During the few days remaining before his departure, Keith spent a lot of time on his base's computer.
He had finished a program related to graphical modeling and had been going through a lot to plan for his rocket. He has had to make some really precise calculations in order to figure out the size of each part so that the whole structure would be stable and would be able to lift off without trouble.
In the meantime, all of his machines were running round the clock and provided him with parts and materials needed for him to test his plans. He has also started digging a giant room where he would be making all his crafting related to space. He decided to make it inside of his base so that he would have an easy access to his machines and resources while working on his projects.
Building a rocket designed to reach orbit has been a real challenge to him. In fact, he had make every part of it perfect while processing lots of variable each second so that it does not incongruously explode or change its trajectory.
Unfortunately, Keith was only human and it seemed impossible to him to have the precision needed for those kind of microscopic adjustments. That was why he thought about making a guidance system which would automatically correct the rocket's trajectory.
Though, Keith had a real advantage compared to real life engineers, and that was about the testing part of the construction. He did not care about dying since he could simply respawn at his nearest bed, so there was no reason why he would not hop into his rocket and check where he could improve his design while on the flight.
Obviously, he has had to do some testing beforehand so he could study how the engine worked and the impact of the air friction on the rocket. Now that he understood all this, he would be testing with the real one directly.
'Can't wait for my first flight. I wonder how it feels like...' Keith thought.
However, now was time for him to leave his base for a few weeks. Inventopia would be taking place in two weeks and he had a bit of traveling to do. Coincidentally, when he would be coming back from the event would also mark the end of the summer, thus the end of his current real-life working contract. He would be resuming his studies with his last year at the university.
He did not yet know if it was for the better or the worse regarding his progress in Project Overworld. He would obviously have more time to play the game but he also could not neglect studying his latest lessons, thus leaving him with less free time to play.
'Mhh, should I find a way to study inside the game? Would that be more convenient?' Were his last thoughts before connecting a small boat to his large ship and climbing on board of the later.
After almost nine days of traveling through the ocean, Keith finally spotted the high peaks of some mountains with his binoculars. He dropped down his anchor and jumped onto his small wooden boat, just like last time, to get to the lands. He then took out an electrical bike that he built not too long ago, which really was more convenient to transport than his large buggy. Although, the later was faster and more useful for resource transportation, so he was not ready to dispose of it yet.
Regardless, after a last bit of driving through the landscape, Keith finally arrived at Midgard city. On his way there, he crossed way with a few other players which shot him some dumbfounded glares, seeing the speed at which he was going. He was a bit more carefree than last time because the city has expanded a lot and some new players got further into the lands, meaning there would be a higher chance for Keith to cross ways with someone. However, since he could not lose too much time making his way to the city by going at a non-alarming pace, he decided to go all out on this one.
Once he could spot some of the buildings of the city, he jumped down of his bike and put it in his inventory. It barely even fitted in there with all the other resources he has been storing in case he needed them, but he could fit it in there nonetheless.
There were still two whole days left until Inventopia would be taking place. He could have arrived a bit later, but better too early than too late. He did not actually expect the sailing part of the journey to go so smooth and actually planned to arrive just the day before the event.
Now that he was here, though, he did not want to miss out on the opportunity to visit Midgard and check its development since last time.
Thus, he hurried towards the streets of the city. Keith did not want to spoil his surprise by visiting the colosseum now, thus he decided to make some plans regarding his tour around the city. First things first, he would be trading away some resources to get himself some money. He knew the economic system of the city has developed since last time and he needed some exchange currency right away. Then, he would be visiting the museum to see what kind of new inventions were highly considered by the city. Finally, he would be checking the commercial center and other entertainement centers to see whether the evolution of the city impacted its population or not.
It was friday evening in the real world and Keith has had a few hours to visit whatever he wanted to see. At two in the morning, he finally decided to buy a chamber at a nearby hotel and disconnected from the game. The following day got pretty boring to him as he wandered around the city to check if there was anything worth to see, but was unsuccessful in the regard. He practiced his entrance to Inventopia for a bit and disconnected to watch some streams and videos.
Finally, the day of the event arrived and Keith went towards that famous coloseum that he had yet to see. When he got there, however, he got pretty astonished by its cheer size.
'Wow, did they really build that in only a few weeks?' He rhapsodized.
After introducing his entrance id to one of the guards, he was led with a group of inventors to a backdoor entrance of the building. They were left inside a giant room where everyone could patiently wait for their turn.
Keith saw that most of the contestants were still fiddling with their creations, more to brag about their ideas rather than to actually fix something. Nonetheless, he witnessed the competitors proceed through the large corridor one after the others for a whole hour, until it finally was his turn.
Keith walked down the lane before being blinded the bright light of the exterior. He walked for a while before standing still at the center of the large arena. The audience finally noticed that he had brought nothing with him and got disappointed by this fact.
However, Keith suddenly took an object out of his inventory. He placed it within both of his hands and stated : "This is my contribution to the event, I hope you'll enjoy it."
People recognized the item immediately, but it was too late for them to react. With a mischievous smile on his face, Keith started shooting everywhere.