Project Overworld

Keith activated a ramp leading to the outside of his base. He then pushed all the trolleys up the ramp and gathered them in the same area.

After activating various turrets to protect his base while he was away, he rushed towards his drills' location.

Most of his machines were designed so that they could be folded and were also equipped with wheels for easier transportation.

Thus, it only took him an hour to route all of his drills to the area where he left his other resources.

After doing the same with the machines left in the bas.e.m.e.nt of his base, Keith attached everything with the metal hooks designated for this purpose.

The whole thing now resembled a long train. The resemblance did not stop here, though, as he attached a special wagon containing a power generator at the front of the cart chain. It was destined to send power to the front wheels, and hopefully enough for the whole procession to get going.

'Just like a locomotive', he thought.

Now the only thing left for him to do was to destroy all evidence left behind.

First things first, he went and recovered the turrets waiting for him on the open.

Next, he placed a few explosive charges all around his manor. He originaly made these to explore caves more easily as well as getting rid of sturdy rock formations. He never imagined he would be using them in such a way.

He took some distance and gave a last farewell to the manor before activating the detonation wire.

The earth trembled from the explosion. Smoke and debris roused from the late base location.

The resulting shockwave shook him to his core while a giant dust cloud blocked the sun rays.

'That... hurts a lot more than I expected. Seeing this magnificent house going down in an explosion... It almost made me shed a tear.'

Keith recovered all the leftovers of his base and placed them in some empty wagon. Afterwards, he started covering the hole where his base stood with the dirt that was scattered around.

The entire operation took him more than six hours straight. He certainly skipped a meal in the real world, but he could not let his investment in Project Overworld go to waste.

He sat down in the first wagon and started off the engine.

A familiar buzzing greeted him as he checked if everything was going well.

He activated the wheels and the train began moving forward.

For the next few minutes, he regularly checked if any trolley was left behind or if the various landscape irregularities did not hinder the normal progression of the train.

Little by little, the whole procession was gaining speed and the relief could be seen on Keith's face.

'Just like a few months ago. Except this journey will last several times as much longer as the previous one.'

Eric and his comrades, most of whom died by the turrets shots, were still flabbergasted and discussing what they experienced.

- "It's impossible.", a man asserted.

- "You died too, right? Didn't you see that turret?", one of his friend replied.

- "I did... But how is it possible? Maybe it's just some kind of trick? Someone hid behind the turret, feigning that it was firing on its own or something."

- "It could be."

After an awkward silence between the group, someone finally asked : "Why don't we go back and make sure of it? We don't have anything to lose except time."

In the end, they decided to send a small team while the others were preparing to leave.

Unfortunately, when the investigation team arrived at the location where they died not so long ago, they found only grass and the magnificent landscape of a lake.

There was obviously clues of shots being fired, the grass being burnt here and there and they even found some ammo shells, but not a single living human or turret could be detected.

They eventually came across a weird looking crater but did not find the base of their mysterious killer.

- "I guess we exaggerated things. They must have had enough of shooting us and went back hiding in their base."

- "Yeah, seems like it. Anyways, let's quickly go back and leave, we don't want them to attack and destroy our belongings."

On this day, Keith's disappearance went totally unnoticed.

Both Keith and Eric's group quickly left the area to go and find another suitable location for their respective base.

Keith had prepared for a long trip, though.

During the day, he was driving while thinking about his future. He only drove at a pace of a few dozen miles per hour because the procession would be insecure if he went faster.

The nights were a bit trickier, however. He could not see every little obstacle so he had to stop the procession to make sure he did not lose any of the trolleys.

Thus, he was using these night cycles to craft. He was preparing several planks of wood as well as metal plates for the purpose of creating a raft.

Until now, he has been avoiding sea to stay on land. However, he knew he could not travel really far without crossing water.

The planet of this game was made using Earth as a model, so most of its landscape on the surface was made out of seas and oceans.

Furthermore, for Keith, an ocean would prove to be a much more efficient defense than anything he could think of.

Not a lot of people had made rafts since the start of the server, and he knew they would only travel a few miles at most because it was really inconvenient to control it with paddles against the powerful current.

His raft, instead, would be powered by an engine. He could travel several thousand miles without the need to stop if he filled his stocks of wood to the brink. Plus he had a little bit of fuel reserve he made by refining petrol.

The problem would be encountering land, in fact. He had to think of a way to dodge uninteresting islands as well as making sure his raft would be safe whenever he was disconnected.

For the first case, he had been working on a sail for a while so he could control the raft's direction.

As for the later, it was a huge hassle to him. The only solution he could think of was to disconnect only after docking his boat on some island.

However, he could be traveling for hours without finding a single piece of land. He could not rely on that eventuality.

This have been the only problem haunting his mind since the beginning of his journey.

However, he had already resolved problems related to the need of real-time adjustments.

In fact, he had not been controlling his turrets manually since he created them. He could not be there at all time and people may have invaded his base while he was away. That was why he used automation.

'Let's try and make a detector that would stabilize my raft while I'm away. Erm... Now that I think about it, I will also need to think of a way to handle appalling weather condition.'

In the end, Keith decided to make plans for a small boat that could withstand powerful tides as well as two new engines to make the whole structure more stable on water.

Thus, his journey to the other end of the planet continued until he finally stopped by sandy beach.

It was a beautiful landscape. The sun was reflecting on the surface of water while his ears were being lulled by the sound of the waves crashing on land.

'Ah... I never tire this view. It makes me nostalgic.', he thought. 'Well... let's get working. I have a boat to make and lots of other preparations.'