"Idiot, this is a weapon implant chip, not electronic waste!"
"Moron, the rifling on this pile of barrels isn't done properly. Are you trying to get us shut down?"
"Throw away the virtual sensing machine you hid! What, you don't have one? Do you think I'm deaf? Don't you know the sound from that thing is external?"
In the eastern corner of the flea market, at the crack of dawn, the familiar sound of yelling echoed from the Old Friend Gun Shop. For most scavengers, the first day of the morning begins with Aunt Xiang's yelling.
"Fat Xiang, your mom yells at you every day, how come you don't get upset at all," the stall owner nearby teased.
Fat Xiang replied honestly, "If mom yells at me, that means I did something wrong, it's not her fault."
"Fat pig, I told you to go get the stuff! Why haven't you come back yet!!"
Fat Xiang exchanged a glance with the stall owner. For some reason, Aunt Xiang seemed especially angry today.
By the time Fat Xiang lugged a pile of metal tools back into the shop, he saw Aunt Xiang sitting in a chair, arms crossed, her expression shifting unpredictably, lost in thought.
Fat Xiang scratched his head, maneuvering his bulky frame carefully around the cramped shop.
"Mom, I'm going to polish the rifling."
"Wait, you stay here and watch the shop while I go out," Aunt Xiang stood up, preparing to leave, and added as a reminder, "Remember what I said, you can take stuff, but wait for me to come back to get the money. If anyone wants to buy a gun, don't sell to them unless they're a regular!"
"Got it, mom."
Seeing Fat Xiang's still vacant expression, Aunt Xiang couldn't resist ruffling his head.
"Idiot!"
After Aunt Xiang left, Fat Xiang remained in a daze, perhaps thinking about why those women weren't wearing clothes last night.
Aunt Xiang hurriedly crossed the flea market to the scavenger gathering place on the outskirts of Automobile City.
The air was filled with an indescribably foul stench.
Everyone here was unkempt, barely clothed, most had faces covered in pustules or deformed limbs.
Scavengers were the descendants of refugees, living on the outskirts of the city, surviving by picking up trash.
Aunt Xiang skillfully stepped over a fresh pile of excrement and reached a relatively clean wooden hut in the slums, knocking hard on the wooden door.
"Old man, open up!"
"Who is it," A white-haired old man, holding a bottle, rubbed his eyes as he opened the door and was surprised to see Aunt Xiang.
"Why are you here."
"Why can't I be here, drinking morning and night, aren't you afraid you'll drink yourself to death!"
"That would be a nice way to go," the old man grinned, limping to the table and pushing the clutter to the floor, then opened a long-unused folding chair and patted it.
"Sit, sit, sit, make yourself at home. It's been years since we last met."
Aunt Xiang glanced around, unfinished cheap booze, household trash, a dirty bedside, the only clean spot was a photo on the wall. The photo was full of youngsters, each smiling brightly with ultra-large cold weapons in their hands, stained with blood.
Seeing this, Aunt Xiang's mood improved a bit, but she still rudely said, "Old Sun, get yourself a prosthetic limb and fix yourself up. With your skills, you shouldn't be living so miserably."
Old Sun chuckled self-deprecatingly, "With my skills, what skills do I have left? Haven't you switched to selling guns?"
Aunt Xiang was silent for a moment, then handed over a design blueprint, saying, "I recently got a big order, time is tight, I need your help. If it works out, I'll give you two thousand Mechanical Coins as a reward."
"Big order, two thousand Mechanical Coins!?" Old Sun paused, his eyes lighting up, but dimmed again shortly after as he smiled wryly, "Who needs these old-style Beast Hunting Devices nowadays? Those brats would rather do a carpet bombing from eight hundred miles away, and such large Beast Hunting Devices are used against at least C-level Radiation Beasts. Aren't rockets more effective?"
"Just think of it as some kid's daydream. Anyway, the money's there, are you in or out?"
"In, why not in, with two thousand Mechanical Coins, I could build a house out of bottles!"
"You're hopeless!" Aunt Xiang spat out a vulgarity but seeing the photo, she ended up sighing deeply.
At the Four Seasons Cloud Community, on an apartment 'tree', a Human-headed Dog swaggered down the corridor, oblivious and arrogant.
It reached the third-floor hallway, where the thick dust revealed a few faint footprints.
The Human-headed Dog immediately cowered, warily hugging the wall, its head darting side to side, fearing an ambush.
Several doors in the corridor were wide open, the rooms inside empty.
The Human-headed Dog instantly became arrogant again, howling and occasionally shouting "SB," a legacy from some Artificial Soldiers.
It pranced all the way to the elevator door, but the elevator doors were shut. The Human-headed Dog leapt onto the fire cabinet, then jumped again, paws pressing the elevator button.
The elevator didn't respond.
This was normal; not every floor had the presence of radiation creatures.
The Human-headed Dog shook its head, first facing the elevator door, its back legs supporting its body upright, front paws stretching out, the expressionless head exuding arrogance.
Seemingly provoked, a rumbling sound came from inside the elevator, and moments later, with a 'ding', the elevator's opening light came on, and several Radiation Zombies dived at the Human-headed Dog.
Name: Armed Radiation Corpse
Radiation Level: F+
Life Value: 105/120
Physical Strength Value: 95/100
Biological Energy: 55
Biological Attributes: Power 9 Agility 6 Endurance 13 Intelligence 6 Perception 5
Skills: Metal Strike lv5 Beat lv4 Bite lv3
Note: This is a group of zombies skilled in using tools
The Human-headed Dog's expression changed drastically, and it turned and fled. Its tail was erect, longer than its entire body. This was originally the tail of a Giant Radiation Dog, an excellent biochemical conductive material. Gao Gong modified it, hollowed out the inside, added batteries, and equipped it with an enhanced sensor, which not only allowed the Human-headed Dog to reach a maximum speed of 30km/h but also added a warning mode.
Currently, it seems that this warning mode is not very effective.
The Armed Radiation Corpse is an upgraded version of the Radiation Zombie. The biggest difference between the two is that they start using weapons. In the hands of these radiation corpses are household chainsaws, pistols, or Samurai Swords, indicating that the original residents of this building were quite fierce.
The greatest advantage of the Human-headed Dog is its short stature. It quickly tumbled down the stairs, while the zombies were met with a dense white fog upon descending.
The zombies lost their sense of direction as soon as they were enveloped by the fog.
Ordinary smoke bombs produce thick smoke from white phosphorus combustion, but the fog enveloping these zombies was more like boiling steam, viscous, dense, and steaming hot.
Under the effect of this 'steam', the slight radiation on the zombies' bodies was greatly suppressed, leading to their sensing rapidly decreasing.
Then, a figure rushed in, and every flash of the blade resulted in a head falling to the ground.
[You have killed a chainsaw-armed zombie, Experience +20]
[You have killed a short-gun-armed zombie, Experience +35]
[You have killed an electric shock device-armed zombie, Experience +30]
...
A series of plusses flashed on the system, until the last zombie was bisected by the Red Unicorn, causing the prompt to finally disappear.
"Another wave cleared."
Although they were just radiation corpses, small accomplishments accumulate to nearly 400 experience, which satisfied Gao Gong.
After all, four Artificial Soldiers!
Nowadays Gao Gong's equipment has also been updated. He wears a black leather coat made from the tanned hide of a Giant Radiation Dog. Although it lost some performance during production, small-caliber bullets can't penetrate it.
The 'smoke bomb' he just threw was a specialty similar to the Hand Grenade Fruit, called Water Smoke Leaf. Made through special techniques, it captures a large amount of steam when ignited, simultaneously integrating some special chemicals that can effectively intercept radiation and cut off the sensing of the Radiation Beast.
The tactical boots on his feet come from a radiation beast called the Flame Bull; its belly leather, due to long-term exposure to radiation sources, not only has fire and high-temperature resistance but also carries an attribute of Endurance +1.
The anti-magnetic goggles on his head can pinpoint the target body of the Radiation Beast in the disturbed electromagnetic field of the concrete jungle.
There are also some odds and ends, which are whiteboard level on the system panel, but their effectiveness here is comparable to the 'Fine' grade.
All these are tools certified by the life of the Classical Stream Mechanical Hunter.
He also custom-ordered a big guy, which is still in production.
During this time, the harvest of Mechanical Coins and Experience Value has been quite substantial.
On average, every day Gao Gong can earn 3000 Mechanical Coins and 2000 Experience.
Continuously grinding for a week results in 21,000 Mechanical Coins and 14,000 Experience Value.
This is a terrifying figure; in Gao Gong's past life experience, if it were a player, the harvest would be at most one-tenth of his.
This doesn't mean Gao Gong's combat abilities are explosive, but when players are able to participate in the plot, Iron Sand Desert is filled with armies of Radiation Beasts, each led by at least one A-level Beast God General, and every city becomes a heavily guarded Beast Nest.
Most of the time, the loss of a player's life even exceeds the gains from killing monsters.
Yet Gao Gong remains dissatisfied with the current situation. Although killing small monsters is fun, he plans to save up for something bigger.
"Come out!"
Gao Gong suddenly shouted.
No one responded. There was a faint sound from the lower floor.
Gao Gong swiftly jumped outside the building, and while suspended mid-air, he swung his wrist forcefully, ejecting the Steel Claw, which latched onto the wall. His arm tugged fiercely, the steel rope went taut, and Gao Gong drew a beautiful crescent in the air.
He landed straight from the third floor to the second floor.
Steel Rope Claw, an essential weapon for a Classical Stream Mechanical Hunter.
Although the move looked stylish, he only dared to jump from the third floor; he fears death if it's the tenth floor—
However, the follower was obviously startled by the sudden move, frozen in place, not moving at all.