“I see…” Rebecca said with a nod.
Anton had told her his plans. Well, Rebecca being an active member within the company, and Kayla being a part of the game itself, so he told them that after being fired, he decided to relax a while before searching for work.
“How about you?” he asked back.
“Umm…” a virtual screen appeared in front of Rebecca, its white back facing Anton.
“I knew I should have turned the notifications off,” she muttered before tapping something and closing the screen.
“What is it?” Kayla asked.
“Just the office kids…” Rebecca eyed Anton, as if asking whether he mind her telling it or not.
“I don’t really care about it, so don’t worry about me,” Anton answered.
“Well, the new guys were arguing about which wine is the best,” Rebecca said with a shrug.
“Ah, that sure is unimportant,” Kayla agreed, Anton nodding to her.
“So, how about you?” Anton asked again. Rebecca looked around, before giving a code. Anton and Kayla pulled their heads closer to the table.
“I’m supposed to meet someone. Rumors had it that we will be bought… Well, some say we’re already bought, the situation’s really weird right now. Basically, If the deal fails, and no one invests in us, we’ll stop operating by the end of April,” Rebecca explained. It was the first of April, and ending the game within a month seemed extremely sudden.
“Isn’t that a bit sudden?” Anton voiced his thoughts. Kayla shook her head.
“There’s still the deal, right?”
“Well… the issue is, rumors had it that the buyer will close the game regardless. As I said, everything really is weird,” Rebecca’s explanation caused the two to be speechless.
“Wait, why buy the game in the first place?”
“Simple, the AI technology,” Rebecca answered.
Even now, three years after its release, P4ngea remained a unique game with its state-of-the-art AI technology. Their competitors did have AI programs of their own, but they had some limitations when compared to Aripi’s AI technology. P4ngea had run into several issues in its three years of operation. Aripi had also been involved in several controversies, even outside P4ngea. A company wanting to buy Aripi just for the AI shouldn’t be all that surprising.
Anton glanced at Kayla. Kayla wasn’t human, so of course she wouldn’t mind being treated as a product, but that wasn’t the case for Anton. While he had enough resources to rebuild her, he really didn’t want it to end, not this early at least.
“So… what does this deal have to do with you attacking us?”
“Ah, about that… I don’t know if it's you. But anyway, the reason I’m here is because I was tasked with meeting this investor,” Rebecca answered with a hint of pride.
Anton checked her CV before. She did have a history in running events and meeting with people, but her of all people? She’s a programmer, just like him. Just how bad had the situation become if they needed someone from the programming team to meet up with the investor?
A month…
But at the end of the day, he was no longer an employee. He could be considered a rogue ex-employee that decided to do some illegal things, but even then, whatever happened to the company mattered little to him. A month would probably be more than enough to rescue Kayla as well…
But something about her programming being treated like a product didn’t sit right with him. He didn’t try to deny the truth. He knew that, at the end of the day, Kayla consisted of nothing more than zeroes and ones, a long line of code that ran through a computer. But she felt like a human, a truly kindhearted human in this sea of coldness and selflessness. He dragged him to help people and NPC alike. He showed a level of kindness that many real humans didn’t have.
A level of kindness that he himself didn’t have.
Kayla encouraged him to be kind to others, Kayla forced him to change, even though she was just an AI. Anton didn’t really understand why he felt this anguish in the first place. He had saved Kayla on his computer and could operate her without needing the game. After all of this ended, he could just boot up the local version of her and explain everything.
Yet…
The smell of their food broke his line of thought. The waiter set down three meals on the table.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to order a drink,” Rebecca said after seeing Anton’s and Kayla’s lemon tea.
“Here, you can share with me,” Kayla kindly offered her drink. The food and drink in-game didn’t really do anything other than stimulate the player’s taste buds, but they tasted delicious. Seeing Kayla so willingly share her drink put a smile on Anton’s face.
“Let’s eat,” Anton said, taking the spoon and fork into his hands.
* ••
“Ah that was great,” Rebecca said as they left the restaurant.
“Thanks for the treat, Anton,” she added.
“Sure. By the way, should we accompany you to this investor?” Anton asked, wanting to get some extra information. Rebecca considered the offer before nodding.
“Sure. Having someone with experience will surely be helpful.”
“Alright, guide the way,” Kayla said. They all entered the LAV. Anton added Rebecca to his friends list, before creating a party. Kayla, being Anton’s companion, automatically entered the group.
Rebecca then marked the Rurack Adventure Terminal on the map. The car went out of the parking lot and made its way toward the terminal. Anton leaned back on his chair, feeling the bumps and shakes as the LAV made its way across the road. The engine whined as Kayla pushed it. Rebecca played around with her virtual screen, the white background stopping Anton from seeing anything.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“By the way, Rebecca,” Anton called out all of a sudden. Rebecca, who sat on the chair left of the turret operator seat, raised her head.
“Yes?”
“You haven’t answered us on why you attacked us in the first place.”
“Well… you see… Had I known it’s you-”
“So you don’t mind attacking other players?”
“Well, to be fair, this is a PvP game.”
“Sigh… Why did they remove the pacifist option.”
“Don’t ask me,” Rebecca shrugged. The vehicle stopped at a red light, made a turn to the right, and traveled another few hundred meters before arriving in front of the Rurack Adventure Terminal.
“Ah, let me borrow this,” Rebecca said, moving toward the gunner’s position.
“Kayla, stop here,” she ordered.
“Okay…?” Kayla did as told, bringing the LAV to a halt.
“Hmm…” Rebecca swapped the cameras, looking at a dark blue hatchback parked in front of them. A person came out from the vehicle, looking surprised at the large LAV that just stopped behind him.
“Ah, it’s him,” Rebecca said before heading to the rear of the vehicle.
Kayla opened the rear hatch, and Rebecca stepped out, approaching the vehicle and its occupant. Kayla turned the steering wheel and moved the LAV away from the terminal’s entrance. She parked the LAV in front of the hatchback, the rear hatch remained open as she moved around. The hatchback looked tiny when compared to the gigantic Tarup 57 parked in front of it.
Rebecca brought the person into the vehicle, the hatchback disappearing from behind them. To Anton’s eyes, it felt like they were knights tasked with escorting the king or something. Anton’s eyes went to the man’s face, who ducked down so he could enter.
“Ah,” he muttered in surprise. He recognized the man’s features. His short white hair, his black eyes covered by his rounded glasses, and his large body.
“Anton, isn’t it?” Barnum asked. Anton didn’t expect to meet him again so quickly.
“Rebecca just told me about having someone bring us around, but I was not expecting to see you again.”
“I didn’t expect it was you, either,” Anton replied.
Anton went blank for a moment. He didn’t know how to react. He wanted to convince him that the game was good, one worth fighting for, but he didn’t know how. If P4ngea could be taken over by better management, and its bugs and various problems fixed, P4ngea could return to the popularity of its early days, but that meant putting a lot of resources into this dying game, resources that could be allocated to other projects.
After some careful thought, Anton decided that if tried to push it too much, it would become obvious. Aripi’s current security may be terrible enough to the point that he could plant such a code, but that may not be the case after the company got taken over. If anything, he needed to act normal.
“I want to thank you for your help the other day.”
“Ah, yeah, no problem. So… how did the basketball match go?”
“You remember?” Barnum asked curiously.
“It’s like, two days ago.”
“Ah, yes, yes. I’m getting old. They won fifty-four to forty-two.”
“Congrats.”
“Really? Congratulations!” Kayla said excitedly from the driver’s seat.
“You’re Kayla, right? Thank you. I will convey this to Ronald,” Barnum answered with a smile.
“Huh, so you know each other?” Rebecca asked.
“Yes,” Barnum replied. Anton then explained the tank battle they had before. Rebecca’s eyes locked on to.
“... You said you’re not into PvP?”
“I got dragged into it,” he answered honestly.
“Besides, getting into a PvP battle by choice and getting attacked are two different things.”
Rebecca averted her gaze.
Looking back at it, even if it was just two days ago, his perspective on the event had changed. Maybe his renewed perspective on Kayla and the game in general made him enjoy things more.
“So, where do you want to go, Mr. Barnum?” Rebecca asked, sitting beside him on the vehicle’s left seat.
“Have you not played this game before?” Anton asked to make sure.
“Not much. Unfortunately, I’m quite busy. Ronald played more,” Barnum explained.
“Not just him, but Louis as well.”
“... Louis?”
The mention of that name caused Anton to tense up. He had nothing but bad memories with the owner of that name. Of course, Louis wasn’t a rare name, so it wasn’t like he was the only one named that.
“Oh, my apologies. You probably don’t know him,” Barnum waved his hands.
“A lot of people I know played the game. Well, most had left it, but some still played,” Barnum explained.
Anton thought about asking why he wanted to close the game if that was the case, but remembered that that particular information would probably be a secret. It would be weird if him, an ex-employee, knew about it. He decided to go with the flow. The longer Anton was with him, the higher the chance of Barnum spitting something by accident. If Anton managed to make him spill things naturally, then he could devise a plan to counter Barnum’s plans. He doubted it would be that easy, however.
Just then, Rebecca noticed something appearing in her vision.
“Uhh…”
She then started typing on her virtual screen.
“What is it?” Anton asked, while secretly typing a message of his own. He used the gunner’s seat to try and cover his virtual screen, his right hand typing through the air.
Anton occasionally tapped on the seat, to make it seem that he was just bored. What he was actually doing was typing a message to Kayla.
‘Keep silent. Can you find us a world quest? A long one,” Anton used the fact that Barnum hadn’t answered where he wanted to go to pull him along with them. He sent the message, hoping Barnum didn’t notice. His question for Rebecca seemed to have succeeded in getting his mind off him.
“Just the boss asking how things are going,” Rebecca answered after replying. Dual Reality allowed the player to read real-world notifications and reply to them through the game.
Many turned them off, however, including Anton. Rebecca then turned off the screen, before looking back toward Barnum. Anton noticed Kayla’s reply, saying to leave things to her.
“So, Mr. Barnum, where do you-” Rebecca didn’t finish the sentence when they felt a harsh force pulling them to the rear. They held in place, only to feel an equally harsh force coming from in front, throwing them around.
“Whoops,” Kayla muttered. Anton quickly returned his attention to the screen.
“... Huh?” Anton zoomed out, finding the red-blue lights of the police flashing in front of them, the police car stopped facing toward them. The NPC eventually reversed away from the LAV, but Kayla pressed the gas, crashing into it. She reversed again, turned right, and passed the left side of the police car, escaping.
“Looks like we’ve triggered a quest.”
A quest!?
“Woah!”
“AH!”
Rebecca and Barnum held onto their seats, while Kayla used the turret to check their surroundings. A flash of red and blue lights followed behind them, joined by a second vehicle. Anton gripped the control stick and pulled the trigger, sending projectiles into the ground in front of the police cars. The explosion threw the vehicles into the air, although he could see no major damage. It should help them stop the police without raising their own wanted level.
“Sorry, I slipped,” Kayla said rather casually after driving away from the wreck. Anton knew that she did that on purpose.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU SLIPPED?” Rebecca yelled, her body on the floor from all the turning they just did. Barnum extended his hand and pulled her back up.
“You’re alright?” Anton asked. She patted her body.
“Well, you can’t really feel pain so…” she shrugged and sat back down.
“What now?” she asked. The in-game police NPC may be useless, but that didn’t mean they were going to let them go just like that. An in-game notification warned Anton, telling him that he was now a fugitive, being hunted by the Rurack police.
“Great, now we’re the one being chased by a bounty,” Anton said, gripping the control stick.
“Let’s get to business.”