Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 68: The power is on!
Just like it was the case back when Theo’s factory was nothing but an amalgamation of pixels on his screens, simply by touching a power pole, his system would conveniently display the status of the electrical grid it was a part of.
As such, rather than trying to judge whether or not all of his machines worked properly by the intensity of their sound, all he had to do was just... touch it.
And then, he could enjoy the one and only thing that all gamers would salivate over... all the more Theo, now that it directly translated to his personal prosperity.
He could watch the numbers go up.
And bit by bit, the numbers within his system display grew bigger.
[Powergrid’s Power: 15mw][Powergrid’s Power: 30mw][Powergrid’s Power: 45mw][Powergrid’s Power: 60mw]
Each generator that powered up would add fifteen megawatts of juice to Theo’s grid, soon promising to exceed the predicted usage of all the machines he initially powered up with nothing but his workpoints.
[Powergrid’s Power: 150mw]
’Ten done, fifteen to go...’
Normally, watching the numbers go up would be a simply joyous experience, the confirmation equal to watching the fruits of his labour.
But, just like checking the throughput of his machine, there was a small hint of anxiety. For, with one line of the fuel corresponding to a fourth of the total power his engine could provide, there was a very specific number his grid had to reach to prove all worked as intended!
[Powergrid’s Power: 205mw]
"Just a little bit more..." muttering to himself, Theo had to resist the desire to clutch down at the main body of the power pole so hard, his fingers would literally imprint themselves onto its wooden shaft.
[Powergrid’s Power: 360mw]
Theo’s grid soon reached nearly the limit of what it was supposed to produce...
[Powergrid’s Power: 375mw]
"HELL YEAH!"
Screaming out in a manner unbefitting of the calm person Theo always tried to be, he saw with satisfaction how the growing graph of his power finally flat-lined... and then continued without any changes, proving there were no problems with the first of the four quarts of his engine.
"Now..." he then muttered as he turned his attention over to the other three belts full of fuel that he had yet to connect. "To see if the whole thing works as intended..."
At this point, Theo couldn’t care less that each of those robust machines appeared to produce merely half of the power of their game-based original.
This was the real world, after all! And even if it would take him double the effort, resources, and time to get the same results...
’I couldn’t care less! It’s not like those games were ever designed to be actually translated nearly one-to-one to the real world!’
But now that the first part of his engine finally came alive, Theo actually resisted the desire to boot up the rest of them.
The one annoying quality of this first tier of power-producing buildings was that they always operated at the maximum of their power. As such, they always consumed the optimal amount of fuel. Meaning that even now, before Theo could even connect the power plant to the rest of his existing factories, they were already consuming the precious, limited fuel!
And while it was true Theo could near-effortlessly obtain a near-infinite amount of it... It went against his gamer’s spirit to just let something as precious as fuel, twice-processed fuel at that, just go to waste!
"First, the fuel processing plant..." cutting his celebration short, Theo switched right back to the building mode before dragging the power pole connected to the factory’s engine, then dragging the line all the way over to the very center of his whole cave.
Then and only then did he branch it off in the direction of the fuel-processing plant hidden at the back of the cave before actually branching the power poles out en masse.
With each power pole capable of housing only four different connections, Theo could only effectively power up two machines per single pole, with one of its sockets used to connect to the actual grid and the last remaining one used to extend the grid to the next pole.
Yet, as soon as Theo connected the machines to the grid... just like they did when he powered them up with his workpoints, those piles of metal parts would come alive and start the magical process of turning a bunch of wooden scraps or foliage into mixed biomass before the second set of machines would condense it even further, taking a total of eight parts of the mixed biomass to create a single unit of condensed biofuel.
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"Finally..." breathing out as he enjoyed the music of the heavy machines working at full speed their design provided, Theo allowed the echo of his earlier celebration to resonate with his soul.
After what felt like ages, he finally moved away from the arduous mining of everything by hand, crafting everything through the crafting benches, and then building everything one block at a time.
The constant sound of the operating machines powered up by the engine running on the fuel said machines produced... It was the sign of Theo’s claimed land moving out from the age of feudalism that his manor belonged to and making a proud first step into the age of industrialization.
"Haaa..." breathing out a sigh of satisfaction and relief, Theo then shook his head and looked back into the empty space of his reinforced cave.
In his eyes, however, he could already see this place turning into the heart of an industrial empire, with parts of all tiers being produced en masse.
"Well, that’s only in theory. If I’m to be real, this place, for how massive it might seem now..."
Shaking his head, Theo smiled and then chuckled at his own naivety.
The space in his cave looked big, for sure. And by all means... it was big!
And yet...
Once he started placing down the machines, belts, connectors, walkways, and all the arrays of smelters, crafters, combiners...
"It might look big, but it won’t be long before I run out of space, even if I employ verticality to my advantage."
Looking up at the ceiling, Theo remained in a state of deep thought for a moment before chuckling again as he brought his own thoughts back to earth.
"But that’s a worry for much later. For now," his smile grew wider, "it’s time for my factory to grow!"
