Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!

The few moments that Theo spoke of stretched to an hour or two in his imagination when he thought about just how many different things he would like to bring over to the other side.

Yet, when reality came and he started to gather up his stuff, he quickly came to realize that the great majority of his possessions were already either stored within his inventory or could be stored inside of it in a matter of mere minutes.

'Should I dismantle all the machines, then?' he thought right as Callane and her mercenaries started to give him slightly annoyed looks as he made them all linger in the cave for longer than they ideally would like to stay.

Yet, as Theo cast a glance across the cave — its meticulously even shape, pragmatically set machines, nice straight lines of his belts…

He spent so much time making sure that not only were his designs balanced in terms of their inputs and outputs — as far as it was possible with just tier-one belts — but he also projected them with space efficiency in mind, knowing full well that even this enormous cave he excavated, even if he were to put verticality to use and create several floors in it…

If he were to be reckless with how he used the space, it wouldn't be long before he would run out of room in this underground chamber.

Now, however, that he was about to leave it all behind, staring at all those even lines, neat rows of machines, storage units either already full or filling up to the brim with their assigned resources...

Theo sighed and shook his head before turning around on his heel, leaving the factory untouched.

Even if some monsters were to claim it, they wouldn't be able to take proper advantage of this place. And even if he left, the automation of his defenses would make it rather challenging for any monster to approach for a long, long time.

Still, knowing just how much work he put in to set it all up, Theo simply couldn't bring himself to just… destroy it all, especially if it served no real purpose nor harbored a risk of creating an enemy with the might of the small industrial empire that this place would translate to in the civilization of this world.

"Theo, I know that it's not that easy to just up and leave…" Callane called out, already by the small opening that connected the factory cave to Theo's initial underground outpost.

"Yeah, yeah," Theo nodded his head before shaking it a little as he turned his eyes away from his factory for one last time before heading in the direction of the rest of the group. "I'm coming!"

In Theo's head, he was going to just climb up the earthen stairs like he did hundreds of times before. He would then guide the group on a short trip to the outer ring of his walls before using his excavation tool to open up a path for them through, finishing their expedition with a short trek from the outer wall, through where he fought his first monster, and then all the way back to the mysterious dam that blocked the valley off.

Yet, as soon as he passed through the narrow passage connecting the two parts, another wave of nostalgia struck him, almost bringing him to the point where he would reconsider his recent decision.

The wall of furnaces where he smelted his first ores.

The small hole in the wall at the end of the smaller cave where he used to sleep before his mansion above even came to be. Even the cube of the crafting bench was still there, waiting for him to come and craft something.

Even if Theo's history in this place was rather short, it was so jam-packed with events, developments, and excitements that leaving it felt like leaving a childhood home.

'Thinking about it, save for the prison carriage that brought me to the wall, this is the first place I could actually call home in this world,' Theo thought, once again stopping for a moment as he cast a sweeping glance across the space before releasing a heavy sigh and then following the group to the dug-out staircase.

"Are you okay?" Callane asked, hurriedly grabbing onto his arm before pressing herself against it, as if to remind him about one of the main reasons why he decided to go with her.

The simple human desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves — an animalistic instinct pushing an individual to be a part of the pack. A desire that even bigger loners would exhibit, with their character merely limiting how much they wanted to interact with the others rather than removing such need completely.

"Yeah," Theo nodded his head, closing his eyes as he then gently shook it to the sides, only realizing he was pretty much gesturing 'no' with his head by the time Callane let go of his arm in order to start climbing up the meter-high stairs. "I was just hit by a concentrated dose of nostalgia, thinking how I'm unlikely to ever visit those places again," he explained silently, too deep in his own thoughts to pay any mind to his surroundings or the stares that the mercenaries threw to each other when hearing this.

This situation repeated above again when Theo's eyes instinctively drew towards the outline of his mansion, where he both crafted his tools and spent several nights sleeping better on the simple bedding in his bedroom than he could in an actual king-sized bed equipped with the best-quality mattress this world's craftsmen could make.

The moat that he spent so much time digging out, reinforcing, and then arming with the electricity. The still-standing circle of five towers where he fought off the wrathhound invasion…

Even the outer wall, a place he never really visited after getting it set up, brought forth the memories of where he went around cutting down trees to make room for said wall's construction.

Theo's ego continued to suffer through the onslaught of nostalgia as the group went on a path that brought him back in the past, revealing both the memories of his past exploits but also forcing him to realize just how far he went as he, in a way, traveled back in time.

With Theo's system still counting down until the next invasion, not a single monster appeared to torment them on their way back. And even if they did, Theo's guns, with their range easily reaching all the way over to the massive, dam-like wall at the mouth of the valley, ensured their group wouldn't have anything to fear.

All of those memories continued to haunt Theo, even when he passed through the unnaturally malformed terrain — the scars left behind by the very first structure he constructed back when he had nothing but his blocky system and the endless amount of determination to make the most out of it.

'Thinking back, why have I never bothered to put up a field for the berries to grow?' Theo thought, struck by this now useless if not outright irrational thought. 'It would save me the effort of going out to harvest the wild ones and likely provide me with enough food and drink not to worry about those two aspects of survival anymore.'

Was it Theo's defensive reaction to the perspective of leaving this place, so jam-packed with intense memories, behind? Or maybe his mind simply worked in weird ways — ways Theo himself could not comprehend?

"Here we are," the mercenary leader spoke as they finally approached the foot of the valley's barrier, his voice and words forcing Theo out of his dazed state, leaving him with no other choice but to acknowledge the reality.

'So that's it,' he thought, only to realize that at some point during this trip, Callane had returned to his side, constantly pressing her chest against his side as if to remind him of both the companionship and the pleasure that came from staying by her side.

Yet, even now, with just a few more moments before his exile would come to a premature end, Theo failed to eradicate his doubts, his hesitation.

In fact, the presence of the massive, dam-like wall only served to make those doubts stronger, as if there was something at the very bottom of his soul that the wall somehow interacted with, making him fear the very idea of crossing through it before he could either break free from the restraint this wall imposed on his own… Or, until the day where his own sentence would come to an end, allowing him to freely cross back to civilization without even a single hint of fear of suffering through the consequences of skimping on his punishment.

After all, whether he remembered it or not, for the world, he was a kinslayer, a monster that slaughtered his very own brother!

"Everyone ready?" the mercenary leader asked as he turned around to cast a sweeping glance over the group, his eyes lingering on Theo for a little longer than they did on others.

"Let's go," Callane replied with a slight shake of her head and a moderately dissatisfied look on her face.

'She looks like she wants to punch him for asking this,' Theo thought, amused by how easily he could now read through the girl's expressions. 'As if his question could sway me either to leave with them or stay behind,' he thought, shaking his head with a small, amused grin as he saw the group all join hands to form a single line with the guide at its very front, then Callane, and finally Theo closing the whole line off.

And then…

The guide just stepped forward, his body somehow pushing past the illusion cast by the wall and stepping seemingly into the solid stone… Only to just pass through the illusion as he entered the concealed tunnel, the very same tunnel Theo used when first entering this place.

'So I'm going back,' Theo thought, struggling to even get himself accustomed to the idea that was soon to become reality.

One by one, the mercenaries followed after the guide, firmly holding the hand of the man ahead while making sure not to let go of the hand of the man behind. And one by one, they continued to walk straight into the stone, only for it to offer no more resistance than extremely thick yet perfectly stagnant mist as they just passed through it, only to disappear when the illusion of the stone closed behind them.

One by one, the mercenaries vanished. Yet, as Theo stepped forward when Callane's turn finally came…

He stopped before he could pass through the illusion of the stone, his eyes drawn to something only he could see, something he neither expected nor wanted to witness.

[Detected Attempt to leave the established area]

[Warning! Leaving the established area through DLC means might affect the integrity of the system!]

[Predicted effect: rollback to the initial form of the system, erasure of the achievements, emptying out the pocket dimension, mana backlash from the dismantled functions]

[Warning! With the rollback to the initial form of the system, host cannot guarantee the system shall develop in the exact same manner it did to this point!]

[To alleviate those risks, find a way to cross the boundary through your own means rather than relying on the expansion set!]