On the Lost Continent
by Andrew Novak
release September 28, 2017
I am Jack the Tramp. That's my registered name
in the virtual world of Alterra. It's a stunning place, Alterra. A huge
continent, with kingdoms and principalities, wars, heroes, mages and
necromancers. Anything you can find in reality, you can find it there. Secrets,
danger, terrifying beasts. There are even some things that our world lacks.
It's beautiful and carefree there... Diverse landscapes and blue skies. Over
the ghettos, where the omega-citizens huddled, the sky is always yellow from
fumes. The sky above the Blighted Wasteland that surrounds our tiny, cramped
community is yellow from dust.
Omegas are the descendants of the Gendemic survivors,
the series of disasters of unknown origin that battered the Earth and brought
about the end of civilization. The only known pocket of the bygone splendor of
civilization is New Atrium. Inside its glittering towers live people of a
higher order. The alpha-citizens, the source of all blessings that exist in the
ghetto - canned goods and medicines in humanitarian consignments containers.
What's more, the alphas share the virtual grandeur of Alterra with us.
New Atrium, surrounded by the impregnable
Barrier, and the ghetto resting at its base. That's it. All that's left for us
in reality. Unsurprisingly, everyone is drawn to Alterra.
In one of my expeditions in the Blighted
Wasteland, I stumbled upon a stalled truck. The driver had been dead several
decades already, but I know for a fact that he was a standup guy. Because in
that pickup, I found something with real value - aged whiskey and a console
with an old version of Alterra. Thanks to this unexpected gift from the past, I
was able to get my hands on an incredible rarity, the Tear of Azeroth, King of
the Demons. This discovery was the beginning of a grand quest, one of a kind.
The Night Goddess Necta appointed me as her
Servant, armed me with the Black Sword, and sent me on my journey... But it
turned out that my discovery awoke something up in the game. It soon became
clear that I wasn't the only who had managed to find the old quest chain. There
was the necromancer Ruger Eckerhart - a dangerous competitor, powerful mage,
and alpha-citizen to boot. As if that weren't enough, I had a guild hounding my
every step. I’d taken the Tear of Azeroth right out from under their noses. It
became clear that, without allies, I wouldn't finish the path of Dark Service.
A merchant of Alterra's secrets, a player by the name of Egghead, led me to another
alpha, the light mage Sartorius. He had long been searching for a road to the
Great Mysteries of Alterra, and my Service to the Dark might just have been
that road. Our third companion was Eloise, the former servant of the
necromancer Ruger, from whom she had stolen the Book of Bacchus. This book
described the way to the forgotten continent, Gaerthon.
Sartorius hoped to find his Great Mysteries on
Gaerthon, but I want to continue Service to the Dark. As for Eloise... It
didn't matter to her where we went, as long as she was with me. Honestly, I
felt that I didn't really want to unravel the mysteries of the game without
her. The three of us started a guild, sailed along the great river Chand,
fought with bandits, savages and beasts in the Fasheer marshes. We fended off
pursuers from the Gravedigger guild. Yeah, good times.
Eloise and I succeeded, though it's a shame
that Sartorius couldn't finish the journey. And at the very last moment, just
as the lost continent came into sight, alphas seized us. Someone from their
administration in New Atrium didn't like the game world becoming larger and
that omega-players would have access to Gaerthon. It was a mystery. Why was the
second continent hidden from everyone?
Why did the cryptic rulers of New Atrium decide to tweak the program so
that Gaerthon remained hidden in a fog of oblivion?
Help came from a source I couldn't have
possibly expected. Ruger Eckerhart, retired general and incredibly influential
alpha, turned out to be a romantic. Who'd have thought it? As it happened, the
secrets of Gaerthon drew him as strongly as they did us. And he was the one to
make the alphas leave the path we forged to the lost continent open. Not to
mention the small bit about him saving Lisa and me from death. Not a player
death, either. A real one.
We survived and the lost continent awaits us.
Secrets, mysterious prophecies, deadly enemies - this is a game worth playing.
A life worth living.
A life worth risking.
