Into the real, p.1
Into the Real, page 1
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Acknowledgments
INTO THE
REAL
JOHN RINGO &
LYDIA SHERRER
Into the Real
By John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer
NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JOHN RINGO AND USA TODAY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LYDIA SHERRER JOIN FORCES ON A NEW SF NOVEL OF ALIEN INVASION. Ender's Game meets Mean Girls meets Pokemon Go.
Lynn Raven may be the boss master of WarMonger 2050 with her online persona of "Larry the Snake," but when the CEO of Tsunami Entertainment personally asks her, as a favor, to beta test a new augmented reality game, she has to face her greatest fear: Going outside and dealing with, ugh, people.
As she becomes more immersed in the game, the stakes rise and so do the obstacles. Strife between teammates, a ruthless rival team, and these strange glitches that make it seem like the game algorithm (or maybe “game AI”?) has it in for her. Now she has to face a new fear: is she willing to step into the real to win the future she’s always wanted?
What do you do when a game and real life merge?
BAEN BOOKS by JOHN RINGO
BLACK TIDE RISING
Under a Graveyard Sky • To Sail a Darkling Sea
Islands of Rage and Hope • Strands of Sorrow
The Valley of Shadows (with Mike Massa)
Black Tide Rising (edited with Gary Poole)
Voices of the Fall (edited with Gary Poole)
River of Night (with Mike Massa)
We Shall Rise (edited with Gary Poole)
TROY RISING
Live Free or Die • Citadel • The Hot Gate
LEGACY OF THE ALDENATA
A Hymn Before Battle • Gust Front • When the Devil Dances
Hell’s Faire • The Hero (with Michael Z. Williamson)
Cally’s War (with Julie Cochrane)
Watch on the Rhine (with Tom Kratman)
Sister Time (with Julie Cochrane) • Yellow Eyes (with Tom Kratman)
Honor of the Clan (with Julie Cochrane) • Eye of the Storm
COUNCIL WARS
There Will Be Dragons • Emerald Sea
Against the Tide • East of the Sun, West of the Moon
INTO THE LOOKING GLASS
Into the Looking Glass • Vorpal Blade (with Travis S. Taylor)
Manxome Foe (with Travis S. Taylor)
Claws that Catch (with Travis S. Taylor)
EMPIRE OF MAN
(with David Weber)
March Upcountry • March to the Sea • March to the Stars • We Few
SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
Princess of Wands • Queen of Wands
PALADIN OF SHADOWS
Ghost • Kildar • Choosers of the Slain • Unto the Breach
A Deeper Blue • Tiger by the Tail (with Ryan Sear)
STANDALONE TITLES
The Last Centurion • Citizens (ed. with Brian M. Thomsen)
Into the Real
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2022 by John Ringo & Lydia Sherrer
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
www.baen.com
ISBN: 978-1-9821-2600-1
eISBN: 978-1-62579-858-9
Cover art by Dave Seeley
First printing, April 2022
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ringo, John, 1963– author. | Sherrer, Lydia, author.
Title: Into the real / John Ringo & Lydia Sherrer.
Description: Riverdale, NY : Baen, [2022] | Series: Transdimensional hunter
Identifiers: LCCN 2021060300 | ISBN 9781982126001 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781625798589 (ebook)
Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.
Classification: LCC PS3568.I577 I59 2022 | DDC 813/.54—dc23/eng/20211217
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021060300
Pages by Joy Freeman (www.pagesbyjoy.com)
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Electronic Version by Baen Books
www.baen.com
To Tony, whose fault it is
that I ever got to write this book.
You are loved and valued more
than you can ever imagine.
—L.S.
As always
For Captain Tamara Long, USAF
Born: May 12, 1979
Died: March 23, 2003, Afghanistan
You fly with the angels now.
—J.R.
Chapter 1
Could a gaming artificial intelligence hold a grudge? Mack had no idea but sometimes he had to wonder. Times like now, when his screen noted the newly spawned enemy player was not one of their four-man opposing team but instead Larry Coughlin. Of course, Larry couldn’t be an AI. Ever since the mid-2010s when things like AI trolls and farming bots had become a real problem, game developers had spent the last thirty years and billions of dollars developing sophisticated software to keep their games secure and their paying customers happy. But Mack had to wonder.
“Aš Išvykę savo akis ir seksas kaukolės!” Ronnie, the leader of their four-man team, snarled. “Jūs esate homoseksualus idiotas!”
“Larry’s here,” Mack said dolefully.
“Yep,” Dan replied. “I don’t even have to look at the board. Ronnie’s cursing in—”
Dan’s voice cut off and the screen flashed: DarkRider48 has been terminated by Larry Coughlin!
“Jūs patekote asilas vyrų dalis!” Ronnie shouted.
“Ronnnie…” a deep baritone voice taunted. “Oh, Ronnnie…I’m here to kiiill you. Cursing in Lithuanian won’t save you…”
RonnieDarko714 has been terminated by Larry Coughlin!
Mack got up in a good viewpoint to scope things out, no longer worrying what their lead was on their opponents. They were doomed anyway. He could see the other team pulling back through the broken rubble “scenery” of the battle quadrant. Why take chances when a legendary Tier One had shown up to wipe out the other team for you?
He had no idea what Ronnie had done to get on Larry Coughlin’s “naughty” list. Nobody knew who Larry actually was, just that he ranked as one of the top ten best players in the world on the mega popular first-person-shooter game, WarMonger. That and he was the only one of the ten who never attended tournaments. He was a mystery man in virtual and their own personal boogeyman—a good argument against the whole AI theory. Why would an AI waste its time on them? All Mack knew for sure was that Larry was a mercenary in virtual, taking gear or cash to show up and turn the tide in a fight. Rumors were he might be a merc in the real, too, maybe a retired one. Some people said he used to be an actual Delta Force or maybe SEAL team member, based on the way he fought. But, again, why someone like that would care about a random high schooler from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was anybody’s guess.
Oh, well. At least the gaming AI had picked a nice day for it. Clear blue skies instead of the nearly perpetual gray, apparently cold, rain the game usually generated.
The other thing Mack knew for sure? Half the time they were in a match, Larry Coughlin would show up to ruin their night. And probably charge somebody through the nose to do it. It was insulting.
Mack decided to camp out behind this nice safe wall and hope the Tier One didn’t notice him. After all, miracles could happen, right?
“I’m back—” Ronnie said only to be cut off again.
RonnieDarko714 has been terminated by Larry Coughlin!
“He’s teabagging Ronnie,” Edgar, the other remaining team member, said. If it weren’t for the fact that Edgar rarely showed emotion, Mack would have sworn he heard a grin in his friend’s voice. “Heck of a thing to see just as you res—”
BigHero232 has been terminated by Larry Coughlin!
Aaaand, there went Edgar. Now Mack was alone. He waited, hoping one of his teammates could respawn and stay alive for more than five seconds.
“Can you move in on him?” Mack whispered as Dan’s name showed back up on the board. He knew whispering didn’t help but it was Larry Coughlin, for Pete’s sake!
“On me?” Larry’s deep voice replied. “Doubt it. He’s all the way across the map and I’m over here behind you, Mack.”
MackTruck35 has been terminated by Larry Coughlin!
“I swear to GOD, he teleports!” Mack shouted at his screen as his respawn clock counted down. “He has to be cheating!”
“That guy’s got some sort of homo crush on me, I swear,” Ronnie replied as he respawned. “Freaking hom—”
“He’s doing it again,” Dan added. “And he took out Edgar from across the—”
DarkRider48 has been terminated by Larry Coughlin!
“Want to give up, Mack?” Larry asked. “Don’t bother running, you’ll only die tired.”
“Why us, man?” Mack said as he sent his avatar sprinting away from his respawn point, looking for cover. “Why the heck do you always turn up to beat on us?”
“It’s not you I’m after, kid,” Larry replied. “It’s Ronnie. You know that.”
“What’ve you got against Ronnie?” Mack asked.
“He’s a jerk,” Larry said, “and you know it. I admire your loyalty, Mack. But, as always, it’s going to cost you.”
“Where are you?” Mack shouted, spinning his avatar in a useless circle.
“Behind you,” Larry whispered over the coms.
Baconville Bashers Have Failed to Achieve Objective!
Lynn Raven leaned back in her body-mold chair and lowered her old-school headset so she could stretch the kinks out of her neck. She knew some kids at school who had convinced their parents to get them audio implants so they never had to use headphones or a mic again.
That would have been a dream.
Her mom? Nope, not a chance. Never mind that global tech was changing around them faster than you could wrap your mind around it. Whenever Lynn brought up audio or even visual implants, it was all “they’re a dangerous new fad” or “you can wait to make permanent alterations to your anatomy after you turn eighteen.” It was annoying but Lynn only had a little over a year to go before she could finally make those decisions for herself. Then her life in WarMonger as a grizzled old mercenary for hire would get so much easier.
Grabbing an energy drink, Lynn downed it and then started on a bag of chips as she reviewed the victory stats on her wall-screen.
It wasn’t quite as high resolution as a flex-screen gaming monitor but repainting her bedroom with smartpaint had definitely been the cheaper option. Plus, she liked being able to change the screen’s size and location so she could play from her bed, from the floor, or wherever she felt like. Of course, most gamers these days preferred augmented reality glasses or a virtual reality headset. But the cheap AR and VR equipment gave her a headache, and she wasn’t going to pay for the good ones. Yet.
Lynn polished off the last of her chips, licked her fingers, then prepared to get back to work. It wasn’t as if taking out her very few friends was hard; compared to the top players in WarMonger that she usually played against, it was like kicking puppies. But it was worth it just to listen to Ronnie’s dramatics, both during the game and at school. He really was an arrogant jerk who needed his balloon head popped. And the fact that she was getting paid to do it? That was just icing on the cake.
She put the headset back on and pinged the team leader who’d hired her.
“SkullCrusher,” she said, her voice modulated to the deep baritone Larry Coughlin was known for. “I want that rifle you promised in my inventory by ten hundred hours Eastern or you’ll be next on my list. Copy?”
“Roger, sir,” SkullCrusher said carefully. “I’m already transferring it. Thanks for the assist.”
“Anytime,” she said in a sinister tone. “As long as you make the payment schedule.”
She checked her inventory, and sure enough, the Tiger War was already transferred. She generated an interactive image copy, forwarded it, then switched her wireless controller’s config from gaming to keyboard. A lot of gamers used the versatile haptic gloves that could control all their devices at once with a few simple flicks. But Lynn preferred having an actual object in her hands, even if it was a bit clunky. The controller’s omni-polymer flowed seamlessly into the new keyboard config, and she opened a second screen on her wall where she pulled up an auction site and began typing rapidly.
“WM Tiger War AR. $50 OBO. Larry Coughlin.”
As she typed, her eyes were pulled to the side of the listing form she was filling out by a flash of color. It was another one of those TD Hunter ads, the “biggest release of the year” augmented reality game she was getting sick of hearing about. The ad showed an athletic, vaguely Asian-looking man holding what appeared to be a pair of electric blue toy swords. The man stood alone in a park, his stance alert and ready as if he were listening for something. Suddenly, he spun and slashed behind him, launching into a series of seamlessly fluid attacks.
Ten seconds in, there was a lull in his movements as he pulled out a pair of AR glasses and slipped them on, triggering an amazing transformation. It started at his head and flowed down his body, then spread to everything around him. His appearance was transformed into that of a fierce warrior, armored to the nines and wielding lethal blades of shining steel. They whipped through the air as the man resumed his dance of death, cutting down monster after monster as they leapt at him in the augmented reality that now overlaid his surroundings. The slogan “Step into the real” appeared superimposed over the action, then the scene faded into a black background with a large military-looking emblem shining in the middle.
Stupid ads.
She was annoyed to have been sucked into watching something she’d seen some version of hundreds of times already over the past six months. Access to the global mesh network—the faster, more reliable version of the Internet that had replaced the world wide web a decade ago—was free for everyone, all the time, everywhere. But only because ads inundated every corner of it.
Unless, of course, you paid a premium to get rid of them.
After a spate of global pandemics during the 2020s that locked down whole countries for months at a time and started the “social distancing” fad, the trend toward everything going virtual hit warp speed. Even though medical tech eventually caught up with the strains that kept getting passed, the decade of the 2020s permanently changed global culture. In virtual became the default place for any kind of recreation or entertainment, and the only reason Lynn still physically went to school was because of a bunch of studies done in the late 2020s when there was a push for permanent virtual classrooms. The science indicating kids needed face-to-face instruction was convincing enough that the virtual schooling lobby failed.
Personally, Lynn thought it was a shame. If she didn’t have to go to school then she wouldn’t have to deal with people anymore. She didn’t like people. Most of them sucked—a major reason why she’d gotten into gaming in the first place.
Getting back to work, Lynn added the image copy of the red and blue Tiger War to her auction listing, activated the offer, then switched her keyboard back to a controller and her attention back to WarMonger. Out of necessity, she had forked out extra to keep her gaming time ad-free, so it was a calm oasis for her in virtual. She’d give her auction listing a couple of hours to see what sort of bids she got. Since it was a work night she might wait until Monday to accept an offer. Weekends were the best time to sell.
Whatever she got, it’d help with the bills. Not that her mom knew she paid their rent and held back their mountain of debt by mercing in the virtual. Her mom hated taking money from anyone. But once Lynn had figured out what a goldmine WarMonger was for someone of her skills, she’d gotten her mom to teach her how to manage their finances, claiming she needed the experience for extra credit in one of her classes.
Her mom hadn’t liked the idea—as if Lynn hadn’t already known how much they struggled to make ends meet. But she’d begged and cajoled until her mom had given in. Matilda carefully supervised everything at first, and it had taken months of Lynn enthusiastically dotting every “I” and crossing every “T” before her mom relaxed and let Lynn take over.
At first, she could only use a trickle of gaming funds. Her mom would notice if they could suddenly afford normal things like red meat. But after a year of gradual increases, she’d achieved a comfortable balance. Enough to keep a roof over their heads and the debt collectors at bay but not enough to make her mom suspicious. Anything extra she made she funneled into a savings account for college.
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