Project Overworld

Eric had little to no doubt over the players responsible for the attack at the terrorist's base. Although he did not know their name nor their appearance, they were probably the same who installed automated turrets near a hill a while ago and eventually killed him and some of his friends.

He could not resent them as the 'Starise', name of the group he formed with his friends, also had to resort to this type of weaponry to deal with pillagers and other types of disturbing players.

However, Eric was really surprised by the advanced weapons they had used against the terrorists.

This crater, this loud explosion that could be heard from dozens of miles away... He knew some of this power had been caused by a chain explosion due to the black powder stored within the terrorist's base. But he could not get over the fact that no one saw this attack coming.

The leader of the 'Rebellion' explained that their base was buried several hundred feet underground. For an external explosion to reach so deep inside the earth was really impressive.

Not only that, their hideout was supposed to be dissimulated within the landscape and nobody around Midgard ever found their location.

And suddenly, out of nowhere, someone destroyed their base without so much as a sweat. Nobody had any time to react before a hole as large as a mile of radius replaced the whole area.

'It had to be a missile, otherwise there would have been no way that the terrorists would not have fought back. Or they were too embarrassed to say the truth before anyone else.' Eric theorized.

After this small break in his work, he finally went back to designing his next automated machine.

For the past few months, he and his friends had successfully built a factory outside of their base for all of their needs in power.

They also had installed several dozen of automated turrets that could protect them from attacks coming from any direction.

Finally, they had improved their base and created some automated crafting processes for really useful parts such as screws and other jointing materials.

Eric was in charge of designing the next automated crafting process, but the sudden news at the terrorist's base made him change his plans a little bit.

'Shouldn't we try and race against them? Although the worst case scenario was leading towards them developing missiles, we already have a strong base. We would need a lot of materials and time to think about it, but we could potentially start making rockets on our own. I should talk about this with the other members.'

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After launching his third 'Watchdog' satellite, Keith started reconsidering his plans for the future. Making thirty of those would require too much time and resources, and he unfortunately was limited in both of these. Although the new drilling units named 'Ants' were accomplishing a perfect job, he still had to think about his other projects.

Relocating his drilling system to somewhere else would require another month of work because he would have to extend both the trainway and conveyor belts leading to his coal factory. He could not afford wasting this much resources into making several dozen of satellites.

The third 'Watchdog' he launched into space could take more pictures every seconds as well as adjusting its trajectory by small margins. Keith wanted to expend upon that idea and upgrade both the camera and the maneuver capacity of his satellites.

With those improvements, he could reduce the number of satellites orbiting around the Earth to mere ten.

There were obviously the two initial surveillance satellites still in orbit around the planet, so he had to count them into the total. Those would be deadweights according to his new plans, but the orbit at which he would be placing his next satellites would be quite a few dozen miles further away from the planet, meaning that there would be no conflict between the older and the new ones.

With his project schedule being lightened by severalfolds, Keith enthusiastly went back to designing the next generation of satellites while his automated machines were working nonstop to provide him with construction materials.

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Working almost twice as much as before the explosion, Amber was trying to finish the next Inventopia's organization. This project had been unfortunately put on hold since the terrorist attack at Midgard.

Afterwards, she has had to juge the criminals, write down apology posts over the security breaches at Midgard and also investigate the recent explosion at the Rebellion's hideout. She felt like she has not been able to take care of her beloved cities in a while.

Thus, after finishing the organization of her favorite event, she decided to go and visit the evergrowing Niflheim.

She has been receiving a lot of demand for ship construction permits recently. People always dreamed of exploring uncharted territories, but the recent events further developed their motivation.

She was not fooled by the origins of this motivation. The rumors of a missile being launched from overseas reached every player's ears.

Most of the so called 'Explorers' all wanted to uncover the truth behind the destruction of the terrorists' base.

However, she could not help but give away those permits. The more people were interested in exploring, the quicker the world would be maped out. They could then pick the best lands to establish onto and create a giant city network.

Not to mention, she was also a bit curious about the people who helped them eradicate the annoying terrorists from the continent. The popularity of Niflheim rose because of them and people from all horizons came into the city to participate in this Eldorado.

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For the following weeks, nay months, Keith started releasing more and more advanced satellites into the air.

His project of overseeing the whole planet was coming closer by each day. He had also started developing a new program for his base's computer which would allow him to map out the whole planet thanks to the latests pictures taken by his satellites.

The goal was to have an overview of the Earth while having the possibility to zoom onto one specific area. The picture correspinding to this area will then be opened up in large and Keith would be able to see much more clearly what was happening around the globe.

On a side note, he had also started thinking about his spatial base. This project was really important for his future development since it would allow him to secure some of his installations while facilitating travels to other planets.

The ultimate goal was to have his entire base being reproduced out there in space, and only go down on Earth to collect some resources. It would be quite inefficient, though, and Keith was thinking that he would need some undiscovered technologies to achieve this last part.

Gone would be the days of the rockets, as they were made for single use. He would have to create a space shuttle with strong enough thrust to be able to escape Earth's atmosphere. He could also establish onto a planet with lesser atmosphere, or none at all, and enough materials for his own use, but all of these ideas were really far away from his current reach.

For now, he could only gather as much resources as possible while working on an overview of the planet thanks to grid-like satellite organization.

'Although, now that I think about it... The only problem of a space shuttle would be the fuel itself. But if I made it large enough, wouldn't it be able to leave the atmosphere..? Well, not for now at least, that would be requiring years of reflexion for a mediocre result at best.' He thought. In fact, for the past few months he has made larger and larger rockets to transport heavier satellites.

If he could design such a rocket to lift off like a plane thanks to aerodynamism before going into space, it would not require that much fuel to maintain itself into the air.

However, there was no point in doing that now.

He only required over a week to assemble a whole rocket and a few more days for the satellite itself. There was nothing to sweat about, in the end. For now, this way of travel was entirely sufficient.

He had four months and a half of academic years before him to accomplish as much as he could within this game. Afterwards, he would have to find a job to pay off the monthly rent of his flat while stocking up some money to buy his own place in the future.

He would still be able to play Project Overworld under those conditions, but with a lot less time at his disposal.

'Now that I think about it, I have lessons to learn for tomorrow. Let's come back later.' Keith decided.

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