10: Chapter 10 The First Pot of Gold
The voice was rough and wild, like a grinding wheel scraping against an iron pipe, and every word hammered against the back of Wang Pingan's head.
His entire body froze.
The warm metal fragment in his palm was scalding hot at this moment.
A second ago, he was still floating on cloud nine, feeling like the Child of Destiny, a prince coming to a garbage dump to pick up a crown.
Three hundred pay-to-win points—what kind of concept was that? That was the most solid stepping stone on his path to a comeback!
A second later, he was kicked down from the clouds, landing face-first into the cold reality.
It's over.
These two words flashed frantically in his mind.
The muscles in his back tensed instantly, blood rushed to his head, and his ears were buzzing.
Run?
Run where? This place was like a maze; he hadn't figured out the path yet, and the other person was the boss here.
Fight?
Don't joke around.
Just by the sound of that person's voice, he knew he was a tough character. With his current strength as a newly promoted First-Rank Martial Artist, if they really started fighting, he would probably be dismantled in two or three moves.
Hand it over?
Wang Pingan's heart gave a sharp twitch.
No!
Absolutely not!
These three hundred points were more important than his life!
Countless thoughts exploded in his mind, only to be instantly extinguished. He could even feel the scrutinizing gaze behind him, like a searchlight, scanning him from head to toe.
He had to calm down.
He forced himself to suppress the surge of blood rushing to his head.
He turned around slowly, frame by frame.
A tower-like, burly man stood less than three meters behind him.
The man was wearing greasy, shiny work clothes, and the muscles on his exposed arms were knotted and thicker than Wang Pingan's thighs.
He had a square face full of flabby flesh, thick and bushy eyebrows, and small eyes that were currently narrowed, exuding a fierce air that was not to be trifled with.
He had half a cigarette dangling from his mouth, the ash nearly burning his lips without him flicking it off, just staring at Wang Pingan.
This man was the foreman of this area, Zhao Dahai.
The alarm in Wang Pingan's brain blared at its loudest.
He saw the vigilance and suspicion in Zhao Dahai's eyes.
Can't panic.
If he panicked, it would all be over.
He immediately summoned the acting skills he had honed in his previous life as a corporate slave when facing the unreasonable demands of his clients.
The panic and nervousness on his face were replaced within a single second by an appropriately timid and innocent student-like demeanor.
He held up the metal fragment in his hand, looking like a child who had found a beloved toy.
"Uncle! Why do you walk without making a sound? You scared the life out of me!"
His voice wasn't loud, carrying the clear tone unique to a young man, along with a hint of complaint after being startled, sounding harmless and innocent.
Zhao Dahai's eyebrows knitted into a knot as he looked Wang Pingan up and down, noting his washed-out old school uniform and that face which looked like it had never been beaten down by society.
"You little brat, is this a place you can come to? There's heavy machinery everywhere; no one would even know if you got crushed to death!"
His tone was aggressive, but the suspicion had faded a bit.
Wang Pingan quickly took two steps forward, squeezing a fawning smile onto his face.
"Uncle, I... I'm from Shen City Mechanical and Electrical College. Our teacher assigned a course project, asking us to come to the scrapyard to find some special materials to go back and build a model."
He casually made up a school; anyway, the other party wouldn't be able to check.
Zhao Dahai snorted, which counted as tacit acceptance of this explanation.
Every year, there were indeed some bored students who would run to his place to hunt for treasures.
"Then what are you sneaking around digging for in this pile of junk?"
He pointed to the pile of battleship armor plates at Wang Pingan's feet.
The crux of the matter had arrived.
Wang Pingan's heart tightened again, but his facial expression was controlled flawlessly.
He handed the fragment over, his eyes full of curiosity and a thirst for knowledge.
"Uncle, I just thought this piece of iron was quite interesting. Look at the patterns on it, how beautiful they are, just like the kind of advanced integrated circuit board mentioned in my textbook. I was thinking this thing is quite rare, so I wanted to take it back to study."
His words were half-true and half-false.
The patterns on the fragment were indeed profound and complex; saying it was a circuit board wasn't entirely far-fetched.
Zhao Dahai snatched the fragment from his hand.
He held the object up to his eyes, turning it over and over for a long time.
It felt heavy in his hand, and the material was quite strange.
But after looking at it for a long time, besides the patterns he couldn't understand, he couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Battleship core?
What did he know about that?
In his eyes, this was just a piece of scrap metal dismantled from a battleship, already discarded and useless for he didn't know what.
Such things were a dime a dozen in this scrapyard.
"What kind of bullshit circuit board!"
Zhao Dahai spat impatiently, threw his cigarette butt on the ground, and crushed it with his large foot.
"This is just a burnt-out alloy plate; it's useless!"
He threw the fragment back to Wang Pingan, his eyes full of disdain, as if looking at a country bumpkin who had never seen the world.
Wang Pingan caught the fragment, and the heavy stone hanging in his heart finally landed.
Success!
He had bet correctly!
But he dared not show any joy on his face; instead, he put on a disappointed expression that said, "So that's how it is."
He scratched his head and asked somewhat embarrassedly,
"Then... Uncle, can you sell this piece of iron to me? I think the patterns are quite nice; I could take it back to use as an ornament."
Zhao Dahai narrowed his eyes.
He could see that this kid really liked this piece of junk.
He calculated in his mind.
If this thing were sent into the furnace with other scrap, it would only be worth three or five dollars in material costs.
But now...
He held out one hand, his five thick fingers spread open.
"Fifty star coins."
"Take it and leave, don't get in the way here. We aren't responsible if anything happens."
The corner of Wang Pingan's eye twitched violently.
Fifty?
This guy's heart was too black!
Things in this crappy place wouldn't even sell for five dollars by the pound, and he was asking for fifty right off the bat!
In his heart, he greeted all eighteen generations of Zhao Dahai's ancestors, but on his face, he wore an expression of pain as if he were about to cry.
"Fifty? Uncle, that's too expensive... This is just a piece of scrap iron."
He looked at Zhao Dahai pitifully.
"I... I only have a little over one hundred left of my living expenses for this week. Do you think you could make it cheaper?"
As he spoke, he opened his personal terminal, revealing the "150.00" balance.
This maneuver completely dispelled the last shred of suspicion in Zhao Dahai's heart.
What kind of bad intentions could a poor student who was haggling over fifty dollars for scrap iron have?
He waved his hand, his tone even more impatient.
"Take it or leave it! If you don't want it, get lost! Don't delay my work!"
"I want it, I want it!"
Wang Pingan nodded quickly, fearing he would change his mind.
He pretended to be extremely reluctant, slowly transferring the fifty star coins.
The "Payment Successful" notification sounded, and Wang Pingan's heart was dripping blood—of course, it was fake.
He carefully wiped the "scrap iron," which was worth three hundred pay-to-win points, with his school uniform sleeve, then treasured it and placed it in the innermost layer of his backpack.
The transaction was complete; he didn't dare to stay for another second.
In this place, every extra second was full of variables.
He straightened his back, and to make his actions seem more reasonable, he rummaged through the pile of scrap again, picking up a rusty gear and a bent metal pipe.
He stuffed these two pieces of real trash into his backpack, acting as if he had gained a lot, and smiled obsequiously at Zhao Dahai.
"Thank you, Uncle! I'll be going then!"
After saying this, he turned and left, his steps quick and hurried.
Zhao Dahai watched his back as he acted like he had gotten the better end of the deal, curling his lips in disdain.
"Stupid kid."
...
Wang Pingan didn't dare stop until he walked out of the scrapyard gate and turned onto a deserted path.
He leaned against a wall covered in graffiti, gasping for air.
Those few minutes just now were more exhausting than all the night shifts he had worked in his previous life.
Mentally exhausting.
He took off his backpack, unzipped it, and looked at the dark golden fragment lying quietly inside; a huge wave of joy and lingering fear surged up simultaneously.
He patted his chest; his heart was still pounding wildly.
It was too thrilling.
He didn't dare to delay any longer, hailed a flying car, and headed straight home.
Returning to his familiar apartment, the first thing Wang Pingan did was slam the door shut with a "bang," then click, click, click, he locked all three security locks.
He rushed to the window, swished all the curtains shut tight, leaving not a single gap.
After doing all this, he let out a long breath.
The whole room plunged into darkness.
Only his rapid breathing echoed in the silent air.
He threw the backpack on the floor and impatiently took out the fragment.
In the dim light, the profound patterns on the fragment seemed to be flowing slowly, emitting an indescribable mysterious aura.
He sat cross-legged on the floor, holding the fragment in his palm.
With a thought.
【High-energy interstellar battleship engine core fragment (Type III) detected. Absorb and convert into pay-to-win points?】
The system's cold notification sound now sounded like music to his ears.
"Yes!"
He roared this word in his heart with all his might.
The next second, the fragment in his hand lit up.
The patterns that were originally alternating between light and dark instantly burst into brilliant radiance, illuminating the entire dim living room as bright as day.
Immediately after, this light faded rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The color of the dark golden fragment faded quickly, from dark gold to brass, then to gray-white.
Finally, with a "puff," it turned into a handful of fine gray powder, sliding down through his fingers.
At the same time, on the faint blue system panel in his mind, the number behind the 【pay-to-win points】 column began to skyrocket in a crazy manner!
0... 50... 100... 150... 200... 250... Finally, the number stopped steadily at "300"!
【pay-to-win points: 300】
Looking at this number, Wang Pingan's breathing stopped.
All the previous anxiety, all the uneasiness, all the frustration brought by poverty, at this moment, were washed away completely by this cold number.
He knew.
From today on, he was no longer that poor student who had to haggle for half a day over a few dozen dollars.
He had found it.
He had found that stable, efficient wealth code that belonged only to him!
In his eyes, a light of excitement flickered.
It was as if a wolf that had been hungry for three days and three nights had finally seen a hunting ground with lush water and grass.
His gaze fell on the system panel.
【Realm: First-Rank Martial Artist (blood qi value 138/300)】
He was still one hundred and sixty-two blood qi value points away from the peak of the First-Rank.
A bold, or even one could say crazy, plan was slowly forming in his heart.
The first monthly exam after the start of school was coming up soon.