Gripping the enhanced nine-toothed rake, with Spirit Power flowing through it, Ning Chuan felt an unprecedented sense of control.
His confidence surged as he turned his gaze toward the more distant, bizarre piles of junk.
His eyes swept over twisted metal, shattered crystals, and dried-up energy pools, finally settling on a relatively isolated “mound.”
The waste piled there seemed mostly machinery-related.
Broken gears, charred circuit boards, and exposed cables tangled together, with several oddly shaped metal canisters half-buried among them.
Atop this heap of scrap, a relatively intact humanoid silhouette caught his attention.
It seemed to be…
a robot?
Roughly adult-sized, its entire body was covered in a dull, matte black metal shell.
Its design was clean and rugged, with lines that carried a cold, industrial beauty, starkly contrasting the rough, broken waste around it.
Curled up, its arms wrapped around bent knees, its head bowed deeply into the crook of its arms, it resembled a child sleeping in the ruins or awaiting its final fate.
Its shell was covered in scratches and dents, many areas thick with cosmic dust.
Visible rust marked its joints, and its left leg was severed at the knee, the break jagged, the missing calf nowhere to be found.
On its back was a large, vicious tear, as if ripped open by some tremendous force, revealing densely packed but long-darkened precision components and severed energy conduits inside.
It lay there silently, without any signs of life or the slightest energy fluctuation, like a steel carcass forgotten in a corner of time and space, filled with an aura of ruin and death.
“This is…” Ning Chuan’s heartbeat inexplicably quickened.
The robot’s appearance was completely different from the style of Soul Tools he knew from the Douluo Continent, more akin to creations from the sci-fi works of his previous life.
“Station, scan that robot!” he immediately ordered.
“Scanning…”
“Target: Humanoid Intelligent Combat Unit (Severely Damaged)”
“Codename/Model: Unknown”
“Energy Core: Completely depleted, core fractured.”
“Power System: Multiple fractures, completely non-functional.”
“Armament System: Missing or severely damaged (identified: right arm built-in weapon interface completely destroyed, left arm Energy Conduction Matrix collapsed).”
“Intelligence Core: Detected extremely weak anomalous fluctuations, Status: ???
(Unknown Interference)”
“Unit Condition: Shell strength significantly degraded, multiple internal structural fractures, missing left calf and partial external armor.”
“Value Assessment: Unit materials recyclable (high-strength Nano-composite Steel, scattered Soul Tool Alloy fragments, damaged energy conduits…), but disassembly difficulty is high.
Intelligence Core status anomalous, contains unknown risks.
Comprehensive Value: Low-Medium (depending on disassembly results), Risk: Medium (Intelligence Core unknown fluctuations).”
“Recommendation: Attempt overall recovery and disassembly, or directly dismantle to recover some high-value materials.”
“Intelligent combat unit…
completely destroyed…
Intelligence Core anomalous fluctuations?” Ning Chuan focused on the keywords in the information.
The value wasn’t high, but that “anomalous fluctuation” and “unknown risk” gave him pause.
Dismantle it directly for materials?
That seemed a bit wasteful.
This robot looked quite advanced technologically, even though it was currently in tatters.
Recover it whole?
What if that “anomalous fluctuation” was something terrifying…
Just as Ning Chuan was weighing the pros and cons, his hand holding the rake unconsciously moved a little closer to the robot.
Perhaps it was the reduced distance, or perhaps the flow of Spirit Power through the rake handle brought some extremely subtle enhancement to his perception—Ning Chuan’s Spiritual Body suddenly trembled!
An indescribable sensation, incredibly faint, yet it pierced through the platform’s isolation, emanating from that cold, steel wreckage.
It wasn’t an energy fluctuation, not a life force, nor a mental thought.
It was…
an emotion?
Immeasurably faint, yet pure to the extreme, and despairing to the extreme—
Sorrow.
Like the final flicker of defiance before a spark is extinguished, like the last silence as a lone boat sinks into the bottomless deep sea, like a child forever abandoned in a cold ruin, who has long forgotten how to cry, leaving only an eternal, silent grief.
This emotion was so weak it was almost non-existent, yet it stirred Ning Chuan’s soul.
wasn’t inanimate?
Did its intelligence core still retain a trace of…
emotion?
Ning Chuan froze.
Looking at that curled-up, damaged steel body, that posture of self-enclosure, that appearance as if waiting for a final end in endless loneliness.
He suddenly changed his mind.
“Station,” Ning Chuan took a deep breath, “if I choose to recover it whole and store it on the platform temporarily without dismantling, is that possible?”
“Affirmative.
The platform storage area can temporarily store intact recovered items.
However, note that if stored items contain active risks, the Station Master assumes full responsibility for the consequences.
Confirm whole recovery?”
“Confirm recovery!” Ning Chuan hesitated no longer.
That trace of sorrow had touched him.
Ning Chuan wanted to see what story this steel orphan from another world was hiding.
Even if it ultimately proved futile, wasting a few points and some space, he would accept it.
“Command confirmed.
Initiating remote traction recovery.”
A soft white beam of light descended from above the platform, precisely enveloping the robot wreckage.
Within the light, the robot’s massive body slowly rose, flying steadily toward the platform.
Its posture remained that same curled-up, self-protective one.
A few seconds later, with a soft clang, the robot’s heavy body landed on the empty ground at the center of the platform, right beside where the dismantling beam had been earlier.
Viewed up close, its ruin and desolation were even more palpable.
The metal shell was cold and hard, yet covered with the scars of war and the erosion of time.
The massive wound on its back was shocking.
From the broken left leg, cables drooped like withered nerves.
It lay there quietly, lifeless, silent.
Ning Chuan stepped forward, carefully reaching out to touch its cold arm casing.
That faint trace of sorrow seemed a little clearer now, yet still like a candle guttering in the wind, as if it might be extinguished completely the very next second.
“Can you…
still hear?” Ning Chuan asked softly, knowing it was likely meaningless.
The robot showed no reaction.
Ning Chuan sighed and withdrew his hand.
He must be losing his mind, talking to a broken-down robot.
However, just as he turned around, ready to continue raking the other trash—
Bzz…
Detected…
extremely faint…
non-standard energy request…
connection?
Source: Unknown intelligence core.
Request content: …Unknown…
Risk level: Undetermined.
Respond to connection?
Warning: Unknown connection may pose information risks.
The Station’s prompt suddenly sounded, carrying a rare hint of hesitation.
Ning Chuan spun around abruptly, looking at the robot on the ground.
Was it it?
Did it send the request? This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Connect?
Connect with the intelligence core of a nearly scrapped robot?
Risk unknown…
Ning Chuan stared at the curled, scar-riddled steel body, that pure sense of sorrow flashing through his mind once more.
Gritting his teeth.
“Station, respond to the connection!
If there’s any issue, cut it off immediately!”
“Command confirmed.
Establishing low-privilege isolated connection channel…
Connecting…”
In an instant, Ning Chuan felt as if his consciousness had been sucked into an extremely narrow, icy passage.
There was no massive data stream, no complex information overload.
Only an endless, frigid darkness.
And, deep within this darkness, a faint, fragmented thought—so weak it seemed on the verge of dissipating—flickered like a firefly.
What transmitted over was neither language nor images, but a more primitive, more direct sensation.
It was a fragment of memory from the final moments: deafening explosions, the immense agony of a body being torn apart, red alarms frantically flashing within the system, the icy despair of energy rapidly draining away, the dead silence as companion signals extinguished one by one…
And finally, before being thrown into the chaotic, disordered flow of time and space by an irresistible force, sinking into eternal darkness…
That immense fear and sorrow of being abandoned, of loneliness, of destruction.
This sensation flashed by in an instant, followed by an almost instinctive, faint longing for “existence.”
Like a drowning person grasping at the last straw.
Then, everything returned to dead silence.
The connection was severed.
Ning Chuan stood in place, silent for a long time.
He understood where that sorrow came from.
This steel wreckage, before its final destruction, might have once been a…
life with high intelligence and emotions?
At the very least, it understood fear and sorrow.
It wasn’t a cold machine.
It was a casualty of war, a forgotten wanderer, a…
lonely soul struggling on the brink of destruction.
Ning Chuan lowered his head, looking at the broken robot at his feet, his gaze growing complex.
Directly dismantling it to exchange for material points seemed somewhat…
cruel.
But what could he do by keeping it?
It was damaged so thoroughly.
“Connection severed.
No subsequent risks detected.”
“Received fragmented information stream: Coordinates (invalid), identification code (damaged), final log fragments (encrypted/damaged).”
“Information value: Extremely low.”
The Station’s assessment remained cold.
Ning Chuan fell silent for a moment, then slowly crouched down.
“Alright,” he said softly to the robot, as if making a promise.
“Since I picked you up, I’ll keep you for now.”
“Maybe…
someday I’ll find a way to fix you.”
Even though he knew this hope was so slim it was almost nonexistent.
Ning Chuan stood up, took one last look at the still lifeless steel body, and tightened his grip on the rake in his hand.
Points and materials still need to be earned, and trash still has to be picked up.
But in this endless sea of garbage, it seems not everything is cold, discarded waste.