SOLVED. Kids/YA Dystopian Novel about a virtual reality company that takes kids off the streets and invites them to trial the VR (with food and accommodation provided) (Spoilers ahead, read in 2010-2015)

[phthalo]

Solved! The book is Gamer

SPOILERS AHEAD, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK


tw: death

Hey!
So there was a book that my parents purchased a while ago from an opshop. I’m sorta going on a rereading spree, so I was trying to look for this one. From what I remember -
The protagonist is early teens, male, and homeless. The book starts with him being chased by this gang across rooftops because he’s stolen their bread. I think he nearly breaks his arm on an antenna?
Anyway, he returns to the ground to find this ice-cream truck thingy that provides free food to the homeless children. They also provide the opportunity to go to a virtual reality company, where food is provided and you can test out the virtual reality systems. The protagonist goes there.

He then meets this girl who he believes resembles Lara Croft (I think?), who warns him about the VR system while they’re emptying their food trays.

Some other vague stuff about how the virtual reality worked, and how combat worked. I’m pretty sure you could get hurt while in it, and although it wouldn’t really affect your body irl, it would have some repercussions (like an ache).

Lara Croft look-alike gets ‘upgraded’ to the next VR level, which - surprise - turns out to be this facility. The kids are inserted into the actual VR game (which the general public are playing), and are made to fight them. The public believe that their opponents are AI.

Protagonist also gets upgraded into next VR level. I’m pretty sure he meets the look-alike again, and they head to somewhere called the Citadel. Oh yeah! Imitation Croft’s father was a computer programmer who said that no matter what, there was always a ‘back door’. And she believed that the back door was in the Citadel.

Something to do with floating platforms/stairs that fell moments after you placed your feet on there.

Turns out that there are other people there, too. Protagonist and Imitation head towards the Citadel, only for Imitation’s programming to force her to not go to the back door. Imitation ends up fighting some of the other people at the Citadel, while protag escapes.

He wakes up in the facility, and immediately does the dramatic ripping-out-the-wires-and-iv-drips. Then he goes looking for his friend’s VR pod thing. He finds her, but is too late to freeze her health bar from dropping down. Moments before she dies, she does something that I forget.

Some bots start chasing protagonist up the stairs, so he heads to the roof and jumps. I’m not really sure what happened next, but i’m pretty sure that he didn’t die.

The cover that I remember had a lenticular front cover, which showed the two protagonists standing, and when you moved the cover, it showed one of them kicking and the other one punching.

Thank you to whoever bothers to read this :”)