Kayla parked the car in front of the empty apartment’s lobby. It looked relatively clean for an abandoned building, its gray exterior looked untouched. Anton and the rest of the group entered the lobby. The empty lobby had been colored in a bright brown color, with tidy ceramic floor tilings forming the floor. They took a quick look around. Kayla got curious and approached a lounge area across from the receptionist's desk. Several sofas with varying colors occupied the space, all looking clean as if some had just cleaned it yesterday.

“Did they just leave the place?” Anton asked as he approached Kayla. 

“Maybe?” Rebecca muttered, standing behind him. He looked around, his eyes went for Rebecca. Rebecca shrugged. She approached a magazine rack and took a magazine from it. 

“I think I heard of this before… Missions relating to the third Pangea.”

“Third, what?” Anton asked. Rebecca then returned the magazine to the rack and motioned the rest of them to follow her. They headed for the elevator, walking past sparkling, clean floors. 

“The in-game lore states that P4ngea is the fourth iteration of Pangea. I think that is mentioned in the game’s promotion?”

“‘Explore the fourth Pangea… or something like that?” Anton asked. 

He remembered it being mentioned somewhere, but he couldn’t remember. The game’s promotion methods had changed substantially since its launch. He couldn’t and had no reason to remember every one of those marketing campaigns. Despite that, he remembered the fourth Pangea mentioned somewhere, he just couldn’t remember where. He may be entirely wrong and heard of that term from a quest or maybe one of his colleagues. 

Did Mana mention it? No… I don’t think so…

“Kinda? Well, from what I know, there are three other versions of Pangea before this one.”

Rebecca then stopped in front of the elevator and pressed the button. To their surprise, the large metal doors opened, revealing the elevator inside. 

“Shouldn’t we just use the stairs?” Anton asked. Barnum was the first one to enter, however, heading for the glass wall on the other side of the entrance. 

He grabbed the metal handles that circled the elevator and leaned in, his face just a few millimeters away from the glass. He could see a portion of the city outside the glass, most of it blocked by another building standing behind the apartment. Kayla checked the bag and pressed the number five. The elevator’s doors closed and it moved upward. It didn’t take them long to reach floor five. This apartment was taller than the building behind it, so once they reached floor five, they got a clearer view of the city, despite a portion of their view still being blocked by the tower’s rooftops. 

In the distance, the pyramid basked in the sea of artificial sunlight. Anton and Barnum stood and watched at the landscape, while Kayla and Rebecca waited for them in front of the elevators. Once they were satisfied, the two turned and headed for the floor. The elevator’s doors closed behind them, but the elevator itself stayed in its position. 

A typical intersection sat in front of the elevator, with lower numbers on the left and higher numbers on the right. Kayla read the numbers on those signs and turned left, arriving in front of a door. 

505

Kayla knocked on the door, but no response came. 

“Maybe it’s unlocked?” Rebecca said, before reaching for the handle and pushing it down. The door moved, before getting itself stuck, refusing to budge. It let out a squeak as Rebecca put her weight into it. 

Anton then moved beside her and started pushing as well. Together, their strength managed to force the door open. The door slammed into the wall under their weight, letting out a loud sound as it hit the walls. 

“Excuse me…” Kayla said. No one replied. They stepped into the apartment, heading into what looked to be its living room. The apartment had wooden floor tilings with white walls and ceilings. An opened sliding glass door stood on the other side of the living room, heading out toward the balcony. Not many things occupied the place, with the only interesting item being the old radio on the floor. It looked exactly like the one that they found on the surface. 

Anton and Rebecca looked at each other before looking back at the radio.

“It’s important, isn’t it?” Anton asked.

“It probably is,” Rebecca replied. She reached out her hand and grabbed the radio, but unlike before, nothing happened. She then stored the radio in her inventory. After that, they inspected the rest of the rooms. The kitchen had the kitchen set, dining table, and chairs intact, with no cooking utensils whatsoever. They were all empty, making it look like a new, pre-furnished apartment. 

They then checked the bathroom beside the kitchen. Like the kitchen, it had many of the fixtures like the toilet, bath, and sink. All of them were installed, without a speck of dust. There was nothing on them, though, nothing that indicated a human might have lived here. They then went to inspect the two bedrooms the apartment had. The first bedroom had a queen size bed in it. It had the mattress and the bed frame, but no pillows. Light shone into the room through the opened windows. The room also had an empty wardrobe, devoid of any clothing. 

They then moved back out and into the slightly smaller second room. This one had a single bed in it, while the walls had been colored pink, making it the only room in the apartment that didn’t have white walls and ceilings. Like before, however, other than the heavy furniture that occupied the room, there was nothing else. 

“What is this, a new apartment up for sale?” Rebecca commented. Anton couldn’t agree more. It felt more like a show unit than a place where someone lived. 

“Maybe they abandoned it once they returned to the surface?” Barnum commented. The three looked at him. 

“That’s right. It will explain why this city looks abandoned, but without much damage. Everyone went back to the surface,” Anton said.

“So that’s what the lady meant by moving on…” Kayla put her fingers on her chin and nodded.

“Well, if that’s the case, all we need to do is spread the ash and go back,” Rebecca said.

“Is there a specific place where we should spread them?” she asked. Kayla checked the bags and shook her head. She then moved toward the living room. She clenched the bag to her chest and kneeled down, facing the balcony. 

“May your soul find peace,” she muttered, before opening the bag and gently scattering the ash to the floor. She clasped her hands together in front of the mountain of ash. They then felt a soft wind coming from the kitchen. It blew past them, a cool sensation tickling their skin. 

The wind picked up the ash and it floated around, before heading past the balcony and into the underground sky. The three humans looked at the ash as it flew away, while Kayla stood back up and turned around, as if the entire wind thing never happened. 

“Let’s go,” she said with a smile. 

The four returned back down to the ground floor, before heading out for the school. The school sat two blocks away from the apartment, going further to the left, away from the city’s center. Kayla got in the car and drove toward it. Anton noticed how calm she acted, despite what they had just witnessed. Was it because Kayla was an AI, so she could understand what the rest of them didn’t? Or was it because of the opposite, did she not feel the chill Anton felt?

“Oh, yeah, Rebecca, you didn’t continue your story,” Barnum asked, intrigued. 

“You’re right. To put it simply, all three versions had been destroyed by something. The first one, named Pangea, had been destroyed by a large earthquake. The surviving members escaped to an island in the south. They rebuilt civilization there, and after a few years, returned to Pangea and started the second version, which was known as Pangea2.”

“I see…”

“After a few hundred years of peace, there’s a large war between kingdoms and nations. Pangea2 fell into chaos, and the land was destroyed. Nothing but destruction littered this land. Eventually, peace came, and they decided to make the third version of Pangea, in hopes of eternal peace. This third one is called Pang3a, that’s P-A-N-G-Three-A.”

“That’s an interesting way to name this land,” Barnum commented. 

“Where do you even get this info?” Anton asked. 

“Quests, mostly. Anyway, this city is most likely a remnant of the third version, built at the end of the third era. Pang3a went a few centuries before large storms destroyed the surface, forcing everyone underground. After a while, they went back to the surface and rebuilt. Hence, the current Pangea, or P4ngea,” Rebecca concluded her explanation just as they arrived in front of the school.

Kayla parked the car in front of the gate and the four stepped outside. 

“This is a school?” Rebecca muttered. To Anton, it looked more like a university than a school. The school lacked the bright, cheerful colors often associated with schools, but instead, had a boring gray exterior. The large box-shaped buildings had six floors. 

“Should we spread it here or…?” Rebecca asked. Kayla shook her head. 

“We need to spread it in her class,” Kayla showed the class’ code to the rest of them. 

“Nine E?”

“Yep,” she then led the group into the school building. Like before, none of the doors had been locked. They waltzed right through the gate, heading deeper into the abandoned empty school. 

Again, it looked like a brand-new building. Nothing but the heavy furniture and fixtures was left behind. They didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary for this particular setting and navigated to the class. The class nestled on the third floor, on the section farthest away from the gate, so it did take them a while before they reached the location. Anton noticed the similarities in the building’s interior, with both the school and apartment having white walls and ceilings. The main difference came from the floor, with the school having white ceramic floor tiles. 

Once they arrived at the front of the classroom, Kayla went to the door and peeked through a thin, long rectangular window that ran vertically through the right part of the door. They entered the room, finding a clean classroom. Wooden chairs and tables colored in almond brown color filled the area. 

They then approached the center of the room, noticing one different table from the rest of them. Anton touched it, but for some reason, this one refused to budge. He couldn’t get it into his inventory, either. Kayla looked toward the outer side of the walls, toward the line of glass windows that allowed light into the room. Anton looked toward it, realizing that one of the windows, the one in the center, straight across from the table, was opened. He moved away, allowing Kayla to move in. 

Kayla sat down in the chair behind the table and clenched the last bag near her chest, before spreading the ash onto the table. This time, a gust of wind came from the window, blew through the ash, and lifted them up. The ash floated near the ceiling for a moment, before moving back outside and into the sky.

Kayla stood back up and looked toward them. 

“Should we head back?”