Anton and Kayla spent the rest of their day on the moon, visiting various locations before returning to the hotel. Anton logged out once more to sleep in the real world before returning the next morning.
“So, you can fly a starship, right?” Anton asked, standing in front of the miniature starship that would take them back to P4ngea. He decided against risking it with the civilian ship and decided to lease a personal starship instead.
“Isn’t it too late to ask about it now?” Kayla asked, but Anton shook his head.
“I know you can.”
“Thank you for your trust, that’s all I can say,” Kayla said as she made her way to the rear of the ship. The ship had tandem seating with a cargo space behind the cockpit. It had the size of a box truck. It had the truck’s boxy shape, except for the sleek front surrounding the cockpit. A single laser cannon occupied the space below the nose. It had a total of six wings. Two sets occupied the middle section, crossing in an X shape. A set of vertical wings at the rear, one up and one down, supported a small engine on their tips.
The rear housed the ship’s main door, which opened down to form a ramp. The ship’s four main engines, two stacked on top of each other, all rectangular shaped, occupied the space beside the rear ramp. The cockpit itself had the ability to open upward, but the cockpit’s position high above ground made climbing in hard so Anton and Kayla decided to just enter from the rear.
Kayla got into the front seat while Anton occupied the rear. Kayla ran through the ship’s checklist, making sure everything was set. She then started the engines. She called the port’s traffic control, which guided her through the underground hangar, heading for the launch pad. The ship went through an airlock, before entering the launch ramp. The large doors then opened up. Kayla pulled the ship’s nose upward and pushed the engines to full power, sending the small craft upward and away from the port.
Once they traveled a safe distance away from the port, Kayla adjusted their heading, their nose pointing toward P4ngea. Kayla reached for the throttle control on the left side of the cockpit and pushed it forward. She played around with the controls. Anton felt the push as the ship, more akin to a starfighter, headed off into the sky, blasting away. He couldn’t see Kayla’s exact actions, her movements covered by his control panel, but he let her do her thing.
“This looks so similar to fighter jets,” Kayla muttered.
“Oh, by the way, where are we going? Oakport?”
“Hmm…” Anton thought about the question.
They didn’t have a reason to return to Oakport. They do need a vehicle. Anton planned on having most of their trips on P4ngea, and renting a new car every time they needed to get somewhere would cost. Anton remembered what Mana said the day before.
“How about Royning?”
“Royning? Sure, why there though?”
“We can get a car cheaper then.”
It cost more to buy a vehicle the further away it was from the place the vehicle was produced. Royning, being the center for many in-game vehicle companies, not just limited to cars, offered the best prices.
Just then, Anton remembered something else. With pacifist mode no longer a thing, if they wanted to travel, they would need to be wary of bandits watching them. An armored vehicle would be better, but at the same time, he didn’t want to spend too much right after he had inserted that much money into his account. Even if he had deleted the log file, employees could still see his purchase log. He could delete that again, but it would eventually be noticed when one account had been getting numerous stuff out of thin air.
“We should take a quest,” Anton said. Kayla turned her head and looked behind her, half of her face blocked by the control panel.
“Are you still Anton?”
“Yes, I still am.”
“Huh…” she turned facing forward. Anton knew that he rarely took any quests with all the business he had recently, but was asking for it that surprising? He took a lot of them in the past, why was she so surprised?
“Are there any easy ones?”
“I think industrial cities like Royning and Kuando should have some simpler ones, things like transport and the like,” Kayla said. She turned the starship's nose slightly. She then started touching the screen, and in the rear cockpit Anton saw a new marker. He started tapping it, changing the map into a wide space map. He played around with the screen. The map changed sizes several times, before showing the city of Royning.
“How long before we reach there?”
“At these speeds… roughly seven more minutes,” Kayla replied.
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“Alright then.”
Anton leaned back to his seat, letting go of the ship’s touchscreen.
“I wonder if the more expensive ones have virtual screens?” Anton wondered aloud.
“Never entered one, although the promotions did show signs of them having it.”
Anton then opened the in-game internet browser. Located in a different menu to the market, it featured a wide array of things for players to do. The game allowed players to make content and upload them within the game, thus Anton could easily find a detailed review for a starship.
“...”
Anton scrolled down, managing to find a picture of a large space yacht in the lines of video thumbnails. He noticed its creator, a player affiliated with the company. He opened the video up and watched it at one point twenty five speed. The player started with introducing the update and the ship that came with it. He spent quite some time explaining the ship’s interior. Being a yacht, the ship lacked any defense weapons. In the real world, astronauts couldn’t leave their craft in space without using special clothing and equipment, and that feature carried on in the game. Without any defense weapons nor the ability to go out in space, a ship’s occupants could only protect their ships from inside. The ship did feature powerful engines that could be used to escape.
The person then went on to show the ship’s interior. Smooth wooden panels formed its flooring, while the ceilings and walls had a clean white design with bright LED lighting integrated into the walls and ceilings, making the entrance way look like a tunnel. It all looked very luxurious and expensive. Anton clicked on the link, which transported him into the in-game market.
As expected, it cost a ton of money to purchase, one most regular players would have no chance of getting. It was the most expensive in-game yacht, although not the most expensive vehicle in the game. When Anton last checked the market before the space update, an in-game battleship was the largest and most expensive vehicle available to players. Very few people privately owned one, with most of them owned by groups and guilds.
He didn’t know anyone that owned such massive ships, but he would be willing to bet that those who privately owned them paid real world money to purchase them. A player affording one just from playing didn’t make sense. Anton compared his balance to the cost of those ships. He had enough money to buy one, with a small amount left behind.
He didn’t entertain the idea any further, though, as like yachts, those ships didn’t serve any practical use. The missions related to the sea, pirate hunting for example, never required such powerful ships to be used. The best a pirate could afford were small destroyers, ones that could be taken out with air power and even those were uncommon. Most used small fishing boats-sized crafts and even smaller boats, one that could be toppled over with a few magic spells and gun holes to its sides.
The feeling of being able to purchase it did feel weird, however. It gave him a sense of power, as if he was one of the richest among those who played this game. He decided to stop thinking any further, not letting himself get any weird ideas. He switched screens, and this time, looked through things he could realistically afford. The screen showed him several cheaper ships. He could afford them, yes, but he had little need for them. P4ngea had large areas where they could travel by water, but most of the planet consisted of land.
The map stretched for two thousand kilometers from one end to the other. Most cars could reach up to two hundred kilometers per hour, making a trip from one end to the other lasting around ten hours. Some sport and supercars could go a lot faster. The game also had tanks, APCs, and several other types of armored vehicles, but none of them could go that fast.
“Kayla, you can drive or fly anything, right?”
“My skill level is maxed out now, so yes, yes I can. What are you planning?”
Anton didn’t immediately answer. He had some considerations when it came to picking his vehicles. Tanks could carry a limited amount of small cargo in special storage boxes. When it came to speed then they had a severe disadvantage compared to other vehicles. The massive guns that they carried would be overkill most of the time. Military trucks, meanwhile, had a large capacity and high speeds, but most of them had weak armor. They should be enough to deal against magic attacks, but missiles and rockets from an attack helicopter like the one that fired at them the day before would be the end of them. They tend to lack weapons as well.
Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) came into mind, but looking through the list, Anton worried that they, too, were too slow. He wanted to visit various locations in the world, not sit around his vehicle. It also lacked firepower and armor. Finally, Anton looked through the screen showing a series of Light Armored Vehicles (LAV). Seeing how the general stats fitted his needs, he switched filters. The screen now showed a variety of possible options, starting from the cheapest one all the way to the most expensive.
He scrolled down the list, weighing his options. He noticed one that stood out from the rest.
“Where is the headquarters for Rodley?”
He asked.
“Hmm… Mitte.”
“How about we head there?”
“Sure,” Kayla adjusted the ship, turning it left.
Mitte was a mountain city located twenty kilometers away from Oakport, near the base of the western side of the Huju mountains.
“Know anything about Rodley? Specifically the type 57?” Anton asked.
He glanced outside the windows of his starship. Some time had passed since they left the moon, P4ngea growing larger in front of them. He saw a cargo ship heading toward them. It adjusted its course and flew behind Anton’s small starship.
“Rodley type 57? That’s a Light Armored Vehicle. It’s pretty good based on the stats, but I assume that’s not what you’re asking for, right?”
“Yeah,” Anton said before looking back forward.
Anton then switched virtual screens. He returned to the in-game internet and searched for reviews about the vehicle. Anton managed to find a video from the same creator and opened it. It didn’t have much useful information, however, as they only went through the vehicle’s features in general. He switched videos, finding one with a more detailed explanation along with comparisons to other LAVs.
The game had some better LAVs for sale, but they cost more. For now, the Tarup 57 seemed to be enough to fit the purpose.
“How long before we reach Mitte?”
“Around four minutes.”
“Alright,” Anton looked out once again, enjoying the view as the planet quickly got closer.