MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Chapter -93 (Patreon)

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Just realised I left last chapter up with a title stating 91 ... that's the problem with working into the night and not finishing until 3am, lol.

Tomorrow, the last chapter of Book 1 hits RoyalRoad and then the new cover that I revealed on the previous chapter will go live.

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Chapter -93

I grumbled at the achievement and the fast-food-restaurant-birthday-party-looking crown that appeared in my hands. Normally I would have torn it to shreds and tossed it to the wind, but I threw it in my inventory since I could think of some uses for it.

Bee and I were finally on the move again, but the damn beacon on my head was already attracting attention towards us. It seemed fairly obvious that most of the people in the Madeville area was heading to Castleburg, and the two glowing beacons in a row had drawn them into our path.

I’d already activated my new ‘Personal Rule’ passive and given myself Cheat Death, though I doubted I’d actually need it, since I’d been fine thus far.

With a kickflip, I leapt off the ground on my longboard, catching its wheels on a broken lamppost and grinding along it, much to the excitement of the board.

[SPECTACULAR!]

A spinning arrow whistled above my head from one of our pursuers, but Bee was doing a good job returning fire from the air. We’d killed two Players thus far, but it barely scratched their numbers.

Fortunately, the various groups didn’t work together, which we were using to our advantage, running them into one another and causing impromptu skirmishes to unfold.

I hopped off the lamppost and hit the roof of a car, which inexplicably sent me skyward with a bounce. Having built up enough momentum through chaining several tricks together, I was able to fly high enough to land atop the edge of a five-story apartment building and continue grinding along the gutter, which really created a lot of distance to our pursuers.

“Turn right here!” Bee yelled as she swooped down towards me, keeping us on target by tracking the streets from the air. For some reason, Panda was sitting on her shoulder instead of mine.

Flipping my board as I reached the corner of the building, I was able to instantly change the direction of my momentum.

“This thing wasn’t kidding when it said that it broke physics.”

Down below me were Players who were being overrun by monsters coming out of a barbecue restaurant and breathing scented smoke and fire, setting the whole street ablaze.

“Left!” Bee yelled and I quickly scanned the gutter I was still grinding along for a way to ramp over to the apartment building on the other side.

Before I could figure out what to do, two arms caught me and lifted me across the fifty-foot gap. The longboard was stuck to the bottom of my soles as I soared through the air.

I craned my neck around to thank Bee for the assist.

Except… it wasn’t Bee.

I was body-slammed into the flat stone roof of the building and the board disappeared off my feet from the damage. The back of my head was the first to hit and it rang like a church bell. My Carapace Suit was also sanded to a nice polish, as I tore across the roof with my attacker pinning me down, while he himself remained in the air.

He wore a yellow raincoat with the hood up, totally obscuring his face in shadow, though two white perfectly-round eyes stared back at me from within. Fluffy grey-white angel wings sprouted from his back and he wore green rubber boots with frog faces on the front.

Before we could even come to a rest, Bee flew in from the side and tore the guy off of me. They stumbled over each other, rolling again-and-again. As soon as they came to a halt, Bee was the first on her feet and she released a point-blank Moth Missile into his prone body.

Raincoat Guy took all four hits, but somehow still got to his feet, before flapping his wings once to send himself backwards off the edge.

“Who was that!?” I asked her, running over to where she stood on the edge, trying to shoot Beetle Bolts after him as he fled down the street, flying low to use the piled-up cars as cover.

“I managed to appraise him,” she said.

“Wasn’t William Twine the guy who’d turned into a Satyr?” Panda asked.

I shrugged. “No idea.”

“I remember the name from the screens we watched during the first Event,” Bee said.

“If he comes back, I’ll try my new punch on him,” I said.

“Looks like he’s running away pretty fast,” Panda said.

“Well, in that case, let’s take a break.”

“Here?” Bee asked, looking around.

“Did you see any other fliers?”

“No.”

“Then it should be fine.”

“You’ve still got a big-ass beacon above your head…” Panda pointed out.

I sat down and pulled up my new Status screen, ignoring him:

“Wait, look! I’ve got numbers for my Perception now!”

Bee looked at the screen after I shared it and said, “It’s over 300 times more than mine.”

“I’m just really observant.”

“It’s probably a tracker for all the things you failed to notice or something,” Panda guessed.

“Maybe it doesn’t matter if he gets an ability that scales off his Perception.”

“That would be really broken,” I replied thoughtfully.

Panda shook his head.

“The Skill Cube’s timer should be done now, by the way,” Bee then said.

“Finally!” I replied in excitement, pulling the cube out of my inventory.

The Rubik’s Cube with the many symbols on it was still arranged in the way that Bee had solved it, but now a purple light was shining through the cracks, and with just the slightest pull, it unfolded into the shape of a flower. A single purple wisp sat in the center and I poked it with my finger, immediately unlocking a new skill.

“Wow!” Bee said as I shared the ability with her. “That was really worth the wait!”

“A reset button is definitely gonna come in handy,” Panda remarked.

Before I could respond, a personal announcement arrived:

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BENEFACTOR CHANGE ALERT!

‘Miranda’ has been outbid by your new Benefactor: ‘The Pro-Glitch Confederation’

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“Well damn, I’ve just been sold to a new owner,” I said.

“‘The Pro-Glitch Confederation’…” Panda read aloud, sounding suspicious.

“Pot calling kettle black,” I muttered, just as the first message rolled in from my new Benefactor.

I frowned. “They immediately gave me a quest.”

“It’s where we’re heading though,” Bee said. “Maybe they’re really aligned with your cause.”

Panda put his fingerless arm on her head. “For once I think Gambit’s hunch is right.”

“This has total ‘How do you do, fellow kids?’ vibes all over it. It also just feels wrong to do it because they told me to.”

“You were okay with stripping for your Mistress,” Panda pointed out.

“I think you’re being too paranoid,” she replied.

“Meow.”

“Even you agree with her, Lordie!? Traitor!” I yelled, pulling the hand-spider off my head and shaking it angrily.

“Stop that!” Panda told me. “You’ll kill yourself!”

Bee caught my arm. “Let’s just go to the Mayor’s house first, then we’ll see if the Pro-Glitch people are posers or the real deal.”

“Fine,” I said, putting Lordie back on my head.

“Me-ow!!”

“Sorry for shaking you. But you’re still a traitor.”