4: Dangers in garbage

"Opened 866 chests in total, my luck can only be described as average," Han Fei muttered to himself as he lay among the trash bags.

Every time a chest is opened, there's a 50% chance of getting an identical chest, and that chest also has a 50% chance of yielding a new one. If luck is on one's side, it really could be an Infinite Matryoshka Doll.

Although he had opened 866 chests, the items he got were far from covering his costs. However, his upgrade progress had increased significantly, which left Han Fei very satisfied.

In a pleasant mood, Han Fei opened the System log and began to read carefully.

[New Milestone Unlocked: Open 1,000 black iron treasure chests]

[Milestone Reward: Upgrade Progress +100, Three-Day Black Iron Hundredfold Luck obtained]

[Three-Day Black Iron Hundredfold Luck: For the next three days, whenever you open a black iron treasure chest, the drop rate for rare items will be multiplied by a hundred.]

[Upgrade Progress has met the upgrade requirements: 1004/500]

[Number of Milestones has not met the upgrade requirements: 4/5]

Looking at the fulfilled upgrade progress, Han Fei's smile was so wide his mouth wouldn't close. "The items I opened might be a bit trashy, but this upgrade speed is truly fast."

To have the upgrade progress Breakthrough one thousand in less than a day was something Han Fei hadn't dared to imagine before.

"Unfortunately, I'm still short by one Milestone."

Going from level 4 to level 5 only required three Milestones, but going from level 5 to level 6 required five. This was a bit of a problem.

Currently, the only way Han Fei knew to obtain Milestones was by opening chests.

When opening a certain rank of chest for the first time, one could obtain a Milestone and receive some Milestone rewards.

Additionally, after opening a certain number of treasure chests, one could also unlock Milestones.

Just like the Milestone he obtained this time after cumulatively opening 1,000 black iron treasure chests.

The Milestone rewards were also very enticing; the Three-Day Black Iron Hundredfold Luck had increased the drop rate of rare items by a hundredfold.

If not for this hundredfold drop rate, Han Fei might not have obtained those three pieces of special trash from the treasure chests.

A foul stench flooded Han Fei's nose, interrupting his thoughts.

Only then did he remember there was still a lot of trash in the house that needed to be handled.

Looking at the mountain of trash, Han Fei's brow furrowed. "I need to deal with this trash quickly. If I leave it any longer, the room is going to stink."

He certainly couldn't take all this trash at once, so Han Fei could only carry two bags out first.

When he reached the place where he usually threw his trash, Han Fei was instantly dumbfounded. "Why is there so much trash?"

The trash cans that usually wouldn't even be half full were now overflowing with trash. Quite a lot of trash was even scattered directly around the bins, creating a heaven-shaking stench and attracting swarms of flies.

Even though the trash cans were already bursting like this, people were still carrying large bags of trash and tossing them carelessly around the bins.

Seeing this scene, Han Fei frowned. "Is no one coming to handle the trash?"

Just then, a passing middle-aged woman said, "Those sanitation workers are so busy they can't keep up. There's trash being thrown everywhere. Haven't you seen the streets? It's a total mess."

Han Fei looked into the distance and indeed found piles of trash on the streets. The sanitation workers were overwhelmed and frantic, clearly lacking manpower.

"Is this caused by environmental protection treasure chests?" Han Fei speculated secretly.

environmental protection treasure chests were different from other treasure chests; they appeared very easily.

Currently, the Treasure Chest Alliance had announced the three most common situations in which environmental protection treasure chests appear.

First, small trash cans used for many years will suddenly turn into treasure chests.

Second, trash buried for many years deep in the ground will turn into treasure chests.

Third, trash deep within a garbage pile will turn into treasure chests under certain circumstances.

Of course, besides these three situations, there were over a dozen other ways environmental protection treasure chests could appear, but the probability was much smaller compared to these three. They were low-probability events with little reference value.

The vast majority of ordinary people obtained environmental protection treasure chests through the first method. Generally, a trash can used at home for two or three years had a high probability of suddenly turning into a treasure chest.

This led to a flood of environmental protection treasure chests, with almost every household having one. Furthermore, since these chests were hard to sell, most families would choose to open them to experience the fun of opening a chest.

When a large number of environmental protection treasure chests were opened, a massive amount of trash was naturally produced.

Most of the trash from environmental protection treasure chests carried a nauseating stench. No one wanted to keep it at home, so they could only throw it in the outdoor trash cans or carelessly toss it onto the streets.

Looking at the stinking trash on the street, the amulet on Han Fei's chest suddenly grew slightly warm.

"Is there danger?"

Feeling the amulet on his chest, which had already become somewhat hot, Han Fei's expression changed drastically.

This amulet was something he had opened from a bronze treasure chest using his Guaranteed Cheat. Its effect was to warn him of danger by heating up.

The higher the temperature of the amulet, the greater the impending danger.

The last time the amulet heated up was when Han Fei opened a bronze treasure chest and got a poisonous spider. At that time, the amulet was only lukewarm.

But now, the amulet had reached a temperature that was hot to the touch. Clearly, the crisis he was facing this time far exceeded the previous one.

Han Fei quickly looked around. "Where is the danger?!"

But after looking around, he found no danger, only a group of people constantly tossing trash.

The amulet on his chest grew hotter and hotter. Han Fei realized he couldn't stay here any longer.

Hurriedly throwing the trash in his hands onto the pile, Han Fei rushed back home.

Only after he closed the door did the temperature of the amulet on his chest finally drop a bit, though it was still somewhat hot.

"Is the danger not yet resolved?"

Han Fei's brow was tightly knit, and he was starting to feel anxious. This feeling of being in constant danger was very unpleasant.

"Where exactly is the danger coming from? Could it be those piles of trash?"

Looking at the large pile of stinking trash in the room, Han Fei threw them all outside without a word.

The moment he closed the door, the temperature of the amulet dropped sharply, going from burning hot to just slightly warm.

"The danger really was coming from that trash!"

With the crisis averted, Han Fei's mood became even more solemn.

He went to the window and looked at the increasing amount of trash on the street, feeling somewhat puzzled. "If even I can sense the danger, there's no reason the government wouldn't have noticed. But why haven't they dealt with it yet?"

Right now, the vast majority of streets across the country must be piled with trash. If there really was danger hidden in this trash, the government should have issued an announcement long ago, forbidding citizens from littering or even directly banning the opening of treasure chests.

But until now, no such announcement had been made.

This was very strange.

Suddenly, Han Fei thought of something and had a bad suspicion. "Could it be that only the trash near this street is dangerous?"

Just as this thought appeared in Han Fei's mind, a loud sound came from the distance, making the glass windows vibrate.

Then, screams and cries for help rang out from the street in the distance.

"Help!"

"Monster! Monster!"

"A monster is killing people!"