The story begins with two battle scenes that just switch back and forth: one is a modern day SWAT assault on an airport occupied by terrorists. The other one is an RPG-like assault on an icy mountain(with swords, arrows, magic, etc.). The first hero, despite ordered to back off, plunges his team into a brutal gunfight. The bad guys detonate a massive quantity of explosives and kill a lot of innocent people, including most of the SWAT team. The other battle fares no better.
The warrior who leads the assault, Lar'k, faces the Undead Wizard, a powerful mage who, with a single spell, decimates the troops. He slays the warrior right on the mountain top. A few years later: Dave, the first hero is struggling to get back on his feet. He got various jobs as a bodyguard or a mall cop, but wasn't able to keep them due to alcohol problems.
One day, he is recruited by a top video game company. That company, a real corporation, called Burning Fields, has its own intelligence service and its own spy network. Dave is told that a rival company is developing an RPG called Ancient Quest, which is rumored to revolutionize the entire genre and the gaming world in general. A recent virus attack however, forced the company to delay its release with one year.
The Burning Fields leaders send Dave to steal a copy, study it, review it, and suggest ways to improve it, so that they can work on their own, better, version of this RPG, that would bring Ancient Quest to its knees. Dave infiltrates the rival company, by-passes its security systems, and steals the beta version of Ancient Quest. At first, it seems like it's just a video game, and Dave eagerly searches for flaws and ways to improve it. He jots down notes of ideas of a better game. But when he quits, time flew differently. Instead of spending 8 hours playing it, he spent three days.
In-game, he makes friends and learns of a war that goes on between a group of kingdoms. They all search for a system of crystals called " Winter's Tears ". They can destroy the whole world and the king that would get them can rule all other kingdoms in the world, using the Tears as means to subdue them. The Undead Wizard also seeks them. He arose beasts and monsters to prevent heroes from getting in his way. Dave realizes something is wrong.
Dave " lives" for a while in-game. Makes friends. Meets rulers and takes sides. Joins the quest to destroy the Tears, so that no one can use them as leverage to subdue others.
Time flows differently between the game and the real world. One day in-game= one week in real life. He is soon attacked, at first by thugs, and later by hitmen and elite troops. In-game, he fights monsters, skeletons, etc. In real life, he fights police and various law enforcement agencies for no apparent reason.
Then he realizes: Ancient Quest isn't a game. Or at least not anymore. Dave finds out how the rival company came to " create " Ancient Quest: the company owner is an ex USAF intelligence officer who found a series of codes inside a meteorite that crashed a thousand years ago. They also found a fossilized spaceship with the Undead Wizard as a pilot. The Undead Wizard already used the crystals to destroy its own world, all kingdoms, and used a spaceship to escape. But before the world was destroyed, Lar'k wrote those codes so that, by using them, someone can create a bridge through time and space, between his world and our own, in a time where the annihilation hasn't yet taken place.
So when Dave plays Ancient Quest, he doesn't play a game, his mind connects with that of a ten million old hero of an extinct alien species(Lar'k). Dave(in game) must withstand three trials to have access to the Shrine of Stars, the place where the Tears lie. The Shrine of Stars is actually a place where multiple wormholes converge, where many dimensions and realities collide. Dave/Lar'k withstand all trials before access to the Shrine is allowed. They face dragons, wizards and retrieve magic armors.
Dave brings in assault rifles and explosives in Ancient Quest, so it's even more interesting. His miniguns decimate monsters just as effectively as his axes and magic spells. In real world, the Undead Wizard runs the show. He heads a secret society that would do anything to get the Tears in real life. He can't take them from Ancient Quest, but he can find out information about how they can be built.
That's why in game, he has agents trying to get access to the Shrine. Dave/Lar'k finally gains access to the Shrine of the Stars, where he faces the best agents. After a tough battle, he manages to defeat the Undead Wizard's minions and destroy the Tears. But the agents have already passed the information to our own world. Now Dave must fight through hordes of troops, gain access to the USAF intelligence officer's high-tech, ultra-security filled mansion and fight the Undead Wizard before he has the chance to create the Winter's Tears. Dave defeats the Undead Wizard, and finds out notes and instructions about how to build the Tears.
Mankind hasn't got the power to build them yet(it'd take another 2-300 years or so), but the military already wants to purchase the notes. Dave sells them for a whooping three billion dollars. Dave can travel through time and space(inside and outside of Ancient Quest) for as many times as he likes.
The warrior who leads the assault, Lar'k, faces the Undead Wizard, a powerful mage who, with a single spell, decimates the troops. He slays the warrior right on the mountain top. A few years later: Dave, the first hero is struggling to get back on his feet. He got various jobs as a bodyguard or a mall cop, but wasn't able to keep them due to alcohol problems.
One day, he is recruited by a top video game company. That company, a real corporation, called Burning Fields, has its own intelligence service and its own spy network. Dave is told that a rival company is developing an RPG called Ancient Quest, which is rumored to revolutionize the entire genre and the gaming world in general. A recent virus attack however, forced the company to delay its release with one year.
The Burning Fields leaders send Dave to steal a copy, study it, review it, and suggest ways to improve it, so that they can work on their own, better, version of this RPG, that would bring Ancient Quest to its knees. Dave infiltrates the rival company, by-passes its security systems, and steals the beta version of Ancient Quest. At first, it seems like it's just a video game, and Dave eagerly searches for flaws and ways to improve it. He jots down notes of ideas of a better game. But when he quits, time flew differently. Instead of spending 8 hours playing it, he spent three days.
In-game, he makes friends and learns of a war that goes on between a group of kingdoms. They all search for a system of crystals called " Winter's Tears ". They can destroy the whole world and the king that would get them can rule all other kingdoms in the world, using the Tears as means to subdue them. The Undead Wizard also seeks them. He arose beasts and monsters to prevent heroes from getting in his way. Dave realizes something is wrong.
Dave " lives" for a while in-game. Makes friends. Meets rulers and takes sides. Joins the quest to destroy the Tears, so that no one can use them as leverage to subdue others.
Time flows differently between the game and the real world. One day in-game= one week in real life. He is soon attacked, at first by thugs, and later by hitmen and elite troops. In-game, he fights monsters, skeletons, etc. In real life, he fights police and various law enforcement agencies for no apparent reason.
Then he realizes: Ancient Quest isn't a game. Or at least not anymore. Dave finds out how the rival company came to " create " Ancient Quest: the company owner is an ex USAF intelligence officer who found a series of codes inside a meteorite that crashed a thousand years ago. They also found a fossilized spaceship with the Undead Wizard as a pilot. The Undead Wizard already used the crystals to destroy its own world, all kingdoms, and used a spaceship to escape. But before the world was destroyed, Lar'k wrote those codes so that, by using them, someone can create a bridge through time and space, between his world and our own, in a time where the annihilation hasn't yet taken place.
So when Dave plays Ancient Quest, he doesn't play a game, his mind connects with that of a ten million old hero of an extinct alien species(Lar'k). Dave(in game) must withstand three trials to have access to the Shrine of Stars, the place where the Tears lie. The Shrine of Stars is actually a place where multiple wormholes converge, where many dimensions and realities collide. Dave/Lar'k withstand all trials before access to the Shrine is allowed. They face dragons, wizards and retrieve magic armors.
Dave brings in assault rifles and explosives in Ancient Quest, so it's even more interesting. His miniguns decimate monsters just as effectively as his axes and magic spells. In real world, the Undead Wizard runs the show. He heads a secret society that would do anything to get the Tears in real life. He can't take them from Ancient Quest, but he can find out information about how they can be built.
That's why in game, he has agents trying to get access to the Shrine. Dave/Lar'k finally gains access to the Shrine of the Stars, where he faces the best agents. After a tough battle, he manages to defeat the Undead Wizard's minions and destroy the Tears. But the agents have already passed the information to our own world. Now Dave must fight through hordes of troops, gain access to the USAF intelligence officer's high-tech, ultra-security filled mansion and fight the Undead Wizard before he has the chance to create the Winter's Tears. Dave defeats the Undead Wizard, and finds out notes and instructions about how to build the Tears.
Mankind hasn't got the power to build them yet(it'd take another 2-300 years or so), but the military already wants to purchase the notes. Dave sells them for a whooping three billion dollars. Dave can travel through time and space(inside and outside of Ancient Quest) for as many times as he likes.
