Dispatch Zero part one

The year 4372 and everyone is playing the game—always in their helmets—always somewhere else. The world is a better place, no need to work, no need to worry about climate or longevity. But someone's got to monitor the game. The game is played on the simulsphere, virtually transporting players to a time of their choice. Sometimes the consciousness gets confused. What happens when one player's consciousness entangles central dispatch and brings them both thousands of years into the past, into the 1990's?

Dispatch glitches over to Greenwich Village, arriving in NYC in the fall of 1994. To him, this is an ancient time. He is on his own more than two thousand years in the past, and only exists for a few hours each night. The player glitches into her game life, forgetting who she is. Even though this is the ancient, analogue, 1990's, Dispatch quickly realizes that the game and the future are present here too.