Glitch Book Two

by Victor Deckard

  Succumbing to my anxiousness, I went over to another boarded-up window, running a risk of being noticed. One of the boards had a small hole in it where a bullet might once have ripped through. I peeked out through it.

  I managed to make out the second player, Frozen. He stood quite close to one vortex trap. If he took another step forward, he would trigger it. Still, the player seemed to be in no hurry to do so. He just stood there looking around. He might’ve sensed that there was some kind of trouble.

  There was some quiet sound. It was Croc who called out to Frozen, motioning him over. He seemed to have found something curious and was eager to show Frozen that. Frozen turned around and started for the other shoulder of the road where Croc waited for him. Frozen was gradually getting farther and farther away from the vortex trap he’d almost gotten into. Dangit! That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

  But then it occurred to me what I had to do. I should’ve thought my sudden idea over, yet I didn’t have enough time for that.

  I resorted to the Telekinesis skill I’d recently unlocked, tugging at Frozen. He then was lifted a meter up in the air and pulled back toward the nearest vortex trap. He flailed his arms and hands in a futile attempt to turn around. The other PK realized something was dangerously wrong and dashed after his pal, looking around for any sign of danger.

  It was too late for Croc to come to his bud’s aid. When Croc made it to the median strip, Frozen had already crossed one vortex trap. He also activated the other one with an accidental wave of his one arm. Both traps went off simultaneously, ejecting two vortexes of dark energy in the air.

  One of them snatched Frozen and had him revolving around. The PK freaked out and started yelling. Croc stumbled to a halt, dumbfoundingly staring at his mate being revolved up in the air. They’d likely never encountered such a thing as a vortex trap.

  There was no time to lose. I loaded my handgun with armor-piercing bullets, for they boosted my gun’s damage by twenty-five points. This done, I burst out of the building. Frozen was still revolving above the ground. Croc whirled around trying to figure out their enemy’s whereabouts. His back was to me when I’d split the house.

  Whipping my pistol up, I opened fire. Croc spun around the instant the first shot went off. He even managed to turn toward me before the first round hit him. Not that he moved that fast. Just the velocity of armor-piercing bullets sucked.

  Croc brought his assault rifle to bear on me. Before he could get off a shot, I employed the Stasis. The player instantly froze as a translucent, silvery dome had him circled in.

  One PK was immobilized and the other was still in the vortex, being ceaselessly whirled around. I could’ve taken advantage of this and taken off. I should’ve paid heed to my first thoughts. Yet I got under the impression that I could actually defeat both PKs on my own. Which was why I dumped the whole mag in Croc.

  Still, none of the rounds hit him. After entering the silvery dome, they slowed down to a crawl, getting no farther than a couple of inches into the Stasis field before checking their movement. Then I got aware that I’d gotten it somewhat wrong. The bullets inside the dome were still moving toward its target, yet their velocity was way too sluggish. It’d take them an awfully long time to reach Croc. Not that it mattered.

  Once the Stasis field disappeared, they’d instantly regain their velocity. If Croc survived such an onslaught, it’d really amaze me.

  With Croc out of commission, I could turn my full attention to dealing with Frozen. I swapped mags, dropping the spent clip and shoving the fresh one into the grip of my pistol.

  On turning around, I was surprised to see Frozen standing on the ground already. The two vortexes had faded away into nothing some time ago. Frozen was pulling the trigger––

  The grenade exploded right in front of me. The shock wave shoved me backward. It was a wonder I survived the explosion. After healing myself with the Biokinesis, I opened up on Frozen, holding the pistol in front of me with both my hands while lying on my back.

  The player seemed shaky on his feet. His vision must have been spinning hard. He was barely able to stand. When I opened fire, he leaped to the side so as to get out of the line of fire. Thrown off the balance by his abrupt movement, Frozen got flattened across the blacktop. All my bullets harmlessly went over the splayed body. Darn, the velocity of armor-piercing rounds was totally horrible. One could easily dodge it. Perhaps this ammo had been designed for use only against slow and cumbersome targets covered with thick armor.

  Swearing under my breath, I reloaded my pistol with ordinary cartridges and opened fire once more. Some of the bullets ripped into Frozen’s spread-eagle body. He let out with a shout. Yet he seemed to have cried in anger, not in pain. Cursing, Frozen struggled to get to his feet. His head was apparently still reeling.

  Out of the blue, bullets clanked off the blacktop around me. It was Croc who opened up on me. He was in horribly bad shape. His whole body was peppered with bullet holes, his clothes saturated with blood. The wounds on his frame bled profusely. For all his seemingly severe injuries, Croc was still alive and eager to fight. It was obvious that both PKs played the Soldier class, which was extremely tough and robust. Croc apparently had an abundant amount of health points.

  Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of my class, Warlock. I was able to recover my HP up to only fifty percent when a bullet caught me in the chest. It took about twenty points from my health. A pang of pain shot through my body, breaking my concentration and terminating the action of the Biokinesis psi-power. Darn it! I activated the Shield as I got to my feet.

  Bullets smacked against the bluish power dome. Frozen, who finally come to his senses, opened fire with his assault rifle, adding to the onslaught on my Shield. It wasn’t going to last long, for sure. It was really nerve-racking.

  I quickly sized up the situation. His cool-headed attitude notwithstanding, Croc probably didn’t have much HP left. What with all his numerous wounds bleeding, his health was surely reducing.

  Speaking of Frozen, he appeared uninjured, yet he was much more pissed-off than his pal was. It was him who had been subjected to the vortex trap. And he hadn’t liked being revolved around in the air a bit, no sirree. So he had a score to settle. Cursing out loud, he held the trigger down, unleashing the stream of fire on the Shield.

  I cast a glance at my UI.

  > Mana: 450/900

  I had only half mana left. Still, it probably might be enough if I worked out a good strategy to take the twosome out.

  One of them discharged a grenade launcher. The rocket-propelled grenade popped the power dome. I instantly created the Flare and shied it toward Croc. Then I made another one and pitched it at Frozen.

  The first glowing ball reached its target and detonated. Croc got dazzled. He set about sweeping his assault rifle in an arc, back and forth, back and forth, trying to bring it to bear on a foe he couldn’t see. The player was dumping his whole mag into anything but me.

  I gripped the butt of my pistol with both hands and began firing at him, aiming for his head. One bullet punched him smack-dab in the middle of his skull-designed balaclava. He clapped his both hands to his face and slumped to the ground, dropping his weapon. Concluding that he was done for, I shifted my full attention toward Frozen.

  He’d already regained his ability to see and was eager to deal with me. He managed to get off one shot before being swept backward by the Surge of dark energy. I immediately opened fire, some of the bullets tearing into his body and the others clanking off the blacktop all around him.

  Something exploded right in front of me. The blast threw me off my feet. I collapsed to the ground, barely alive. I had shy of five percent of HP left. I tilted my head slightly to see Croc, who was lying on his back, pointing his assault rifle at me. It was he who’d just discharged his under-barrel grenade launcher.

  I found it unbelievable that he was still alive and capable of fighting back. The Soldier class had the unhea
rd-of amount of HP, if you ask me.

  I sized up the situation in a second and realized there wasn’t much I could do now. I had almost no health and little mana points left. I activated the Shield, using up the rest of my mana, and staggered to my feet as the twosome simultaneously opened up with their assault rifles. Took the last, third, simulator from my bag and administered the shot to myself, restoring fifty health points. Not that it really mattered.

  Both PKs discharged their grenade launchers. The Shield popped. I remained still. There was no point in running away. With less than five percent of HP and no mana whatsoever, I wouldn’t have gotten far. Instead I aimed my pistol at badly injured Croc and commenced squeezing the trigger in the hope of wasting at least one of the two PKs before getting killed. I had no way of knowing whether I managed to pull it off since the next moment Frozen discharged his grenade launcher once more and everything went dark.

  I revived in a Resurrection Pod inside some building. Before getting out, I wanted to check on my current level. Casting a glance at my UI, I saw a digit 7 above my health, mana, and fatigue bars. So my level had dropped from 8 to 7. Shoot.

  Lifting my arm, I looked at the crystal and opened the Warlock skill tree. Sure enough, the Jammer and Teleportation skills, which I’d unlocked after leveling up to 8, were no longer available. Also, the level of the Telekinesis had been downgraded from 3 to 2. Dangit!

  However, I wasn’t mad at the PKs. Rather I was angry with myself. I shouldn’t have waged a war against the two PKs. Still, after going over the recent battle in my mind, I realized I hadn’t been that bad at it. Quite the opposite in fact. Although in the end I was beaten, I managed to put up a good fight. Croc was barely alive by the end of our battle. It took them a lot of time and considerable effort to defeat me. Also, they used up tons of rifle cartridges and explosive rounds, trying to take me down. So I wasn’t an easy target, all right.

  If anything, the last thought boosted my mood. Pleased with myself, I put my hands on the glass door in front of me and was about to push it open when I saw two familiar guys waltz into the building. I recognized them as soon as I saw their skull-designed balaclavas. Once inside, they without hesitation turned around toward the Resurrection Pod I was in and started for it in a casual and relaxed manner. It was obvious that they knew where exactly the pod was located.

  Unfreakingbelievable. How the heck had they known where I was going to be reborn? And how come they’d managed to come over here so fast?

  Guessed I’d been killed not far from where the Resurrection Pod was. And the PKs seemed to have completely explored the city, what with their familiarity with pods’ whereabouts.

  So I got stuck in here. If I climbed out, the PKs would instantly jump at me. On the other hand, the twosome couldn’t get me too. As told in one of the tips, I’d received while in the Training location, no player could open the door of a Resurrection Pod when someone was inside it. Seemed to be this way since the two PKs made no attempt to pull open the door. They just stood before the pod, staring at me from behind the skull balaclavas.

  I had the level 7 biker leather getup on. Judging from the way the twosome were looking at me, they found it surprising that after having revived I had such an excellent armor on, which was obviously way better than the threads I’d worn some time before. As for the PKs, prior to entering the building, they’d patched themselves up and were now ready to engage me again.

  The twosome continued to stand in front of the pod, eyeing me. Looked like I’d really pissed them off since they’d hurried over here to pick a fight with me again. If I got whacked once more, I’d revive in this exact pod and the PKs would surely be waiting for me again nearby. I seemed to have gotten myself in a bit of a jam here. I shouldn’t have messed with these jerks. Darn it.

  I recalled the story Crayne told me this morning. Bigman had been killing him over and over again until Crayne teamed up with his friends to get Bigman’s ass whooped. I was about to share Crayne’s past experience. Except that I had no friends in the game. How would I extricate myself from this bind? How to get rid of the twosome?

  The PKs were still standing still. For how long were they going to wait for me to get out? Didn’t they have more pleasing things to entertain themselves with?

  I wondered when night would fall. If these guys weren’t complete idiots, they wouldn’t linger around for long. They’d soon have to hole up in some fortified place unless they wanted to get overwhelmed by a swarm of night monsters.

  What about me? Should I spend tomorrow night in the Resurrection Pod? As told in one tip, usual mobs couldn’t open the door of a Resurrection Pod when the player was inside. But what about the night monsters? Were they able to pull it off? I had no way of knowing the answer to the question.

  Besides, what if all the Resurrection Pods got opened at night? My fears weren’t groundless. Crayne had told me that the developers were doing their best to prevent players from playing for days on end. Thus, it was possible that all the pods might cease working at night. Sure, I might get it all wrong, but I wasn’t keen on taking any chances anyway. So I had to get out of the Resurrection Pod before night fell. But how to deal with the twosome?

  I wondered if I should jerk the door open, thrust the PKs with the Surge, freeze them up with the Stasis, and then race for the entrance door while they were immobilized.

  A sound brought me back to the moment. It was a voice. Croc said something to his partner. Yet I couldn’t quite make out his words. Frozen nodded in reply. Then they both turned around and headed for the entrance door. After the twosome reached it, Frozen turned his head and looked at me for a moment. He then went through the door after Croc who’d already split the building.

  The two PKs were out of sight but not out of mind. I wondered what they were up to. I wasn’t stupid enough to buy a show of their leaving me alone. They might station an ambush near the building in the street.

  As minutes tediously ticked by, I reflected on what I should do. Although no sound reached me from the street, the PKs were waiting for me outside, for sure. There was no doubt about it. I wondered where exactly they could be. Getting as close to the transparent door as possible, I looked out. All the windows of the building faced the street, yet I saw no sign of the PK hanging around outside. Maybe they decided to leave me be for real? Nah, I wasn’t going to buy it.

  After waiting a few minutes more, I decided to take action. Before climbing out of the Resurrection Pod, I checked on my gear to make sure everything was all right. I had the biker leather outfit on, which was good. I also held the pistol Screamer in my hand, but I only had fifteen bullets left, which wasn’t good. Fifteen bullets certainly weren’t going to be enough to defeat the two PKs. Which meant I’d better avoid engaging them.

  I began pushing the door open slowly. Nothing happened. Nobody jumped at me out of nowhere. I stepped quietly from the pod and pricked up my ears. No sound was in my hearing. Where were the PKs? Had they walked away or hidden themselves outside? I decided to err on the side of caution and watch out for any dangers.

  There was only one way out of the building, which the PKs had gone through. I made it over to it, drew in a long breath, and exited the building.

  Chapter five

  As soon as I got into the street, I saw a dead carcass of my previous avatar, lying in the middle of the road. It was no farther than fifteen or so yards away from the building I’d just left. No wonder the PKs had gotten to the Resurrection Pod so fast.

  I walked up to my previous body and looked it over. My bag with pistol cartridges was missing, yet all the clothes and resources had gone untouched. How come? Perhaps the PKs had neglected the loot on purpose, in hopes that I would become a sitting duck while retrieving my stuff.

  I didn’t take the bait. I had a gut feeling that the twosome was somewhere nearby. Taking a step away from the body, I looked around. At this exact moment the PKs, who had hidden themselves inside the nearby building, showed up
at two windows and simultaneously discharged their grenade launchers.

  The Shield I’d employed half a second before took the double explosion and got destroyed.

  The PKs burst out of the building and pointed their assault rifles at me. The crack of gunfire filled the air. Activating the Acceleration, I took off at such a surprisingly high speed that I managed to get out of the line of fire before any bullet could hit me. As I ran away weaving my way from side to side, I realized I could actually dodge bullets while the Acceleration was active.

  The PK kept firing on me in a futile attempt to slay me. I was starting to feel as though I were invincible. Yet two bullets brushed against my torso lightly. Guess even with the Acceleration on, it wasn’t so easy to go unhurt under such a vicious ceaseless barrage. However, the injuries were too superficial to bother me. They didn’t even bleed.

  I should’ve run away while I had a chance to do so. However, I must’ve gotten a few screws loose since I changed my mind and wanted to get even with them now. My hatred of the two PKs, who had already iced me twice, got the best of me. Against my better judgment, I was eager to fight back. So I turned around and dashed back toward the twosome.

  Given their doing a double-take, they were amazed to see me returning instead of running away. They even ceased firing. Yet after a second, the PKs started to shoot again. The Acceleration was still active so I successfully avoided being hit. I wish I could treat my injuries with the Biokinesis, but this psi-power couldn’t be employed when another one was active.

  I had no idea as to how I was going to deal with two PKs, having only fifteen bullets at my disposal. I had only a basic sketch of a plan. If I’d had any common sense left I would’ve turned around and run away. But I was overcome by pure rage, which made me unable to think clearly.