> Name: Humvee
My car resembled a Humvee, hence the name.
Another message popped up in the log.
> Attention! The game will be upgrading in 15 minutes!
I climbed into my car, sat behind the steering wheel, and started the engine. The roar of the motor filled the air. I pulled out of the garage and brought the car to a halt. After getting out, I slid the garage door shut and returned to the Humvee.
I was to meet Unkas in the first location in an hour after the game finished upgrading. I consulted the map, put the car into gear, and floored the acceleration. Heading for the first location, I constantly looked around the desert stretched endlessly in all directions, watching for other players. Luckily, I encountered none on the way.
Yet another notification emerged in the log.
> Attention! The game will be upgrading in 10 minutes!
Soon I saw buildings up ahead. It was the first location. The skyscrapers got bigger as I neared the city and soon they loomed over me.
After a few minutes passed, another notification popped up
> Attention! The game will be upgrading in 5 minutes! Exit the game, please.
As I approached the city, I wondered what would happen to me when the game started upgrading. Would I stay online or get disconnected from the game to come around when the upgrading was finished?
Sure enough, I would find out pretty soon.
I had already entered the first location and was driving through the streets, heading to the city’s center. I pulled into a narrow alleyway between two buildings and put the car in park. I glanced at the log. The countdown for the update had begun.
> 3… 2… 1…
The game started upgrading.
Chapter nine
Nothing happened to me. I was still in the game.
Not that it surprised me.
Then I got aware of two strange things. First, my surroundings had gotten very bleak and gray.
The second thing was the sudden silence that hung in the air. I even got out of the car but still didn’t hear anything. The total hush had fallen over the city. Not only had the sounds of gunfire disappeared, but also the wind no longer whistled. It was completely silent. The absence of any noise was very eerie.
I walked out of the alleyway onto the street, looking around. Something else was wrong, but it wasn’t until several moments later that I was finally able to put a finger on the reason. My HUD had vanished. I no longer saw my HP, MP, experience bar, and all the other elements of the UI.
An idea occurred to me. I raised my left hand and looked at the crystal. It, too, looked different. The crystal wasn’t emitting faint bluish light now. I intently stared at it for a few moments, trying to bring up the Main Menu, but nothing happened.
Figured.
I returned to the Humvee and climbed in the driver’s seat, having decided to tool around the city. I twisted the key in the ignition, yet the engine wouldn’t turn over. Seemed like I wouldn’t be able to use my car until the game upgrade was over.
After getting out, I pondered for a moment. Reached for my revolvers and pulled them from their holsters. Placed them on the hood and fixed my gaze on them. Contrary to expectations, the guns’ stats didn’t pop up before my eyes.
I put my hands on the grips of the revolvers, took them off the hood, and put pressure on the triggers. Both of them yielded to the pressure, but the guns wouldn’t fire.
Then I tried to employ my psi-powers but to no avail.
So everything in the game had stopped working. But I was still online, what with me being a walking glitch and all. I decided to take advantage of this and take a stroll around the city. Although I was sure that I would meet nothing interesting on my stroll, I soon was proved to be wrong.
I walked around the city without encountering anything unusual for a while. The padding of my feet on the sidewalk was the only sound. The surrounding buildings and the pavement emitted faint silver light. I also realized that it wasn’t cold although it usually was in this game.
Up ahead, I caught a glimpse of some spherical white object dashing through the air into view from the left and almost instantly disappearing into a side street on the right. Its color and general shape reminded me of the flying drones at the Arena, which had been placing traps.
I raced after the white object, but when I reached the side street, it had already disappeared. Disappointed, I continued with my journey with no particular destination in mind.
After reaching the intersection, I stopped in the center of it and looked around. Where to go now?
Next to the nearest building was a quest console. Upon walking up to it, I tapped the touch-sensitive display screen. Sure enough, nothing happened. The console was dead as everything else was.
I took a step from it, turned around, and saw another flying white object. It was only several yards distant. This far, the drone was identical to those having flown around the Arena. I wondered what the Arena drones were doing in the city.
The white robot continued flying down the street. Suddenly, it swerved to the right in my direction. Just to be on the safe side, I leaped to the side. Yet the drone wasn’t interested in me. Totally ignoring me, it made it over to the quest console and slowed to a hover above it.
What was it doing?
My curiosity having gotten the better of me, I took several steps to the quest console to get a closer look. The drone emitted a taper-shaped blue beam––the end nearest to drone a point and the farthest end about 30 inches wide––and moved it up and down over the quest console as if it was scanning it.
A few seconds later the beam vanished and the drone flew away. I walked up to the quest console again. It was still dead. What had the drone done to it? Had it been just scanning it? Or had it upgraded it? I decided to check the quest console out when the game finished upgrading and everything performed its tasks again.
I walked on. Drones flew past me every now and then. I ignored them. There was no way I could catch up with them. Moreover, there was no point in doing so because I couldn’t interact with them anyway. I had learned that the hard way at the Arena.
Then a low humming came from behind. It was another drone. I sidestepped to make way for the flying robot. Sure, it wouldn’t bump into me, but I didn’t want to take any chances. If the robot were to brush against me, my character would be electrocuted.
Keeping a safe distance from the robot, I watched the drone, waiting for it to fly by. All of a sudden, the robot came to an abrupt stop as it drew level with me. I wondered what had attracted its attention. There weren’t any quest consoles or vending machines nearby.
The drone lurched to the side, flew directly toward me, and then stopped about a yard away from me. I quickly looked this way, then that, looking for cover. Behind me was a building. My eyes never leaving the suspicious drone, I started to slowly back off toward the entrance door.
The robot was up to something, for sure. I decided to err on the side of caution and burst into a race toward the building. Upon getting in, I looked around. It was a pretty spacious but totally empty room. Noticing a door to my right, I barreled toward it.
After getting through, I found myself in a corridor that branched off to the left at the end of it. As I ran down the corridor, I heard the humming behind me. The drone was following me.
I reached the end of the corridor and darted around the corner only to found a dead end. I whirled around, but it was too late for me to retrace my steps. The drone flew around the corner and headed my way.
Before I could do something, the drone emitted the bluish taper-shaped beam and moved it over me. I felt absolutely nothing. The humming grew a trifle louder as if the drone was pondering on why one player was still in the game.
The robot scanned me for a few moments, then switched the beam off, did a quick one-eighty, and flew away.
Those spherical white drones had been placing traps at the Arena an
d now they seemed to be upgrading the game. I thought about the drone that had just flown away. What had it been doing? What if it had even detected the glitch that prevented me from quitting the game and fixed it?
However, I didn’t allow myself to raise my hopes too much. The drone might have been only scanning me without fixing anything.
I headed back outside.
I wandered around the city for a few minutes without encountering any more drones. Perhaps they had performed their tasks here and moved on.
After reaching an intersection, I looked around. No drone was in sight. I had absolutely nothing to do, so I decided to get back to my car to wait for the game to finish upgrading. Out of habit, I lifted my left hand and looked at the crystal to consult the map. Only then did I remember that the crystal like everything else in the game didn’t work at the moment. Lowering my hand, I looked around once more to get my bearings and set off.
I didn’t encounter any drones on my way back to the car. Sure enough, nothing changed. The car was still parked in the alleyway and the only sound was the padding of my feet on the pavement.
The next moment everything changed. The silver light coming from my surroundings suddenly disappeared. The wind began to blow and it got cold again. In the log popped up a message.
> The game has just been upgraded to version 2.0. To learn about the changes, open the About the game tab.
I lifted my left hand and immediately noticed the bluish light coming from the crystal. So everything was now working again in the game. I felt excited. Had that drone fixed the glitch preventing me from quitting the game? Or had it only been scanning me? Time to find out.
I looked at the crystal and brought up the Main Menu.
Chapter ten
I was disappointed to find out that the Quit button was still inactive and wouldn’t work. Dangit!
Perhaps it had been naïve on my part to think that the problem would get fixed of its own accord. Yet I decided not to think about it because I had no plan of action in mind at the moment anyway.
I sat behind the steering wheel, fixed my gaze on the crystal, and brought up the About the game menu. It took me a few minutes to peruse the information.
So I had learned that the developers had added a series of main quests to the game. Moreover, players could use melee weapons now, such as swords, knives, daggers, etc. There also was a Melee skill tree with lots of skills to unlock. Aside from close combat weapons, another type of weapon was added, grenades.
The developers had also fixed various glitches and bugs. However, as I already knew, they hadn’t fixed the error preventing me from quitting the game.
At the end of the list of updates was a line.
> The current version of the game is 2.0
I lowered my left hand. Flynn and I were to meet Unkas in an hour. I decided to check the nearest quest console out and pulled out of the alleyway onto the street. There still weren’t players in the game. At least, I didn’t encounter any on my way.
Upon reaching the quest console, I pulled up at the curb and got out of the car. The display screen showed a message.
> Available quests:
> The main quest 01: Awakening
> (Show: Yes/No)
I tapped the Yes button and the page refreshed.
> Available quests:
> The main quest 01: Awakening (*)
> Description: You have just awoken and found yourself in a strange place. You have to look around, gather anything useful up, and find a way out of the place.
> Goal: Complete all the quests in the Training location where you’ll learn about this game and recent updates.
> Reward:
> 1. Experience points: +3000
> 2. Money: +5500
> (*) Note: Be aware that if you accept the quest you’ll be transferred to the Training location and you’ll be able to leave it only after completing the quest.
> (Do you want to accept the quest: Yes/No)
I accepted the quest. The page refreshed.
> No quest is available at the moment!
The next moment everything went dark for a second. Then I found myself in some vertical container. In front of me was a convex transparent door through which a spacious room was visible. I tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t move.
Only then did I realize that it was very similar to what I had experienced upon my awakening on the very first day.
It figured. It was supposed to be a Training location where a new player learned about the game.
A piece of text appeared before my eyes.
> You awake with a start. You don’t know what has happened to you. Looking around, you find yourself in some kind of a futuristic cryogenic pod. You have no idea how you have gotten to this place. You rack your brain, trying to remember anything but to no avail. The last thing that you remember is your going home and then––nothing. Although you don’t have the slightest idea where you are or how you have gotten to here, you know that you have to get out of here.
> (Continue: Yes/No)
I had bad vibes about this. This description was very similar to what I had thought upon my having found myself in this game on the first day. Why the heck this description was almost identical to what I had experienced and thought the other day? It was the question I was eager to find the answer to. Sure, it could be just a coincidence, but I had a gut feeling that it was anything but.
I pressed the Yes button. The door flipped open with a subtle hiss and I stepped out. Although the room was big, it contained nothing safe the pod I had just left. At the far end of the room was a door. When I walked up to it, I saw a message pop up in my HUD.
> Welcome to the Training location! Here new players can learn about the game mechanics and more experienced players will learn about the recent updates.
> (Continue: Yes/No)
After I pressed the Yes button, the door slid silently to the wall. I stepped over the threshold into another room. There was a table to the right. I walked up to it. A dagger lay on the table.
Another message popped up.
> Take the dagger laying on the table.
I looked at the weapon and its stats appeared before my eyes.
> Name: Simple dagger
> Weapon type: Melee weapon
> Rarity: Common (white)
> Level requirement: 0
> Damage: 10
> Chop: 10-25
> Slash: 40-65
> Thrust: 35-50
> Elemental damage: None
I placed my right hand on the handle and took the dagger off the table. The weapon appeared to be very light.
Sword-wielding mutants started to spawn all over the room. I looked at one of them to check its stats.
> Name: Ashen mutant
> Level: 1
> Health: 100/100
As if on command, all the mutants charged at me at once. The instant I whirled around to confront them, the handle of the dagger snug in my palm, I felt confidence surge through me.
One mutant leaped toward me, swinging its sword to slash at me. I whipped the dagger up, deflecting the blow, metal clunking against metal. I feinted to the right and when the mutant blocked the strike, sliced its belly open with a quick slash, blood and intestines gushing out.
Another mutant’s blade chopped through my armor and bit into my flesh, drawing blood. Whirling to face the mutant, I swung at its arms. My dagger cut through flesh, severing its limbs.
I lurched forward to plunge the blade between the third mutant’s malevolent eyes, stabbing deep into the creature’s brain. I swung my dagger again, the blade slicing through the fourth mob legs as easily as a knife through butter.
Reversing my grip on the hilt, I lanced the blade into the chest of yet another mutant. Yanking the dagger free, I leaped to the side and buried the blade into the throat of another mob. The mutant uttered a gurgling squeal as it staggered and went down, crims
on blood gushed from the wound.
For some unexplained reason, I was extremely versed in the art of the sword. Guessed just like wielding firearms and driving various vehicles, wielding melee weapons came naturally to all the players.
Finally, all the mutants were disposed of. The floor was caked with blood. The severed limbs, decapitated heads, and gory pieces of flesh lay scattered everywhere.
A message appeared before my eyes.
> The Melee weapons skill tree has plenty of active and passive skills for you to unlock.
> (Continue: Yes/No)
After I pressed the Yes button, the door at the far end of the room slid open. I moved on to find myself in another room identical to the previous one. On the table centered against the wall opposite the door lay two small spherical objects.
Another message popped up.
> Take a grenade and use it to kill the mutants.
> (Continue: Yes/No)
I walked up to the table and looked at one of the grenades. Its stats appeared in my HUD.
> Name: Fragmentation grenade
Glitch Boxset Page 47
