章節 2: Chapter 2: The Medicine Bottle Worth a Pound of Gold_1
[First, the Eye of Insight. Within this square, you will gain eyes that see through objects, with none escaping your inspection. Of course, this does not apply to the void, the square itself, trash entrances (black), and world-traversal doors (white)!]
Suddenly, his eyes brightened significantly. Is this the Eye of Insight?
Huang An didn't plan to test it immediately, as his attention was attracted by something else.
He saw a unique item that many protagonists possess – the Golden Finger – the door to world-traversal!
There really are other worlds.
Is this his opportunity, his lifeline?
Huang An didn't know but he really wanted to try.
The voice in his mind continued.
[Second: Trainee employees in this square are immune to the toxin influence of worlds' junk.]
[Third: An automatic scrubbing protective suit, a shovel, a hammer, a rake and other simple tools.]
[Fourth: By reading in your mind for ten seconds, you can enter or exit the rubbish field at any time and place, with no limits.]
[If you survive the one-month internship period and satisfactorily complete your tasks, you will be rewarded with the use of a world-traversal door, and higher-level functions will be unlocked.]
[Friendly reminder: You can acquire some information about the worlds anchored by the doors of world-traversal in advance. This may be helpful for you!]
[Wishing you good luck, lucky boy, we look forward to your successful completion of the internship.]
Is it, or 'He', about to leave?
Before Huang An could react, another voice sounded in his mind.
[Friendly reminder, you have five hours remaining for today's junk-cleanup deadline. You'd better hurry up; otherwise, you will lose your intern qualifications and be forcefully eliminated!]
It appears he has misunderstood.
The voice disappeared, but two lines of text appeared in the upper part of the junkyard.
[Countdown :1.6 hours.]
[Remaining junk weight to be cleaned: 200kg.]
With a deathly pale complexion, Huang An thought, forceful elimination?
He needs to act immediately!
Huang An slowly moved his stiff body from standing still for so long, bearing the pain. He straightened up and slowly began to look for his protective suit and tools.
The monthly task is thirty tons, meaning he had to clear one ton of garbage every day.
Huang An was aware of his physical condition. A year ago, he wouldn't have thought twice about such a workload, but his long-term illness had left him extremely weak.
He had to grit his teeth even to keep accounts.
Five hours to clean up a ton of garbage was a daunting task for him.
He couldn't afford to delay any longer.
Huang An quickly put on the automatic scrubbing protective suit that was not far from his feet.
The suit covered him from head to toe, all in white.
The mountain of rubbish was not far from him. Huang An, wearing the protective suit, quickly walked over.
With a glance, Huang An discerned that the majority of the junk mountain was comprised of a kind of black muck.
This black muck, which Huang An often saw, was waste generated naturally from untreated rubbish piles.
The grey mud was filthy, but Huang An had no choice.
With a slight bow, Huang An moved his hands and pulled out a white board half-buried within the mountain, gritting his teeth.
The board was dirty black, but there were large patches of white. Huang An figured the original color was white.
The feel seemed like plastic, and it was somewhat prickly.
He didn't recognize the material. It must be a type of plastic.
A line of text flashed before Huang An's eyes.
[Shabby white rock plastic board (already scrapped): can be used as a mat for placing items after cleaning... exchange value: 0.1g gold.]
As he thought, it was plastic. However, it seemed to be a novel material from another world.
As an "elder" who had grown up in a waste processing plant, Huang An could assert that such material didn't exist on Earth.
While the white rock plastic board, a novel material, only had an exchange value of 0.1g gold or about 40 dollars, it can't hide the fact that it's of great research value.
It was a shame that Huang An was now afflicted with a terminal ailment and had no energy for it.
He dragged the ten-kilogram board towards the black passage behind him with great effort.
Teeth clenched and slightly hunched, Huang An swung his arms to throw the board inside.
As though a single drop of water had landed on a tranquil lake, a tiny ripple stirred in the air, then settled into calmness again.
Huang An paused for a moment, then trudged on with his task of the day.
Who could believe an unfortunate person suffering from a terminal illness, whose life was hanging by a thread, was still required to work overtime?
[Gray mud bred by bacteria: a congregation of various microbes, bacteria, viruses with strong toxicity... exchange price: 0.001g gold/kg.]
The meager price did not cause any fluctuation in Huang An's mind.
About sixty to seventy percent of the trash mountain was comprised of this gray mud, hence it's understandable for it to be of low value.
More crucially, this gray mud was automatically produced, with virtually no cost.
Huang An took a break and continued his work, shoveling the gray mud. He slowly moved his feet, heading towards the trash entrance behind him.
There were small uniwheel vehicles on the square, but their near-fifteen-kilogram weight made Huang An retreat.
The tools were good, but he couldn't use them.
[Rotten rat: even scavengers do not want to touch... exchange price: 0.001g gold.]
...
Suddenly, while digging through the mud like a walking dead, Huang An felt a hard object. Based on its feel, Huang An knew it was a small machine.
He wouldn't let any anomaly go; he wanted to survive.
With both hands, he strenuously scraped the mud off the machine with his rake. A tattered, grey, white, and black machine came into Huang An's sight.
The Eye of Perception provided timely information.
[Scrapped Imagemaker: Completely destroyed, perhaps fit for junk sales? Contains 3kg of alloy steel, 4kg of various plastics and rubbers, 2kg of brass, 0.001kg of silver... Exchange price; 0.1g gold.]
What a shame.
Huang An took a deep breath, less than ten minutes in, he was already covered in sweat, panting heavily.
Taking a break, he focused on this dilapidated appliance that resembled a television.
As a child who grew up in a waste disposal factory and had received higher education, Huang An understood that this appliance worth 0.1g gold could be worth several times more at his own scrapyard.
The selling price of mix of brass at the yard was 40 yuan/kg, the price of alloy steel was around 3 yuan/kg, this scrapped Imagemaker could bring Huang An a value of 89 yuan, with miscellaneous items added in, it would be around 95 yuan.
And its exchange price at this dump is only 0.1g of gold, that is, forty yuan.
If Huang An wanted to make money, he could exchange this Imagemaker for 0.1g of gold.
Unfortunately, Huang An's life was at stake, and he had no mind for that.
Pancreatic cancer, known as the king of all cancers, could not be cured by mere money.
Otherwise, Huang An wouldn't have kept this information from his adoptive parents with whom he has lived for almost twenty-two years.
Besides adding to their grief and incurring needless expenses, they were helpless.
If one has to die, better to do so quietly.
Huang An had already prepared himself.
"If I could utilize this junkyard to cure my cancer or at least stop the spread of the cancer cells, prolonging my life for a while, I might also be able to make some money to leave for my parents."
Huang An tried to make the best out of a bad situation.
He could only rely on such unrealistic hopes to alleviate the impending pain.
After a brief rest, Huang An resumed his garbage clean-up journey.
Ever since his pancreatic cancer diagnosis, he has no longer been a procrastinator.
He wanted to finish the task as quickly as possible. Although his parents had gone on vacation and no one was at the yard, no one would notice his sudden disappearance.
But Huang An decided to finish the task as quickly as possible.
He wanted to seize every opportunity that could help him survive.
This was Boundless Junkyard, there must be "trash" that was greatly useful to him inside, Huang An was staking on finding that useful "trash" before he died!
A ton of garbage to be cleared in five hours, which required clearing 400 pounds per hour.
Although it was exhausting, and every time he finished hauling the garbage, he had to stand in place, propping himself up with the shovel to catch his breath, Huang An was still confident he could finish it.
He, under the torture of sickness, possessed an endurance beyond common people.
This disease could distort his body, render him hideous, twist his personality, but it still could not diminish his tenacious will.
Time slowly went by, the junkyard seemed to have no day or night, the light was not bright, but not dark either.
"Huff, huff!"
Huang An shuffled between the garbage entrance and the mound, like a dying old dog, staggering, utterly miserable.
If his body were normal, he would be sweating profusely by now.
Unfortunately, all he had now was heavy sweat on his forehead, and other parts of his body were only chillingly cold.
Luckily, Huang An could leave anytime to replenish his body's water, salt, and nutrients, otherwise, he would not have been able to hold on, he even tolerated the nausea and ate the dinner that had fallen at the office entrance clean.
As a result, he vomited blood twice.
Agony tortured Huang An. Even though he had fished out some interesting "trash" from the garbage pile, it still could not cover up the fatigue of his body.
[Countdown: 1.5 hours.]
[Garbage weight yet to be cleared: 15kg.]
At the sound of the prompt, a small movement flickered across Huang An's pale face, forcing out a smile -- he was already numb.
Despite taking multiple rests, he was still exhausted. Fortunately, it was almost over.
Ever since his symptoms had worsened, Huang An had never felt so terrible. The heavy labor made him feel as if his chest was about to explode, his throat as if being scraped by a blade -- dry and painful.
The pain passed through every bone in his body, unavoidable, irremediable.
Only thirty pounds left, Huang An gritted his teeth, throwing the ash and small iron mine in the shovel into the garbage entrance, he turned around, heading towards the mound of garbage that seemed unchanged.
He decided to give it his all to complete today's task.
[Worn-out doll...]
[Rotting tree trunk...]
...
[Abandoned Backpack:... Exchange price: 0.5kg gold.]
Hmm?
Just about to throw it into the garbage entrance, Huang An suddenly froze.
He straightened his back a bit and looked again at the information provided by the Eye of Perception.
0.5kg Gold?
A kilogram of gold! Very valuable!
A treasure!
Huang An dropped the shovel, squatted down, sweat streaming down his scalp and cheeks, blurring his vision somewhat.
He casually wiped his face, but quickly realized, he was wearing a tightly sealed protective suit, he couldn't wipe it unless he temporarily removed the hood.
Huang An didn't have the energy for that, he pulled open the fully stuffed backpack, rummaging inside.
Discarded books, the words on the cover were unrecognizable, Huang An ignored it.
Moldy bread, grown full of green mold, Huang An also ignored it.
Pen case with cracks, thrown away.
Until he held what seemed to be a drug bottle, a relatively clean plastic box in his hand, based on his experience, this was a medicine bottle!
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