Gamers' Challenge by George Ivanoff Read Free Book Online Page A

story?’
    Tark and Zyra sat down together, Hope a little to the side of Zyra. Tee stood before them, addressing them as if he were making a speech.
    ‘There is a cheat code,’ began Tee.
    ‘Actually, there’s more than one,’ corrected Hope.
    ‘Yes, thank you, there is more than one,’ said Tee, a hint of irritation in his voice. ‘But let me deal with one thing at a time. There is a cheat code, handed down -’
    ‘Wot’s a cheat code?’ asked Zyra.
    ‘It’s a code that lets you cheat,’ stated Hope, flatly.
    ‘Oh yeah, great.’ Zyra glared at Hope. ‘Thanks. That explains everythin’.’
    ‘It is a code,’ Tee quickly cut in, ‘that contains instructions on how to circumvent the will of the Designers.’
    ‘Instructions?’ Hope’s voice rose in pitch and she snorted in a half laugh.
    ‘Yes, well,’ Tee corrected. ‘It’s more like a series of hints. Or a prophecy. It has been passed on from Outer to Outer over many series of repeating characters. In fact, the previous Tark gave me it. And the Tark before gave him it. And so on, all the way back to the original Tark and Zyra.’
    ‘The original us?’ asked Tark.
    ‘That’s right,’ said Tee. ‘It seems that they may have been the first Outers. Or so we think. It was a very long time ago. No one knows how they came upon the cheat code, only that they -’
    ‘Cuts ta the chase,’ Zyra interjected. ‘Wot does it says?’
    ‘It says a lot of different things.’ Tee paced about in front of the others. ‘Most importantly, it says that two generations together, parent and child, a father and son or a mother and daughter, will have the ability to travel between the game worlds.’
    ‘Anyones with a key and enough money ta getsinta Designers Paradise can gets inta other worlds,’ said Tark.
    ‘Yes, but Zyra and Hope, together, in theory, don’t need a key or money,’ said Tee.
    The monks’ chanting echoed around them, as Tee paused to let his words sink in.
    ‘Wow!’ Tark looked at Zyra with wonder in his eyes. ‘Who woulds have thunk ya’d be so special.’
    Zyra punched him on the shoulder, and then looked at Hope. ‘How?’
    ‘No idea,’ said Hope.
    ‘That’s the problem,’ Tee admitted. ‘The cheat code is not very specific.’
    ‘Well, wot does it says?’ Zyra rolled her eyes and huffed. ‘Exactly?’
    ‘Exactly?’ Hope mimicked. ‘Zero. One. Zero. One. Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero -’
    ‘Shuts up!’ yelled Zyra. ‘Wot’s with ya?’
    Hope produced a handheld screen from a pocket and tossed it to Zyra. Tark leaned over and the two of them saw a stream of green numbers scrolling across the screen.
          01010000   01100001   01110010   01100101
    01101110 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101110
    01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 01100110
    01110011 01110000 01110010 01101001 01101110
    01100111 00101100 00100000 01110011 01100101
    01110000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01110100
    01100101 01100100 00100000 01100010 01111001
    00100000 01100111 01100101 01101110 01100101
    01110010 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111
    01101110 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100
    00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01101110
    01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100
    00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01100111
    01100101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010
    00101100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111
    01100001 01101101 01100101 01110010 00100000
    01101110 01101111 00100000 01101100 01101111
    01101110 01100111 01100101 01110010 00100000
    01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111
    01101110 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000
    01101111 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011
    00100000 01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101
    01110010 00101100 00100000 01110100 01101111
    01100111 01100101 01110100 01101000 01100101
    01110010 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110
    00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01110110
    01100101 01110010 01110011 01100101 00100000
    01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110111
    01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100