Verwandte Artikel zu Stuck in the Game

9781950020522: Stuck in the Game
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1950020525 ISBN 13: 9781950020522
Verlag: Future House Publishing, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

Noah promised himself he would never play the world’s most popular MMORPG—the Dream State. He’d already lost too many friends to the addictive virtual world.
But after a devastating car crash leaves Noah paralyzed, he’s forced inside the game. The Dream State not only provides a connection with the outside world but also keeps his brain awake long enough for his body to heal. Dying in the game, however, could send Noah into a coma forever. To stay safe, he must remain in the lower levels, far away from the most dangerous monsters and players.
Meanwhile, doctors grow concerned when Noah’s girlfriend, Sue—who also sustained serious injuries in the crash—seemingly fails to connect to the game. When a mysterious avatar suggests to Noah that the last remnants of Sue’s consciousness are being held prisoner in the highest level, Noah decides to risk everything to save her. 
Leaving the safety of the lower levels, Noah rises through the ranks and enters the most dangerous part of the game, allying with high-level players and unearthing clues to a sinister plot along the way. Now top players from across the world are hunting him.
With his life on the line, can Noah save Sue and uncover the mystery?
 

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Growing up in the small town of Timaru, New Zealand, Christopher Keene broke the family
trend of becoming an accountant by becoming a writer instead. While studying for his
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Canterbury, he took the
school’s creative writing course in the hopes of someday seeing his own book on the shelf in
his favorite bookstores.
In his spare time, he writes a blog to share his love of the fantasy and science fiction genres in
novels, films, comics, games, and anime (fantasyandanime.wordpress.com).

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1
Dream Engine
I didn’t know how long I had been floating in the darkness. My body twitched as waves of anxiety and exhilaration crashed over me, drowning me.
When the tides of emotion finally receded, my heartbeat calmed and I floated once more, trying to gain a sense of my surroundings.
A speck of light appeared before me, glowing like the first glimpse of a sunrise after a starless night. The white radiance grew until the circle was as wide as I was tall. As bright as the light was, my eyes seemed to have already adjusted to it.
Three smaller lights appeared around the circle, forming words I couldn’t quite make out until I gave them my full attention. Of the three lights, ‘New Game’ glowed the brightest. The other two read ‘Continue’ and ‘Settings.’ I had played enough games to recognize a gaming menu when I saw one.
“New Game?” The sound of my voice was jarring after the silence.
The icon flashed and the words were sucked into the circle of light, like being drawn into a whirlpool. I followed them soon after, my body stretching as the light engulfed me and a brief whine filled my ears.
When the light faded, I was standing on a dirt pathway surrounded by the greenest field of grass I had ever seen, complete with daisies and dandelions. I expected to smell the grass, but when I sniffed the air, I couldn’t identify a single distinguishable scent. My sniff seemed to be the loudest noise around. Everything from the clouds in the azure sky to the distant trees had the look of a CGI wallpaper; every object had been so neatly arranged that it only highlighted how unnatural it all was.
My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. How did I end up in a Dream Game?
I touched the dirt of the pathway, feeling its rough texture under my fingertips. It felt too real, if such a sensation was possible. The edges of the track were clean cut despite the high grass surrounding it. I saw a crossroads in the distance and ahead of me on the side of the pathway was a wooden sign pegged into the grass. I walked forward, details of the environment far away becoming clearer with every step, as though I had suddenly become near-sighted.
When I reached the crossroads, the sign came into focus, too. It had the word ‘Tutorial’ carved into it in block lettering. Under the etching was a map of a diamond-shaped path. At each corner of the diamond was a title. The eastern point was called ‘Menus,’ the northern point was called ‘Actions,’ the western point was called ‘Community,’ and the southern point had a red box with ‘You are here!’ written in it.
“Really?” I murmured, jumping when my voice echoed.
Considering I had no clue where I was, I guessed that the direction marked ‘Community’ would be my safest bet for finding answers. I ran down the dirt pathway, taking a left at the crossroad. Less than a few yards past the Y-junction, an animated circle appeared before me, continuously filling up and emptying with blue liquid.
Huh . . . it’s a loading icon. I heard the chirping sound of a successful Internet connection. Five bars rose and then vanished only to be replaced with a black window that had three blank spaces for a ‘Username,’ ‘Password,’ and ‘Email.’
I stared blankly at the window for a moment before deciding to just go along with whatever trick the universe was playing on me. I said, “Email,” and the word began to glow. I verbally spelled out my email and password. Both were accepted, but when I tried to create a username, it rejected it. Each time I tried a new name the window would shake and the words ‘Existing username. Try something else.’ would appear in a red box above it. I wasn’t surprised. So many Dream State accounts had been created in the past few years that it was almost impossible to find one without numbers or alternative letters. After a few unsuccessful attempts, the system finally accepted ‘NotThatNoah.’
Now that I was registered, a chat window appeared, and an invitation window immediately popped up on top of it. I was surprised to see my mother’s name followed by three random numbers. I didn’t hesitate to accept.
“Noah?” My mother’s voice rang out in my head, wracked with worry. “Noah, how are you?”
“I feel … fine.” I moved my head and the window followed my vision. “What’s going on? Why am I in a Dream Game?”
“Oh dear . . . you were in a car accident.”
Car accident? The words seemed foreign, disconnected. A buzzing apprehension fluttered in the back of my mind.
“Your brain was damaged during the crash. The doctor says your body is now fully paralyzed.”
Paralyzed.
The weight behind her words hit me in a rush and everything suddenly made sense. My body, which wasn’t really a body at all, froze, and my anxiety returned with a vengeance. The panic felt like my heart had just dropped into my stomach.
“In a strange way, it’s a little funny,” she continued. “After all of those awful things being said about it online and all the times your father and I told you not to try it, the Dream Engine is the only thing that has the wetware interface that would allow us to talk to you.”
My mother continued to talk but her voice started to sound farther and farther away. “Noah? Don’t panic, it’s okay! Everything’s going to be fine . . .”
With every word her voice became more distant until I barely heard her at all.
 

***
 
Sue and I had stood in David’s dark, BO-smelling room for half an hour before I realized he wasn’t going to wake himself out of his game. Or maybe he couldn’t.
I kicked his bed and screamed at him in frustration. He was so far under that his only response was to grunt and roll over.
During high school, I’d enjoyed playing MMO games as much as David and Brock, the third musketeer of our little group of friends. Sue had always been annoyed when the three of us would spend too much time on our computers. When Brock started playing the new Dream Engine, or the ‘harder stuff’ as we called it back then, we were shocked by how addicted he became to it. By then Sue and I were going out, and, after seeing how the game had turned Brock into a recluse, we were both completely against being sucked into it.  
Schizophrenia, narcolepsy, drug overdoses, there were a myriad of boogeyman-like risks being rumored about online to scare the parents of any gamer who might have considered buying the Dream Engine. Were any of these true? Probably not, but I wasn’t going to risk it. Being skeptical of the connection between smoking and lung cancer didn’t help those who died from it.
Now that David was getting into Dream Games as well, the game had stripped me of my best friends.
Sue’s dark hair whipped around as she made for the door.
Frustrated, I stole a bottle of soda from his bedside table. From the way two of them were left out, I’d assumed one was for me anyway. As I left, I gulped it down and then threw the bottle into the recycling bin outside.
I followed Sue out to my car. She was sitting in the passenger’s seat, eager to leave, frowning at the state we had found David in. We took off down the back road, heading for the highway.
“If they think a game is more important than spending time with you then...

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Verlag
Future House Publishing
Erscheinungsdatum
2021
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1950020525
ISBN 13 
9781950020522
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
276
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Buchpark GmbH
gpsr@buchpark.de

Krügerweg 1
Trebbin
Brandenburg
14959
Deutschland