Kiyro inputted the address to the College into the car's menu. The moment he pressed enter, the car started to move towards their destination.
"Yea. I'm here." Eve chimed in. "I wanted to thank you guys for taking care of my cat. Unfortunately, I'm in a sticky situation where I'm not allowed to have cats in the apartment. Rules of the apartment and one of my family members are allergic to cats."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Tempest has been a great addition to the family. She does cause a bit of trouble here and there. She has an unusual knack of wanting to knock the papers off the counter or desk for some reason, but everything is great."
"Tempest does have that mischievous side to her. Kiyro, send me some pictures, please." Eve pushed herself forward and turned towards him. He turned around and noticed that she batted her eyes in a plea.
"Sure." He quickly replied. He would tell Sylph to take pictures and send them to Eve instead. It was a tedious task that Sylph could take whenever he had the Alive gear on.
"Really? Thanks." She happily replied.
"Mhmm." Kiyro waved it off as if it was nothing.
"Excuse me. Miss Anna. I was wondering what you do for a living." Alex asked. "You seem to have a stable job, especially it's a bit odd for a person like you to be off work now. Your clothes state that you were in some kind of business meeting."
"Truthfully told, I was at a business meeting a moment ago. You can say I work for the Diva technological company. I do small errands here and there for them."
"Diva Tech? Do you mean that company that helped create the Embryo gears?" Jack cut in on their conversation. "By any chance, are they working on something new?" He asked hopefully like a little kid seeking a piece of information that he did not know.
"Yes, we did help out on creating the Embryo gears. But, in a sense, we are always working on something new."
"Would you mind giving us a hint on your new project?"
Anna chuckled. "You seem a little too excited there."
"I'm a huge fan of Diva Tech. I have been following the new trend for a while now."
"I'm sorry, but I can't inform you of what we are working on now. All I can say is that you should look forward to the upgrades for the Embryo gear as months go by."
"You're pulling my legs. That's months or possibly years away." He sighed, defeated.
"So, what are you all doing today to be out in the hot summer heat?"
"You could say we're doing a quest," Alex stated. "We all gathered together to do a group mission given out by the game."
"You're talking about the real-life quest, right? It has been a hot topic these past few days. We didn't think it would become so popular. It's quite an achievement."
"Yes. It is. The number of interactions between people has skyrocketed. People who didn't know their neighbors till now do. But in the aspect of more connections between two people, new interactions both good and bad have emerged."
"That is true when new things are brought in."
"Have you ever thought of the consequences?"
"Yes, but the possibility of all new technology is exponential that it is difficult to know the outcome of what the consequences could be."
"I see."
"Why? Is there something that bothers you?"
Alex was quiet for a moment, "Hypothetically, what if there were a quest that does harm to the living? Would the perpetrator be the person who went ahead and did the quest be called the murder or the person behind the quest that made it the killer?"
"That's a difficult question to answer," Anna replied. "Are you suggesting this to be in a real-life game?"
"Yes. I'm implying his so-called quests are being played out in real life. What about you guys?" Alex turned around, asking for their opinions.
"I'm going to pass on that question. I'm not too sure of the answer yet." Isabel replied.
"I state it's the person who had taken on the quest to be the murder," said Will.
"Why?" asked Alex. "Wouldn't the one who instigated or brought the quest attention to the person also be considered part of the crime?"
"Well, a person has a choice to take on that quest or not. If they did and went through with it to the end, they had decided to finish it."
"Then what if they did not have a choice? For example, a loved one was brought into the
picture?"
"Then both are at fault. One brought in a person who did not want to commit a crime but had to. That does not excuse them for their actions, and the other for bringing in the victim and forcing them to play."
"But where would the fine line between a game quest and reality be? If one just made the game for the players to choose the outcome of their lives, wouldn't it be they would choose more in favor of their selfish desire or self-righteous act?" Alex addressed the people around him.
"It all depends on the person. That answer is not something easily given at this moment. We could think about the scenario over and over, but until that moment arrives, we don't always have a definite answer," said Kiyro. "You could say that the quest that arrived in front of the person is just a message that began a roller-coaster effect that could possibly spiral out of control. It could affect many people around them without even knowing that they were pulled into a game."
"I see." Alex was quiet for a moment while he stared out the window. "Then is our life like a giant game that we don't know of and being played out on the scene where we were placed in the beginning?" He quietly muttered to himself. Small trickles of light rain began, even though it was sunny. There were no single dark clouds that could be seen overhead. It was like the sky was answering his question in its own little way.
"Yes. You could say that life is like one giant game. The outcome of the moving pieces are the wishes of the piece and the master that moves the pieces," whispered Anna, who had heard his question. "Don't think too hard of what could've happened; instead, pay attention to the now. The future is not set in stone, but the present can be worked on now."
Alex did not reply to her answer. Kiyro was listening in between the two conversations while the others were conversing on the topic.
The answers and questions to both Anna's and Alex's were thought-provoking. He wondered if all the real live quests were something similar to what Alex was stating. To what purpose, though? This question has always been in the back of his mind.
A couple of random answers popped into his head. Maybe to bring in more profit for the company? It would make sense because it is a company that runs on money. On the other hand, it wouldn't make sense if the company's first priority was not to earn and continually grow into a larger and larger company. This world does run on money.
Throughout the ride, Kiyro quietly listened to the conversations that were going on inside the car, but he zoned out and closed his eyes most of the time. Then, for a moment, he fell asleep, and just when he opened his eyes, the car halted in front of their destination. He was shaken awake by Anna, who was calling out his name.
"Kiyro. You're here."
Kiyro woke up and looked around. They were in front of the campus, where hundreds of students walked back and forth to their classrooms. He yawned and unclicked his belt.
"Thanks, sis. I'll pay you back later."
"Call me if you need me. I'll be around the area for a while before I go back north."
"Will do."
"Thanks, Miss Anna." Alex winked at her while he got out of the SUV. "It's a pleasure meeting you."
"Same here as well." Anna waved them goodbye. She drove off into the distance.
Kiyro's group stood in front of the towering campus, wondering what to do next.
"So. What are we supposed to do now?" Jack asked. He observed his surroundings, where students walked by busily towards their next class.
"I don't know," Kiyro replied. He, too, was lost for words. "Maybe we should go in and check it out?"
"Better than just standing there and doing nothing." Will walked first ahead towards the building.
When Kiyro took his first step, he heard a message go off in his Alive gear.