007: Gold Rush
[Landfill Site – A14 Deep Burial Zone]
The deeper he ventured inside, the earlier the burial dates became. Layers of gravel and darkened soil concealed piles of square-shaped debris.
John estimated that he was likely the only visitor in recent years.
He opened the carbon fiber case.
[Device: Hound Excavator – Alpha Model]
[Module Slot 1: Precision Core Level-6 Motion Computation]
[Module Slot 2: Precision Core V8 Integrated System]
[Module Slot 3: [Idle]]
Its main body was a black hexagonal prism.
Equipped with solar panels and control modules, multifunctional mechanical arms, and exceptional mobility, it was even touted as an all-terrain device.
Precision Core Heavy Industries was a company focused on industrial technology.
Clearly, these tech-savvy capitalists had a poor sense of naming; rather than a hound, it resembled a mechanical spider.
John entered the serial number to unlock it and disconnected it from the network.
Instantly, relevant data flooded his mind like an activated information vault.
He plugged in a data cable, and after a brief disturbance, text appeared immediately.
[Device matches stored blueprint.]
[Modify device according to Protocol T05?]
John confirmed.
A dark light flickered deep within his consciousness.
A torrent of data shattered Precision Core Heavy Industries’ VI-level firewall before he could react; the original chip’s data was overwritten.
“What the hell? Is the company’s technology really this fragile? What exactly is this dark light?”
The clinic’s firewall.
The device protection from Precision Core Heavy Industries.
One was the life’s savings of a cybernetic doctor, the other the comprehensive defense technology of countless corporate research teams.
Both were destroyed by the dark light at the same alarming speed.
John could vividly feel his cybernetic mind—his cyber-psyche—being infiltrated...
It was rather terrifying.
He extracted materials and set up the device to begin external upgrades—removing and modifying component parameters, recalibrating interfaces, and rearranging circuits.
His thoughts were crystal clear.
His eyes seemed able to peer through the metal casing into the mechanical structure beneath.
The process flowed smoothly, as if rehearsed countless times, until he finally inserted the control system chip and declared the modification complete.
New text appeared before John’s eyes.
[-Please assign a new name to the device-]
“Uh, a name?”
John scratched his head, examining his creation:
A crawling machine with a metallic shell, infrared scanners glowing red; six prosthetic limbs extended and climbed nimbly, maneuvering among the blocky ruins as if searching for something.
“Well then, Black Spider it is.”
[Device: Black Spider]
[Status: Autonomous exploration; no remote connection]
The black mechanical creature continued to crawl.
It wound upward along the crushed, block-shaped ruins, roaming freely among the collapsed debris and steel jungle.
[Detecting available materials, collecting...]
John suddenly received a notification.
He navigated the garbage maze toward the signal source and saw:
The Black Spider was suspended midair, its cutter slicing through compressed garbage blocks, hydraulic tongs prying open a gap, then...
Pulling out a damaged, rusted mechanical arm.
John raised his brow.
He urgently needed special inhibitors.
The most troublesome materials were prosthetics that still contained biological data.
The Black Spider hovered briefly, confirming John had picked up the dropped item, then resumed scanning for the next target.
A conscientious labor machine.
John pulled out a blank chip, linked the dark light, and extracted the data.
“It's actually usable!”
Using his equipment, he edited the chip and quickly produced a new batch of special inhibitors.
Without hesitation, he inserted it into the slot!
“Hiss~ Ah!”
The familiar dark light began flickering rapidly. Fortunately, his body was in good condition this time; after a brief dizziness, he fully recovered.
[Redundant data clearing in progress; calibration complete.]
John stretched his arms, feeling his renewed vigor. Just as he was about to praise the Black Spider’s usefulness, a new signal arrived.
This time, he deliberately observed from afar.
After clearing the spoils, seeing John made no move to approach, the Black Spider carried a damaged limb to a corner and even buried it with debris.
“Pretty clever.”
John retrieved it and found it was a broken prosthetic hand.
The biological data port was intact.
He hesitated for a moment, then connected his own data; after a brief flicker of dark light, a sum of money appeared in his account!
[Collection Item: Windfall]
[Description: Accidents happen daily in Eden City. The accounts left behind may still hold assets. Rather than letting the banks have them, better put them to use.]
John grinned broadly.
Though the amount wasn’t large, seeing it as a number in his account was thrilling.
If the Black Spider kept at it, sooner or later it could earn back its own cost.
John thought creating this blueprint was a brilliant plan.
He even began to imagine:
If he continued taking jobs to earn money, then modified a few more Black Spiders, he might just live the happy life of counting money at home without lifting a finger.
This landfill site number three had been in use for decades, serving all of Eden City’s waste disposal.
Zone A alone had over thirty numbered sections, enough for the Black Spider to explore for a while. Even if it scanned this entire area, there were still Zones B and C...
A landfill that others avoided like plague had now become a gold mine!
“Phew~ The rewards from this mission are seriously awesome!”
John’s heart raced with excitement.
Yet his joy was premature; by evening, no new findings had emerged.
Mining treasure in garbage required luck.
[Detected debris; material extraction and analysis underway.]
[Biological data – Maya Weitz, resident database retrieval in progress...]
A flood of text flashed by like lines of loading code.
Before John could grasp the details, it transformed into a pure signal.
He stood and traced the source.
The Black Spider was motionless in a recess, guarding something.
“Is this... an old-fashioned access card?”
The moment John picked it up, the world spun around him.
A familiar dizziness washed over.
Dark light flashed; several images appeared.
“Again?”
The first time John triggered a mission, he’d experienced something similar.
The memory of the club girl Tobeka flashed through his mind, like playing a super-sensory chip with an immersion device.
Fragments of the host’s memories rushed in.
This time, the character was a young woman, seemingly arguing with a man, followed by sudden gunfire, chaotic footsteps, and the sensation of falling sideways.
[Mission: Rebellion]
[Reward: Bounty (variable)]
The mission included a network address.
He pulled out his portable device, connected to Eden City’s public network, and easily found a missing person report.
The victim was Maya Weitz.
She had disappeared from Eden City two years ago.
Such information was usually posted by family; after all, in this restless city, a missing girl was hardly unexpected.
John glanced at the reward and immediately decided to set out.
He had no choice; he desperately needed the money.