“You sure you don’t want me to go in with you?” he asked, looking at us doubtfully.
“No, we’ll be good,” I assured him. The last thing we needed for our secret mission was our dad tagging along. “We’ll call you when we’re ready to be picked up.”
“Okay. I’ll be right across the street at Starbucks if you need me,” he said. “But if your mom asks later? I was with you the entire time.”
“Absolutely. You even tried and failed the test miserably,” I assured him with a grin.
“Humiliated beyond belief,” he agreed solemnly. Then he laughed. “Good luck, guys! Knock ’em dead.”
With that, he pulled away, leaving Lilli and me alone. For a moment we just stood there, taking in the crowd. So many people! It was as if we were at a massive music festival or sporting event instead of a video game beta test.
Worry wormed through my chest. This was going to be harder than I thought.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. After we got back from Epic Fun Play, the Wi-Fi had come back on, and I’d spent half the night reading up on anything and everything to do with the upcoming Mech Ops VR release. It was evidently hyped to be the game of the century, a massively updated version of its eighties predecessor, which had been so big back in the day it had spawned its own movie and animated series. Think Mario Bros. with zombies. It still had a cult following, too. With entire Reddit boards devoted to artwork and memes and people cosplaying the characters at comic cons. And when they had first announced they were doing a brand-new updated version—complete with an immersive VR experience? The internet had practically blown up with excitement.
From what I read, the new game would be similar to Fields of Fantasy in some ways. A massively multiplayer role-playing game where you could create a character, do quests either alone or with small groups, level up, and get rewards. The only difference? It was set in the future, not a fantasy kingdom. Instead of dragons, there were zombies and robots. Instead of majestic castles, there were ruined skyscrapers. It was even rumored there were spaceships you could actually fly around in.
Also, in addition to the main story line, there were supposed to be quite a few mini games available for players to earn extra rewards and gear. Player versus player—or PVP as they called it—where you competed in games like starship races, capture the orb, and huge battle royale arenas where you fought the other players, hoping to be the last man standing.
Kind of like video game sports. Not really my thing, but Lilli would probably love it.
My sister scanned the crowd, biting her lower lip. I could tell what she was thinking before she opened her mouth. Most of the crowd was made up of adults. Adults who likely had been playing video games years before we were born. How on earth were we going to stand out in a crowd like this? A trail of doubt began to worm its way through me.
But Ikumi needed us. There was no way we were going home now.
“Let’s do this,” I said.
As we grew closer to the compound’s front gate, my eyes fell upon a twentysomething girl sitting in a wheelchair in one corner. She had dark skin, large brown eyes, and long brown hair that fell around her shoulders in ropy braids. A dragon tattoo snaked up her arm. I squinted at her for a moment, puzzled. Why did she look so familiar?
Suddenly it hit me. “Oh my gosh! That’s Starr!” I realized aloud. “Whoa.”
“Starr?” Lilli questioned.
I groaned. “Seriously, have you been living under a rock? Starr is, like, this total Twitch celebrity! She streams all the big games online and is completely epic at every game she tries. She’s super funny, too, and has, like, ten million followers.” I stared at her in awe, not able to help myself. This was like seeing a movie star—only better! “I had no idea she was in a wheelchair in real life.”
I watched as Starr held her phone up to her face, chatting away. Probably streaming live to her channel this very second. I felt a thrill of excitement roll through me. I wondered if it’d be okay to go up and say hi. Get her autograph maybe? But then she probably got mobbed by fans all the time. I didn’t want to annoy her.
Also… another more disturbing thought came to me. Starr was probably the most amazing gamer I’d ever watched online. And she was here. Along with so many other gamers who probably had their own Twitch channels or competed professionally.
And then there was us. How on earth did we expect to get picked?
“Don’t freak out, Ian,” Lilli scolded, catching my face. “All we can do is try. Besides, you’re a good gamer. Don’t forget that. I mean, none of these people made it through you know where,” she added, lowering her voice on the last part.
I winced at the mention. I didn’t want to admit it to her, but that was the other thing that was bothering me. I hadn’t gone online in months to avoid Atreus. And now I was willingly going into a VR game for an extended period of time. What if he found a way in, too? What if he tried to sabotage our chances of rescuing Ikumi? It would be Dragon Ops all over again. Dragon Ops… with robots and zombies.
That would not be good.
Lilli patted me on the back, trying to be reassuring, maybe. “I’m going to go grab some waters,” she said, pointing to a food truck on the other side of the parking lot. “You want anything?”
“Nah. I’m good.”
I watched as she wove her way through the crowd, leaving me alone. I turned back to Starr. Wondering again if I should say hi or if that would be
