Warcross

Emika has no clothing options the next morning and ends up arriving to Hideo’s corporate office building in ripped jeans, a tee shirt, and a faded flannel shirt she ironed in the hotel room. An assistant greets Emika and communicates the rules for her meeting with Hideo: no phones, a signed non-disclosure agreement, and no questions about his family or their activities. Emika meets Hideo, who introduces her to Leanna Samuels, lead producer for Warcross championships; chief operating officer Mari Nakamura; and Kenn Edon, creative director (with whom Emika spoke on the flight). When they speak in private, Hideo tells Emika that only one other person ever breached the security on Warcross, and she guesses correctly that the job Hideo wants her for involves catching this person. Two other bounty hunters will be looking for the perpetrator as well.

Hideo gives Emika contact lenses that replace the NeuroLink glasses. She is confused as to how they charge, but Hideo tells her, “The lenses leave behind a harmless film against the eye surface that is only one atom thick. This film acts as a conduit between the lenses and your body” (92). He takes her into the Warcross virtual world. He shows her a place beyond the “walls” of the easy Paintbrush level of Warcross where the perpetrator, whom Hideo calls Zero, changed visible code to access data. Hideo’s technicians fixed the damage; what he shows Emika is a “memory” of the damage to see if she can spot it, which she easily does. Hideo takes Emika to another place in Warcross by simply “pulling” on the surroundings: “It’s strange to be inside this game with its own creator and see him play with it as its god” (96).

The second instance of damage is harder to spot, but Emika’s technique of viewing the whole picture at once, learned from her father, works, and she finds and fixes the damages much faster than Hideo’s engineers did. Hideo tells Emika that he suspects one of the professional players; joining the championship as a drafted wildcard will allow Emika to hunt from within the game. Emika accepts the job. Once their meeting is over, Emika sees a pending deposit in her account that she will receive if she successfully finds Zero: $10 million. 

Emika is amazed at this potential prize amount. She thinks Hideo is more aloof and less appealing than she expected, despite Kenn’s insistence that he “doesn’t mean to be intimidating […]” (101). To Emika, “Hideo’s walls are nevertheless there, making his politeness seem insulting and his intentions vague” (101). Emika is convinced Hideo does not like her very much, but a text from Kenn says that Hideo was impressed. Right after their meeting, Hideo sends Emika a new, ultramodern electric skateboard.

Emika arrives at the Tokyo Dome where she will take part in Wardraft, the event at which each of 16 championship teams choose players from a pool of 40 wildcard selectees. Top draft picks in recent years, who usually have the highest Warcross scores and “millions of followers,” often go on to be professional team members, like Penn Wachowski and Kento Park. Emika meets several other wildcard draftees from around the world before the event begins. Stadium attendees burst into applause when the announcer introduces Emika. Team Phoenix Riders chooses from the wildcard players first. In a hushed stadium Asher Wing, captain of Phoenix Risers, chooses Emika as the top draft pick.

The announcer says, “It seems this year’s number one draft pick will be an untested, untried, unranked wild card […]” (114). Asher smiles at Emika and she wonders if he is Zero. The ceremony goes on until all 40 wildcards join teams. Emika notices a “dark virtual figure” far above in the ceiling structure of the arena. She takes a screenshot of the figure as it disappears. After the draft, selectees go in different directions to their waiting teams. Emika says goodbye to Ziggy and Yuebin, two newly drafted players she met. Emika notices Asher in his wheelchair speaking to fans but loses her chance to say hello in the crushing crowds.

A car takes Emika to the luxury neighborhood that houses Phoenix Riders and other teams for the tournament. Emika meets Asher and he tells her that from studying her game moves, he believes she will be a valuable Architect (the team role responsible for changing the landscape of the level to benefit her team), and that he did not just choose her for ratings. Emika then meets the team Shield, Roshan Ahmadi, and the team Thief, Hamilton Jiménez, whose apparel catches Emika’s attention: “On second look, it’s a t-shirt that says QUIDDITCH TRYOUTS in giant sports lettering. I like her immediately” (123). The team Fighter, DJ Ren, is helping prepare for the big party that all teams will attend that night.

Hamilton shows Emika to a huge bedroom with virtually paintable walls, an infinity-edge pool on a private balcony, and a closet filled with high-end articles of clothing, all sponsored gifts. Emika tries on clothing until she remembers the other bounty hunters are working on finding Zero. She clarifies the screenshot of the virtual figure she saw at Wardraft until a line of identifying code appears: WC0, or Wildcard 0, which indicates that the virtual figure connects to another draftee. Emika plans to use the party as an opportunity to figure out which draftee is WC0. She then calls the house robot Wikki, which is programmed to record all the players’ food and drink preferences, to begin to hack into the personal accounts of her teammates and all other teams’ players: “By tomorrow, I should be in” (132).

The party occurs at an underground Tokyo club called Sound Museum Vision. Teams, Henka Games employees, and a “smattering of Warcross fans who were picked by a lottery system” (132) attend. The fifth member of the Phoenix Riders, DJ Ren, is DJing the event. Famous musician Frankie Dena performs. Asher instructs Emika to talk to members of rival team Demon Brigade, which she does, playing the conversation as if she is a naïve fan so that Architect Tremaine and Fighter Max underestimate her. Roshan accompanies Emika to speak with them and Emika recalls that Tremaine, once a Wardraft wildcard along with Roshan, knows Roshan. She scans Tremaine’s and Max’s personal content from their hacked accounts as they make degrading comments to her, but she finds nothing of interest. Hammie and Emika greet Hideo. Emika feels self-conscious in the short dress she chose to wear. Hideo tells Emika she looks “lovely.” Emika realizes that when she tries to read DJ Ren’s private info, it appears behind “a mass of shields” (143)—protected by dozens of security measures. She also realizes that he did not sit with the rest of the Wildcards during the draft.

The next morning, Asher calls the Phoenix Riders together in their house to review the first game matchups. DJ Ren arrives looking distracted and disheveled; he wears dark sunglasses in the house. Emika begins a program to break through the security shields protecting his confidential information. The Phoenix Riders will play against the Demon Brigade in the first game of the opening round. Asher covers information about the Demon Brigade, telling Emika that the competitors will be eager to take her out of the round early. Asher reveals that Tremaine and Roshan once had a relationship. Roshan tells Emika that Tremaine, though Architect now, has “trained in every position. He’s the best of the Demons at switching roles, and he’s actually a very good Thief and Fighter” (149). They have a month to train for the first game.

Hideo appears on the news to promote the distribution of the NeuroLink lenses. Reporters try to question him about his interest in Emika, but he says he has no control over the draft.