Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure (6 page)

He held his breath and peeked around at it.  Even in the
dark, he could see that its back was to him.  His sight was pretty good, now that
he was accustomed to the dark.  He inched forward just a little more, then felt
a shiver followed by a cold sweat.  He stopped in his tracks immediately
knowing something was wrong.  The plant creature raised its purple leafy head
to the sky and shrieked.  It was a dreadful sound and Sam felt another wave of
cold come over his body.  The dreadful noise sounded like a whistle, a cry, and
a scream at the same time, together carrying a foreboding melody.  Sam had
never heard anything like it.  He slowly and quietly crouched and watched the
surrounding forest for any signs of movement.

Is this thing calling someone?  Does it know I’m here? 
Is ... is it singing?

He was ready to run at a moment’s notice, but the leafy
thing was still staring up at the sky and there was no movement in the forest
around them.  Perhaps he’d found his first glitch.  He didn’t dare stop and
report it now.  He wanted to see what the creature would do next.  It hadn’t
transformed or anything and its behavior seemed to remain the same.  It didn’t
even seem to know he was there.  Once it started moving, he moved with it.  It
seemed to be moving back to where he’d first heard its footsteps.  Compared to
Sam, the thing was a heavy stepper.  It loudly crunched all manner of foliage
under foot as it passed its original location.

When it stopped again, Sam made sure to get even closer. 
This time he was quick to look around for other approaching movements.  He only
made his move when he was certain he saw no other movement in the forest and
his moves were quick, clean, and quiet.  With three silent steps he was at the
monster’s back and with one swift motion he plunged his Dagger deep into it. 
He felt the thing shiver and saw it wilt as the cold Dagger pierced through
wood and found its target.  The thing had some kind of soft organs inside of it;
Sam could feel whatever he had struck squirming around his blade.  He
instinctively kicked the creature off of his dagger and pulled the blade away
as it fell to the ground.  He had successfully gotten a special backstab on the
creature, meaning he had effectively done at least triple his normal damage to
it.  His Dagger and gloves were now covered in the beast’s dark blue blood.

After attacking it, he was able to see its health bar.  He
watched as it quickly diminished—only it stopped diminishing a little more than
halfway and the creature started moving on the ground.

Sam whispered his panic under his breath: “Are you fucking
kidding me?”

The critical blow had allegedly done three to four times
normal damage and it still only took down slightly more than half the
creature’s HP.  Sam’s class was ridiculously weak.  Or maybe this enemy was
just too strong.

“I can’t believe this.  Come on, get up!  Let’s go!”

Sam tried to position himself at the creature’s back as it
was rising, but the thing quickly turned to face him as if it knew his
thoughts.  He quickly struck it two times with a slash and a stab at its arms
and chest doing damage that was barely noticeable.  The critical damage for the
backstab must’ve been much higher than he’d anticipated, like twice as high. 
Now, his attacks didn’t seem to be doing even a single percent damage to it. 
The thing lashed out at him with its pointed claws and he barely dodged it with
an instinctive side roll.  It was as if the game had assisted him with the
maneuver.  His movement was much smoother than anything he could muster in real
life and he noticed that he cleared a long distance.  He was quickly on his feet
and nearing the creature’s back again.

The rolling motion had made him feel a little dizzy, but he
ignored that and tried to get in close.  The creature extended its brown leafy
arms out at its sides and they grew large wooden spikes that hardened to a
darker brown.  The creature then spun its upper body around in a deadly
contortionist’s twister.  Sam was too close and reactively raised his Deflector
in a parrying motion.  The panicked parry was way too early and Sam was left
wide open to the creature’s attack.  The backhand blow was solid and sent Sam
sprawling down onto his back.

The pain felt too real.  Sam could actually taste the blood
in his mouth.  It made him wonder what was happening to his real body as he
played the game.  It made him want to quit.  But there was an urge deep in the
primal part of his brain that didn’t want to die, no matter if he was in real
reality or virtual reality.  It made him rise to his feet for his own survival.

The blow had taken a little over a third of his total health
and the creature was approaching to attack again.  Now on his feet, Sam knew
what his next move would have to be.  With his current class, he could only
play in a reactionary way.  He’d have to capitalize on an enemy’s mistakes and
punish them for it.  Now that this thing was guarding its back so well from his
attacks, he only saw one good option, but he had to wait for a good chance to
use it.

Sam stood at a disadvantageous middle range from the
creature that he now decided to call Hardass.  He stood straight ahead of it,
prepared to dodge at a moment’s notice.  Hardass whipped its stretchy leaf-like
arms and razor sharp claws at Sam.  Sam dodged to the left, out of the creature’s
way.  The move was guaranteed to put him at the creature’s back again—but the
creature’s response felt off.

“Oh crap!  Screw you, Hardass!”

That whipping motion had been a feint.  Before Sam had even
made it to his feet, Hardass was priming for another attack.  It stretched its
thorny limbs all the way over to him.  One of the claws took on a spear-like
shape and pierced his chest, while the other struck him in the face, cutting
into much of his flesh and drawing blood.  It hurt like hell and even when it
recalled its limbs, Sam’s body was left with a feverish feeling.  He had lost half
of his health this time and now it was steadily decreasing even more.  There
was a constant buzzing sound in his ear, like some small object was dunked into
acid nearby.  That’s when he noticed that his own health bar display in the
upper left hand corner had the words
POISONED
over it in huge red letters. 
His health bar itself was deep purple now.

“Great.  I’m going to die in the first few minutes of this
game.”

And the worst part of it was that he knew it would hurt,
more than any pain he’d felt before.

5 Yesterday

The previous day, 6:23pm.

As Sam was pulling the large cola out of the grocery bag,
the cell phone that was also in his hand buzzed and somehow his useless hands
dropped both the cola and the phone.

“I don’t even know how the hell I did that,” he said after a
long sigh.

Sam cursed his horrid coordination, bad reflexes, horrible
luck, and whoever was calling him at the moment.  The cola was shaken, but he planned
on putting it in the fridge anyway and his phone was still in good shape
despite the horrible fall it took.  This day just wasn’t going well for him,
but it was just a microcosm of his life as a whole.

Where was his life headed?  Suddenly, he didn’t know.  He
was feeling fine until his immature girlfriend had decided to break up with him
for the umpteenth time.  That wasn’t the bad part.  He was fine with removing
her from his life.  All she ever brought him was confusion and some
ridiculously high standards that even she didn’t understand.  He was at the
point now where even getting laid wasn’t worth dealing with her BS.  He would’ve
ended it soon himself if she hadn’t.

The bad part about the whole breakup was her deciding to do
it over the phone while he was out grocery shopping even when he told her he’d
talk about it later once he got home.  She wouldn’t stop talking to let him get
a word in.  All he could do was listen to her yap about how much of a little
boy he was and how he needed to grow up and outgrow videogames.

Not like it was his job to play the damn games.  Not like he
was using the cash from the jobs to further his art and design career.  Not
like he was making important contacts in the games industry with each and every
job that he worked.  No, he was simply wasting his time being a kid and not
pursuing a real career, whatever that meant.

To a small degree, she was right, because he sat on the
phone and listened to her crap, like a good little boy, for over an hour whilst
angrily plodding through the store with his tiny basket.  The five items he’d
gathered by the end of the call did not warrant the hour-long stay roaming the
aisles.

By the time he got home to his apartment, he was already
exhausted.  Today was supposed to be a good day.  He wanted a good start and a
good mood going into tomorrow’s gig since he counted on it being a fun one, but
of course she had to ruin it.

He stared at his phone on the kitchen floor and waited for
it to stop ringing before he picked it up.  He had no desire to talk to Michelle
again, now or ever, so he put the phone on the table with the projector facing
downwards.  He first put up the cola and the rest of his groceries then put the
bags in the recycler under the counter.  He finally picked up his phone after
and checked to see who called, in case it wasn’t Michelle.  It was actually his
sister, Rui, who’d called, and was now calling right back.  He answered on the
first ring.

“Hello.”

“You’re too good to answer my first call now?” His sister
sounded like a pixie.  The phone couldn’t contain her crazy energy.  Her voice
came through so loud he had to move the phone away from his ear a little.

“Come on, Ru, I don’t need your shit right now too.”

He decided to put the phone on the table to project her
image.

“Project, Ru!” he said strongly.  He then sat down and
watched the phone project his darling little sister as an aqua blue 3D image. 
She was lying down somewhere, probably her bed or the living room sofa, with an
annoyed look on her face.

“Project, Butt Head!” she yelled, annoying Sam with the way
she changed his name in her contacts list.

“Lighten up, jerk.  You know I’m just kidding.  What’s wrong
with you anyway?” she asked sitting up and pushing the hair from her face.

“I don’t want to talk about it, to be honest,” he said after
a long sigh.

“You don’t have to.  I can hear it in your voice.  It’s Michelle
again, isn’t it?”

“I told you I don’t want to talk about it.”

She persisted.

“We both know that Michelle isn’t worth your time anyway. 
She’s more confused than girls I go to school with and she’s had eleven more
years than us to figure this out.”

He wondered if she already knew about the breakup, but
figured it wasn’t possible.

“Figure what out?” he asked giving her a suspicious stare.

“That girl’s just confused about life in general.  She needs
help with it all,” she said, stretching.  She then got up and started walking. 
Sam was annoyed when he saw her choice for an outfit.  Her dress was way too
short.

“You only met her that one time.  How do you know what she’s
confused about?  And how did you convince Mom to let you out of the house like
that.”

“She came to my dance program with Mom that time you didn’t
show up.  Me and Mom talked to her after and I could tell then that she was a
ditz.  And I’m inside the house, genius!  I can wear what I want.”

She always had a way of making him feel guilty without even
trying.

“I apologized for not showing up for that,” he said looking
at the floor.

“I’m not accusing you of anything, jeez!  But anyway, she
doesn’t know what she wants.  I hope you figured that out by now,” she said,
sitting her phone on a table and grabbing something from the fridge.

“I’m a scatterbrain, not an idiot, Ru, and I don’t need any
dating advice from my sixteen year old sister.  So let’s stop talking about Michelle. 
I’m trying to forget her.”

“Good.”

There was a brief silence on the line.  Sam hadn’t expected
such a brief response from his sister.

“So why’d you call me?”

“Dad’s birthday is coming up.”

“And?”

She stopped what she was doing and looked right at him,
furious.

“And stop being a dick.  Mom wants you home, asshole.”

Sam could only blame himself the vulgar part of his sister’s
vocabulary, so he was never hypocritical about it.

“I don’t know why.  It’s been five years.  I can remember Dad
and pay tribute to him in my own way and she can too.  We don’t always have to
eat together.  It’s so inconvenient to have to drive all the way home like
that, especially when I have other gigs I have to work.”

Rui huffed and slapped her forehead.

“Why do you have to be that way?  You know she just wants to
see you and to have us both around.  It’s special to her.”

“Then she needs to get off my back.  She’s been worse about
nagging me since Dad’s been gone.  I just don’t want to hear it, Ru.  I get
enough of that crap from Michelle and even you.”

She sat down and finally annoyed with it, gathered her long
hair into a ponytail.

“Hey, don’t lump me in with Michelle!  While I think you
have some really childish hobbies, at least I can see that you’re trying to
make a living from your gaming.  And all Mom wants is for you to be safe and
stable.  She doesn’t want to have to worry about you being homeless out in LA
or something.  And Michelle’s just an idiot, so her concerns don’t matter.”

She was right.  Rui always had a good head on her
shoulders.  She could see the bigger picture, unlike most people.  There were
some days where Sam was forced to wonder if the girl had more sense than him
despite being almost half his age.

“I know.  I just don’t want to hear it, Ru.  I don’t need
her nitpicking every little thing.”

“Stop whining!  It’s just one day and you can go back to
doing whatever you do right after and continue ignoring us.”

“I do not ignore you!”

She gave him an exaggerated wide-eyed look as if he’d said
something crazy.

“Pfffft!  I was starting to wonder if I even had an older
brother.”

That dig really cut at Sam, despite his sister’s
facetiousness.  He wasn’t around his family as much as he should be and he knew
it.

“Okay, enough with the guilt trip!  I’ll come.  Tell Mom
I’ll be there.  I made sure to take that day off next week, but I’ll be busy
for the rest of this week and for the days before and after Dad’s birthday,” he
said, staring at the ground in defeat.

Sam wasn’t looking, but he could hear Rui’s victorious
giggling on the other end of the line.  It made him smile despite the fact that
she had him wrapped around her little finger.

“You should feel guilty.  It’s your own fault anyway.  You
can make it up to me by giving me some brotherly advice about boys.”

Oh no
.

Sam plotted the ways to get off the phone.

“I’ve been dating this airhead named Kyle, who’s a gamer
like you.  Is that something all you gamers have in common, lack of common
sense?  Anyway, Kyle’s cute, but he lives in his own world.”

“Aren’t you too young to be dating anyway?” Sam interrupted.

“I’m sixteen, not twelve.  And please don’t interrupt unless
you have some good advice for me.”

“You only need to know one thing Ru.  Boys are pigs.  Just
keep your nose in the books.”