The date was December 11th, 2055. In just 2 days, it would be the culmination of more than 50 years of hard work.

Through countless delays and setbacks, the team at G-Cloud Studios finally managed to complete the first-ever VRMMORPG, Altair Online.

The progression of the VR, or virtual reality, industry was slow for the first two decades or so, but, due to a certain unpredictable event, the growth of the industry rapidly picked up its pace.

In the span of 30 years, VR has gotten to a point where it is indistinguishable from reality, and it can even demonstrate things that are not in the real world.

One of these things is magic.

VR can create a feeling of using magic, despite it not being real.

Of course, this concept is present in Altair Online. In fact, it could be said that their use of it is the best example out there.

Nevertheless, the development of VR and the ability to go beyond the limits of reality caused Altair Online to only become even more popular.

But this wasn’t all, as Altair Online had another feature that made it stand heads and shoulders above the rest of the crop.

This was its fully fleshed out world. Not only was the lore created to a level that bordered, no, passed obsession, but the complexity of the NPCs was similarly mystifying.

Since the playable world was roughly the size of Australia at launch, creating thousands upon thousands of personalities and backstories would be needlessly time consuming and inefficient.

So, what did the developers at G-Cloud studio do?

Well, they let an A.I. handle it.

Every single NPC within the game has lived a distinct life that has been simulated for 3 years before launch day.

These NPCs have their own characters and histories. Every single person, from the king of the demons to the farmer from a rural village, has a personality and memories.

This is no longer just a game. It is a second reality; a fully virtual world.

However, most players don’t know this yet. Instead, they will have to find out after playing the game in 2 days.

What will their reactions be? Will they live out their deepest, darkest fantasies, or will they continue to be ruled by the laws and principles of Earth?

A certain someone ponders this question while lazily lying in a queen-sized bed that is way too big for her small stature.

She looks to be around 16 years old, and her cute yet dignified features would undoubtedly make her one of the most beautiful people in the world.

She is wearing a comfortable-looking, oversized white sweatshirt with similarly styled mini shorts. Long, silver-white hair is sprawled out on the bed, spreading out like the light from a shining star.

Behind her head and attaching to her ears is a device of her creation, the Lunarlink. This device doubles as both a VR and AR, or augmented reality, headset. While it may not look like much, this device has the ability to connect directly to the wearer’s brain, allowing them to use AR while awake and VR while asleep. There were a bunch of other features installed in this device, but these were its two main functions.

As you may have guessed, this device is one-of-a-kind and would cost a fortune if it were sold.

Instead, single-purpose, less complicated headsets are sold for use in virtual reality. Even these headsets cost an amount that is by no means small.

Around her neck, she wears an amulet that seems to depict the view of space inside of a nebula.

On her sweatshirt is a design of a shooting star flying over clouds; the logo for G-Cloud Studios. And on both of her wrists are a silver band inscribed with unknown words.

She slowly sits up and gets off of the bed, yawning as she does so.

Her every movement radiates grace and confidence, as if every action down to the movement of her fingers is done with purpose. Brushing her sparkling hair backward, she covers the Lunarlink on her head.

She turns to her right and walks up to the huge window that replaces an entire wall of her apartment, the highest floor in the building.

Putting her hand on the glass, she looks out the window and onto the view of Tokyo spreading out beneath her.

Despite being over 300 meters high, the girl is able to see the many people on the street that are looking towards her building through their AR displays.

A smile floats to her face as she realizes what they are seeing.

These people are all looking at the countdown to Altair Online’s release that hovers over the top of their headquarters.

So just who is this girl?

Well, she’s me.

And she’s a dragon.