Cheng Qi's home was nothing more than a ramshackle shack.
He sat on a battered bucket outside it, staring blankly at the crystal bracer on his right wrist.
"I'm so damn handsome, I can't stand it!"
"If I went into the city, those female nanny robots would fall head over heels for me!"
Off to one side, Foolish Boy, fully restored and upgraded far beyond his former level, was admiring his body in a mirror, preening and posing.
Cheng Qi ignored the show-off.
He rubbed his chin, studying the mysterious object on his wrist.
This thing was nothing short of miraculous.
Was it really a creation of a level-13 civilization, as his grandfather had claimed?
But humanity's explorations had only ever encountered civilizations up to level 5. A level-13 cosmic civilization was the stuff of legend.
"What are you?"
Cheng Qi suddenly addressed his right wrist, then chuckled at himself. Things like this were usually aloof. They wouldn't introduce themselves.
[I am the Standard Template Construct] [Standard Template Construct] [Based on your understanding, common interpretations include "standard construction template" or "standard template construct"] [But these, too, are based solely on your understanding]
He had been proven wrong awfully fast.
An azure window popped up from the crystal bracer, displaying those words before going completely dark. It answered no further questions.
"All right, all right."
"Feels like there's a little contempt in there, too."
Cheng Qi slowly rose, drew a sharp breath, and narrowed his eyes. "What you are isn't the most important thing. What matters is that I'm going to make full use of you!"
Testing began.
Cheng Qi found two stones of roughly equal size, along with two wads of toilet paper Foolish Boy had once used to wipe up oil leaking from his crotch.
[Non-technological creations] [Cannot synthesize]
Cheng Qi and Foolish Boy crouched on the ground, watching the blue starlight dancing inside the Standard Template Construct. Somehow, its flight path looked like a raised middle finger.
"All right, all right."
"It won't activate for things that aren't technological equipment."
"And Foolish Boy can't be upgraded again, either, since I don't have another B343 Prototype on hand."
Cheng Qi pondered. "So it has to be technological items..."
Then.
Cheng Qi got up, went into the shack, and brought out eight pairs of intricately constructed metal shoes.
These exploration shoes used hydraulic components in their soles to provide a jumping height of 20-80 cm.
They were all junk Cheng Qi had collected in the past-damaged and unusable.
His plan had been to gather enough parts to repair one fully functional pair of exploration shoes. With their help, he would be much more efficient at climbing garbage mountains.
Their technological level might have been low, but they were unquestionably technological creations.
This should work, right?
Cheng Qi's eyes flickered as he slowly raised his arm, aiming the bracer on the back of his wrist at two pairs of exploration shoes.
[Similar technological creations detected]
Just as he had expected!
The Standard Template Construct emitted a blue scanning beam that swept back and forth between the two pairs of exploration shoes.
[Please select the synthesis base] [Matter formatting initiated]
One pair of shoes broke down into "fundamental units." Then a translucent river appeared, showering down over the other pair of exploration shoes.
[Exploration Leg Guards] [Mechanical assembly extends to the knees to reduce knee strain. Maximum jumping height: 4.5 meters]
Cheng Qi's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the intricately constructed, brand-new pair of... mechanical boots before him.
"Foolish Boy, it really works!"
"With equipment like this, climbing a hundred-meter garbage mountain probably wouldn't even take ten minutes!"
Cheng Qi felt as though an entirely new world had descended into his life. His heart throbbed, and even his pupils trembled.
"Keep it going!"
Foolish Boy was excited, too. "What kind of equipment will we get if we keep going?"
Cheng Qi's eyes gleamed as he looked toward the other four pairs of exploration shoes.
He repeated the process.
Two pairs of exploration shoes merged into one pair of Exploration Leg Guards.
Then the technological miracle happened again, merging two pairs of Exploration Leg Guards into one!
An entirely new piece of equipment appeared before Cheng Qi.
[Jet Turbine-Powered Shoes] [Equipped with eighteen miniature jet propulsion turbines, a high-precision gyroscope, and tilt detection. Wearer's flight altitude: 300 meters. Maximum speed: Mach 0.208]
"Flight?!"
Cheng Qi froze. "Mach 0.208-that's about 250 kilometers per hour!"
The equipment before him had returned to the form of mechanical shoes, now even more sophisticated. Eighteen miniature, multidirectionally adjustable jet turbines lined their soles, and their pale silver alloy gleamed faintly.
Flight...!
On Earth as it was now, the sky was practically forbidden territory.
You couldn't even find a broken junk vehicle that had once been capable of flight.
It seemed someone had screened the garbage here.
Their purpose was simple: no scavenger was allowed to escape Earth. These garbage worms carried the most inferior genes, and they could never be permitted to leave Earth and contaminate human civilization.
"E Luo counts as rich."
"But even he only has a heavy motorcycle that can travel on the ground."
Cheng Qi's eyes were filled with disbelief. "Foolish Boy, I can fly."
Impatience stirred within him.
Cheng Qi lifted one foot and lightly touched the rather large mechanical shoe before him.
More than a dozen soft pneumatic hisses sounded. The shoe's outer armor separated into several sections and slid to either side, opening its interior completely.
His heartbeat quickened.
Cheng Qi placed his foot in the center of the shoe. Pneumatic hisses sounded again as its armor began fitting together and tightening, each bolt automatically screwing into place.
In just about two seconds, the shoe wrapped perfectly around Cheng Qi's foot. Its bulk had shrunk considerably, too. It looked like a slightly oversized dress shoe with a metallic finish.
Cheng Qi fitted his other foot just as perfectly.
Then he found a very old motorcycle helmet, its structure still intact, and put it on.
Standing on the ground, Cheng Qi swallowed slightly and glanced at Foolish Boy, both apprehensive and full of anticipation.
The lights in Foolish Boy's eyes flickered. "I suggest you get properly familiar with the manual before you operate them!"
"Get familiar?"
"Where's the thrill in that?"
Cheng Qi took a deep breath. "Here we go!"
Boom!
Dust sprayed outward in a rippling ring, and the ground trembled faintly.
Cheng Qi shot straight into the sky!
He couldn't judge how fast he was traveling. He only felt fierce gusts roaring past his ears. His clothes instantly flattened against his body, and his ragged scavenger's cloak snapped in the wind as though it might tear apart at any moment.
Even in midair, all he had to do was press his soles down lightly, and an indescribable burst of lift erupted, propelling him higher again!
Earth's atmosphere was no longer as clean as it had once been.
Thick with dust, it had taken on a dark gray hue.
But the sky was a place countless garbage worms longed to reach.
"Woo-hoo!"
"This is incredible!"
Cheng Qi rocketed to the altitude limit. The flight shoes' built-in gyroscope was exceptionally stable. He stopped dead in an instant, then dove to the right, plunging toward a slowly drifting white cloud nearby!
"Yoo-hoo!!!"
Cheng Qi streaked across the sky, his heart surging with exhilaration, his voice fading in and out among the clouds.
"I'm the king of the sky! I'm the king of the world! I'm the king of the world!"
The Standard Template Construct was incredible!
What a rush!
It could synthesize any technological junk and upgrade it into unimaginable equipment!
As he flew, Cheng Qi looked down at the Earth beneath him.
There were a full 45.5 quadrillion tons of technological garbage here!
Practically anything he could want!
Someone's legend was about to begin!
And that someone was me!
My name was Cheng Qi-Qi, as in "beggar"!
I would become... the king of the garbage heap!
On Garbage Mountain 7-12-5.
E Luo thought he heard the faint whine of a mosquito.
He turned and looked up into the distant sky, spotting a faint trail of black smoke several kilometers away.
One of his underlings, fitted with crude mechanical legs, said, "Boss, looks like something took off."
"Impossible."
"Everyone knows the sky is off-limits here."
E Luo narrowed his eyes and reasoned, "Earth is littered with electronic junk with faulty connections these days. Something probably... blew up?"
Before you continue