Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!

'Should I?'

As was often the case, the simplest and shortest questions were the ones that were the hardest to answer. And in this particular case, it was no different.

Even without thinking hard about it, Theo could see a whole slew of both positives and negatives of taking such a plunge.

'I would no longer need to worry about the beasts,' he thought, taking a step back as if to distance himself from Callane, away from her men, as he pondered such a simple yet consequential question.

And the lack of threat...

It was most certainly an enticing perspective. But by no means did it exhaust all the benefits Theo would get from accepting Callane's offer.

'First, I could stop worrying about access to any kind of resource given the power of her family... Or, given the power of a family I'm supposed to belong to. I would be free to build the factories wherever I liked, no longer restricted by the dangers this place is full of!'

Funnily enough, the more and the deeper Theo thought about it, the further away his perspective moved from practical solutions of Callane's offer, shifting over to things of absolutely no significance whatsoever.

'I could finally get my hands on some proper food. And by now,' Theo gulped his hunger-powered saliva, 'I would not only be ready but also happy to kill for a damn piece of proper meat!'

Bit by bit, Theo's perspective, something he expected to be perfectly set on staying in this place to remain free from all the obligations civilization would force upon him, started to change.

Now that he made contact with actual humans... He could no longer pretend to be this kind of perfect loner, perfectly happy to live his life in full solitude with nothing but bloodthirsty beasts and bloodless machines to accompany him.

And when adding up the memory of the recent pleasure...

'Shit, the more I think about it, the better it seems to just go through with it!'

Taking a deep breath, Theo crossed his arms over his chest before shutting his eyes and raising his head up, as if he wanted his eyes to pierce through his eyelids and then lock on the cave's ceiling above.

'There are negatives, sure, but... What doesn't have negatives? If I stay here, I'm stuck with just those berries. And however tasty they might be...'

Theo shook his head.

'There's a limit to how much of them I can eat before going crazy! Not to mention all the dangers this place holds. Sure, I can defend it to a degree, but still, wouldn't it be better to just be in a place where I don't have to worry about my safety at all times?'

Bit by bit, Theo's resistance to the idea continued to chip away.

"Theo?" Noticing his struggle, Callane decided to add in a little push on her end by walking up to Theo's side and then taking his arm between her hands before snuggling up to his side.

"In all honesty, leaving right as I was about to make the big upgrade to everything here..." Theo opened his eyes and looked at the cave.

He had put so much work into getting this place stable and secure, getting it all properly ventilated, and ensuring enough power to keep it running even if all the floor space were to fill up with machines...

Leaving it right now felt like a complete loss.

'I mean, I can always build it all from scratch again. Seeing how easy it is to find resource nodes here, how hard could it be on the other side of the wall?'

Then again, Theo's eyes locked on the tier 1 belt patiently and diligently carrying ores to the smelters, only for said smelters to turn the ore into ingots, which would then be used in the crafters...

He was so close!

With just a few more machines, his steel production would begin, quickly followed by a simple makeshift concrete factory that would combine their outputs to allow him to jump straight from the extremely slow tier-one belts to the moderately good tier-four ones.

All of that—Theo was just a few short steps away from achieving. A few short steps that he could easily complete within the next few hours, allowing him to then backtrack, upgrade all the belts in the existing factory, and enjoy them finally reaching their final form of perfectly balanced inputs and outputs, unshackled by the limiting factor of the belt's speed.

"Actually, is there any real rush?" Theo suddenly lowered his gaze from the ceiling and asked while staring at the people awaiting his answer. "I could be done with all that I need to do here in a matter of hours. And from what I can tell..."

He glanced over to where the invasion clock mercilessly continued to tick down, bringing the next invasion to just above fifty hours from now.

"It's still going to be more than two full days before the next attack will come," Theo announced, only to then watch the faces of the group change.

To the side, Callane put on a slightly weirded-out look, followed by a hint of curiosity flashing in her eyes.

When it came to the mercenaries, though...

"You can tell when the monsters will attack?" the leader of the group asked, his face perfectly still yet failing to hide the sense of shock that outright brimmed in his eyes.

Yet, before Theo could even think of what would be an appropriate answer, the man shook his head and raised his hand—as if to stop Theo from answering his question—"No, let me change that. Do you mean to imply that those attacks we merely felt while hiding underground... Were you fighting those off every two or three days ever since you came here?!"

'Ooooh...' Theo finally caught on to just what made the old, clearly seasoned mercenary freak out so much.

"Actually, it was every twenty hours before," he replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "But while that makes it sound really bad, those attacks were a lot weaker back then. But well, my means to fight back were also much more limited. Much more..." Theo took a moment to look through his mind for the right word, "primitive."

The mercenary took a step back as if reeling from the weight of Theo's words and the meaning they carried.

For a moment, he just stood in place and processed all that Theo said, extracting all sorts of meanings—each of which changed his expression by a tiny margin.

In the end, however, the man's face returned to a rather neutral look coupled with a perfectly determined gaze.

"I'm sorry, but no," he stated, clearly referring back to Theo's request to stall their return by just a few hours. "I knew this place was more dangerous than anyone could imagine, but for it to be brimming with so many monsters?"

The man shook his head.

"They are either all over the place, or they are attracted to this place in particular. And that means I'm not going to keep my men here for any longer than absolutely necessary. And now?" The mercenary pointed at the slightly shiny necklace sitting firmly on the chest of the group's guide, one that appeared to be perfectly the same as the one and only thing Theo brought to this side of the wall besides his clothing.

"Now that we have a proper way out, you want us to sit still and just wait?"

The man shook his head before locking his arms over his chest and then shaking his head again.

"I'm sorry, but no. There's no damn way I'm staying here for even a minute longer than absolutely necessary!"

Theo felt a slight tug on his arm, only to look upon Callane's slightly tense face.

"You've heard him," she whispered, more due to the anxiety visibly rising in her eyes than due to some kind of wish to keep the conversation private. "So?" she asked, pulling down on his arm again as if she wanted to climb it up or—which was far more likely—get Theo to look directly into her face.

"What do you say?"

Theo took in a deep breath before slowly, very slowly releasing it out.

'Leaving now would mean losing all the progress I've made in this place. But... Why would I care if it would take me a day or two tops to rebuild it all?'

Fully aware that this line of thought was based on nothing but hopes that the lands beyond the barrier were as resource-rich as the lands on this side of that impenetrable wall, Theo gulped away all of his doubts and hesitations.

"Okay, screw it," he exclaimed as he exhaled, feeling as if some sort of massive weight had dropped off his shoulders now that he had made his choice—even if only because the circumstances pressed him to do so.

"It's not like I'm going to lose all of my powers just because I leave this place. And with just a bit of luck, I should be able to rebuild it all in just a few days," he muttered under his breath, more to himself, to reinforce his own decision, than to explain his choice to anyone, be it the mercenaries or even Callane herself.

"So?" Callane gritted her teeth, somehow refusing to take his mumbling for an answer. "What say you?"

For the second time, Theo exhaled, casting away all his doubts and anxieties with the spent breath he rid his lungs of.

"I will go," he said with yet another sigh. "Just give me a few moments to pack my stuff."