Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 57: Finally, copper!

Walking down the comfortably wide width of the freshly made tunnel, Theo couldn’t stop nervously gulping his spit down his throat.

It felt… wrong, to just waltz below all the possible threats, moving for somewhere between fifty and a hundred steps, only to then demolish a new stretch of the underground passage and just… keep going.

’I know I’m missing out on a ton of potential loot and findmes, but…’

Theo cast an uneasy glance up to the nearby ceiling of his tunnel. While the roof wasn’t close enough for Theo to be able to reach it with his hand, with even a small jump, his hand could firmly press against it. And above the ceiling that Theo had well within his range… were tons upon tons of raw rock, only waiting for him to accidentally burrow through a particularly weaker spot in the underground layer of rock.

"I shouldn’t be looking at it in this way," Theo finally sighed, annoyed with his own thoughts. "While it’s true I have it easy, that wasn’t always the case. Just thinking back to the fight with those hounds…"

A nervous shrug shook Theo’s shoulders as he instinctively glanced over at the current invasion timer.

[46:38:22]

’A bit less than two full days, huh?’

Rolling his eyes, Theo nearly planted his face into the mixed layer of rock and dirt that marked the end of his current tunnel.

’Two lengths of my reach, and judging from the size of this passage…’ Theo took a quick look around to guesstimate the width and height of the tunnel, ’it should be around… seventy meters long?’

Unable to get accurate measurements, Theo could only guess. But with that number in mind, since he had already walked two lengths of it…

"Around a hundred and fifty meters away already, and I’m still not there yet!"

While not much by any standards of industrial-scale distances… Theo could still remember how it felt to traverse the wilds of his claim on its surface. In comparison, strolling through the tunnel would only make it seem shorter than in reality.

Still, a hundred and fifty meters out, and Theo had yet to find the nearest of the copper ore veins!

’Just how far is it?’ he thought, unearthing yet another stretch of the tunnel. He then took a few steps deeper… before a strange, slushing noise reached his ears.

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Still, more curious than worried, Theo kept walking ahead, eager to investigate.

’Maybe copper ore is somewhat magical in this world, or something?’ he thought, noticing how the area of the ring of light above his hips pointing down the tunnel continued to grow brighter and brighter.

But the noise grew. And by the time Theo recognized it…

’Shit, the swamp!’

Right as Theo attempted to dash back, his foot just… sank into the sudden layer of soft, moist earth, slowing him down just enough to throw off his sense of stability.

Planting his face into the mix of dirt and mud, Theo could hear the approaching wave of filthy, stagnant water just a few meters away.

’Crap!’

Panicking, he pulled out his universal tool, eager to block the path off and stop the rush of the swamp’s water…

But rather than entering into his building overlay, he attempted to just… use his universal tool.

While it was still on the excavation setting. And before Theo could process that and pull his finger off the button… he doubled the tunnel’s width by excavating a whole fresh tunnel straight to the side!

For but a second, the water calmed down, finding an easier way out for its rapid momentum.

In that single second, however, Theo managed to calm his mind and twist the tool, switching it back to construction mode.

With a single press, a massive brick of the storage unit suddenly merged with the dirt and rock ahead… displacing all that would obstruct its limits, effectively creating a perfect seal for both of the tunnels.

"Crap…" Exhausted by this quick yet rather exciting meeting with the hidden dangers of this accursed place, Theo just sat down on the wet ground, taking his time to regain his breath and calm his heart.

"Shit, that was close!"

Heaving a long, anxious sigh that nearly transformed into a wail, Theo shook his head before standing up and looking down at his ring of light.

’Next one would be…’ He took a moment, turning on the spot to locate the next brightest part of the ring of light, ’there!’

Raising his eyes, Theo faced the wall of his tunnel at a sharp angle, directed roughly halfway back the way he came from. And while it would be perfectly fine for him to reposition back to the base and then start anew… Theo just restored the proper settings to his universal tool before pressing the button again.

In a second, a seventy-meter stretch of empty space opened up before Theo’s face, only for him to switch the settings back to building mode as he waited without as much as a twitch, ready to seal the path at a moment’s notice.

Thankfully, no dangers of any kind appeared even after several long seconds of waiting, giving Theo the confidence to switch back to excavation mode as he moved down the underground path.

Four careful stretches of the tunnel, halfway through the sixth to be precise, Theo finally found the first patch of ore that he could grab without any sort of noticeable danger.

’Theoretically speaking… I don’t even need to mine a single bit of it by hand, do I?’

Standing above the bluish rock, Theo squinted his eyes… before clearing out a proper cavern around the patch of ore, slapping down a miner and a spare storage unit, and then assigning the same number of workpoints to both the miner and the logistics connecting it to the bin.

’And with this…’ Theo’s face brightened up as the drills of the massive miner started to turn pretty much at the same time as Theo brought his hand up and pointed his tool at the ceiling, right above the huge exhaust pipe of the massive machine. ’With this, I’ve got both iron and copper!’