Cheng Qi's dwelling was nothing more than a dilapidated shack.
At this moment, he sat on a broken bucket in front of his shack, staring blankly at the crystal wristband on his right hand.
"I'm so handsome, I can't stand it!"
"If I go into the city like this, won't those female nanny robots be completely infatuated with me?"
To one side, Han Zai, fully revived and having achieved a cross-level promotion, was admiring his body in the mirror, striking various poses.
Cheng Qi ignored the flamboyant Han Zai.
He stroked his chin, gazing at the mysterious item on his hand.
This thing was truly miraculous.
Could it really be, as his grandfather said, a creation of a Level 13 Civilization?
However, the current Human Civilization's exploration limit had only encountered Level 5 Civilizations at most, while a Level 13 cosmic civilization was merely a legendary existence.
"What are you?"
Cheng Qi suddenly asked his right wrist, then laughed at himself mockingly; such items were usually aloof and wouldn't introduce themselves.
"I am STC."
"Standard Template Construct."
"Based on your understanding, common interpretations are 'Standard Building Template' or 'Standard Template Construction.'"
"But this is merely based on your understanding."
The slap in the face came so quickly.
The crystal wristband displayed a blue window with the above content, then completely shut down, refusing to answer any more questions.
"Alright, alright, alright."
"It even seems to carry a hint of disdain."
Cheng Qi slowly stood up, taking a deep breath, and narrowed his eyes, saying, "What you are isn't the most important thing. What's important is that I must fully utilize your value!"
The test began.
Cheng Qi found two stones of similar size, and two wads of toilet paper that Han Zai had once used to wipe oil leaks from his crotch.
"Non-technological creation."
"Cannot synthesize."
Cheng Qi and Han Zai squatted on the ground, watching the flickering blue starlight within the STC, vaguely feeling its trajectory resembled a middle finger.
"Alright, alright, alright."
"If it's not a technological device, it can't be activated."
"And Han Zai can't be upgraded further because there are no other B343 prototypes available for now."
Cheng Qi mused, "It can only be a technological item..."
Then.
Cheng Qi got up and entered the shack, retrieving eight pairs of complex, metal-crafted shoes.
These were explorer shoes, designed to achieve a jump height of 20-80 CM through hydraulic components at the bottom.
These were all trash and damaged goods that Cheng Qi had collected, rendering them unusable.
His plan was to collect enough parts to repair a fully functional pair of explorer shoes, and with the aid of such shoes, climbing the garbage mountain would greatly improve efficiency.
Although the technological level was relatively low, these were pure technological creations.
There should be no problem, right?
Cheng Qi's eyes flickered as he slowly raised his arm, aiming the wristband on the back of his hand at two of the explorer shoes.
"Detecting similar technological creations."
Sure enough!
The STC released a blue scanning beam, moving back and forth between the two pairs of explorer shoes.
"Please select the synthesis subject."
"Material formatting initiated."
One of the shoes was decomposed into 'primitive units,' and then a translucent river appeared, spraying onto the other explorer shoe.
"Explorer Leggings."
"Mechanical extensions to the knees, relieving knee pressure, maximum jump height 4.5 meters."
Cheng Qi's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the intricately structured and brand-new... mechanical boots before him.
"Han Zai, it really works!"
"With such tools, climbing a hundred-meter garbage mountain probably won't even take 10 minutes!"
Cheng Qi felt a whole new world descending upon his life, his heart vibrating, and his pupils trembling.
"Let's keep going!"
Han Zai was also a little excited, "If we keep going, what kind of equipment will appear!?"
Cheng Qi's eyes flickered, looking at the other four pairs of explorer shoes.
He repeated the process.
Two pairs of explorer shoes merged into one, becoming explorer leggings.
And then, a technological miracle reappeared, merging two pairs of explorer leggings into one!
A brand-new piece of equipment appeared before Cheng Qi's eyes.
"Jet-Powered Turbine Shoes."
"Built-in eighteen miniature jet-powered turbines, high-precision gyroscope, tilt trend sensing, wearer can fly up to 300 meters, maximum speed 0.408 Mach."
"Flight?!"
Cheng Qi froze, "0.408 Mach is roughly 500 kilometers per hour!"
The equipment before him returned to its mechanical shoe form, even more precise overall, with eighteen multi-directional adjustable miniature jet turbines at the bottom, made of a light silver alloy that faintly gleamed.
Flight...!
On Earth today, the sky was almost a forbidden zone.
They couldn't even find a damaged garbage vehicle that once had flight capabilities.
It seemed someone had filtered the garbage here.
Their purpose was simple: not to allow any Scavengers to escape Earth, because these 'garbage insects' possessed the most inferior genes and were absolutely not allowed to leave Earth and pollute the entire Human Civilization.
"E Luo is considered wealthy."
"But he only owns a heavy motorcycle that can only travel on the ground."
Cheng Qi's eyes were full of disbelief, "Han Zai, I can fly."
He was somewhat eager.
Cheng Qi raised one foot and gently touched the somewhat large mechanical shoe in front of him.
A dozen faint pneumatic sounds rang out as the shoe's outer armor decomposed into several units, moving to the sides, fully opening the internal space.
His heart rate quickened slightly.
Cheng Qi placed his foot in the center of the shoe, and the pneumatic sound came again as the shoe's armor began to piece together and tighten, with each bolt automatically screwing itself in.
In just about 2 seconds, the shoe perfectly enveloped Cheng Qi's foot, and its volume had also shrunk considerably, looking like just a slightly larger metal-textured leather shoe.
Cheng Qi then perfectly matched his other foot.
He stood on the ground, swallowed slightly, and looked at Han Zai with a mixture of awe and anticipation.
The lights in Han Zai's eyes flickered slightly, "I suggest you familiarize yourself with the instruction manual first before operating it!"
"Familiarize?"
"That wouldn't be exciting!"
Cheng Qi took a deep breath, "Here we go!"
Boom—!
Dust splattered, creating ripples, and the ground trembled slightly.
Cheng Qi's body shot straight into the sky!
At this moment, Cheng Qi couldn't estimate his speed; he only felt the fierce wind in his ears, his hair instantly swept back, and his mouth and the corners of his eyes felt a tearing sensation from the wind.
Even when he was already in mid-air, he only needed to lightly tap his sole downwards, and an indescribable surge of lift instantly exploded, propelling Cheng Qi higher into the sky again!
Earth's atmosphere was no longer as pure as it once was.
Because it was filled with a large amount of dust, it appeared a dark gray.
But the sky was the place countless 'garbage insects' yearned for.
"Oh, ho!"
"This is too exciting!"
Cheng Qi instantly soared to his height limit; the flight shoes' built-in gyroscope was extremely stable, and he instantly braked, performing a right-side dive, plunging towards the slowly moving white clouds not far away!
"Yoo-hoo—!!!"
Cheng Qi's body streaked across the sky; his heart was surging with emotion, and his voice was faintly discernible in the clouds.
"I am the King of the Sky, I am the King of the World! I'm the king of the world!"
The STC was too powerful!
Too exciting!
It could synthesize and upgrade all kinds of trash technological items into unimaginable equipment!
Flying, Cheng Qi looked down at the Earth below.
Here, there were a staggering 4.55 trillion tons of technological garbage!
Practically everything imaginable!
Someone's legend seemed about to begin!
That person is me!
My name is Cheng Qi, Qi as in 'beggar'!
I will become... the King of the Junkyard!
...
On Garbage Mountain 7-12-3.
E Luo seemed to hear a faint buzzing sound.
He turned his head to look at the distant sky and saw a faint black smoke appearing several kilometers away.
A subordinate with a shoddy mechanical leg said, "Boss, it feels like something has taken off."
"Impossible."
"Everyone knows there's a sky restriction here."
E Luo narrowed his eyes and analyzed, "On Earth today, faulty electronic garbage is everywhere. That should be something... exploding, right?"