Chapter 1

The second the gamer entered the virtual reality, she forgot all of her problems. She didn’t think about homework or college applications. She didn’t stress about what extra-curricular activities she should be doing. She was in the world of the game, and nothing else mattered.

She materialized in front of a silver, cube-shaped building with no windows. A single word in huge neon letters appeared above black doors in one corner: Labyrinth. The L33T C0RP logo was lit up in blue on the ground beneath her feet. A man stood there in sunglasses and a white suit. There was also a tall, skinny guy stretching out like a runner before a race.

The man with the sunglasses nodded at her. “I’m the Game Runner—I’m here to debrief you. Our records show that you’ve both played L33T C0RP games before, but this is the first time for each of you in Labyrinth. We are very eager to see how you do. But first, why don’t you pick your gamertags?”

“Fites4Fun,” the guy blurted out. “F-I-T-E-S-number 4-F-U-N.” He’d obviously already thought about it.

The guy had tightly wound dreadlocks and deep brown eyes, but she had no idea if he looked like that real life. Her own virtual-reality avatar looked like she really did, which was average in every way. She was a little taller than most girls her age and had frizzy hair, but she easily melted into the background. The only difference was that in real life she would never be brave enough to wear a flame-red, skintight jumpsuit with orange and yellow racing stripes. She’d picked it without a thought from the avatar menu. Coincidentally, the guy had picked the same unisex jumpsuit, complete with stripes.

“What do you want for your name?” The Game Runner turned to her. “It can be anything you want besides your real name. But it has to be ten characters or less.”

“Fewer,” she said, thinking of a grammar rule she’d learned in English.

“F-E-W . . .” he started.

“No, not that. Never mind.” She wasn’t in school. She was here to stop thinking about school. “Call me SuprSolvr. No e in either word.”

“Got it.” Her new name appeared in glowing letters on her jumpsuit.

“You’ll also need these,” the Game Runner said, gesturing toward their arms, and a metallic band appeared on their wrists. It had a gray LED screen that flashed to life and flipped between three messages: a heart graphic with the number 100, a lightning bolt with the number 100, and some sort of countdown clock, currently displaying 6:00:00.0.

“The heart is your health, the next one is your power, and the third is time remaining—you’re starting with six hours,” the Game Runner explained.

“Power for what?”

“Glad you asked.” The Game Runner snapped his fingers. Suddenly there was an object in SuprSolvr’s hand. It looked like the hilt of a sword. It was made of lightweight metal and perfectly formed for her hand, but there was no blade. Fites4Fun had one too. With a puzzled look on his face, he tossed it from hand to hand.

“What is it?” SuprSolvr asked.

“Push the button.”

She hadn’t noticed the button on the hilt, right under her thumb. She pushed it and a light beam burst out in the shape of a broadsword.

“Whoa!” The guy stopped and stared at the glowing blade, then found the button on his own hilt and fired it up. “This is cool.”

She gave her beam sword a swing and then made a big circular slice.

“Very cool,” she agreed, feeling a mixture of excitement and dread. What enemies would she have to use this on? Would they have swords too? She knew she would feel real pain. Not agonizing pain, she had been told, but enough to feel “fully immersed” in the game.

She turned off the blade and found a specially made pocket on her suit to store the weapon. Fites was still testing his blade, swinging and slicing. He accidentally brushed her shoulder.

“Whoops. Sorry about that,” he said.

“I’m fine.” She hadn’t felt a thing, but Fites’s fidgeting was making her nervous. It reminded her of the way she felt before her volleyball games—her teammates goofing around always made her uneasy.

“The beam sword only works on enemies,” the Game Runner explained. “Now, about the game. It’s what’s called a platform game. Lots of running, jumping, fighting.”

“Sounds awesome,” Fites said.

“Is it all running and fighting?” SuprSolvr asked. At least she was in shape for it, thanks to volleyball. “I mean, that’s fine, but I like a . . . mental challenge.”

“There are also puzzles,” the Game Runner continued, “so your skills are well-matched. The mission of the game is to find your way to the center of the labyrinth and beat the boss.”

“No problem,” Fites said.

“You can recharge your health and power at the checkpoints at the beginning of each level. But you can’t actually save the game; we disabled that for the beta test. If you fail to complete the game on time in your three tries, you lose. And remember—if you lose, you can’t leave the game.”

“I’m in,” Fites said quickly.

“Me too,” Solvr added. Her pulse was racing and she felt almost dizzy. This was risky but exciting. That’s why she was doing it. She didn’t take enough risks.

“Who’s going first?” she asked. She hoped it was her. If she had to wait for this guy to play, she’d psych herself out.

“I want to go first!” he said.

The Game Runner raised his eyebrows at them. “Oh, you’re playing together.”

“An escort mission. That’s cool,” Fites said to himself.

She scoffed at that. “You’re not escorting me, you’re tagging along.”

“Says you!” Fites shouted. He took off running into the labyrinth.

“You better catch up,” the Game Runner said, turning to Solvr with a smirk. “You’re officially on the clock.”