This story is a companion to The Gamerunners. It’s a prequel that you can read either before or after The Gamerunners.
Enjoy!
A day at school
Bobby Thomas threw the book he was reading across the room, and immediately felt bad about doing so. It was a hardcover, so it made a solid thump when it hit the wall, followed by a clatter as the stack of books piled against the same wall toppled. His eyes burned and reddened before, moments later, there was a soft knock on the door.
“Bobby?” his mother, Claire, called from the hallway. She opened the door, stepped into his room, and glanced around for the source of the disturbance. The room was tidy, other than the pile of books on the floor. “What’s wrong?”
He was ten and almost done with fifth grade. He was practically a middle schooler already. He rubbed his green eyes to hide the teariness. “Why do so many books have to start with kids moving to a new town or going to a new school? I mean, it’s okay to read about that in a story, I guess. But it’s not okay when you’re living through it, you know?”
Claire sat at the edge of his bed, looking at him and absently tucking a lock of brown hair back behind her ear. “I know this move has been hard on you. We really didn’t want to move so close to the end of the school year, but we had to go where the work was. We’ve heard so many good things about Ann Arbor, though. I’m sure you and Henry will come to love it here, but you just need to give it more time. Did something happen in school today to bring out these feelings?”
Bobby scooted over to the edge of the bed, next to his mom. He reached down and pulled a paper from his backpack, which lay on the floor like a discarded wrapper. The history test he handed to Claire had an angry-looking “C−” scrawled in red ink at the top.
“Oh,” she said. “It’s okay, Bobby. You’ve only been in the class for three weeks, and I’m sure they’ve covered so much in history this year.”
“It’s not that,” Bobby said. “There was a kid in class who was wearing long sleeves on the day we took the test. Long sleeves! In June! And he had notecards in his sleeves. I saw him slide one out, read something, and then slide it back in. He was cheating, and it’s not fair.”
“Did you tell the teacher?”
“No way. I only just got here, and I don’t have any friends yet. The other kids ganged up on me in dodgeball in gym today. Being a snitch would just make it all worse.”
Claire frowned. “Yeah, I see what you’re saying. Would you like me to say something to your teacher?”
Bobby shook his head firmly. “No. I just want to be done with this school year.”
Claire put her arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. “Summer vacation will be here very soon. Then we can start getting used to our new town. Oh yeah, and I forgot to tell you. I was talking to another mom at the grocery store today. Her son, Julio, will be going to the same middle school as you in the fall. I told her about how we had just moved here and she was nice enough to invite us all over to their house. We’ll be going there this weekend. Doesn’t that sound good? Maybe Julio will become your first Ann Arbor friend.”
“Maybe,” Bobby said with a shrug. He looked at the hope on his mother’s face and thought that a little hope was a good thing, because it didn’t seem to him like things could get much worse. “Yeah, that sounds cool.”
Hello Julio
“Dad, are you sure this is the right house?” Bobby asked as their car pulled into the driveway of a large white house with gleaming windows and perfectly trimmed bushes.
Hank glanced at his smartphone, which hung from a plastic mount attached to one of their car’s air vents. He gave the side of the phone a tap to keep the screen from flickering too much, and looked at the bronze plaque engraved with the house number affixed to the wall near the door.
“Yep, this is it,” Hank said, turning off the engine and opening the door.
Claire opened the passenger-side door in front and stepped out into the hot afternoon sun.
Seven-year-old Henry bounded out excitedly from the back seat. “Wow, that house is big,” he said. “There must be thirty rooms in there.”
Bobby didn’t catch what their mother said to Henry as he stared up at the house. He climbed out of the car and walked over to Hank. He lowered his head, his spiky hair shining in the sun, not yet dry from the shower his mother had forced him to take just before they left their apartment. Julio’s house seemed too grand to stare at.
The two boys follow their parents to the front porch. Once there, Bobby paced around like a nervous cat while Henry bounced with excitement.
The door opened, and a woman in a brilliant turquoise dress with a blazing smile to match stepped forward.
“Claire, it’s nice to see you again. And you must be Hank,” the woman said, turning to Bobby’s father. “I’m Alejandra. I’m so happy you all could come. Please, come in.”
They stepped through the doorway and Bobby’s eyes darted around the room. The large windows let in plenty of light, but it still seemed dim compared to the summer sunshine. As his vision adjusted, he saw a man greeting his parents. He was wearing jeans, a light blue button-down shirt, and a sport coat. The jacket was the only difference in style between the man’s clothes and his own dad’s, but somehow it seemed a thousand times more stylish. Maybe the man’s goatee made the difference.
“Hank, Claire. I’m Lee Wu. It’s nice to meet you. Can we get you anything to drink? Julio! Come on down here!”
A boy came running down the stairs. He looked every bit a mix of his parents, with straight black hair a bit longer than his father’s and eyes a bit narrower than his mother’s. He ran straight up to Bobby.
“Dude,” he said, offering his hand for Bobby to shake.
“And dude,” he said, turning to Henry, whose whole body bobbed up and down as he shook the offered hand.
“I’m Julio. I just got the most cramazing video game ever. Do you like VR?”
Bobby’s mouth opened and closed silently for a moment as he took in Julio’s overwhelming enthusiasm. “Cramazing?” he asked.
“Julio, slow down,” Alejandra said, her tone more playful than chiding.
“Sorry, mom,” Julio said.
“Don’t apologize to me,” she said, gesturing toward Bobby.
“Oh, sorry, Bobby. I’m just totally shaken soda about Everything League. Do you want to come up to my room?” Without waiting for a reply, Julio dashed back up the stairs.
Without a pause, Henry ran up behind him. Bobby glanced at his parents, shrugged, and then followed. He picked up his pace when he saw the real possibility that he could lose sight of Julio and Henry in this big house.
He needn’t have worried. Julio stood with Henry in front of the closed door to his room.
Henry was peppering Julio with questions. “What’s cramazing? And what do you mean by ‘shaken soda’? And what’s Everything League?”
Julio looked both ways down the hall, as if spies could be lurking just out of sight. “I’ve got a secret for you. English is really cool. You know why?”
Bobby and Henry both shook their heads.
“You can make up words and phrases and people can still understand what you’re saying. It’s so circus.”
“Okay,” Bobby said. “I think I get it. So cramazing means something like crazy and amazing?”
“Right!”
“And soda cans become kind of like volcanoes when you shake them up and open them, so ‘shaken soda’ is bursting with excitement?”
“Right again!”
“But what about ‘circus’?”
“What about it? Making up words is circus because circuses are fun.”
Bobby shook his head. “I don’t like circuses. Clowns are weird and the animals seem really unhappy.”
Julio paused and looked at the ceiling for a moment. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’ve never been to a circus, but I thought they were supposed to be fun.”
Bobby smiled. “Okay, so the circus one didn’t work, but I like cramazing. That’s a good word.”
Julio grinned back. “One of my tippy tops. But dude, you’ve got to see this game.” He opened the door with his right hand while his left hand swept across his room.
Bobby’s eyes were drawn immediately to the large, black wheel in the middle of the room. “That’s a game?”
“That’s a Spinmaster 2023. It’s an amazing VR rig. Here, give it a try!”
Henry raised his hand tentatively, then put it back down and looked away.
“Sure,” Bobby said. “What do I do?”
“So, you step up here,” Julio said, gesturing to the inner floor of the wheel, about eight inches higher than the room’s floor. “If you’ve ever seen a hamster running in a wheel, it’s kind of like that.”
After Bobby stepped into the wheel, Julio strapped a bulky headset to his guest’s head. Then he placed a sleek controller into each of Bobby’s hands.
Julio covered his mouth with a hand and spoke in a muffled voice, as if he were coming through an old radio with bad reception. “Three … two … one … blast-off!” He flipped the power switch on the side of the Spinmaster.
A blobby blue logo swirled in from the side of the screen, froze for a few seconds, and then faded away. Bobby found himself transported into the virtual world, standing in a plain white room. A few feet away, the words “Everything League” were written in neon blue script on a yellow sign.
“What do I do?” Bobby asked.
“I only have Everything League, so you just tap the Everything League logo to enter the game,” Julio replied.
“Can I see, too?” Henry asked.
“Sure,” Julio said. He walked to a desk that barely had room for a chair, squeezed against the wall as it was by the Spinmaster. A large monitor flashed to life when he tapped its power button. The screen showed a flat, two-dimensional view of what Bobby saw.
Bobby reached out toward the logo and saw a virtual hand moving around in space in front of himself. “I can’t reach it,” he said.
“You need to foot it,” Julio replied.
Bobby tensed and stepped with his right foot, and nothing happened. He lifted his left foot, and as it moved forward, the Spinmaster gently rotated just enough to put his right foot back where it had started. It didn’t quite feel like normal walking. The closest thing Bobby could think of was walking on ice, but after a couple more steps, it felt good enough and he relaxed slightly. He reached out with his right hand and watched his virtual hand touch the Everything League logo.
Instantly, he found himself on a train that was just pulling into a station. The train’s squealing brakes and deep blue padded seats seemed so realistic that Bobby momentarily felt like he had fallen asleep on a long train ride and had dreamed of visiting Julio’s house. That sensation quickly passed when he looked around, recognized no one nearby, and saw that he was wearing unfamiliar clothes.
When the train stopped, he followed the other people onto the platform. The train station was right in the middle of a park, itself in the middle of a square of tall, gleaming buildings. It was night, but colorful lights all over the buildings provided plenty of light to see by.
“Welcome to Everything City,” Bobby said, reading the sign in front of him aloud. “Wow. This is amazing.”
“I know, right?” Julio’s voice floated in, sounding muffled and distant because of the headset Bobby was wearing. “Just wait ’til you actually play the game.”
“Play the game?” Bobby asked. “I’d be happy just wandering around.”
“Dude, you’ll see. Head over to the Registration building.”
Bobby crossed the park, getting used to moving in the VR world, and Julio helped him sign up. His next stop was Everyone New, a vaguely egg-shaped metallic building with yellow smiley faces next to the door set in the egg’s middle where it touched the ground. After he had registered, Bobby was given a new avatar, which was his in-game representation. He looked at himself in the mirror-like surface of the building, admiring how similar his avatar looked to his own appearance. Its nose was too big, though. He’d have to do something about that another time.
He sucked in a breath and readied himself for his first Everything League match.
Space Aliens Are Invading From Space So Stop Them
Bobby stepped through the door and found himself face-to-face with a mostly person-shaped robot. The parts of its skin that weren’t covered by a tuxedo were shiny silver to match the building it worked in. Antennae stuck up from the sides of its head where a human’s ears would be, poking through shaggy black hair.
Behind the robot, the surfaces of the room were covered in different shades of gray, and lines of blue light traced the edges of the floor and ceiling. The building wasn’t large, and a red door to the right and a blue door to the left were set into the wall just a few steps away.
“Bobby Thomas,” the robot said, its voice surprisingly deep and rich. “Welcome to Everything League. We hope you enjoy the game. We like to keep the first game simple to help you better enjoy the experience. Just step into that room over there.” The robot pointed to the red door. “When playing Everything League, you’ll generally play your games individually at the same time another player plays the same game. Whoever gets the better score wins. Any questions so far?”
“Yeah,” Bobby said. “What is the game? What do I do?”
The robot raised its right hand and wagged a finger. “Aha! You’re one step ahead of me. Everything League has lots of different games, but for new players like you, we start off with ‘Space Aliens Are Invading From Space So Stop Them.’ Yes, that’s the name of the game. Sorry if it seems a bit silly.” The robot lowered its hand and waited for a reply.
“Err, no, it’s fine.”
“When you go through the door, you’ll find yourself in a desert. Use your left-hand controller to move yourself around. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it. On the ground, there is a tank with a gun pointing straight up. Use your right hand to move the tank around. You’ll see alien spaceships flying in from above you. Try to shoot them with the tank’s gun by pushing the button near your right thumb. The game is over when the aliens get to the tank. Is that clear?”
“I think so,” Bobby said, his voice not sounding so certain.
“Have fun,” the robot said, gesturing with its left hand toward the red door.
Bobby’s footsteps echoed as he walked across the gray tiled floor, the red door opening before he even arrived. Through the opening, he could see a vast, sandy ground and a blue-black night sky filled with stars. He stepped through, and the door slammed shut. Looking back, he saw that the red door had disappeared entirely, the flat desert terrain stretching endlessly in every direction.
The tank was an oasis of light with a spotlight at each corner lighting up a small area of the desert floor. The light reflecting off the ground made it possible to see the body of the tank: a plain, dark gray square dominated by a huge, round gun pointing straight up. It was a machine built with the sole purpose of blasting things out of the sky.
The tank had a clear shot upward, but there were four thick metal platforms nearby that had apparently been placed to provide some cover for the tank.
With so little light around, the sky was awash with stars, the band of the Milky Way galaxy cutting the sky in two. Bobby stared up at the sky as he tested the controls, flying this way and that. He swooped past the tank and saw that the gun was so large he could have flown into its barrel. He decided to stay well away while shooting the weapon, so he flew to what he thought was a safe distance, and gave the trigger a try.
A flash of light and deep foom sound burst from the cannon. A dim shape flew straight up and exploded like a firework in the sky. This seemed to have been a cue for the aliens, because the darkness of the sky was cracked open by a fiery ball streaking into the atmosphere from space.
The fire changed to a hot orange glow, and Bobby could just make out the shape of an alien craft. First, it appeared as a smooth blue ball, before thin wings gradually tilted into view and smoothed the descent of the ship. A square platform spread out from the bottom of the sphere, slowing the craft further and then a cannon slid out from the middle of the platform.
The moment the cannon locked into place, an orange fireball exploded from its end and zoomed toward the tank. Startled at the sudden attack, Bobby pushed the tank’s control forward and it lurched under one of the metal platforms just before the fireball exploded on the ground where the tank had been moments before. Another fireball quickly followed the first, smashing into the metal platform and leaving a smoldering dent just above the tank.
“Yikes! Another hit there and my tank’s a goner,” Bobby thought.
The spaceship spiraled downward over the desert, launching another fireball each time it passed over the tank. Bobby continued the dodging motions, but the platforms that shielded the tank were getting beaten up. If he didn’t take the offensive soon, his tank would be toast.
He pulled the tank out of hiding and started firing its gun. His first shot knocked a fireball aside just a few feet from impact. The second time he fired, his timing was perfect, and the explosive ammunition blasted the spaceship out of the sky.
Bobby heaved a sigh of relief. The battle had lasted only thirty seconds, but the whole experience had felt intense because of how realistic the environment seemed. Even so, he found the game to be amazing and looked forward to playing it again.
He didn’t have to wait long, because the game wasn’t over. Two fireballs came hurtling toward the desert and then slowed enough to appear identical to the first ship Bobby had faced. They wasted little time in starting their attacks, and more cracks and holes spread across the metal platforms that were the only protection the tank had.
Bobby gave up on trying to be careful. He raced his tank back and forth across the desert as quickly as it would go, firing the cannon as often as he could. Amazingly enough, it worked! Thirty seconds of that was enough time to shatter the invaders into thousands of fiery pieces.
Another wave of ships entered virtual Earth’s atmosphere. One of three new enemies was a smaller ship that quickly darted to and fro. The little ship’s gun did only a little damage with each hit, but it landed three blasts on his tank, and the whole desert lit up with a momentary flash as his tank exploded. His whole body shook from below with the force of the blast, Julio’s VR rig providing physical sensations to go with the virtual action.
The alien ships landed on the floor of the desert, and several slim, white creatures with tall heads and black, oval eyes emerged. One of the aliens pointed a bony finger at Bobby, who found himself pulled down to stand on the sandy ground.
Bobby stared at the aliens, unsure of what to do until one silently pointed to a spot behind him. He turned around and saw the red door standing just a couple of feet away. He stepped toward it, but looked back before opening the portal to the Everyone New building. The aliens were boarding their spacecraft, undoubtedly on their way to conquer another planet.
He stepped through the door and exhaled a huge breath. The game had felt so real and the experience was so new that he had really tensed up in there.
The tuxedoed robot approached Bobby, but it suddenly froze in place before it had a chance to say anything.
“Dude,” Julio said, “dinner is steaming and the clock says face stuff.”
Bobby shook his head, trying to clear away thoughts of the game so that he could decipher what his new friend was saying. It didn’t work. “What?”
“Guess that one didn’t work. It’s dinner time.”
“Oh.”
Julio helped Bobby out of the VR rig. “What did you think?”
“Amazing! I don’t have enough amazings to say about it.”
Henry jumped up and down. “I want to try!”
Julio turned to him. “After dinner it’s all yours, okay?”
Henry’s stomach growled in answer. “Yeah, I guess.”
Off to the library
Bobby found school to be a little more bearable the following Monday. He aced a surprise quiz in history class, no one teased him at lunch, and he even managed to make it through a minute of dodgeball during gym class before getting tagged out. Plus, he was now one day closer to the end of the school year. Most of all, though, he felt like he had new things to look forward to for the first time since moving to Ann Arbor: spending time with his new friend Julio, and exploring more of Everything League.
Dinner time came along and, after the usual ”how-was-your-days,” Bobby asked, “Dad, can you take me to the library after dinner?”
Surprise crossed Hank’s face. “We just went there yesterday. You checked out five books. You can’t possibly have read all of those books already?”
Bobby shook his head. “Even I can’t read that fast. I want to go to the downtown library. I’ve heard they’ve got a VR rig. I want to play that game that I told you about. The one Julio showed me.”
“Okay, sure. Why not? Claire, Henry, do you want to come, too?”
Henry shook his head. “I wanna ride my bike. Mom, can we ride bikes?”
“Of course, Henry! That sounds like fun.”
Bobby gobbled up his dinner and nearly had the trip to the library canceled by his irritated father for repeatedly asking whether he was done. Then, he had to suffer through helping with the after-dinner cleanup. It was a quarter past seven when they finally got to the library.
“What time do we have to leave?” Bobby asked his father as they stepped through the Fifth Avenue entrance.
Hank pulled out his phone and tapped the side. The screen brightened and told him the time. “You’ve got school tomorrow, so we should leave in an hour.”
“An hour?” Bobby’s eyes darted around the library. His family usually went to the library branch closer to his house, but this was the main branch. It was much bigger than their nearby branch and he had no idea where the VR rig would be. He spotted a librarian nearby and darted over.
“Excuse me, sir,” he said. “Where can I find the virtual reality?”
The tall man looked at Bobby through his metal-rimmed glasses, his neatly trimmed black beard breaking into a smile. “A boy after my own heart! We only recently got the VR rig, and it’s not getting a lot of use yet. You’ll find it up on the second floor, near the computer lab and vending machines.”
“Okay, thanks!” Bobby turned to Hank, who was much more slowly making his way over. “Dad, I’ll be up on the second floor,” he called before speed-walking to the stairs. He climbed the gray-carpeted stairs as quickly as he could, though his legs weren’t yet long enough to take them two at a time.
When he reached the second floor, all he saw were rows of bookshelves and a desk behind which sat two librarians. He came as close to running to the desk as he could without drawing a “no running in the library” rebuke.
He drew in a breath to ask about the VR rig when a movement to his right caught his eye. A gray-haired woman was just sitting down in front of one of the computers lined up along one wall. Against the wall farthest from him, mostly obscured by bookshelves, he saw a tall, black, curved machine. He dashed to it, paying no attention when the librarian called out, “No running in the library, young man.”
And there it was, a Spinmaster 2023, just like the one at Julio’s house. The machine sat open and idle, and Bobby couldn’t believe his luck. He stepped into the machine and saw the visor, which was affixed to the side with a study cable, probably to keep people from stealing it. He put the visor on, prepared to teleport into the virtual world.
It turned out to be a lot darker and more boring than he remembered. The Spinmaster appeared to be turned off. Bobby removed the visor and stepped out, looking for a power switch. A black metal box to his right featured a wireless scanner and the message “Scan your LibraryID to use.”
Bobby didn’t have his own LibraryID yet, which meant that he’d have to find his dad. Precious minutes were slipping away. He peeked around the bookshelves nearest him. No one was paying him any attention, so he ran between two of the shelves back toward the stairs.
When he got there, Hank had just reached the second floor.
“Dad,” Bobby exclaimed, a little too loudly. “Dad, I need your phone. I can’t use the virtual reality without a LibraryID.”
Hank just smiled at his boy’s enthusiasm. “All right, Bobby. Take me to the machine. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time.”
That wasn’t how it felt to Bobby, though. He grabbed his father’s hand and tugged him back through the stacks to the waiting Spinmaster. Once there, Hank waved his phone next to the metal box, and a beep signaled that the machine was on. Bobby stepped into the Spinmaster and lowered the visor onto his head.
The screen was already aglow, and a female voice asked him, “What would you like to do?”
“Everything League,” he said.
“One moment,” the voice replied.
Bobby logged into his account and soon landed in Everything City for the second time.
Meeting Chip
On his first trip into Everything City, Bobby had had Julio to guide him. This time around, he was on his own. The egg-shaped building from his first visit sat to his right, and a tall building with dazzling strips of red, green, and blue light stood beckoning to him straight ahead. As he approached it, he spied a golden sign laid into the white marble on the first floor, the words “Everyone Experienced” engraved on its surface.
Dozens of avatars wearing all manner of clothing and in sizes ranging from wispy fairy to burly giant streamed in and out of the building through a collection of revolving doors. Several loitered around in front of the building, just chatting and watching the other people, as if they were each looking for someone more interesting to talk to. The crowd was a little overwhelming, so Bobby headed for the farthest door on the right, which had relatively fewer people crossing its threshold.
Before Bobby reached the door, a short, solidly built man wearing a yellow Everything League baseball cap and thick, black-rimmed glasses crossed in front of the building. He walked purposefully away from the entrances, his quick steps carrying him to the end of the structure. He turned left and disappeared into the space between the Everyone Experienced building and the smaller one next to it.
Though he was eager to play the game, Bobby’s curiosity overwhelmed him. Why would someone walk into an alley in Everything City?
He ran to catch up, coming to a stop just before reaching the corner. Grasping the edge of the building with his hands as if he were lifting himself up to a ledge, he slowly peered into the gap. The alley was dark, save for a single light fixture partway down its length on the wall that Bobby was holding onto. The figure in the yellow cap emerged from the shadows into the light, opened a door, and stepped into the building without a second glance around.
Instinct and everything he had learned in his ten years of life told him that alleys were dangerous places.
He shook his head. “It’s only a game,” he muttered aloud, immediately hoping no one was standing outside his VR rig wondering about the boy who was talking to himself.
Releasing his grip on the building’s corner, he took a deep breath, rounded the bend, and stepped into the darkness. It may have been just a game, but he still picked up the pace as soon as the darkness enfolded him. The walk was not far, and he let out his held breath once the yellow light provided him with what felt like a protective bubble.
“Gamerunners,” he said aloud, reading the word stenciled in black on the light yellow door. “I wonder what that means.” He was too busy wondering what he was getting himself into to care about people in the library hearing him talking to himself.
Bobby opened the door and nearly leapt out of his skin when he found himself face-to-face with the man in the Everything League hat. While he kept his skin on, he did take a step backward and let go of the door, but the man held it open.
“Oh, hello,” the man said, smiling. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just thought I heard something out here.”
Bobby blushed and momentarily wondered if that blushing would have been visible in the game. Was he supposed to be in this alley? Did the man work for Everything League? “Err, hi. Sorry. I saw — I was just — the door says Gamerunners. What does that mean?”
“You don’t need to be sorry. Not many people come back here, but it’s open to everyone. Step inside, and I’ll show you.”
Bobby had to remind himself again that this was just a game. Following a strange man through a curiously labeled door in a dark alley seemed like a really bad idea.
The man noticed Bobby’s hesitation. “I’m Chip,” he said, holding the door with his shoulder as he extended his right hand to offer it for shaking. “Chip Frisco. I’ve been playing Everything League since the early betas, and I was one of the first people to try out gamerunning.”
Bobby shook Chip’s hand, relaxing a bit as he did so. Chip gave the door a push and stepped back into the building, with Bobby close behind.
Inside, there was a hallway that looked like it had been pulled straight out of a generic hotel. Boring tan carpeting touched plain white trim which led up to bland cream-colored walls. The only interesting thing visible in the hall was just inside the door: a wooden rack with dozens of slots, most of which contained a single card.
The man pulled his glasses from his face and used them to point at the cards on the wall. “I see you’ve spotted the rack. Of course,” he swung his glasses toward the end of the hall, “there’s nothing else to spot along here, really.”
“What are all of those cards for?” Bobby asked, reaching out to take one.
Chip stepped in front of the rack, his body pushing Bobby’s hand aside. “Hold on there. Don’t grab a card until you know what you’re getting into. You see, these cards are where being a gamerunner starts.”
Pulling his hand back, Bobby said, “Okay, fine. Can you just tell me what this is all about?”
Chip put his glasses back on, and his eyes looked visibly larger. “This is what makes Everything League the best game ever, and it’s practically a secret. Everything League, the company, has plenty of good programmers, including some that are amazing at creating artificially intelligent bad guys for the game. As good as those AIs are, though, they’re just not as fun and unpredictable as real people. Not as fun as the gamerunners.”
“So gamerunners are the bad guys in the game?”
“Yes, that’s basically it. We work against the players to make the games more interesting.”
“But what do you actually do? Like, I played the ‘Space Aliens Are Invading’ game a couple of days ago. Would a gamerunner be flying one of the spaceships?”
“Oh, you really are new here. You just started?”
Bobby nodded.
“Well, welcome to the game! Most people never learn about gamerunning, and here you are next to the rack already. That’s rad. To answer your question, a brand new gamerunner could indeed be flying a ship in ‘Space Aliens.’ That’s a good game to get started on.”
“I had fun playing the ‘Space Aliens’ game, but something sounds even cooler about being in one of the attacking ships.”
“Oh, it is fun. More than that, the EL system matches up the best gamerunners with the best players, which is not only exciting but important. In my opinion, gamerunners are the key to the whole thing. If we do our bit right, we make this the most fun and fair game in the world.”
“What do you mean? How do gamerunners make it fair?”
Chip looked intently at Bobby. “How old are you?”
“Ten.”
Chip nodded. “Have you ever seen someone cheat on a test or homework?”
Bobby nodded in return. “Just a few days ago. I put so much work into that test, and that kid skated right through.”
“Yeah, exactly! Some players are always looking for weaknesses in the system. They want some way to get an unfair advantage. Gamerunners can help to spot those people and make sure that the play stays fair, even if the AI is falling for the trick. We’re not quite referees, but I’ve stopped several cheaters from leveling up already.”
Bobby liked how Chip said “we.” The players all competed against one another to be the best, but it seemed like the gamerunners were working together to make a great game. “Okay, what do I do?”
Chip slipped his glasses off again and pointed an end at the rack. “Grab a card from there, and it will tell you what game you’re going to play and give you a room number to go to. Walk down the hall that way and you’ll come to the elevator. They’ve got AIs and people that will help you get going once you’re in the backstage area for the game.”
Bobby pulled a card from the rack and read it aloud. “Space Aliens Are Invading From Space So Stop Them, Room 201.”
Chip gestured toward the end of the hall. “You’ve gotta be quick. They’ll only wait a little bit for you before starting the game.”
“Thanks, Chip!” Bobby said, racing down the hall and into his first match as a gamerunner.
“You know, dad,” Bobby said as he climbed into the car, “Ann Arbor may not be so bad. I still miss my old friends, but at least now I have a friend here. And these libraries are awesome.”
Hank nodded. “I’ve read that the libraries here are some of the best anywhere.”
“Totally! I can’t believe they already have such an amazing VR rig. Oh, and this guy in the Everything League game showed me how to be someone who makes the game fun and fair. Cheaters are the worst, and I have a way to stop them.”
“That sounds great.”
“This summer is gonna be cramazing,” Bobby said, his eyes aimed toward the window, but his mind picturing Everything City.