Twenty minutes later, they managed to escape the clutches of the Rurack police and escaped from the city. A bounty had been issued for their capture, both dead or alive, so returning to the city would be a no-go, at least not until the quest ended. To think someone out there would start searching for him, maybe receiving a quest similar to when he searched for the tank. 

“You complained, yet you’re the one that overdid it,” Kayla muttered. 

“Well… I have no answer to that,” Anton shook his head. 

The peace zone covered most of Rurack, so the NPCs couldn’t kill him, nor could he kill them. Kayla’s speed left them in the dust, her dangerous maneuvers allowing them to escape from the police. But, despite being so close to just escaping from them, Anton opened fire.

He couldn’t kill them, since he was in a peace zone, but he could destroy their vehicles, and he did exactly that. He had zero reason to fire his weapons, especially since they were about to escape, yet he chose otherwise. Now they needed to lay low for a while, until the heat died off and the mission canceled, but it would still take a couple of hours before that could happen. 

Which gave them the perfect chance to take a long world quest. Rebecca didn’t understand their plans, and could only shake her head. Anton saw her facepalming, probably thinking that she had made a mistake by taking him and Kayla. 

It was too late now, however. Kayla then went off the road and drove across a dirt road. The vehicle slowed down as it made its way South. The uneven road shook its occupants, making the trip uncomfortable, to say the least. They traveled through the center of massive rice fields. The road became thinner the further away they went from the city, making driving a LAV without falling into them hard. Kayla opened the driver’s hatch in hopes of getting a better view, while Anton used the turret to guard the LAV from any attackers.

They saw two buildings standing above a rather large plot of empty land. The LAV approached it and stopped.

“We should be safe around here,” Kayla said, parking the LAV under the cover of a tarp that hung between the two buildings. 

In this world, this was probably used for displaying food or storing items, covering them from the heat. The black tarp covered the LAV like a blanket, making it harder for others to see it with the naked eye. A paved road ran right beside them, Anton not knowing where it came from and went to. He opened his map, checking the location. Deciding that the paved road, that headed for Rurack, was far enough off the main road, Anton concluded that the LAV was safe. Anton leaned back on his chair, thinking that they stopped to talk about their plans, but Kayla turned the LAV’s engine off.

Seeing her, the rest of the vehicle got out. 

“Where are we?” Anton asked. Kayla opened the screen. 

“Since we’re out of Rurack, we’ll need to wait for at least three hours before we can lose our heat,” Kayla said. 

“So while we wait, how about we take a quest?” she suggested. 

Anton then checked his quest screen. Of course, he hadn’t received any other quest outside the PvP quest. The PvP quest was simple. As the attacker, he needed to stay outside the city before he could return without consequences. The timer would be reset when the vehicle first attacked an NPC. Interestingly, the system wouldn’t be triggered if a player attacked an NPC, but it would trigger a separate bounty hunting quest, where the player in question needed to survive attacks from hunters. They wouldn’t be safe in a peace zone, making it incredibly hard. Anton shook his head, shaking the thoughts off. They stood far south from where they attacked the police, so he had no reason to worry.  

“How about we try there?” Kayla asked, pointing her index finger toward a single wooden building standing in front of a hill. Rice fields separated the parked LAV from that building. Not having anything else to do, they went over to the building. Before entering, they noticed a small marking above the door, written in a weird-looking, gothic-style font. 

“Urbsomvit?” Anton read the text.

“Is it the name of this location?” he asked Kayla. Kayla looked at the building, then looked down at the window below the writing, and waltzed straight for the window carved out beside the door. 

“Hello?” she asked, peeking inside, but as Anton and the rest approached, they couldn’t see anyone inside. 

Anton opened his virtual screen and found that a quest had been triggered. 

“Lands of the Lost?” Anton said the name out loud, the second quest on his list. The PvP quest occupied the first slot, telling him to survive the bounty hunt. Now that he stepped outside the region, the clock ticked down, showing two and a half hours remaining before the game removed the bounty from on top of their heads. 

Kayla looked toward him, before looking back at the empty house. Kayla then moved toward the door and knocked three times on it. 

She received no reply. 

She looked behind toward Anton, as if asking what to do next. Anton stepped forward, put his hand on the handle, and pushed the door open. Inside the small house, no more than twenty-five square meters in size and didn’t even have a floor, stood nothing but a radio on top of a wooden table. 

“Excuse us,” Kayla said before venturing deeper. Anton checked his quest log, but this one didn’t have any clues on how they should proceed. 

The empty room gave him a haunting feeling. It looked unnatural, especially with the large room yet tiny radio. 

“We should probably ignore this and get going,” Rebecca said, but to everyone’s surprise, Barnum shook his head. 

“I’m curious. Let’s play along for a while,” he said. 

Anton looked around. Since nothing else occupied the room besides the table and the radio, he decided to focus his attention on those two. He noticed that the table looked as if it had been just used. A small circle of water pooled on top of it, similar to how cold glasses left marks on a table. Anton touched the surface, noticing the wet feeling on the tip of his index finger. 

This table had just been used recently. Anton then looked toward the radio. The radio looked to be an older one, its design based on an older model. It had an antenna on its rear, with a rectangular stereo on top. Several knobs occupied the bottom section of the radio, along with two larger knobs on the left and right sides. The knobs had been used many times, evident from their faded silver color. 

Anton moved his hand. He approached the handle on the radio’s top and touched it. He noticed that nothing changed and gripped the handle, before pulling the radio upward. It refused to move, so Anton pulled harder. All of a sudden, the radio disconnected from the table and was lifted up into the air, nearly thrown away. Anton felt his body moving backward, Kayla moving in time. She held him upright, preventing him from falling onto the dirt floor. 

“You alright?” she asked, but Anton didn’t get a chance to answer, as the house shook harshly, throwing everyone down. 

It shook for ten whole seconds. It felt like an earthquake, the force throwing all four down. As Anton fell, he felt his body hitting the ground. He didn’t feel any pain, other than the cold sensation of the dirt below him, but the shaking continued, throwing him toward the wooden table. The wooden table collapsed after being hit, two of its legs breaking apart. The water droplets above it rolled down, dripping on Anton, making his head slightly wet. 

Once the shaking stopped the four got up. Anton used his left sleeve to wipe himself clean. 

“What just happened!?” Rebecca asked, a hint of panic in her voice. 

“You never played this quest before?” Barnum asked. 

“No. Should we go back?” Rebecca replied, wanting to confirm. Barnum shook his head. He lifted his face, his eyes landing at a point away from the door. Anton looked toward the spot he looked at and noticed something that wasn’t there when they first entered. 

A single torch placed on the wall, its flames lit up like a dance. The flames swung left and right, lighting up that side of the room. Anton and the rest approached it. They looked at it with great interest. Anton then extended his hand, about to touch it, but this time, he looked back. He waited for the approval of all three party members. Kayla nodded, Barnum gave him a thumbs up, while Rebecca looked at him full of doubt. She then shrugged, leaving their fate in Anton’s hand. Anton pressed the torch, and the next second, the entire floor disappeared. 

The wooden walls were quickly replaced by stone rocks, their bodies falling freely through the air. 

“WOAH!” Antons screamed. He looked down, finding nothing but darkness below them. Things became darker and darker as they continued falling into what seemed to be a never-ending shaft. It was different from the Sumbar hole, that one short enough that he easily survived the fall. 

This one, meanwhile, had been continuing for five entire seconds, and the end was still not visible. Anton continued falling for another five seconds. By this point, the darkness prevented him from seeing anything in front of him. He then felt his front side hitting something. He didn’t feel any pain, but he did feel something touching his skin. It felt sticky like glue, thin like rope, and soft like fabric. He continued falling, however, with the feeling getting more intense with each passing second. He felt his body slowing down, held back by those things. He then felt the sensation disappearing, and the next thing he felt was freezing waters. He heard the sound of water splashing, muffled immediately as his entire body went under.

“SEA TORCH!” he screamed, water rushing into his mouth. A faint yellowish glow appeared around his body. He swam to the surface. The second he reached the water’s surface, he spit all the water inside him out. He took a breather as he floated, before looking around him. The darkness that surrounded him prevented him from seeing anything, his glow not bright enough. 

“Campfire!” He yelled his trusty spell. He lifted his right hand up as high as he could inside the water, painting what seemed to be a cave with a yellowish glow. He then saw Kayla appearing from the water, followed by Rebecca not long after. The two girls looked at each other before both diving back down to the depths. Not long after, they went back out, Barnum on Kayla’s back. They then swam to shore with Anton leading the way. 

“Phew… What the heck?” Anton asked after getting back on solid ground. He kept his hand up, lighting up their surroundings. He turned and rested on the wall. Kayla brought Barnum to his right and put him down, before moving to Anton’s left.

“Sorry, that was pathetic,” Barnum said with a chuckle.

“I can’t swim,” he continued. 

“Couldn’t you use system assist?” Rebecca asked, sitting beside him. 

“I didn't know it existed,” Barnum explained. 

Streams, lakes, rivers, and even seas and oceans existed in the game, but most of them were concentrated in the southern areas of the map, with some being in the north. Exploring them required expensive equipment, so most players wouldn’t have the money to explore them. It felt like a waste to Anton, so much effort spent on areas that people couldn’t visit. 

Anton then looked around the room. He couldn’t see a single thing, not even the hole they just went through. Anton turned off the campfire momentarily, wanting to get a breather. Once they returned to the dark, they noticed something glowing under the water. A silhouette made of green lights formed the outline of a door on the other end of the rock walls, covered by water. They decided to rest before continuing their journey. Depending on the setting, the player could set it so that the water dried quickly or naturally. If they set it to quick, then the water that soaked their clothes would be gone just a few seconds after they left the water, but if they set it to natural, then it would take a few minutes or even hours. 

Anton realized that out of four of them, only Barnum was soaking wet. Anton then approached him. 

“Open your virtual screen.”

“Hmm?” Barnum lifted his left eyebrow, but he did as told. 

“Go to settings, then game settings.”

Barnum followed Anton’s instructions. 

“Set drying mode to quick,” Anton said before pulling himself away. Barnum clicked on the screen, and after a few more seconds, he dried off. It only worked once they left the water, of course. When inside, swimsuits would be preferable, but they had no way of getting them now. 

“Campfire!” Anton shouted. A ball of flames lit up in his hand. Kayla stood up and followed him as he circled the cave. Rock occupied all sides of this cave. Anton assumed that they needed to go through the underwater door underwater, thus he turned off the flames and jumped into the water. Rebecca followed after him, while Kayla stopped and assisted Barnum down to the depths. 

Anton arrived in front of the rock door and pushed it open. It budged with little resistance. Anton swam through it, before realizing that almost no water leaked through. Once half of his body crossed the door, he felt a sudden imbalance to him and tumbled down, his head hitting cold hard rock. Rebecca failed to learn from his mistakes and landed on top of him. The two moved away, allowing Kayla to come with a perfect landing, all while carrying Barnum on her back.   

Once she crossed, she pushed the door shut.

“Must be magic,” Kayla said after turning around and addressing the group. Anton lit up his campfire spell once more, founding a long tunnel hiding in the darkness. They waited for their clothes to dry before moving forward into the depths.