Intense roaring stirred up the airflow, and even though she was hundreds of meters away, Feng Xue still felt the strong gusts. Sand and dust whipped up by the wind pelted against her Scavenging Set, producing a faint sound. Shielding her face with her arms, Feng Xue cautiously observed the direction from which the roaring came while distancing herself from the dangerous area.
About one hundred and fifty meters away from Feng Xue, a young man was laughing wildly. His right hand was equipped with a strange mechanical device, emitting an aura of invincibility.
"Hahaha... to think it's a Thunder God v3 model impact arm! I don't have to play by anyone's rules anymore!"
He swaggered forward while booming out his declaration, heading straight towards the waste facility's enclosing wall. Electricity arced around his arm, splitting into fine currents that coursed over his body, making him look like the Thunder God himself.
"What the heck?" Feng Xue gaped at the young man, who seemed to have stumbled upon some kind of Divine Weapon. For a moment, her mind went blank. This garbage dump really did contain all sorts of things!
But she didn't believe that the young man could change the dynamics of the landfill area with just a mechanical arm. After all, no matter how powerful it was, it was still a Pseudo Artifact. Whether it contained a nuclear furnace or a Perpetual Motion Machine, it could only be powered by "Identity."
And such weapons were surely beyond what the young man could afford.
As the roaring sound in the distance gradually subsided, Feng Xue shook her head and continued scavenging. Along the way, her eyes had been opened to a whole new level of understanding of this "Multiverse Garbage Dump."
Just a moment ago, she had even come across half of an EVA's entry plug.
As time slowly passed, the contents of Feng Xue's backpack grew. An hourglass infused with the "Time" element, an Atomizer with the "Fog" element, and even a silver fork from some Western fantasy world imbued with an element "effective against Undying creatures."
However, feeling the weight of the backpack on her shoulders, Feng Xue grew concerned once she realized she might not have enough to buy all these items.
In fact, if she activated her Golden Finger and refined those items with special "elements" within the dump, she could save a lot of money. But currently, with so many people and almost no cover available, using her Golden Finger could attract unwanted attention.
After weighing her options, Feng Xue reluctantly sorted through the items in her backpack into "must-haves," "can be discarded," and "conditional purchases." Then she turned and headed toward the exit.
She was a bit of a hoarder, and she was concerned that if she scouted around a bit longer, she wouldn't be able to resist grabbing more items on her way out.
"There'll be more opportunities!" she reassured herself, looking back three times with every step towards the distant enclosure. Interestingly enough, it seemed like the young man, who earlier appeared like the Thunder God, was now being hung up and beaten by a group of bystanders?
...
The time was just past noon. Only three hours had passed since the waste facility had officially opened, so most people were still eagerly searching for more valuable items, leaving many appraisal counters unoccupied.
In Feng Xue's field of vision, every appraiser at the counters bore the "Appraiser" profession tag, but only one or two actually had the condensed "Appraiser" label.
Feng Xue chose an Appraiser without the label and quickly approached him, dumping all the contents of her backpack onto the appraisal table.
She preferred someone without the label mainly to avoid the appraiser being too professional and deducing something from the items she had selected. After all, the "Appraiser" label seemed to be the special tag mentioned by Old Li that allowed one "to see elements."
The middle-aged appraiser behind the counter saw the new task at hand, flexed his fingers slightly, and began examining each piece of Feng Xue's collected garbage, quoting prices, while his assistant stuck price tags on the corresponding items.
They weren't fast, but they worked diligently and skillfully. As the last item was priced—50 Tower Coins for the folded-up Ghillie Suit at the bottom of the backpack—the assistant finished tallying up the total—
"The total value is 84,700 Tower Coins, which can be exchanged for 8,470 Tower Coins. You can also pay 1.5 times the quoted price in 'Identity' to purchase the corresponding items."
"As I thought, it's quite a bit over." Feng Xue glanced at her savings of twenty thousand Tower Coins. Following the priorities she had set earlier, she picked out the hourglass, the Atomizer, and the Ghillie Suit first, then a few lower priced weapons.
"You've chosen items totaling 13,200 Tower Coins. With a 1.5x markup and deducting the prices of your remaining items, you still need to pay 12,650 Tower Coins," said the assistant as he operated the calculator. Feng Xue nodded, pulled out her ID card, and took out one paper money bill with a denomination of 10,000, two 2,000-denomination bills, six coins of 100-value, and one coin of 50-value, placing them all on the table.
Watching Feng Xue pull out her ID card, the previously wary staff relaxed. After counting the Tower Coins and seeing no issues, they handed back the items Feng Xue had selected, along with a receipt, and sent the rest to storage.
...
With a bag full of odds and ends, having passed the barrier lined with armed guards, Feng Xue finally stepped out of the garbage dump's gates and let out a sigh of relief. At least the feared incident of "being framed for theft and getting caught for execution" had not occurred.
Of course, it might have been her needless worries. After all, items worth a bit over ten thousand Tower Coins might mean half a year's lifespan to ordinary poor folks, but to the Manager, they wouldn't be worth a second glance.
Regardless of what others might think, Feng Xue was like a kid whose new gaming console had finally arrived; she didn't even change out of her clothes but stuffed the Assassin's suit into her backpack, and wearing her Scavenger Suit, she jogged all the way home. She dumped her bounty onto the table and, following her earlier plan, paired off groups of items.
First, she brought out an hourglass and a stop sign.
With a mischievous grin, Feng Xue pulled up her Golden Finger panel and selected the Refining button.
"Refining will cost 5 Tower Coins. Do you wish to proceed?"
As the confirm command was issued, the hourglass rapidly disintegrated, vanished, and a line of text appeared—
"Refining Successful. You have obtained the 'Time' element."
"Nice!" Feng Xue's held breath was suddenly released, and she was filled with joy. Although she didn't refine "Identity," with the "Time" element in hand, that didn't matter!
"Strike while the iron is hot! Next!"
"Refining Successful. You have obtained the 'Stop' element."
"Mwahahahaha..."