“You sure you can fly, right?”

Anton asked as he hopped into the aircraft’s rear seat. The cockpit had been simplified for gamers. Many of the little switches and knobs couldn’t be operated, only there for decoration and in case the pilot got bored.

“Of course,” Kayla answered.

“Battery on… avionics… fuel pumps ready…” Kayla went through the pre-flight checklist. Anton opened the virtual screen and looked through the in-game manual provided with the purchase. He flicked through the pages, reading the paragraphs of information written there.

“Engines start,” Kayla flicked a switch. Anton could hear the engine slowly turning to life. Anton looked to their left, finding the salesperson standing there, waiting for them to depart.

“If we decided to stay here all day long, do you think he’ll be there as well?” Anton asked.

“No… Aren’t you the developer? How am I supposed to answer this?”

“Just some random thought. Just because I’m part of the programming team doesn’t mean I make everything,” Anton answered, returning his attention to the instrument panel before him.

He checked the manual again, comparing them with the instruments before him. Each instrument had its own unique function. He searched for the ones that showed airspeed, altitude, and heading.

“Alright, we’re ready to go. You buckled up?” Kayla asked. Anton couldn’t see her expression, as the large instrument panel divided the two seats into two separate compartments.

“Ready,” he answered. Anton noticed the salesman saluting toward the aircraft as the jet slowly floated into the sky.

The plane gained altitude, the four nozzles on the fuselage, two on each side, began to rotate backward, pushing the plane into the sky. It didn’t take long for it to fully face backward. The altitude and airspeed needles spun to the right, signaling the increase in speed and altitude.

Anton checked his map.

“Where should we go?” he asked.

“Wait, we’re not heading for Marrow Peak?”

“Yes, but we won’t have enough range.”

“Ah, right. Should we just find a city on the way?”

“Alright.”

“Okay,” Kayla pulled the stick to the right and the two headed west.

* ••

“So… what should I do?” Anton asked. Unlike the LAV, this particular jet fighter, modeled after an older one, required the plane to be pointed toward the target when it first fired the missile. Anton glanced at the sun behind them. Due to the design of this world, the farther they went from the center of the map, the darker it would be. Their current position made it look like morning, with the sun not far above the horizon in the east.

Some missile variants, such as the type Anton chose, could track the enemy on their own. Some other missiles required the plane to keep its nose at the enemy for the missile to continue its lock. Those were cheaper, faster, and more maneuverable, capable of tracking agile enemies. Dogfights would be a lot longer, however, had he used them.

The fire-and-forget missiles, as their name suggested, allowed Anton to immediately turn after firing them. Since his goal was to get away from fights as much as possible, such things fit his needs perfectly.

The aircraft, however, left little things for him to do. Most of the systems would be operated from the front seat, thus the co-pilot, Anton in this case, didn’t have much to do. Considering that both the real-world jet and the in-game version were technically training aircraft, as the one sitting in the rear seat, he was supposed to be the instructor, a role that should have been Kayla’s.

“Wanna trade?” Kayla asked. Anton thought about it for a moment, but an alarm blared up in their cockpit. Kayla slammed the control stick left and pulled it up, making a sharp turn to the left.

Anton felt his entire body being thrown as the aircraft made a sharp turn. He tried to open the map, checking his position. The small town of Rurack stood below them, with massive rice fields stretching throughout the land, certainly not a place where they expected to be attacked. Anton lifted his face up, seeing a missile heading for them.

Kayla pointed the aircraft’s vectoring nozzle downward, causing a sudden boost that threw the jet off the missile’s path while firing flares. A trail of light came out from the jet, confusing the missile, causing it to get lost and explode not far from them. Kayla resets the nozzle to their original position, making it pointed backward. Kayla leveled the wings, a dot flying on their right.

“Urgh, why now!?” Anton complained.

“You wanted something to do, right?” Kayla answered calmly.

“Well, this certainly isn’t something I meant,” Anton answered, looking as the enemy fighter went past them. It turned to the right, before blasting away. Kayla brought the Shwarier’s nose toward the fleeing enemy and fired a missile. The missile traveled through the sky, leaving a trail of white smoke as it went through the air, quickly catching up with the enemy jet.

The enemy jet made a left turn in an attempt to dodge it, glowing yellowish dots falling off the jet. The flares distracted the missile, making it swerve off course and exploding away from the jet. The jet turned again, trying to get its nose back on Anton and Kayla’s Shwarier. Kayla adjusted the aim, noticing the jet quickly closing the distance. It fired a missile toward them. Kayla waited, staring down at the incoming missile. She then pulled the lever, causing the harrier to jump, before setting off their own set of flares. The missile missed, and Kayla pointed the nose downward, toward the incoming jet fighter.

The enemy noticed and swerved to Anton’s right. Kayla slammed the rudder and swung the control stick, keeping the nose in front of the jet as it made its past. She pushed the trigger, sending 30mm rounds into the passing enemy jet. The jet made its past, visible smoke coming out from its wings.

“Nice hit,” Anton said while looking as the jet fled the scene, or so he thought.

As if unsatisfied, after flying a distance away from the Shwarier, the enemy pilot made a turn. Kayla pushed the Shwarier forward, chasing after the enemy. The enemy’s maneuverability had been harmed by that engagement. Anton, being in the rear cockpit, had a limited view of what was going on. He could probably tell if he looked at the green screen in the bottom center of his instrument panel, functioning as the radar, but he had no idea what it meant.

“Is it still after us?” he asked.

“Yep, don’t worry, I think it no longer has missiles. Saw its wing when it fired at us.”

If that was true, then Kayla and Anton held the advantage. He only saw Kayla firing one of the four missiles that he bought with the jet.

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Kayla kept the nose on the enemy while flying closer. She then fired a missile, the white tube flying toward the enemy. It left a trail as it zipped past the morning sky. The enemy attempted to dodge, swerving away while firing flares. It pulled itself into a sharp climb, but the missile tracked its target. The missile exploded, ripping the enemy aircraft into two large chunks of metal. Anton and Kayla watched as the jet’s fuselage crumbled and fell to the ground, leaving a long trail of smoke behind.

“Well, isn’t that fun?” Kayla asked after her victory.

“I guess… still, that’s some impressive flying.”

“Thank you. So, should we go to Rurack?”

Anton thought about it. First, he made sure that Rurack had an airport where they could land. After confirming it, he checked the distance between Rurack and Marrow Peak. There were roughly five hundred kilometers from their position to Marrow Peak, just barely enough if they refueled here.

“Let’s do a quick stop. See if there’s something to do,” Anton replied.

“Okay,” Kayla then adjusted the control stick and descended to Rurack.

* ••

“Welcome to Rurack,” Kayla said as they touched down. Since the Shwarier was a VTOL aircraft, Kayla could skip the runway and touch down directly on the ramp. NPCs then brought a staircase and attached it to the side of the aircraft.

“Thanks,” Kayla said as they got out of the cockpit.

Anton navigated through the menu and stored the Shwarier in the airport. Anton then ordered the LAV. They went from the ramp through the hangar, where various other airplanes were parked, out to the parking lot beyond the airport. There, their trusty Five-Seven waited. Kayla went for the driver’s seat, while Anton sat on the turret’s operator seat. They then went toward the Rurack Adventure Terminal.

“Half an hour to refuel and rearm?” Anton muttered. It took longer than he had initially expected.

“Yeah. Maybe we can grab a quick quest?”

“Sure. I wonder which to choose…”

The game offered several types of quick quests. Some require the player to deliver an item to an NPC in the game, some require them to kill a monster and bring its loot back. Most of them lack any real story, inserted into the game just for killing time.

“Ah, want to grab a snack?” Anton asked, noticing a restaurant on the right side of the road.

“Sure,” Kayla then pulled into an open parking spot five shophouses away from the restaurant, right next to the intersection. Kayla parked the LAV in an empty space away from other cars and the two left the vehicle. Concrete shophouses filled the side of the road, selling various items from food, stationery, and even toys. They function little more than decoration, although the sight of them did catch Anton’s attention. Some of them had their metal roller shutters covering the entrance, while others had their front open for the public, showcasing the items they sold. Some of the shutters looked new, while others had slight rust.

Eventually, they arrived in front of the Chinese restaurant that Anton saw and entered. Anton took a seat on a table on the left side of the entrance and sat facing into the shophouse. He took the menu kept on the left side of the table and looked through it. The printed piece of laminated paper showcased the complete offering of the restaurant. Anton looked through it, picking one that stood out to him.

“What do you want?” Anton asked.

“How about you?” Kayla asked back.

“Seafood tofu claypot.”

“Hmm…” Kayla took another look at the menu.

“I think I’ll go with that as well.”

“Alright. Drinks?”

“Lemon tea will be fine.”

“Okay,” Anton then raised his hand. A waiter with a notepad and a pen rushed to their table.

“Two seafood tofu claypot with two warm lemon teas,” Anton said.

“Two seafood tofu claypot and two warm lemon teas…” the waiter opened his notepad and wrote the order down.

“Correct.”

“Thank you for your order, please give us a moment,” the waiter then walked away, heading for the kitchen at the end of the shop. Two other people occupied the restaurant, both of them NPCs.

Kayla then looked around the building, the curiosity showing through her eyes. The shophouse itself looked to be quite old. It had a white wall with white ceramic floors. The design, or rather lack of it, made the building feel old to him, even if the walls were kept sparkling clean. It felt like this building had been standing for years, and no one bothered to decorate it.

A mixture of photographs of the in-game menu and various in-game buildings became the only decorations on the walls, displayed with their names written under them.

“Should we visit that place?” Anton asked after seeing Kayla’s eyes traveling through the various buildings featured in those paintings.

“Eh, but Marrow Peaks?”

“If you want to, then the Peaks can wait.”

“Well, if you don’t mind,” Kayla smiled.

“Of course, I won’t mind.”

All of this is for you, after all.

He would do whatever he could if that meant preserving her memory, her personality. Besides, the point of heading all around the game was to create memories, so as long as they didn’t spend the time sleeping or doing something useless, they would still be creating memories. At the end of the day, despite his mission, this was still a game, a game he had taken part in. He wanted to enjoy it.

He then heard the footsteps of a person entering the shophouse. Anton assumed it was another NPC, until the person crossed his view and headed for a table deeper inside. He noticed the lack of the yellow armband. Other than that, this girl also traveled alone. Only AI companions could go around without wearing the yellow armbands, and that assuming the player bothered to style their companion.

Nothing stopped players from asking an AI companion to go buy food for them. If they wanted to, they could even ask their companion to eat in their place. Sometimes, players use this technique for businesses, making it look crowdier than reality. The girl pulled a chair facing outward and sat down. For a moment, the two crossed eyes.

Anton thought of it as an accident and redirected his attention toward Kayla, not paying the person any more attention. He, however, felt the girl’s stare. He thought he was feeling things and glanced toward her, before realizing that yes, she was staring at him. A waiter approached her, carrying the menu, but she got up and made her way toward Anton.

“Anton?” the girl asked after getting close to him.

“... Who are you?”

“... Umm… the girl that trained… no, wait, that’ll just bring back bad memories,” the girl muttered.

“Oh, Rebecca!” only now that Anton recognized her. To be fair, her avatar changed quite considerably. She wore a hoodie with jeans, her long black hair turned into short green hair tied in a double ponytail. She didn’t have glasses on, and her dark brown eyes turned to yellow.

“Yep… Oh, wait,” her expression changed. Anton became more confused seeing her actions.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Umm… sorry for that-”

“That? You mean the thing at work? I’m the one who’s supposed to apologize for that. I’m just in a bad mood, that’s all. Want to eat with us?”

“Ah, are you sure?”

“Of course.”

“Alright,” Rebecca then pulled the chair beside Kayla and sat down.

“Oh, I’m Rebecca, Anton’s colleague,” she said, extending her hand.

“I’m Kayla, Anton’s AI companion. Nice to meet you,” Kayla shook her hand with a smile.

“AI Companion? Oh, I’m surprised you use it,” Rebecca said.

“It? Don’t call her it,” Anton complained.

“Ah, yeah, sorry. I don’t use mine so I’m not used to it,” Rebecca apologized, prompting a giggle from Kayla.

“Oh, Anton…” Kayla rested her head on her hand and smiled.

“What is it?” Anton asked.

“Usually, I’m the one complaining about you going around calling NPCs as NPCs, yet you get angry when I’m the one called a program, even though I’m self-aware.”

“That’s different…”

Rebecca looked at both of them.

“Ah, food, I almost forgot,” Rebecca reminded herself. She borrowed Anton’s menu before deciding. She then called the waiter over and ordered a portion of fried rice.

“What brings you here?” Rebecca asked after the waiter left.

“We were en route to Marrow Peaks when we were attacked,” Kayla explained.

“By?”

“Someone flying an R-94 Lunk.”

“Erp,” Rebecca tensed up the second she heard that name. Anton realized that and decided to push on.

“Don’t say…”

“You… don’t happen to be flying a Shwarier, do you? I mean, surely not, right?” she asked with nervous laughter.

“Sigh… Rebecca.”

“I’m sorry!”