The timer on my screen kept counting down: 30, 29, 28. Sweat dripped down my face, but I didn't let go of the controller as I kept my eyes glued to the screen.

My avatar executed a quick double jump. At the top of my leap, I triggered my Splash Zone skill. It was supposed to be useless out of the Act Three water level, hence why the developers had made it so OP.

I’d figured out that they'd taken a shortcut when developing the water physics and just reused the same particle simulation as for smoke and clouds. Since I was a sufficient distance over ground height, the code didn't catch that I wasn't in water. Splash Zone went off, propelling me forward toward my goal.

I ducked right, then left as I zoomed through the thick stand of pine trees. My Twitch stream count was through the roof. My mouth was dry. 15 seconds left. If I didn't make this speedrun, my secret would be out, and my competitors would be looking to exploit it.

14, 13, 12. The gate was just ahead, blocked by a squad of enemies I was supposed to defeat in single combat. Instead, I equipped the Rod of Night from back in Act 2.

As I finally touched down to the ground, I activated the rod, casting it on me. I disappeared in a cloud of black and raced forward. The gate guards couldn't see me. The Rod of Night was supposed to be required in order to defeat the penultimate boss of Stage 2, but I'd found a way to cheese that fight weeks ago.

3, 2. My avatar hit the gate. It swung open at my touch as I smashed the interact button over and over again. I made it through, and the "Game Over! Victory!" screen appeared just as my timer froze with the number 1 displayed on it.

"Yes!" I shouted. I ripped my headset from my ears and tossed it to the ground, throwing up my hands. My controller slipped from my sweaty hands. I groaned and leaned over out of my gaming chair, but it had gone just a little too far, and I couldn't reach it without getting out of this chair and into the other. I glanced balefully at my wheels and decided to leave the controller where it lay. I toggled my microphone.

"And there you have it, folks. New speed record clear of Dragon Alliance Nightborne 3: World of the Dark Soul. Don't forget to follow my channel. If you're seeing this clip on YouTube or something else, my Twitch handle is @theColinTrev. And join my Patreon, where you'll be the first to hear about my next record attempt."

I took a deep breath and checked the time. 2 AM. I just hoped my victory celebration hadn't woken up my mum and stepdad. They were in the upper floor of our council row house, while I was tucked away in the converted sitting room. I had a curtain hanging across behind my gaming rig and camera to hide my special equipment from the viewers. They knew about my challenges, but I didn't need more pity.

I grinned at the screen. "Alright. TheColinTrev signing off. Just remember, keep calm and cheese on."

I turned off my stream and sat back in my chair with a sigh of relief, exhaustion, and that hollow feeling I always got after completing a particularly good run.

"Keep calm and cheese on," I muttered to myself. What on earth had possessed me to use that as my catchphrase? Fourteen-year-old me had a lot to answer for. Not as much as thirteen-year-old me. He was the asshole who'd gotten me into this wheelchair in the first place.

I was about to shift over into my chair and roll over to the bog for a much-needed bio break when a window popped up on my screen. I frowned. My antivirus was up to date, and I didn't think I'd left anything running in the background. It maximized, and a moment later, a man's face and upper body filled my screen. He was probably around twenty-five years old, white, but mixed with something else, and he wore a ridiculous cowboy hat.

The man spoke, his American accent grated on my ears. "Hello, Colin Trevelyan. This is Captain Shadrach Williams, United States Army."

What the bloody hell was a Yank doing on my screen at 2 AM? I started to ask him that, but the man continued. "This is a recording. I'm currently on Ganymede. The time lag and transmission between us makes it impractical to have a conversation. Rest assured, you'll get a chance to answer back."

“You may or may not have heard about me, but my team and I recently participated in the Reality Engine Exploit team who helped win on behalf of Earth.”

So he was with the alien twats who'd showed up a couple of years ago, abducted some people, and then gotten all of the politicians in a tizzy. I hadn't paid much attention. The internet had been full of it, but my circles, gaming circles, hadn't much cared. Mum had mentioned it a few times recently and talked about the news, but I really hadn't paid much attention to the news lately.

I was 16 years old and officially a NEET. Not in education, employment or training. I hadn't seen the point in continuing school after my accident. Once Mum got tired of fighting me, she'd let me get on with my career in my own way. My Twitch streaming was paying for half the bills in this place anyway.

"I've chosen you," Williams continued, oblivious to my inner thoughts, "because I'm looking for people with a very special skill set. Your skill set. Speedrunners. Exploiters. Wall hackers. Those who look at a game not as amusement but a deadly serious puzzle. One with rules that can be exploited and taken advantage of. My belief is you're exactly what humanity needs right now. And to that end, I'm inviting you to compete in Las Vegas for the right to earn a slot in our reality engine. I don't know, Colin, if you know exactly what that means."

Williams leaned closer to me. I'd noticed him use my name at the start of the message but had assumed it was just inserted by technology, like spam posts. Now I was not so sure.

"When my family was abducted by the aliens and placed in this reality engine, my grandfather was dying of cancer. He was also in his 80s with a host of health problems. Five minutes after we entered the reality engine, he was up walking, rejuvenated to about 35 years old. He'll be on Earth in a couple of days. He's going to help oversee the tournament, so you can ask him yourself if what I'm saying is real.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Personally, I think you'd have been intrigued just by the challenge that I'm planning to offer you, but in your case, it offers other benefits. If you want your legs back, you can have them. All you have to do is beat out a couple thousand other gamers for one of the slots. Are you in?"

I sat back in my chair, overwhelmed. Obviously, he wasn't expecting a direct answer. Williams continued, "If you're interested, reply to this message at the provided link. We’ve made arrangements to have you taken to Vegas. And don't worry if your mom objects. We'll take care of that. I'm sending an email with the details. It should be in your account now. I look forward to seeing you on Ganymede in a few weeks."

Williams vanished. The window closed itself. I grabbed my phone and pulled up my email. 43 unread messages,mostly junk. My fans followed me on Twitch and Discord, but I had email contact info up in case Monster or somebody decided they wanted to sponsor me.

Williams had done as he said. The email contained details about the tournament, the All-Earth Invitational. It was just a few days from now. I’d have private, accessible accommodations while in Vegas, too. And he said someone would be contacting me about my transportation by seven AM. I should be ready to leave then.

I gave a low whistle. It was a no-brainer, really. Even if I wasn't interested in the prize, if nothing else, my Twitch audience would love it.

Seven AM. That was five hours from now. I guessed that I would sleep on the plane.

Mum came downstairs at about 6:30 and stopped dead when she saw me in the kitchen. I’d spent the last couple of hours packing, making social media updates to let people know I'd be going for a few days, contacting some of my friends, and asking if any of them had gotten a similar offer. I'd already heard back from Third Eye Weasel, and she said she'd be there. I was looking forward to meeting her in person. Torsten2 said he'd turned down the offer. "They just want you as cannon fodder for the aliens," he'd said. "I watched some of those highlights of the exploit. They don't need real gamers. They just need people who can point rifles."

"If that's the case, they're going to a lot of trouble to get me there," I sent back, and he hadn't replied.

It hadn't taken that long to pack, even with my extra medical kit. I'd been too excited to sleep and spent the ensuing hours perusing videos of the Reality Engine exploit and reading up on it. Williams featured heavily in a lot of them, and despite myself, I found I was impressed by his actions. He might be a Yank and an army officer at that, but he had the instincts of a gamer. That was clear. He appeared in a lot of videos with his kid sister, a snot-nosed brat who had a habit of hogging the camera, and his grandfather. Like Williams had said, his grandfather appeared to be about 35 years old and in perfect health. He was a red Indian or Native American, whatever the Yanks called their indigenes these days, which explained why Williams looked mixed race.

Anyway, I was sitting in the kitchen with a cuppa and my phone playing highlights of Williams' career when Mum came down the stairs. Her mouth fell open.

"Colin, you're up early? Or late?"

I understood why she was surprised. We'd spent a lot of time in the past few years not being in the same room together. Don't get me wrong, Mum had done a lot for me, even giving over the whole sitting room to be my personal space, mostly because it was next to the only loo in the house big enough to accommodate my wheelchair. I couldn't manage the stairs without help, and while the council had talked about getting a chairlift put in, they'd never gotten around to it.

I pointed to the cup sitting on the table next to the teapot. "Pour a cuppa?"

She did, looking at me through narrowed eyes, and then sat down, wrapping her thin hands around the cup.

"You finished your game last night, then, love?” she ventured.

"Yeah, I did. Got the record."

"Oh, good for you," she said. Mum did not understand my passion. Wasn't like she didn't get games. She'd gotten a high streak on Candy Crush a couple of years ago she still couldn't stop talking about. Even my stepdad occasionally liked to play Fallout, but she was still hoping I'd go to university and make something of my life. It was hard to explain to her that I was already something.

"Um, so I'm going out in a bit," I said.

"Oh." Her mouth pinched together as she studied me. I understood her incredulity. I hadn't willingly gone anywhere in months. She sniffed, and then her eyes widened in surprise. "You showered?"

"Don't make it sound like such an event,” I said, even though we had a long-standing argument over the topic. I made a point to shower at least once a week, but she was always nagging me to go at it every couple of days. I didn't really see the point. It wasn't like I was getting particularly sweaty. All I did was sit around and game.

I noticed my hair falling into my eyes and wished there was time to get it cut. Mum had done my last few, and I really didn't want to show up in Vegas with a bowl cut. Maybe I'd find a barber before I checked in at the event.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be gone for a couple of days," I said.

Mum set her tea down so hard it slopped over the rim of the cup. "What is going on?"

"I've had an invite to participate in an important gaming tournament. Prizes are huge, Mum. You have no idea."

"A tournament?" she repeated. We'd spoken in the past about the chance of me attending a tournament. It wasn't likely, if I was honest. I wasn’t a competitive gamer. Speedruns and phone exploits are okay for maintaining your Twitch stream, but it doesn't get you on an eSports team.

"This is sudden," she said. "Or have you been working on it for a while and not told me?"

"Oh no, it's sudden," I said. "But this is important, Mum. The tournament's in Vegas."

"Vegas." She had a blank look, then repeated, "Las Vegas? Like in the United States?"

"Yeah, that Vegas."

She shook her head. "You can't go that far without any help."

Now I was getting angry. "Mum, I am not a baby. I'm almost 17."

“’Almost’ is not how I'd put it, Colin. Your birthday was three months ago. And even if you were 17, that's not legally an adult. Besides," she pointed out, "you don't even have a passport."

I hadn't thought of that. It had been some time since I'd traveled, and that had just been to Northern Ireland. When I was younger, we'd gone abroad to Spain, but that was when we were still part of the EU and didn't need a passport.

"And what about money for your expenses?" Mum asked.

"I've got money," I said. “You don't think I'm giving you all what I make on Twitch, do you?”

"You'd need help, though," my mother said. "Even if you had a passport. For the airplanes and—"

"They deal with wheelchairs all the time, Mum," I said. "I'm sure they can help me out."

"What's this tournament about, then?” she asked.

"It's a big competition between different kinds of eSports players to see who's the best," I said. "Winners get—" I hesitated because I was worried it would cause Mum to go off entirely. "Winners get to go to Ganymede and be part of the Reality Engine."

Her eyes flew wide. She covered her gasp with a hand. "Colin!"

"Yeah, I know. It's a long way."

"Colin!" She shook her head. "You mean you'd be able to walk again?"

"And move out of your flat, Mum, yeah."

"Oh, love, you're not a burden to us. You know you aren't. Martin and I both agree. You can live with us for as long as you need to. But I've seen what that engine can do. I've thought about telling you to apply, but the idea of you going off forever—and besides, I think they're only taking terminal cases right now."

"Yeah, well, this is different," I said. "So we're agreed. I can go."

"I still don't see how you're going to do it without a passport," Mum said.

That was when the knock came.