Game Alive: A Science Fiction Adventure Novel Read Online Free Page A

Jake finished it off with a selection of typical inn items – mugs and plates, brooms, buckets, and a few stuffed animal heads on the wall. He hesitated for a moment, but decided not to include a dragon head above the fireplace.
    Satisfied at last, Jake took a seat at one of the tables. “Launch Populater,” he said. The tool screen changed again, displaying rows of faces. “Insert random NPC: Innkeeper.” A fat man in a greasy apron appeared behind the bar, frozen in time. “Insert random NPC: Innkeeper’s Wife.” A thin woman with a mean scowl popped into existence beside her husband, and Jake made a face.
    “Rebuild Innkeeper’s Wife,” he said. The sour-faced woman morphed into a plump figure with a cheerful smile. She looked like the kind of woman who kept fresh-baked pies and snacks for the children. Jake nodded, satisfied. “Insert random NPC: Innkeeper’s Daughter.” A friendly, dark-eyed girl appeared at one end of the bar, stooped slightly over with a cleaning rag pressed to the bar top.
    Jake was just about to activate the NPC’s AI when a repetitive pounding, seeming to emanate from nowhere, startled him.
    “Jake! Come on out of there right now. I need to discuss something with you.” Jake groaned as his mother’s voice filled the nearly completed common room like the commands of an unseen god.
    “Just a minute,” he said, careful not to sound whining. “I’ll be right out!”
    “Don’t you make me override this door,” threatened his mother from outside.
    “I’m coming!” he shouted. Dismissing the development screen, Jake quickly saved his work and started the compiler before his mother could burst in and shut the program down prematurely. Then he walked to the door and took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders before stepping out of Xaloria and back into mundane Leiner Hills. His angry mother was waiting.
Chapter 4
    “Okay, I’m in.” Kari’s exasperated voice bounced around the empty VR room. Faint and ghostly at first, her image built itself in the air before Jake and Des until she appeared as solid as they. “I don’t know why it was so hard to connect in to your feed today. I usually get right in.”
    “Maybe your dad installed a security update,” Jake suggested. He knew Kari’s family had a much newer VR suite than the one he was using. His mother couldn’t afford to upgrade, and if there was a new layer of firewall on Kari’s set-up that might cause it to have trouble interfacing with his room.
    “No, he didn’t,” said Kari. “Besides, I didn’t have any trouble getting into Des’s feed earlier.”
    “Yeah, she jumped right in,” Des agreed.
    “Anyway, we’re all here now,” said Jake quickly. Des was also using a better VR room than Jake, although his was not as top-of-the-line as Kari’s. Jake didn’t think that was the problem, but he wasn’t eager to compare systems with his friends. The set-up in his VR room was good enough. After all, he’d used it to create an entire world. “You guys ready to see Xaloria?”
    “Sure.” Des sounded bored already.
    “Boot it up,” Kari added impatiently. At least she seemed interested in the game.
    “Resume Xaloria,” Jake ordered.
    The virtual world appeared instantaneously, placing the three of them at the spawn point he’d set near the well in Everheart. Jake’s everyday clothes vanished, replaced by his customary garb in the game: a sturdy chainmail shirt and leggings, leather boots and gloves. A round, bowl-shaped steel helmet covered his head and a heavy sword hung at his side.
    Kari and Des had materialized beside him in their normal clothes. They were each being projected from their own VR rooms at home, via system link. While they could have all played together at Jake’s house, logging in separately allowed them to move around the world more freely. They would not all have to stay within certain range of one another. Plus, nobody would have to leave early to go home.
    “Here we are,” Jake