A Junk Collector's First Time

Ning Chuan did not head toward the small stream behind the mountain. Instead, he took a detour to an abandoned threshing ground on the edge of the village, a place few people normally visited.

There were several dilapidated haystacks here, just enough to block anyone's view.

After confirming no one was around, Ning Chuan took a deep breath and gripped the rake tightly.

"Enter the Station! Enter in person!"

To make better use of his tools, he chose to enter in person this time.

With the Platform's absolute safety guarantee, the risks were manageable.

"Command confirmed. Physical transmission initiated."

A stronger pull came over him, and the scene before his eyes changed in an instant!

In the blink of an eye, Ning Chuan found himself standing on that cold metal platform, still gripping the utterly ordinary Nine-Toothed Rake from Douluo Continent.

His physical body could now truly sense the atmosphere of Junk Continent.

A complex odor of rusted metal, decayed energy, and decomposing organic matter filled his nostrils. It was not particularly strong, as though most of it had been filtered away by the Platform's power.

The sensation beneath his feet was incomparably real. The platform's chill seeped through the soles of his shoes.

Ning Chuan weighed the rake in his hands, and a sense of reassurance rose within him.

With a tool in hand, the world is mine!

He walked to the platform's edge and once again felt the invisible boundary.

The feeling of the Safe Zone was extremely distinct.

He turned his gaze toward another pile of "garbage" outside the platform. It was not as far away as the previous pile, only three or four meters from the edge.

It appeared to consist of several twisted metal fragments that glimmered with a dim silver light, mixed with some charred objects resembling circuit boards. There was also half of a damaged tube that looked both like glass and crystal, with what seemed to be dried colorful traces inside.

It looked like waste from some technology-based world. It was relatively "quiet," with no strange gases or energy fluctuations emerging from it.

"That's the one!" Ning Chuan chose his target.

Gripping the rake's wooden handle with both hands, he extended its tines past the platform boundary and hooked toward the pile of fragments.

The moment the rake entered the garbage zone, Ning Chuan's heart tightened as he carefully sensed whether anything was wrong.

Everything was normal. No unusual sensation came through the rake.

He cautiously hooked a larger silver metal fragment with the rake's tines and tried to pull it back.

However...

Click!

The metal fragment seemed to be caught on something else, or perhaps it was simply too heavy. Ning Chuan pulled with all his strength, yet failed to move it!

Instead, the rake's wooden handle groaned under the strain.

"So heavy?" Ning Chuan frowned and exerted himself again. The muscles in his arms tightened, and the enhancement to his physique brought by twenty levels of Soul Power finally showed itself.

Creak... Bang!

The metal fragment was finally dragged free by force, bringing several smaller fragments and a pile of black residue along with it.

The fragments scraped a gray trail through the debris before Ning Chuan finally dragged them into the Platform Safe Zone.

The instant the fragments completely entered the Platform Safe Zone, Ning Chuan felt the weight on the rake suddenly lessen, as though the Platform itself had blocked some external pressure or gravity.

He let out a breath and pushed the rather weighty metal fragment toward the center of the platform.

His first battle was a success!

Though it was only a piece of scrap metal, its significance was extraordinary!

Ning Chuan was greatly encouraged and swung the rake again, continuing to explore the pile of garbage.

This time, he hooked toward the half-broken colorful crystal tube.

The instant the rake's tines touched the crystal tube, a sudden change occurred!

Within the seemingly lifeless crystal tube, the dried colorful traces abruptly lit up with a faint, sinister purple glow!

Immediately afterward, an extremely faint purple mist carrying powerful corrosive energy sprayed from the damaged section, rushing straight at Ning Chuan's face!

"Not good!" Ning Chuan turned pale. He instinctively tried to retreat, but his body seemed to react half a beat too slowly!

Just as the purple mist was about to touch the platform boundary—

Buzz!

The silver patterns along the platform's edge suddenly lit up, forming a thin curtain of light.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

The purple mist struck the light screen and vanished instantly, like ice and snow beneath a blazing sun, without leaving even the slightest trace.

Ning Chuan's heart pounded wildly, and cold sweat instantly broke out across his back.

Recycling carries risks! Dismantling requires caution!

That warning was no joke!

If not for the Platform's automatic protection, his meager Soul Power would probably have been utterly insufficient against that bizarre corrosive mist!

Still shaken, Ning Chuan looked at the half-crystal tube, which had returned to its lifeless state, and did not dare touch it again so casually.

Instead, he shifted his attention to the charred circuit board remnants nearby, which looked more "harmless."

He carefully prodded and hooked them with the rake's tines. The process went smoothly, and he soon pulled several pieces onto the platform.

Just as he was about to expand his search range, the rake's tines seemed to hook onto something massive and heavy.

Ning Chuan pulled hard, and a huge silver-gray metal block covered in rust and dents was slowly dragged from the garbage pile. It seemed to have something connected behind it...

When most of the object had been pulled out, Ning Chuan suddenly froze, his pupils narrowing slightly.

That seemed to be... a damaged cockpit? Or some kind of sealed passenger compartment?

Through the shattered observation window, he could see a twisted, grotesque corpse inside, completely shriveled and carbonized!

It wore some kind of silver-gray uniform, most of which had been damaged. Its exposed limbs were not humanoid, but more like those of an arthropod, with a dark-purple chitinous sheen. Its head was enormous and its mandibles were savage. Even dead and desiccated, it still gave off an unsettlingly bizarre aura.

This was definitely not a human corpse! Nor was it the corpse of any known Soul Beast from Douluo Continent!

This was from an unknown otherworld... an astronaut? Or a soldier?

Ning Chuan stared at the otherworldly corpse his rake had dragged from the garbage pile, at the damaged cabin and the shriveled alien body. An indescribable sense of absurdity, along with awe toward the myriad worlds, welled up within him.

In the first recovery operation of his career as a junk Station master, he seemed to have fished up something extraordinary.

He stared at the alien corpse, the silver-gray uniform on its body that still retained a trace of technological sophistication despite its damage, and the buttons and indicator lights inside the cabin that seemed not to be completely destroyed...

What could these things yield if dismantled and recycled? And how many points could they be exchanged for?

Ning Chuan's heart could not help but burn with excitement.