While Ant had been gone, Rubie and Griff had invented some secret signals. One meant ‘Someone’s coming up the stairs,’ another meant ‘someone’s leaving Kody’s bedroom’ and a third meant ‘Get Ant out of the cupboard now!’ They really hoped the third signal wouldn’t be needed.
Inside the cupboard, Ant got dressed in the Ray-Chay suit as quickly as he could. He could hear voices in the room and it sounded as though Kody and Co were already in his Ray-Chay world. Ant put on his Kismet headset and flicked the switch. It took a little while before he found himself and Pradahl in the game.
He’d been dreading these first few moments because there was no way of knowing where he would find himself and who would be there. To his relief, he and Pradahl found themselves all alone in a garden. They hid in the shade of a huge cedar tree. A white mansion stood nearby. Ant recognised it, having seen it so many times in Crunch Hut adverts. It was a copy of Kody Crunch’s real-life mansion, the place which obviously meant the most to him. This version seemed exaggerated, with bigger pillars and taller towers. A fleet of mirror-shiny sports cars were parked in front of the house and beside them stood a massive golden statue of Kody which had never been in the ads. The statue Kody was flashing his finger pistols straight at him and this made Ant nervous.
Ant had appeared in the game as Tarn, although he didn’t think of himself as Tarn anywhere but Kismet Cosmos. Kody would instantly recognise his avatar from the Parkworld if he saw him. Pradahl looked different, of course, with her golden coat. Ant was worried by the sight of her delicate skin and he pressed the shining scale in her chest to bring up her inventory. There was the smouldering stealth ember, but he would obey the Seamstress and only use it if her life was being threatened. It had to be some amazing item for this to be the only one in existence. Ant wished he knew more.
‘Come on, Pradahl,’ Ant whispered and together they crept around the edge of the lawn, sticking to the shadows. There was a huge conservatory at the side of the house holding a forest of palm trees, a small waterfall and a rainbow-coloured collection of butterflies, fish, frogs and lizards. Hearing no one, Ant led the way in.
The house was all decorated with so much bling, it hurt the eyes. There were big selfie pictures of Kody Crunch on every wall and Ant could imagine that when Kody wasn’t admiring these, he was catching sight of his own reflection in the mirrored ceiling and the vast array of mirrored tables and ornaments, including a mirrored chandelier the size of a small car.
Kody certainly loves himself, thought Ant.
They heard voices and just had time to hide themselves behind a copy of the famous statue called The Thinker, which showed a man sitting deep in thought with his head resting on his hand. Of course, in this version the man was Kody Crunch, sunglasses and all. Cheryl and Norm walked in carrying big boxes, which they placed on the ground a couple of metres from Ant and Pradahl’s hiding place.
‘What does he want us to do with these?’ Norm sounded tired.
Cheryl did too. ‘Outside, I think. He’ll show us in a moment.’
Ant craned his neck as much as he dared to peer into one of the boxes. It contained large electrical plugs, each with a picture of a different avatar on the back.
Norm threw himself down on a black leather sofa.
‘Get up, he’ll see you!’ hissed Cheryl. ‘You know he doesn’t like us lounging about.’
‘I can’t help it. I’m exhausted,’ said Norm. ‘Isn’t there an easier way of doing this? It’s a game and he’s a coding genius. Can’t he just magic up a bit of code to make these avatar plugs disappear back to the … wherever.’
‘If only,’ said Cheryl. ‘He tried, but the corrupted rareio messed that up. The only way Kody’s found to disengage the avatar plugs is literally tugging them out of the sockets.’
‘It’s like pulling out walrus teeth,’ said Norm. ‘And how many are left? Seven? Eight?’
‘Nine. And he wants them all out today.’ Cheryl was definitely not her usual sparkly self.
Even though he was exhausted, Norm sprang to his feet as soon as Kody Crunch appeared, carrying an identical box. ‘Hope you’re not slacking, Norm,’ warned Kody. ‘Okay, we’ll dump these down the garden. Once they start playing again, their avatar plugs will disappear, but I don’t want them cluttering up my mansion. It just reminds me of … what happened.’
Ant wiggled his eyebrows at Pradahl and she butted him ever so gently. He was pleased that Kody was still upset about his precious rareio.
‘When they’re all out, you can clean up my cache while I set about making new rareios in the lab,’ Kody continued.
‘Boss, seriously, can’t we just leave the game for twenty minutes and have a rest in the real world? I’m thirsty,’ said Norm.
Kody sighed.‘You too, Cheryl?’ he asked. Cheryl must have nodded because then he said, ‘We’ll get rid of these, then we’ll go get a drink. But when you get back, you’ll have to work twice as hard. I just want to forget this whole horrible episode and move on.’
The three of them picked up their boxes and headed out via the conservatory. Ant signalled for Pradahl to follow him further into the house. This was their best chance to find Kody’s
