After his round trip to Midgard, taking a small break from his working schedule, Keith finally went back to improving his base and creating his rocket.
Although his project of making a giant factory actually took the most time out of him, his plan of constructing a rocket was certainly on its way to overthrow it. Especially after all the tests he has been doing and the calculations needed for a perfect lift off.
However, the more Keith prepared, the more he progressed quickly. He has already made a few programs to help him in his tasks such as a modeling program. He has designed all the required parts of his rocket inside this program and let the computer communicate those informations to his machines. Thanks to this, most of the screws, jonctions and structures of the rocket has been constructed while he was away.
Before taking upon the assembling part of the job, Keith still had to erect a launching pad as well as developping the room which will contain all of this.
He had not forgotten about other players and wanted his base to be as secure as possible. That was why he decided to assemble his rocket indoor and install a self-opening ceiling for the lift off. He has been working on it for the past few months, at around the same time as he had begun testing his liquid-propellant engine. Thanks to this room, nobody would be able to see what is inside, added to the fact that his base was mostly burried underground.
Though, it was a totally different story for the train transporting resources from his factory area. He had already made it so that the last part of the tracks leading to his base would be going underground. However, he could not lose another few months on hiding the whole trackway from the exterior. In the end, he opted for the idea of installing automated turrets along the path. In case players would come a bit too close to the tracks, they would lose everything in an instant.
Most of his buildings were already equipped this way, albeit with self-opening holes in the walls to hide off the turrets until the last moment. One of his machines was even tasked to make bullets round the clock to supply his turrets in case of a raid.
All of this seemed like a bit too much of preparation, but Keith preferred to play it safe than giving away his treasures, and his base. In fact, he had also installed a few bombs inside of the later in case of the worst.
Of course, they were not armed yet, but if the doors were to be breached the base would be ready to self-destruct.
Keith had also resumed his studies at the university, though it left him with more free time than his summer job did, so he was quite pleased by this fact. Most of the courses he attended to were not new to him, so he had no difficulty whatsoever for the time being.
For the following weeks, Keith thus focused most of his attention on his space project.
With a loud thud, Keith checked the launching pad with one of his tools to make sure it was perfectly straight and balanced. He straightened back up and admired the large walls surrounding him. The room from where he would be assembling his rocket was now finished and its sheer size left Keith in awe.
The 'space room', as Keith decided to name it, was at least a few hundred feet high and more than a thousand feet wide. It was a cubic structure, with the launching pad as its center. Large vents led to the exterior to clear out the smoke that would be released during the rocket's ignition phase.
As for the ceiling, he did not have time to think about it so he decided to leave it open. For now, the top of the hill would be covering the room from the exterior. Keith has also started assembling some parts of the rocket to free a bit of space from his stockage area. This allowed him to check whether the parts were being produced at the exact size he had designed them to be as well as checking their sturdiness and a whole lot of other variables.
Keith was really happy by the pace at which he was working on this project. He has progressed a lot in computer science as well as in design and manufacturing. If he continued working at such a speed, there was no doubt that he would finish his first rocket by the end of next month. That was, at least, the milestone that he had set upon himself.
At Midgard, the town center was livelier than usual. Today was the grand opening of a paintball field and people were intrigued by this new game. Especially since paintball guns were originally presented at an Inventopia event, which enjoys great popularity even among people who are not actively playing Project Overworld.
In fact, Project Overworld has gained a lot of recognition since its launch and people who cannot afford a Simulated Reality headgear or even people who did not want to take part in a video game found great interest in the various posts, interviews and videos taken in this game.
Curiously, medias depicted Project Overworld as a "Social experiment", a big difference regarding the way games were usually depicted inside those TV shows or those newspaper articles. In fact, most of the games people usually heard about were "Violent, featuring blood and gore for the sole purpose of enjoyment". One could say that Project Overworld was the same, but the way the citizens of Midgard formed bond and constructed such an elaborated city elated the mainstream medias.
Inventopia also took a huge place in the popularity of the game since those were events "rewarding" inventors who came up with interesting and original ideas. A lot of people, not even related to Project Overworld whatsoever, found themselves waiting for the next inventions featured by the event in case an original idea could be exploited in real life. However, up until now, there has only been some really basic ideas. People could relive the moments of the past with the invention of the wheel, the motor and a few other essential products to humanity as a whole.
That was why the paintball game Amber wanted to install in the city, or in its near proximity, gained a lot more popularity than expected. Added to the fact that a lot of people never got to enjoy such a game in their lifetime, this paintball field was regarded as one of the precursor of the many future enjoyements of the city.
Regardless, Amber went to the field where she would be inaugurating the field and giving a speech on the development of the city. This was also one of the side effect of having Project Overworld that publicized. She was expected to give a speech at every single event organized by the city as it may be part of a compilation video, or a newspaper article. She has prepared to giving speech at the start of her term but this much exposure left her a bit worned out.
'Well, I guess that is what every single public person must go through. The more recognition the city get, the more people will hear about me and the municipal team. It will be easier to be reelected and we may even start living off of the events we may organize. Isn't that what most large gaming companies do? ' Amber meditated. Even if it was grueling, she did not feel like giving up on her position. In fact, she was actually enjoying it and she was considering all the future possibilities Project Overworld could offer to her.