Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 122: Waiting? Not in my dictionary!
"For now, let's just get some of them produced," Theo narrated his own experience to the audience of his own ears as he left the new branch of the factory and went all the way back to where a small number of machines continued to process the richstone he manually excavated.
Even now, several days after he set the whole thing up, those poor machines continued to toil away at this nearly impossible task of processing all the stone Theo continued to excavate over and over again. And whenever they would make a dent in the stockpile, turning the copious amount of richstone into bags of cement for Theo's own use…
He would transfer even more of the stone that he excavated directly into the storage unit hooked up to the system. And then, before even going back to mining out the underground tunnels, Theo did it again and again, repeating the process all the way until he could get rid of all the richstone lingering in his backpack.
Right now, however, for the very first time, rather than just grabbing the processed cement from the storage unit whenever he ran out of stock in his pocket dimension, Theo actually hooked up a belt to the output end of the very last storage unit in the line. He then dragged it across the existing branches of his factory all the way to where his crafter machines were all bristling, ready to suck on the engine's power and combine the steel pipes with the concrete into the most crucial item in all of Theo's plans—the alternative version of the reinforced steel beam.
"It isn't much, but it's still an honest work," he muttered to himself before hooking the belt to the array of belt splitters, each of which, with the exception of the very last one in the line, fed both into the machine and into the splitter in front of it.
Once again, rather than wasting time trying to load-balance the entire thing so that every final stretch of the belt would carry a precise amount, he opted to just throw all of the concrete down on one belt, fully aware that the very machines those belts would feed would produce the one resource he needed to fix the main issue of using the overflow method.
After all, the overflow method of arranging logistics took time to reach full operational capacity—only once every machine in the line had its internal inventory filled up to the brim. That issue, however, wouldn't matter if the belt feeding into the system carried many times more items than what was required!
"And now, we wait." With the last stretch of the concrete-carrying belt now properly hooked into the system, Theo took a step back before stretching his arms up high and then leaning them as far back as he could, all the way to the point where his spine started to crack a bit.
Then, a small, silly smile appeared on his lips.
"As if!"
Before the first bag of concrete could even cross through the entire factory and reach its new branch, Theo had already moved on to the next project in line—getting his hands on a proper supply of richstone. A task he had formerly abandoned out of rational fear of the powerful monster guarding the deposit.
Whether it was luck or ill fate, the very monster that guarded the richstone vein was most likely the one that had come to invade Theo's claim during the last wave of the most recent attack. And with how the monster's corpse and the layers of chitinous armor it shed were now nothing more than pieces of loot stashed away at the bottom of Theo's pocket dimension, it only made sense for Theo to exploit this opportunity!
After all, with his plans of hurriedly leaving this place as soon as he got the option to properly do so, it only made sense for Theo to secure the whole area before leaving, lest he wanted to have it all devastated and then claimed by monsters on a level he simply couldn't fight without the support of all the defenses he could set in this place right now!
For that to happen, though, for Theo's defenses to reach the level where he would feel confident leaving this place without supervision, he had to get his hands on the technology that didn't exist within the game that his system was based on.
No.
He had to use his points to purchase special recipes, each of them more expensive than the other. And what was even worse, those recipes… they didn't follow the same development and progression scheme as the game Theo's system was based on.
'Heck, the massed rocket artillery was normally only possible once one actually went to other planets to mine silicon and titanium!' Theo thought, recalling the details of the other factory-building game he had spent half his youth on.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.
Which was exactly the reason why Theo had no other choice but to go out and get his hands on as much richstone as he humanly could. After all, while extremely inefficient, there was a recipe that allowed one to get their hands on both silicon and titanium… by burning through ungodly amounts of stone in this extremely impractical refinement method!
"Assuming the vein is as big as all the others I saw, adjusting for the better efficiency of the second-tier miners, calculating throughput with the new belts in mind…" Theo muttered as the gears of his mind spun, calculating the numbers as he already moved to where he had once ventured to seek the vein, only to return post-haste while trying to outrun death incarnate.
"While not good enough to be considered fast, I should be able to get enough stone to get the defenses properly automated," he self-narrated as he reached the small opening in the otherwise uniform wall of the factory.
For anyone else, it would be nothing more than an entrance to the tunnel leading a whopping two meters into the stone, only to then end with a perfectly smooth wall of stone.
For Theo, however, even approaching this place was enough for a cold shiver to move up his spine. Yet, as he stood facing this simple hole in the cave's wall… he refused to let the residual fear of the past encounter take control over his actions.
'Even if it's actually a different monster, I can escape the same way I did back then. What I can't, however,' the look on Theo's face hardened, 'is let my fears stop me from doing what has to be done.'
Theo took a deep breath… before whipping out his universal tool and aiming its area of effect into the hole ahead, adjusting it to the standard shape he used for tunneling.
"Whether you are there or not, you bastard," he whispered as he pressed the button and twisted his wrist, "here I come!"