Amid the roar of machinery.
Su Wen officially began playing the game.
The screen opened onto a vast blue sky, beneath which an immense settlement of yellow-and-black-striped recycling machinery rose into view.
The protagonist wore a heavy, fully enclosed work suit.
Congratulations, Recycler SLT-3701. Due to your satisfactory physical condition, you have been successfully selected for the BHX District Scrap Machinery Recycling Project. Due to last year's "Island Relic Electromagnetic Outburst" incident. A large quantity of mechanical scrap was abandoned. Schlote Corporation has now purchased the rights to use this mechanical scrap. Your task is to recover as many valuable components as possible. We will convert them into corresponding funds for you. Note: To protect employee rights, Schlote Corporation has thoughtfully introduced the "Prosthetic Modification Plan": Whether it is exoskeleton implantation or mechanical arm replacement, should your body suffer irreversible damage, replacements may be provided at a discounted price.
"So Schlote Heavy Industries contracted the Island Relic quarantine buffer zone along the BHX District coast. No wonder they dared to be this arrogant, making people work sixteen hours a day."
Su Wen often followed the news.
He knew about the Island Relic electromagnetic outburst incident from a year ago.
At the time, several tech companies had dispatched exploration teams, but when the crisis suddenly erupted, all those cutting-edge scientific creations became mechanical scrap.
Although exploration work at the Island Relic had since resumed.
The quarantine buffer zone still had not been lifted.
Of course.
Coastal New City and Old Town were nearly seventy or eighty kilometers apart.
So even when the electromagnetic explosion happened a year ago, it had not affected the area where he lived at all.
Good morning, Recycler SLT-3701, please start your recycling work. (Good morning, Recycler SLT-3701. Please begin your recycling work.)
As the mechanical prompt sounded.
Su Wen looked at the environment displayed on his computer screen.
It was a cramped, shabby workroom.
On the left stood an old-fashioned employee terminal resembling a computer, used to purchase and upgrade recycling tools and protective equipment.
On the right was a rusty open kitchen, with a gray-black pipe running overhead in a hardcore industrial-metal style.
And the place with the sign hanging outside it in the distance was probably the office.
The deafening roar of machinery echoed constantly in the background, as though countless fans were running at once.
Su Wen finally understood the clause in those employee regulations recruiting contract slaves: I can accept working long-term in high-decibel mechanical noise.
He listened for only a moment.
His brain felt like it was about to explode.
He hurriedly turned down the speakers.
Fortunately, he was using a computer terminal. If this had been an immersive experience, he would probably have been tortured into one of the Cyber Psychos within two hours and locked away by the Mental Review Bureau.
Alert: As the recycler is currently within a mild Cohen Radiation field, please wear your protective equipment properly to avoid mutation.
This was probably the tutorial section.
Following the game prompt, Su Wen searched the battered employee terminal for:
Polymer Isolation LT-1 Protective Suit, price: 10,000 yuan.
He stared at the bulky, dirt-gray astronaut suit on the screen. Calling it secondhand would have been a compliment.
Why not just rob me?
How much starting money did I have again?
Su Wen glanced at his personal savings in the upper-right corner:
0
The next second.
Before he could even choose to browse other protective suits.
The employee terminal emitted a crackling prompt:
As the recycler has not yet purchased protective clothing, the terminal has automatically made the purchase for you. Your total income is currently: -50,000 yuan. Please work hard and strive to become Schlote's wealthiest employee.
At this rate.
He could only become Schlote's most indebted employee.
Game prompt: You currently require a Multi-functional Disassembly Gun, Field Tractor, and High-Pressure Cleaning Water Gun as your recycling tool set. The corresponding funds have also been deducted. Your total income is currently: -376,000 yuan. Please work hard and strive to become Schlote's wealthiest employee.
It was not even half an hour into his first day at work.
And Su Wen had already experienced just how black-hearted a so-called black-hearted company could be.
But he had not expected.
This still was not the bottom line for Schlote Heavy Industries.
Please begin your recycling work. Current recycling area: Empty. Based on your current recycler level, there are three categories of scrap machinery available for dismantling and recycling: 1. Leis Angton Explorer yacht, California, United States. 2. Isaiah Technology Small Environmental Purification Drone. 3. Schmidt Heavy Industries Marine Relic Excavator.
Su Wen could view the information on these three types of scrap machinery through the terminal.
The Explorer yacht was roughly three meters wide and six meters long. Its hull had been reinforced with flexible impact-resistant material, and because of the electromagnetic outburst, the exterior had suffered little damage. Aside from the intact propulsion system, however, most of its internal circuitry had been damaged.
The Isaiah Technology Small Environmental Purification Drone still had an intact lighting module and drone wing assembly.
As for the Schlote Heavy Industries Marine Relic Excavator.
That machine was the most dilapidated of all. While large tech companies were all guilty of working people to the bone with 996 schedules and ignoring labor laws, Schlote Heavy Industries was even more excessive. It squeezed every last drop out of its employees, let alone its machinery.
Perhaps only the excavation drill and a few scattered internal components could still be used.
With that.
Su Wen selected an Isaiah Technology Small Environmental Purification Drone and began the recycling work.
Game prompt: Abandoned machine "Isaiah Technology Small Environmental Purification Drone B303" has been assigned to you. The corresponding funds have been deducted from your account. Your total income is currently: -1.676 million yuan. Please work hard and strive to become Schlote's wealthiest employee. Friendly reminder: The sale price of intact equipment dismantled by you may become your income.
He now understood how this bastard company made its profits.
All risks and responsibilities were pushed onto the recyclers.
Yet the company still collected its money without fail.
But this was, after all, one part of the Future Timeline.
Su Wen understood that using this as an entry point would surely have a crucial impact on the development of later events.
He pushed open the door of the old workroom.
After being disinfected with jets of low-quality atomized gas, he entered the open work area.
The scene shifted into a vast cyberpunk landscape.
Crooked piles of machinery had formed mountains of junk seven or eight meters tall beside the coastal quarantine zone.
Under the clear sunlight, countless rusted machines salvaged from the seabed glimmered with a subdued sheen.
A small drone had already been placed in the recycling yard by enormous mechanical arms at work.
Su Wen equipped the Multi-functional Disassembly Gun, Field Tractor, and High-Pressure Cleaning Water Gun.
He wore an old astronaut-like protective suit so heavy that no trace of a human shape could be seen beneath it.
With the -1.676 million income marker displayed in the upper-right corner.
He was now about to begin the recycling work.
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