'So they are setting up a contest huh? Interesting.'
Keith was currently lunching at home while browsing through some forums related to Project Overworld. After spoting a few posts talking about an incoming event, he got pretty hyped up. In fact, he had already heard about a man who has developped a motor in Midgard city, and he really wanted to see what people would come up with in such a publicized event.
It has been almost a full week since he started working at the watchmaking job he applied to. During this time, he had finished developping his fully automated resource crafting process with the recent steam-powered train he worked on. Not only did that allow him to craft construction materials while he was at work, it also gave him more free time to design and experiment ideas.
As for his job, he was really enjoying it. He was somewhat frustrated that he chose to do an economics degree instead of doing manual labor, but he was actually convinced it would be helping him in the process of creating his own workshop.
'Looks like it's time to get back to work.'
He was living only a few miles away from his workplace so that allowed him to come back home during the lunch break. He enjoyed cooking at home, plus he could use this peaceful moment to think about his future projects.
"Hey, you, help me move that clock over there."
Keith's work mostly consisted of welcoming clients and repairing various mechanical parts. His boss sometimes learnt him a few tricks when the day was unfructuous. It was not the most manual labor job in the world, but it appealed to him nonetheless.
After helping his boss with a clock, he repaired a few stopwatches for the rest of the day. He did not see the time pass until he looked at the recalibrated watch he had in his hands, which was already past eighteen o'clock.
'Oh, looks like it's time to leave.'
- "Hey, I just finished the last stopwatch, I'm leaving now. See you monday!" He said to his boss.
- "See you."
'Where did I leave things out?' Keith wondered once connected to his favorite game. 'Oh yeah, I should prepare for the contest taking place in two weeks from now. In the meantime, I'll make my train electrical.'
After planning out what he will be doing for the week-end, Keith went around his base to check the production of his machines. Several plastic cables have been produced as well as other simple parts. He still needed some work to make proper electrical cables, but it sure did free some time off his calendar.
As for the invention contest, Keith decided not to risk anything and only participate as a spectator. He did not want to bring attention to himself nor did he want to lose time and resources designing some interesting device. In fact, he was even hesitating actually going there or just follow some streamer on the event.
Although this was a selfish way of thinking, Keith had no real interest in developing the whole playerbase technology. He had no need to work with other players for now and probably would not even need to.
'I've already given my fair share of collaboration, and where did that lead me to? If I can't trust people I am working with, I'm well better off working alone. It's sad none of my friends could get into the game at the same time as I did.'
Most of Keith's friends could not get into the first server of Project Overworld until two months after its launch. At this point, it would be a huge time loss to Keith to go gather his friends and train them.
'I guess I've been quite the lucky one in getting one of the first twenty thousand players of Project Overworld. Although, to an extent, I am more than two months ahead in technology than Midgard citizen. The fact that I kept myself away from the fights at the beginning was also a huge factor in my lead.'
Thus, for the remaining time of the two-days break in Keith's work schedule, he meticulously worked on constructing electrical wires above the railway where the train would be finding its energy.
Before the end of the next week, Keith had finished everything related to the train and it was now working exclusively out of the electricity produced by the giant factory.
Now that his base was fully operational and somewhat optimized, Keith needed to improve his drills a bit in order for them to search for minerals more efficiently. Up until now, they would only dig in straight lines, not even stopping to dig the deposits they came across.
'It is not the most complex artificial intelligence I made...'
As for the rest of his projects, it mostly consisted of making improved computers and artificial intelligences and that would pretty much be it for the sake of his automated base. Afterwards, he could finally take time to explore the rocketry science.
'Only a week remaining.' Amber thought.
The annoucement of 'Inventopia' caused quite the commotion and people were eagerly waiting for the event to take place. She was one of them, although not participating as one of the inventors. During these last weeks, she has been quite busy with the paperwork related to the construction of the colosseum where the event would be taking place.
This building was meant to be one of the most important in the city and it would be big enough to house all sorts of events. Since the budget of the municipal team was not that developped yet, they had to raise funds in order to hire constructors for the colosseum.
Now that there only remained a little more than a week to finish the organisation of 'Inventopia', Amber was pretty stressed out.
- "Madam, the constructors are lacking in stone supply."
- "Again? Did we not become partners with one of the largest stone suppliers in Project Overworld?"
- "We did, madam."
- "Well, let's pay them a visit then. Let's hear what they have to say about this situation."
Amber got up from her seat and put away the papers she was currently working on. She changed into a more formal suit and thought she was quite liking the constant busyness of her job, before following her secretary across the city.