To Anton and the rest, what just happened felt like a weird horror story. Right after Kayla stood up, Anton touched the table again, and as if a seal had been lifted, the table now could move. He then stored it in his inventory. 

The ash, the wind, and even the recurring radio, and table all felt weird. He glanced at Kayla, who didn’t seem to be bothered in the slightest. They arrived in front of the hotdog stand, the lady still standing there. 

At least she hadn’t disappeared, yet.

He thought as they approached her.

“Welcome back.”

“We’re back, and we’ve done all the tasks, Ma’am,” Kayla reported. The lady then smiled. 

“That’s good to hear. Here are your rewards,” the lady said, handing Kayla two bags. 

“On the surface, there’s a small wooden house. Please spread this last one there,” she pointed toward the bag on the left. While it looked similar to the bags they received before, this one looked slightly larger. 

“And these are the rewards. Please take it as my thanks,” she said while pointing to the one on the right. 

“Ah, thank you so much.”

“By the way, if you don’t mind me asking, how do we leave?” Rebecca asked. The lady turned and pointed toward the large circular building in the distance.  

“That’s the elevator. Inside you will find a way to return to the surface.”

“Okay. Thank you very much.”

They bid their goodbyes to the lady and headed for the elevator. Silence filled the ride there. Before driving, Kayla handed the rewards to Anton. Anton opened it, finding some money inside, which was automatically added to his in-game account. 

That’s weird. 

He opened the trade screen and transferred some of the money to Rebecca and Barnum. 

“... Are these the rewards?”

“I divided it between the three of us.”

“Not in a quest complete screen or something?”

“Well, we still need to spread that last bag.” 

“Ah, you’re right.”

As they continued their trip, Anton reflected on what had happened so far. He knew of ancient cities, cities from the previous versions of Pangea. While he hadn’t visited many of those cities, most of the places that he did visit were destroyed, with barely anything left. 

This was the first time he had visited a place that should count as an ancient city, yet looked perfectly fine. He also found it weird how Kayla, despite the weird things they saw, seemed unaffected by it. He made a mental note, making sure he remembered to ask her about it. After a few more minutes down the empty streets, they arrived at the circular building. The building had a much larger size compared to any other building in the city, not even the pyramid could defeat it. Anton predicted that the building’s size was around two soccer fields in length. 

They found a large entrance that faced the pyramid, the pyramid’s figure hidden behind the tall towers that stretched up to the LED sky. Black paint coated the building’s exterior, with horizontal red lines dividing the building into several sections. They entered into what looked like the building’s lobby. A table occupied both sides of the entrance, while a line of elevators occupied the space across the entrance, each elevator around the side of two buses placed side-by-side. Like all other buildings, this one had nothing else inside. 

The clean, sapphire blue walls along with the black floor tilings didn’t do anything to alleviate the weirdness of this quest. Anton and the group chose the elevator in the center. All of the elevators had their metal doors opened, so Anton could go right in. The panel only had two buttons, SU and UG. The screen on top of the panel showed the letters UG, which probably meant Underground. Anton pressed the SU, assuming it meant Surface, button and the metal doors closed shut. 

The elevator started moving upward, their bodies being pressed down to the floor. Anton looked around the elevator. The elevator had metal walls on all sides, preventing them from seeing anything. He couldn’t tell how long before they reached the surface, nor could he tell how fast he was going, so he decided to just sit down. 

Even if the game couldn’t simulate fatigue, he felt tired, far more tired when compared to his adventures in the Sumbar quest or the PvP quest against that tank. He checked the quest menu. The PvP quest’s clock continued ticking, before eventually landing on the number zero and disappearing from the quest screen. They received a little reward for surviving.

The second quest, Lands of the Lost, still had nothing. It now moved up, occupying the first slot of the quest screen. Secret quests were weird ones, he thought. If Kayla didn’t come with him, and he didn’t pay attention to the dialogue, then he wouldn’t be able to complete it. To be fair, the quest didn’t have that much dialogue in the first place. If he forgot, he could probably talk to the NPC again. 

The others continued standing in the elevator, Rebecca looking down on Anton. Her eyes stared at him blankly, her hands limp, her back on the elevator’s walls. She continued eyeing Anton as she stood, while Barnum looked at the panel as arrows pointing upward went by and go. Other than that little arrow animation, nothing else changed. 

Anton didn’t say a word. He pulled himself to the corner of the elevator, A bit far from where he previously sat, and leaned back on the wall. Seeing him, Kayla went beside him and sat down. Finally, Barnum and Rebecca sat down as well. 

“Quite the journey, eh?” Rebecca said with a chuckle. 

“What do you think, Mr. Barnum?” Anton asked. Barnum shook his head. 

“It truly is something,” he said with a slight smile. 

“I wonder how things would be if the kids were the ones to take it,” he continued. 

“Yeah… truly one weird experience.”

“But to think the past developers really modeled an entire city for that one quest…” Rebecca muttered. 

“That’s probably not the case. Some events may take place there, and I saw some of the assets at other places. Crafting an entire city like that for just one quest is excessive,” Anton explained. 

“Ah, yes, that makes sense,” Rebecca nodded. Eventually, they felt the elevator slowing down. Anton and the rest stood up, ready to greet sunlight. The two metal doors opened, and as they stepped out, they found themselves back in the wooden house that first started their journey. They looked back, finding the elevator no longer existing. 

Kayla stepped forward, standing in the now empty spot where the table and the radio once stood. Anton exchanged looks with Rebecca. Anton then pulled the table out from his inventory and put it where the original table was, while Rebecca put the radio on top of the table, trying to be as accurate in placement as possible. 

Finally, Kayla took the bag out. She clenched it close to her chest, similar to how she did it on the two previous occasions. She then gently poured the ash above the table right beside the radio. 

“May your soul, too, rest peacefully,” she muttered. The four looked at the table, did little prayers, before leaving the house. Once they left the house, they looked back. An empty plot of land lay behind them.  

“Maybe we should have exited while looking back?” Rebecca asked. 

“Or maybe we should have walked backward?” Anton said. Kayla shook her head. 

“No, let’s leave them to rest,” she said, much to everyone’s confusion, and went back to the LAV. 

 

By the time they arrived back at Rurack Adventure Terminal, the police no longer cared about them. 

“So, this is where the tour ends, eh?” 

“As weird as that is, I had a wonderful experience. I am looking forward to playing with you again,” Barnum said. He added Rebecca and Anton as friends before leaving the terminal. 

“I’ll be going as well, then,” Anton said, about to head back to the LAV when Rebecca reached out and held her. He looked at her, confused, then noticed the arrival of a friend request. 

“See you around,” she said as she hopped into her own car and drove off. Anton then looked at his AI companion, Kayla. Kayla nodded and the two entered the LAV.

“Take us to the most expensive hotel in the city,” Anton said, leaning back in his seat. 

“Eh? You sure?”

“After that, I’m in the mood for some luxury.”

“Alright,” Kayla set the location on her map and drove off. 

 

Someone decided to place a five-star luxury airport near the hotel. When Anton arrived, an airplane came in to land not far above them. He watched as it disappeared behind the lines of buildings. 

Is it five-star when it’s this loud?

The sound could be turned down, but he thought five stars should be farther away from a busy airport. It did meant that after a nice rest, they could quickly continue their journey. 

Anton checked in with Kayla. He went to bed right after he entered the room, while Kayla opened some of the welcome snacks the hotel provided. 

“Want some?” she stood up and walked toward Anton, a piece of white chocolate in her hand. Anton opened his mouth and Kayla dropped the chocolate into it. 

“Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“I’m going to log out real quick. I’ll return later.” 

“Okay,” Kayla replied. She took a bite from the chocolate and sat down on a chair. 

• ••

Kayla looked at Anton’s body. She turned and sat down on the bed beside him. Anton was logged out, not asleep. He hadn’t told her to do anything, so she could do whatever she wanted. Whatever she did wouldn’t wake him up. He lived in an entirely different world from her. 

She lay down on the bed beside him and turned around, her face facing his back. She reached out for his left hand and hugged it. 

“You’re not logged out,” she muttered, her mouth close enough to his ears. She was sure that he didn’t log out. She was an AI companion, after all. 

“... You… got me,” she heard Anton’s voice. He turned around, now facing her. The two looked into each other’s eyes. The boy that lay right in front of her, the heat coming from his body… 

A real-life human, one with flesh and blood, one requiring food and sleep, something entirely different from her cold self, something no more than a line of code. 

“Anton,” yet she called his name, her voice faint and weak, her grip on his hand tightening. 

“What is it?” Anton asked with a soft tone, a soothing voice that in this world only she could hear. She had accompanied his side ever since she was made, and in all of her time, he never heard him uttering words with that kind of tone to anyone else. She understood that she was special to him, her programming allowed her to think so. 

“I’m scared…” she muttered, her virtual throat hoarse. She could feel a code in there somewhere generating pain in her virtual body, one that the game shouldn’t be able to do. Her heart hurt so much that she felt like she could explode at any moment, despite knowing that as an AI companion, she should be incapable of feeling that way. 

“It will be alright,” Anton reached out his right hand and patted his head, his virtual hand stroking her virtual hair. She let out a faint smile. 

“Can… I-” she didn’t complete her sentence when she saw Anton pulling himself closer, pulling her into his embrace. She knew that she was just an AI companion, that the heat that was generated from his body was nothing but virtual parameters being changed. Yet, she felt her personality, her programming telling her that it all would be alright. As long as he was here with her, she would be just fine. 

“What’s wrong?” Anton finally asked, his faint voice only barely visible in her ears. 

“That quest…”

“It’s sad, isn’t it?” he said. Kayla looked up at him, his gaze meeting hers. His virtual eyes, despite technically just a virtual representation of the real him, felt as genuine as he himself. 

“The mother…”

“She’s… dead. What we saw was an illusion, right?”

Kayla nodded. 

“Yeah… An illusion created by the strong will of her to bring her daughter back to the surface.”

“And that last bag is a mix of both of their ashes.”

“... You know?”

“Just a guess. I mean, the last bag did look different from the two earlier ones. It got more ash in it.”

“Yeah, and she said that now she can pass on.”

“We helped her fulfill their final wishes.”

“To once again see the surface,” Kayla then pulled herself closer, their body touching at this point. 

“I’m scared. I don’t want to disappear…”

Not wanting to be reduced to just an NPC. 

“I won’t let that happen to you.”

“But I’m just a program.”

“Not to me, you’re not. I’m going to make sure that you stay this way.” 

Hearing his words, his warm breath blowing through her ears, she let out a smile. 

“Thank you, Anton.”