Project Overworld

A young Project Overworld player, known as 'Bluecraze', was planning out his next move. He recently discovered a small breach in Midgard city's wall that he had enlarged during the last few days.

He was really proud of his stealthiness since no one seemed to have noticed the hole left at the bottom of the wall. He has been coming in and out of the city for a while now, determining the best spots to attack and the frequency of patrols.

It felt like an infiltration game to him, but a lot more exciting since there were real players defending the city.

One day, however, as he was as was sneaking out from below the wall, a deep voice made him jump in surprise :

- "What are you doing here?" The man asked.

Bluecraze tried his best to hide the hole and look as comfortable as possible.

- "That's amazing!" The man continued. "We were just looking for the perfect spot to make our way into the city, and you've discovered it!"

'We?' was the only thought that came inside Bluecraze's confused mind.

- "Hey, why don't you join us? You were obviously trying to attack Midgard, right? With the weapons we have at our disposal, we could coordinate a large scale force and make a mess out of the city! That is, if you can give us some informations about the patrols and such things..."

Bluecraze was still quite confused about why this player was trying to help him out, but he felt like he could only accept this person's proposal since he was the one who was spotted coming out from below the wall.

- "Sure, who are the others you were talking about?" He managed to reply.

- "Oh, you'll be quite surprised to witness our numbers. Come, I'll let you visit our hideout. By the way, call me Big Bro since everyone likes to call me that way. My real username isn't english anyways, but it looks like Spirit Fragment or something."

The man first led him to a nearby forest where they found some wooden bicycles lying on the ground.

- "They're ours, take one." Spirit Fragment told him.

Afterwards, they managed to pedal through the landscape until the man stopped at the back of a mountain.

- "We're here." he said.

- "Where? I don't see anything." Bluecraze replied.

- "Ahaha, of course not. If our hideout was found out that easily, our days wouln't have been so thriving."

Spirit Fragment crouched down and rummages through the grass. Just as Bluecraze was finding this situation quite laughable, the man seemed to find what he was looking for and a trapdoor opened before them. The hole did not seem that long and a ladder could be seen leading to its bottom.

- "After you." Sprit Fragment said while showing the way.

Bluecraze followed his instructions and started climbing down the ladder. He then jumped down safely and continued through the tunnel.

After a few seconds, both of them reached a large wooden door blocking the whole way.

- "Wait there." Spirit Fragment told him.

He then knocked at the door and waited for someone to react. After a short while, a movable piece slided open at the middle of the door and a voice came out from there.

A few words from Spirit Fragment were enough for the voice to be satisfied and the door was unlocked for them.

To the surprise of Bluecraze, a really large room welcomed him. Tables were installed everywhere and lots of players were joking around with their friends. Their heads all turned towards the newcomers until they recognized their boss.

- "Hey, looks like Big Bro is still recruiting!" One of the players indiscreetly said to the people seated with him.

The mood quickly returned to that of jokes and the newcomers were quickly forgotten.

- "Are you surprised?" Spirit Fragment asked to the young player. "I would be too in your situation. Regardless, let's go to my office. We need to discuss the matter of Midgard a bit more."

Satisfied by his final design, Keith ordered his crafting machines to start printing out parts to prepare for another orbital mission.

In the meantime, he would be working on the camera that he would be equiping his first surveillance satellite with. He had a bit of experience in that regard since he already worked on a camera for the resource sorting system of his factory.

This one, however, would be a lot more focused on precision. It would not really matter if it had poor color rendering, but he needed it to be able to distinguish shapes and objects from up there in space.

Obviously, this process would not be instantaneous and the satellite would need a few trips around the Earth to render an image of acceptable quality. This was mostly due to the variations in the weather and the reflection of the sun on the atmoshpere.

In the future, he would also need a few more of these to be able to take images from various angles. This would allow him to create three-dimensional maps and distinguish the height of the objects captured on camera.

As a side effect, the update rate of a specified location would be a lot more frequent, meaning he could tell when movement was made in the area.

For now, though, Keith needed to focus on the construction of satellite and its camera. He was really glad to find the various parts he needed in his stockage area.

In fact, the more he progressed in the game and the more automated his base became.

When working on a project, Keith would often ask himself 'What if this process was automated?' before realizing it would be quite helpful.

Afterwards, either during the project or after it was completed, he would build the machines and code the programs necessary to automate said process.

He always kept a tab on what was the most time-consuming tasks he was manually doing until then and made sure they never excessed a few dozens of minutes in time.

However, there as also the time required to automatize a task that Keith needed to take into account. To make sure the assembling part of his rockets was done automatically, for exemple, he would have to create giant machines with robotic arms as precise as the human hand.

It would currently be taking months for Keith to design these machines, let alone building them.

In fact, he only spent a few weeks of time on assembling his last rocket, so there was no point in automating this process yet. It was not like he would be launching thousands of rockets in the future, anyways.

Keith quickly gathered the materials he estimed necessary to build his giant camera and went back to work.

During the following weeks, his crafting machines processed parts round the clock while he was working on assembling everything. He tested his camera outdoor several times and modified its parameters and materials to optimize its precision.

It was a real challenge to him because he could not really forsee how the camera would fare up there in space, but he tried his best to make it flawless.

However, what required most of his focus was the satellite itself. 'Relay 1' has only been equipped with a large battery for its alimentation since Keith did not need for the satellite to last. However, the new one needed to be able to power itself up since he would have to be transmitting its recorded data everday to Keith's base. That was why, he has had to develop solar panels for this specific project.

Although difficult at first, he quickly realized that there were lots of plans of solar panels online which also listed the materials needed. This was mostly due to the green people trying to push this invention forward as the global warming was getting out of control. Keith was really grateful of that fact and managed to build several of these in the span of two weeks for his satellite.

Another challenge Keith came across with was the weight of the overall structure. The amount of fuel being transported by 'Satellite A-3' was the same as the previous one. However, since the new satellite was transporting both an really large optical lens as well as solar panels, its load was almost doubled instantly.

To cut some weight off of this satellite, Keith has had to innovate a little bit. First, he changed off the materials being used for some parts of its structure to more light ones. Then, he skipped off the radio receiver part of the satellite since it would not need to be operated from the distance anyways. With a few more optimizations here and there, he was finally satisfied by the result.

It was still a bit more heavier than 'Relay 1', but Keith estimed it should not be a problem. He has had a few gallons of fuel leftovers in his 'Satellite A-2' tanks after all, and the rocket that will be transporting this new satellite was an optimized version of the previous one.

Keith breathed out with an elated smile. He finally finished working on his 'Satellite A-3' rocket, ready for take off on the launching pad. On board was Keith's first surveillance satellite, waiting to be dispatched in space.

Keith joined his secured control room and turned on the screen. With an over-exaggerated gesture, he managed to press down a big red button, activating the familiar countdown.

'Well, here we go again!' Keith rhapsodized.