25: Chapter Twenty-Five: A Wasted Effort?

Zheng Jing couldn't help but frown.

Because the System Radar in his mind hadn't given any reaction at all!

"Beep... beep... beep..."

The metal detector at the bottom of the pit was still continuously making noise, causing him to immediately fall into a dilemma: to dig, or not to dig?

The reason Zheng Jing was conflicted was that the System's detection range was far deeper than the metal detector, and its identification was also more precise!

Since it didn't have the slightest reaction, it meant there were absolutely no valuable items like gold or silver down there, and if he continued to dig deeper now, it was very likely he would just be wasting his effort and working for nothing.

But this metal detector right now was, after all, a professional piece of equipment he had spent over ten thousand yuan on; there should be no reason for it to be giving false alarms or making noise randomly.

On one side was the System with its deeper and more accurate detection range, and on the other was the expensive professional detector; the two conflicted, leaving him unable to make up his mind for a moment.

After thinking it over repeatedly, Zheng Jing finally gritted his teeth.

"Fine, I'll dig!"

Isn't there a saying that goes, 'Since you're already here'?

Anyway, he had already dug to this point, so he might as well probe a little deeper; even if he really found nothing, it was still better than missing out and having it weigh on his mind.

Having made up his mind, Zheng Jing didn't hesitate any longer; without a word, he jumped directly into the bottom of the pit, which was over seventy centimeters deep.

The System Radar in his mind still had no reaction at all.

Zheng Jing didn't dwell on whether it gave a prompt or not anymore; he rubbed his palms together hard, gripped the hoe, and started digging downwards.

Thinking that there might be something hidden underneath, Zheng Jing was full of energy and dug down nearly another thirty centimeters.

But don't underestimate this short thirty centimeters; because the soil became harder and there were more rocks the deeper he went, the difficulty of digging was significantly greater than before.

Moreover, the deeper he dug, the wider the hole had to be expanded, and the workload increased several times over instantly.

Zheng Jing mumbled to himself while burying his head in the digging: "Oh Heavens, oh God of Wealth, the thing under this pit had better be valuable... Don't let me waste all this effort only to dig up a pile of worthless junk in the end; that would be a huge loss."

Just as Zheng Jing was yapping away, the small hoe in his hand suddenly let out a crisp "clang" as it struck hard against a solid object.

Zheng Jing instantly slowed his movements, carefully scraping away the surrounding wet soil, and a dark, hard object gradually revealed itself.

The item felt heavy in his hand; it seemed like steel but wasn't, like copper but wasn't, but he could be certain it was an industrial product made by humans, definitely not some kind of natural ore.

He turned it over and over for a long time but couldn't recognize what it actually was.

The object was about a circle thicker than a normal fist and around twenty centimeters long, looking exceptionally unremarkable.

Climbing back to the surface along the pit wall, Zheng Jing took out his phone and glanced at it; fortunately, there was still a faint signal!

He immediately took a photo of the hard object in his hand and used the intelligent assistant to perform an image search.

This time the intelligent assistant was quite helpful and reacted extremely quickly, instantly popping up the result: This is an old, discarded tungsten steel drill bit, often used in mining machinery and equipment.

Zheng Jing suddenly realized.

This place was originally an old gold mining area; it was perfectly normal for workers to have left behind discarded drill bits during mining operations in the early years.

"Damn, so it's just a damn broken drill bit; what a waste of all my effort!"

Zheng Jing was full of disappointment and was just about to throw the thing away when a recycling quote for waste tungsten steel popped up on his phone screen!

The moment he saw the price clearly, Zheng Jing froze on the spot.

Originally, he thought this dark, discarded tungsten steel drill bit was just like scrap iron and not worth much, but he hadn't expected that even at a second-hand price, a jin of this tungsten steel could actually sell for five or six hundred yuan!

And the drill bit in his hand weighed at least three or four jin; calculating that, it could sell for a full one or two thousand yuan!

His original feeling of disappointment was instantly swept away, replaced entirely by an unexpected joy.

He had thought this trip was purely a waste of time, but he hadn't expected to pick up an unexpected fortune.

While happy, Zheng Jing also completely understood why the metal detector had sounded an alarm while the System hadn't given any prompt!

Because although the System detected deeper and more accurately, it only recognized ownerless gold, silver, copper, and iron; this tungsten steel drill bit was clearly not made of those materials.

While the professional metal detector didn't pick and choose metal types; as long as it was metal, it could detect it!

Originally, at the depth where the tungsten steel drill bit was located, the metal detector wouldn't have been able to detect it; it just so happened that he accidentally bumped it into the bottom of the pit, which brought it into the detector's range.

It allowed him to stumble upon a small windfall.

Zheng Jing simply wiped the drill bit clean with dirt and carefully stuffed it into the side pocket of his backpack.

Although it wasn't as exciting as digging up gold or silver, this was still a solid one or two thousand yuan!

After resting on the spot for a moment, Zheng Jing looked down at the deep pit at his feet and proceeded to backfill most of the dug-out soil, leaving only a shallow mark of forty or fifty centimeters on the ground.

That way, even if someone passed by, they wouldn't be suspicious.