Project Overworld

'Hmpf... That is quite troubling. The captor actually shows it detected movement but I can't find any corpse around here.'

Keith was currently checking each and every one of his turrets, in case maintenance was needed.

He also did not want to let the corpses of animal rot without using them properly.

Only, when checking one of his turrets, an odd situation left him dumbfounded.

'Is it possible that the turret missed its shots? Yeah that could be it. If the animal was at the outer limit of the range of the turret... Wait no, that doesn't make any sense. The detector range is intentionally shorter than the range of the rifle...' Keith thought.

He was currenly discussing the problem with himself, trying to consider all the possibilities.

'Mh... There are two likely explanations. The first one is that the turret indeed missed its shot, and that would mean there is a calibration problem. The other explanation is a lot more disturbing.

A player's corpse only lasts for ten minutes before disappearing and the turret did shoot from around half an hour ago... There is no proof whatsoever, but I cannot ignore this possibility.'

Keith resplenished the ammo supply of the turret before making a few adjustments in case there was indeed a calibration problem.

'Well, if a player got shot by this turret, it would mean it served its initial purpose.

However, it would also mean that players are already exploring this territory. Not that it matters anyway, my defences will certainly take care of them.'

Having finished his round of inspection, Keith returned to base and started working on his current projects.

However, he was feeling quite distracted and had to stop before doing any important mistake.

This piece of news actually troubled him more than he initially thought.

What if the player who got shot started investigating his base? After all, he certainly did not die of natural cause and he may want to make sure of it.

Worst, what if this player posted a video online, or called upon a reporter to investigate in his stead?

That would mean his location being exposed to the public, and knowing how people usually behave they would certainly rush in here hoping to get a piece of the cake.

'I can certainly defend against a hundred players at once, but certainly not thousands.'

Actually, Keith had a plan for this sort of dire situations. He never planned his base without a proper escape plan.

Only, it would take time to come across another suitable location so he was quite hesitant of escaping right now.

In the end, Keith decided to wait and see. After all, there was still no evidence that a player actually came across his base, and he did not want to lose another home.

During this time, however, he would constantly monitor the area around his base while preparing for an escape.

The more preparation he would put in, the more resources and machines he could successfully evacuate.

- "What do you mean, semi-automatic rifle? Eric, care to explain what happened exactly?", someone asked.

Since his reappearance at the base, all of Eric's group members gathered to discuss the troubling matter.

- "Well, it's as they just said. Just after climbing atop of a hill, I heard several shots coming in my general direction and I died on the spot."

- "Did you get to see who fired on you?"

Eric hesitated before giving a half-baked answer : "Unfortunately, I died before I could even move."

- "Mh... I guess we should go and investigate the area then.", a woman stated.

- "What?"

- "Wait, do you want to die?!"

- "The faster we check the dangerousness of these - or this - players, the faster we would be able to choose our settlement location."

- "Yeah, she's got a point."

The discussion pursued for a while before everyone agreed with the plan.

In the end, the group chose to separate themselves into small teams of around two to three players in order to investigate different locations around the hill where Eric got shot down.

After a while, they finally reached the place where he died.

- "Is it here?", someone inquired

- "Yes, at this exact spot.", Eric replied

- "How long as it been?"

- "More than an hour."

- "Yeah, I thought as much. Well, let's start splitting up and investigate."

However, Eric was in a turmoil after discovering the scenery where he died : 'I guess I imagined things. I thought it was a static object that shot me down, but there is not a trace of such a thing around here.'

At this moment, he heard a few shots coming from the direction where one of the team disappeared.

'Close call', Keith thought. 'Fortunately, I packed up this turret before they started investigating the area.'

Keith was currently observing the group of people who invaded his territory with binoculars.

After pondering his options for a bit, Keith decided to activate one of the turrets furthest away from his base.

'That should give me some time to organize myself.'

Afterwards, he let the defences do their work and rushed inside his base to prepare to leave.

He estimated that he had a few hours before him, the time necessary for the invaders to respawn and decide whether they would pursue their investigation or not.

In any case, he had to leave as fast as possible. If they decide to leave him be, there was no doubt that they would publish posts on various forums and social networks about his base.

Thus, he started packing up most of his important resources inside large crates which, in turn, got put on trolleys.

'Well, I guess this will be my last farewell to this base... And a new journey awaits before me.'