Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 74: Chief Voiderling!

The bone-chilling cry filled every nook and cranny of the tunnel Theo was in. Then, it filled Theo’s entire body with a dangerous dose of adrenaline, allowing him to spring into action right away.

’Crap!’

Wasting no time, he switched his universal tool into build mode, hastily blocking the upward tunnel with just a bunch of stone from his inventory…

Only for the placement of the stone to fail, as the projection turned red!

’Shit, it’s already inside?!’

Thankfully, when running on an equal amount of oxygen and adrenaline, Theo’s brain connected the dots before he could consciously do so himself.

That didn’t mean he could just fix the issue right away, though.

’Faster!’

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on freёwebnoѵel.com.

Screaming out in his thoughts, Theo switched right back to the excavation setting of the tool, only to turn the projection around and aim it downward instead, hurriedly pressing the button to excavate even more of the stone.

By now, the bone-chilling cry had died down, replaced by the brushing sound of something sliding against the stone.

A sound that only served to hurry Theo even more than he already was, as he pressed the button and waited for the progress bar to fill up before a whole slew of stone finally vanished, allowing him to finally move on to actually blocking the tunnel again.

’Faster!’

Crying out in his thoughts, Theo twisted the universal tool again, pushing it straight back into build mode. Then, with just his thoughts alone, he started to shift the projection of what he wanted to build from the upward tunnel he excavated just a few moments ago down to the shaft he created just now.

For the next terribly long few seconds, the projection kept its red color… all the way until the point where it finally turned green.

’Now!’

Screaming out in his thoughts, Theo pressed the button of his universal tool down… yet in the short moment it took him to do so, whatever was coming managed to encroach upon the projection, turning it red again!

’SCREW IT!’

With the sound of something outright running down the nearly vertical tunnel now growing loud and close enough for Theo to hear each of the separate steps rather than hearing them all merged into one sound, one noise.

Done with half-measures, Theo gritted his teeth… and dragged the projection as far down the freshly excavated shaft as he could, pretty much ready to fill the tunnel he just made rather than the one the danger was coming from. Then, by jerking it just a few meters up, he finally managed to get it to be green again for long enough to actually press the button.

Pop.

Just like that, a pillar of stone appeared right before Theo’s eyes, pretty much right as his building overlay was forcefully closed off as his system switched over to another subroutine.

[Chief Voiderling: (level 1442) - Fierce Defense mode]

’Wait, defense?’

Only now, upon closer inspection, did Theo realize that the line of his system that he grew so used to seeing he started to ignore had now changed. And rather than displaying the name of his own claim…

[Inner Forest East - Claimed by Chief Voiderling (level 1442) - Invaded by Theodore Evilbane (level 72)]

’Oh crap…’

With his eyes turning wide, Theo took a step back.

Just the discrepancy between his level and the level of the monster he accidentally disturbed was enough to make him stumble on his feet. And the fact that he ended up accidentally invading its lair…

’Is it just my luck, for me to find out the answer in such an unpleasant way?’

Breathing in and out to calm his heavily beating heart, Theo slumped down on the stones of his tunnel, struggling to get himself to calm down.

And how could he do so when he accidentally ended up nearly facing off against a monster that could, judging by the levels, easily snack on the wrathhounds that Theo struggled so much to defeat?

Yet, as if to prove that things were no longer as easy as they were before, right as Theo managed to somewhat calm down… A new sound reached his ears.

A sound awfully familiar to the noise his pick would make whenever he would strike a stone with it!

’Wait,’ Theo’s eyes opened wide as he looked up, only to see nothing but the stone roof of the chamber he excavated before the whole ordeal, ’don’t tell me…’

The sound only continued to grow louder and louder, indicating its source was getting closer with every passing second.

Startled, Theo jumped up to his feet, only to then sense the walls of stone around him now vibrate, confirming the worst possible scenario he didn’t even dare to imagine.

’IT’S DIGGING DOWN?!’

A single look at the system confirmed Theo’s fears.

[Chief Voiderling (level 1442): Chasing the claimant]

"Not letting me off that easily, huh?" Theo muttered under his nose as he took a step back into the tunnel he used to get to this place to begin with. Then, he took another step.

Yet, before he could make the third, Theo gritted his teeth and opted to stay his ground instead.

’For just the voiderling’s legs to fall off when I first removed the stone, could it be…’ Ignoring the noise of the digging beast and the shaking of the stone its digging caused, Theo looked down at his universal tool.

’Could it be… am I still underestimating just how stupidly overpowered this tool… No, how stupidly overpowered my system is?’

Following this thought, Theo gulped his saliva before switching the universal tool straight back to excavation mode and then morphing its sphere of influence right back to the same thing he used to dig the upward tunnel to begin with. Yet, pretty much as soon as he brought it up, eager to dig the same tunnel again—just this time, by digging through the angered boss monster rather than just the stone…

For the very first time when it came to excavation… The sphere of influence Theo could see overlaying his normal vision turned red, only for an alert to be displayed all across Theo’s vision.

[Action Blocked: Level of the tool insufficient to mine through: "Chitinous Armor of the Chief Voiderling"]

"Well, crap…" Theo whispered, his body involuntarily taking the third step back into the tunnel.

By now, the digging noises grew so loud, they appeared to be coming from behind just a thin layer of wood, rather than a several-meter-deep layer of stone. Even the vibrations Theo could sense by touching the walls had now turned into outright shaking, akin to what he expected to experience by spending an earthquake event underground.

In other words, Theo’s time to figure out a solution to the problem he invited was now running out.

’If I retreat, I’m only going to lead it straight back to the factory. And even if I had those guns I wanted so much,’ he gulped his saliva down, ’the chances are, they would be useless against an armor even my tool cannot penetrate! And that means...’

Rather than taking another step to the back, Theo took a deep breath before raising his tool up to the emptiness ahead.

’I need to make sure it won’t follow me back to my claim!’