When first contact was made, it wasn't through some observatory. It wasn't through some interstellar colonization ship. It wasn't even through some kind of flying saucer landing on the White House lawn.

It was through Node Sol-3, which landed in the middle of Alaska. It connected us to the Simulation, a galaxy-spanning VRMMO.

It goes by many names, of course - The Game, the Dimension, the Tree - I think the Reilans have a word for it that, roughly translated, goes like 'Second Life and Rebirth in the Dreamworld of the Ancestors'.

Some kid, Charles Notley, was the first to find it.

People crowded around Notley in the years that followed. After all, being User One meant he had early access to everything. He runs one of the largest Human guilds now. He's got a movie, a book deal, and the largest stream on planet Earth.

Not me, though. I wasn't in it for the fame. I just wanted to play the game.

I wasn't User One.

I was User Two.