Project Overworld

Once the engines were totally heated up, the rocket was finally decoupled from the launching pad and launched up in the air. The roof automatically closed after the passage of 'EOSS Launcher 1', and the whole squad was off to a pretty long travel.

'This rocket is making some strange noises...' Keith realized after a chaotic start. The amount of smoke that has been produced was enough to cover up a good portion of the spatial room and the rocket did shake a lot more than it usually did. 'I think the fuel composition is a bit messed up.' He concluded, before installing himself more confortably in his seat. There was nothing to be worried about, since they had not exploded yet. In any case, they would just lose a week and a few days of time building another rocket if this one ended up badly.

Instead, Keith started off his favorite video game on his computer to distract himself. For now, playing cards with his friends would be near impossible as 'EOSS Launcher 1' was very hectic due to the high density of the atmosphere they were going through. In a few hours, once they reached a hundred miles of altitude or so, things should be a lot calmer.

Leyla took control of the vehicle, as always and optimized its trajectory at best as she could. Xena and Tyler, who were totally new to traveling inside a rocket, witnessed the landscape around them receding as the distance that separated them from the ground increased. They were like incredulous kids watching a magic trick. Finally, Michael and Jim behaved themselves, although Keith could clearly see that they were as excited as the others.

By the end of the day, everyone could start talking with each other as the deafening sounds coming from the rocket lessened. At one point, they tried playing some card games together but the shaking of the rocket made these fly everywhere. In the end, they all started throwing stuff at each other while joking around.

With a smile on his face from such a childish scenery, Keith disconnected from the game. He was supposed to go to work tomorrow and it was getting late. Anyways, there was nothing he could accomplish by staying inside the game, so his absence would not affect their flight too much.

'This is a real relief to be surrounded by friends in this kind of situation. I can't wait to design new spatial vehicles and other advanced technologies in the future.'

_______________

- "The hype is getting out of control." Amber commented while observing the area surrounding Asgard. Camps have been hastily assembled all around the landscape, as people waiting for the official opening of the entertainment centers appeared in masses.

At one point, she even had to dispatch several squadrons of police forces to prevent people from getting inside the city. She did not want the workers to be distracted by all these people while also trying to maintain a bit of surprise for everyone. If people could get into there early, they might get a bit disappointed by the lack of attraction and never come back here.

In any case, the construction was well advanced already. She declared on the forums that the city would be opening its doors in under only a few weeks. Officially, most of the buildings and machines planned by the architects have already been constructed there. However, they still needed to stress-test some of the attractions and fine-tune a few details.

During the next few months, Asgard would also be expanded a lot to face the demand it would certaintly be generating. Once people settled down a bit, there was also a residential area planned for construction so people could live near their new favorite city. For now, such eventuallities were compromised by the gigantic amount of player camping all around the landscape.

In the meantime, the municipal team of Yggdrasil also focused on the second large-scale project they were about to reveal. The large enclosure wall separating the area of 'Project : Vanilla' from the rest of the world was almost finished and only the hub supposed to welcome player to this area was left to be constructed.

Amber's goal was to have a never-ending kind of event for players to enjoy. Basically, every few months or so, the whole framed area would be whipped from any human structure and several mining slots would be reimplemented alongside trees, animals and other basic resources.

This sort of maintenance was a real head-scratch to plan, but this was made to prevent the same progression Project Overworld knew so players could focus on player versus player interactions and emulated another type of game. Overall, this project was one of the most ambitious Amber and her comrades ever thought of, but was supposed to bring peace to the rest of the world. Players only attracted to killing other players could do so openly within the large area delimited by walls.

Amber was really excited about seeing the results of these two projects combined. Hopefully, this should reduce the amount of complaints she and the various municipal team received by a lot. People wanted Project Overworld to be good, since it was an ambitious 'Simulated Reality' game. However, some of them never found the kind of sensations they expected in such a large multiplayer game and wanted to get rid of this stall situation they were in. That was exactly why terrorists started to appear left and right, trying to overthrow the current administration and dictate how the game should be played according to them.

'It's been long since we've been attacked by a terrorist. Maybe they did put all of their hopes into Asgard and this mysterious project I've been teasing. Let's hope so, at least.' She concluded.

_______________

Upon connecting back into the game, the following evening, Keith found his friends playing some games together while waiting for him. Since they needed to get rid of the oxygen on board to get out of the c.o.c.kpit without risk, they waited for everyone to be there before doing anything dangerous.

'Looks like Tyler isn't there yet. Let's continue those board games where we left them.' Keith thought while taking a chessboard out of his inventory.

For the following few dozen of minutes, the whole squad played games together around the table installed in the c.o.c.kpit and discussed some various subjects. Worried about his friend not connecting to the game yet, Keith decided to disconnect and check on Tyler through his phone.

'Oh, looks like he won't be playing until late tonight...' Keith realized after seeing the message Tyler sent to him. Apparently, one of his cats had troubles eating properly and he had to take it to the veterinary.

Announcing the new to his friends, Keith decided on an action plan. Fortunately for them, they had brought two space suits with them this time around to have some spare ones inside the EOSS.

- "Who feels comfortable enough with a space suit?" Keith asked to his friends. Leyla, Jim and Michael who all already went into space during the past months, looked at each other not daring to reply.

- "Well, Michael, you recently came into space with me, so put this suit on." He pressed them. "Okay, we'll be cutting the oxygen off of the rocket for a few seconds so me and Michael may get out without problems. Once we're outside, you should press this button to bring back oxygen int othe c.o.c.kpit." He started to explain. Turning towards Michael, he described what they would be doing afterwards : "We will get to the station and unlock the door. After its done, you'll stay there and hold the door until I come back with the rest of us. As for you three, always keep one of your arms around Tyler's body on the way to the EOSS so you don't lose him." He finished his explanations.

Without delaying their exit any longer, Keith deactivated the various vents bringing gas into the c.o.c.kpit and opened a few small vents leading to the exterior. Once they felt like they could not breath any longer, Keith and Michael opened the door of the c.o.c.kpit and infiltrated outside of the rocket.

The both of them jumped towards the station and started turning the wheel locking its heavy door. The whole process took them a bit of time, because their movements were hindered by those space suits. Fortunatly, they had several dozen minutes of autonomy thanks to the oxygen reservoirs they were equipped with. Once the door was open, Michael went inside the depressurizing room and activated his talkie-walkie to warn Keith : "We won't be able to all fit in there!"

Keith turned back to look inside the room and nodded at his friend. 'We'll go two by two.' He concluded.

After going back and forth from the rocket to the EOSS, it was finally time for Keith to enter the station with Tyler's body. They had decided he would be the one doing it since the rest of them were not confident in being able to move around in space while holding someone else. In any case, the latest space suits Keith had developed were also equipped with a few gas engines to propel oneself over short distances in space.

'Okay, let's do this!' He motivated himself while jumping off of the c.o.c.kpit, Tyler in his arms. Unfortunately, he did aim quite poorly at first and realized midway through the space separating him from the station that he would not be reaching the door in any way. Keeping control over his emotion, he wrapped one of his arms around Tyler's waist and controled a joystick with his free hand to release a bit of gas.

'This should be it.' He thought while looking at his trajectory deviating towards the large metal door of the station. Entering the depressurizing room, Keith did not waste a moment and activated the supplying of oxygen for his friend's body.

'Welcome to the EOSS, Tyler!' Keith exclaimed in his mind while waiting for the interior door to open.