"Just missing the No. 5 heavy hydraulic oil…"
As the self-check reports continued to come in his ears, Lin Yu muttered to himself.
Mecha!
This was the big treasure he had prepared for the group of human traffickers behind Rupert.
Although he was afraid of death, he still had to maintain a basic bottom line as a person.
So from the very beginning, he had no intention of 'delivering' anything.
Aside from ordering a Stellar Halo Disease suppressant, the advance payment, some savings from his original self, and even the money he had tricked from Bai Wei, all of it had been invested in this big treasure.
Of course, all these funds added up to only about two hundred thousand; it was nowhere near enough to buy a mecha.
This world had advanced technology, and there were indeed mechas and cybernetic enhancements in the city, thriving as they were, but they were not something that could be found in the Wasteland, which was far worse than a slum, nor could they be bought for a mere two hundred thousand.
The reason he had this in his room was that he had actually assembled this mecha himself using discarded parts.
The Wasteland was a heavily polluted abandoned area, which naturally became a dumping ground for the city's garbage. Every day, countless household waste and electronic waste were transported out, piling up into mountains of trash.
Many Wasteland gathering spots near cities gave rise to a profession suited to the environment—scavengers.
They would sift through the trash mountains for anything useful, be it tools, parts, or even food, either reselling or repurposing them, ultimately becoming a far more important source of materials than the city itself.
Lin Yu had pieced together this mecha, which he named Dawn, by carefully selecting from various scrap yards where he sold these items.
In truth, it was still far from a true combat mecha.
After all, aside from the Hercules hydraulic transmission system, most of the parts were civilian-grade.
If one were to discuss it, most of the components' technological levels were not much stronger than those from the Earth he came from.
He could barely assemble a mecha thanks to his clever use and design of various discarded parts.
However, a mecha was still a mecha.
Even in the city, it was a military weapon comparable to tanks and aircraft on Earth.
In this Wasteland, as long as Dawn could move, it would be more than enough for self-defense against most factions.
But the problem was that he had only found a broken version of the Hercules G-1080 Hydraulic Transmission System.
Although he had managed to repair it with his skills, the hydraulic oil was leaking out, and what remained was unusable due to aging, oxidation, and contamination.
This was a genuine military-grade hydraulic system, and the No. 5 heavy hydraulic oil was also military-grade, requiring regular replacement as a consumable, making it hard to find in this Wasteland.
"Just missing hydraulic oil, and I can't even upgrade my skills. This judgment is too rigid…"
Sighing, Lin Yu contemplated which scrap yard to search for treasures next while summoning a faint blue light screen that existed only in his consciousness.
"Name: Lin Yu"
"Physique: 0.8"
"Mental: 1.5"
"Brain Domain: 1.1"
"Skill: Mecha Engineering LV3;"
...
"Skill: Mecha Engineering"
"Level: LV3"
"Description: A discipline that studies the composition, design methods, and quality inspection of mechanical power armor, thereby possessing the ability to design, manufacture, modify, test, and repair mechas."
"Upgrade Requirement: Manufacture a complete mecha."
...
This was something he discovered after arriving in this world, and it was the reason he could 'barehandedly' work on mechas.
After a month of exploration, he had basically mastered its uses.
In simple terms, this was a property panel similar to a game; physique represented a comprehensive value of various physical qualities, while mental and brain domain were temporarily hard to determine. From the terminology, they likely represented mental strength and brain performance.
However, this property panel did not have a point allocation function, so he could only look at the attributes.
Its only function was to master and upgrade skills.
For example, the mecha engineering skill he currently possessed was triggered after he accidentally read a book on mecha engineering.
Then, after reading a large number of books on mechanical design, electronic technology, and even physics and mathematics, and hands-on repairing various devices, he barely managed to obtain and upgrade it to level three.
It was not just a so-called game skill; it truly allowed him to grasp the mecha engineering knowledge he had seen, and even some he had not, encompassing foundational knowledge in physics, mathematics, and electronic information.
Of course, level three mecha engineering was not exaggerated enough to truly allow him to work on mechas barehanded.
Engineering is an applied discipline; it does not involve profound theoretical research but rather applies existing technologies and parts.
Just like manufacturers of mobile phones do not need to produce mobile phone parts but assemble them using parts from other manufacturers, they are only responsible for structural design, and even the software systems are fine-tuned and optimized based on existing foundations.
Level three mecha engineering knows how to design mechas, but the real reason he could create a mecha was still due to the advanced technology and industry of this world.
Modifying, optimizing, designing, and assembling various usable parts, and adjusting and adapting the drive and control systems, led to the birth of Dawn.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of hydraulic oil, the entire transmission system was at a standstill, and right now, it could only serve as a decorative piece.
"I hope today brings some harvest…"
Silently praying for good luck, Lin Yu finished the meal Bai Wei had prepared and put on his coat before heading out again.
His target was the various scrap yards.
This was also the most abundant industry in the Wasteland gathering area, with a large number of people relying on scavenging for a living. The items these scavengers found would be resold to scrap yards, which would then act as intermediaries for sales or reselling to various channels.
Every day, he would make a round of the major scrap yards; this had become Lin Yu's main routine recently, and most of the components used in Dawn came from this.
However, today luck did not favor him again.
This was already the third day he had returned empty-handed.
There was no way around it; after all, his target was too singular.
In the early stages of assembling a mecha, any usable parts could be taken, and he could always find something useful.
But now, the only thing he needed was heavy hydraulic oil of No. 5 or above, and it had to be non-expired and non-aged, which was naturally not so easy to find.
"If it really doesn't work, I'll have to go to the trash mountain myself…"
Lin Yu made the worst-case plan in his heart.
It wasn't that he was being pretentious and didn't want to scavenge himself.
But rather, every field has its specialty; searching through the vast trash mountain for useful items and transporting them was not as simple as it seemed.
Moreover, the Was
teland was fraught with dangers, and scavengers had their own organized territories. If one rashly intruded without guidance, they could easily end up dead without knowing how.
(End of Chapter)