When the weekend came, I went to Jian Yi Street, where Francis Fang's main DYI store was located. He had a chain, as he said, but the one he worked at was in Jian Yi Street, so that was the one I visited.
"Mr. Shen! Welcome!"
Francis Fang clasped my hands heartily when I walked through the entrance of his store. He looked pleasantly surprised, which indicated that he wasn't actually waiting for me. He was probably doing something else and it was a coincidence that he happened to be where I was when I entered his store.
"You really came! I didn't think you would! But welcome! Welcome!"
He slapped my back eagerly and gently pushed me inside.
"Anything you're looking for in particular?"
"Nah, just shopping around. Maybe some parts and components for a personal project I'm working on right now."
I claimed to be working on a personal project, but in actuality I was constructing yet another war walker. Instead of the Titan, I had named this one the Falcon, but as with designations, it didn't really matter that much. What was in a name, after all?
"Interesting! You'll have to show it to me when you're done!"
"Yeah, I will." Actually, I was going to show it to everyone and sell it to the military again when I was done, but he didn't have to know that. "For now, I'm looking for a plasma conduit, some carbon fiber servo-threads…"
Francis Fang showed me around his store, and I bought what I could even though I didn't find all of them.
"Huh, hydraulic pistons and large-scale mechanical retrievers…I don't believe I have those." Francis looked a little disappointed.
"Don't worry about it. I'll work with what I have on hand."
Even though I maintained a polite smile, inwardly I bemoaned my lack of luck. Without the hydraulics, my progress would be impaired. I planned to construct a hydraulic arm to help mitigate the burden, so that I could pick up heavy machinery and assemble them. A normal human didn't have the strength to lift up heavy metallic components – particularly those used to construct armor for tanks and war walkers – and weld them with precision.
The military base camp had these, thankfully – and if they didn't, I could get the executive officer to purchase them. But they belonged to the military. I wanted one for my garage.
"Well, you could order the industrial scales one from Han Industries, or a construction company." Francis was contemplating. I groaned, not wanting to bother with Han Industries. I still suspected that Justin Han was hiring assassins to terminate me, but obviously he had covered his tracks well and the military could find no evidence of his connection to the hitmen sent after me.
Plus the heavy-grade construction equipment cost a lot. Right now, I could afford it, but I was loathe to spend such money. Especially since my company was only starting to grow. We needed the funds to hire new employees, so I couldn't carelessly splash away half our budget on personal belongings. That would be embezzlement, right?
I wasn't naïve, though. Even though embezzlement was technically a crime, there were many people who still used company funds for their own private purposes. Of course, the trick was not to go overboard. The company would be lenient if you perhaps buy yourself a good dinner or maybe a piece of furniture or even a car, or a vacation once in a while, but when you started buying branded cars and million-dollar property while taking holidays in five-star hotels on a regular basis, then obviously you were asking to be caught and jailed.
And this probably fell in the latter category, considering how ridiculously expensive construction equipment was. I would rather build a makeshift one from scratch and allow William to manage the funds to hire more staff.
Francis must have caught the reluctance on my face, for he suddenly spoke up.
"Hmm…I might not have them, but I think there is a place that might have them, if you don't intend to buy the industrial ones."
"A place? Where?" That piqued my interest. Francis nodded and held up his smartphone, beaming a holographic map.
"The scrapyard. It's located on the edge of G City, at the foot of the Liang Guang Mountains. It's where all the big companies dispose of obsolete equipment and machine."
Oh, right. I vaguely recalled Lily Ling mentioning something similar before. If her Ling Electronics couldn't get rid of the obsolete components and electronic parts in their warehouse, they would have sent it to the scrapyard.
Perhaps there was stuff there that I could use to build a hydraulic claw for assembling my new war walker.
"Thanks." I grunted as I struggled to lift the huge amount of components that I had just purchased from Francis's store. "I'll definitely look into it."
"Oh, but you might want to be careful." Francis stopped me before I could exit his store. "The scrapyard is occupied by…a bunch of gangs. It's a dangerous place. If you plan on going there, do not go alone."
"Gangs?" I repeated. Francis nodded.
"Techno-gangs…that's their nicknames, anyway. They search scrapyard for components, pluck out precious materials, and then sell them off. Some components use platinum, for example. So they scrounge through the scrap in search for rare materials, dismantle them and sell them to the black market. And they can get very territorial."
"So why…techno-gangs?" I raised an eyebrow. Francis sighed.
"A lot of them don't just make money off scrounging through scrap. They construct their own machines, robots…bikes. You know, like your own war walker. Only…they don't have the shielding technology."
"Heh…that sounds impressive."
"In a way, yeah. But…most of the time, their metal contraptions don't hold up together too well, and they fall apart more often than they succeed. Don't forget, most of them have no proper training in engineering or building stuff. They mostly rely on trial and error. Of course, their ingenuity and never-say-die attitudes allow them to finally put scrap together to assemble something that works, but such scrap war walkers are no match for military tanks and exosuits."
Francis sighed and shook his head.
"The government doesn't care about them – they can't do anything with their scrap. They so much as stomp the streets with their barely put together machines and they will get blown to kingdom come by proper military tanks and weaponry. As long as they don't step out of bounds, the government won't bother paying for the expense of sending forces to the scrapyard. After all, there's nothing in the scrapyard but waste material, abandoned vehicles and discarded machines."
Abandoned vehicles? I couldn't help but perk up at that. Vehicles in particular would have the parts I needed to put together my personal war walker.
Honestly, I should be focusing on my shield boats, but I couldn't do anything about that until my company employed the proper staff and received the appropriate resources. Arrangements to construct prototype boats in the shipyard, but these things took time. As the military always said, hurry up and wait.
While waiting on all these things, I had about a few weeks with nothing to do. So I thought of building a new war walker in my own garage. Well, I was already building another war walker in the army camp, but I was so excited about my project that I ended up wanting to continue my work even at home. Of course, I doubted I could fit a heavy war walker inside my own garage, so I was building a small, scout variant of the Titan.
I had designated it the Falcon. It was supposed to be smaller and more mobile, meant for reconnaissance missions. I would need to install the sensor arrays and reconnaissance programs within the army camp itself, but for now I wanted to just build the chassis. As for the heavy war walker that I was beginning to assemble within the army camp itself, it was a heavier and armed with more weapons. I had christened that one the Dragon.
The Falcon and the Dragon. Perhaps it was a bad idea to split my attention between two projects at the same time, but the Falcon was a pet project of mine (like, literally), something for me to occupy myself when I was at home, so all was well.
"Vehicles…"
Good. And if I wasn't mistaken, abandoned construction vehicles and heavy-grade machinery that were too large to dispose of should also be buried in the scrapyard. If the techno-gangs hadn't gotten to them yet…
It was worth a shot.
"All right. Thanks." I smiled and thanked Francis before I dumped my stuff in my Toyota and drove home. I didn't take too long to unload everything into my garage, and I immediately set off for the scrapyard that Francis introduced to me. Of course, I made sure to pick up a couple of gadgets before I left.
If the techno-gangs were as dangerous as Francis made them out to be…
That was why I was going during the day, but I had the feeling that the techno-gangs weren't going to care if I showed up during the day or at night. I was going to have to fight my way out if they spotted me and considered me an intruder.
Glancing at the gadgets I had picked from my garage, I smiled. If the gangsters thought I was easy prey, they would be in for a rude shock. Checking my smartphone, I set the global positioning system to mark the location of the scrapyard.
Of course, before I went straight to the scrapyard, I first dropped by somewhere to rent a trailer. The hydraulics and stuff I wanted wouldn't fit into my car, so I needed a trailer for that.
"I hope this works," I muttered under my breath, feeling excitement build up inside me. If everything went according to plan, I would be able to transform my garage into a mini-factory.
Now that was something to look forward to.