Читать книгу Step into the Metaverse онлайн | страница 12

Mia bowed to the audience. Cheers and whistles swelled from the crowd, with the occasional digital firework being let off too. Laya jumped up in excitement, waving like a madwoman to her daughter on stage who, thanks to a family setting on the avatar filter, could see her mother and gave an excited handwave back.

Laya had missed this. She'd missed being around when her kids did incredible things. With a smile on her face, a single tear slowly rolled down Laya's real cheek, catching in the reservoir where her headset meets her face.

Laya kept cheering for her daughter, but eventually, the crowd settled, and the next student came on.

Laya moved out of the viewing area, and having beckoned a door, she went backstage. Unable to see her daughter in the crowd of frantic students and teachers, Laya pulled open her menu—a rather simple trick achieved by winking your right eye—and invited Mia to a private chat. As Mia accepted, their avatars were compelled together and the surrounding sights and sounds darkened.

“I'm so proud of you, sweetie,” Laya told her daughter. The pair chatted for a while about the show, the song, the whole thing. They'd obviously missed each other and were in dire need of some mother-daughter time.

Right in the middle of their celebrations, the red flashing light appeared once more. It's Ae again. Hiding her annoyance in front of her daughter, she apologized and answered. “Does this need to go through me, or can Daryl handle it?”

Ae explained how Sweden had just announced the same education reforms that Laya was working on. They'd just secured a contract with one of the tech-goliaths to supply all Swedish schools with the latest headsets and lidar systems and even build the Swedish government a metaverse embassy, something all governments were beginning to do.

Mia stood there watching her mother speak with an invisible person, Mia's enthusiasm slowly fading as she remembered why her mom's job annoyed her so much. Laya looked at her daughter knowingly. She gestured her hand and muted Ae, midway through a breakdown on the details of the Swedish deal.