Project Overworld

'Oh, nice! Nothing has exploded for now.' Keith reassured himself while checking the data sent by his rocket.

In order to get signals from his rocket, Keith has had to develop two things. First, he installed a really large antenna on top of his base that could potentially receive radio signals from space.

It was quite exposed up there, since his base was only halfway buried underground, but he needed it nonetheless.

He could not afford to live in fear that a group of player attacked him or his base while he was away. He wanted to develop immediately, not wait until someone else went to space in his stead.

Secondly, he had to create a radio transmitter and find a way to install it on his rocket. It was a lot harder than making an antenna for his base since its size and weight would actually matter during the flight. However, he did not need for it to be really large and precise since the one back on Earth was big enough to capture radio waves even if they were not directly aimed at it.

As for the materials, he did not have to sweat over it. Ever since his drilling units has been going around in the undergrounds, he has had no problems whatsoever.

He even piled up more resources than he initially had before starting his space-related projects.

While his rocket was doing the maneuvers needed to get to the higgest parts of the thermosphere, Keith went back to his personnal computer.

If his first satellite did made it into orbit, he would need designs for more complex ones. He actually had a plan to crisscross the planet with very precise satellite scanners.

Thanks to this, he would be able to oversee every players' bases around the globe and check their current progress. If one of them ever threatened his projects, he would be able to launch a missile to eliminate the danger in a matter of hours.

'Well, all of this is but an eventuality, I have yet to create missiles. Although one could say my rockets could be utilized as weapons since they are stuffed with so much explosives.' Keith jokingly said to himself.

It was Tuesday evening in the real world. Keith only had a few hours before him to check the progress of his rocket while making some plans for his future projects.

'I didn't think these programs would be so useful in the future.' Keith thought. He was fond of his computer and the applications he did code on it.

All of his plans were stocked in there and it enabled automation to another level. With only a simple click on the screen, he was able to produce hundreds of various parts at the same time.

After almost an hour of designing his next satellite, he received a notification on his screen. Satellite A-2 had reached the lowest parts of the exosphere and was now doing the maneuvers needed to place itself into orbit.

'This small change in the fuel refinement seems to be fruitful! Also, the program did its job well this time.' Keith rhapsodized while looking at the level of liquid left in the tanks.

He never ceased to optimize his designs. Even if one of his machines did work as intended, the next iteration would always be better than the last.

Keith was feeling rather joyful after getting those news. It was the first time one of his rockets did reach the exosphere. Since the limits between the various layers of the atmosphere were shallow, it was actually pointless for this kind of vehicle to reach the exosphere instead of reaching the highest parts of the thermosphere. Except it might orbit a few more weeks around the Earth before being slowed down significantly and falling through the skies.

Regardless, it was an achievement for him, a mark that he was improving as time went on.

With a renewed motivation, Keith went back to working on his next satellite design.

Navigating through the pathways of Niflheim, Amber was admiring the job that has been done there. It has been several months since the municipal team started recruiting builders for the new city and it was expanding at a frightening pace.

The port has already been finished, and houses has been erected in an ordered manner. It was really different than the buildings back in Midgard, since the resources found in this area were quite peculiar and because the city was only so young.

Amber also permitted several inventors to start building their ship in a special hangar, and the results has been really exciting. Some of them even started exploring the seas and maping the area around the continent.

Thanks to these maritime vehicles and thanks to a well planned city, there has been an large exodus towards Niflheim as well as a pretty big influx of active players. People wanted to be part of this new adventure, and Amber has been feeling like it has been a reproduction of the famous 'El Dorado' of human history.

'So much as been going on since the beginning of this game. The pace has been quite enjoyable and the discoveries various. I hope one day we'll get to see something good emerge from Project Overworld, something we could use in real life.'

Albeit faithful in the future of their cities, Amber was actually being quite worried. For a while since they started working on Niflheim, annoying players has been using explosives to disrupt what they were doing.

Some of them has been sent to jail, but others were being really elusive. She also had heard about other teams around the continent who were being attacked for no reason.

No matter the game they were playing on, some were just here to annoy other players. However, there was no reason for the developers to ban these people. They were just playing their game and were not claiming any hate speeches or any other malicious intents.

The server actually had no rules excepting from the basic ones and players were in their rights to kill each others and destroy their respective bases.

Though, by implementing the jailing system, the company 'Advanced Simulations' has been actively limiting these griefing actions.

Beforehand, players could just do what they wanted and kill themselves whenever placed in prison.

Now, however, some players started planning suicide attacks against various structure on the server. Although their corpses would still be hanging there after the explosion, meaning their names would be discovered, their location was still to be exposed.

Midgard's police forces has been maintaining a watchlist of criminal individuals, but the list was growing by each day while the jails were still desperately empty.

That was why, the municipal team and her has been thinking of a solution for a while. They have instaured limited entrance to their cities by verifying every players' inventory contents. It was quite efficient, but has been ruining everyone's mood since they could not navigate as smoothly as before.

Actually, checking another player's inventory was also a later functionnality that 'Advanced Simulations' had added to their game. It would require the inspected player's agreement, but those who did not comply were not granted access to the city.

Though, for this surveillance to work, the municipal team has had to order an enclosure wall around both Midgard and Niflheim so unwanted players would have a hard time getting inside the cities.

'I hope everything will settle one day or another. The current situation is ruining the game and everyone's motivation.' Amber despaired.

The mood was really joyful inside Keith's lair. He actually screamed his relief to the top of his lungs just moments ago and was now gloating with his new achievements.

'First satellite to be put into orbit!' He rhapsodized. The satellite, later named 'Relay 1', was now floating through the skies of the planet while relaying informations thanks to a radio transmitter and receiver.

Though, Keith could not really test the communication with his satellite yet. A full revolution around the planet took at least one hour but it was really late into the night and Keith needed to sleep for tomorrow's classes.

Since he started his spatial missions, Keith has been digging a room destined to become a hall of fame for all his important projects, just like the 'Museum of Inventions' in Midgard.

Keith entered the large room and placed a note on a small stone pillar. The decoration was only temporary, but Keith planned to do something beautiful about this place in the future.

For now, however, he only left a small paper describing the ongoing but intense history of 'Relay 1'.

'Well, another step in the spatial colonization I guess?' Keith concluded before disconnecting from the game.