MADMAN APOCALYPSE

I was immediately bombarded with achievements, while it felt like the entire Serenity Park Mall was shaking to its foundations. The floor began to swell as though it was beset by the waves of the ocean, and the rubbish and debris floated into the air, reforming and returning to where it’d been pulled from by Bee’s ability and the Swan’s destruction.

The ceiling too was rebuilt, and as I looked around, viewing the transformation through the transparent backgrounds of my overlapping screens, I noticed that the ruined storefronts were repaired as though by magic. Torn-open shutters were patched up and mended, glass reformed and became perfect and spotless, and destroyed furniture was regenerated.

Where Mini Dungeons hadn’t already transformed the shops, the stores were altered for new purposes, and I saw that, not far from me, a seedy pawn shop appeared, with a heavy metal door. As I was looking at it, the door opened and something stepped out to stand guard in front of the store.

“Is that a Jellyfish in a bullet-proof vest?” Panda asked.

I nodded. That was indeed what it looked like. It had a translucent-white bell-shaped body with a red mass visible inside and supported itself on tendrils that coiled together to resemble legs, while four of them were lifted up like arms and crossed in front of its vest. It had very simple eyes that were kind of derpy, but it managed to look pretty intimidating thanks to its size.

Down the left hallway there were similar strange characters appearing. One was walking in the opposite direction of us and looked like a giant crab with two dozen suitcases on its upper shell. It was probably a Merchant. Another was a colorful slug that was dragging a sign out in front of a transformed shop that looked like it might have something to do with Quests. Steve was lying atop a bench down the same hallway, complaining about his arm, but I ignored him.

It seemed like there’d been even more changes on the floors below, with no doubt the ground floor having received the most attention.

“There should be a shop to buy a Full Recovery somewhere here,” I muttered. It was the primary reason I’d even gone along with Samantha’s plan instead of rushing straight for the Mayor’s mansion.

Before I went off exploring, I had a look at my achievements.

Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! x

‘Swan Down’

Slayed a Swan World Boss.

It’s not really understood why, but your world has been populated by World Boss Swans and taking them down is considered a big deal to the System.

There are countless ways the GREAT GAME can reach its conclusion, but one of them would be to combine seven of these Swans and creating a new GOD.

The item you have just received can be fed to another Swan to evolve it into a Hydra-Swan. You can also consume it for a special effect, but that’s just kind of boring…

Reward: ‘Swan Foie Gras’

When I checked my inventory, the Foie Gras was already there. I gave it a quick inspection:

‘Swan Foie Gras’ x

Rich and buttery, with an aftertaste of animal abuse.

Feed to a World Boss Swan to evolve it into a Hydra-Swan or consume it yourself to force a spontaneous Class Evolution.

Weight: 1 Panda

“This might be worth a lot if I sell it to another Player.”

“You should give it to Bee,” said Panda.

“She still has her Class Evolution to go through. I guess I’ll save it for now. It might be good if I don’t like my next Evolution or something.”

I swiped the inspection result away and looked at the next set of achievements:

Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! x

‘Safe Zone Event Clear’

Helped in the successful creation of a Safe Zone.

You participated in the creation of a Safe Zone, which will help you and all the other pathetic weaklings of your region to stay alive a little bit longer.

If you had been a real champion of your race, you would’ve destroyed the Safe Zone Sphere when you had the chance, but instead you chose to ally yourself with all the people who need protection.

Rewards: +1 Level & 100x ‘GAME Coins’

Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! x

‘Safe Zone Event MVP’

Contributed the most to a Safe Zone Event.

Look at you go, killer!

You achieved the most kills during the Event and you are therefore the MVP.

To be precise, you killed a total of 87 Enemies, 2 Mini Bosses, and 1 World Boss.

Reward: ‘Safe Zone MVP Trophy’

I wanted to see what the trophy offered, since it seemed like it might be the kind that gave out new skills, but I pulled up the last two pop-ups first:

Congratulations! You have leveled up! x

You have reached Level -15!

+1 new Attribute Point available to invest!

Boss kills required for Level -16

0/2

Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! x

‘¿Level Up (-15)?’

Reached Level -15

Remember the children of that first Agent you killed and stole the hand of? Well, guess what? They’re coming to get you. And they’ve joined forces with the children of all the other Agents you’ve slain since then.

Savor your final moments, Glitch. Because once you leave the safety of your little hidey-hole, you’re a dead man.

Reward: ‘Plugin Slot’ Passive

No sooner had I closed down the level-up achievement, before a new Plugin Slot appeared in the center of my other shoulder blade. As it manifested itself on my body, I also realized that my Carapace Suit actually didn’t overlap the tops of the inserted plugins I already had, but instead just morphed around them. It seemed like unintentional weak points to me.

“I guess I should have Bee help me reinsert the unCollide Plugin,” I said.

At the same time, she came out of the bathroom alone.

I walked towards her and we met next to the corpse of the dead Serenity Swan.

“That was fun!” she commented.

“You’ve got a flechette stuck in your forearm,” Panda pointed out to her.

“Samantha says there’s a Healer on the ground floor.”

She looked around at the surroundings that’d been repaired, marveling at it for a moment before noticing the Jellyfish in the vest.

“Oh, it’s a Turritopsis Dohrnii!” she exclaimed excitedly and ran over to it.

I noticed there was a glowing Leftover wisp next to the Swan’s corpse and I stuck my hand in it, while watching Bee trying to communicate with the security guard.

Leftovers of World Boss ‘Serenity Park Swan’:

80x ‘GAME Coin’

‘Swan-feather Cloak’

Picking it all up, I immediately inspected the Cloak, since it was rare to find items like that.

‘Swan-feather Cloak’ x

Swans are pretty tough, y’know? This is a comfortable and warm cloak made from the wing of a World Boss Swan, and it brings to mind something regal and elegant.

It definitely doesn’t fit your style, so please just put it back where you found it and ignore the following:

Wearing this armor imbues you with the following effects:

- You become literally waterproof

- You no longer experience cold

- If you are within a hundred miles of another World Boss Swan, it will automatically seek you out

Additionally, you receive the ‘Indestructible’ ability allowing you to survive a fatal hit once, with a 24 hour cooldown, by saying ‘Honk’.

Weight: 4 Pandas

I didn’t waste a second and immediately equipped the cloak.

“Wow…” Panda muttered.

“I know, right??” I replied excitedly.

“Sorry, I was just taken aback by how lame that looks on you.”

I ignored his clearly-jealous remark and went over to where Bee was standing in front of the Jellyfish.

“He doesn’t seem to want to talk,” she complained to me. She paused as she saw my new attire, then said, “White doesn’t really suit you.”

“Man, is everyone just out to complain about my appearance today?” I grumbled. “And of course he doesn’t talk, he’s a goddamn Jellyfish.”

“I actually resent that remark,” the security guard said in a New Zealand accent. “It’s very specist of you to say something like that, ay. I was just stonewalling this beetle lady, because I was trying to impress her.”

“What are you doing here?” Bee asked him.

“I’m protecting the shop,” he replied, gesturing at the door behind him with a tendril. “My name’s Nikau.”

“I’m Bee,” she replied. “And this is Gambit and Pandamonium.”

“Don’t forget about Brock!”

“Oh, and Brock,” she added, pointing to my gauntlet.

Nikau the Security Jellyfish didn’t say whether or not he could see them, and he didn’t have much in the way of expressions, since his simple eyes didn’t move, as they seemed affixed to his body and incapable of independent motion.

“You should go inside, ay?” he suggested. “I won’t be paid, if boss doesn’t sell her things.”

“We’ll check it later,” I told him, pulling Bee with me.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

I lifted my right non-existent arm in front of her.

“Oh, right, the Healer.”