Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 51: Proto-industrial stage

Theo’s evolution-induced sleep was nowhere near what a normal sleep was supposed to be like.

He had no dreams playing out for his consciousness. Yet, instead of just… losing track of everything and waking up once the process was fully completed, Theo’s sleep was… different.

The best way to compare it would be some sort of heavy anesthesia, one strong enough to knock someone unconscious and then keep them in such a state, even at a time when the body would desperately try to wake up.

At some point, Theo seemingly regained a small portion of his consciousness, only for it to be rendered powerless to do anything but just… observe what little it could of the process.

Stuck in this weird limbo, Theo could hardly get any rest out of it. Heck, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to claim this whole process was more tiring to his mind than it would be to just stay awake and work his butt off!

That, in turn, made things even worse, given how the absolute lack of exercise, coupled with ten hours spent in a state of stasis, would only make it harder for the young man to get proper sleep later on, once the whole evolution process was completed.

’I guess it’s back to staying up the nights for me, isn’t it?’

Rolling his mental eyes, Theo had no other choice but to keep… not even observing but feeling the changes, even though it already felt rather strange for him to feel the growth—or evolution, as the system itself called it—of his system.

Or could it be that it wasn’t as much of a separate entity as Theo had always just assumed it to be?

This and many other thoughts went through Theo’s head as he lay in his bed, perfectly powerless, perfectly vulnerable.

Yet, whether it was the system sneakily affecting the rate at which the monsters dared to encroach upon Theo’s claim or his active towers warding off whatever attacks potentially came his way, by the time Theo woke up…

The world around him appeared to be just as it was back when he fell into this weird state of stasis, with no more changes to it than one would expect over the passing of ten hours.

If anything, the one major difference between the times before and after the system evolution was the time of the day—or, as Theo noticed from the darkness of his bedroom, the time of the night.

’It’s been ten hours, so it’s only to be expected for ten hours to pass, huh?’ he thought, blinking his eyes a few times to get rid of the oily substance covering them, only to then raise his hands and rub his eyes with his palms.

As he finally managed to properly open his eyes and actually see, one notification took precedence over the darkness-covered insides of Theo’s manor.

[System Evolution: Completed]

[You have now embarked upon the path of an industrialist]

[Main quest evolved!]

[Survive: 82:18:14:31] > [Reach the ’Early Industrialization’ stage]

[Current stage: ’Proto-industry’]

[Your Manor has evolved into a settlement!]

[You can now assign manual workpoints to power up various work-stations!]

[Workpoints: 10/10]

[You don’t have any industry to assign workpoints to!]

[Unlocking the 1st stage of industrial development!]

[Miner (tier 1) unlocked!]

[Smelter unlocked!]

[Constructor unlocked!]

The plethora of notifications from before that Theo ended up leaving for after he woke up to properly read through… By now, most of those notifications had grayed out. And while they were still clearly applicable, by now…

The parts of the system that those notifications affected had also received the graying-out treatment. And while it was nothing more than Theo’s personal feeling, he could somehow tell what this kind of treatment meant.

’So that means all my perks to gathering stuff or the rate at which I can mine stuff out are no longer relevant?’ Squinting his eyes, Theo felt a tinge of frustration.

It was one thing if he now got a better alternative that triumphed over all of his abilities to manipulate the world around him from before, but if that wasn’t really the case… then what would be the point of even evolving his system to begin with?

A question like that, however, Theo’s system refused to leave unanswered, providing a proper explanation with the very next, perfectly vibrant notification that Theo found after sorting past all the grayed-out ones in his mental queue.

[You’ve now reached the proto-industrial stage!]

[Now that you’ve moved beyond the pre-industrial stage, your tools have evolved into: Basic Basher (tier 0), which can be used as both a universal close-combat weapon and a universal resource-gathering tool!]

But as if that wasn’t enough, as soon as Theo scanned through this notification, a new one appeared!

[New Sub-Quest Received!]

[Universal Basher - Tutorial!]

[Dig out ten units of dirt: 0/10]

[Mine out ten units of stone: 0/10]

[Use the basher’s resource scanner: 0/1]

[Locate the nearest unoccupied resource vein: 0/1]

[Mine out ten units of ore: 0/10]

’That’s…’ Theo gulped down his saliva as a small spark of excitement, born when he first started reading through the quest requirements, quickly developed into a burning fire of passion.

’Finally, something that actually feels like a proper quest!’

Contrary to just… surviving for three months, he finally got his hands on a list of objectives he could realistically complete with his own hands, as opposed to just letting a rather long period of time pass.

Yet, as if that wasn’t enough…

[New Sub-Quest Received!]

[Proto-Industry - Tutorial!]

[Use the basher’s scanner to locate the nearest unoccupied resource vein: 0/1]

[Construct a miner (level 1) on top of an unoccupied resource vein: 0/1]

[Construct a smelter: 0/1]

[Construct a constructor: 0/1]

[Assign the workpoints to each of the proto-industry machines: 0/3]

[Assign workpoints to the logistic lines connecting each of the machines: 0/2]

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[Automate the production of at least 10 iron plates per minute: 0/1]

"Now we are talking…" Theo muttered to himself as his lips quivered before forming a huge, eager smile.

If the mining guild of his manor was already the best part of this entire system subroutine—for it could endlessly provide him with a crucial resource—then this second sub-quest he received…

"Isn’t this just an invitation to a world where rather than worrying about how much of any given resource I have, I only need to care about how much of it I can output per second?"

The more Theo thought about it, the harder it became for him to hold his excitement back—an excitement that already brought him out of his mansion and to his manor’s inner courtyard.

"For now, though, before trying to complete either of the quests, there’s still one important thing I absolutely have to do," he muttered to himself as he went past the wooden gate, soon arriving at the very same spot where, just ten short hours ago, he was starting to consider the idea of giving it all up and just escaping.

Because for every breath Theo took, every step he made, and every moment that passed… the clock dictating the next invasion of the challengers continued to tick away.

And while Theo had quite the convenient way to—even if only for a few days—put it aside, he still had to dig out and then move the encased corpse of that level 417 Wrathhound!