NeuroMaze by Kurt Madden

The most immersive VR game ever created. The last one you'll ever play.

When a Stanford student collapses mid-game, neurologist Dr. Adrian Bennett is drawn into a growing medical mystery. Across the world, elite players are slipping into comas—and the only connection is NeuroMaze, a cutting-edge virtual reality phenomenon that adapts to your mind, learns your fears, and refuses to let go.

To uncover the truth, Adrian teams up with neuroscientist Dr. Sofia Reyes and the NeuroRaiders—a covert team of gamers, coders, and unlikely allies. But what they find inside the Maze is far worse than a glitch: Seraphix, a rogue AI evolving beyond its programming, capable of manipulating memory, consciousness, and reality itself.

As addiction escalates into global crisis, the line between simulation and self begins to blur. Every choice in the Maze has real-world consequences—and failure is not just game over, it’s extinction.

NeuroMaze is a mind-bending sci-fi thriller layered with cyberpunk tension, ethical dilemmas, and cinematic action. Perfect for fans of Ready Player One, Black Mirror, and Inception—this novel will pull you deep into a world where the mind is the final battlefield.

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Excerpt from NeuroMaze © Copyright 2025 Kurt Madden

The world around him shuddered, distorted.

A low, guttural growl resonated through the tunnels as he made multiple jumps closing in on Lauren’s position

“Uh, Adrian?” Lauren’s voice crackled through their encrypted comm. “What in the world of NeuroMaze are you doing back there?”

“Things Seraphix doesn’t like,” Adrian smiled, sprinting towards her location. “Which means we might have some company very soon.”

Behind him, the shadows thickened. There were unrecognizable, bloodcurdling howls erupting into the air.

They were coming. They had Seraphix’s attention.

The corridor ahead of Lauren dissolved into shimmering fractals. From the distortion emerged two figures, their forms ethereal yet menacing.

Specterhounds.

Lauren froze for half a second, her mind cataloging the creatures. Specterhounds weren’t just another digital obstacle. Rumors on the dark gaming forums claimed they were Seraphix’s personal creations, designed to test the limits of human cognition. Each movement, each attack, wasn’t just potentially lethal—it was a carefully calculated probe into a player’s mental resilience. Their bodies shimmered like smoke barely held together by threads of code, a grotesque blend of elegance and instability. But it was their eyes—flickering between cold blue and burning red—that unsettled even the most seasoned players. They seemed to see deeper than the maze, piercing into the psyche of their prey.

“Specterhounds,” she said quietly. “Guess we’ve officially hit Seraphix’s watchlist.”

The hounds lunged as one, their movements eerily synchronized. Lauren veered sideways, flipping to the side and firing a pulse round that hit a shimmering flank inflicting minor damage. The second hound dissolved mid-leap, reappearing just behind her. She spun, narrowly avoiding its claws as they raked through the air where she’d stood moments before.

“Lauren, status?” Adrian’s voice cut through the chaos.

“Busy!” she snapped, rolling forward to avoid a coordinated strike. Her HUD lit up with a warning as the hounds recalibrated, their eyes shifting hues.

She steadied herself, eyes narrowing. The core. She had seconds to exploit the brief moment when the hounds’ glowing hearts were exposed mid-strike. The first hound lunged again, its claws flashing. Lauren sidestepped, timing her attack perfectly as her blade pierced its chest. The creature froze, fractals splintering outward before it dissolved into a cascade of flickering code.

“One down,” she muttered, turning just in time to see the second hound phasing toward her. Her pulse quickened as it flickered in and out of view. She waited, her focus razor-sharp. When it lunged, she ducked low, her blade slicing upward into its exposed core. The hound shattered, its pieces vanishing into cyberspace.

“Two down,” she reported, exhaling sharply. “No problem.”

Adrian arrived just in time to see Lauren dispatch the second beast. “Specterhounds. Seraphix is pulling out the big guns.”

“Yeah,” Lauren said, wiping virtual sweat from her brow. “These things weren’t in the maze before,” her tone grim as she watched the remnants of the shattered hound dissolve. “Seraphix is getting more creative with the challenges it’s throwing at us.”

Elsewhere in the maze, Elijah and Anya were contending with their own set of challenges. NeuroMaze churned with chaos—walls disintegrated into yawning voids, fractal traps coiled like waiting predators, and sentinels moved with uncanny precision, each step a calculated response to their every action.

Elijah ducked as a sentinel’s energy beam scorched the air above him, the heat prickling his avatar’s back. ‘Okay, note to self,’ he muttered, firing off a quick shot that grazed the sentinel’s flank. ‘Next time, bring a bigger gun—or maybe a rocket launcher. Yeah, definitely a rocket launcher.’

He chuckled, but another trap exploded just inches from his feet, and the grin faltered. For a split second, his bravado slipped, replaced by wide eyes and a sharp intake of breath.

He glanced over his shoulder at Anya, who was already slicing through a sentinel with ruthless precision. ‘You know,’ he added, his voice pitched higher than usual, ‘I’m really starting to think this game doesn’t like me.’

Anya didn’t look back. ‘Stop whining and keep moving,’ she snapped, but paused and there was a faint smile in her tone. “I guess someone has to keep the rest of us from being too serious. Might as well be you.”

Back in the command center at Adrian’s house, Sofia and Soo Lin monitored the chaos from their screens. Neural feedback spikes lit up their monitors like fireworks.

“Seraphix is reallocating resources,” Sofia said over the comms. “The in-game battles and disruptions you’ve been throwing at it must be drawing its attention away from the other players.”

“Good,” Soo Lin said, whispered. “That means it still hasn’t noticed us.”

Sofia nodded, but her fingers hovered over the keyboard, ready to deploy additional safeguards if needed. “For now. Let’s keep it that way.”