Continuing from the previous page, this is Glossary II (Chapters 12 to 25 and Epilogue).

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12 | A FAN GIRL

Ninjutsu: In Japanese, ninjutsu (忍術) or ninpō (忍法) means the tactics of guerrilla warfare and espionage practiced by ninja. In the anime Naruto, the word refers to the mystical arts ninja use in battle that are heavy on fantasy.

Genjutsu: In Naruto, the word genjutsu (幻術) refers to a way of fighting that psychologically manipulates opponents. The word means "illusory techniques".

L Lawliet: In the anime Death Note, L Lawliet is a quirky detective who takes on the challenge of catching Kira, the story's protagonist and villain.

Papa papaya: An excerpt from the lyrics of Pa Pa Ya!!, which is a song by the Japanese heavy metal band Babymetal.

Babymetal: A kawaii, heavy metal band in Japan.

Google: A technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products. The Google in this universe works the same as ours.

Den Den: The snail with a chipped shell that Evanna rescues from the garden and keeps in her terrarium. This snail is named after Den Den Mushi snails from the anime One Piece.

Gangnam Style: A K-pop song by South Korean singer Psy.

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13 | A NEW DOORWAY

Unnie: A word popularized by K-dramas. It means "older sister" in Korean (언니). It's used by females to address older females.

Tofu in my mouth: The Tofu Song is sung by the vegetarian character Beast Boy in the cartoon Teen Titans Go!

Teen Titans Go!: A cartoon based off of the Teen Titans, a DC Comics superhero team.

Shoot some electrons through a double slit: An excerpt from Thru a Double Slit, a hip hop track in the episode "Quantum Fun" of Teen Titans Go!

Accelerator operator: Someone who supervises or operates complex particle accelerator devices and associated equipment. They also record and analyze experimental data.

Bubbly: A juice bar located near Olympus in a pedestrian precinct of Komoreby.

Science Day: Annual school festival celebrating science, tech and environmentalism. It's a public event organized by the Science Society of Komoreby High, in collaboration with other schools in the city. This is inspired by a similar festival organized by schools in Kandy, in collaboration with the Youth Exploration Society of Sri Lanka.

Alaricorn: A company in Komoreby that operates the city's fleet of driverless taxis. The name is derived from "alicorn", a winged unicorn—which is the company's mascot.

Alico: The name of the driverless taxis in Komoreby. Alicos come in VIP and economical options—the latter taking the form of a minicar. These taxis are white in color and sport a modern version of a hood ornament in the form of a winged unicorn.

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14 | A SPAGHETTIFICATION EFFECT

Kuro Peji: An online database of residents in Komoreby. The name means "black pages" in Japanese.

Dark web: The hidden part of the internet that is only accessible by a specialized web browser.

One Piece: A Japanese manga and anime series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It's one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

Ollever: A vegan dark chocolate that is available in Komoreby. It's Evanna's favorite chocolate.

Vactrain: A maglev rail transportation that uses partly evacuated tubes or tunnels. Reduced air resistance could permit vactrains to travel at very high speeds with relatively little power—up to 6,400–8,000 km/h.

Shattered Star: A song by Komoreby's rock band Obsidian.

Spaghettification: The stretching of an object when falling into a black hole.

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15 | A GAME OF CHESS

Quantum tunneling: A strange phenomenon in which particles penetrate a seemingly insurmountable energy barrier. It's like a rolling ball encountering a hill it cannot climb, yet it still appears on the other side as if it tunneled its way through.

Lacrymosa: A song by the American rock band Evanescence. It has elements of alternative metal, gothic rock and post-grunge.

Hamory Street: A street located in a district of Komoreby that is characterized by brick and willow trees. The name is derived from Hamori, a Japanese god who is the protector of tree leaves. The ha (葉) means "leaf" and mori (もり) means "forest".

Sai: What Evanna calls the virtual assistant in the driverless Alicos. Sai is named after the character in Naruto, who is known for his robotic manner and blank face.

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16 | A PUZZLING ODDITY

Eolian Flare: The bow used by Artemisia, Evanna's lunar elf character in Arcana Online. The word eolian (or aeolian) refers to things related to Aeolus, the Greek God of wind.

Moridath: A fearsome slime beast which is the final boss in one of the high-level dungeons of the game.

Subsurface scattering: A mechanism of light when penetrating an object or a surface—a portion of the light is absorbed by the material and then scattered inside. This is an important feature in realistic 3D rendering.

Aggro: A mechanism used in many MMORPGs by which mobs prioritize which characters to attack. The word is derived from "aggressive".

Ult: A word that refers to ultimate abilities of characters.

Roll: In the game, when members of a group have equal claims to loot, they will "roll" for it.

Need: When the system initiates a roll for special loot in the game, one can select "need" or "greed".

GG: An acronym meaning "good game" that is used by players after a game. GG is now used in real life as well—often in a sarcastic way when something bad happens or if someone does something silly. This is especially prevalent in East Asia.

Toddy: A naturally alcoholic sap of some kinds of palm, used as a beverage in tropical countries.

Axolotl Man: A lesser-known superhero in the story world. The axolotl is an amphibian native to Mexico with amazing regenerative abilities.

Cape Valinia: A congested coastal city that is almost a four-hour drive from Komoreby. The name "Valinia" is derived from Mount Lavinia, which is the largest suburb of Colombo—a coastal city and Sri Lanka's commercial capital.

Trishaw: A light three-wheeled vehicle with pedals used in Asian countries.

Tuk: A motorized version of the pulled rickshaw that is commonly called "tuk" or "tuk-tuk" in Asian countries.

Ebony17: Evanna's online name—primarily used on Fizzy.

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17 | A RAVEN FEATHER

Robin Cook: A doctor best known for combining medical writing with the thriller genre. Many of his medical thrillers are bestsellers.

Toxin: A 1998 suspense thriller written by Robin Cook about a doctor whose daughter is infected with E. coli. The story follows the doctor's investigation into how she contracted it and his battle to save her life.

Mardane: A sleepy suburb of Cape Valinia. It resides next to a forest reserve.

Action potential: The mode through which a neuron transports electrical signals. They are brief changes in the voltage across the cell membrane due to the flow of certain ions in and out of the neuron.

Cytoplasm: A thick solution that fills each cell and is enclosed by the cell membrane. It is mainly composed of water, salts, and proteins.

Depolarization: A change within a cell resulting in less negative charge inside the cell compared to the outside.

Referencing experiment: Relates to the neuroscience experiment conducted by Evanna's class. Referencing here means electrode referencing, where an electrical signal of one pin is compared to that of another pin.

Doppler effect: The change in frequency of a wave observed whenever the source of waves is moving relative to an observer.

Oompa loompa: Diminutive factory workers in Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964).

Supersymmetry: Supersymmetry predicts a partner particle for each elementary particle.

Fermion: Subatomic particles associated with matter. They include leptons (such as electrons and neutrinos) and quarks, which combine to form hadrons (such as protons and neutrons).

Boson: Subatomic particles that are force-carriers. An example of this is a photon (the particle of light).

Electron: An elementary particle that is a fundamental constituent of matter. It has a negative charge.

General relativity: The theory published by Albert Einstein in 1915 which is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. It holds that what we perceive as gravity is the curvature of space and time.

Superstring theory: Short for supersymmetric string theory. An attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings.

Wormhole: A speculative structure like a tunnel in space-time, based on a special solution of the Einstein field equations. It can connect two points billions of light years apart, two points in time or different universes.

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18 | A VIBRATING STRING

ASMR: Short for "autonomous sensory meridian response", which is a tingling sensation that people find relaxing. It's triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli. A whole genre of videos have popped up on the internet that attempt to induce this response in viewers.

Myelination: A fatty substance surrounding neuronal processes and fibers that increases the efficiency of electrical transmission.

Amplifier box: A device that can be used in a neuroscience experiment to amplify and listen to the electrical activity of neurons. It has two pins to tap into the electrical signal.

Femur: The thigh bone. It's the third segment in the leg of an insect (counting from the body).

Coxa: The hip bone. It's the first segment in the leg of an insect (counting from the body).

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19 | A LOCKED HEART

Solaris Towers: Office towers located in Komoreby that are owned by Solheim Corp.

Solaris A: One of the two buildings that make up Solaris Towers. Dedalus Media resides in this tower.

Dedalus Media: A boutique advertising agency owned by Mary and Janet. The name is derived from Daedalus ("Skillfully Wrought" in Greek), who is a mythical Greek inventor, architect and sculptor.

Vector art: Digital artwork represented by mathematical equations. Since they are not made up of pixels, vector graphics can be scaled without loss of quality.

ZipTube: A vactrain concept to link Komoreby with other cities. It has been proposed by an infrastructure company called Helion.

Insight: Refers to consumer insights in marketing and advertising, which are used to build effective ad campaigns.

Helion: An infrastructure company headquartered in Komoreby. It's founded by billionaire Enrico Solheim.

I represent Uchiha: An excerpt from the song Sasuke by Eddie Rath. The song is about the character Sasuke Uchiha in the very popular anime Naruto.

Cosplay: A portmanteau of "costume play", which means the practice of dressing up as a character from a film, book or video game.

Death Note: A popular Japanese manga and anime series. The story follows Light Yagami, who discovers a mysterious notebook that grants the user the supernatural ability to kill anyone whose name is written in its pages.

Leaving Certificate: A document issued by a school as proof of successful completion of study. It comes with a character certificate to certify the moral character of the student.

Cold-blooded: Denotes animals whose body temperature varies with that of the environment. Insects, arachnids, reptiles, fish and amphibians are cold-blooded.

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20 | A ROCK STAR

Future Today: A prominent business magazine in the story world.

Solheim Corporation: Founded by Enrico Solheim's grandfather Pietro Solheim, it holds significant swathes of real estate, including office buildings and hotels, such as Solaris Towers in Komoreby.

Warp drive: A speculative propulsion system based on an idea by Miguel Alcubierre, a Mexican theoretical physicist, who showed that compressing spacetime in front of the spaceship while expanding it behind was mathematically possible within the laws of general relativity. This would allow faster-than-light travel.

Orbital infrastructure: Structures that would allow more efficient and sustainable methods to lift payloads into orbit.

Diamond rank: The rank with the highest skill level in the MOBA game Champions of Novidus (CoN), which is popular in Komoreby.

Equorea: An expensive, high performance electric car that is occasionally seen on the streets of Komoreby. It boasts state-of-the-art design and zero greenhouse gas emissions. With a streamlined, organic body, its novel interface uses no steering wheels, and its wheels can move sideways. It's based on the Mercedes-Benz VISION AVTR in real life.

Muscle car: A type of high-performance American cars which are popular in drag racing.

Kira: The pseudonym of Light, the protagonist of the manga and anime Death Note. He's a very smart boy who appears gentlemanly and polite. Secretly, he's a manipulative serial killer—hence, the name "kira", which is the Japanese pronunciation of "killer".

Ryuk: A shinigami in the manga and anime Death Note. Shinigami means "death god" (死神) in Japanese. Ryuk is a passive character who observes as the events unfold. He's often seen eating apples.

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21 | A WOMAN OF AMBITION

Maglev: Short for "magnetic levitation". Maglev trains can travel very fast since they float on air, which eliminates friction. This is achieved by using sets of magnets to push the train off the track.

Animal I Have Become: An alternative metal song by the Canadian rock band Three Days Grace.

Blow-off valve: A pressure release system used in turbocharged engines. It's also known as a BOV or dump valve.

Turbo: Short for turbocharger. It's a turbine-driven device that spins an air compressor to push extra air into the cylinders, allowing them to burn more fuel each second. These are often used in racing.

Drifting: A driving technique where a driver steers a car to make a controlled sideways skid while taking a turn. Drift racing is dedicated to this type of driving.

Need for Speed: A very popular racing video game franchise published by Electronic Arts.

NFS: Short for Need for Speed.

Drag racing: A race between two cars over a short distance as a test of acceleration.

Tomb Raider: A video game series that has now expanded into a media franchise.

Sugar banana: A small, sweet type of banana which is also known as Lady Finger bananas.

Waterfalling: A word that means taking a drink from a bottle without touching it with the mouth.

Gourami: Any of more than 90 freshwater tropical fishes native to Asia.

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22 | A GLITCHING SIMULATION

Shisha: A tobacco pipe connected to a container where the smoke is cooled by passing through water. The tobacco used is often flavored. Also known as a hookah or waterpipe, it's popular in the Middle East and Asia.

Kardashev scale: A method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is able to use.

Type one civilization: On the Kardashev scale, Type I is a planetary civilization that can use all of the energy available on its planet.

Type two: A stellar civilization that can harness the energy of its entire home star.

Type three: A galactic civilization that can control the energy of its entire home galaxy.

Dyson sphere: A hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output.

Dyson swarm: The more practical version of a Dyson sphere with many parts encompassing the star rather than one spherical structure.

Mercury: The smallest planet in our solar system. It's also the planet closest to the sun.

Death Star: A space station and galactic superweapon from the Star Wars space-opera franchise.

Nicoll Dyson beam: A weapon where the satellites of a Dyson swarm surrounding a sun act as a phased array laser. It's capable of vaporizing a planet within hours at a range of hundreds of light-years.

Matrioshka brain: A hypothetical megastructure of immense computational capacity powered by a Dyson sphere.

Class B stellar engine: A stellar engine is any megastructure that uses a star's radiation to create usable energy. A class B stellar engine uses a star to generate mechanical power.

MMORPG: An acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.

Photon: A particle of light—or in other words, the quantum of the electromagnetic field. It's a boson—an elementary particle. It has no mass.

Proxima Centauri: A red dwarf star from the Alpha Centauri system. It's the closest neighboring star.

TVP: Short for "textured vegetable protein". It's a defatted soy flour product—a by-product of extracting soybean oil. It's often used as a meat analogue or meat extender. Due to its low cost, high protein content and long shelf life, it's widely used around the world. It's popular in Sri Lanka and comes in many brands, shapes and flavors.

Jackfruit: A tropical fruit grown in Asia, Africa and South America. It's the largest tree-borne fruit in the world. Young jackfruit has a stringy flesh that can be cooked in a variety of dishes and works well as a meat alternative ("polos" පොළොස් in Sinhalese). Ripe jackfruit, which is sweet and yellow, is eaten raw ("varaka" වරකා).

Kangkung: The word used to mean "water spinach" in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other Asian countries.

Yaoi: A Japanese term for anime and manga featuring relationships between males that are of a hentai (meaning "pervert") nature.

Rambutan: A red tropical fruit native to Asia.

Fried dough: Called youtiao in Chinese (油条), it's a long, deep-fried strip of dough commonly eaten in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and other Asian countries.

Dhal: Also spelled dal, it's a term originating from South Asia for dried, split pulses. It's among the most important staple foods in South Asian countries. In Sri Lanka, people eat red dhal curry almost every day.

Vadai: A savory fritter made of dhal and other legumes. It's widely eaten in India, Sri Lanka and other Asian countries. It's a popular street food. Alternative names are vadei, vada, wada and vade.

Flexitarian: A diet centered on plant-based food with reduced meat consumption. "Flexitarian" is a portmanteau of the words "flexible" and "vegetarian". Many turn to flexitarian diets as a stepping stone to reduce meat consumption for ethical, environmental or health reasons.

Greenhouse gas emissions: Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the planet, such as carbon dioxide and methane. The burning of fossil fuels, animal farming and transportation are the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change.

Boleh: A Malay word meaning "can". It's commonly incorporated to speech by itself to mean "I can do it" or "can you do it?"

Lah: The Malay word "lah" is added to speech to soften the tone or as an exclamation.

Kuih: Colorful, bite-sized cakes popular in Malaysia, Singapore and other South East Asian countries. They are made of rice or glutinous rice, as well as grated coconut, coconut cream, pandan leaves (screwpine) and gula melaka (jaggery).

Cendol: A sweet, icy dessert composed of green rice flour jelly, coconut milk, beans and palm sugar syrup. It's commonly found in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Myanmar.

Dopamine: The "feel-good" hormone and neurotransmitter that influences your mood and feelings of reward and motivation.

Indirect kiss: Touching one's lips to an object that someone else has touched with their lips (such as food or a cup). It's often found in anime and manga.

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23 | A LEAP OF FAITH

Sand is coarse and rough: A reference to "I don't like sand" scene from Star Wars, which is famous for its awkwardness as Anakin tries to flirt with Amidala.

Neutron: A subatomic particle with a neutral charge. It's a constituent of every atomic nucleus except ordinary hydrogen.

Fissile: Capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction (being split).

Isotope: Two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number and position in the periodic table, but differ in nucleon numbers.

Amygdala: A region of the brain primarily associated with emotional processes.

Phobic: Relating to a phobia, which is a type of anxiety disorder defined by an irrational, excessive fear of an object or situation.

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24 | AN INNER SANCTUM

Forest monastery: This is most commonly found in the Theravada traditions of Buddhism in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. These monasteries are dedicated primarily to the study of Buddhist meditation.

Mahathero: Used to refer to distinguished elderly monks and nuns considered to have reached a higher level of spiritual development (mahā meaning "great" in both Sanskrit and Pali).

Thero: An honorific term in Pali for senior bhikkhus and bhikkhunis (Buddhist monks and nuns) in the Buddhist monastic order.

Yunomi cup: A tall form of a Japanese teacup with no handle (湯のみ) made from a ceramic material.

Butterfly pea: A flowering plant originating from Asia and South America. Its blue flower is used to make butterfly pea tea, which is bright blue. When lemon is added, it turns purple.

Three poisons: In Buddhism, these are also known as the three unwholesome roots (akuśala-mūla in Sanskrit and Pali). These are Raga (greed, lust), Moha (delusion) and Dvesha (hate).

May all sentient beings be well: A translation of the Buddhist sabbe sattā bhavantu sukhitattā. This is in line with metta or "loving kindness" that Buddhism encourages one to practice towards all sentient beings. The word "sentient" means able to perceive or feel things, and thereby capable of suffering.

Observable universe: A ball-shaped region of the universe comprising all that can be observed from Earth at the present time—which may contain 2 trillion galaxies. Since light beyond this point hasn't reached us and the universe is expanding, we cannot see beyond this bubble.

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25 | A WINDING ROAD

Kaluza-Klein states: Heavier versions of standard particles recurring at higher energies as they navigate smaller dimensions. If these are found, it would suggest the existence of other dimensions.

Graviton: A hypothetical particle thought to be the carrier of the gravitational field.

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EPILOGUE

Beirus: A town located in the Vale of Amorelle in Arcana Online.

Zero: The name of Shane's lunar elf character in the game. It's pronounced "zeh-ro", similar to Zero in the anime Code Geass.

Sumptuous Feast: A food item that can be created with a high-level cooking skill in the game. It gives the character various perks once consumed.

Siren: A playable race in Arcana Online with an affinity for water.

Deathslayer: A character class in the game that specializes in stealth (similar to rogue, thief or ninja classes in MMORPGs).

Lumino: One of the two factions in Arcana Online.

PvP: In gaming, PvP is short for "player versus player", while PvE stands for "player versus environment".

Black Knight: A character class in Arcana Online similar to the paladin class in MMORPGs. Black Knights have class-specific dark metal armor. Since they are both warriors and healers, they can take on a DPS or healer role in a group.

DPS: An acronym for "damage per second" in MMORPGs. It's used both as a noun (a weapon type, class or a character capable of massive damage) and as an adjective to describe a weapon's capability.