Prologue: Into the Void
Alexa sat on the beach, tears streaming down her face. “It’s not fair, I had a life here.” she managed to get out between sobs. She was a stark contrast between the otherwise beautiful day.
The sun was setting over the great sea. It was more of an ocean than anything, dividing the two great lands by thousands of miles. Even the traders didn’t like making the voyage, but there was too much gold to be made so they always did.
‘PLEASE LOGOUT WITHIN 5 MINUTES’
“What am I going to do without this?” Alexa was still crying but at least the sobbing had stopped. She was devastated because this is the last time she’d ever sit on the shores; she’d never climb the mountains again nor see the excited merchants selling their wares. “This is it?”
All the while the beauty of the soft beach was lost on her. Not because she didn’t appreciate the sand between her toes, it wasn’t that she didn’t love the smell of the ocean breeze, which caused her long hair to dance behind her. It was because this was the last time.
’PLEASE LOGOUT WITHIN 3 MINUTES’
“Millions of us called this place home, and the people in Washington took it from us all.” she sat trying to appreciate the last few minutes. After all, she had come here because it was among the most beautiful places in all of Eldertale.
There really wasn’t much to do, only the weakest of enemies come here and there aren’t any towns nearby. That’s why Alexa was hoping to enjoy the place to herself. Although she was alone, she was not enjoying herself.
’MUST LOGOUT WITHIN 60 SECONDS’
Alexa had stayed logged-in for nearly 24 hours. Although that wasn’t why she was seeing that message. She knew Eldertale had a safety feature to prevent people playing more than 24 hours without at least 3 hours of downtime, so she couldn’t log in too early if she wanted to see the end.
She’d read on the forums that they were going to block people from logging in during the last six hours before the servers were shut down. That’s part of why she knew she needed to log in early, in case too many people tried to be here for the end. Really, she just wanted all the time she could get.
’MUST LOGOUT WITHIN 30 SECONDS’
Alexa checked her friend list to see if she could message anyone before it all went dark. Sadly, everyone had taken the hint that wouldn’t go away, just kept counting down in the corner of her vision. Once it got to a minute there had been a loud tick every second, like an old school clock, as her life slowly came to an end.
Perhaps it’s for the best she tried to think. However her emotions betrayed her as she looked around. They won’t ever create something this good again, the regulators will make sure of it.
‘MUST LOGOUT WITHIN 15 SECONDS’
“Fine I get it.” Alexa screamed as the ticking turned into an ominous countdown.
14… 13… 12…
“Log me…” Alexa was saying the command. Although there were three ways to log out of Eldertale, she always just said ’log me out’. Yet, the small mudcrab that had walked ashore caused her to stop.
11… 10… 9...
They weren’t really worth her time, but she decided to cast her magick once more. She was about to cast a powerful spell to create a great spectacle, but her heart really wasn’t in it.
8… 7… 6…
“Ignis.” Alexa said causing a burst of fire to fly from her hand. The spell was simple and weak, but it was the first spell she’d ever learned so it felt right for it to be her last. “I missed?” she said with surprise as the embers vanished in the sand.
5… 4… 3…
“Ignis.” she said, this time setting the poor mudcrab ablaze. Somehow, missing helped lighten her mood. Granted, she only missed because of the tears in her eyes. Tears that were still there, but at least she was able to make one last melancholic memory.
2… 1…
“Log me…” she started to say, but wasn’t able to finish before the world went dark. She figured they’d killed the servers so she tried taking her helmet off. Prepared to go back to her depressing life in the real world.
However, instead of filling the true virtual reality (TVR) helmet, she only felt her long ears and flowing hair.
Alexa tried bringing up the menu, but there wasn’t one. “Log me out.” she said, but the darkness remained. “Log me out.” she said again, with fear in her voice. “Log me out now!” this time she demanded. Yet all three times, only the darkness remained.
The fear had turned into full on panic as she sat down, burying her head between her legs. Her crying just minutes ago was nothing compared to what was happening now. There were no sounds except for her crying, there was no feeling except for the tears running down her legs, just an infinite void.
Where moments ago there was soft sand, now there was nothing? Well, there had to be something or how could she be sitting down? But whatever it might be, it was similar to the nothingness all around her.
She sat like this as moments turned into much longer. “Please log me out.” Alexa practically begged between her soft sobbing. And yet, there was nothing.
Comments
Hope you enjoy!
I hope you all enjoy, I’m trying to create a world combining some of my favorite elements from some of my favorite ‘trapped in a fantasy world anime.’ In particular: Overlord, Log Horizon, and Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash will be serving as my main inspiration. I know this chapter is a bit short, which is why I made it a prologue, but I really felt that was the best place to end it. Future chapters should range between 4-6k words.
So if she's trapped in a void
So if she's trapped in a void can she create her own world and is anyone else trapped in there with her? Interesting start.
Who knows ;)
Glad you’re curiosity is peaked. So far the story is writing itself, but I’m hoping to answer this around chapter 3. It makes you wonder if this was planned or a glitch, and did it only happen to her?
Oh dear. Things look dire.
But it looks like a GREAT start to a story. I've been reading a lot of LitRPG this year and I've really grown to love the genre. Thank you for writing this.
Glad you liked it
This is my first time writing in third person, but I’m pleased with it so far. I had planned to make this chapter one and then do a flashback, but I just couldn’t change anything. Instead, I ended up with a prologue and chapter 1 will take place in the past. Hope I can keep you entertained.
Oops
Stuck on a dead server? If there is no magic involved, one would expect the helmet to notice that there is no data coming in and shut down. With magic? It looks like she is going to have to rebuild her whole world by strength of will.
It sucks that the government is forcing an internet server to shut down. That is pretty much impossible right now if the server is out of the government's domain. That's why China built the Great Firewall of China.
Why would they do that, anyhow? Heaven forbid some of their citizens... I mean subjects be allowed to have a good fantasy life.
But that's what government type people do. They scramble to amass as much power as possible, not necessarily caring about the welfare of the people. Other people of power have that hunger, too.
Good questions...
Chapter 2 & 3 will probably begin answering how she became stuck and what happens next
Chapter 1 - 3 should give an idea of why regulators get involved. Although it hasn’t been explicitly stated I’m definitely picturing this as an American studio, so I think it’d be within their jurisdiction. Also, I can’t imagine Europe or Asia being much more lax towards such things.
P.S. I’m about halfway through writing chapter 2 and I don’t even know what’s going to happen until it does. I’m in control of one event, past that, this story is truly writing itself.
Predictions
Your story actually agrees with some of my predictions. The first use of true virtual reality? They'll talk about curing the crippled and making the blind see again, but the real money is going to come from porn.
The first android type robots? They are already making sexbots out of Realdoll sex dolls. They want to open a sexbot brothel in Texas. (The best little sexbot whorehouse in Texas? lol)
By the way, I expect that in real life that, after the government shuts down the servers, much whining will occur.
Large well-monied organizations will spend millions having the law changed and the servers government regulated (to make it more palatable for the regulators and to make it harder for competing businesses to pop up.) Meanwhile, people will start putting servers up in foreign countries, Sealand, and even in big barrel type server closets in the ocean (as Google and Microsoft are doing now.)
https://gizmodo.com/microsofts-newest-data-center-is-a-giant...
Of course, Alexa will still be stuck on the dead server or magic virtual world or whatever it is that's keeping her in the dark.
If it's not a matter of magic sucking her soul into a new world, her real body has about three days before it dies of dehydration.
Tears, Tears Flowing Upward!
Tears, tears of remembrance, and a smile through those tears.
I remember such a count down.
Standing in a place called "The Well of Tears".
Waiting as my world was about to fade away.
Watching as the the gentle rain of virtual tears flowed upward in to the sky from the tiny magical pond.
While in the real world, real tears flowed freely down my cheeks.
I had said my goodbyes, so now I simply waited. A handful of others remained.
We would not leave before the end.
We waited.
And the world faded from view.
Thus ended my first role play as a female.
Yet tho her world had faded away,
Dizzy and the rest of her "Soul-Sisters"(alts) would remain part of me forever.
I remember a wold called Vormis, & friends I made there.
~Hypatia(Dizzy)
Yes I loved the story, even tho it made me cry.
.
PS. I keep debating if i should post my goodby poem, from the games now long gone forums, here on BC with my other non-rhyming poems
If it’s anything like that...
...you should. That poem was very good, with so few words I could picture the world with great detail.
Puzzled
The story line seems to be a bit off.
This prologue, although posted online before chapter one, seems to take the story onwards from chapter one.
In my experience a prologue sets the scene for a story, or, if posted after the beginning of a story provides some history on how the story came to be affording some explanations into character personalities or situational context.
In this instance, to me, the substance of the prologue, seems to follow a timeline possibility arising from chapter one. Maybe this should have been called chapter two.
But I am not the writer. I shall look forward to the next posting to see where the story goes...
Robyn B
Sydney
Oops!
Should have read all the comments here before I posted my comment.
Robyn B
Sydney
No worries
Maybe I could have kept this in my pocket, but I enjoyed how it led into chapter one. You’re right it is uncommon, but I’ve read a few books that do it this way.
Honestly, your comment helped me realize what I should have done differently, but it’d be too much of a spoiler to say. Instead, I’ll make a comment when it’s appropriate, and try to give you a shout-out.