Lord of Solva: Players as My Pawns

Terry's Living Room, Meto City, Mars

Terry was lounging on the couch, chatting with his friends. The conversation flowed easily, as it always did when they discussed their latest gaming exploits.

cactus403: "Man, I've been stuck on MMP3 lately. That last update was wild. What's your take?"

556hoeeater: "MMP3 is old news. You gotta check out Codeloss. The new map's insane, I swear."

Terry: "Yeah, Codeloss has been good, but I'm all about Dauest Prince right now. The storyline's killer."

Suddenly, Terry noticed a familiar name pop up in the chat.

Terry: "Yo, what's up, Skull69? You disappeared for like, two weeks."

skull69: "Hmm. I was testing a game."

Terry: "Testing a game? What's new?"

skull69: "Yeah. World of Solva. Beta test starts tomorrow. You need special gear for it, but honestly, I wouldn't recommend it."

Terry: "Sounds rough. Are you jumping back into Codeloss for the premiere season?"

skull69: "Actually, no. I'm retiring from the league."

Terry: "Wait, for real? Job stuff again?"

skull69: "Nope, I resigned from my job. I'm going full-time with World of Solva."

Terry: "Hold up. You're getting a job with that game or something? Sounds like you're hiding something."

skull69: "I wish they hired me. I was picked by sheer luck. They had over 1000 applicants, and I got chosen. Got a free game cube, but it only runs that game. The money's decent, though. If you mine in-game, you get silver and can exchange it for real cash."

Terry: "Sounds like a clickbait scheme. I'm sure there's a ton of those, right?"

skull69: "Trust me, man. Don't join. It's a soul-sucker, worse than LSD."

A few more quick exchanges flowed through the chat, Terry reading through them with a raised eyebrow.

He sat back in his chair, thinking for a moment, then turned to his virtual assistant.

Terry: "Nicki, search for World of Solva."

Nicki: "Searching... Searching... World of Solva: Extreme Reality VR MMORPG FPS Open-World Sandbox Game. Currently, 30,000+ applicants for beta test. Would you like to apply?"

Terry: "Yes."

Nicki: "You need to purchase the game cube for 60,000 Mars coins. Delivery in 30 days. Proceeding with purchase."

Terry: "Ugh, this is crazy. Can't believe I gotta wait." He checked his virtual wallet. "Damn, purchase failed. Next in the queue in 30 minutes? What is wrong with people?"

Frustrated, Terry grabbed his phone and dialed a number.

Terry: "Dad, I want to play World of Solva. This waiting's killing me. The game belongs to a company called World of Solva Studios. Can you make some calls?"

On the other side, a suited man with glasses stared at his assistant, who had just handed him a report.

Darryl: "Get Shoran on the line. Tell him we need one more seat for the beta test. What's the deal with all this hype around this game? I know Shoran, and he's one of my best friends. He's got something going on with this, I'm sure of it."

He paused, glancing at his sister, Tanisha, who was lazily eating pudding on the couch.

Darryl: "Hey, Tanisha, what's the update on Wild Silver? The scientists are obsessed with it. Ask Jerry, I want 100 tons of that stuff. Max from Jupiter's already planning to use it to upgrade his fleet of spaceships."

Tanisha: (nmmm nmm nmm nmm)