Solarversia: The Year Long Game Read Online Free Page B

Nova chose 515,740 and Sushi, one space to her left, chose 515,739. Numbers were semi-permanent. They lasted until a player crashed out of The Game for good — at which point their finishing position became their new number.
    Now, finally, after years of waiting, Nova hovered in front of her profile square for real. Although she’d seen it a thousand times — had dreamt about it on several occasions — it still excited her beyond words to see it on the wall of the Magisterial Chamber. Squares had a mystical quality about them; they were gateways to another world that made the normal one look terribly trite.
    Her number was plastered across the top of the square like it was the most important fact about her. On the left-hand side beneath it was a picture of her avatar’s head, and beneath that her avatar name, nationality, catchphrase and shortcode. The task of choosing a name and a catchphrase had caused her so much trouble she came close to quitting before The Game even started. She ended up with ‘Super Nova 2020’ and ‘Supernova’s a Blast!’, a lame pun that she regretted immediately.
    The system of shortcodes had been devised by Spiralwerks to help players visualise each other’s locations in the grid more easily. Each quadrant had been named after a suit in a pack of cards — the lower left quadrant was designated ‘C’ for Clubs. In addition, each concentric ring of numbers was itself numbered. The number one square in the centre of the grid was ring one. The numbers round it — two to nine — comprised ring two, and so on. Nova’s number, 515,740, was in ring 359, giving her the shortcode of C359.
    As well as appearing in profile squares, shortcodes were also the license plate numbers on each of a player's three vehicles: their car, boat and plane. There had been thousands of models to choose from, and millions of ways to customise them. Nova adored her vehicles — she’d modified them to look like something from the set of Tron — and loved the way they glistened and rotated in 3D on the left-hand side of her profile square.
    As she approached her square it turned transparent to reveal a cubic room with walls made of swirling yellow plasma, and a floor and ceiling as black as the night. This was her Corona Cube, the place that she would start in the world of Solarversia whenever she logged on from that moment forward, and her exit point whenever she wanted to log out.
    The black ceiling displayed two constellations: portals to parts of Solarversia. One was named ‘Castalia’ and led back the way she had come, into the Magisterial Chamber of the flying palace. The other was named ‘Solarversia’ and led to the Gameworld, which was modelled on the Solar System. Nova looked up to the Solarversia constellation and traced her finger over its constituent stars.
    As she touched the last one a harmonious jingle sounded, and three objects, recognised by people the world over, appeared floating in the centre of the room: a rock, some paper and a pair of scissors.
    A datafeed appeared in her display, informing her that she’d been matched against player number 38,043,551, JoLem from Poland. She was about to find out whether of hours of strategising were going to pay off. A fifteen second countdown began. Those who let it count down to zero would automatically forfeit the game. "Paper," she announced, annoyed by the doubt she could hear in her voice.
    She winced as the result flashed on the screen: “Scissors beats paper. Winner: JoLem.” Losing players were matched against each other after a twenty second delay. It took her five attempts in total, winning with scissors, against the paper of a Chinese player. She took her headset off, twitched her nose like a rabbit, and swept her long hair behind her ears.
    "Finally. Thought I was going to be here all night."
    “Told you scissors would win. Mum does know best occasionally.”
    Nova bit her tongue. Annoyingly, her mum had suggested scissors earlier in