The Gamerunners: Everything League, #1

By Barnaby Quirk

A virtual tournament, a rigged game, and a gamerunner on a mission to make things right…

Thirteen-year-old Bobby Thomas knows the $50 million Everything League grand prize is way out of his reach. His game time is limited to library hours, and he hasn't had a chance to build up his skills as a player. Instead, he spends his time as a gamerunner — one of the bad guys who make the game more challenging — and finds himself behind the scenes, unnoticed, against some of the most skilled players.

 

But the more Bobby plays against top players, the more he begins to suspect the competition is rigged. And when the dangers of the virtual world start spilling into reality, Bobby, working with Everything League programmer Amanda, must unmask the cheater before he and his friends suffer a real-life game over.

 

The Gamerunners is a middle-grade sci-fi novel that takes gaming to the next level. Readers who like fast-paced action, futuristic gaming, and heroic underdogs will love Barnaby Quirk's virtual adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blazing Things
• Release date: Nov 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393534488

Book preview

2> Welcome to Everything City

GYM CLASS WAS always the last class of the day, because even the well-off kids who had their own VR setups at home had to come to the school for gym and after-school activities.

Julio, did you see it? Bobby asked as soon as he spotted his friend in the locker room.

Julio Wu was three inches taller than Bobby, with straight black hair and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a University of Michigan T-shirt, and matching blue and yellow shorts. His shoes were some fancy brand, which Bobby tried to ignore since he knew his family couldn’t afford them.

They walked slowly together to the door, neither one excited about the upcoming gym activity outside. It was June, and the afternoon sun was unpleasantly hot for running around.

Julio looked around lazily. Dude, see what?

Oh, man, you didn’t see the news from Everything League?

The double bonus coins? Yeah, I saw that.

No, the Everything World championship!

What? Like, what?

Do you realize you just said, ‘What? Like, what?’?

Never mind that, what’s this about a championship?

It’s a double elimination tournament. Whoever makes it through without losing twice wins fifty million dollars.

Woah, that’s some serious dough.

Yeah, Bobby sighed wistfully. Even a small bit of that would make a huge difference to my family.

Are you going to enter?

Me? I’m not much of a player. You’re much better than me. Besides, Everything World is only open to the top fifteen on next Friday’s leaderboard. I’ve never even been in the top thousand. No way could I qualify.

Julio sighed. Me either.

They stepped through the door and into the blazing sun.

Hey! Julio, Bobby, step it up! Or you’re going to need to run an extra mile.

Gym teachers never seemed to change.

Bobby didn’t get a chance to talk to Julio for the rest of gym class. He had to rush to change his clothes in time to catch the city bus. For the first three minutes of the seven-minute bus ride, he stared out the window, constantly spinning a blue fidget spinner he’d had since he was a toddler. Then he pulled out a book called Everything League Players’ Guide, 2027 Edition, Volume Seven. A sticker on the front proclaimed Official Guide to the Most Popular Game on Earth and a library cataloging label was visible on the spine.

He returned the book to his backpack and stood before the bus came to a stop at the Blake Transit Center. He crossed Fifth Avenue and ran to the entrance of the Ann Arbor District Library Main Branch. He walked as quickly as he could without appearing to be jogging, keeping his arms and legs straight as he moved. He took the stairs two at a time on his way up to the second floor.

He sighed with relief at the sight of an open Spinmaster 3000. The library had recently installed better VR rigs than the ones at his school, and Bobby spent as much time as he could there. At home, the only VR he had was a cheap plastic visor that his smartphone could snap into.

He held his phone up to a sensor on the side of the machine, and it recognized his library identification, unlocked the door, and turned on the lights inside. The Spinmaster 3000 was a fully enclosed ball that allowed movement in any direction and could even simulate smells. It had windows that allowed people to see in, but Bobby always had a visor on, so he couldn’t see out. There was a button he could push to change the view in the visor to that of cameras in the Spinmaster itself. That way, he could look around the library even without removing his visor. That feature was handy for those times when someone came knocking on the door.

Bobby slipped on the visor and control gloves. The ID in his phone told the Spinmaster how to connect to Bobby’s personal internet services, transporting him instantly into The Lair. There were no messages waiting for him, so he opened the big, wooden door and stepped outside.

Just outside The Lair was a simple room with wooden floors and windowless white walls. This kind of room was called a launcher and it was how Bobby accessed the rest of the internet. Many people had launchers that were large buildings to which they could invite their friends over to virtually hang out. But Bobby couldn’t afford more than the dollar a month he paid for his super simple launcher and The Lair if he wanted to have spending money for anything else.

The walls of his launcher had various icons that he could touch to transport him to the other virtual places on the internet that he went to most. He glanced at the Wikipedia icon and briefly considered tapping it. He had gotten lost for hours in Wikipedia in the past, reading about history, interesting places, and some of the just plain weird stuff that existed in the world.

Who am I kidding? he said aloud.

He reached out and tapped the yellow icon with neon blue letters.

Bobby’s avatar materialized on a white, illuminated circle, which was one of several arranged in a semicircle. Matching circles were set into the otherwise black ceiling, and a gray paneled wall surrounded half of the circular room. When Bobby had first started playing Everything League, he had recognized the room as a replica of the original Star Trek television show’s teleporter room. He loved that show, even though he thought the 1960s special effects were cheesy.

People faded into view on the other circles around him, and Bobby quickly stepped through the open part of the semicircle and out of the teleporter. These teleporter stations handled a lot of traffic coming and going from Everything City. Bobby looked back and shook his head at the sight of a clueless newbie looking somewhat dazed and hogging a teleporter circle.

Everything League was a giant game, and the company that ran it wanted Everything City to feel giant. It was always night in Everything City, which made it possible for the buildings to extend farther into the sky than could be seen. This also let them light the city in dazzling ways.

A gleaming silver building just in front of Bobby had red, white, and blue neon lights running up its sides. A building next door appeared to have been made from white marble that glowed from within.

Three circular buildings in the middle of the square held the teleporters used to reach Everyting City. Thousands of people followed walkways from these buildings to all the others. No vehicles were necessary since the city consisted of just the handful of buildings around the square.

The Everything League Registration Building, to Bobby’s left, was decorated in the familiar yellow and blue neon of the league. Much of the building was covered with a giant display showing the leaderboard. The sign read:

8 Days to Everything World

Current Leaders

1. Kelly Mason

2. Alfonso Giuseppe

3. Michael Rose

4. Red Elephant

5. Rumiko Yamamoto

6. The Tiger Awaits

7. Kamini Nagarkar

8. Flitterbell Gentlefeather

9. Gloria Underwood

10. Egemen Binici

11. Secret Samurai

12. Limin Wang

13. Jonas Holberg

14. Kirsten Ó Deoráin

15. Fearsome Firebreather

Bobby sighed as he looked at the leaderboard. He had watched all of those players play before, and they were amazing. He was nowhere near their class, but he still loved to play. He started walking to the gleaming silver building to do just that.

There was a crowd to the right of the building’s front door. Bobby jumped onto one of the benches that lined the walkway to see what was going on. He knew it was silly to have benches in a virtual world, but they came in handy at times like these.

Standing in the middle of the crowd was a human-sized elephant with bright red skin. Everything League wanted the respect of a professional sporting league and encouraged people to use their real names and make their avatars look at least somewhat like their real selves. Red Elephant, whoever he was, had chosen to remain anonymous, and it hadn’t stopped him from reaching the top five.

EL offered varying degrees of anonymity. Bobby didn’t mind being himself, so his avatar looked like he did, and he enabled a setting that caused his name to float above his avatar’s head. Bobby figured that Red Elephant had decided to turn off the Floating Name Tag option because his avatar spoke for itself.

Many in the crowd were holding out little autograph books. Bobby thought it silly to try to get an autograph on paper which didn’t exist, but people did so all the time. Everything League sold special autograph books that couldn’t be duplicated and guaranteed that each signature was authentic. Some of these autograph books sold for thousands of dollars.

Red Elephant seemed to be enjoying the attention as he signed book after book, using his trunk to hold the virtual pens. Bobby jumped down from the bench and walked into the building. He wasn’t going to use his limited playtime waiting in line for a stupid signature.

A sign next to the shining door on the silver building read, "Everyone Experienced." This was the place to go if you already knew how to play the game. The door opened automatically and Bobby stepped through.

3> Fruit Slicer

THE DOOR OPENED into a spacious lobby that covered the whole first floor of the building. The ceiling was black with inset red and yellow neon lighting that reflected off the shiny tile floor. A real floor would have had dirt and scuff marks that would ruin the reflections, but this floor was perfectly mirror-like and the effect was almost like stepping onto a still lake that was lit from below. The walls were also brilliant silver, but screen after screen covered much of their surfaces.

There were no signs or explanations in the room and no guides telling people what to do. This was the building for experienced players, after all. Bobby strode across the lobby to one of the screens. The screen lit up as he approached. It said:

Welcome, Bobby Thomas.

Are you ready to play?

He decided to go for the dramatic and said, I am ready to face any challenge.

The screen cleared and changed to say:

Oh, really? You are level 3. Shall I put you up against a level 10?

Err, uh, no, thanks. Level three will be fine.

I thought so.

Sinclair Evanston, Level 3

Dexterity: 1, Strength: 2, Magic: 5, Stamina: 3

Room 377

Bobby had never heard of Sinclair Evanston, but that didn’t surprise him. EL had millions of players and most, like Bobby, never did anything noteworthy.

He walked away from the screen and went to a bank of elevators. The door opened automatically as he approached. There was room for only one person in each elevator. The small space made Bobby feel a little claustrophobic, which he found strange since none of it was real. Had the game’s creators wanted, they could have made the elevator unnaturally large and with a completely smooth ride. Instead, it shook a bit as it rose and the one overhead light flashed from time to time.

The elevator door opened onto a long hallway with red carpeting, white walls, and dark brown wooden doors. The main square of Everything City was a sight to behold, but the interiors of the buildings seemed like they had been hastily put together from digital pieces the company had lying around. It didn’t matter, though. People loved the game.

Bobby read the room numbers as he swiftly made his way down the hallway. The door to room 377 opened inward automatically as he reached it. He stepped into the room, which was decorated in the same style as the hallway from which he had come: red carpet and white walls. Another door stood in the middle of the wall opposite the door to the hallway. Were it not for the sign on the door reading Playfield, it would be easy to get turned around in the room and step through the wrong door.

Paintings of various plants hung on the walls, and a dark brown wooden table stood in the center with chairs on either side. In one chair sat a man who appeared to be in his thirties. Sinclair Evanston had slicked back blond hair and tight, pale skin that framed his icy blue eyes.

He stood and spoke with an English accent. Hello. You must be Bobby Thomas. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Sinclair Evanston, and I am looking forward to playing a match against you today.

Hello, Mr. Evanston, Bobby said. You could never be sure who you were facing in a VR world. After all, there was a red elephant just outside the building. Regardless, Bobby couldn’t help feeling that Sinclair was far older than he was. Everything League matched players up by their skill levels, not by age.

Shall we? Sinclair gestured to the chair across the table. He sat at the same time that Bobby did. Do you want to call the toss, or shall I? He gestured smoothly upward at a coin that appeared to be glued to the ceiling.

You can, Bobby said.

Thank you. Very sporting. Go. At that, the coin started tumbling in slow motion from the ceiling. Heads.

The silver coin sped up and landed with a thwack! on the table. The side facing upward was engraved with a picture of a book labeled Everything Tales. Bobby was constantly amazed that they continued to use this cheesy pun. It didn’t matter, though — he had won the toss.

Lucky you, Sinclair said. What will it be?

Having won the toss, Bobby got to choose from the hundreds of games available within EL. This was a key part of the game. The Matchup computer had listed Sinclair’s stats, so Bobby had an idea what he was capable of. Sinclair’s dexterity was low, which meant that he wasn’t very good at fast-paced games.

‘Fruit Slicer,’ Bobby said.

They stood, shook hands, and each said, Good luck.

The playfield door opened and, as the loser of the coin toss, Sinclair stepped through first. Bobby’s heart rate ticked upward as he crossed the opening and mentally readied himself to compete.

The playfield room was completely dark with the exception of two rectangular tables well lit from above. Each looked like it was made of the same wood as the one back in the Coin Room. The tables were clean but covered with dozens of scratches and gashes. Each table held a sword hanging from a hook on the long side. Sinclair walked to one table, Bobby to the other, and they faced each other, standing next to the swords.

Bobby peered under the table at the gap between the two tables. There were two grooves there, deep enough to go up to an average person’s waist. He could make out the silhouettes of people walking around, and baskets of fruit just outside the grooves and under the tables. When the game started, his goal would be to slice as much of the fruit in midair as he could, trying to outdo Sinclair’s score. Smaller fruit was harder to hit, so it was worth more points.

There was a dimly lit scoreboard farther back in the room, but this was a fast-paced game. Only during the breaks in the action was it possible to get a look in at the score. A referee in a black and white uniform stood near the scoreboard, largely invisible in the dim light. The scoreboard said:

Sinclair Evanston: 0

Bobby Thomas: 0

Viewers: 0

Everything League was a big spectator sport, but two level three players wouldn’t attract much attention.

Players, get ready, called the referee in a surprisingly deep voice.

Bobby’s sword came off the hook with a metallic shwing. Sinclair somehow picked up his sword without a sound.

The referee raised a green flag. Three … two … one … He dropped the flag to the floor and yelled, Go!

Bobby focused on the space in front of him as oranges started flying upward from the gap between the tables. He slashed with his sword, and the tangy smell of oranges filled the air.