The benefits of working with the scavengers quickly became obvious.
In just the next three days, Jiang Qi collected dozens of damaged energy cores from them, along with several valuable items that normally couldn't be bought anywhere.
Some were advanced materials; others were broken mechanical parts and electronic components.
And this was only the beginning. As the influence of those few partners gradually spread among the scavenger community, Jiang Qi was certain that the number of damaged cores and precious goods flowing back to him would only continue to grow.
In fact, after only three days, that trend was already starting to show.
A lot of scavengers had heard that there was now a better outlet in town for selling废弃 cores, and at mealtimes you could always hear them muttering to one another about it.
Jiang Qi figured that before long, these few partners of his might not even need to keep slogging through the garbage mountains in person. Just buying and reselling for the spread would probably earn them more than they ever had before.
When that time came, he might even be able to expand into selling scavenger gear as well, letting them distribute the goods for him and, in the process, improve the overall quality of life for the scavengers.
And so that evening, after another full day of work, Jiang Qi did as usual: while dealing with Glaxia's nonstop barrage of nuisance messages out of sheer boredom, he waited for Roke and the others to come by.
As for Glaxia's personality, Jiang Qi had mostly gotten used to it by now.
She was nothing like the cool, fierce beauty on the posters. Instead, she was more like an overly lively chatterbox of a girl.
Jiang Qi had no idea whether she had always been like this, or whether the damage to her database had caused her personality to become more childish. But as things stood, he actually found her current self pretty pleasant to deal with.
If she had turned out to be some silent, aloof, high-cold AI, he would probably have spent every day on edge around her.
The way she was now made her easy to get along with.
The only problem was that she was sometimes just too talkative. When he worked, the tablet would keep flashing constantly with new messages, and if he ignored her for too long, she would actually get upset.
So every ten or twenty minutes, he had no choice but to reply with a sentence or two—he told himself it counted as taking breaks between work.
Only at night, when he had more free time, could he really chat with her properly.
It was while Jiang Qi and Glaxia were in the middle of an intense discussion over whether White Claw Wu wore those white gloves every day because he was pretentious or because he was a clean freak that the scavengers, pulling their handcarts, finally arrived.
After greeting Glaxia, Jiang Qi immediately set the tablet aside and went out to meet them.
"Yo, you're here," Jiang Qi said with a grin. "Looks like you had a pretty good haul today too, huh?"
"Haha, thanks to you, today's harvest was even better than the last few days," one of the scavengers said with a laugh, and the others quickly echoed him.
After the usual small talk and pleasantries, it was time for the day's business.
Jiang Qi counted the goods they had brought, then paid them according to the agreed prices—using repaired energy cores as currency.
Before long, all of the scavengers had completed their transactions. One after another, they bade Jiang Qi farewell and left, pulling their handcarts away with satisfied smiles.
Once they were gone, Jiang Qi shut the workshop door and turned toward the corner.
"All right, they're done," Jiang Qi said with a smile. "You've been acting so mysterious that you've really driven my expectations sky-high."
"Haha, trust me, you won't be disappointed," Roke said as he stepped out of the shadows.
From the moment he entered the workshop with the others, Roke had dragged his own cart off into the corner and stayed there the whole time, silent and still, waiting for everyone else to finish trading.
The others had noticed his strange behavior, of course, but they all pretended not to see it.
The people Jiang Qi had chosen as partners were not fools. They could all more or less guess what Roke's behavior meant, and they also understood exactly what kinds of things it was safe to be curious about, and what kinds of things it was better not to ask about.
Roke had very obviously been keeping his distance from them tonight. If they didn't want trouble, then the smartest thing to do was not get involved.
After all, the good days had only just begun. No one wanted to cause any complications at a time like this.
Pulling his handcart over to Jiang Qi, Roke lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "What I brought you today is a real surprise."
"Oh?" Jiang Qi raised a brow, anticipation in his eyes. "Let's hear it."
"No need to talk about it," Roke said, patting the large crate on one of the carts. "It's right in here."
Today Roke hadn't brought anything else at all. His cart carried only that single crate, which said everything about how seriously he regarded what was inside.
In fact, even the crate itself—judging from its workmanship and materials—was already quite valuable.
More importantly, Roke had said that the surprise was what was inside the crate, not the crate itself.
That alone was enough to hook Jiang Qi's curiosity. He immediately said, "Enough suspense. Open it up and let me see."
"Heh-heh, just watch," Roke said with a grin, and without further delay, he flipped open the lid.
The moment Jiang Qi saw the heavyweight item revealed inside, his eyes flew wide open.
At the same time, his appraisal ability displayed its name at the perfect moment.
Thunder Roar K8000 Type-II Single-Soldier Anti-Materiel Railgun.
Finding weapons in the garbage mountains sounded unbelievable, but in reality, it wasn't especially rare.
Almost every month, scavengers managed to pull a few battered weapons out of the trash heaps.
That alone suggested that the so-called Heavenly Palace might not be as peaceful as the wasteland people imagined.
Of course, most weapons found in the garbage mountains were in terrible condition. A single glance was often enough to tell they had been discarded. Some even still had blood on them, leaving plenty to think about.
A heavy weapon like the one in front of them—so well preserved, with all its accessories and ammunition intact, even still in its original packaging—was extraordinarily rare.
Jiang Qi had no idea what exactly had happened to this railgun before it ended up here.
But he was thrilled to have it.
His second mech still lacked a primary weapon, and this anti-materiel railgun could not have arrived at a better time.
"Holy shit, Roke," Jiang Qi said, his eyes shining. "Did you dig this up?"
"No way, how could I be that lucky?" Roke shook his head. "Old Tommy found it. You remember him, right? He's got that burn scar on the left side of his face."
"Ah, vaguely," Jiang Qi nodded. He remembered that man—an older scavenger, quiet and withdrawn, not much of a talker. Jiang Qi didn't know him very well.
"He found this thing a few months ago," Roke said. "And you know how valuable it is. If he wanted to sell it, maybe he could've gotten a decent price—but only if he managed to put it directly into White Claw Wu's hands."
"The problem was, if somebody intercepted it halfway, forget the money. He might've lost his life too."
"So Old Tommy never dared drag it out and sell it. Instead, he found a place and buried it."
"He kept saying he was waiting for the right opportunity, but honestly, even he didn't know what kind of opportunity he was waiting for."
"Then he heard about us..."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 119)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter79)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter125)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 73
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 55
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 66
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 63
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 55
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 31
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 31
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 31
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