Absorption

The beat-up vehicle rattled for a full two hours before finally coming to a slow stop. Lin Fan, huddled in the corner, felt he had reached his limit; if it had gone on any longer, he really would have vomited.

Outpost Base 023 was less of a base and more of a giant junkyard forcibly enclosed by high walls and electric fences.

The moment Lin Fan stepped off the vehicle, an indescribable, mixed stench hit him in the face.

The smell was like a pile of dead rats and motor oil fermented together for three months, so...

"Ugh!"

After catching his breath, Lin Fan looked around.

Everywhere he looked, there were makeshift sheds built from color-coated steel tiles, along with mountains of scrap metal and recycled waste.

Carrying his bag, Lin Fan avoided the flow of people and walked alone toward the very edge of the base.

There lay the ruins of a long-collapsed overpass.

This area was not yet the true active zone for monsters; it belonged to the so-called "safe zone."

But precisely because it was safe, this place had been picked over hundreds of times by countless waves of scavengers. Anything of value had long since been hauled away.

Only the steel bars embedded in the concrete remained. They were time-consuming and laborious to extract, and they only fetched a pittance at the recycling station, which was the only reason they had been spared.

But for Lin Fan, it was just right.

Lin Fan stepped over the rubble and found a wind-sheltered spot under the bridge.

After confirming there was no one around and no surveillance cameras, he flipped his hand, and Calamity appeared out of thin air.

Damn, it was heavy!

Even though he had been mentally prepared, the moment Calamity's weight pressed down, Lin Fan's arm muscles tightened instantly, and his veins bulged like earthworms.

"Hoo... hoo..."

Lin Fan stared fixedly at the cold, radiating Calamity in his hands.

It's a good thing my physical fitness has skyrocketed, otherwise, just holding this thing would probably have snapped my spine.

Theoretically speaking, dreaming of swinging this thing in combat is pure fantasy.

Lin Fan adjusted his breathing and turned his gaze toward the massive ruins.

He didn't dare touch the load-bearing pillars. If they collapsed, he would truly become a "meat sandwich." With his current strength, he couldn't dig himself out if he were buried.

As for calling for rescue? Don't even think about it.

Look at where he was; he hadn't joined any scavenger squads.

Not only would no one bother to save him, but in the spot he had chosen, if he were buried, no one would likely ever find him.

Lin Fan raised Calamity and rested its crescent-shaped inner blade against a piece of discarded steel rebar protruding from a broken guardrail.

Sizzle!

There were no sparks. Instead, it was as if a piece of butter had been dropped into a scorching hot frying pan; the solid, thick rebar softened at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The metal structure of the rebar disintegrated instantly, turning into wisps of gray-white airflow that drilled directly into the pitch-black blade.

Hum.

Suddenly, the hand Lin Fan used to grip the hilt trembled violently.

He felt a faint but extremely clear warm current flow through the hilt and into his palm as Calamity absorbed the rebar.

The sensation was incredibly comfortable; he felt as if his body were "recharging."

Lin Fan looked at Calamity in his hand with surprise.

He truly hadn't expected this thing to have such an ability.

While absorbing metal to evolve, it could also feed energy back to him.

"As expected of a system product, this ability is top-tier."

Although the energy fed back was pitifully small and couldn't directly improve his physical fitness, it was more than enough to serve as a replenishment for his stamina.

"Good stuff. As long as I eat iron, I have the strength to lift the blade."

"If I have the strength to lift the blade, I can eat more iron."

"This is a perfect, perpetual motion loop!"

Lin Fan looked up abruptly at the collapsed overpass that stretched for several kilometers.

In that fractured concrete, the exposed steel rebar was beyond counting.

Then there were the abandoned buses lying by the roadside, the toppled lampposts, the broken guardrail panels...

In the eyes of others, this was trash not worth moving.

But in Lin Fan's eyes, this was clearly experience points covering the ground!

"Tsk tsk, I wonder how much Calamity can grow."

Soon, that small section of rebar turned completely into dust, and Lin Fan looked down at Calamity.

[Devoured ordinary construction steel.]

[Material: Inferior.]

[Growth progress: +0.00001%.]

"...?"

"It's that little?"

There was nothing to say. Although the progress increase was pitifully small, it was free, and that alone was enough to make Lin Fan happy.

So, dragging the exaggerated black scythe, Lin Fan began to weave through the ruins.

Wherever he passed, all metallic substances melted away in silence.

The rebar was gone, the guardrails were gone, and even half of a scrapped sedan was "touched" out of existence.

Only the faint "sizzling" sound echoed under the empty bridge.

Two hours later, Lin Fan looked at Calamity in his hand.

[Devoured scrap metal: 15 tons.]

[Calamity growth progress: +0.05%, current growth progress: 0.07%.]

[Current weight-bearing compatibility: +0.05%.]

[Weapon density increased, current weight: 3005 kilograms.]

Looking at the data on the system panel, the corner of Lin Fan's mouth twitched.

Fifteen tons, and the progress had increased by 0.07%.

However, although the progress hadn't increased much, it wasn't without gains.

Calamity's weight had increased, and a stat Lin Fan hadn't seen before had also improved.

That was weight-bearing compatibility.

Having devoured so much metal, even though Calamity's weight had increased, he felt the blade becoming more and more manageable, as if it were growing out of his own hand.

This feeling was very peculiar, as if the blood connection between him and Calamity had become extremely intimate.

Lin Fan speculated that the main reason for this change was related to this weight-bearing compatibility.

The higher the weight-bearing compatibility, the stronger his control over Calamity would be.

In other words, even if Calamity became heavier in the future, as long as the weight-bearing compatibility could keep up, he would be able to use Calamity easily and comfortably, even if his own strength didn't improve at all.

"Nice. It really has considered every problem for me."

Lin Fan flipped his hand to put Calamity away, pulled a biscuit from his bag, and popped it into his mouth, his gaze cast toward the deeper parts of the ruins.

At the end of his line of sight, a highway full of cracks could be faintly seen extending into the distance.

And at the end of that highway, the silhouette of a city loomed.

That was County 0201, the wilderness area closest to Outpost Base 023.

That was a place with real monsters, so the danger level was far beyond what Outpost Base 023 could compare to.

But likewise, the resources that could be obtained there were not something this place could compare to either.

If he was lucky, he might even find a weapon left behind by some martial artist, or perhaps equipment forged from high-grade metal alloys.

The alloys used to forge those weapons and equipment were far superior to this scrap iron.

"Warm-up over."

Lin Fan brushed the biscuit crumbs off his hands.

"Time to go find some high-end goods."