Project Overworld

After a whole week of intense competition that Keith decided to monitor from up close, the young man designated one participant after the other to come and present their build to the others.

It took another couple of days since they were so many, but eventually some rockets stood out of the ordinary. Out of the five hundred candidates left in the competition, only a tenth of that managed to build a complete rocket by the end of the alloted time. This number was a lot larger than Keith initially expected it to be, but the rules he had set for this second phase came in handy to decide the winners of this test.

In the end, about twenty-five rocket design successfully launched a few miles up the air before landing back on the planet only using their thrust. Four of them were caught cheating or breaking the rules at some point in the competition so Keith eliminated them based on this evidence, leaving twenty-one people to get through the third phase of this event.

The young man could not be more happy about these results. He needed a pretty large team of five to ten people to take care of the construction of rocket for Spacol, and having around twenty people fighting for this job was giving him some hope.

Last time he had organized a recruitement session, only six people came out of the ordinary, going through a secretive third test. This number looked pretty small compared to the immense amount of participants of the competition. In the end, this number got decreased even more as Keith only recruited three of them into Spacol. Though, looking back into it, the young man realized it would have been a lot more complicated to manage a team of nine engineers, including himself, if he did recruit everyone back then.

In any case, with these twenty-one recruits having some potential, Keith would be pretty certain to hit that lower limit he had set for this competition, at the very least. For the few months separating him from the start of the event, Keith had also worked a bit on that 'fictional' base he had built a few years ago.

Back then, everything about Keith and his base was a matter of discussion as people did not know a lot about the young man. This large fog of mysteries led some people to come up with theories such as the fact Keith was actually working with several other unknown players and that they were building a giant underground base. However, every time someone ventured off in the forest this base was presumably hidden within, they immediately got shot at by automated turrets and the forest eventually became a taboo. It was named 'The Forbidden Jungle' thanks to its tropical climate, and people decided not to get close to the area by any means.

However, since Spacol established themselves into space and abandoned their Earth base, players became bolder and started mapping out the 'Forbidden Jungle', each time a little bit further. Eventually, by numerous sacrifices, peopel finally managed to catch a glimpse out of the Spacol base and drew a fairly accurate representation of what it looked like. From the shape to the overall size, everything was publicly known about this structure.

That was why, it would be a lot more complicated for Keith to fool the participants this time around. During the first recruitement event, he had led them to a secretive place that was supposed to be his base so people may relax and their let their true behaviour come out. The young man did not know exactly if that was the reason why one of them started posting pictures of this place on social medias, but that certainly did help.

Thus, Keith wanted to do the exact same thing this time around, although the candidates would certainly be pondering why this base was so much smaller compared to the data they have seen on the forums. In the end, the young man had enlarged the place where the candidates would be making their first rockets and also built a few hallways leading to nowhere.

His idea was to tell them they would be confined inside a giant room for the entire duration of third test, and that the hallways would be locked until they managed to succeed in whatever Keith had asked them to accomplish.

For this purpose, he had also planned to drop them off directly inside the building instead of leading them through the front door of the building.

In any case, the young man had planned for everything and he could not be waiting to be starting this third phase.

- "Alright, enough talking." Keith tried to calm down the ardors of the excited candidates. "Let's all climb aboard the truck, I'm gonna lead you to my base." He proclaimed.

Fortunately, the back of the truck was not equipped with any window, so they would not be able to see where they were being led to. After a few dozen minutes of driving through the rough terrain, Keith finally opened the back entrance of the building and parked the truck inside.

He finally introduced the candidates to their future workplace and started explaining the rules of this final test.

- "Okay, your job will basically be the same as during the second phase, except there's a big difference this time around. Since you're twenty-one, you will all be affected to one of three teams and work your way towards building a rocket. Your job is to assemble a fourty-feet tall vehicle that should be able to launch all the way to the thermosphere before safely landing back on Earth. I don't care if it lands a few miles away from there, but you have to know where it exactly landed for me to inspect the final product." Keith started. "You will be earning point based on your contribution to the team. This contribution will be calculated thanks to your input, so do make sure and observe the behaviour of your teammates to have a better idea on what was their overall contribution to the team. I'm not going to reveal the point threshold you need to exceed just yet, but I don't expect more than ten of you to beat it." Keith explained.

After a brief pause in his speech, the young man continued : "Oh yeah, the first team to complete their design will be given extra points, so do make sure and give your all in this competition, it may determine whether your team succeeds or not. However, do note that if your team fails to launch the rocket by the end of the alloted time, or if your design crashes on back on land, you'll immediately be eliminated from the competition. Is everything completely clear?"

One of the candidates raised his hand, waiting to be given the right to speak by the leader of Spacol.

- "Yes?" Keith asked.

- "You talked about an alloted time, how much are we given exactly?"

- "One week. Exactly one week and not a single extra day." He replied in a grave tone.

The candidates turned white after realizing how tight of a schedule this was. For those players who never ever managed to build a rocket, other than within this competition, this would be a real challenge. However, Keith was pretty confident about this final phase. Even if not a single team managed to build that rocket, he would still be able to determine which candidate would be worthy to join Spacol. In fact, the young man really did not care that much about the rules this time around.

He knew that some of best candidates could be matched with the worst of the batch, leading to their demise because of it. Thus, instead of an infair treatement, Keith intended to watch every single one of these candidates from up close to see if they could fit into his company.

However, Keith needed to maintain the illusion of an unfair competition so the frustration of these players may lead them to some unreasonable actions. In fact, these rules were nothing but unfair and the young man could not wait to see how this event unfolded.

- "No more questions?" He inquired.

This time another candidate raised her hand.

- "Yeah?"

- "How are we going to determine which members should go in every team?"

- "You're not going to. I already did and you may find your names written one one of these posters." Keith pointed at a pillar at the center of the room. "Alright, if that all, it only remains for me to wish you good luck! Have a fun stay at my base!" Keith exclaimed before going out of the building on board of his truck.

For a few seconds, the candidates looked at each other in confusion before joining one of the three launching pads installed within this room based on the team they were assigned to.

As for Keith, he immediately joined his control room where he would be able to monitor the recruits from afar. He had installed several camera throughout the building in some really hidden spot, so much so that he could see every corner of this room without a problem.

'Alright, let's see who shall be the first one crack under the pressure. I can't wait to watch them sabotage each other's work for the sake of being the first to build that damn rocket!' Keith thought with a mischievous smile on his face.