or sit by a fire. Yet before I could lay a fire pit, I needed to unlock a particular skill. I looked at the UI again. The experience bar was nearly full. Nice.

  I stepped into the door to enter a spacious room. A part of the roof had given in far back in the past. The sky entirely obscured by gray clouds was clearly visible through the wide gap in the roof. Looking around, I walked across the room toward the middle of it. Minute pieces of concrete and plaster as well as glass shreds covered the floor. They crushed under my soles with a crunch.

  I clocked something sparkle and turned my head. Three wood planks lay nearby. They emitted faint but easily noticeable light. After I went over and touched the planks, they disappeared and a message popped up in my HUD.

  > You have received an ingredient: + 90 pieces of wood!

  Some crackle sounded suddenly. I looked around for the source of the sound and saw a pile of debris in the far corner of the room stirring. I unholstered my gun quickly and prepared myself for whatever I was about to encounter. After a moment, a bug the size of a domestic cat clambered out of the pile.

  > Name: “Bug worker”

  > Level: 4

  > Health: 65/65

  The bug grunted unpleasantly, spread its wings, and charged forward lifting itself off the floor. I got off the Surge. Dark energy shoved the bug back into the corner. It collapsed onto its back, ending up upside down. The mob set about nimbly moving all its eight legs, desperately trying to turn itself around. I finished it off, having to empty almost the entire mag for that.

  One after another appeared two messages.

  > +25 exp!

  > Congrats! You have just leveled up to 3! You have got 5 unused skill points!

  After death, the bug dropped something. I walked over to it and saw a pistol lying in the pool of green blood.

  > Name: “Moderate”

  > Weapon type: Pistol

  > Rarity: Uncommon (green)

  > The player’s required level: 3

  > Damage: 35

  > Accuracy: 55

  > Fire rate: 600

  > Magazine size: 10

  > Elemental damage: None

  There we go! I
picked the pistol up and regarded it almost with tenderness. Now I could ditch the weak Newbie’s Punch I’d gotten in the Training location. Yet after giving the matter a bit of a thought, I decided to keep the pistol. I unloaded it and stuffed the emptied pistol in the bag to sell it later on. Then another thought occurred to me. Where could I sell it? I encountered no vending machines so far. Probably I had yet to come across one.

  Deciding not to mull over it for long, I slid the Moderate pistol into the holster, raised my left hand, and looked at the crystal. After switching to the Skill tree, I commenced looking the available skills over.

  The Survival tab had five skills placed on each level. The first one had two skills I’d already learnt, Cooking mutant roach meat and Fabric outfit, and three more, Cooking mutant mosquito meat, Cooking giant rat meat, and Fire pit. As for overgrown rats, I hadn’t run into them thus fat. They might have dwelled only in particular areas. And roaches, I met them only in the Training location.