Arcade Manna — Tyler H. Jolley

What if your next meal, drink of water, or lumber for your house was dependent on the success of someone else's gaming skills? For Bastian, Callum, and Odette and everyone else in the concrete city of 55178, it is. 

The more skilled the gamer is, the more commodities your town receives. Unfortunately, in twenty-four hours, tools will rust, water becomes tainted, and food turns rancid. Every day is a fight for resources, becoming captive to the arcade games. With his best friend on the precipice of Leveling Up, Bastian somehow knows there's something more to life than this. With a conspiratorial idea worming its way into the fabric of their daily lives, Bastian decides he needs answers. And those answers lurk below. Under the Elevators.

An impulsive move thrusts Bastian into a dangerous ride on one of these Elevators. A journey that uncovers the dark secret that lies at the end of the elevator ride, into a new world. 

Faced with a terrifying reality, Bastian must find a way to save the townsfolk of 55178 and stop the madness that has trapped him and his people for decades.