"Purifying Light?"
"Does this mean I can't eat beef anymore?"
Light was truly surprised—a pleasant surprise, to be honest.
He hadn't expected—
Just by casually picking up an empty water bottle, the system would judge it as purifying a 'Tier Three Contamination Core—Spring of Calamity'!
Spring of Calamity?
Light glanced down at the quietly lying 'Yibao' bottle in his snakeskin bag.
Yibao, you're so evil!
Good thing I only ever drink Wahaha water.
Light didn't fuss too much about the 'Evil Yibao', his attention was completely grabbed by the system reward ability—'Purifying Light'.
Just like before.
Light silently recited 'Claim Reward' in his heart, and a [Awesome!] button popped up below the panel.
But…
Light looked around and noticed that quite a few students were casting curious glances his way as he picked up trash.
With so many watching, reaching out to poke 'air' didn't seem very wise.
So Light decided to suppress the urge to claim the reward for now.
He raised his head and looked ahead.
On both sides of the street, there was all sorts of random trash—water bottles, candy wrappers, cigarette butts—wait, why is there even a dead baby's diaper?
"Student quality really needs some work; environmental protection is a long-term grind!"
Light put on a grim face, but his tone couldn't hide his excitement.
He strode forward, stretched out his garbage tongs, and quickly picked up another water bottle, shoving it into his snakeskin bag at lightning speed.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
"No reaction?"
Light frowned.
This time, picking up the water bottle didn't count as 'purifying a pollution source' by the system, and he didn't get a reward, either.
He glanced at the logo on the bottle—Wahaha.
Sure enough, Yibao is evil, but Wahaha is pure.
Soon.
Light grabbed another empty Yibao bottle and tossed it into the snakeskin bag.
"Still nothing?"
Light frowned again, vaguely catching the key to the problem.
"Only one reward per unique type of trash—a pollution source, in system lingo?"
With this thought, Light picked up a Wangzai Mantou snack wrapper.
"Now this is more like it!"
[Your power shakes the Wasteland! With the body of a mere mortal, you have purified a 'Tier Two Contamination Core—Evil Big Head'. Wasteland Points +500!]
[Your achievement 'Wasteland Purifier' gains experience!]
[Your ability 'Purifying Light' gains experience!]
[Tip—]
[Once experience is full, achievements/abilities can advance to the next tier. Upgraded achievements/abilities will grant you even stronger buff effects!]
"Damn, I can upgrade these too?"
Light was stunned.
He glanced down again at the snakeskin bag and tongs in his hands, then looked toward the scattered trash on both sides of the distant road.
In that instant—
Light almost felt like—
He wasn't picking up trash; he was fighting monsters and leveling up in the Wasteland!
...
Two minutes later.
Light grabbed a cigarette butt and tossed it into the snakeskin bag.
[Your power shakes the Wasteland! With the body of a mere mortal, you have purified a 'Tier Three Contamination Core—Dark Liqun'. Wasteland Points +800!]
[Your achievement 'Wasteland Purifier' gains experience!]
[Your ability 'Purifying Light' gains experience!]
...
Three minutes later.
Light picked up a dead baby's diaper and tossed it into the snakeskin bag.
[Your power shakes the Wasteland! With the body of a mere mortal, you have purified a 'Tier Three Contamination Core—End of the World Gangben'. Wasteland Points +800!]
[Your achievement 'Wasteland Purifier' gains experience!]
[Your ability 'Purifying Light' gains experience!]
...
Five minutes later.
Light picked up an old disposable mask and tossed it into the snakeskin bag.
[Your power shakes the Wasteland! With the body of a mere mortal, you have purified a 'Tier Three Contamination Core—Breath of Plague'. Wasteland Points +800!]
[Your achievement 'Wasteland Purifier' gains experience!]
[Your ability 'Purifying Light' gains experience!]
...
In this way, Light picked up trash all the way from one end of Buxue Building to the other.
The notification texts kept popping up in front of his eyes, one after another.
The Wasteland Points were jumping up by the hundreds with every beep, skyrocketing in real time.
By the time the sun had completely set, Light had almost cleared out all the trash in the area around Buxue Building—nothing left behind at all.
And the snakeskin bag in his hand, without him even realizing, was stuffed to the brim.
Although—
The same type of trash could only trigger the system reward once.
Like, mineral water bottles, drink bottles, and even tapioca tea cups all counted as 'Spring of Calamity' in the system.
But sticking to his 'better safe than sorry, grab everything' principle, Light picked them all up and left nothing behind.
And this scene—
Was seen by Yin Yao and Tang Yunxuan, both sweating buckets as they picked up trash with tongs in hand on the other side of a building not far away.
A hint of shock and confusion flashed across Yin Yao's delicate face.
It was summer, and she'd only been at it for a short while but was already sweating, her white dress nearly soaked through.
Plus, the constant bending and straightening motion of picking up trash had her lower back aching—even as a dance major, this was getting hard to handle.
But Light?
That guy picked up trash like an unstoppable, whirlwind force of nature!
In her opinion, this so-called test was nothing more than going through the motions.
But the scene unfolding before her eyes made her realize she was totally underestimating the job.
"It's supposed to be an assessment just for me, as the new club member, but as president, you're still working that hard...?"
Yin Yao couldn't make sense of Light's hyperactive trash-picking, but deep down she suddenly felt a bit of respect for him.
For the first time, that respect had nothing to do with Light's future powerful identity in the Wasteland World, but with this moment: the ordinary yet not-so-ordinary college student, club president of the Environmental Protection Club.
"Damn!"
Meanwhile, over at the Shenshi Building, Tang Yunxuan, responsible for trash in that area, saw Light working like a madman and was instantly filled with a massive sense of crisis.
"Haji Yu, you bastard!"
"Picking up trash so desperately—are you trying to steal the spotlight from me in front of Senior Sister Yin?!"
With that,
Tang Yunxuan ignored his aching back and angrily sped up his picking motions.
He was determined to stuff more into his snakeskin bag than Light!
...
...
One hour later.
The three of them, each carrying a snakeskin bag stuffed to bursting, gathered beneath Buxue Building.
The non-stop labor had left Yin Yao's formerly delicate and fair face glowing red with heat.
Tang Yunxuan, being utterly out of shape, lips edging on purple from the lack of exercise, looked half-dead.
As for Light?
This guy was grinning from ear to ear—completely over the moon!
"Old Yu, you're killing me with your grind!"
Tang Yunxuan propped himself up, gasping for air while cursing.
Normally, clearing out the trash from a whole teaching building would take three or four hours, but Light blasted through it in just over an hour—forcing Tang Yunxuan to grit his teeth and push himself to keep up!
At this point, he couldn't care less about keeping up appearances in front of the goddess Yin Yao and let out a full-on curse.
Yin Yao, meanwhile, was also breathing hard from the heat and exhaustion, her chest rising and falling in her white summer dress.
Not everyone struggles the same.
Tang Yunxuan felt exhausted.
But Light was absolutely pumped from his big haul!
[Your achievement 'Wasteland Purifier' experience is full. Eligible for tier up!]
[Your ability 'Purifying Light' experience is full. Eligible for tier up!]
[Wasteland Points: 7200!]
[Tip—]
[Once your Wasteland Points total reaches 10,000, the Points Mall will unlock!]
From start to finish, they'd only been collecting trash for just over an hour.
Light had effortlessly raked in a total of 6,400 Wasteland Points!
The 10,000 points milestone, which had looked so far away, was now just within his grasp!
If it weren't for the fact that his snakeskin bag was completely stuffed and couldn't take another scrap, Light figured he could keep going all night!
Plus—
In addition to his Wasteland Points, his achievements as 'Wasteland Purifier' and his 'Purifying Light' ability both met the upgrade requirements.
"Awesome!"
Light let out a satisfied sigh.
Yin Yao and Tang Yunxuan exchanged a look—totally lost, but totally floored.
After a while,
Yin Yao caught her breath, recovering somewhat from her fatigue.
She looked at Light.
"President, did I pass the assessment?"
Light glanced at her, and then at her own nearly-overflowing pink snakeskin bag, not much less stuffed than his own, and looked surprised.
He honestly hadn't expected this campus queen, Senior Sister Yin, to actually pick up a full bag of trash so dutifully.
"Of course!"
Light replied with certainty.
"Thank you, president!"
Yin Yao beamed, as radiant as blooming flowers.
"Hey, hey, what about me?!" I'm a club member too, I'm still the vice president, okay!"
Tang Yunxuan jumped up and down seeing Yin Yao not even spare him a glance.
And Light—
Suddenly froze mid-smile.
Because just now—
The moment he approved Yin Yao's club membership,
A new set of notifications appeared on the transparent system panel before his eyes—
[With mercy and generosity, you successfully sheltered a Wasteland Wanderer, providing safe housing and basic survival protection. Wasteland Points +1000!]
[For your first time sheltering a Wasteland Wanderer, you unlock the achievement 'Wasteland Protector'!]
[You have obtained the title: Dawn City Lord (1/100)!]