Now That's Reliable

The sun set.

Above the murky atmosphere, the moon looked like a dim white blotch.

Cheng Qi returned to his shack.

The shack was really just a few battered posts supporting a radiation-proof tarp.

Scavengers rarely had permanent homes, because falling garbage could bury them at any moment.

Inside the shack, Xiao Qiong lay curled up beneath a worn red blanket, fast asleep, tear tracks still at the corners of her eyes.

For now, Cheng Qi was the only person this child could depend on, just as his grandfather had once taken him in. Cheng Qi did not think his actions were particularly noble or great. Their similar experiences simply made it easier to touch the tenderness buried deep in his heart.

Cheng Qi thought that he ought to get them a comfortable shelter, at least.

Monkey had already organized his underlings to go out and buy garbage, but Cheng Qi did not hold out much hope.

Money could move mountains. Without it, all you could move was yourself.

Without any capital, Monkey and his men would not have much motivation either.

Cheng Qi was strapped for cash.

Although he had synthesized amorphous alloy earlier, he had already struck a deal with the merchant Mo to exchange all of it for Gene Catalysis Agent. None of it had been converted into cash.

Cheng Qi still had a few pieces of high-entropy alloy.

There was no question that the stuff must be incredibly valuable.

But the same problem remained: he had to complete his first transaction with Mo and establish some basic trust before he could bring the high-entropy alloy out into the open.

By now, Mo had been gone for twenty-four hours.

There should be news soon.

Cheng Qi's eyes flickered. "I hope nothing goes wrong."

Shouts and the roar of engines came from outside the shack.

Cheng Qi stood up and lifted the tarp.

He saw a dozen or so figures standing on a distant mountain of garbage.

People from the Scavenger Alliance?

Cheng Qi narrowed his eyes. He recognized those black hooded cloaks.

As a B897 safety and protection Nanny Robot, Foolish Boy flipped open the panel on his shoulder and raised a small full-spectrum radar, silently listening in on their conversation.

"The trench is 1.2 kilometers long and fifty-six meters wide."

"Large quantities of material were vaporized."

"The metal, rock, and other materials all melted, forming smooth sidewalls."

"The instantaneous temperature was at least 100 to 150 million degrees Celsius."

"No off-world missiles or other weapons have been detected."

"Someone on this Garbage Earth-more precisely, on the garbage heap right beneath our feet-unleashed some kind of nuclear-fission weapon."

"It couldn't have been a scavenger."

"There's absolutely no way a scavenger could have found a weapon like that."

"A Higher-Grade Gene Bearer has arrived carrying an off-world weapon."

Just then.

At the summit of the garbage mountain, a slender, graceful figure in a black hood spoke. "Why wasn't I notified that a Higher-Grade Gene Bearer was visiting?"

The figure turned and surveyed her surroundings.

Her face was covered, but Cheng Qi could clearly see a pale blue ring of light in each of her pupils, lending her a mysterious, noble air in the dark night.

Cheng Qi nodded to himself.

She was probably one of the Scavenger Alliance's higher-ups.

That made her one of the people at the top on Garbage Earth.

He had heard that a few of those people had also used Gene Catalysis Agent to improve their gene grades. Combined with their positions in the Scavenger Alliance, that placed them far above every scavenger.

"Cheng Qi, is this your home?"

A sweet, melodious voice suddenly rang out.

Cheng Qi turned his head and saw Hana, beautiful as a rose in her red dress. At some point, she had arrived outside his shack.

She had actually put on high heels today, along with light makeup and red lipstick. She looked utterly ravishing.

"Have you seen a Higher-Grade Gene Bearer arrive?"

Hana smiled faintly, though her manner remained somewhat distant and aloof.

The image of Hana acting like a bitch in heat that night instantly surfaced in Cheng Qi's mind.

That single question told Cheng Qi why Hana had dressed up so carefully today.

She simply wanted to arouse a Higher-Grade Gene Bearer's desire.

As he looked at Hana.

The admiration once present in Cheng Qi's eyes was gone, replaced by a kind of numbness.

He spoke, and it was not really a lie. "There are no Higher-Grade Gene Bearers here."

Hana tilted her head, drawing her bare, snowy-white shoulder toward her cheek, and smiled. "If you see him, could you let me know right away?"

"There are plenty of topics I'd like to discuss with a Higher-Grade Gene Bearer."

"For example, how to solve the scavengers' food shortages."

Cheng Qi nodded calmly.

He knew better than anyone what the "topics" Hana mentioned really involved.

Hana had no interest whatsoever in lingering and turned to walk into the night.

But after a few steps, she suddenly turned back, bringing her face closer and closer to Cheng Qi's.

It was only because she clung to a tiny sliver of hope.

She stared into Cheng Qi's pupils.

After confirming that there were no blue rings in his eyes, Hana tried hard to conceal her disappointment and maintained her aloof demeanor.

Then, apparently feeling that she seemed too distant, she made an effort to give him a friendly smile.

"Remember to let me know if you hear anything."

Click, click, click.

Her high heels struck the metal garbage with crisp clicks. Her vivid red dress and swaying waist disappeared into the night.

Cheng Qi shook his head.

The only reason Hana had spared him a smile was that she hoped he might provide a useful lead.

If not for that, she would undoubtedly have ignored this scavenger at the very bottom of the ladder.

The Scavenger Alliance's investigation lasted a full two hours and turned up nothing.

During that time, some people also came to question Cheng Qi.

Cheng Qi simply claimed to know nothing, no matter what they asked.

Late into the quiet night, everyone withdrew.

But a crackle came from the communicator reserved for contacting Mo.

-"Get ready to receive your goods."

Cheng Qi's eyes suddenly lit up.

Mo had kept his word!

He immediately stepped outside the shack and looked up at the dim starry sky, waiting to welcome Mo's aircraft.

Several extremely faint points of light appeared in the distant sky.

Cheng Qi froze. "That's not an aircraft?"

Half a minute later, four black boxes the size of shoeboxes, with miniature thrusters mounted underneath, landed in front of Cheng Qi.

Cheng Qi understood.

These were some kind of small transport containers, much like a courier delivery. Mo had not come in person.

When Cheng Qi approached the transport containers, their facial recognition systems activated. After confirming his identity, the hatches on the fronts of the containers slowly opened.

A cloud of cold mist spilled out.

Cheng Qi's eyes widened slightly as he saw rows of glass test tubes filled with a black liquid inside the containers.

Mo's voice came through the dedicated communicator.

"Failed batches of black-market Gene Catalysis Agent."

"Your payment only covered 16.6 doses. Since this is our first deal, I rounded it up to seventeen for you."

"Cheng Qi, we're all squared up."

[Similar technological constructs detected]

[Gene agent containing large quantities of impurities]

[Derived from obsolete CRISPR-Cas9 technology, using RNA to guide Cas9 Protein in cutting specific DNA sequences. Essentially equivalent to a DNA-destroying agent. Lethal side effects. Gene optimization success rate below 0.0035%.]

[Proceed with synthesis?]

The Standard Template Construct's data confirmed that the agents were genuine.

It also confirmed that Mo offered a broad, reliable channel for trade.

Cheng Qi felt his heart pounding as he spoke into the communicator. "Mo, you're seriously reliable!"

"Coming from someone who's about to lose his life because he took inferior agents..."

Mo's voice was utterly rational and calm. "I honestly don't know what you're so excited about."