Project Overworld

- "I'll have to talk about this with my superiors but since you've already assembled a team I don't think it'd be a bad idea to have you all work on the same projects." Horace explained.

- "Okay, thanks a lot. By the way, should I and my friends send an official appliance to the NASA?"

- "No need for such formalities. Your case is really special so I'll take care of everything myself. I'll contact you later, when I got to talk with my superiors." The man said before telling him farewell and hanging up.

'What a situation I got myself in.' Keith realized. He first got popular after landing on the Moon inside Project Overworld and maintained a good image since then. Although there has been a bit of complaints after the recruitement event he had organized inside the game, people still though highly of him and his feats were followed closely by millions of players.

However, he would have never expected to be recruited by a spatial company solely based on what he has accomplished within a game, and it was even more unbelievable since he had been contacted by the NASA itself. In fact, up until now Keith even thought that his informations would be pretty safe, but this interaction with Horace proved him otherwise. Since he did not need to send an official application to the NASA, it meant they already had all the information needed about him.

'Well, I kind of expected to be stalked by some fans, but for one of these fans to be part of the NASA is kind of unbelievable.' Keith meditated. Anyways, he still had a bit of time before him to hop into Project Overworld and tell the good news to his close friends. As for Jim and Xena who should be asleep at this moment, he would take his time to talk about it with the both of them.

They were still in the middle of their studies, and he did not want to rush things with them. If they followed him into the NASA and this job turned out not to be of their likings, they would have essentially lost a year of studies for nothing.

Back onto the Moon, the first thing Keith did was to check the current progress of everyone. Tyler was not around the pipeline when he connected, but he knew their rocket full of supplies was supposed to be landing in a few hours. His friend certainly went back to the location of their base to help out Leyla and Michael for the time being.

After doing a quite tour around the few hundred yards-long pipeline, Keith finally realized the full extent of this project. They still had over ten miles to cover with this pipe, but they only managed to build one twentieth of the whole structure in the two weeks they have been working on it.

'I think I underestimated what eleven miles of distance actually amounts to.' He meditated. 'We won't be able to finish it in only a few months, after all. Not that it matters that much anyways, as long as our supply rockets are safely landing around our base.' In fact, Keith had also implement a program inside the computer of their 'Rocket assembler' which allowed that to chose what type of resources they wanted to prioritize. As such, if they even ran out of consumable water they would be able send informations to their Earth's base using the EOSS as a radio wave relay.

Keith had already planned everything about their journey on the Moon and he was not that concerned as of now. The upmost priority of Spacol was to complete their Moon base so they would be able to have a constant supply of oxygen. Afterwards, they would have a lot more free space for extra resources inside their supply rockets and they would be able to work a lot faster than before.

'Actually...' Keith thought. 'I should assign everyone to the construction of the Spacol Moon Base now. It was not possible two weeks ago because we had not brought a lot of materials along with us on the Triple S, but Leyla and the two others are currently working round the clock on this project.' Since then, Spacol had received plant seeds and fertilizers for their greenhouses. The various machines they had launched on the Moon before even landing there themselves also continued their work and most of the strucure of their base was completed. They only needed to reinforce everything to make sure there would be no leaks of oxygen while build several hallways connecting everything together.

Afterwards, they would become full time farmers and start taking care of plants capable of photosynthesis. This process could not be started now because plants also needed a bit of oxygen for when they were not doing photosynthesis, and the greenhouses were not connected to any oxygen supply as of now. There were also massive leaks in their structure because they were supposed to be sealed to their future Moon base.

In any case, after making no damage has been caused to their pipeline, Keith also made his way back to where the rest of the group was getting busy.

- "Hey!" He greeted them.

- "Oh, hello Keith!" Leyla was the first to notice him. "Have you talked to your Horace yet?"

- "Yup, I've actually negotiated a little bit and he'll be contacting me in a few working days."

- "That's good for you!" Leyla exclaimed. "So, what did you negotiate with him anyways?" She could not help but inquire. In fact, he had not have the time to talk with them about his project to bring them alongside with him in the NASA so her surprise understandable.

'Wait, should I really tell them?' He realized he could be maintaining the surprise until later. He knew Michael would be pretty hyped up about joining the NASA and he had no doubt Leyla was dreaming of it every night. As for Tyler, he would be happy to follow his friends so there would be no hesitation over his choice.

In fact, he was pretty sure the three of them would be ready to follow him on the elaboration of any kind of company, and Keith had the perfect opportunity to surprise them. If Horace came back with bad news regarding Keith's proposition, they would not be disappointed at all because they would have known nothing of it in the first place.

Jim and Xena were out of the equation anyways, but he had no doubt over their decision too.

'Let's wait and stay vague about the whole situation for now. I'll be hard to fool Leyla, but I can try.' He concluded.

- "I've discussed about my salary and a few other advantages. I'm pretty happy about what he's offered me."

- "Oh, nice! So, are you officially changing jobs now?"

- "I've made my mind." He replied with a nod. After telling the news to Michael and Tyler, Keith spent the rest of the day waiting for their supply rocket while working on the Spacol Moon Base, shortcut 'SMB' among themselves.

The next day, a Thursday evening, they all joined the SMB project to make sure they would be done with it in the following months. Keith had not been contacted by Horace again, but he was not that concerned since the man told him he would be talking with his superiors. Keith did not know how the hierachy of the NASA was developed, but it certainly required at least a few meetings to convince the company to hire several people at once.

By the end of the week, he did receive a message from Horace stating that it would be complicated but his superiors were not against the idea. Keith also specified that two of the Spacol members would not be joining immeditately because they were focused on their studies as of now. The man seemed to be elated by this idea and confirmed that it would be much easier for him to negotiate knowing this fact.

Actually, Horace's esteem of Keith improved a bit more after witnessing how concerned he was by the future of his friends.

In any case, Spacol reuninted onto another week-end to focus on the construction of their Moon base. In the two days of time they were able to work altogether, they managed to complete one hallway and totally finish the construction of two of their dwellings. They still had a couple dozen more, but it was a good start.

At this pace, Keith was pretty certain they would be able to be completely done with the 'SMB' in two months of time. Actually, what would be requiring all this time would be the growing of the photsynthesis plants which could be accomplished by only three of them. At that point, Jim, Tyler and himself would be able to continue their work on the pipeline and their future on the Moon would be set.

'From prehistorical tools to establishing on the Moon, we've come a really long way since the start of this game.' Keith meditated. 'Let's just hope everything goes according to plan with Horace and we should be able to test our ideas in the real world, too. I can't wait to see what we'd be able to accomplish with the right tools and resources!'