Preparing to leave

The night before, Keith worked on his project for a large portion of the night, so much so that he only slept for a few hours. Fortunately, it was the week-end and he had quite a bit of free time to play Project Overworld. Since he decided that it was time for him to leave his old base, he has been spending a lot more time inside the game to make sure he would be sufficiently advanced by the time Amber decided to do a little inspection of the cave he resided.

It had not been a full week yet, but it definitely felt like so for the young man. However, he was still having a lot of fun designing new machines such as the vehicle he was currently trying to make. The only thing he actually regretted make was this generator and its water pipe. He spent over two months working on it, albeit not full time, and he would not be able to exploit its power, in the end. In fact, he was too focused on preparing his escape that he did not have time for anything else.

If he had a couple more weeks at his disposal, Keith would definitely try and build a large-enough vehicle to transport the whole generator along with him, but it was kind of compromised as of now. The only silver-lining was that he did progress a lot upon working on this machine and he was now optimistic that he would be able to make a better one in only half the time.

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After a long day at the university, Keith realized it was about time Amber checked on him. It has been almost a week and the officer of the New Dawn guild knew full well of his time schedules. As such, she knew that she needed to come her during the evening if she wanted to talk to him.

In fact, after only an hour of being connected to the game, Amber did show up before his base. Keith had kind of prepared for her arrival. Since he did not want to build a full cannon, he at least figured he could be maintaining some sort of an illusion by using a bit of wood to build the frame of some defensive weapons.

As such, he wanted to convince Amber he was currently gathering all the materials needed to build the three cannons and that she should not worry about it. It would be kind of a gamble, but Keith was nearly done with his own project anyways. Keith had also thoughts of a few other ways to extend his delay.

After knocking at the large door made out of steel, Amber waited for Keith to come outside. After a couple of second, a familiar head came out from inside the heavily defended cave.

- "Yes, what is it?" He inquired.

- "Hello Keith! Just wanted to check out on the progress of those three cannons."

- "Oh yeah, come inside."

Showing her around to try and confuse her, Keith finally led her to the place he would usually be engineering stuff for the New Dawn guild. There, a few cannon balls were lying on the ground and three large wooden frames were waiting to be completed.

- "Is that all?" Amber worried.

- "Yeah, for now at the very least. I've made a few molds for pieces of the cannons and I'm currently waiting for the materials to smelt." He lied.

- "Yeah but... Would you really be done by the end of the delay?"

- "I think so. The first week had mostly been spent on the gathering of resources as well as a few improvements on the designs of my cannons. Would you want to see my plans?" Keith offered.

- "I would gladly accept."

Fortunately, Keith did in fact made plans for larger and better cannons during his free time because he has thought of using them against his enemies in the future. As such, Amber seemed a bit more convinced.

- "Still, one week to finish three cannons seems pretty unlikely." She insisted.

- "I might need some more delay, yes. I did not realize the workload that such an order would require off me. I've also been focused on improving my generator and all to develop with electricity so it's been quite a busy week." Keith affirmed.

- "The thing is, we need those cannons now. We'd also like moving on and making new and improved defenses so you should try and hasten the pace. I'll be coming here every evening from now on to check on your progress." Amber decided.

'Shit, that's a smart move on her part. Her senses are really sharp too, she figured I would try and double them.' The young man realized. 'Well, I don't have a lot of choice now. It's either I actually start working for them and I complete those three cannons, making me waste a whole week of time, or I go and talk with Alan directly.'

Obviously, Keith was not presumptuous to the point of thinking he would successfully be negotiating with the leader of the New Dawn, but he could show some curtesy to prevent them from invading his home out of the blue.

That was why, the next sentence from Keith caught Amber off guard.

- "Lead me to your boss, I need to extend my delay by a few more days. It's not like I could go and escape now, right? I would have to leave all of my progress so far, especially that generator of mine..." Keith proclaimed with an concerned look.

Amber was so fooled by his acting that she did, in fact, realize that they were going a bit harsh on the young man.

- "Well, if it's for negotiation I guess I could try and arange a meeting with Alan." She meditated. "In any case, it's getting quite late so you'll have to wait tomorrow." She concluded.

'Nice, one more day of delay!' Keith congratulated himself in his mind.

Amber then immediately returned back home while saying farewell to the young man, leaving him to his business. Since he managed to convince the New Dawn officer to lead him to Alan on the following day, it meant she would not have time to check on his progress.

In fact, he might as well have obtained two full days of delay, in the end. He just had to thought of his interview with Alan in details so he would not irritate him in any shape or form.

_______________

- "So, what brings you here today?" Alan inquired.

After joining the game a bit earlier than usual, Keith prepared for his escape while thinking about the speech he was going to introduce to the leader of the New Dawn guild. Amber visited him only two hours later and immediately accompanyied him to the midst of their fortified base.

Entering a quite elegant building, the receptionist asked them what their business were. Immediately recognizing Amber, the receptionist bowed and let them slide up the stairs leading to the second floor.

'Well, seems like things changed a bit since last time I visited.' Keith realized. This place was resembling more and more like an actual town instead of the 'camp' feeling it gave off a few weeks ago.

Amber led him in front of a door marked as 'Alan's office' before leaving.

'Okay, time for the big talk.' Keith thought while entering the room.

Alan was studying some documents on a desk. Raising his head towards the newcomer, the man's face opened into a bright smile.

- "Ah, welcome back Keith. How have you been doing recently?" He inquired while getting up from his chair and shaking hands with Keith.

- "I was waiting for you since Amber said you would be paying us a visit." He explained before pointing at a seat for Keith to sit in. 'So, what brings you here today?" His tone became more intimidating.

'I feel like things are usually going his way.' Keith meditated while taking the chair the man offered him.

- "It's great meeting you again. I've recently accepted to work on three new cannons for the guild, among the other stuff I am currently trying to develop, and I figured it would be really hard for me to finish that order by the end of the delay you set upon me."

- "And so?" Amber inquired with a stern look.

- "I just wanted to ask for a few more days to complete these cannons. You see, those are a new type of cannon I've been trying to think of, heavier and a lot more powerful than previous ones. I want to make sure everything works properly before delivering them to you." Keith explained.

- "Oh yeah, Amber already told me about this. I honestly have no complaints about this slight delay as long as those cannons are worth the time you've put into them. How many days were you expecting exactly?"

'Let's not ask for too much.' Keith wanted to play it safe.

- "Three days should be perfect to take care of everything." Keith offered, after which Alan fell into contemplation.

- "Looks like a legitimate delay. Okay, let's do that then!" Alan exclaimed.

'Well, that went a lot better than expected!' Keith surprisingly thought.

- "However, Amber will be checking on you starting of tomorrow. She'll be reporting on your progress, so make sure your work hard for the New Dawn guild!" Alan concluded.

'Heh, I guess it was too good to be true.' Keith lamented. 'However, I still gained two full days of delay with that move of mine. The vehicle should be done by the end of the following day anyways, let's just hold on a little longer!' He motivated himself.

After the meeting, Keith ran straight back at his base and resumed his arduous job at building a car. The engine should be done by now, but the young man was getting a bit greedy with the amount of space he wanted his vehicle to have. The more, the better after all. His large amount of supplies would be going to waste if he did not bring them along with him on the incoming journey.