I looked out the window again and surveyed the immediate terrain. There was no sign of white spherical robots controlled by the Alien. THEY hadn’t found me yet.
“So what do we do now?” I asked Jessica.
“Let me think about it for a minute.”
I stared out the window. Nothing was out of ordinary. The wind was blowing, swirling the dust and rustling the leaves of scrawny bushes.
“Okay, I came up with an idea of sorts,” she texted a few moments later. “I can tweak the game code a bit so that Raid Bosses got a tad weaker. I’ll also ratchet up your chances of getting legendary items from Raid Bosses. However, be aware that the Alien will most likely than not send its robots to take care of you when you fight a raid boss.”
“Okay.”
“So take a couple of days to reach the max level and find the best equipment and weapon possible. Once you’re ready, get in touch with me. Then I’ll turn the Alien into a Raid Boss.”
“Got it.”
“But please, don’t take too long. We don’t have much time. The Alien’s looking for you and me. It’s better for both of us if you get ready as soon as you can manage.”
I didn’t ask Jessica any more questions. I jumped into action right away.
Chapter five
It was two days since I had the last conversation with Jessica. I had finally gotten everything I needed. I had been fighting Raid Bosses for nearly forty-eight hours, getting ready for the fight with the Alien. I had gotten a few extremely good items. I had also reached the level 100. The Alien’s robots had appeared when I had been fighting raid bosses, but I had managed to deal with them without much trouble.
I was now in one of my houses, checking my equipment to make sure that everything was ready. I was dressed in a legendary level 100 leather outfit that had dropped from one of the Raid Bosses I had killed the other day.
I was armed with a pistol of the epic rarity.
> Name: Violator
> Weapon type: Pistol
> Rarity: Epic (cyan)
> Level requirement: 100
> Damage: 5675
> Accuracy: 100
> Fire rate: 1750
> Magazine size: 50
> Special quality 1: Increases the critical damage by 75 percent.
> Special quality 2: Increases the fire rate by 25 percent.
> Special quality 3: When you hold the pistol in both hands, the pistol’s accuracy gets boosted by 100 percent.
> Special quality 4: This pistol can deal three types of elemental damage, namely Fire, Cold, and Electricity. To switch between them, use the selector on the right side of the pistol.
> Elemental damage: Electricity
> The stats of the Electricity elemental damage:
> Description: This gun can place a debuff on a foe that sends electric power surging through his or her body. While the debuff is active, the foe is getting hurt by electric damage.
> The chance of placing the debuff on a foe is 55 percent
> The duration of the debuff is 30 seconds
> The damage that is dealt to a foe is 175 points per second
> Elemental damage: Fire
> The stats of the Fire elemental damage:
> Description: This gun can place a debuff on a foe that set him or her on fire. While the debuff is active, the foe is getting hurt by fire damage.
> The chance of placing the debuff on a foe is 55 percent
> The duration of the debuff is 30 seconds
> The damage that is dealt to a foe is 175 points per second
> Elemental damage: Cold
> The stats of the Cold elemental damage:
> Description: This gun can place a debuff on a foe that decreases his or her movement speed over some time. While the debuff is active, the foe is getting hurt by cold damage.
> The chance of placing the debuff on a foe is 55 percent
> The duration of the debuff is 30 seconds
> The damage that is dealt to a foe is 275 points per second
The weapons of epic––cyan-colored––rarity were even more powerful than legendary ones were. Yet they weren’t available for other players yet. As Jessica had told me the other day, the developers were going to add the epic items to the game with the next update. However, she tweaked the game code a little so that I could lay my hands on the epic items.
I also had a melee weapon, which had dropped from another raid boss I had killed the other day.
> Name: Punisher
> Weapon type: Melee weapon
> Rarity: Epic (cyan)
> Level requirement: 100
> Chop damage: 7585-7790
> Slash damage: 9685-10235
> Thrust damage: 7885-9515
> Special quality 1: Increases the chop damage by 25 percent.
> Special quality 2: Increases the slash damage by 55 percent.
> Special quality 3: Increases the thrust damage by 35 percent.
> Special quality 4: Increases your movement speed by 25 percent when you use this sword.
> Elemental damage: Fire
> The stats of the Fire elemental damage:
> Description: This gun can place a debuff on a foe that set him or her on fire. While the debuff is active, the foe is getting hurt by fire damage.
> The chance of placing the debuff on a foe is 55 percent
> The duration of the debuff is 30 seconds
> The damage that is dealt to a foe is 175 points per second
Sure enough, I also had plenty of stimulators and vigors to restore my Health and Mana respectively.
Finally, I texted Jessica.
A few moments later, she texted back, “Done. Check your map to learn the Alien’s location. As expected, THEY teleported beyond the playable area. So you better hurry. And remember, you’re humanity’s only hope for a victory. If you die or fail to take the Alien down in time, then–– Well, then we’ll never be able to bring THEM down.”
“I don’t need that pressure.”
I jumped in my car and took off. I raced through the desert, consulting the map every now and then. I had to drive through a few locations before I finally was beyond the playable area. No players and no mobs were here. I continued on without encountering any obstacles now. Eventually, I got to the place. It was an entrance to a cave. I got out of the car, entered the cave, and walked down a long slope until I found myself in a huge chamber.
In the middle of the room was the reason I had come here. The Alien. It was enormous, almost the size of a five-story house. And it was ugly. It looked like a mammoth, bloated tick. Its segmented legs seemed too lean to hold the creature. Moreover, all over the huge body were some red-colored and obnoxious-looking objects somewhat similar to sacks.
“You are one ugly son of a gun,” I muttered.
“It’s you who’s ugly,” the creature said. “All the humans so ugly you don’t deserve to live. You all must die!”
“This is why you attacked the Earth?” I asked. “Because we, humans, are so different from you? That’s the only reason why you decided to wipe us out, huh?”
“All humans must die,” the Alien screamed in pure rage, ignoring my question. “Once I take care of you, you little piece of shit, I’ll disable the VRC. I can’t put up with freaking humans any longer!”
I realized that the voice wasn’t coming from the creature. Instead, the Alien communicated with me with telepathy.
However, I wasn’t all that keen on holding this delightful conversation any longer.
“Time to get it over with,” I said as I pulled my epic pistol from its holster, held the gun in a two-handed grip, and lined the iron sights on the huge creature. It didn’t move at all. I started squeezing the trigger.
The bullets tore into the bloated body of the Alien with wet sounds, the spent cartridges flying in a smoking arc over my shoulder. The long Health bar above the creature reduce
d somewhat as the Alien took damage. I aimed at various parts of the creature, trying to figure out its vulnerable spot to do critical damage to it. Still, no matter where I fired at, the creature always took the same amount of damage.
“How’s it going?” Jessica texted me.
“Trying to figure out its vulnerable spot,” I replied. “Can’t find it. Where is it?”
“It’s inside its mouth,” Jessica said. “But it opens its mouth only when it’s about to spit fireballs. So be careful.”
“Got it.”
“By the way, do you have enough ammo to deal with the Alien?”
“Not sure. Maybe. Maybe not. It has enormous amount of Health Points. I might run out of ammo before the Alien dies.”
“Okay, I’ll try to help you somehow.”
She didn’t text me anymore.
I emptied the whole magazine into the creature, but it still didn’t move. I dropped the spent mag from the butt grip, pulled a fresh one from a pocket on my vest, and slammed it home. When I swept my pistol up and started firing at the creature again, the Alien suddenly let out with a thunderous roar.
Then the critter opened its enormous mouth and began spitting out fireballs in rapid succession. Activating Acceleration, I leaped to the side. As a few fireballs zipped past me, I felt their heat.
I tried to fire at the Alien’s gaping mouth to inflict critical damage on it. However, with the rate at which the Alien was spitting the fireballs out, it was extremely hard to aim and shoot as I ran. If I slowed down to take careful aim, the fireballs would hit me. So I concentrated entirely on getting away. I raced around the Alien. The creature didn’t try to catch up to me. It continued to stand still in the center of the room, turning to keep me in its line of sight.
I alternately activated Acceleration and Teleportation, doing my best to avoid being hit by the fireballs. Still, some of them slammed into me, inflicting damage on me and placing a fire debuff on my character, causing my Health to reduce over time. When that happened, I employed Shield and used stimulators to recover my Health.
Eventually, the Alien stopped ejecting bursts of fireballs from its mouth. I wasted no time in whipping my epic pistol up and starting pulling the trigger, sending slug after slug into the creature’s bloated body.
After I dumped two or three mags into the critter, its body started to shiver. I wondered what was happening as I reloaded my pistol. Then the sacks attached to the critter’s body opened and started disgorging humanoid mutants. They dropped to the earth, got to their feet, and ran across the room toward me. By the time I put a fresh magazine in the pistol, there were about fifty of them and counting. Dangit! I swept my gun and opened fire.
No way I could get rid of all the mutants before they reached me. The swarm of mutants armed with sharp teeth and long curved claws fought among themselves trying to be the first to reach me.
My pistol clicked on an empty chamber. It had run dry, but I didn’t have enough time to reload it as several of the mutants were on me already. Quickly holstering the pistol, I whipped my sword from its scabbard, took hold of the hilt in both my hands, and swung the sword in a wide arc, going for the neck of the nearest mutant. I felt the sharp edge of the sword bite deep as it severed the mutant’s windpipe, blood spurting in every direction.
Another mutant reached me. I buried the blade in its neck to the hilt. I then twisted the sword and yanked it clear. Blood gushed from the wound as I pulled the sword loose.
Suddenly I felt a twinge of shooting pain from my left arm all the way down to my leg as another mutant raked my flesh with its claws. Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed the Health bar reduce by about twenty-five percent. Dangit! Those mutants dealt lots of damage to me, despite my wearing the legendary leather armor. Had to be real careful from now on.
I drove the blade into the head of the mutant who had wounded me, then reversed my grip on the hilt, and pierced the chest of another mutant that was about to take a swing at me. Yanking the sword free, and leaped backward and turned to confront yet another mutant.
At this moment the unforeseen transpired. My right foot slipped on the smear of blood. Thrown off the balance, I landed on my butt. Several mutants were on me at once, taking advantage of my misfortune. My blade arced in low, taking two mutants in the chests, drawing blood. Two of the mutants were dead in as many seconds. I took a swing at another mutant, but it quickly retreated beyond the range of my weapon.
Then claws whistled through the air in front of me, barely missing my face. Another mutant was about to swing at me. There was no way I could fight my way out of the siege before they slew me.
But I had my psi-powers.
I employed Surge. The dark energy slammed into all the mutants near me and thrown them backward. I leaped to my feet and reached for a stimulator. As soon as I used it to recover my Health, the mutants had me surrounded again.
Before any of the nearest mutants could hit me, I leaped into action again. A stroke of the sword ruptured one mutant’s abdomen, its guts falling out, and then a second swipe chopped off another mutant’s right arm. I turned to meet yet another monster. A shining streak of steel connected with the third mob, slicing through its left wrist as easily as a hot dagger would through butter. Then I slashed again, leaving an inch-deep slit across the mob’s throat. The mutant uttered gurgling sounds, clutching at its neck with its right claw, blood spurting every which way.
I employed a reversed strike to slash my blade across another monster’s chest, the sharp edge slicing several inches into its flesh. I dodged a blow from another mob, then stepped between two mutants, and swung my sword, the blade flashing in the faint light, streaking first to the left, then to the right, slashing into each mutant’s neck, almost severing it.
I pivoted to meet several other mutants, swiping, slashing, chopping, the keen edge of my sword cutting and tearing left and right, the severed limbs and heads flying everywhere, blood abundantly pouring over the ground.
For a moment, there was no mutant nearby. Taking advantage of it, I glanced in the Alien’s direction and almost moaned in frustration. The sacks were still open and disgorging more mutants. Would be there the end of that?
Suddenly, something slammed into my back, sending me down to one knee. I swung my sword once more, plunging the blade into the mutant that had bumped into me. Its arms flailing, its body started convulsing. I finished the monster with another swipe of my sword and got to my feet to find myself circled in again.
I slashed my sword in a vicious semicircle, the blade’s tip slicing open the throats of the near mutants, the mobs gagging, blood dribbling from their mouths. I leaped to the side to dodge the blow of another mutant and plunged the sword into its left eye, bursting it apart. The mutant reached for the sword in a futile attempt to pull it out. Its body quaked, then went limp as its arms dropped to its sides.
As I yanked the sword from the mutant’s head, the blade made a wet slurping sound as it came loose. Then I felt claws rake my back, reducing my HP and causing me to grind my teeth in pain. Employing the Surge psi-power to shove the mutants a few feet away from me, I used a stimulator to heal myself.
One mutant snuck up on me from behind and wrapped its massive hands around my throat. Before I could do anything, another one hopped in front of me and raked its claws across my chest, drawing blood. Between the choke and the swipe, my HP got reduced almost by fifty percent.
Growling in pain and rage, I brought my sword up, the razor point of the blade tearing up into the neck of the mutant in front of me, piercing its jugular vein, going past its jawbone, and lodging itself in the base of its skull, the tip of the sword exploding out its scalp. The mutant gurgled and blood erupted outward from the wound, pouring down its chest as I yanked the sword free.
The other mutant was still choking me. I reversed my grip on the hilt and thrust the blade backward and into the chest of the mutant behind me. The choke was gone. I whipped around and stabbed the mu
tant a few times in quick succession, planting the blade into the mutant’s chest, throat, and face.
Another monster reached me. I met the mob with a blow to its torso, splitting it open. Then I swung my sword at the mutant’s neck, the blade slicing through the flesh and bone with the same ease a sharp knife might cut a paper. As the severed head flew to the side and decapitated body of the mutant collapsed to the ground, I glanced around the room, ready to confront other mobs.
But I found none. Only severed limbs, heads, pieces of gory flesh, and mutilated bodies lay all around me. I looked in the direction of the Alien. All its sacks were closed now.
I quickly pulled and used on myself a couple of stimulators and vigors to recover my Health and Mana respectively. Then I opened fire with my pistol, the bullets tearing into the Alien’s flesh with sickening slurping sounds.
After a few moments, the Alien let out with a roar and started to spit out the fireballs. As I burst into a run, I realized that Jessica’s plan was working. The Alien acted not like an intelligible creature but rather like a Raid Boss, like a common monster. It acted according to a certain behavior pattern just like all the other monsters in the game. The Alien would emit fireballs, then would pause for a few moments, then would disgorge mutants from its sacks, then would pause again. Then the process would repeat.
As the Alien was spewing the fireballs at me, I caught a glimpse of a sudden burst of light off to my right. I glanced in that direction in time to see a chest appear out of nowhere.
Then I got a message from Jessica.
“Max, I tweaked with the game code a little,” she said. “Now I can teleport some chests with ammo and consumables over to you.”
Once I ran up to the chest, its lid flipped open even without my touching it. Inside were a few pistol magazines. I grabbed them as quickly as I could manage before any of the fireballs could hit me.
And so it went.
I fought the mutants and dodged the fireballs, taking ammo and consumable out the chests materializing every now and then. In the time between the Alien’s spitting out the fireballs and disgorging the mutants, I fired at the creature, dealing damage to it.
Glitch Boxset Page 54
