Then he reached up to unfasten his helmet. After slipping it off, he found himself back in the everyday world. The mall, which was so real only seconds before, had been replaced by an empty room the size of a basketball court. The walls were covered with a thick plastic material painted flat black. The only light came from small ceilingmounted spots.
"of!" Joe exclaimed as his blond head emerged from under his plastic helmet. “That was something. I feel like I've been in a real fight—and lost!”
Frank was about to reply when a door opened at the far end of the room. A tall, slender young woman in faded jeans and a blue blazer came in. Even in the dim light, her long red hair seemed to glow. Though only twenty-seven, Amanda Boggs was co-owner and creative director of Xyrodian, one of the hottest video game companies in Silicon Valley, California. The Hardys had stopped by to visit on their way to VidCon, a video game exhibition in San Francisco, and Amanda had offered to give the brothers a personal tour.
"Well, guys?” Amanda said, as she drew closer. "How do you like virtual reality?"
"Fantastic!” Joe replied.
“Amazing," Frank added. "I felt as if I were really in that mall."
“Where can we buy one of these, Amanda?"
Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors (Charles Leslie McFarlane, a Canadian author, is the first) who wrote The Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate (now owned by Simon & Schuster) as well as for the Ted Scott Flying Stories series published by Grosset & Dunlap. 1.Ted Scott Flying Stories (1927–1943)