'Well, that was scary...' Keith breathed out in relief as he was packing up some of his resources. Ever since he spotted that human body down his spike trap, the young man had been preparing to leave this place in the next couple of weeks, maybe months if he had a bit of a breather to prepare himself.
However, things turned out more complicated than he had expected. That player who died by his traps did come back with a couple of his friends, armed with some very basic weapons such as swords and bows. Fortunately, Keith had been able to surprise them before they could even react and he swiftly eliminated them before picked up whatever was in their inventory. Afterwards, the young man had been hiding in his base for a few days, preparing for a more violent assault.
This small incursion did not give out a lot of hints towards the technological development of the group Keith had gotten rid of. In fact, they could have been assigned as scouts to report on the situation where their friend had fallen into a trap and come back with better weapons after making sure this place was inhabited.
Anyways, that was not even the most concerning event the young man had witnessed. In fact, Keith usuallly spent some of his time on the forums of the game every morning and he recently caught some really concerning news for him : war degenerated back at the World Spawnpoint. Players had assembled into a large community back at Spawn, welcoming the new players in a sort of 'peaceful' way thanks to some large community buildings. This group also started fighting back against the larger guilds of Project Overworld, such as the Pioneers and the New Dawn, leading to the withdrawal of those specific guilds from their territory place.
This ultimately led to the small to medium guilds being forced to flee the World Spawnpoint because the larger guilds started focusing on expanding their own territory elsewhere. All in all, Keith estimated that he had a bit of a leeway before guilds started establishing near his base, but this piece of news certainly did not help him out.
In fact, since people had to go further away to avoid conflicts, the young man certainly would encounter more and more players from now on. Something told him that the group he got rid of was only the first of many.
In any case, Keith stayed on high alert for the few days following his altercation with the group of four players who invaded his territory. He did not know yet the total number of their members and they could certainly come back with more advanced weapons to get rid of him and his base at once.
One day, Keith even went on a scouting mission to determine where these players had been coming from but he could not find anything substantial and ultimately abandonned this sort of mission as it was a waste of time.
Apart from multiplying the numbers of traps around the area, Keith also accelerated on the construction of a large enough vehicle to transport all of his resources. He had settled on a design and even started its construction even before his encounter with the four scouts, but he now focused most of his free time on that particular project.
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The whole thing resembled some sort of a long train. The resemblance did not stop here, though, as he attached a special wagon containing a power generator at the front of the cart chain. It was destined to send power to the front wheels, and hopefully enough for the whole procession to get going along with it.
Though, it clearly would not be enough once he started packing some of his heavier machines on the wagons, so Keith had to plan for more power to be distributed to the vehicle. He had planned to equip most of the wagons with their own engine and have them be connected electrically to the main motor.
Thanks to the breakthroughs he had done in this particular domain, this was not that big of a challenge for him to overcome. He had already started exploiting electricity in the past so he plugged up the wagons between each other using some reinforced cables. The insides were the same as he always did, some copper wires that could easily transmit current.
However, Keith had to come up with a way for the wires not to be destroyed by the constant concussion the wagons would have to go through on a long journey. In fact, the terrain Keith would drive through certainly would not be inviting to him and his vehicle would have to be able to climb a few hills without breaking apart.
That was why, the wires had to be enveloped with a flexible protection so it would not be damaged as easily because of all that shaking. Regrettably, Keith still did not have access to petrolum so he could not come up with a rubber protection for his wires. Instead, he used the large quantity of leaves and other plants he had been drying off for the past couple of months as well as some tree sap to make some sort of a sturdy rope to envelop his wires with. It certainly would not be as sturdy as rubber would, but he was quite satisfied with the results he came with.
Keith had been going at it for the last couple of weeks and he was nowhere near finished with his vehicle. Fortunately, he did not catch anyone else spying on his base since that last group he had gotten rid of so he was not in a hurry.
He still would not want to be hidding inside this enclave for the rest of his days, but he certainly had some more time to think about the best ways to improve his vehicle's plans. Every day Keith found some new and interesting ways to upgrade his design and answer technical problems he had been thinking off recently.
Overall, the young man estimated he only required a few more weeks to be done with his vehicle and he would finally be able to get the hell out of this dangerous place. The more he stayed there the more uncomfortable he would get.
'Just like a locomotive!' Keith realized as he started doing a few test laps with his procession of wagons. As for a he could tell, the electricity transmission did pass through the wires well and the vehicle had enough power to reach at least a few dozen miles per hour.
Though, the young man had not loaded all of his machines on the wagons yet so he did not know yet if there would be quite enough power generated by the seven engines or not. For the time being, he was not fully ready to do a complete overall test because he was afraid it would strain the wires a bit too much, or maybe the coal-powered motors would stop working after a few seconds. In any case, Keith had to prepare to leave at some point in the near future.
Another one of his traps had been abnormally activated and this left the young man in a lot of confusion. The only reason he could think of was that a player fell for it but somehow managed to save themselves from the steel pikes by the bottom of it. It could have also been a lucky animal avoiding the holes by a hair's breadth or even some unlucky just of wind that made the leaf carpet fall down the trap without any entity stepping on it.
In any case, Keith could not go on with this really tense situation anymore.
'Well, let's test this thing for good and leave this base at once!' Keith exclaimed in his mind.
After another couple of hours of testing, it seemed like the vehicle really was able to transport most of his machines without fail. The young man even tried climbing up the hill enclosing the lake he had settled next to and successfully brough the whole procession up there.
- "Yes!" He excitedly exclaimed.
Now that he was done with the locomotive, only one thing was left for him to do. And that was all about destroying the evidence that someone had lived around the area. He could not resolve himself to leave his base to the next players to come across this place. They could be part of one of those dumb guilds and take advantage of this outpost to fight against other players.
That, Keith was not really fond of. He esteemed that his creation were only for his own use and they would be no way for him to leave some behind. Either he could transport all of it towards his next destination or he destroyed it all. There was no in between for the young man.
Finally, for the rest of the evening, Keith went around his manor and place several explosives near the most critical places of his build.H e originaly made these black-powder weapons to dig up some caves more easily as well as getting rid of some really sturdy rock formations thaty he did not care about. However, he never imagined that he would be using them for this kind of purpose.
Regrettably, Keith did not have enough time to take everything along with him so he also had to part ways with his drilling unit and his furnaces.
Other than that, the young man managed to fit both of his generator as well as some of his most recent machines on top of the wagons of his locomotive. Not to forget about all the ores he has been pilling up anticipating this day.
In fact, his drilling machine had not been rotting in his basement for the past few months. Keith had been using it everyday to dig up loads of metal ores as well as some various types of stone for construction purposes.
After he was done with the preparations, the youngman put some distance between his home and himself before giving a last farewell to the manor. A faint layer of smoke could be seen rising from the building, but before it could explode Keith turned around and climbed up the hill.
Just as he was about to get on top of his locomotive, the earth suddenly trembled from the distance and debris of his late base scattered around the lake. The resulting shockwave shook him to his core while a giant dust cloud blocked some of the sun rays.
'That... hurts a lot more than I expected...' Keith almost shed a tear from this sight. However, he could not let himself get emotional as he activated all the seven engines of his vehicle before sitting comfortable on top of the main wagon.
This entire operation took him more than six hours straight. He certainly skipped a meal in the real world, but he could not let his investment in Project Overworld go to waste.
Keith activated the wheels and the train started moving forward at a sluggish pace. It certainly was not that impressive, especially since he would be able to run faster than the vehicle itself, but thanks to this contraption Keith was able to transport most of his resources along with him.
'It's Just like a five months ago. Except this journey will be lasting several times as much longer as the previous one did.' Keith had prepared for a really long travel. In fact, his goal this time around was a bit more complex. To be more precise, he still was searching for a nice and peaceful place to settle onto. However, there was nothing left for him to do onto this continent.
It was time for him to set sail towards the other side of the planet.