Project Overworld

'Oh yeah, that museum's receptionist did talk about money didn't he?' Was the first thought that crossed Keith's mind.

While looking at the expectation in the eyes of the man before him, Keith realised the extent of his naivete.

'I guess it couldn't be help... Ores aren't that difficult to smelt and they are humans after all. It was only a question of time before they started exchanging money as a trading currency.' He deemed. 'Well, let's just politely refuse the offer.'

- "Huh, I just remembered I had several things to do before the night. Goodbye!"

With a look of disappointement, the receptionist gave him farewell :

- "I hope to see you soon in our beautiful hotel!"

'What a bland way to excuse myself...' Keith lamented. 'I hope he doesn't start questionning the establishment's quality because of me. Anyway, looks my stay over Midgard may quickly be aborted if I don't find a way to earn money. I still have plenty of places I want to visit though...'

For the rest of the evening, Keith wandered around the city while thinking of a way to earn money.

'What do I have with me? Lots of resources. Maybe someone would be interested in buying them?' Was what Keith repeated to himself during his investigation.

Eventually, at the outskirt of the city, he came across a building that looked like a lumberjack vault.

The sign posted at the entrance was reading 'Community wood storage center'.

Inside, the construction looked more or less like the museum, but with a large double door at the opposite side of the entrance and several stockpiles of log.

A similar reception area was welcoming the visitors and Keith decided to go there without delay.

Although nights, and by extent days, were shorter in Project Overworld than in real life, he had been connected for several hours straight and hurriedly wanted to go to sleep.

- "Hello, does this place pay for wood deliveries?" He asked the receptionist.

After a nod, the man replied :

- "Yes, we do. The price is around one copper coin per log and one copper per stack of twenty barks, depending on their quality and size."

- "Will this do?" Keith offered after taking out several perfectly cut wood logs from his inventory.

The manager's eyes shot open after seeing this and accepted this donation on the spot.

- "For this level of size and quality, you will be awarded twenty copper coins." He explained before handing over a pile of copper pieces.

After putting the coins in his inventory, Keith exited the building and quickly went back to the inn he originally wanted to sleep into.

'This city reminds me a lot of how the medieval civilization is pictured in books and movies. They even recreated the currency system of some existing multiplayer games.'

The receptionist seemed surprised of seeing him again, but quickly changed attitude to a more professional one.

Keith handed over the coins and the receptionist gave him a wooden key in return.

- "This key will unlock the chamber number six. You alone may have access to this room, and eventually one of our employee if need be."

After this explanation, Keith entered the sixth chamber of the hotel before locking it back with his wooden key.

'They succeeded in making working door locks, that is quite impressive. Well, as everything seems to be made out of wood this lock wouldn't really be hard to break open, but it is a protection nonetheless.' Keith though, before safely disconnecting from the game.

He was really tired. He has been playing for the whole day and a good part of the night. 'I guess it couldn't be helped. I really wanted to begin visiting the city today and I didn't see time flow by.'

Keith went to shower himself before going to bed. While water was pouring out of the hinge onto his body, Keith was still thinking about discoveries of the day.

'It's a really good experience. I'm amazed by the creativity of these players as they developped modern day architecture with medieval resources and fabrication processes.'

His mind slowly drifted to more general subject : 'What if prehistoric man had access to all the knowledge we now possess? Wouldn't their progression resemble what we are currently witnessing inside Project Overworld?'

After drying off, Keith wrapped himself in his sheets and had a sound sleep.

The next day, he unfortunately had to go back to studying and couldn't explore the city as much as he wanted to.

He, however, got to explore the world spawnpoint and witnessed the extent of what the community had done.

The spawn area was at the center of the city because building here was restricted. However, players found a way arrange the place to be more convenient.

Firstly, the ground has been almost entirely replaced by stone bricks. It was possible because changing the ground wouldn't impede players from spawning here. However, several places have been untouched so that plants and trees could still be growing, making the view enjoyable.

Secondly, beautiful arches have been placed at the limit of the spawn area, intertwined with climbers and flowers. These arches led to the various roads crossing Midgard.

Finally, several signs has been planted here and there to indicate new players where they should go and to give them essential advices. The signs were written in various langages that the city occupants may have though about.

The spawn area was excentered and its 'back' led directly to the south outskirt of the town, so that players could have the choice to play their own way without having to cross the whole city to do so.

Overall, the layout was really clean and new people joining the game would not be left behind without knowing what to do. It looked like the giant garden of some medieval castle and Keith liked that a lot.

After staying there for a while, he got to witness few players seemingly joining the game for the first time and searching for signs written in their langage. After finding something they could actually read, they followed the arrows leading to the city hall.

Afterwards, Keith explored various interesting areas of the city before deciding he had seen everything he wanted to observe by his own eyes.

'Well, it's now time to go back to working. I have a base to finish and several projects in hold.'