Game World

by George Ivanoff

  About the Book

  Find the key! Open the doorway! Enter the other world!

  Hall finds a key …

  It opens a doorway …

  He is transported …

  Into a strange virtual reality – part of a game world where humans are battling computers for survival! In this world, human imagination is everything and can even save your life. Hall must use all his game-geek knowledge to tell reality from virtual reality and find a way home.

  Will Hall play his way out of Game World?

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  OTHER WORLDS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Books by George Ivanoff

  Imprint

  Read more at Penguin Random House

  For my gamer dude, Nyk.

  Thanks for letting me borrow Randomizar.

  HallsOfAwesome spun through the air and landed, all weapons blazing!

  But his rival, RandomizarBian, was gone.

  Had he gone into the City?

  HallsOfAwesome cautiously moved into the post-apocalyptic devastation of the Mega Metropolis, leaving behind the landscape of the Desolate Desert. The road was torn up, the buildings in ruins. HallsOfAwesome had to vault over rubble as he proceeded, each leap opening him up to possible attack. Sheltering in a partly demolished office block, he pressed himself up against a wall as a flock of killer bird-drones soared by.

  BLAM!

  The wall exploded, propelling HallsOfAwesome across the road, smashing him into another building.

  RandomizarBian strode out of the wreckage. He was massive, even by game standards – taller than HallsOfAwesome, broader and with muscles bulging from beneath his armour. There was no way he could look like that without extra mods.

  HallsOfAwesome let loose with a barrage of laser-fire. His opponent’s armour absorbed the power.

  What? More mods? Not fair!

  HallsOfAwesome was not going to let his nemesis beat him this time. He activated his own illicit mod and fired his laser again. With its power and effectiveness now boosted beyond the limits of the game, the white-hot beam of energy cut through RandomizarBian’s armour. He flashed red and disappeared in a burst of pixels.

  HallsOfAwesome punched the air.

  ‘Yeah!’

  Hall Gatwick pushed back from his computer. He punched the air and spun around in his swivel chair. This was the first time he’d managed to beat his online nemesis, RandomizarBian.

  PING!

  Hall stopped spinning and looked at his screen. There was a message.

 

  Hall’s fingers raced over the keyboard.

 

  PING!

 

 

  PING!

 

 

  PING!

 

 

  That seemed to shut him up. Hall leaned back and contemplated a future in which he always beat RandomizarBian, instead of the other way around.

  PING!

  So he hadn’t had enough yet.

 

  Hall followed the link, hoping it would take him to a new game. He’d never heard of OTHER WORLDS. He was surprised when the website filled his screen. This wasn’t what he’d expected. It didn’t seem to be a game … just a static page.

  He read through the text.

  Is this for real? he wondered. No way! It has to be some sort of joke.

  ‘If you find a key … If it opens a doorway into another world … You’ll want to go through. Blah, blah, blah. It could be dangerous. It could be deadly. You might never come back.’ He scratched at the side of his nose. ‘Hmmm. Find a key. Dangerous. Deadly. Might never come back. Maybe it is a game? Or RandomizarBian’s idea of a joke?’

  There was a link to case files. He followed it to two incredible stories – one about a boy having an adventure in a world of clones, and another about twins going to a world with talking animals. They were presented as if they had really happened. But that was impossible. Stuff like this wasn’t real … it was just fantasy.

  He decided to ask RandomizarBian.

 

  No response.

 

  Still no response.

  That was odd. RandomizarBian was always online.

  Hall went back to the website. It needed further investigation.

  ‘YOU’RE LATE!’ his mum shouted from the kitchen.

  Yikes! He needed to get to school.

  Hall raced around the room, shoving books into his bag, wondering if he’d be able to sneak past his mum without being seen. He was always getting into trouble for playing games before school.

  He couldn’t help it. Games were his life! Or rather, his escape from everyday, boring life – which seemed to be filled with school and homework and bullies. In the games, he was HallsOfAwesome. Tall, strong and brave. Much better than reality.

  Hall caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. Short, podgy and not awesome. He didn’t feel brave at all.

  Even his online name was better. He didn’t really like Hall. It was a silly name. People kept misreading it as Hal. When he corrected them, they’d smirk or laugh. And then there were the nicknames – Hallway, Corridor. Ugh!

  HallsOfAwesome was way cooler!

  ‘HALL! IF YOU’RE NOT DOWN HERE PRONTO, I’M COMING UP TO GET YOU!’

  And here was real life intruding yet again.

  He sighed. There’s no way he’d be able to avoid his mum.

  ‘Coming!’ he called, racing out and slamming the door.

  Hall spent a frustrating day at school, thinking about RandomizarBian and the weird OTHER WORLDS site. There was no point trying to find out more about it until he got home. The school ran an internet filter that blocked games and didn’t allow messaging apps on school devices.

  It was so annoying.

  He slowly struggled through the day, impatience building and building. When the end of school chime sounded, Hall bolted … something he didn’t often do.

  He was huffing and puffing by the time he got home. Despite being out of breath, he raced up the stairs to his room, two at a time. Dumping his schoolbag in the corner, he plonked himself onto his chair and booted up.

  No messages.

  Hall tried to contact RandomizarBian.

  No response.

  Where is he? wondered Hall. He’s always there. Always!

  Hall had never met this guy, and even though he was his greatest online nemesis, he still considered RandomizarBian a friend.

  Hall often wondered what RandomizarBian was like in real life. Was he anything like the avatar he used? O
r was he, like Hall, hiding behind a persona that was nothing like the real person?

  But it didn’t really matter … did it?

  Whatever he was like in the real world, in the online world RandomizarBian was Hall’s friend. He was reliable. Always there for him when he needed to escape the real world and play. Always … until now.

  Had something happened? Or had Hall’s win during their last game upset him?

  Hall tried to put all this out of his mind by focusing on OTHER WORLDS. He scoured online for information. The search term brought up mostly information about NASA and space research. Nothing about the OTHER WORLDS site and the stories mentioned on it. If it was a game, it wasn’t one people were talking about.

  Next, Hall got onto the gaming chat groups and asked questions.

  No one had heard of OTHER WORLDS.

  No one knew why RandomizarBian was not responding to messages.

  So it’s not just me. What is going on? thought Hall. Are RandomizarBian’s silence and this strange website linked?

  Hall went back to the OTHER WORLDS site. The more he read, the more convinced he was that it was a mysterious game. And the more determined he became to work it out, play it and win.

  The site had a contact email address. So he decided to send a message. But what should he say?

  Should he email for game instructions?

  No. He got the feeling that working things out was part of the experience. So he typed …

  Wanting to enter another world and play. Where can I find a key?

  Later that afternoon a reply arrived …

  This is not a game.

  Hall continued to send messages to RandomizarBian and search for mentions of OTHER WORLDS over the next couple of days.

  Then on Saturday morning he headed off to PlayTime.

  PlayTime was a strange little shop, down a dingy alley in the local shopping strip. It sold computer games, as well as board games and card games. There was a large trestle table at the back of the shop where customers could try out various games on display.

  The sound of laser-fire blasted through the shop as he entered. Hall didn’t react. He was used to the bizarre sounds that were triggered by opening the door. Each week, Max would try out a new sound. Last week it had been a choir of cats meowing the Pokémon theme. Most shops just had a doorbell or buzzer, but this wasn’t like other shops; and Max wasn’t like other shop owners.

  Hall had no idea what Max’s surname was. He was just Max, or GameLord online. He was tall and gangly, with curly blond hair that stuck out from beneath a backwards baseball cap, and a thin, wispy beard. He looked like he was in his thirties. And he did not look like a lord of any sort.

  ‘Yo, Awesome Hall-dude.’ Max waved from behind the counter.

  Hall got straight to the point. ‘I need to ask you about something.’

  ‘Shoot!’

  ‘Do you know anything about an online game called OTHER WORDS?’

  Max scratched his whiskered chin. ‘Not offhand. It’s nothing I’ve ever played. But my knowledge, while mighty and impressive, is not all encompassing. So I could, you know, check the database for you?’

  ‘Thanks.’

  Max tapped at the laptop on the counter. He squinted at the screen, then shook his head. ‘Sorry, Hall-dude. Nada.’

  ‘I don’t suppose you know what’s happened to RandomizarBian?’ asked Hall.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘He hasn’t been answering messages. And he hasn’t been on the chat groups. And he’s not been challenging me like he normally does.’

  ‘Sorry. No idea. I don’t even know who he is in real life. RandomizarBian has always been a bit of a mystery.’ He waggled his fingers in front of his face in what he must have thought was a mysterious way. It wasn’t.

  Hall nodded. He was running out of ideas. Maybe he should show the site to Max and see what he made of it.

  ‘Got something new on the back table,’ said Max, breaking into his thoughts.

  ‘Huh?’

  Hall looked to the rear of the shop. The boards, handheld devices, war-gaming figurines and cards that were usually set up for customers to play with had all been pushed aside into an unruly pile. On the end of the table was something new.

  It was a sleek, shiny, black processor box with a screen and keyboard. Next to it was a VR helmet and a pair of data gloves.

  ‘Wow!’ breathed Hall. He’d had a few goes of virtual reality before, when he’d attended a big gaming expo at the Exhibition Centre. Unfortunately, he’d never got a decent shot at it, because there was always a time limit due to the number of other people wanting to have a turn.

  ‘Wanna give it a go?’ asked Max.

  All thoughts of the website and his missing rival disappeared. It was as if the technology was calling to him, enticing him over.

  But it was more than that. He had a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. Like hunger. But not for food.

  ‘You bet!’ Hall almost ran to the table. He picked up the helmet and examined it. The inside was padded in thick black foam, with gaps on either side for the speakers. Rather than goggles, the helmet had a visor-screen. There were no wires to connect it to the computer.

  ‘Wireless,’ explained Max, coming to stand beside Hall. ‘Pop it on with the visor up.’

  Hall lowered the helmet onto his head. The foam seemed to move around and expand until the helmet was snug. It was surprisingly comfortable. Then he realised he couldn’t hear anything. Max was talking, waving the gloves around. Then Max fiddled with the computer.

  ‘Sorry about that.’ Max’s voice burst through the helmet speakers. ‘Forgot to switch on the sound.’ He held up the gloves. Silvery threads of wire were woven through the back fabric. They stretched as Hall put them on, then tightened into a perfect fit.

  ‘Fits like a glove,’ joked Hall.

  ‘I’m loading up your usual avatar, Awesome Hall-dude,’ said Max. ‘Lower the visor.’

  Hall detected excitement in the shop owner’s voice. Maybe he was expecting Hall to buy the VR set-up after he tried it out.

  Fat chance, thought Hall. It probably costs, like, a bazillion dollars.

  Besides, there was no way his mum would spend more money on more games.

  Hall lowered the visor and the foam shifted, blocking out the last stray bits of light from his surroundings.

  ‘Okay. Here we go,’ said Max. ‘Go forth and be awesome!’

  With a rush of noise and blur of light, Hall was standing in another world.

  Hall stood in a virtual reality landscape made up of geometric shapes. Dark-green triangles of various sizes dotted the flat light-green ground, like trees on a grassy plain. White oblongs drifted through the blue sky, partly obscuring a shining yellow sphere.

  Red cubes hung in the air.

  Graphics aren’t that great, Hall thought.

  He reached out with the muscular arms of his avatar and took hold of the nearest cube. The VR data gloves allowed him to actually feel the smooth surface of the shape. It was cool and metallic.

  POP!

  It disappeared in a burst of pixels, the number 50 floating in its place before fading away.

  A collecting game of some sort, thought Hall.

  He looked around. There were lots of cubes floating about. He pointed at one and found himself moving towards it. Gabbing it, he collected another 50 points.

  After collecting a few more, he found his attention drawn to the horizon. He squinted. There was something glinting in the distance, too far away to see.

  For some reason, he was desperate to know what it was. This wasn’t usual curiosity – this was something different and unexplainable. Something way more intense.

  He pointed to the horizon and zoomed forward.

  It was a computer tablet, lying on the ground reflecting the light of the virtual sun.

  The tablet seemed more real than anything else he’d seen in this game. The landscape and the geometric shapes all had an unr
eal, blocky, computer-generated feel to them. But this tablet appeared perfect – delicately rendered and fine edged. It seemed out of place in this game.

  It made Hall feel uneasy, and yet …

  He leaned over to examine it closer. There was text on the screen.

 

  What? thought Hall. How could it say that? Was this another joke? Had his rival hacked into this game?

  Curiosity burned within him.

  He wanted to pick it up.

  Tap the screen.

  Find out what would happen.

  Of course, he knew it wasn’t real. It probably wouldn’t operate. Nothing would happen. But …

  There was an undeniable urge.

  He reached out and poked it.

  With a whoosh, the world exploded with light. The space in front of him swirled and distorted, then tore apart. It looked like someone had ripped a hole in the atmosphere of the virtual world.

  Maybe it leads to another level?

  Through the shimmering gap, Hall could see a dark, wet city street. Hi-res and realistic.

  His mind snapped back to the OTHER WORLDS site. A doorway to another world, it had said.

  Hall felt his heart thumping, adrenaline rushing through his system. But it wasn’t the result of fear. It was …

  Excitement!

  Yep. Excitement at what lay ahead through this doorway. A new level? Another world? Another game?

  There was that urge again. A pull, a want, a need, a compulsion; a craving for adventure like he’d never experienced before.

  Hall stepped through and everything jumped, glitched and distorted. His mind and vision spun as if he’d been hit by some unseen force.

  Hall stumbled into the darkness. He took a few faltering steps before regaining his balance.

  It was night. A light drizzle fell around him.