Lost in the Game: A LitRPG Adventure (Dream State Saga) (Volume 4)

Lost in the Game: A LitRPG Adventure (Dream State Saga) (Volume 4)

"Quests, battles, loot, upgrades and advancement. Everything you want in a LitRPG series is here, packed in a richly depicted game-world environment." —Conor Kostick, author of Epic The Dream State continues to hold mysteries that even its creator doesn’t know the whole truth of. Noah is working hard to help Wona bring the game up from its dark past and make it something that gamers can safely enjoy again. After years of believing the original beta testers were dead, a clue leads Noah to believe that they are alive and in need of a rescue. It’s a chance for everyone to finally make things right. But in order to reunite the lost beta testers with their loved ones, Noah must first free them from the Ghost of the Dream State. Everyone has lost someone to the Ghost’s enslavement: Brock’s coworkers, Siena’s long lost high school friend, Keri’s boyfriend, and Chloe’s brother. This fight is personal for all of them. Noah must team up with old friends and enemies in order to find the real world location of the missing beta testers. But the Ghost is willing to kill in order to keep his captives. Can Noah and his friends survive a quest outside of the game? ____________________ What everyone is saying about Christopher Keene: "Fans of LitRPG and video games need to be reading Christopher Keene." —Paul Mannering, President of SpecFicNZ, author of Engines of Empathy "The only thing I didn't love about this series was that I didn't write it!" —G. R. Cooper, author of the Omegaverse Series "Fans of LitRPG and video games need to be reading Christopher Keene."  -  Paul Mannering, President of SpecFicNZ, author of  Engines of Empathy "The only thing I didn't love about this series was that I didn't write it!" - G. R. Cooper, author of the Omegaverse Series "Quests, battles, loot, upgrades, and advancement. Everything you want in a LitRPG series is here, packed in a richly depicted game-world environment." - Conor Kostick, author of Epic While studying for his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand native Christopher Keene took the school’s creative writing course in the hopes of someday seeing his own books on the shelves of his favorite bookstores. He is now the published author of The Dream State Saga , as well as his new epic fantasy War of Kings and Monsters and the Super Dungeon novelization The Midnight Queen . In his spare time, he writes a blog to share his love of the fantasy and science fiction genres in novels, films, comics, games, and anime (fantasyandanime.wordpress.com). Chapter 1 The Gravesite Here lies Susan Dharma 2043-2060 “Well, Sue, I finally came to see you. And this time I’m not an utter mess.” Although I had been at the funeral, the drugs they had given me at the Wona asylum had numbed me to the grief and left me a bumbling, wheelchair-bound fool. This was the first time I had visited the grave while fully lucid, and the guilt that it had taken me this long to give her a proper farewell dug at my heart. I tried to come up with something to say, but it was hard knowing she wouldn’t be able to hear me. My mother had driven me to the graveyard today. It was a warm day, and she had offered to come with me to the grave for moral support and physical support if I needed it. She had never really stopped worrying about me after my month-long paralysis, no matter how many times I showed her I was fine to walk on my own now, so I requested she wait in the car. I was now glad I had because I was doing this all wrong. My lips weren’t trembling, my forehead wasn’t creased, and tears weren’t spilling down my cheeks like they were supposed to. The grief was coming out in another way. Anger tightened the cords in my neck until I felt like my skull was going to pop off. “You were just a pawn!” I spat in my sudden fury. “Just another piece that Malcolm could shift so he could have his revenge. Now I’m the leader of Catastrophe and trying to prevent that. And here I was, just a few weeks ago, trying to avenge you by taking them out! The irony makes me want to puke!” I was panting now, trying to keep it contained, hoping that no one else could hear me. The graveyard had been empty when I had arrived, but no doubt there was some old widow here now, updating her deceased husband on the latest gossip, and here I was having a tantrum like a child. It didn’t matter. I needed to get this out. “Now it turns out he’s achieved immortality. No one knows how, and on the very game you were trying to get pulled! You call that fair?” I exhaled heavily and forced a smile. “But that’s what I’ve been doing for the last few months, working with Windsor and trying to figure out how he did it. And once I find out, I’m going to destroy whatever’s left of him.” The sun went behind a cloud, leaving me in shadow. “I’m also helping this girl, Chloe. Her brother went missing a few years back, and we’ve been trying to track him through the game, but we haven’t had much luc