Read Online Rainbows End by Vinge Vernor - Free Book Online Page A

all along the boundary of Pyramid hill.
“Ha,” said Fred. The twins started uphill toward the property line. “C’mon, Juan. We’re marked as county employees. We’ll be fine if we don’t stay too long.”
    Pyramid Hill had all the latest touchy-feely gear. These were not just phantoms painted by your contact lenses on the back of your eyeballs. On Pyramid Hill there were games where you could ride a Scoochi salsipued or steal the eggs of raptors — or games with warm furry creatures that danced playfully around, begging to be picked up and cuddled. If you turned off all the game views, you could see other players wandering through the woods in their own worlds. Somehow the Hill kept them from crashing into each other.
    In Cretaceous Returns , the sound of the free-fall launcher was disguised as thunder. The trees were imaged as towering ginkgoes, with lots of places you couldn’t see through. Juan played the pure visual Cret Ret a lot these days, in person with the twins, and all over the world with others. It had not been an uplifting experience. He had been “killed and eaten” three times so far this week. It was a tough game, one where you had to contribute or maybe you got killed and eaten every time. So Juan had joined the Fantasists Guild — well, as a junior wannabe member. Maybe that would make him clueful. He had already designed a species for Cret Ret . His saurians were quick, small things that didn’t attract the fiercest of the critics. The twins had not been impressed, though they had no alternatives of their own.
As he walked through the ginkgo forest, he kept his eye out for critters with jaws lurking in the lower branches. That’s what had gotten him on Monday. On Tuesday it had been some kind of paleo disease.
    So far things seemed safe enough, but there was no sign of his own contribution. They had been fast breeding and scalable, so where were the little monsters? Sigh. Sometime he should check out other game sites. They might be big in Kazakhstan. Here, today… nada.
    Juan stumped across the Hill, a little discouraged, but still uneaten. The twins had taken the form of game-standard velociraptors. They were having a grand time. Their chicken-sized prey were Pyramid Hill game bots.
The Jerry-raptor looked over its shoulder at Juan. “Where’s your critter?” Juan had not assumed any animal form. “I’m a time traveler,” he said. That was a valid type, introduced with the initial game release.
    Fred flashed a face full of teeth. “I mean where are the critters you invented last week?” “I don’t know.”
    “Most likely they got eaten by the critics,” said Jerry. The brothers did a joint reptilian chortle. “Give up on making creator points, Juan. Kick back and use the good stuff.” He illustrated with a soccer kick that connected with something that scuttled across their path. That got lots of classic points and a few thrilling moments of quality carnage. Fred joined in and red splattered everywhere.
There was something familiar about this prey. It was young and clever-looking… a newborn from Juan’s own design! And that meant its mommy would be nearby. Juan said, “You know, I don’t think — ”
    “The Problem Is, None Of You Think Nearly Enough.” The sound was premium external, like sticking your head inside an old-time boom box. Too late, they saw that the tree trunks behind them grew from yard-long claws. Mommy. Drool fell in ten-inch blobs from high above.
This was Juan’s design scaled up to the max.
    “Sh — ” said Fred. It was his last hiss as a velociraptor. The head and teeth behind the slobber descended from the ginkgo canopy and swallowed Fred down to the tips of his hind talons. The monster crunched and munched for a moment. The clearing was filled with the sound of splintering bones.
    “Ahh!” The monster opened its mouth and vomited horror. It was so good — Juan flicker-viewed on reality: Fred was standing in the steaming remains of his