33: Chapter 33 Making a Small Fortune

Night.

It was so deep that one could almost wring ink from the darkness.

Wang Pingan lay on his dormitory bed, eyes wide and staring straight at the ceiling.

He couldn't sleep.

His mind was filled with that dilapidated yet eerily divine, massive starship.

And that thing locked inside the core cage—clearly dead, yet with an energy core still "thump-thumping" away.

He felt like the poor woodcutter who had accidentally discovered Ali Baba's treasure cave. (Have you handsome readers seen it?)

Agitated.

Excited.

And a bit... itchy with anticipation.

That starship was a mountain of gold.

A gold mine that could instantly lift him out of poverty and straight into prosperity—no, straight to financial freedom.

To go, or not to go?

The question swirled in his mind for exactly 0.1 seconds.

Nonsense.

He had to go.

Go right now.

Wait for dawn? By then, the opportunity would be long gone. What if some blind scavenger happened to get lucky and made off with the treasures he'd set his sights on? Who would he complain to then?

These days, the bold feast while the timid starve.

He, Wang Pingan, had lived two lives; he'd died poor in his last life and didn't want to experience the taste of being broke again in this one.

That feeling was worse than death.

He performed a carp leap and sprang from the bed, his movements as silent as a shadow.

Changing clothes.

He put on an unremarkable grey tracksuit, the kind that would disappear in a crowd.

Then he smeared a bit of dust on his face and messed up his hair.

He checked himself in the mirror.

Mm.

The image of a malnourished, wretched soul coming out at night to scrape a living was complete.

He picked up a worn-out canvas bag, stuffing it with a few useless mechanical parts as cover.

Preparations complete.

He walked to the window but didn't open it.

Eye of Truth, activate.

Hum.

In an instant, the entire world turned into a 3D diagram composed of countless lines and energy points in his eyes.

The walls of the Elite Base, the patrol routes, the scanning angles of the surveillance cameras...

Everything was clearly presented in his mind.

He could even see Lin Zhan in the next dorm sitting cross-legged on his bed, the blood and qi around his body like a miniature sun, expanding and contracting rhythmically.

This guy is truly a king of overachievers.

Wang Pingan curled his lip and found a gap in the surveillance camera's scan.

Now.

He moved like a civet cat, silently flipping out of the window, landing without a sound, and vanishing into the base's shadows after a few flickers.

...

West City, Industrial Waste Trading Station.

The daytime bustle had long since dissipated, leaving only the cold moonlight shining on mountains of steel junk.

The air was thick with a nauseating smell of machine oil, rust, and unidentified liquids.

Wang Pingan moved through this steel graveyard like a ghost.

He didn't take the main roads, specifically choosing the shadows of large machinery and the gaps between mountainous scrap heaps.

Soon.

He arrived at the edge of that familiar forbidden zone.

The blood-colored mist that once made him hesitate held no more secrets before his Eye of Truth.

It was a chaotic energy storm.

Countless types of violent, decaying energy particles carrying the aura of death collided and intertwined here, forming a massive, invisible meat grinder.

If an ordinary martial artist ventured in, their body would be eroded from the inside out by this energy field until not even bone fragments remained within three minutes.

But Wang Pingan saw a "path" within this chaos.

A winding, safe passage formed by areas where the energy flow was relatively calm.

He took a deep breath and stepped in without further hesitation.

As soon as he entered the forbidden zone's range.

Boom.

An indescribable pressure, heavy as a mountain, swept over him from the depths of the forbidden zone, from the direction of that massive starship wreckage.

It wasn't just simple atmospheric pressure.

It was an absolute suppression from a higher level of life, etched deep into genes and the soul.

Wang Pingan felt the blood and qi in his body instantly become sluggish.

Even his thoughts slowed down by half a beat.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed his mental strength to the limit, struggling to resist the pressure.

He knew this was just a lingering trace of aura unconsciously emitted by a biological corpse that had been dead for who knows how many years.

Just this bit of aura was enough to make him, a second-grade middle-stage peak martial artist, almost unable to breathe.

How terrifying must that thing have been when it was alive?

Wang Pingan felt a chill and became even more cautious in his movements.

He didn't dare go any deeper.

With this level of pressure, if he dared to get within a hundred meters of that starship, he would likely be crushed into a puddle of meat on the spot.

He abandoned the idea of heading straight for the heart and began searching the periphery with extreme care.

Eye of Truth was running at full power.

His gaze, like a high-precision scanner, swept inch by inch over the scrap heaps that had been eroded beyond recognition by the energy mist.

Most of the junk appeared dull and grey in his eyes.

The residual energy on them had long since been assimilated and contaminated by the chaotic energy field over the long years, becoming worthless.

He searched patiently, bit by bit.

He trusted his judgment.

In such a massive treasure trove, it was impossible for not even a drop of soup to be left.

Time passed, minute by minute.

Just as Wang Pingan's patience was about to be worn thin.

His pupils suddenly constricted.

Found it.

Beneath a pile of warship fragments that had been corroded down to their skeletons.

A faint yet pure blue light, devoid of any impurities, was quietly flickering.

That point of light was so conspicuous amidst the surrounding chaotic and murky energy field.

Wang Pingan's heart pounded wildly. He rushed over, not caring about the filth as he began digging through the razor-sharp metal fragments with his bare hands.

Soon.

A peculiar metal fragment about the size of a palm appeared before his eyes.

The fragment was a deep, star-like violet-black color.

Its surface was covered with countless starlight-like glimmers that were slowly pulsing.

It was ice-cold to the touch.

Yet, a surge of pure energy so vast it made his heart skip a beat was imprisoned within.

Wang Pingan's hands trembled slightly.

He almost instinctively thought to himself.

"System, appraise."

The cold mechanical voice exploded in his mind like heavenly music.

[Detected: 'Starship Rune Core Fragment'!]

[Contains extremely pure Cosmic Origin Energy!]

[Convertible pay-to-win points: 8,000!]

Eight thousand points!

Wang Pingan's breath stopped for a moment.

He felt his brain go buzzed, turning completely blank.

Immediately after.

A surge of wild joy, like a volcanic eruption, rushed from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.

He hit the jackpot.

This time, he really hit the jackpot.

Just this one tiny piece of scrap metal was worth eight thousand pay-to-win points.

This was faster than robbing a damn bank.

He carefully placed the fragment into his shirt, hiding it close to his body.

The wild joy hadn't even passed.

When a cold chill crawled up his spine again.

He broke into a cold sweat.

Lingering fear.

A treasure worth eight thousand pay-to-win points.

Just thrown here like trash.

Then how many treasures of this level, or even higher, were hidden inside that starship?

And just how powerful must the civilization be that could discard such treasures like common trash?

Wang Pingan didn't dare think about it further.

He felt as though he had accidentally peeled back an insignificant little corner of this world.

And the information revealed in that corner was enough to make him feel suffocated.

He suppressed the greed and impulse to keep exploring deeper.

He knew his luck for today had reached its limit.

If he stayed any longer, who knew what kind of monsters he might encounter.

He took one last look at the depths of the forbidden zone shrouded in thick energy, his eyes filled with awe and longing.

Then, he turned and left without looking back.

His movements were even faster than when he arrived.

He looked exactly like a weasel that had stolen a hen, terrified the owner would come chasing after him with a kitchen knife.