Glitch Book Two

by Victor Deckard

  Running around the two players and dodging their bullets, I cast a glance at my HUD.

  > Mana: 575/800

  It wasn’t all that much. Although I had a vague strategy in my mind, I had to work out the details. That it wasn’t my first encounter with other players certainly helped. I was starting getting the hang of my class, Warlock, and learning its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, I had my plan worked out.

  The PKs kept unleashing devastating gunfire. I couldn’t fight both of them at once, so one of the PKs had to be neutralized for some time. I employed the Disarming to yank at the Frozen’s rifle and hurl it aside. The player had barely started for it when I used the Telekinesis to push his gun even farther down the street. Frozen shot daggers at me before racing after his weapon. I set a vortex trap beside his assault rifle and shifted my full attention toward Croc, who was swapping mags at the moment.

  After a second, I heard a wild shout full of anger and frustration. There was no need for me to look back to learn that Frozen had gotten himself into the trap and that it had him lifted off the ground and whirled around in a vortex of dark energy. He definitely hated me even more now. I felt likewise. Our hatred went both ways.

  Croc inserted the fresh mag into the well and took aim. Before he could get off a shot, I used the Stasis to immobilize him. Holding the pistol with both my hands, I dumped the whole mag into the silvery dome. Sure, all the bullets slowed down to a crawl once they got into the Stasis, but they would increase their velocity when the Stasis expired. I’d aimed for Croc’s head this time so I’d be extremely amazed if he survived it.

  With both PKs being under control, I got to treat my wounds. After restoring my HP with the Biokinesis, I glanced at my HUD.

  > Mana: 85/800

  I had few mana points left. Also, I had no bullets left. Not that it bothered me much. Supposing my bullets aimed for Croc’s head killed him, I had to deal only with Frozen. Eighty-five mana points could be just enough for that.

  The effect of the vortex trap wore off and Frozen plopped to the ground. His head must’ve spun, for he didn’t bother to get to his feet. Instead he crawled on his stomach toward his assault rifle. Watching him, I holstered the pistol Screamer and prepared myself for action.

  Frozen came around, more or less. Retrieving his weapon, he staggered to his feet and looked around. Once he saw me standing still not far away, the player whipped his rifle up and discharged the grenade launcher.

  This was what I was waiting for. Staring at the grenade darting through the air toward me, I utilized the Telekinesis. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to pull it off. However, despite my doubts, I actually managed to grab the grenade out of the air and lob it in the opposite direction.

  I couldn’t see the expression on Frozen’s face due to the balaclava concealing it. Still, it was obvious that he got dumbfounded by the sight of the grenade making the U-turn in the air and dashing back toward him. He even got petrified for a moment. Then he realized he had to haul ass. But it was too late.

  The explosion threw him up in the air, his arms and legs flailing. Then he dropped to the ground. He definitely got injured. As he was slowly recovering, I looked at my HUD once more.

  > Mana: 65/800

  Grabbing the grenade and sending it flying backward had taken two seconds and cost me twenty mana points. All things being equal, I had enough mana to bat three more grenades.

  I caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of my eye and spun around. The Stasis was over. All the bullets, which had been soaring in the air a moment ago, took off and dashed toward Croc. Yet not all of them hit him in the face. Many darted past his head without even grazing it. The low Accuracy attribute of my pistol was to blame. However, those bullets that actually caught the player in his head bounced off it, seemingly dealing little damage to the player.

  Finally, I had it figured out. After taking a closer look, I realized that the things I’d initially taken for balaclavas were actually helmets. They were pretty tough-looking. Nevertheless, one round had managed to punch through Croc’s helmet. I could even make out a small hole in it. Blood trickled from the hole. Yet Croc was still on his feet. I had no way of knowing whether he’d received a severe wound or not.

  Bringing his weapon up, he fired a shot. Seemed like he missed what had happened to Frozen a minute before. I snatched the grenade and sent it flying backward. Croc failed to leap aside in time. The shock wave threw him to the ground. I glanced at my UI.

  > Mana: 45/800

  Suddenly, some sort of a spider-sense tipped me off about a nearby threat. Looking around, I saw a grenade speeding through the air my way, which had been gotten off by Frozen. I should’ve grabbed that one too, yet the grenade was too close and I dashed for safety instead, out of pure instinct. I didn’t get far. The explosion packed quite a punch. Sharp pain shot through my body and everything went dark.

  I was out cold for about a second. Then the darkness before my eyes dissipated and I found myself lying flat on my back. I’d managed to survive the explosion, yet my HP was almost nada. Both the PKs had me in their iron sights. When Croc saw me stir, he immediately discharged his grenade launcher. After half a second Frozen followed suit.

  Everything swam before my eyes in a haze of pain I suffered. In spite of that, I was able to catch the first grenade with the Telekinesis and send it back toward Croc. I didn’t get a chance to find out whether he was killed in the following explosion or not since I’d already turned my head in the opposite direction to grab the second grenade dashing through the air toward me. No such luck this time around.

  Another explosion booming and pain surging through my body. The bright flash of the explosion was very last thing that I saw before the darkness took me. After regaining my sight, I found myself in the same Resurrection Pod I’d revived before. Figures. I’d died not far away from where I had the last time.

  I was in no hurry to climb out. The PKs certainly knew where exactly I’d revived and soon would show up. True to form, they arrived in no time flat. Well, one of them, Croc, arrived, anyway. Frozen didn’t turn up yet.

  I looked at my HUD. I’d manage to maintain level 7, yet the experience bar was nearly empty. My level would drop to 6 if I got offed one more time. Moreover, I had either no armor or weapon now.

  Anger started to rise inside me. My hands balled into the fists. I looked at the crystal to check on the list of my resources. It was empty. The only thing I still possessed was money. About ten thousand bucks.

  Lowering my hand, I looked at Croc. He had his rifle pointed at the pod as he stood still by the entrance door, not daring to come any closer. It almost looked as if he were afraid of me.

  Frozen finally showed up. He waltzed through the doorway and came to a stop by his pal’s side. Shooting a penetrating look at him, I cursed under my breath in a fit of intense anger. Frozen had my biker leather outfit on! I realized that it was changing into my biker getup that had taken him so long to get in the building.

  The players were standing at the entrance door and aiming at me. I got what they were planning on doing. The PKs waited for me to get out of the pod to discharge their grenade launchers on me. They stood beside the entrance door so that they could instantly burst out of the building if I batted their grenades back at them.

  I was really pissed off. I couldn’t stand those two guys who had already murdered me so many times. I wished I could get even with them. But what could I do? I had no armor, no weapons, no stimulators, no jack-squat.

  Lifting my hand, I looked at the crystal and switched to the map. It didn’t take me long to find an icon representing a vending machine. Unfortunately, it wasn’t too close to me, yet it wasn’t too far away from me either. If I got lucky, I’d get over there without encountering any enemies. But first things first –– how to get away from the two PK?

  However mad at them I was, I was well aware that it was downright stupid to engage them now. I had to get fully prepar
ed before fighting them again. I needed good armor, some weapon, and lots of stimulators along with vigors for restoring my health and mana points respectively.

  As I turned over the details of my getaway plan in my mind, I observed the twosome. They kept on standing still at the entrance door, keeping their assault rifle aimed at the Resurrection Pod. They sure were eager to croak me again. Seemed like they were going to hunt me down constantly. They were intent on killing me as many times as possible.

  Guessed I’d really pissed them off. They wouldn’t leave me alone on their own, for sure. Which meant I had to figure out the way to deal with them. Still, I first had to find armor and a good weapon.

  Finally, I had my plan thought out and was ready to split the Resurrection Pod. I took one more look at the two PKs. They didn’t move a bit the whole time as though they had been turned into stone statues.

  After taking a deep breath, I jerked the door open.

  Chapter six

  Both the PKs discharged their grenade launchers the moment they saw the door of the pod flip open. But after a moment they went completely still as I employed the Stasis. The two grenades the PKs had gotten off slowed down to an almost imperceptible crawl, having gotten no farther than one yard or so away from the business ends of their rifles.

  I was about to vault the nearby window when a thought crossed my mind. I stopped in my tracks and looked over my shoulder at the petrified PKs. They didn’t budge, yet their eyes filled with sincere hatred followed me. I directed my gaze toward Frozen clad in my biker leather outfit. I wondered if I could take it off him. What if I could even take their weapons, ammo, and armor while the PKs were immobile? Then the tables would be turned on them!

  My heart pounding, I walked over to the translucent, silvery dome and tried to step into it. No dice. It felt like a concrete wall. I couldn’t get inside the dome.

  Well, it stood to reason. Guessed if the Warlock could’ve entered the Stasis field, the class would’ve been mighty overpowered. The Warlock wouldn’t even have bothered with defending themselves against aggressive player killers. All the Warlock would’ve had to do was to freeze up the PK, who dared to assault him or her, with the Stasis and then just relieve the unfortunate PK of all their stuff, weapons, armor, stimulators, and whatnot.

  It might’ve even reached the point where the newbie Warlock having just unlocked the Stasis psi-power could’ve stripped even a high-level player down to their underwear. So yeah, it was very understandable why the developers had prevented the Warlock from entering the Stasis field.

  Nevertheless, I was a little disappointed. After getting outside, I saw the bodies of my two previous characters. Naked now save for underpants, they differed from each other only in degree of mutilation.

  I scouted around for any things of mine the PKs might’ve forgotten to pick up, yet I found nothing. Zip, nil, nada. Which meant that while Croc had been pointing his assault rifle at the Resurrection Pod I’d been in, Frozen had been gathering every single one of my items dropped from both of my previous characters. Frozen hadn’t even disdained picking up level 2 “white” fabric clothes and level 2 “white” pistol Conqueror!

  That made me even angrier with them. I glanced back over my shoulder in the direction of the building I’d just split. My common sense shouted at me, “Run away, you dummy! Run away while you still can!” Yet I stayed on staring at the two immobilized PKs that could be plainly seen through the doorway.

  The Stasis field finally wore off. The twosome wasted no time bursting out of the house. Noticing me, they whipped up their assault rifles. I broke into a run, having turned on the Acceleration. All the PK’s shots were wild.

  I raced away glancing over my shoulder from time to time. Although the PKs ran pretty fast, they couldn’t keep pace with me. The gap between us was getting wider. By the time that the Acceleration wore off, my chasers lagged five hundred or so yards behind me. I could’ve easily given them the slip if I’d wanted to. Instead I slackened my pace and consulted the map to make sure I headed in the direction of the vending machine. Then I moved on.

  I knew why I didn’t use the Acceleration once more. Not because I wasn’t keen on squandering my mana points. No, I just didn’t want the two PKs to lose sight of me. I planned on getting to the vending machine to buy some armor and weapon and picking a fight with them again. They’d already offed me two times today, yet against my better judgment, I was intent on getting even with them. I shouldn’t have messed up with them again, but I just couldn’t help it.

  Nothing befell me on my way to the vending machine. When I finally made it to it, the two PK were nowhere in sight. Perhaps I ran too fast for them to keep up with me. I sincerely hoped they hadn’t lost me. Or they might’ve figured that they’d never be able to catch up with me and decided to drop the chase.

  Walking over to the vending machine, I opened the Armor tab and went over the list of armor. All the items were “white”, i.e. common. Not a single one of “green” stuff. I found only one outfit suitable for the Warlock class. The rest of the armor for sale was for Soldiers of Engineers. I had no choice but to buy the outfit. It was level 5 and consisted of a T-shirt, a pair of pants, and a pair of shoes. After getting dressed, I switched to the Weapon tab. The vending machine had lots of weapons for sale, ranging from heavy rocket launchers to handguns. Still, all the weapons were of the common rarity.

  There were a few “white” pistols for sale. At first, I planned to buy a pistol dealing as much damage as possible, regardless of all the other attributes. But then another idea occurred to me. I switched to the Other tab and after a couple of moments found what I looked for.

  > Name: Pistol bullets

  > Type: High-velocity

  > Level: 2

  > Damage: –25

  > Bullet velocity: +250

  > Special quality: None

  I’d bought the armor-piercing bullets the last time I’d dropped by the vending machine. That hadn’t gone too well. Maybe I should try out something different. What if I bought a pistol having a high fire rate attribute and load it with the high-velocity bullets? Guessed it was worth a try.

  I switched back to the Weapon tab. After examining all the weapons available, I found two handguns fit for my strategy. Essentially, they were the same. Both of them were level 5 and both were “white”. Their stats were almost identical. These two pistols differed in only one respect. The Fire Rate attribute of one of them was somewhat lower than that of the second pistol, whereas the Damage attribute of the first pistol was a tad higher than the second one’s and vice versa.

  I wasn’t sure as to which one I should buy. After a moment, a thought struck me. Maybe I should buy both. The Warlock could wield only handguns, yet no tip told me that I couldn’t use two handguns at the same time. If I got it wrong and it was forbidden for the Warlock to dual wield handguns, then I’d sell one pistol later on.

  So I acquired the two pistols, a belt, and two drop leg holsters. I also bought a few magazines filled with the high-velocity bullets and a small satchel bag for carrying ammo. After inserting a mag into each purchased pistol, I threaded the belt through the loops of my pants, strapped a drop leg holster around each thigh, and attached the holsters to the belt. After holstering the two pistols and stowing away the remaining mags in the bag, I returned my attention to the vending and opened the Other tab. Bought three vigors.

  > Name: Vigor

  > Level: 1

  > Restoring mana: +250

  > Price: 500

  There were a few cheaper vigors for sale in the vending machine, which restored Mana over some time. Yet during a fight with PKs you couldn’t wait for your Mana to restore itself, so I’d bought more expensive vigors that instantly restored two hundred and fifty mana points.

  Three cylindrical objects materialized on a platform that jutted from a left side of the vending machine. They looked almost exactly like stimulators. They differed from the latter only in co
lor. Stimulators were white-colored while vigors were blue.

  I had about seven thousand bucks left. I bought a cheap tactical vest and put it on. After securing spare mags and vigors in the pockets of the tactical vest, I finally exited the building.

  Out of habit, I turned my head this way, then that. Nobody was around. Having chosen the random direction, I set off. I covered only several yards down the street when something made me look over my shoulder.

  Slowing down, I glanced back. The street was still empty. Yet after a moment, I realized what it was that had alerted me. Sounds of approaching footsteps. Somebody was running this way.

  Rounding a bend in the road, two players showed up, their assault rifles in hand. They stopped in their tracks the moment they saw me. Sure enough, it was Croc and Frozen. The PKs took a couple of wary steps forward toward me and came to a halt again. They were one hundred or so yards distant from me.

  So they’d actually been able to track me down. I wondered how come they knew where I was. Perhaps they’d just assumed that I had some money and decided to check on the nearest vending machine to see if I’d headed for it.

  Or they might’ve learned some skill to mark a player to track his or her movements on the map. Whatever the case, they’d hunted me down. They seemed to be in no hurry to attack me though.

  The twosome took a few more steps up the street and came to a stop again. They seemed hesitant. Perhaps they’d hoped to catch up with me before I could make use of the vending machine. But seeing that I’d already bought some armor and weapon and was ready to fight again, they got reluctant. They’d overcome me two times already, yet it was hard-fought victories. The second time we’d fought, I’d even managed to wear them down using only my psi-powers. So yeah. I wasn’t an easy target. The twosome had learned it the hard way. Probably it was the reason why they were unwilling to engage me now.