Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 52: Statue erected, time for the (late) tutorials!

"There it is…"

In the end, when faced with the task of actually digging something out, rather than using his fancy new tool—a tool he had a damned tutorial quest for—Theo still ended up using his trusty old shovel and pickaxe.

’What would be the point of all those upgrades if I ended up destroying the very thing I really want to get in an attempt to bring it out of the ground?’

Thankfully, the task of removing the stone and dirt out of the way was easy. The task of pulling this iron-encased beast out of the hole it was in, however, proved not to be all that simple.

"Crap…" Theo didn’t hold back when trying to complete his task.

When pulling it out with his hands proved to be impossible, he went ahead and ordered a total of five additional crossbows, only to then dismantle them for the sake of getting their strings out. Then, after binding them together, he attempted to pull the statue out of the ditch.

Sadly, while he was strong enough to make it budge… to actually pull it up would require not two, but maybe even three if not four Theos pulling on it at once!

’Okay, since I cannot just drag it out of the ditch… let’s make the job a little bit easier on myself.’

While not all that interested in the decorative functions of his now grayed-out parts of the system, Theo finally found a proper use for them. And after retreating back to his mansion, where the closest of his crafting benches could be found, he then spent both some of the stone and then some of the time to craft stone half-blocks.

Yet, rather than going for cubes cut to half their height, he went for cubes cut along their diagonal, making them into neat building blocks for a ramp.

’The angle is a bit too sharp for my liking, but I really don’t want to mess around with it for any longer than I have to,’ Theo thought, satisfied with just half of a stack of the ramp-blocks.

Then, finally, after filling what used to be his battle trench with the angled triangles of the ramp-blocks, he managed to move the statue.

An effort that he then kept up for close to an hour—half of which he spent merely trying to bring it out to the surface—then paving the way to the inner court of his manor with stone blocks to prevent the statue from simply sinking into the ground before finally, FINALLY, putting it to the side of his mansion’s entrance.

[Erected the statue of terror!]

[The next two waves of the challengers shall be postponed!]

"That’s…"

Initially, when seeing the wording used by the system, Theo felt like uttering quite the vicious curse out loud. A curse that he ended up muffling, already knowing better than to spit venom at the one thing that effectively kept him alive on the wrong side of civilization’s edge.

’Postponed, not canceled, huh?’

Theo sighed out before stashing away all of his old tools and whipping out his new, universal one instead.

Holding it in his hand for the very first time, Theo couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

At best—and that’s while giving it a massive benefit of the doubt—it looked like a seriously oversized EpiPen, with a sculpting knife at its bottom in place of the EpiPen’s needle. At the top, however, just like in that medicinal utensil, there was a button… the use of which Theo could only try to guess.

For now, however, rather than guessing around, he had a job to do. And for the very first time since he was thrown into this rich yet abandoned land of endless dangers, his list of objectives wasn’t something he had to come up with himself but a list of targets that his very own system provided!

And so, with the invasion timer now turning from just above eight hours to a bit over forty-eight of them instead, Theo finally got himself to the first of the two tutorial quests his system graciously bestowed upon him—mere three near-death encounters after it first appeared!

’First goes…’ Theo took a quick look at the list of requirements of the first of his two tutorial quests. ’Dig out ten units of dirt,’ he thought, only to raise his eyebrow before glancing down at the EpiPen-like item in his hand.

"How do I even go about it, though?"

This wasn’t something as self-explanatory as a shovel that Theo simply needed to strike into the ground before lifting some dirt to indicate to the system how he wanted to use the tool.

Thankfully enough, the blocky game wasn’t the only one Theo used to play in his past. And all things considered… it wasn’t even the one he spent the most hours in!

’Assuming it works in quite a satisfactory way…’

Squinting his eyes, Theo reached out with his hand and… pressed the button.

Yet, save for a quick flash of faint light, nothing really happened.

’Wait, was that a two-step press or was it just me?’

Puzzled, Theo released the button before reaching out with his hand again, pointing at an unassuming patch of dirt just outside of his mansion. Then, he gently pressed the button…

Only for a whole eight meters by eight meters area to get highlighted!

’And if I were to follow my guts…’

Gulping his saliva down, Theo pressed the button fully down and then twisted his wrist to hold his universal tool… sideways.

A small progress bar appeared before his eyes, one that filled up in a matter of a second…

Only for a huge, eight-by-eight-by-eight-sized block of dirt to just vanish, only to then appear in Theo’s personal inventory as ’dirt foundation.’

[Obtained: Dirt foundation x1]

[Dig out ten units of dirt: 1/10]

"That’s…"

While seeing the number in his quest and his inventory go up felt great without a shred of a doubt… having a massive hole right out in his innermost courtyard wasn’t a proper price to pay for it!

As such, after picking up the dirt foundation he just obtained and then putting it straight back into its former place, Theo grabbed several units of food from his now remodeled storage before walking out of the innermost ring of his walls and then standing right within the limits of his wooden gate.

"Thinking about it now, isn’t this the best way to get rid of all those damned trees?"

With the idea popping up in his head, Theo reached out his hand, half-pressed the button of his tool to highlight a seemingly random patch of heavily forested land… before fully pressing the button down and then twisting his wrist, patiently waiting the long second for the process to complete.

And then, just as Theo hoped and even expected, not only did an eight-by-eight-by-eight cube of dirt just… vanish into thin air, but so did all the trees that grew out from it!

[Obtained: 1 dirt foundation, 73 units of foliage, 41 units of wood]

’That’s most likely different from the units I’m used to, aren’t they?’ Theo thought, rolling his eyes as he recalled what those two bits would normally be used for in the game that his industrial subsystem was most likely derived from.

’If I’m right about this, I should save as much of those to later craft it into biomass that I would then feed into biomass burners to provide power for the grid and all the machinery attached to it, huh?’

Sadly, to reach this level… Theo would need more than just iron. Heck, he would need limestone for proper foundations, then copper for wiring, and then enough juice in the grid to actually turn iron and copper ore into items necessary to create more buildings capable of either mining, smelting, or processing the mined-out goods!

’And judging by the tutorial, it’s going to be a good while before I even reach the level of actually using energy with those workpoints and all,’ shaking his head, Theo attempted to clear his head, knowing better than to immerse himself in a new subsystem with nothing but game-based expectations.

After learning quite a bit from his earlier subsystems, he knew better than to expect his systems and the mechanics of the games he used to play to match each other one-to-one.

’I wonder, just how different will this subsystem be from my expectations?’ Theo thought to himself before shaking his head as he reached out with his hand again… and in a matter of two seconds, removed another block of dirt and trees, creating a considerably long and deep ditch that he would likely need to spend several minutes digging out with just his shovel. Adding up all the trees that doing so removed, and the time necessary to bring forth the same results with his old tools would likely reach into hours!

Doing it now, however, took Theo a total of ten seconds—five of which he wasted thinking about stuff.

"Well, it seems that the more I grow, the faster my growth will be," Theo whispered as he whistled in amazement before taking a look at his quest and then grinning out like an idiot. "For now, though," he muttered as his eyes flashed and his hand reached out again, "let’s get this quest completed!"

Walking along the edge of his recently completed excavation, Theo dug out another cube of ground and trees. And then another.

And before a minute could pass, the first task of his questline came to a hurried end.

[Dig out ten units of dirt: Completed!]

’Now that this part is done, though…’ Theo looked down at his ditch before sighing out, shaking his head, and then retreating back into the innermost part of his compound before rushing down the hidden stairs to his underground base.

There and only there did his smirk return as he faced the empty wall of dirt and stone with his eyes already locked on the next requirement for his tutorial.

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

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