
eBook by Vivian Vande Velde
The Rasmussem Corporation creates virtual reality games that plug directly into the brain — no keyboard, no monitor, just pure immersion. But the technology comes with catastrophic risks when things go wrong, and for some players the game becomes deadly serious. From brain-hacked dungeon crawls where a crashed game means real-world death, to a medieval fantasy where a girl must win or die for real, the Rasmussem universe explores what happens when the line between virtual and reality collapses.

It's the most advanced computer role-playing game ever — plugging directly into the brain for total immersion. When Arvin Rizalli and his friends hack their way into the game without authorization, they get more than they bargained for. The game goes horribly, deathly wrong, and there's no hope of rescue from outside.

In the virtual reality game Heir Apparent, there are as many ways to win as there are to get killed — and Giannine seems to be finding them all. Unless she can get the magic ring, answer the riddles, charm the ghosts, fend off the barbarians, and defeat the dragon, she'll never win. And she has to, because losing means she'll die for real this time.

Grace Pizzelli has always been the average one, nothing like her brilliant older sister Emily, who works for Rasmussem. Now Emily has hidden herself inside a cheerful VR game meant for little girls, and no one knows why or how to bring her back. The technology can't keep her safe for long. Grace — the average one — may be the only person who can save her.