Glitch Book One (The Glitch Series) Read online

  Glitch: The prologue

  (The first book in a Glitch series)

  by Victor Deckard

  Table of contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Keep in touch

  Prologue

  I woke up with a start. Brilliant light assaulted my eyes at once. I involuntarily closed them again. After a few moments I gingerly raised my eyelids. As light was gradually getting fainter, my surroundings were getting more visible.

  On looking around, I found myself in some vertical container. In front of me was convex transparent full-length door that let me see only a little of the room through it. I got as close to the door as cramped confines of the container allowed me to do so, almost flattening my nose against the cold surface, and set about pounding on the door with my hand clenched into the fist.

  “Is anybody there?” I shouted in hoarse voice. “Let me out!”

  Nobody answered and no one came to my aid. It seemed that this room as well as any adjacent ones were altogether devoid of any occupants.

  I felt a wave of panic wash over my body.

  “How do I get outta here?” I mumbled to myself.

  The thought had barely crossed my mind when a hissing sound filled the air. Then the door drew forward a few inches away from me and flipped open like the door of a cabinet.

  I stepped out of the container and the frigid floor instantly made me constantly shift my weight from one foot to the other. Only then, having cast my gaze downward, did I realize I had almost no clothes on. I wore only a pair of close-fitting underpants.

  I quickly looked around to find myself in an elongated and rather spacious room. It was brightly illuminated, yet I didn’t notice any sources of light. Containers ran the length of the two walls. They bore resemblance to cryogenic pods from sci-fi flicks. Unlike the pod I’d just climbed out, the others were closed tight, although all of them were empty.

  Numerous questions were preying on my mind. What was happening? How had I gotten in here? And what was this place, anyway?

  To make sure my memory served me correctly I commenced going over various facts about my life. So I went by Max. Twenty years old. Have been studying at Technological University of Michigan. Loved, or more specifically, totally adored sci-fi. Well, my memory seemed to be okay. I decided to turn my attention toward the most recent events in my life.

  I had suffered from excruciating headaches a few days prior. Decided to have my head X-rayed for any brain injures. And something happened when I arrived at the city clinic. I was lying on the bed, patiently waiting for the X-ray generator to kick in. Then brilliant light blazed and after that my world went dark. On regaining consciousness, I found myself in this weird place.

  Did I suffer from memory loss? Had something happened after my visiting the clinic? I might have been abducted and moved over to this place. But why didn’t I have any memories of my leaving the clinic? Maybe I had been brained with some heavy bludgeon? I brought my right hand up to my head and felt it gingerly. Still, I didn’t find any bumps, lacerations, or welts. So I hadn’t been given a smack on my head. So why didn’t I remember my having gotten in this place?

  I forced myself to cease brooding over that. I could have been guessing for a way long time, but there wasn’t point in doing it. I’d better find the way out of here instead lest I freeze my ass off. It was extremely cold in here. As I exhaled my breath was visible in the cold air. To get any warmer I rubbed my hands against my upper arms, but all of my efforts were to no avail.

  At the far end of room was a closed door. On reaching it, I came to a stop and began examining it. It was metal and seemingly quite hard to break up. There wasn’t any handle or lever on the surface that I could use for opening the door.

  However, I noticed a flat panel display hanging from the nearby wall. After I gave the matter some thought, I jabbed my index finger into the display. A message written in green letters and saying ‘Open the door’ appeared in the middle of the display. I touched it. Contrary to my expectation, the door wouldn’t open. Instead the message was replaced by another. This one was in red letters and said “Attention! Before you can leave the room, you have got to install the biochip. In order to do that put your left hand into the opening.”

  There was a quiet, unclear sound. Immediately afterward a hole approximately ten inches around appeared in the wall. I bended over to take a peek inside it. It was pitch dark in the hole. I wasn’t all that keen on inserting my hand in there. I walked away from the wall and looked around carefully one more time. There weren’t any other doors, air ducts, manholes, or windows.

  Looked like that door was the only way out of the room. I went over to it and commenced banging at it with my clenched fist once more. The noise was extremely clamorous.

  “Hey, help me!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Let me out! Does anyone hear me?”

  Having ceased yelling, I pressed my ear to the hard surface of the door. No sound came from the other side. I waited for anyone to reply for ten or so seconds. When nothing happened I clenched my hand into the fist to start pounding again. But I never did. Some thought came to my mind.

  What if I had actually been kidnapped? Maybe I shouldn’t draw attention to myself? For pissed thugs might race over and beat the hell out of me. I’d best try and find the way out on my own. But how?

  I cast a glance at the display. Seemed like I had no choice but to comply with the instruction on the flat panel display. I stood there for a few moments mustering up my nerve for what I was going to do.

  Finally, I made my mind up. Taking a deep breath, I raised my left hand and very slowly and warily placed the very tips of my fingers into the opening. And nothing happened. Having awaited some time, I inserted my had just a tad farther into the hole. And again, nothing happened. Then it occurred to me that maybe there was a button somewhere in the hole that I had to pinch. The thought made me feel more confident and I inserted my hand a few inches farther in the hole.

  Out of the blue, I felt something hard clutched at my hand and pulled my arm into the hole almost to my shoulder. Immediately metal cuffs, which felt cold against my skin, wrapped around my wrist and elbow. I tried to break my arm free from the grip, but it was no use. Those devices got my arm fixed in a secure position and I couldn’t budge it. Fear rose in me. Something really bad was about to happen, I could feel it in my bones. I was wrenching my arm, trying to get it free, but all my efforts were in vain.

  Something sounded behind the wall. I stilled myself, listening to the noise. It was growing louder and then a pang of sharp pain shot through my arm. The pain was so excruciating as if a red-hot, incandescent poker had been pressed against my arm. Unable to bear such severe pain, I even cried out.

  However, in a second the pain suddenly began to fade away and after another second it completely vanished. I stopped yelling. My arm no longer hurt like nothing had just happened. The cuffs snapped open. Nothing held my arm now so I hastily pulled it out of the hole and looked it over.

  Something immediately caught my eye. It was emerald-shaped translucent thing and it was giving off faint blueish glow. The crystal, or whatever it was, sat just beneath my wrist on the opposite side of my palm. I touched the thing. It felt quite hard and a bit cool. Tried to remove it from my arm, but it did no good. The crystal was embedded into my flesh so securely I seemed not to be able to extract it on my own.

  Before I could get scared or reflect on the reason for implanting the thing into me flesh, I got aware of some strange thing. I averted
my gaze away from the crystal and turned my head to the side. At the right, bottom edge of my field of vision were several bars that weren’t there a minute prior. They appeared after the planting of the crystal.

  The top bar was red-colored. Just above it hovered a small cross-shaped icon inside a circle. Such a symbol one can usually find on a first aid kit. The middle bar was blue. Above it was a flame-shaped icon. And above the bottom one, which was green, poised a running-person icon. On the other side at the left, bottom corner of my vision was an outline of a rectangle. Just above the bottom edge of my field of vision was a pretty long and thin bar with a three letters saying EXP.

  I just stood there for a few seconds rooted to the spot. All these bars and icons bore resemblance to an HUD, i.e. head-up display, of a game’s user interface. That’s right! I had played many video game in my life so I knew what I was talking about. The red bar was nothing but a health bar. The blue one was a mana bar or in other words, some magic energy used for casting spells. And the green one with a running-person icon was an indicator of fatigue.

  I also guessed that the rectangle at the left, bottom corner of my vision was a log used for showing system or private messages. And the long, thin bar with the EXP letters above it was an experience bar. Anyone who have ever played roleplaying video games would recognize it. The empty space inside the experience bar would fill when I received experience points for the completion of quests, killing monsters, you name it.

  I shook my head from side to side. Wherever I looked all the bars, icons, the experience bar, and the log always remained in their respective places.

  All of a sudden a message popped up before my eyes.

  > You have just received a new quest!

  > Name: “First steps”

  > Goal: Look at the biochip and examine the Main Menu.

  > Reward: +10 exp

  Once I read the message it instantly disappeared. So the goal was to look at the biochip. But what exactly was it? Was the biochip the thing that was fixed in my arm? I bet it was. There was a message at the flat panel display saying I had to install a biochip. Well, okay.

  Having raised up my left hand, I looked at the crystal. Nothing happened. I fixed it with an intent gaze for a few seconds. Nothing happened. Then I squinted at it and opened my eyes wide, but there was no dice. I decided to do over again. Turned my eyes away from the crystal and then looked at it once more. Tried to look into the very inside of it where the faint bluish glow was coming from. Unexpectedly a few lines turned up in front of my eyes.

  > Character

  > Inventory

  > Skill tree

  > Crafting

  > Quests

  > Map

  > Encyclopedia

  > Help

  > About the game

  > Quit

  I examined all the information and took a long breath. So now I could say beyond a shadow of a doubt that it all was just a location in some exceptionally vivid, realistic video game.

  I locked my gaze onto the Main Menu once more. Something was progressively worrying me. Nearly every button was illuminated by white color. The Quit button was the only one that was gray-colored for some weird reason. I stared at it for very long, but nothing happened.

  I then shifted my gaze toward the Help menu. After a moment the Main Menu disappeared from sight and a new piece of information emerged.

  > General:

  > Tip #1

  > (Show the tip: Yes/No)

  > (Return to the Main Menu: Yes/No)

  I looked intently at the former ‘Yes’ button and the page refreshed.

  > General:

  > Tip #1

  > During your walkthrough of the game you will be receiving various tips. You can read them in the Help menu.

  > (Hide the tip: Yes/No)

  > (Return to the Main Menu: Yes/No)

  I returned to the Main Menu and switched to the About the game menu. Still, there was little to no useful information.

  > The game is in an early access! It means that the developers are still working on the game. So with the releases of new versions, the game might be constantly changing.

  > The current version of the game: 1.0

  I switched back to the Main Menu and commenced ‘clicking’ on various buttons. I looked into each menu. I did that not because I was curious, but rather because I wanted to make sure that all the other menus could be opened without any trouble. After a few minutes of practice, I even taught myself to open each menu with no delay at all.

  After that I turned my attention to the Quit button once more. Nothing happened. All the other buttons from the Main Menu could be easily activated, but the Quit button wouldn’t work. Unlike the others it was gray-colored, which meant it was inactive. Seemed like the person responsible for my having gotten inside the game wasn’t all that keen on letting me out of this virtual world.

  I averted my eyes away from the crystal and lowered my arm. The Main Menu instantly disappeared. After a moment a message appeared before my eyes.

  > The ‘First steps’ quest accomplished! You have received the award: +10 exp!

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the experience bar painted one-tenth white.

  I found it funny that on having awaken, I had been in a state of panic. Having woken up to the fact that I was confined to the narrow space of the cryo-pod had scared the heck out of me. I just couldn’t have believed all this had been happening for real.

  It seemed to me as though I had been lying on the bed in the clinic only ten minutes prior. Then I suddenly turned up in here. I was unexplainably carried from the year 2018 to the distant future. And not just to the future but into this video game. It was so unbelievable that I just couldn’t buy it. So yeah, I must be just having a dream. It was an exceptionally vivid, detailed, realistic but nevertheless a mere dream. So I didn’t have to have any worries on that score.

  Or maybe it wasn’t a dream after all? Assuming I didn’t suffer from memory loss, then I was mysteriously transferred from my present day to the far future. It couldn’t have happened of its own accord. So there was someone having their crooked finger a in the pie. But who?

  I remembered reading some great sci-fi novel. It described a world of the distant future where time machines and time travel were as ordinary stuff as cell phones in our world. The story of the book was about some evil corporation. Pursuing its mercenary goals, members of the corporation, using one of such time machines, adduced one plain guy, the protagonist of the story, from his present day and carried him to the future.

  So maybe something like that had happened to me, too? Somebody might have kidnapped me and inserted me into this video game. But who might have needed to do such a thing? And why? I didn’t have answers to these questions.

  Anyway, I had to move on. If it was just a dream, then nothing dangerous would befall me. If it all was actually happening-Well, then I had to find other players and ask around. For all I knew, such things as time abductions and insertions of victims into video games might be commonplace here. Maybe I even would be able to find a person responsible for my being here and make him send me back to my present time. What? The protagonist of that novel was actually able to pull it off.

  I walked over to the display on the wall and looked at the message in the middle of the screen that said ‘Open the door’. Once I tapped the button a soft click sounded and the door split into two parts that slid in the opposite directions before hiding themselves in the walls. The door opened to a hallway. I reached the far end of it, clicked open another door, and found myself in a small room.

  A message popped up before my eyes.

  > You have just received a new quest!

  > Name: “Gear up”

  > Goal: Examine the room and gather everything useful up.

  > Reward: +10 exp

  I looked around. There were several bulky, cumbersome cabinets. At the other end of the room was a door. A flat panel display hung from the nearby wall. A message writ
ten in red letters in the middle of the screen said ‘The door is locked!’

  At the far corner of the room was a full-length mirror. I walked over to it and took a look at the reflection. I saw myself, a lean guy with plain face and short-cropped black hair.

  It was interesting. Most video games I’d played had integral character editors that allowed the player to customize their avatar. Still, this game seemed to not have such a feature. Here the player’s avatar looked exactly like the player himself or herself. I had almost no doubt that my real body was now seated in a cozy armchair, with a virtual reality helmet mounted on the head, through which my mind was now wandering around this virtual world. So looking in the mirror I was regarding not myself but just my avatar.

  A message appeared in the log brought me out of my reverie.

  > The player Stan didn’t make it through the night! He was burned alive!

  While I was reading the message, another one popped up.

  > The player Christine didn’t make it through the night! She was boiled in the acid to death!

  I seemed to feel chills run up my spine. Sure players more often than not perished in video games. But why did the game inform other players about some other player’s having been killed? And those two players had died such horrible deaths. I had a gut feeling that something was terribly wrong.

  To distract myself from brooding I set about looking into all the cabinets. While I was tossing the room a few more messages about players’ deaths appeared in the log. Seemed like something extremely dangerous was going on in the street, what with all these numerous deaths.