Still, it was a long time before Mika was able to fall asleep.
OLYMPIFAN UPDATE!
Locations for the Silver Medal
So many clues, so little time . . . I hope you OlympiFans
are ready for more exploring!
Whether you’re playing in VR or AR mode, I’m sure
you’ve realized by now that Tokyo is HUGE.
Get ready to discover even more of it over
the next few days! Head to these locations
to find clues for the Silver medal:
Ueno
Fujimi
Ginza
Shiodome
Higashi-Shinbashi
Happy clue hunting, OlympiFans!
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ANDY
THE MOMENT MIKA’S alarm went off, Andy swiped uselessly at the nightstand. His head felt thick and groggy with sleep, and he wondered blearily how long jet lag lasted. All he wanted was to sink back into his dreams. He’d been swimming . . . he’d been racing. Backstroke, butterfly, freestyle—slicing through the water, the other competitors barely visible in his peripheral vision.
But he had to wake up, because something exciting was happening this morning. Something he was looking forward to. What was it?
“Wake up, Andy! We’ve got clues to find,” Mika announced, and Andy felt a jolt of adrenaline shock him awake. His sister snickered as he struggled to sit up and rub his eyes. “Wow, I’ve never seen you wake up this fast before. It’s kind of scary. Like a zombie jumping out of a grave or something.”
Ignoring this, Andy grabbed his phone and opened OlympiFan. Still rubbing his eyes, he stifled a huge yawn and navigated to the Team MADR chat room. Devon had left a message just an hour earlier:
Devon: Can you guys get to the zoo? The VR line is already pretty long
The previous night, Mom and Dad had taken Andy and Mika to dinner at a sushi restaurant with James and Valentina. While the adults had talked over platters of sushi and sashimi, the Kudo kids had come up with a plan. They’d shared the mysterious message in the note with Devon and Riley, and all four had agreed that the most obvious interpretation of “pandas guard the Silver” was that the medal was hidden at a zoo—and Ueno Zoo was the only one in the city. When the locations for clues to the Silver had been released and Ueno had been one of the five, Andy wasn’t sure what to think. Could it just be a coincidence? Or was this really a clue from the Masked Medalist that only Team MADR knew about?
Because the zoo was too far away from their hotel to walk and Andy and Mika weren’t sure how to get there by train, Devon and Riley were going to check it out in VR mode while Andy and Mika searched for clues in a location closer to their hotel. But apparently, that wasn’t going to work since the VR line was already so long.
Andy glanced over at Mika, who was sitting cross-legged on her bed, gazing intently at her phone. “Should we do it?”
Mika looked up sharply, dropping her phone into her lap. “Should we do what?”
“What Devon said.” Andy paused, fighting off another yawn. “Go to the zoo, see if the Silver’s there. Aren’t you on OlympiFan?”
“Oh!” Mika blinked. “Yeah, I was. I am. I mean, I was about to open it.” She picked her phone up and angled it slightly away from Andy as she swiped. “But I don’t know if the Silver would even be in the same location with the clues. There weren’t any clues around the shrine, just the Bronze.”
Before Andy could respond, someone knocked on their door.
“We’re awake!” called Mika, and a moment later, Dad poked his head in. His eyebrows raised at the sight of Andy sitting up in bed.
“You’re both up?” he said in disbelief. “Mika, what did you do, throw cold water on him?”
“He actually woke up when the alarm went off,” Mika said, matching Dad’s tone of mock amazement.
Andy rolled his eyes as Dad pretended to clutch his heart.
“Just wanted to let you guys know that I’m taking the morning off!” Dad went on, stepping inside their room. “Emi called a meeting after lunch, but until then, I’m up for anything. What do you guys want to do?”
Andy and Mika glanced at one another, a quick, silent conversation. Mika lifted a shoulder, and Andy nodded once. They both turned back to Dad, who looked from one to the other expectantly. “So?”
Andy tried to keep his voice light. “Can we check out the zoo?”
* * *
While Dad stood in line for tickets, Andy and Mika huddled together near the entrance. It wasn’t even ten o’clock yet, but the sun was already blazing hot. Andy could feel sweat beading on his forehead, while Mika kept glancing around nervously.
“Who are you looking for?” Andy finally asked.
She blinked. “What?”
“You look like you’re looking for someone.”
“Well . . .” Mika hesitated. “It’s just weird, you know? Whoever left the note at the gate was probably watching us. Maybe they’re here too, watching to see if we find the Silver.”
“It’s not going to be here.” Andy paused before adding quietly, “At least, I hope it’s not.”
Mika stared at him. “What? Why not?”
Andy had been thinking about this during the whole train ride to the zoo. “Because if it is here, and we find the medal and get all those points and the hints about the Masked Medalist’s identity, then we cheated.”
“Cheated?”
“Yeah! We haven’t collected enough clues to figure out where the Silver is.”
“If the Silver really is here, then that note was a clue!”
“But it wasn’t an official OlympiFan clue.”
“Unless the Masked Medalist left it.”
“Why would they do that, though?” Andy insisted. “It’s not only unfair to the VR players, like you said yesterday—it’s also unfair to everyone who wasn’t at that gate at the right time. Remember, in this game you’re supposed to work with your team and respect the other players. This is just . . .” Andy paused, trying to find the right word. “It’s not good sportsmanship. I don’t think it’s something the Masked Medalist would do.”
Mika chewed her lip. “Okay, I see your point. But if the Silver medal is here, are we just going to leave it?”
Andy didn’t answer. That was the question he kept going back and forth on. If he was going to be a beta tester for the Masked Medalist’s new gaming company, he needed to figure out their identity. And to do that, he needed at least one of the hints that came with the medals. He didn’t want to cheat; he wanted to solve the puzzle and win the right way.
If the Silver medal really was waiting right inside, would Andy actually be able to resist claiming it? Could he pass up the chance at claiming two hints to the Masked Medalist’s identity for his team?
“Got ’em!” Dad appeared, waving three tickets. “This was a great idea, guys. I needed to get outdoors after spending so much time in the business center on my laptop.”
Andy smiled weakly as they headed to the entrance. On the other side, Dad stopped at a kiosk to grab a map, which he unfolded with gusto.
“Directly ahead, we’ve got Japanese birds on the left, and—ooh . . . giant pandas on the right!”
Andy felt a fresh wave of anxiety.
“Pandas!” Mika said quickly, grinning at Dad. “Let’s go!”
Dozens of people were already milling around in front of the panda exhibit. Behind the giant glass wall, Andy could see two of the enormous, cuddly-looking bears. One was taking a nap while the other contentedly stripped the leaves from a long piece of bamboo. Dad and Mika made their way to the front of the crowd, Andy trailing behind them, phone out and ready. He opened OlympiFan and entered AR mode, holding his breath.
The footprints were blue.
Andy scanned the exhibit
through the screen, the knot in his stomach slowly loosening. The only thing that popped up was one of the game’s little “fun fact” bubbles:
Did you know pandas have six digits per paw? Five fingers and one thumb!
For the first time that morning, Andy felt himself start to relax. The Silver medal wasn’t here. Whoever had left the note had been wrong.
Not wrong, he realized suddenly. Because that person had known where the Bronze medal would be. Which meant they were lying. They’d wanted to mislead someone on purpose with that note.
But why?
SCOREBOARD - TOP TEN
1st
Cryptic
453
2nd
夢
221
3rd
The Oracles
219
4th
SuperFan
203
5th
Majestic Turmoil
197
6th
Dragonflame
195
7th
геймеров
192
8th
흰 호랑이
190
9th
Rabenklaue
188
10th
ALLEYOOP
187
CHAPTER TWELVE
MIKA
MIKA BREATHED A sigh of relief as they left the panda exhibit. She hadn’t thought about it before, but Andy was right—if they’d actually found the Silver, it would have been cheating to claim the medal. Or at least, it wouldn’t have been fair to the other players. That was pretty much the definition of cheating, right?
They wandered past an information center, heading over to the exhibit of Japanese birds. Mika leaned closer to Andy. “Kind of weird that the VR line was so long, isn’t it?” she whispered. “Part of me thought the Silver really was here, and a bunch of players had already figured it out.”
Andy shrugged. “I think it’s just because Ueno was on the list of locations. Plus, you know—the zoo is a cool place to visit. Better in real life than virtual reality, though,” he added with a grin.
Mika laughed. “That’s true.” She noticed tiny blue footprints visible at the bottom of Andy’s screen. “Oh, right . . . guess I should look for clues, too!”
She pulled out her phone just as Dad lowered the map. “Apparently there’s a pagoda right over here,” he said, pointing to a path next to the bird exhibit. “Let’s check that out first!”
Mika and Andy hurried after him, still scanning for clues through their screens. When they stepped into a clearing, Mika looked up and stared in amazement. The pagoda was much bigger than she’d expected—five stories tall, each tier featuring intricate carvings and ceramic designs. She held up her phone again.
“‘Kaneiji is a Buddhist temple that was first built in 1631,’” she read, and Dad turned to look at her.
“How’d you know that?”
“OlympiFan,” she explained, showing him the fact bubble that had popped up on her screen.
“Ah, yes.” Dad’s expression cleared. “Andy showed me that feature. I have to admit . . . that’s pretty cool . . . for a game.”
His tone was teasing, and Mika smiled. She turned, expecting Andy to say something defensive—but he was hurrying toward the pagoda, eyes on his screen.
“What’s he . . . oh!” Mika gasped. “Look, Dad—the footprints are yellow!”
“What’s that mean?” Dad asked, but she was already running after Andy. Her eyes stayed glued to the footprints, which glowed brighter and brighter. She and Andy both slowed as they drew closer to the pagoda, and after a few seconds, Mika’s footprints turned pink.
“Over here!”
She spotted the tiny, fluttering animation just as Andy and Dad reached her. “It’s a music note!” Mika told Dad, tapping the clue. Team MADR had collected a few dozen last night. A moment later, her screen went black, and her phone emitted a short, chirp-like sound. Then the clue collection page opened, and she saw the single music note.
“It’s a sound clip,” Andy explained when Dad leaned closer to look. “So the more we collect, the longer the clip.”
“I thought the clues were colors?” Dad asked.
“That was for the Bronze,” Mika explained. “They were actually pixels from a photo.”
“The game has language settings, but the clues don’t use words,” Andy added. “The Masked Medalist said it’s so that no one’s at a disadvantage because of a bad translation or something like that.”
Dad looked impressed. “Actually, that’s pretty clever.”
They collected more clues as they explored the zoo. Mika’s favorite exhibit by far was the Aye-Aye Forest, a dark cluster of trees with tiny creatures that looked like a mix between bats and monkeys hanging from the branches. While Dad and Andy started to head toward the okapis, Mika lingered a few steps behind, watching one particularly tiny aye-aye on a low-hanging branch tapping on the wood. Her eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness of the exhibit, and she could see just how long and skinny the aye-aye’s fingers were. Another aye-aye shifted around in the tree, black eyes glinting as it stared curiously at Mika. She couldn’t decide whether the animals were cute or scary, but if the souvenir shop sold any stuffed aye-ayes, she was definitely getting one. She snapped a photo to send to Riley, then hurried to catch up with Dad and Andy.
When Mika stepped out of the exhibit, she had to shade her eyes against the sunlight. She could see Dad and Andy standing just outside of the enormous metal fence surrounding the okapis, which looked a little like a horse but with zebra legs. Mika took out her phone, intent on opening OlympiFan to see if any clues were nearby.
Almost without her permission, her fingers swiped over to the Instagram icon instead.
Mika had woken up thinking about A_Fan’s message. She hadn’t wanted to open Instagram because she was scared that another message would be waiting. But spending the morning at the zoo with Dad and Andy had helped ease her fear. Just because someone had figured out she had an account didn’t mean they were threatening her.
And she really wanted to see how many likes her posts were up to.
Holding her breath, Mika opened the app. She exhaled with relief; there were lots of new likes and comments, but no new messages. Scrolling through the comments on the photo of Sandra, Mika walked slowly toward the okapi exhibit. She’d only taken a few steps when a tiny 1 popped up in the top right-hand corner. Mika stopped in her tracks and opened the direct message.
A_Fan: No luck with the pandas? Too bad.
A chill raced up Mika’s neck despite the heat. She turned in a circle, staring around wildly as realization dawned. A_Fan knew about the pandas . . . they must have left the note. But they couldn’t have known exactly when Mika would go to the zoo, or even if she would.
Unless they were watching her.
TEAM SUPERFAN CHAT ROOM
SabineTheGreat: Okay, team! SuperZuki proposed a new game strategy yesterday. Let’s make it official by recording our votes here in our chat room. All those in favor of the new strategy, respond to this thread with Y. All those opposed, respond with N.
SuperZuki: Y
AgentAngel: N
Drag
onmasterMolly: N
IronMatt: N
AquaMaria: N
CaptainArmando: N
SuperZuki: Fine.
SuperZuki: I guess you guys aren’t serious about winning.
TEAM DRAGONFLAME CHAT ROOM
MageMisaki: Well, the zoo was a total bust.
CentaurCici: What are you talking about?! You found 46 clues!
MageMisaki: I’m not talking about the clues.
GoblinGeorge: Ummm I just found something interesting.
GoblinGeorge: You know Tamrel the Terrible? On Dragon Blaze?
CentaurCici: No, I’m totally unfamiliar with the all-time best player on the all-time best online game that I play literally every day of my life.
GoblinGeorge: Ha ha.
GoblinGeorge: Well, Tamrel is Tobias Malavia. Argentinean boxer—won a bunch of medals. I just downloaded his video from the Gallery and he talked about playing Dragon Blaze!!!
CentaurCici: WHOA
TEAM GHOSTCADETS CHAT ROOM
CadetRicky: Guys. Even the guy making a documentary about OlympiFan thinks Chiang Li is the Masked Medalist. I TOLD YOU.
CadetJames: He does????
CadetMadison: No, he said other players think it’s Chiang! He didn’t say HE thinks it’s Chiang!
Kudo Kids--The Mystery of the Masked Medalist Page 9