Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 44: Invasion begins
"Phew!"
Theo exclaimed with relief as he raised his shovel a bit higher than usual, only to then toss it into the ground, its blade digging far enough into the ground for the tool to just stick out from the surface.
"It’s all done," he sighed, only for his eyes to drift over to the clock that still continued to tick in the bottom right of his vision.
[7:12]
[7:11]
"And with a bit of time to spare, huh?"
The last bit of Theo’s plan, the very last step that he ended up with only forty minutes to complete… turned out to take him barely above half an hour.
Out of the thirty minutes Theo spent on the last leg of his small construction project, more than two-thirds went to just… digging out the trench.
Even though just simple, three-by-two was more than big enough for him to freely move around in, just like it was the case with his Oilrat trap, he still had to make sure no monsters could easily get in… or out, for that matter. And so, he had no other choice but to remove another layer of dirt from every wall and floor of his simple tunnel-like trench before replacing it with the spare stone blocks he had in his manor’s inventory.
With that task completed, setting up the stone pile-boxes turned out to be the easiest task out of them all. After all, rather than being capable of withstanding artillery bombardments like the structures Theo based his ideas on, they only had to provide him with safety and an opening to shoot out from.
As such, with the trench completed, he quickly whipped out simple boxes of stone, with just enough space inside to fit him while leaving just enough room for Theo to operate his arbalest. Finishing those up by removing two stones where the bunkers attached to the tunnel to make an entrance and then one block just above the surface level to create a shooting window allowed him to transform those simple blocks of stone into properly reinforced firing spots.
Each of the short trenches ran from one tower to the other, each of them also housing two bunkers aimed outside and one aimed towards Theo’s designated killing zone right in the middle of all six of his towers.
And with just seven minutes to spare, Theo was now left with just one, absolutely final task.
"I wouldn’t want to leave them open, would I?" he muttered to himself as he just walked around the perimeter of his defenses, filling the roof of his trench with blocks of stone.
[3:21]
[3:20]
[3:19]
"Right on time, huh?" Theo muttered to himself as he slid down into the trench before filling the last piece of the empty roof. He then sat down on the cold stones before whipping out his arbalest and a stack of iron-tipped bolts.
’Now, let’s hope I’m actually strong enough to load it,’ he then thought with a small smirk of critical self-reflection on his lips as he grabbed the loading mechanism attached to the side of the weapon before tensing up his arm and then pulling the lever back, watching how through a relatively simple set of gears and pulleys, the iron-reinforced string of the crossbow moved up to its designated spot before locking in.
A second later, Theo inserted the bolt into the special slit designed to stop it from just falling off before closing his eyes and just… taking the last few moments he had to simply rest.
[2:51]
[2:50]
[2:49]
After nearly a full day of nothing but rushed construction, anxiety, and exhaustion, it felt extremely weird to just… sit down and do nothing. So weird, in fact, Theo had to stop himself from standing back up to search for something to do in the spare few minutes.
It simply didn’t feel right to sit down and do nothing after all the time he spent in an extreme rush. Yet, starting anything right now…
It didn’t just feel stupid. It definitely was stupid, for Theo to just… walk out of his hiding spot, all for the sake of making the most out of those last two minutes he had.
[1:59]
The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.
[1:58]
[1:57]
Second by second, the timer continued to near its completion, its numbers now turning from the informative white to a deeper and deeper hue of red, as if the system itself wanted to stress how dangerous things were going to get in just a few more moments.
"Stay calm, and everything will work out…" Theo muttered to himself, daring to open his mouth for the very last time before sealing his lips and starting to control his breath.
[1:00]
Right as his timer struck a single minute, Theo heaved a sigh before pulling out three more bolts out of the bundle of twenty-four that the stack of those turned out to be. He then put two of those bolts right between his left arm, holding the front of his arbalest, pressing them down between his fingers and the iron-reinforced wood of the weapon. The last one, however, he grabbed not by the stock but the sharp tip instead… before grabbing the wood with his teeth and suddenly pulling it out, tearing the skin of his palm open when the blade slid across his skin.
’Tsk…’
Keeping the bolt between his teeth, Theo couldn’t even click his tongue or hiss when the sharp, stinging pain appeared all across his hand, quickly reinforced by the unpleasantly warm, squirmy feeling as blood started to slowly pour out of the cut.
[30]
[29]
[28]
Letting the arrow out of his mouth, Theo gently tore a small piece off the bottom of his shirt, the very same shirt he was sent into exile in.
Using the very last few seconds, he wrapped the once-white cloth around his hand before putting the bolt straight back into his mouth and standing up.
’Just a little bit more…’
[10]
[9]
[8]
Theo stabilized his breathing, refusing to let the fear and anxiety get the better of him.
’I worked too damn hard to hesitate now.’
[7]
[6]
[5]
’Rather than fearing what’s coming, I should look forward to all that I will get out of this fight!’
[4]
[3]
[2]
’Here we go!’
[1]
[0]
The clock… vanished.
Only for a crimson-red line of text to appear right before Theo’s eyes.
[The challengers appear!]
[Defend your claim to preserve it!]
[Subquest: "Annihilation (1)" starts now: Kill the challengers]
[Challengers killed: 0/10]
The crimson notification faded away pretty much as soon as Theo read through it, with nothing but the counter remaining to linger not even in the corner of Theo’s vision, but in the back of his mind.
Yet, the notification vanishing didn’t mean the system bugged out or simply made a mistake.
A simple fact proved by two more changes, changes that Theo was somewhat already familiar with, that came to two parts of his system he was already familiar with, followed by a set of ten health bars stacked one after the other emerging right at the bottom of Theo’s vision.
[Threat level: Extreme]
[Manor’s Threat Level: High]
Wrathhounds (level: 97)
[///][///][///][///][///][///][///][///][///][///]
[Outer Forest - Claimed by Theodore Evilbane (Invaded by a pack of Wrathhounds (level: 417))]
