Shen Xingdu was woken up early the next morning by her alarm.
Although she now had a fortune of five hundred million yuan, she didn’t have the luxury to sleep in.
Today’s goal was clear: gain Survival Points, and then upgrade her physical body.
Shen Xingdu drove to the city’s largest scrap metal recycling center—the Hongda Recycling Station.
It was located in the suburban-urban fringe, surrounded by desolation. Mountains of scrap iron, discarded appliances, and rusting construction steel stretched endlessly.
“Boss, how much for this scrap metal?” Shen Xingdu asked, her face mostly hidden under a mask and a baseball cap.
The boss, a middle-aged man smoking a cigarette, frowned as he stared at the unsellable junk. “How much do you want? Steel prices have plummeted these days. If you take it all, I’ll give you a discount—1,200 per ton.”
“All of it,” Shen Xingdu said concisely. “Including the old motors, copper wires, aluminum window frames over there. Any kind of metal junk—I want it all.”
The boss dropped his cigarette. “Girl, you’re joking, right? That’s at least three thousand tons!”
“Swipe,” Shen Xingdu pulled out her black gold card.
“Also, I’ll rent this lot for two days. During that time, I don’t want anyone interfering with my team.”
Money cleared the way, and everything went smoothly.
Half an hour later, the recycling station’s gates were locked. The boss happily took his workers to play cards, leaving Shen Xingdu alone.
She stood in front of the mountain of scrap iron, took a deep breath.
To everyone else, this was industrial waste. To her, it was all gleaming Survival Points!
“System, activate batch recycling mode!”
She pressed her palm against a rusted I-beam.
[Beep! Large quantity of scrap metal detected. Recycling in progress…]
There was no thunderous sound; the mountain of scrap simply vanished as if wiped away by an invisible giant hand, disappearing before the naked eye.
[Recycled 500 tons of scrap steel, gained 5,000 Survival Points.]
[Recycled 20 tons of scrap copper wire (high value), gained 1,000 Survival Points.]
[Recycled rare metal alloys…]
Shen Xingdu moved through the recycling station like a tireless glutton.
She didn’t just recycle steel—scrap plastic bottles, worn-out tires, even piles of unprocessable construction waste, nothing escaped her.
She worked from morning until sunset. By the time the sun dipped below the horizon, the recycling station was cleaner than when it had first opened, every trace of rust swept away.
Exhausted, Shen Xingdu sat on the ground, yet her eyes shone brightly.
She opened the System Panel:
Current Survival Points: 28,500
Even more than she expected!
“The feeling of getting rich… so good,” Shen Xingdu licked her cracked lips and immediately opened the System Mall.
The Beginner Gene Enhancement Serum she had been eyeing last night was now a bargain.
[Purchase Beginner Gene Enhancement Serum x1, deduct 500 Survival Points.]
[Purchase Intermediate Combat Mastery x1, deduct 1,000 Survival Points.]
[Purchase Titanium Alloy Explosive-Proof Wall Material x1,000 sqm, deduct 10,000 Survival Points.]
After this spending spree, she still had plenty of points left.
A blue test tube appeared in her hand, filled with starlight-like liquid.
Without hesitation, Shen Xingdu tilted her head back and drank it in one gulp.
In her previous life, she had survived through sheer determination, but her body was still that of an ordinary woman—weak and low on endurance. Many times, she had nearly died at the hands of zombies or raiders. This time, her body would never be a weak point.
“Hiss—”
The liquid shot down her throat, instantly turning into a scorching torrent, rushing through her entire body. Pain erupted, as if her bones were being shattered and reassembled, muscles torn and healed again.
She gritted her teeth in silence, sweat soaking her back.
Ten minutes later, the pain subsided, replaced by an unprecedented sense of power.
She clenched her fists; her knuckles cracked audibly.
She picked up a steel rebar lying nearby, about the thickness of her thumb, and snapped it easily.
“Crack.”
The steel bent ninety degrees like a noodle.
“This strength… at least three times that of a normal person,” Shen Xingdu said with satisfaction, then practiced a set of recently learned combat techniques—fast, sharp, wind cutting through the air.
Now, she could take down three or five strong men bare-handed without issue.
Combine that with the mountain of knives and crossbows in her Time-Stopped Space…
A bloodthirsty smile crept onto Shen Xingdu’s lips.
“Lin Wan’er, Gu Yichen, you’d better pray you never fall into my hands.”
After finishing the cleanup at the recycling station, claiming to have transported everything overnight, Shen Xingdu drove off.
Passing a high-end Western restaurant still in operation, she stopped.
The gene enhancement had consumed a lot of energy; she was starving enough to eat an entire cow.
“Ten Beef Wellingtons, five Tomahawk steaks, two Boston lobsters, one serving of pasta. And pack all your ready-made desserts.” Shen Xingdu told the dumbfounded waiter.
While waiting for the food, she checked her phone newsfeed.
Top trending: [Extreme weather anomalies across the globe—snowfall hits equatorial regions; experts attribute this to El Niño…]
Comments were full of laughter:
“Snow in the tropics—lucky harvest ahead!”
“Want to see snow at the equator, so romantic.”
Shen Xingdu sneered and turned off her phone.
Romantic? That was a countdown to death.
After eating her fill, Shen Xingdu didn’t go home.
Dark and windy night—perfect time for zero-cost acquisitions.