Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 56: Let’s abuse the reality some more!

’It’s working…’

At first, it was but a single, faint, shy thought that permeated through Theo’s mind.

Then, his lips trembled. And next…

"It’s working."

A mere statement of fact, as simple as it could get.

But for Theo, this moment couldn’t be any more grand!

’SHIT!’

Stunned by the consequences of what he had just witnessed, Theo could hardly swallow his saliva down. For but a few moments, all he could do was struggle to stop his eye from twitching.

It worked.

Meaning, he would never have to worry about iron again. Or rather, rather than focusing on how much of it he had stored, he would have to switch his mindset to its throughput.

But as grand as this single machine working was in Theo’s mind, for now…

For now, it was but a single miner, with its ability limited to an output of a standard, medieval mine.

One the size that would make it the crown’s jewel of any kingdom, but still, just a single mineral mine.

And by all means and purposes, where Theo’s new subsystem shone the best wasn’t in just the extraction of raw resources. It did in the field of turning them into ready-made and mass-produced final items that could be used both in expanding the production… and, in the real world, for quite literally anything else Theo could even imagine!

’At this rate, it won’t be long before I create a damned palace out of freaking steel plates!’

He grinned to his own thoughts… only for his smile to then sink as he turned his attention first to the next step on his tutorial list before looking closer at its actual requirements.

[Construct a smelter: 0/1]

Up to this point, everything was fine and dandy. It wasn’t until Theo saw the items he actually needed to craft to get this building produced!

’Copper wires, huh?’

Staring at the required material that he simply didn’t have, Theo could only sigh out before rolling his eyes.

"I guess that means I still have to complete a bit of an exploration before getting this tutorial done, huh?"

In reality, it was hardly a surprise.

If not for Theo’s willingness to give up on his mining guild—a choice now proved to be perfectly sound—he would have to venture out to look for another iron ore vein.

Now, however, he had no other choice but to get himself ready and go on an adventure to conquer the next mineral vein that would allow him to enter the next level of expansion and development!

Or so it would be the case if this was any of the factory-building games Theo played in the past, rather than a mishmash of their mechanics superimposed over the real world.

Back in his gaming times, Theo had to obey the structure of the world to which the game’s mechanics would be attuned. In voxel-based games, most of the stuff around him would be worthless, forcing him to seek actual deposits of ore and other goodies. In other types of this game, the ground would be permanent, making it impossible to alter or cross it except through the ways of various glitches.

And in both types of those games, the gameplay loop, its internal logic, and the system’s mechanics would align with how the world itself was structured.

In Theo’s case, however, things were different.

And just like he applied gravity to the edge between reality and his system, right now, rather than getting himself ready for the dangers of a potentially long expedition… Theo simply twisted his mining tool at its middle to set it to scanning mode before twisting its bottom quarter to select copper from the rolling selection window that appeared before his eyes.

With a press of a button, magic, microwaves, quark pairs, or whatever it was that made this tool work shot out in all directions, scouring through the ground and surface in search of what Theo wanted. And before a minute could pass…

[Ping!]

[Ping!][Ping!]

[Ping!]

A total of four different sounds came. Pretty much at the same time, a ring of light appeared, gently glowing around Theo’s hips, with some parts of it glowing brighter than the others.

’Directions?’

Following nothing but his sense of gut, Theo turned his eyes towards the only exceptional part of this ring of light that shone with a much darker, grayed-out light.

And just as he already expected, it pointed directly at the ore patch with Theo’s miner already on it!

"So that I was right about, huh?" he muttered to himself before taking a look through all the other items he could currently craft.

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Rather than looking at the buildings themselves, however, Theo turned his attention to what they required to be built.

Iron plates were the norm. Copper wire or cables, both of which could be crafted out of copper ore, were just as common. But there was still a third material that Theo would, sooner or later, get his hands on.

And by all means, sooner meant better.

’Concrete, huh?’ Theo squinted his eyes, turning his attention back to the stone he excavated earlier. And while the crafting recipe indicated it could be made in a smelter with the very richstone Theo excavated from the area by simply dismantling it…

’It would still be for the best if I could automate it.’

Shaking his head, Theo quickly gathered all the ore his miner had dug out until now before making a quick trip back to his mining base, where he had no other choice but to suffer through another delay of waiting for said ore to smelt through in his blocky-sourced furnaces.

It was annoying to the point that Theo whipped out his axe, dug out a layer of stone off the base’s wall, and replaced it all with a whole new array of furnaces, all to speed this smelting process up.

In the end, Theo continued his preparation all the way to the point where he had two more miners and two more storage units at the ready. Then, and only then, did he scan for copper again before turning his head over in the direction of the nearest deposit.

"Well, let’s go and abuse some of the perks of using game tools in a real-life scenario," Theo giggled as he changed the settings on the universal tool back to the default before molding the excavation area to be in the shape of a long tunnel, just high and wide enough to let him comfortably walk through.

"A tunnel in a second, going once, twice, and…"