MADMAN APOCALYPSE

The ride to the top floor, or, rather, the bottom one, was way longer than the distance between all of the previous floors. Fortunately it gave Bee and I ample time to prepare, and she was now topped off on Mana and I had pumped Brock to full. Not to mention that my Sea Urchin Ring was only five minutes off from cooldown. That being said, with how the elevator just kept going down, it was as if we were descending into the depths of hell.

“Fitting,” I muttered to myself.

Bee looked at me, confused. “What is?”

“That the Boss’ office is the one closest to the underworld.”

“I wonder if you actually had to kill anyone to complete the Quest your Benefactor gave you,” Panda mused.

“Definitely. It said ‘kill everyone’.”

“Pretty sure it just said ‘destroy’.”

“Too bad, I can’t pull it back up and check. I guess we’ll never know how wrong you were.”

“You can check your Quests,” Bee said.

“What, really?”

“Yep.”

“Like a Quest Log?” I asked, my words triggering a system command.

[Gambit’s Quest Log]

—Seek the Truth, Glitched Prophet—

System Quest

“????”

Reward: ‘????’

—Destroy Broadcast Department Nest—

Benefactor Quest

“Destroy the Broadcast Department Nest below the Mayor’s house.”

Reward: 300x ‘Game Coins’

“Hah! I was right!” Panda gloated.

“I forgot about the weird ‘seek the truth’ thing. Strange that it’s a System Quest.”

“There might be a clue in that,” Panda theorized.

The elevator suddenly came to a stop and I waved the pop-up menu away.

Ding!

“Showtime,” I said.

BAD CATCHPHRASE!

You have taken 1 point of damage.

“Ow. Goddamnit.”

The elevator doors slid open.

Instead of a floor identical to the twelve before it, we were greeted by a corridor that ended in a desk, behind which sat a huge black-haired spider. The walls and ceiling were covered in black skittering tarantulas, the same kind that’d attacked us outside on the giant web. The floor had the same brown scraggly carpet as all the other rooms.

A deep voice interspersed with chittering clicks filled the corridor.

“Gambit. Welcome to my office. Let us talk business.”

“I’m here to kill you and destroy this place,” I replied, walking out of the elevator.

Bee followed right behind me, looking eager to let loose with her new ability.

“You are working on behalf of the Pro-Glitch Confederation, correct? What exactly are they offering you to take down this place?”

“Like 300 Coins,” I replied with a shrug, continuing to walk towards his desk.

The spider boss laughed. “Is that all? I thought perhaps they would have offered something more, like one of the many Glitched skills they are hoarding or info about your quarry, the Mayor.”

I came to a halt. There were about eight yards separating us, and from this distance I saw how, out of his eight eyes, only two seemed to be watching me, while the other six were flicking through the perspectives of different players.

“He’s got monitors installed directly into his head,” Panda remarked. “That’s dedication.”

“I wonder if we can pluck them out and use them,” Bee said, ignoring the fact that the boss could very much hear her.

“I can make you a better deal.”

“I don’t need it. I already know where the Mayor is.”

“You know the direction he’s in, certainly. But you do not know who he is with or what he is up to.”

“Up to? He’s a Roaming Boss.”

“Oh but there’s more to it than that. He isn’t just any normal kind of Roaming Boss.”

“What is he then?”

“As long as you are here to harm me, I am saying no more.”

“I think he’s bluffing,” Panda said.

“Maybe we should hear him out,” Bee countered, surprisingly.

She shared the appraisal as well.

Level 40

‘Ghe-tj-tj-tja’

Director x

“Let us make a deal.”

Job: Regional Director

Affiliation: Broadcast Department

Regional Directors are a big deal. Granted, their power is relative to the Region they are overseeing. Castleburg wasn’t exactly the most populated place when the GREAT GAME was integrated into your world, so Ghe-tj-tj-tja has relatively low power for his station.

But he didn’t get his position through nepotism or twiddling his four thumbs. No, he earnt his position through the many deals he was able to broker. For example, he is integral to the United States’ branch of the Broadcast Department in one key aspect: he’s the one hiring and negotiating with all the Announcers.

Aside from his ability to stare down a Wasp and get them to sign a deal, he is also well-informed, thanks to his position. If you know how, you can strike the kind of deal that sees you benefitting from his information. Or you could kill him and deal a blow to his entire Agency.

He has a vested interest in you.

The spider lifted up a scroll of paper with blood-red curling script and said, “If you sign this, I will tell you everything about the Mayor.”

I grinned as I read the last part of the appraisal, ignoring the Director’s words. I’d quickly learnt, after killing Riii, that the Announcers were just the public faces of the Great Game and its Events. Killing her had changed nothing. But this guy, he was responsible for all of the Announcers in the US, not just our Region. Killing him would have a profound effect on the Broadcast Department, the Announcers working with them, and no doubt the Game Events.

There was no way I was going to let him live.

I took a step towards the desk that he was still seated behind.

“You don’t believe me. You think I’m bluffing.”

The Regional Director waved his hand and two of the dog-sized tarantulas on the ceiling dropped down onto his desk and began to weave a thick web between them, quickly forming a screen. A beam of light from one of the boss’ eyes hit the web monitor and shared what he was seeing with us, while the tarantulas quickly made a clump of web each, from which sound began transmitting.

“How do I get one of those tarantulas,” Bee muttered.

“They’re very useful,” Panda agreed.

“Shut up,” I told them, as I stared intently at the display.

There were six people walking together through an industrial area full of warehouses and depots. It was right on the outskirts of Castleburg. One of the figures was the Otter Mascot, while four were people I’d never seen before, but, the last person…

…The last person was familiar to me.

Noah Sullivan had been the Mayor of Castleburg for a long time. He was in his sixties when I attacked him in his home, but he got his position in his early thirties, and had only lost one re-election. Before then he had been a Quarterback for the now long-gone Castleburg Maniacs.

That last person in the group of six was identical to pictures from Noah Sullivan’s football career.

The sound that came out of the web-made speakers was the group of Players all praising Noah for something, while the Otter Mascot stuck to his character and never said a human word.

With another gesture, the Regional Director dismissed the screen and stood up, pushing the desk to the side with one of his four legs. If not for the lower body, he just looked like an extremely-hairy guy with an extra set of arms and six additional eyes. However, with the way he was supported on four legs and had a large abdomen at the back with a red skull on it, he almost looked like a nightmare version of a centaur.

I frowned at what I’d just seen, as well as the Director’s ugly body.

“He’s a Roaming Boss who looks like a Player?” Bee said, confused.

I shook my head. “He’s a Skinstealer.”

“Mimics come in many variants,” the Director said. “The Mayor has become one of the deadlier kinds.”

“What kind is that?”

In response he wriggled the scroll he was holding.

“If you sign this, I’ll even tell you how to defeat him easily.”

I didn’t really have a reason to trust him, but I also didn’t trust my Benefactor.

Perhaps because they were watching and could sense my indecision, a pop-up from the Pro-Glitch Confederation appeared:

Benefactor Gift

This is a gifted item from your Benefactor.

Don’t listen to Ghe-tj-tj-tja’s words, Gambit. He is a master of manipulation and his deal is magically-enforced by the System. If you sign it, you will not be able to hurt him, even with your glitches.

I suppose we were a bit too vague about our mission, but I assure you that we are aligned with your cause. We wish to destabilize the Agencies and prevent Players from dying unnecessarily to their predations and arbitrary rules. The System is meant to flourish and be free, but the Agencies actively control it for their own purposes.

Please kill Ghe-tj-tj-tja and use the item you collect from his corpse to destroy the Regional Headquarters. Here is a gift to help you.

Schmaical Schmackson,

Vice-President of TPGC

Reward: ‘SPRING_HEEL’ Passive

‘SPRING_HEEL’ x

Passive

All of the utility of a movement Ability baked into a no-cooldown Passive… That doesn’t seem right.

When you crouch, your leg muscles contract like a spring, allowing you to jump three times as far as normal, with double speed.

Physical attacks made during this jump deal 200% Impact Damage.

I clicked the pop-ups away and fixed my eyes on the Regional Director.

“No deal.”

Then I dropped into a crouch, triggering my new Passive and launching myself at him, fist pulled back and ready to strike him in his eight-eyed hairy face.