Nova Project #1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

but a new status distracts him. Zack, digging at him again. It’s been constant since the Gamerunners last updated.
    â€œPersonality test. Yeah, kind of, I guess,” he says finally. Next week almost anyone who wants to will be able to choose an entirely new level, designed to assess them all as competitors. It’s open to any Chimera gamer who has passed Level Ten, probably as more of an age than a skill cutoff. Most people hit that around sixteen. He hit it a month after his fourteenth birthday.
    â€œSo a week to play this weird level. Another for the medical exams, then the selection.”
    â€œMig—”
    â€œI know,” he says to Anna. “Let me play the level first. Who knows, they might not like my style there, or however they’re judging that, and the medical won’t even matter. Look at it like this: I’m going to spend next week in a Cube anyway, so doing it playing a level a toddler could pass is healthier than the normal game, no?”
    Winning an argument with her, even a small one, is rarer than his heart condition. He grins at her glare.
    â€œThat’s the part that doesn’t make sense to me.” Nick twirlsa blade of fake grass between his fingers. “They’ve never made us pass a health test before, and the normal game is hard, physically. Why now?”
    â€œBecause everyone’s going to be watching, duh,” Anna answers, taking the words from Miguel’s mouth, adding more of her own. “Even more than they are now. Yeah, sure, your friends follow your progress, maybe other gamers in Paris or Shanghai or wherever if you’re on the same level, but this is different, the Gamerunners said so themselves. They’re putting on a show. Someone dies from exertion in an anonymous booth in a Cube somewhere, big deal. Who’s going to notice or complain? Their families? We’re not forced to play. But someone kicks it during this competition and Chimera’s in trouble.”
    â€œYeah.” Miguel blinks away another stupid jab from Zack. “Too many people complain to the government that Chimera’s dangerous, and they can kiss good-bye to the tax breaks I’m sure they get for keeping us all amused and out of trouble. And healthier than we’d probably be otherwise. Chimera makes us exercise, see doctors regularly for upgrades . . .”
    â€œPoint. Okay, want to go play?”
    A few quick blinks. “Cube Cobalt has room.” If that’s the nearest, everyone must be wanting to practice. That, and school’s out, but it’s usually not this bad. Walking’s out, if they want to get there before people steal their spots, so theyhoverboard it halfway across the city to a building edged in blue. Miguel stands this time. If he so much as yawns, Anna will get on his back about resting. The lopsided weight of their gear cases threatens to tip the disks off-balance, though it’s been years since the last report of that actually happening.
    Everything moves forward. Technology especially. And nowhere more so than in the Cube in front of them and its brethren across the world. Miguel doesn’t know how the Gamerunners have coded half the stuff in here, and at home, alone in front of his computer on the nights he can’t sleep, he’s tried to figure it out.
    â€œRight, Thirteen, time to die,” Anna says, swinging open the door.
    â€œI can’t believe you’re ahead of me.”
    â€œAnd I’m ahead of both of you,” Miguel says. “Catch up.”
    â€œLuck. Meet back here at six?”
    The clock hovering in front of his left eye says a bit after noon. Decent session, they can have a break for dinner, and Miguel, at least, can get another few hours in before heading home. On a glowing blueprint on the wall, they locate three empty rooms on different floors and part ways, Miguel heading for one on the opposite side at the top of the Cube.
    This room looks exactly