Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure (24 page)

“Now, hopefully that has shocked you out of whatever
complacency you might have been prone to before.  This test is about survival. 
That’s what I expect from the very best among you.  From here on out, Survival
Mode will be in effect for enemies and obstacles in the normal game as well.  The
only way to survive against all the odds is to elevate your play, your
reactions, and your tactics.  You must be smart and you must be quick on your feet. 
The game is not designed for stagnant players.  Those twenty-one that have died
already, let them be the lesson you need to push you forward.  You must be more
stalwart and play smarter than your fallen colleagues.  For those of you that
are still in shock or denial, I assure you that this is real.  Death will be
the only thing that awaits you should you choose to continue to treat this like
a game and play as if you have nothing to lose.  There is no way out but
victory.  You must finish the game with your life intact.  Your log out
functions have been revoked and won’t be reinstated until you complete the main
questline of the game,” Milner explained.

Even as distraught as he was now, Sam knew that Milner’s
promise of escape sounded like a bunch of bull.

“I wish you all luck in your endeavors.  Get strong and
defeat the four fire bearers of the alpha.  See you at the end of your journey.”

Milner faded into light blue pixels then disappeared
completely.  Sam was left with silence and a light wind that he only now
noticed was cold.  He sat back down in front of the Soul Beacon and thought of
all that just happened and how ridiculous it all was.  It was completely
unbelievable, but any hope that he had that it was a hoax was gone as soon as
he saw Robert’s real body get shot four times.  Robert was so close when he had
died, yet so unreachable.  Sam closed his eyes and couldn’t help but to scrunch
them hard as hard as he could.  His virtual tears fell fast as if he were
squeezing water out of a wet rag.

Just what the hell had happened to each of the testers? 
What had happened to Robert?

“I’m so sorry Robert.  What have I done?”

He buried his head into his hands and bent down to the
ground letting his tears fall.

“I shouldn’t be crying.  I killed you.  It’s my fault.”

He gritted his teeth and punched the rocky ground.  He
thought of all those he’d killed, all nine of their names popped into his head
along with the images of their last moments in battle with him.  Their names
scrolled by like credits in a movie.  HolyVermillion.  3Angelo.  Infamous Sampson. 
Call of Carl.  John Washington.  Xpansion Pak.  Dick Rumsfeld.  Spearwife. 
Roburn.

“Never again ... I’ll never kill again.  I swear to all of
you!  I swear it on my life!  I will never take another life, so long as I
shall live.  I swear it.  I swear ...”

******

Sam spent the next twenty minutes staring at the stone snake
totem in front of him, thinking about everything that had happened.  His
thoughts had quickly turned from sadness to bitter anger.  He decided that
Milner was to blame for the deaths of all the testers.  If he had known, Sam
would’ve put an end to his encroachments right away.

It just wasn’t right for Milner to turn on the Survival Mode
and to not inform anyone.  It was a deeply depraved decision.  To put something
like that into the game in the first place required an extremely sick mind, but
to activate it in the middle of a high volume of player versus player matches
was the absolute most detestable thing imaginable.

The bastard had planned all this from the very beginning. 
He had to.  The Miyabi headgear had to have something in it that could do this,
or maybe Milner’s staff had given them all some kind of drug.  And what was
worse, every tester was at that bastard’s mercy.  There was nothing they could
do inside the game.  But there was something else that disturbed Sam.  A
question that kept gnawing at his brain.

Why haven’t the other designers called in on this wacko
? 
Just how many people does he have helping him
? 
What about Alex
? 
The last thought pissed him off more than anything.  He and the other players
put all their trust into these people.  Sam had listened to Alex and believed
her when she said that his body was safe even when he was in pain.

He had trusted her and Anna and Alanna the whole time and
for what?  They had lied to him all along, manipulated him.  It was all a game
to Milner and his staff.  They played with people’s lives as if they meant
nothing and for what, a fucking videogame?  Chelsea lost Robert over a fucking
videogame.

“You lying bitch!  I trusted you!  I fucking trusted you! 
And you led me right to my doom!  All of you should be ashamed!  How could
you?  How can you live with yourselves?  Using people like this!  Liars!” Sam
yelled out at the virtual universe.  His voice echoed off the cave walls.  As
always, it was nighttime in the forest and the silence reminded Sam that he was
alone.

“I won’t play your game!  I WON’T PLAY YOUR FUCKING GAME! 
I’ll sit here until it’s all over!  You hear me?”

“That’s not a good idea, Sam.”

Sam couldn’t believe his ears.  It was really her, Alex.  He
immediately stood up and began pacing.

“You!  You have some fucking nerve.  You liar!” Sam spat the
words at her, contempt in every word.

“I know, Sam ...”

“You know what?  I just killed my best friend because you
and your boss lied to me.  Why didn’t you tell me we were killing each other?”

“I—I couldn’t.  I’m sorry.  But—”

“But what?  What else could you possibly say?  ‘I’m sorry,
but I’m a liar?  A manipulator?  A murderer?’”

Her voice wavered as she replied.

“No Sam.  That’s not what I was going to say.  You can’t
just sit there.  There are protocols in place to prevent ... idleness.  You
have to play if you want to live and you have to win if you want to get out.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it!  None of you told us about
this and now we’re expected to just go along with it?”

“That’s just it, you don’t have a choice.  I’m sorry Sam,
but you’re stuck in there until the end.  You have to progress and you have to
get better.  I know that you hate me, along with the rest of us, but you have
to survive.  You don’t want to die in there.  In a videogame.”

“If you’re so concerned about us, why did you put us in
here?  What do you want?”

“There are things that I can’t tell you Sam no matter how
much I want to, but believe me.  I want to see you out of there.  I’d like
nothing more than to know that you escaped and got to use your bonus to buy
yourself a nice steak.”

“I don’t want your fucking money!  Just let me out of here! 
Let all of us out of here!  I want to see my family!  I want to bury Robert!”

He punched the cave wall with each sentence.  His thoughts
were unrelenting. 
Why did he die?  Why did he have to die?  Why did I kill
him?  Why am I not dead?

“I can’t do that, Sam.  Please, just get through the game. 
Play it carefully, take it slow, be observant.  Be as efficient as possible. 
It’s the only way, Sam.  Don’t just play with your heart, play with your head
too.  Please, even if you hate me, please call me to help you.  I’ll help you
get through this, in what few ways I can.”

“I’m not playing this game!  I’m not some sport for you
psychopaths.”

“Sam please, listen to me,” she pleaded.

“That’s enough, Ms. Madura.  You’ve done all you can do.  He
is just a fool that’s destined to die.  That’s all there is to it.”  Fulton
Milner’s voice filled Sam’s ears just like Alex’s had.  Soon after, Virtual
Milner appeared from the same portal as before, only this time his eyes were
focused intently on Sam.  His mouth was upturned as he regarded Sam with
disgust.

“We’re not in the business of saving those who can’t even
help themselves.  If he is already broken then we have no need for him,” Milner
continued.  “Sad really, but interesting nonetheless.  I knew the lesser
players might have their wills easily broken after my announcement, but I
didn’t think one of the top players would.”

“Shut your mouth, you psychopath!  Stop treating me like a
lab experiment!”

Sam leapt at Virtual Milner and threw a series of punches
right through his head.  The insubstantial lab coated avatar continued on
uninterrupted.

“Ahh, so you aren’t completely broken.  That’s good.  But,
attacking my virtual avatar isn’t the smartest of decisions.  I hope you’ll
make wiser choices in the future.  Now, will you finally move along?  I’d like
to see what kind of data a player like yourself can give under these
circumstances.”

“I told you, I’m not your experiment.  I won’t do what you
want me to do.”

“It’s not about what I want you to do.  It’s about what you
need to do to survive.  This isn’t a game anymore, Mr. Nagai.  The death of
your friend, Robert, should have shown you that.  Alex here really wants to
help you and I’ve instructed all of my designers to do what they can to assist
you.  There’s certain lines that they can’t cross and certain information that
they can’t impart so there is a limit to their helpfulness, but it is there for
you.”

“I don’t trust her or you.  You’re nothing but liars and
murderers.”

Milner simply laughed, the bastard.

“By all means, consider me untrustworthy and call me what
you will.  Hate me even.  But listen up.  There are worst things out there than
liars and murderers.  Remember that, if you survive that is.  As far as Alex
goes, she can’t reveal too much to you.  I won’t hesitate to have her executed
if she interferes with this phase of my project.  On the flipside of that, I’ll
have to have you killed too.  So you see, Alex here has a very tough job.  She
wants to keep you alive and give you tips, but she can’t say too much or else
you and her are both dead.  Regardless, she’s your best lifeline out of here.”

Why was he selling her assistance so hard?  Sam didn’t trust
it and he didn’t trust Alex anymore.  She was a puppet of Milner’s any way you
looked at it and since she was participating in these tests and misleading
players, she was just as much of a murderer as Milner.

“Compared to the rest, you have put on a good performance
inside of the game, but it’s still lacking.  You’d be smart to assume that the
other players will improve greatly under the new conditions of the game, so
you’d be wise to increase your skill level as well.  You need to strive for
greater heights if you wish to clear this game.  Only the best will win and
right now, you’re far from that.”

Was it a competition too?  Milner’s words made it seem that
way.

“I never said I would play your game.”

“Oh you will.  Aside from the protocol that Ms. Madura
briefly mentioned earlier, I believe you have other reasons to continue playing
as well.  We’ll keep that to ourselves, but in the meantime, I do have a reward
for you.  It’s a voice echo that you were tagged in on MediaNet.  Shall I play
it?”

A voice echo?  From who?

“Do what you want.  Not like I can stop you.” Sam said dispassionately.

Virtual Milner smiled at Sam and the message began to play. 
Sam began to cry again as soon as he heard the voice.

“I’m getting so sick of Airhead gamers.  I would’ve already
gone nuts and beat them all silly if I didn’t grow up with one.  Love you
brooooooo, even though you don’t ever answer your phone or reply to my
messages!  See you soon!”

Silence followed Rui’s message and Sam clenched his fist so
hard that it hurt.  He could hear someone sniffling in his ear.

“Silence your microphone, Ms. Madura.”

Virtual Milner and Sam stared each other down.  There was a
knowing expression on both of their faces followed by a smug grin on Milner’s.

“Well Mr. Nagai, it looks like you have some place to be.  I
take it you’ll be participating in phase two.”

All Sam could do was glare at the murderous designer’s
digital avatar.  He found it very easy to hate Fulton Milner.

26
Motivation

“What should I do, father?”

Yoshiyuki Nagai’s familiar expression popped into Sam’s head
quite vividly.  He had a stern look on his deeply lined face as he looked off
into the distance.  Sam would’ve bet any amount of money that this vision was
of his dad fishing.

“Please father, what should I do?”

In Sam’s mind, his father finally turned to face him and his
stern look was dropped for a deep smile of genuine warmth.  Both expressions described
the man his father was easily.  Too bad he wasn’t here to offer his sound
advice.

“I should stop asking dead men how to live.”

Sam huffed at these lingering feelings of frustration,
hopelessness, and helplessness that would not dissipate.  He had moved on from
Barrington’s camp, but had only moved over to the area with the Stumpies.  He
sat under a tree, well away from the enemies, but just couldn’t bring himself
to fight.  He had too much on his mind to do anything effectively.

He thought about the protocols that Alex had mentioned
earlier, Milner’s way of discouraging idleness.  He wondered how long he could
sit before the protocol kicked in and he wondered what the punishment for it
was.  It was instant death, no doubt but Sam wanted to make sure.

“Alex.”

“Yes, Sam?”

At least she was quick to answer.

“I need to know, what’s this protocol about?  The one you
mentioned earlier?”

“You have to ask your questions more specifically, Sam.  I’m
not allowed to give broad answers.”

He thought of how to get the information he needed.

“What initiates the protocol you told me about earlier?”

“Player idleness.”

“How long can a player stay inactive before this protocol
kicks in?”

“I can’t answer that specifically.  What I can tell you is
that you are given enough time to strategize, to focus, and to rest.”

“Does browsing through my menu add to my idle time when I’m
sitting?”

The line was silent.  Sam guessed that Alex didn’t know the
answer offhand or maybe she didn’t know if she could answer it.

“No, Sam.  Menu browsing counts as active play.”

“What’s the punishment for remaining idle over the allotted
time?”

“Death.”

“Instantaneous death?”

“Yes.  It counts as a game over and all game overs result in
the death of your real life body.”

“We get game overs every time we die?”

“No.  Certain conditions must be met to get a game over.”

“What are those conditions?”

“I’m not allowed to tell you any of them, Sam.  I’m sorry.”

“No, you’ve told me enough for now.  I think I can puzzle
out the rest.  Than—”

He cut himself off before he got too comfortable.  She was
the enemy after all.

“Is that all, Sam?”

“Yes.”

“Remember to call me when you need—”

“Okay.”

This time, he ended the call.  He began to think.

I wonder why some of the people I killed weren’t in the
video, Justinian89Thrills for instance.  The game over state is specific, but
what activates it?  Think, Sam, think.  Justinian was a crimson Spirit Walker
when I killed him, so dying as a Walker doesn’t get you a game over or maybe
it’s just when you’re encroaching.

He thought back to those he killed, igniting his self-hatred
once again.  It was necessary to figure out what they all had in common.  Their
avatars were as diverse as you could get, and so were each of the battles. 
Figuring out their commonality wasn’t working, so he instead thought of the
ways they differed from the other players that he had defeated, but not killed.

He replayed every battle in his head, even the one with
Robert.  He felt the heat rise up to his face and tears welling up in his
eyes.  Each encroachment was a sin, sins that would not be easily erased.  The
way he saw it, his sins were permanent.  He had collected them as trophies,
Bloody Tearstones.  He could count them all.  They would follow him as long as
he lived.  Now though, the dead would give him the clues he needed to proceed
forward, so he continued to concentrate.

“That’s it!”

The difference, he puzzled, was quite simple.  At least he
hoped it was.  He needed to do some more experimentation.  But what he noticed
was that everyone in the video that he had killed had been in revenant form, so
were those that Justinian and the others killed.  Those who he defeated earlier
that weren’t in the video, had been in human form.  Sam recalled the envoy
signs he had seen only a few hours earlier.

Revenant is Death!

Need Quintessence.

He wondered who had left such chilling clues.  Had they
known about Milner’s Survival Mode ahead of time?  He also recalled all of Alex’s
warnings about staying in human form earlier.  Now that Sam thought about it,
she was blatantly giving him the clues he needed to survive.  He didn’t quite
know how to feel about that.  Sure, she made sure he was alive, but to what
end?  Entertainment?  Data?  To please her boss?  It was probably all of the
above.

Regardless, he had to stay in human form as much as he
could.  At least he knew that.  It gave him an advantage and was the only way
to ensure that he kept his life.  He made sure to keep a close track of how
much Quintessence he had at all times.

“I guess I’ll give you psychopaths what you want.  Not like
I really have a choice.”

Sam stood up and looked around at the Stumpies in the
trees.  They had provided him with a nice amount of Quintessence earlier, but
now they wouldn’t serve that purpose anymore since the area boss was defeated. 
The only thing he’d get for farming them would be the Stim Plant that they
dropped fairly regularly.  If he needed to restock on that, he’d just return
here, but he wouldn’t need any for a very long time.

“What the heck is that?”

Sam looked ahead, near the boss gate, and saw it once again
covered in a spiritual barrier.  That wasn’t supposed to happen.  Once the area
boss was defeated, the barrier was supposed to dissipate for good, unless ...

You Are Being Encroached Upon By IMMORtAL_Kalika

Oh no!  Fuck no!  Not now!

Sam couldn’t believe what he was seeing.  He had always told
his friends that he had the absolute shittiest luck, but now, this one moment
proved it.  IMMORtAL_Kalika was confirmed to be the best player in the game,
and Sam had already lost two duels against her before, duels he had an
advantage in.  What was he going to do now that Survival Mode was initiated? 
The improvements he had made to his playstyle seemed very insignificant now,
when faced with a player like Kalika.

“Breathe, Sam.  Don’t defeat yourself before you even get to
the fight,” Alex said into Sam’s ear.

“I don’t need your advice,” he said sullenly.

“She’s not unbeatable and what’s more, remember what I told
you before,” she advised.

“I told you, butt out!  I got this.”

Thankfully, she decided to remain silent.  Her interruption was
helpful though.  It had snapped him out of his pity party.  He moved back
towards Barrington’s camp as he formulated his strategy.  The best he could
come up with on such short notice was to take Kalika by surprise.

As long as she still hadn’t seen him, he had a little bit of
an advantage since she was so easy to spot as a crimson Walker.  He also needed
to go to an area with low visibility and very little to no enemies.  If he
could meet those conditions then he stood a very good chance of defeating
Kalika.  The last time they had met, she had even less total HP than he did.

As long as she hadn’t upgraded her HP, if he could hit her
with two or more arrows, then he was almost guaranteed a win.  But that was the
key, he needed to exclusively use only mid to long-ranged attacks and he had to
be quick with them.  Kalika’s parry timing was godly when he faced her before
and Sam was sure that it wasn’t a fluke.

“I know the perfect place,” he said to himself as he ran
past Sedwin and Barrington, then through the ruined fort nearby.  He stopped at
the fallen trees that he and Sedwin had passed before and pulled out his bow. 
Kalika was nowhere to be seen, but that was to be expected.  She probably
wouldn’t reach him for a while, if she ever did.  The best case scenario for
Sam would be to wait her out, until she got bored and went back to her own
plane.  He steadied his breathing and waited with the patience of a hunter.

Kalika proved to be persistent.  After ten minutes, Sam
spotted her coming from the north, near the ruined fort.  Her eyes glowed
bright red and the tell-tale crimson sinner’s mist surrounded her body.  He
took aim, using the more powerful Army Arrows and pulled back on his bowstring
with Kalika in his sights.  She wasn’t moving very fast, so he didn’t have much
difficulty leading his target.

THUNK!

The arrow pierced Kalika’s ghostly form and took away a third
of her HP.

“Geez!  I’m glad I upgraded this thing.  She really needs
more health.”

Now it got harder.  Kalika continued running forward, now
towards Sam, in a random zigzag pattern.  She rolled sporadically as if trying
to predict the intervals of his shots.  Aiming his next shot felt impossible
with the way she was moving.  He wanted to just give up and run towards her,
but he couldn’t squander his range advantage so easily.  He needed to damage
her as much as he could before she was in his face.

He tightened his own movements and timed them with hers.  Her
strange patterns began to make some sort of sense.  His led shot now had what
he guessed was a forty percent chance of landing, the best he could do under
the circumstances.

He was startled when he lost her for a second.  She was now
only a few yards away.  As he anticipated her movements, she suddenly stopped
and stood still under a dark tree.  Sam was shaken by her strange pause, and
had no idea what to expect next.  One thing was certain.  His bow was aimed
right at her chest.

“What are you up to?  I swear, I hate the way you play.”

Sam was still as stone and more focused than he had ever
been in his life.  Kalika, now with her attention focused directly on him,
approached slowly, menace in her every step.

“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you stroll
towards me like that.”

He let loose his arrow and watched it pierce Kalika right in
the chest as he loaded another one.  It did much more damage than he expected, causing
her to stumble backwards and leaving her at under a third of her HP.

“Got your heart, bitch!”

He could feel himself sweating now, a very unfortunate feature
in VR.  Kalika rolled backwards then shook her head and wagged her hands from
side to side like a referee calling a penalty.  She then put her hands up in
front of her with her palms facing Sam, as if to say ‘I’m innocent.’  Sam just
couldn’t buy into the bull of an encroacher feigning innocence while encroaching
on another player in Survival Mode.

“What the hell are you up to?”

He trained his next shot at her chest, once again, but this
time he waited.  He wasn’t sure if she’d make a sudden movement or not.  She
continued to hold out her palms then began to move forward again.

“You must think I’m stupid, Kalika.  I don’t trust you!”

He shot at her again, but she rolled forwards, right over
the shot.

“Dammit!  Skillful bitch!”

He took aim again, but once again Kalika was shaking her
head and standing still.  She took something out of her pocket, leading Sam to
almost shoot her right there.  He waited though, not entirely sure why.  She
knelt down and wrote something in the dirt.  When she was done, her message
glowed white and she backed up a safe distance from it.  She waited then
beckoned Sam forward and pointed at the message.

“Fuck that.  This isn’t reading time.  Have you forgotten
that you tricked me twice before?  Do you think I forgot that?”

Kalika pointed at the message again and shook her head as
Sam remained in his shooting position.

“Come on!  Fuck this!  Stop being weird.  The moment I get
your ass in a box is the moment you want to start playing like a dumbass.”

Sam let out a sigh and continued aiming at Kalika.  When he
saw that she continued to stand still, he became more frustrated.

“Why are you even here?” he yelled.  “If you don’t want to
fight then leave!”

It was pointless.  She couldn’t hear him.  He sighed again
and walked forward with his bow still drawn.  He felt like a fool.

“I can’t believe this.  The moment I get a fucking advantage
...”

Kalika remained still.  She remained at a distance where Sam
could get two more shots on her before she even got to him, so at least he
still had that advantage.  He looked around for any kind of traps that she might
have left, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.  The message she left
was right at his feet.  He tensely read it, never lowering his bow.

Follow The Walker

Relevance 0

“What?  No way!” Sam answered, shaking his head.  The Kalika
Walker placed her hands on her hips then shooed him away.  Sam slowly backed up
to the spot he stood before.

“Oh my god, this is so stupid.”

Kalika’s message faded away and she slowly walked up to the
same spot and wrote another one before returning to a neutral distance.  Sam
walked forward again to read her message.

Helpful Walker, Useful Item Ahead

Relevance 0

Sam lowered his bow and looked at her.  He pointed to the
ground and she erased her message like he’d wanted.  Sam used his menu to
scroll through his inventory and placed his Envoy Scriber into his Quick Select
slot.  He took the magical writing tool in his hand and scribed his message
into the dirt.  The game didn’t allow for messages to be directly written.  You
had to use prewritten terms from an archaic language.  Some of the terms were
easily comprehensible to Sam, despite having no history with the language.  He
picked a word that was easy to understand in all languages.