That night, after finally waking Kayla up, they went to visit a restaurant before taking a drive around the city. Anton then returned to the real world for a good night's sleep, before returning to P4ngea the following morning.
“Change your clothes, and I mean everything,” Anton said as he opened his avatar screen.
He decided to change his face, adding a beard to his face and changing his hairstyle. He chose a slightly longer hairstyle with dark red color and made his face slightly rounder. He also added a bit of height to his virtual avatar. For clothing, he switched into a dark red sweater and blue jeans, with a red hat on top. Browsing through the amount of clothing he had made him realize the sheer size of his wardrobe, one that he never bothered with before.
He glanced at Kayla, who looked back at him.
Maybe I should dress her up once in a while?
He thought, before realizing the confused look on her face.
“You’re not going to choose something for me?” she asked after watching him change, her virtual screen hovering in front of her.
“Whatever will be alright. Just make sure to use something that covers your face,” Anton replied. Kayla’s face was randomly generated for him, but he found her looks to be perfect and cute the way she was.
“Okay, but what for?”
“We’re playing undercover for a bit,” Anton said while swapping his voice. He chose a slightly heavier-sounding voice.
Kayla nodded and used her virtual screen to swap clothing. She changed into a simple jacket and long jeans, similar to Anton’s style. She brought the hood up to her hair and used a dark red mask combined with black glasses to cover her face. With that done, the two left their apartment and set off for the Adventure Terminal. Even though hours had passed since they last set foot in this city, the time hadn’t changed one bit. The stars continued twinkling in the sky, decorating the dark world beyond the horizon.
Streetlights painted the streets and surroundings with their warm glow, with several tall towers having their interior lights turned on. Cars and people made their way across the city.
The drive didn’t take long, and they soon found themselves in front of the Marrow Adventure Terminal. They entered the building, identical in design to the ones in Mitte, Norbva, and Rurack, but this one was colored light blue. Anton checked the time, finding it to be twelve minutes before the appointed time. He looked around his surroundings, before motioning Kayla to come near.
“Watch out for Ronald and Rito. If you see them, tell me, but don’t come near them,” he whispered into her ear.
“Roger,” she said while nodding, her eyes scanned the area, searching for the two people Anton mentioned.
They then went inside and walked toward the stairs located at the sides of the terminal. The Adventure Terminal was divided into two floors. The quest-related areas occupied the first floor, with the second floor being used for other services. Anton never needed any of these services, causing him to be unfamiliar with the second floor.
The second floor had a balcony that overlooked the lobby, right above the receptionist section. Anton and Kayla went up there and leaned on the balcony’s railing, observing the entrance. They didn’t look out of place here, as while the NPCs tend to use normal-looking clothing that people use in the real world, players tend to have a lot more variation. Some wore casual-style clothing, while others showed off their armor. Some wore the same clothes every single day, while others switched them constantly.
Avatar customization was similar to that. Some players would use their own faces out of laziness, maybe with a bit of modification to their hair or eye color, while others would spend hours crafting the perfect avatar. Some even tried to impersonate real people, which became quite a security headache at some point.
“So… why are we going undercover again?” Kayla asked, leaning in a bit closer to him. Anton could just barely make out her eyes under the dark lenses of the glasses she wore.
“I never told you about it, huh?”
Kayla shook her head.
“If you’re uncomfortable-”
“It was in the fifth grade. You remember the bullying story I told you back on the moon?”
Kayla nodded to his question.
“Ronald’s sibling, Louis, is the one that bullied me. I feel like I’m over it, but…” Anton looked down at the people underneath him, the other players and NPCs going through this world. He felt small in comparison, his past felt like it was nothing when compared to the hardships other people went through.
Anton then felt a light tug on his arms. He looked to the left, where Kayla stood. She hugged his left arm tightly, Anton feeling the virtual heat from her body. He looked toward her, looking into her dark blue eyes behind her sunglasses. It was barely visible, yet he felt her gaze looking up at him.
“I can’t help you with the other side. I don’t know your past. But always remember that I’m here for you. Every time you need me, I’ll be waiting for you in this world.”
Her words filled him with a sense of warmth, but he could feel his heartache as well, especially in the last sentence.
Will that ever happen? Will that end ever come?
He found himself asking those questions. How would things be after it was over? Would that Kayla truly be the same as this one? Anton looked around the second floor, and after making sure that no other player was around, he took Kayla into his embrace and hugged her tightly. Kayla didn’t resist but instead rested her head on his chest.
A few seconds passed, and with great reluctance, Anton pulled himself away, directing his attention back to the space beneath him. The glass doors opened, and from inside, came a group of four.
“There they are,” Kayla said.
Anton went back to the stairs, and headed for the first floor. Ronald looked toward the stairs and saw them descending, but he didn’t react. Instead, he typed in something into his virtual screen, and a message popped up on Anton’s.
“Ronald,” Anton called out after reading the message.
“Oh, hey. Sorry, I didn’t notice you…” Ronald then took a look at Anton’s new avatar, scanning him from foot to head. He opened his mouth but then shut it before nodding with a smile.
“Anyway, Louis, Rito, this is Lykon and…”
“Layka,” Anton answered for Kayla. Kayla didn’t dispute it. Louis extended a hand. Anton looked at it and stared for a split second, before reminding himself and shaking his hand. Ronald then turned around.
“Let’s go, everyone,” Ronald said, walking toward the exit. Ronald, Cecily, Louis, and Rito all headed to Ronald’s IFV-01, while Anton and Kayla boarded their Tarup 57.
“What is the quest?” Kayla asked through voice chat.
‘It’s called… Wing of the West World?’
Hearing that name, Kayla turned toward Anton. Anton thought about it for a moment. He went through many quests in the past, and he felt like he heard this one somewhere, but he couldn't remember much about it.
Then again, back in the Sumbar quest, he didn't remember anything at first, so maybe his memories would be triggered as they went through it.
A party invitation came along with the quest confirmation screen, and Anton accepted both. The location of the quest then appeared on his virtual map, with the objectives listed in the quest log. Anton then checked the party chat, finding Louis, Rito, Ronald, Cecily, Kayla, and him in it. There was one other name there, one that he didn’t recognize.
"Louis, where's your AI companion?" Anton asked. Rito wasn't supposed to be an AI companion, meaning that he replaced someone else, either that or Louis didn't take his AI companion with him, but there was this one name among them.
‘I sent my AI companion training a while back, she's going to be joining us later.’
“I see.”
In front of them, the IFV started moving forward, heading back to the streets. Kayla followed behind them.
Anton sat down in the gunner turret position like usual, using the cameras to check their surroundings. It didn’t take them long before they left the peace zone. Upon leaving, Anton changed the turret camera to night vision, a green glow coming out of the screen. He toned down the brightness, before using the control stick to swing the turret around. There weren’t many people around here. In general, not many NPCs occupied the areas outside the peace zone. Those who did live there tend to have some defensive weapons on hand.
"How long are we from the target?" Anton asked.
"Around fifteen minutes," Kayla answered. It would definitely take a while. Anton relaxed himself, his hand playing with the control stick.
Most games had fairly packed maps, with travel times between one location to the other lasting no more than five to ten minutes. But dual reality, being the immersive technology as it is, offered a lot of larger maps to give a better sense of traveling and immersion.
A lot of them had teleportation or fast travel, P4ngea not one of them.
Well, it encouraged purchasing vehicles, so Anton couldn't really blame them. People spending real money in this game was the reason he can live this long.
Bored, Anton grabbed the stick. He turned the turret to the left and pointed it upward, away from any NPCs. He found an empty field right next to the highway.
"Kayla, can you go to the left lane?"
"What for?" Without waiting for an answer, Kayla did as told and momentarily moved away from the IFV. With their speed, the Tarup 57 can easily catch up.
Anton then waited for a wide patch of grass before pulling the trigger.
The cannon spits out bullets into the patch, red tracer rounds creating a long line of light as it flew through the air, causing its surroundings to light up.
"For that. You can go back now," he said, and Kayla drove back to the rear of the IFV. They continued driving down the highway, accompanied by the shine of the stars above them and the lights of cars around them.
Anton then looked to his right, founding a needle-like building stabbing into the skies. A space station, similar to the one back in Oakport. There were no starships parked when they went past it. Anton then used his turret to look up, finding the moon right above them.
The moon in this game had a weird position. For the areas that had an eternal night, the moon would be above the center, westmost or eastmost point of the map. But, if they were in the area in the daylight zone, then the moon would be at the center of the world, only visible after they went out of the atmosphere. When players from night areas wanted to visit the moon, they too needed to head toward the center of the map.
It was a weird way of placing the moon, but they had underground cities as well, so Anton couldn’t complain too much.
The IFV then slowed down, took an exit road, and followed a smaller road away from the highway, heading to the east. Their destination soon came into view.
A large castle surrounded by a moat and guarded by tall walls. Its lights shine in the darkness, painting its presence in the middle of a lake. Anton checked his virtual map, finding the lack of a name for the place he was headed for.
"You know that place?" he asked Kayla. The outline of the building itself was already enough to paint the castle's imposing appearance. Thin mist surrounded the castle, seemingly made with magic of some sort.
"We're about to," Kayla answered. Her answer made him feel unsettled.
"You're not hiding anything like back in the Sumbar quest, are you?"
"Nope. This time, I really do not know a thing," she said, turning the LAV behind the IFV as the latter turned into the castle.
The castle's drawbridge lowered for them. The IFV first went through. Once it crossed, Kayla drove the Five-Seven across safely. The two entered the castle's courtyard. Three groups of knights stood in front and on both sides of the two armored vehicles, numerous torches emit a warm yellowish glow that reflected on their shiny metal armor.
"If we fired on them, would we be able to kill them all?" Anton muttered.
"Depends. I think they'll surround us easily, but they won't be able to enter," Kayla answered. In front of them, Ronald and Louis left their vehicle, Cecily and Rito following behind them. Ronald looked at the LAV and motioned Anton and Kayla to join them.
The two got off the LAV and joined the other four. They then went to the group of knights in front of the IFV. The knight saluted them.
"This way," one of the knights said, prompting them to follow him deeper inside. The knight led the group down a long path covered by a dark red carpet. The path extended all the way from the courtyard through the main hall, way to the rear of the castle, into the throne room.
Stone walls formed both sides of the castle, with brightly lit torches distanced every four meters from one another standing on both sides of the wide path.
The group walked with Ronald and Louis in the front, Cecily and Rito in the middle, and Anton with Kayla in the rear. A formation of three soldiers guarded on both sides, with three more in the front and another three in the back, making a box-like formation covering the group from all sides.
They then arrived before the throne, where an old man with a long white beard in an expensive-looking purple robe sat, his gaze code and his face stern. He looked at the group and stood up.
Ronald and Louis looked at each other before kneeling before the throne. The AI followed suit, with Anton kneeling the last.
"I do not like this…" Anton muttered. Kayla looked at him and put her index finger in front of her mouth.
"Lift your face up, adventurers, as ashamed as I am, I must admit that I need your help," the king said, his heavy voice echoing throughout the large empty chamber.
The lead knight, standing in front of the three knights that formed a line in front of the group, turned around to address the group.
"You may stand up," he said, prompting everyone to do as told.
"First, let me thank you for honoring our customs, as we do not expect adventurers from a distant land to know about it. You have no obligation to do it, but you did so anyway. I would also like to thank you for your offer to aid us in our plight," the king then closed his eyes, took a breath, and continued speaking.
"We have recently received reports of bandits attacking our villages and destroying our crops. Their heavy, metal machines gave us a lot of trouble, thus we set out to seek salvation from powerful adventurers from a distant land. Our scouts had provided the location where the bandit currently dwells. Please, go to that location and wipe out the bandits for us. We will reward you handsomely for your efforts," the king ended his speech.
Anton opened his virtual screen, finding an update to the quest and a new location set in his virtual map.
"We shall depart immediately," Ronald said.
"Once again, thank you. May the blessings of Lord Latamor be upon you," the king said, sitting back on his throne. The group bowed, turned around, and returned to their vehicles.
