ã€ŠMaster of Kaidanã€‹


 Chapter 1 - 1 The Time Traveler

    Chapter 1: Chapter 1 The Time TravelerThe room, more akin to ruins with its four sides exposed to the wind and a large hole in the roof, housed Feng Xue. Dressed in Assassin''s Creed-style white robes, he leaned against the relatively solid wall, clutching a Short Blade in his hand as cold sweat continuously trickled down his forehead.

    Just outside the ineffective wooden door, the terrifying sounds of killing and screams rose and fell, painting a gruesome picture merely by their noises.

    Luckily, Feng Xue was neither a victim nor a perpetrator in these killings.

    Unfortunately, he couldn''t guarantee that he wouldn''t be dragged into it next.

    Having been transported to this bizarre world only three days ago, Feng Xue hadn''t even begun to grasp the basic situation of this world, let alone fully understand the capabilities of his "Golden Finger."

    Although he could drink water, he wouldn''t feel thirsty even if he didn''t drink for three days; he could eat, but not eating for three days wouldn''t make him feel hungry. In that sense, it wouldn''t be wrong to say he wasn''t quite alive anymore.

    Even so, Feng Xue sometimes wondered if his excessive freedom in his past life had led to his punishment in this hellish place after death!

    Yes, hell, that was his most direct perception of this world.

    From the moment he unknowingly crossed into a garbage dump where a rag-picker had told him, "What''s so strange about crossing over? Just get lost!", he had been enveloped in confusion.

    He only knew this place was called a landfill area, but didn''t know if that term referred to just the garbage dump, the surrounding slum, the city where the slum was located, or if the entire world was known as the landfill area.

    But what he did know was that merely two hours after crossing over, he had witnessed people killing each other over a piece of dog feces uncovered from the garbage heap, with only one survivor out of a dozen.

    The dog feces weren''t metaphorical¡ªthey were real, although Feng Xue couldn''t exactly say what creature had excreted it.

    Later, he picked up some seemingly useless items and traded them for five wheat bran bricks that were harder than actual bricks. Risking almost shattering his teeth, he swallowed a few bites only to find out that the locals didn''t eat with their mouths. And to obtain this piece of information, he was tricked by someone willing to demonstrate "how to eat," costing him a brick...

    The awkward part was, the "nutrition" that one brick could provide was only enough to maintain his presence in this world for a day, and now, it was already the third day.

    This meant that if he didn''t find a way to earn something tomorrow, he would disappear completely due to the lack of replenishment¡ªFeng Xue had the dubious honor on his second day to witness the entire process of a person vanishing on an Execution podium outside the garbage mountain.

    The terribly mournful howls and the sight of the body gradually withering, collapsing, and ultimately turning into dust that vanished made Feng Xue, who lived in modern society, unable to sleep all night.

    "Maybe tomorrow, I will be forced to make a final stand like the people outside for my own survival," he thought.

    Feng Xue glanced at the icon in the upper left corner of his vision and sighed helplessly. Although he indeed possessed a "Golden Finger" that came with his crossing over, he hadn''t yet gotten a complete hold on its functions.

    This interface, similar to a game setup, neither stored items nor issued tasks; it had no achievements or other similar features and lacked even the most basic instructions.

    Though a passive capability resembling a game''s Identification Skill was given, the information provided was only two lines¡ªone for the Item[Name]and another called[Element]listing terms like[Weapon], [Tool], [Food], and a string of gibberish.

    He did have two active abilities, one named[Refining]and the other[Reforge], but the former required an energy called[Identity], while the latter only featured a central crosshair, a grid interface resembling a game backpack which couldn''t hold anything, and an unselectable grey [Confirm] button, leaving Feng Xue clueless about what it might consume.

    As for[Identity], this energy... it was simply the type of "nutrition" needed for survival in this world.

    The unit for "Identity" is "Tower," which is also the basic currency unit in this world. A person consumes 100 Towers of "Identity" per day, while each "Refining" costs 5 Towers, meaning each Refining consumes 72 minutes of lifespan.

    Despite the pain, Feng Xue still decided to use 5 Towers to activate the ability, but he did not get the desired answer as Golden Finger told him ¡ª

    "Refining failed."

    Although he wanted to convince himself that this failure was just a matter of probability, his current "Identity" reserves did not allow him any leeway to squander. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Just as Feng Xue was wallowing in self-pity over his circumstances, the cries of battle and pain in the streets gradually ceased, and the streets had seemingly returned to silence.

    However, just when he thought about leaning against the wall to catch some sleep, suddenly a series of knocks echoed from the somewhat decayed wooden door.

    A tight feeling gripped Feng Xue''s heart. He immediately grabbed his Short Blade, but in the next moment, he hid the blade behind him.

    His current dwelling had virtually no defensive capabilities. Pretending that no one was home or barring the door were akin to sticking one''s head in the sand. Being someone untrained in martial arts from a peaceful era, he had no choice but to prepare for the worst while forcibly comforting himself with the thought that at least the person at the door had the decency to knock.

    "Screech¡ª"

    A disturbing sound of rotting wood accompanied the opening of the door, revealing a middle-aged man of average build and slightly mature appearance. He glanced at Feng Xue and said, emotionlessly,

    "Come out and help collect corpses, 100 Towers per corpse!"

    "Is there such good fortune?" Feng Xue didn''t catch on immediately, but after the man had spoken, he turned around and walked away, with similar knocking sounds occasionally erupting nearby.

    Uncertain of the situation, he didn''t immediately go outside but looked out onto the street and saw about five or six people coming out from the surrounding dilapidated houses¡ªof course, more people pretended not to hear.

    The faces of those who came out were filled with fear and struggle, causing a bit of unease in Feng Xue''s heart, but with only one day of life remaining, he seemed to lack the capital to refuse.

    After a brief moment of hesitation, he eventually decided to go out and joined the few with complicated expressions, walking onto the blood-stained street. Meanwhile, an impatient voice came from not far away¡ª

    "Move faster, don''t dawdle. If you delay, nobody will benefit!"

    It was a man holding a large machete. Behind him was a table with familiar Wheat Bran Bricks on it.

    Apparently, the words of the machete-holding man had an effect. The paupers, who were previously dawdling, quickly approached the variously positioned corpses and transported them to the carts provided by the machete holder.

    Feng Xue noticed that the process did not seem technically challenging, immediately stepped forward, and despite the pungent smell mixed with the scent of blood and decaying innards, he dragged what appeared to be a fairly intact corpse onto the cart.

    Although his body had undergone mysterious changes after crossing worlds, overall, he was no Hercules. Let alone pulling a three-hundred-stone Strong Bow, even dragging a corpse left him somewhat breathless.

    Fortunately, there were about forty corpses, and with him included, there were only nine Corpse Collectors summoned. By the time Feng Xue dragged the third corpse toward the cart, the others had already started lining up at the table with their carts.

    Watching the first person to receive Wheat Bran Bricks pulling the cart and hurriedly walking towards the distance, Feng Xue realized that this job obviously didn''t end with just throwing the corpses onto the carts.

 Chapter 2 - 2 Corpse Collection Is Dangerous

    Chapter 2: Chapter 2 Corpse Collection Is Dangerous"Do you want money or grain?" The man in charge of distributing the "bricks" glanced at the cart behind Feng Xue and immediately asked.

    However, it was merely a routine question, because before Feng Xue could even open their mouth, the man had already picked up three Wheat Bran Bricks¡ªrepresenting the three corpses on the cart behind Feng Xue.

    Feng Xue had no intention to waste any words either. With a scan from the Identification function that came with the Golden Finger, they confirmed that each brick held at least 100 "Identity" points and immediately stuffed the Wheat Bran Bricks into the backpack they had brought with them through the time slip, pulling the cart to catch up with the Corpse Collectors walking ahead.

    What gave Feng Xue a headache, though, was that after walking about five or six hundred meters, the group ahead suddenly split up.

    "Ah, this... Could it be they all have different destinations?" Feng Xue''s brows immediately furrowed, hesitating as to whom they should follow. After a brief moment of contemplation, their gaze settled on a middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties, with a beard circling his chin that gave off an artist''s vibe, yet he wore clothing with an antique flair.

    It was this man who, on the very day Feng Xue had crossed to this world, had tricked them out of a brick.

    They slid their hand into their sleeve, gripping the Short Blade hidden there, and Feng Xue was infinitely grateful that they had gone to an exhibition before crossing over. Although the Assassin''s Creed outfit had no real Defensive power, the sleeve that held the Sleeve Sword did at least offer a place to store a Weapon.

    Perhaps hearing the sound of the cart''s wheels from behind, the man immediately turned around with alertness. At the same time, Feng Xue noticed that his left hand had also moved inside his clothing¡ªundoubtedly hiding some kind of Weapon.

    However, upon seeing Feng Xue, his expression relaxed slightly. Dragging a cart with at least six or seven corpses, he continued forward while speaking in a somewhat admonishing tone:

    "Isn''t this the new brother who just arrived? Corpse Collection isn''t suitable for newcomers!"

    "Oh? Isn''t it just Corpse Collection? Is there some kind of trick to it?" Feng Xue feigned na?vete, half genuine, half fake. The man''s eyes narrowed slightly and, flipping a Wheat Bran Brick, he then said: S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "Of course, there is. How else do you think it could fetch such a price? But this is also the capital for survival. Give me one brick, and I''ll tell you!"

    Despite just having made 300 "Identity" points, Feng Xue still hesitated. After all, that was only enough for three days, and with the meager amount they had left over, they would still be dead if they failed to find new work within four days.

    However, their hesitation didn''t last long, for the three days since crossing over had made it clear to Feng Xue that finding work here was much harder than they had ever imagined.

    Carefully extracting a brick from their bag, they didn''t throw it to the man right away but mimicked him, tossing the palm-sized brick and saying:

    "You go ahead. Anyway, I''m right here."

    With that, they concentrated their Consciousness, and a warm current flowed into their body from the Wheat Bran Brick. They clearly felt that their time in this World had been extended by another day¡ªthe sensation was akin to watching a 24-hour countdown timer increase in the upper right corner of their field of vision.

    "Fine by me." The man was surprisingly agreeable but deliberately tightened his face and spoke in a somewhat eerie tone:

    "These corpses could turn into Kaidan!"

    "Kaidan? What''s that?" Feng Xue, listening to the man''s story-telling tone, was a bit baffled for a moment. The man paused and then as if he had just remembered said:

    "I forgot you''re new here."

    With that, he patted his head as an explanation:

    "An omen is a malevolent Kaidan. In this world, almost everything is made of ''Identity,'' but only the ''Identity'' possessed by True Objects is edible. The ''Identity'' of Pseudo Artifacts is almost solidified, impossible to absorb, and the ''Identity'' within our bodies as ''entities'' carries a mark. If someone were to consume ''Identity'' with a mark... well, to put it simply, it''s like eating a person, which would corrupt and settle their own ''Identity,'' eventually turning them into a monster devoid of reason. Those creatures are called omens."

    After realizing that the dog crap which had triggered a bloody incident could very well have been a True Object, Feng Xue asked, "So this wheat bran brick is a True Object? Then what is a Pseudo Artifact? And what are these marks?"

    "All things that are neither living entities nor True Objects¡ªthis world''s soil, walls, air, and even the clothes you''re wearing¡ªare Pseudo Artifacts. As for the marks..."

    At this point, the man revealed a somewhat disdainful smile:

    "That''s not information you can get just by trading a few bricks."

    "Alright then, back to corpses. Why do they turn into omens?"

    Feng Xue was very adept at controlling her curiosity, and she turned the conversation back almost without hesitation. The man didn''t seem to mind and naturally continued the discussion, saying:

    "It''s not that they ''will'' turn into omens, but that they ''might.'' All creatures that die for reasons other than the exhaustion of their ''Identity'' still have remnants of ''Identity'' within them. During its settling process, this ''Identity'' may constitute ''elements.'' Well... you don''t need to worry about that. In short, if certain conditions are met, they might turn into omens. Although the likelihood is small, the possibility still exists. For a small landfill site like ours, a single omen could completely destroy it."

    "Elements..." The word stuck with Feng Xue as she thought about the ''Identification'' functionality of her Golden Finger, and she made a mental note of the term before continuing,

    "So does Corpse Collection mean transporting bodies to a special facility for processing? But why doesn''t everyone take the same path?"

    "Processing?" The man let out a snort of laughter and then shook his head:

    "What processing? We Corpse Collectors simply ditch the bodies in the wilderness. Once outside the city, an omen can''t stir up much trouble. As for why we split up? Obviously, the more bodies there are, the greater the risk of them turning into omens! Alright, we should part ways now. Give me the brick."

    Feng Xue nodded, took a brick from her bag, and tossed it to the man. When the man received the brick, he paused slightly and then said with some surprise,

    "I thought you''d try to be clever."

    "You dare to haul so many corpses and know so much; even if you''re not some reclusive expert, you''re definitely skilled. It''s not worth falling out with you over a brick," Feng Xue replied calmly, but she was also prepared to plead for mercy by handing over everything she had.

    In the short time they conversed, she had already consumed two bricks. Even if he had ill intentions to rob her, there wasn''t much to gain.

    The man clearly had no intention of undertaking such an unrewarding task. He simply nodded, "You seem sharp. Looks like you''ll survive longer. My name is Li. Call me Old Li. If you have questions later, come find me. Of course, I''ll charge."

    "Then you can call me Little Feng," Feng Xue nodded in agreement. As she watched Old Li turn away, she hastily added,

    "Which way should I go?"

    "Do you see the city walls? Just follow this road straight towards the walls, then exit through any gate you come across. But remember to avoid doors with guards; there are fields outside them." Old Li waved his hand without turning back and proceeded down a different road. Before leaving, as if remembering something, he turned to say one last thing, "Outside the city is the omen''s territory. If you plan to keep doing this job, it''s best not to dump in the same place."

    Feng Xue, who had been startled by Old Li''s sudden turn, watched him disappear from view and let out a sigh of relief. His gaze then moved back to the cart behind him, frowning as he focused on one of the corpses. As his gaze settled on it, two lines of small text appeared again¡ª

    Name: Corpse (Male)

    Elements: "Human," "Male," "Suffocation," "Death," WERTU@%YS#@%%$&%I...

 Chapter 3 - 3 Elements

    Chapter 3: Chapter 3 ElementsFor the tags on the corpse, Feng Xue was not surprised; in fact, it was not his first time using the identification function of the Golden Finger to examine a corpse, but having the opportunity to put the corpse into the Refining window was a first for him.

    Indeed, in the display of the Golden Finger, the corpse was indeed refinable, and the cost, like the roadside stones, was 5 towers.

    To be precise, the Refining range of the Golden Finger was very broad¡ªso far, the only items the Golden Finger explicitly could not refine were living people and Wheat Bran Bricks. Previously, he had thought it was an "Ownership" issue, but after listening to Old Li''s explanation today, he realized this Golden Finger could probably only refine "Pseudo Artifacts"¡ªspecifically unowned "Pseudo Artifacts."

    As for why a dead creature could be refined, perhaps after death the corpse was also considered a "Pseudo Artifact"?

    However, regardless, based on past refining experience, if the Refining failed, the item would crumble and disappear. So, if he used the Refining ability of the Golden Finger, could he manage this corpse?

    Sensing his own "long" three-day life countdown, Feng Xue felt somewhat reassured; if he could indeed use it to destroy the corpse, his danger in corpse collection would be far lower than other Corpse Collectors, meaning he had gained a job sufficient to make ends meet.

    Although this industry, dependent on the availability of corpses, couldn''t be considered stable, considering the corpses he had seen in the short span of three days since transmigration already numbered over fifty, Feng Xue believed that death was not a rare occurrence in this world.

    However, after a brief contemplation, Feng Xue still chose not to refine on the spot. Even though his Golden Finger''s activation didn''t emit any light effects, Feng Xue was unsure what the outcome would be if the Refining succeeded.

    What if the elements in the corpse settled after refining and turned into an omen of doom? Wouldn''t that be courting death?

    Even if there was a possibility that the doom forged by refining could automatically recognize its owner, faced with a Golden Finger that had no instructions whatsoever, Feng Xue decided it was best to play it safe.

    ...

    Dragging the handcart, following the direction Old Li had pointed out, the city wall, towering as if not built by human hands, finally entered Feng Xue''s view clearly. Looking at this wall, taller than any manga''s ridiculous conclusion from his previous life, he deeply suspected if there might be some ultra-ancient Light Giants or something inside.

    However, this nonsensical thought didn''t last long. As Feng Xue approached the wall, his expression subtly shifted, because this wall was not as he had imagined, merely tall¡ª

    The industrial-styled metallic joints and the sensors that lit up as he approached seemed to declare the technological content of this wall.

    "I thought it was magic punk, but it turned out to be ''Apocalyptic Age''?"

    At this moment, a sense of disillusionment suddenly emerged in Feng Xue''s mind. After all, since his transmigration, the most advanced piece of technology he had seen was an old bulky television found in the garbage mountain, exchanged for five bricks, while the weapons in the hands of the gangs controlling the garbage mountain were mostly swords and sabers, nowhere near capable of producing this level of sophistication.

    Shaking his head to dismiss this question that seemed quite distant from him, Feng Xue started looking for the so-called door. However, after only two steps, a wall suddenly emitted a sound akin to a deflating balloon, and then, the metallic wall slowly slid open to one side, revealing a passage just wide enough for two people to walk through side by side.

    "Is this the door?" Feng Xue dragged the handcart into the passage, yet what met his eyes was complete darkness. Despite the walls outside being brightly lit, this tunnel had not even a single light. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "Is it to avoid attracting so-called omens?" This thought sprang up in Feng Xue''s mind, increasing his vigilance.

    But the corpse behind him, which could turn into a zombie at any moment, urged him to quickly walk towards that dark tunnel.

    The twenty-meter-long tunnel was not particularly long, and after just about a dozen seconds, the so-called wilderness also came into Feng Xue''s sight.

    Unlike the landscape of widespread corpses he had imagined, the other side of the wall appeared exceedingly normal with wild weeds thriving arbitrarily, forests thickening in the distance, a round moon casting a gentle moonlight overhead, and air so fresh it made one want to burst into song¡ªall forming a blissfully natural scene.

    However, Feng Xue soon sensed something was amiss because, in such an environment, there were absolutely no sounds of insects or birds chirping.

    Being a voracious reader, Feng Xue instantly thought of the common ambush scenarios in novels and became nervous. He glanced back at the still-open portal and immediately abandoned the plan to dispose of corpses in the forest, opting to perform "Refining" on one of the corpses instead.

    In an instant, seventy-two minutes of lifespan drained away, and the corpse targeted by the refining crosshairs turned into a clump of flying ash. Shortly after, a line of text appeared on the panel¡ª

    "Refining successful, element ''Suffocation'' obtained, 37 ''Identity'' towers gained."

    "???" Feng Xue''s eyes widened in disbelief at the results of the refining, reminiscent of someone who had just passed the imperial examinations, though he was unsure whether it was good luck or bad. However, his potential insanity was staved off by a crushing sense of loss when he continued to check, because focusing on the number that represented "Identity" brought up a brief note¡ª

    "An ''Identity'' with a biological imprint, can be refined, can be recast, cannot be absorbed."

    It was akin to finding a Top-Grade Item in a game, only to discover it was bind on pickup...

    "Tsck." Uttering a light click with his tongue, Feng Xue did not ponder the potential implications and aimed the refining crosshairs at the remaining two corpses.

    "Refining failure."

    "Refining successful, 47 ''Identity'' towers obtained."

    ...

    "One failure, just ''Identity'' with no element?" Feng Xue watched as the two corpses quickly disintegrated and did not linger. He dragged the cart into the passage and walked back home along the route he had come.

    In truth, Feng Xue''s entire worldly possessions were on his person, and the only reason he returned was that it was the only place he knew.

    Although the walk home at night was somewhat frightening, Feng Xue made it back to his free "skylight apartment" without any unforeseen incidents¡ªnot even his cart was reclaimed.

    However, he was completely uninterested in those issues at the moment, instead fixating on his Golden Finger panel, observing the lone ''Suffocation'' element now appearing in the ''Recast'' menu.

    Different from what he had anticipated, this element came with no descriptions. No matter how much he concentrated or tried tapping it with his hand, only a prompt appeared asking whether he wanted to select the element, as though the words "Suffocation" explained everything on their own.

    "What to do? Should I give it a try?"

    Watching the confirm button in the lower right corner switch to an active state after electing the element, along with the crosshairs in the center of the panel for targeting, Feng Xue finally bit the bullet¡ª

    "If I don''t try, I''ll never understand!"

 Chapter 4: Reforging

    Chapter 4: Chapter 4: ReforgingAlthough Feng Xue had already resolved to experiment with the Golden Finger, he still put a lot of effort into selecting the target.

    From a literal perspective, recasting probably meant forging an item again, similar to how some games allow weapon crafting through obtaining random attributes, but this time he could specify the elements involved.

    Thus, the issue of what item to recast the "Suffocation" element onto was worth considering.

    First, the item certainly could not be too large, for it would be a joke if he ended up with a top-grade item he could not carry away.

    Second, it must be a useless item.

    After all, considering the risk of recasting failure, if he exploded the only item that could be considered a defensive weapon¡ªthe short blade¡ªhe would truly be left without any means of defense¡ªeven though his combat abilities were nearly non-existent even with a blade.

    After some thought, he took off his armguard.

    At that moment, he actually regretted that he had chosen to wear a white robe in the style of Ezio for the sake of looking cool, rather than choosing the classic look of Altair, which would have provided him with many small throwing knives for practice.

    Although Ezio''s white robe also had numerous small accessories like belts and a shoulder cape, Feng Xue felt that choosing these things to incorporate the "Suffocation" element could easily backfire catastrophically.

    Undoubtedly, it was supposed to be refined for a weapon. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Fortunately, he was not the kind of cosplayer who pursued absolute accuracy in reproduction; rather, he preferred aesthetics, which meant he didn''t choose Ezio''s classic sleeve blade but opted for the one styled after the French Revolution known as "Phantom Blade," which could be used as an arm crossbow.

    Despite the poor craftsmanship and the PVC material being practically harmless, these fulfilled the criteria of being a "weapon" and "useless".

    Moreover, if successful, compared to the more challenging melee weapons, the crossbow arrow was undoubtedly more suitable for a novice¡ªeven though the device could only shoot the unsharpened plastic blade a few meters.

    After some consideration, Feng Xue detached the mechanism from the faux leather armguard; this way, even if the refining failed, he could still keep the armguard for storing the short blade.

    After preparing all this, Feng Xue turned his attention back to the "Phantom Blade," and the identification function displayed its attributes again¡ª

    Name: Inferior Sleeve Sword (Pseudo)

    Elements: [Assassin], [Flying Prop]

    Indeed, this item didn''t even possess the [Weapon] element.

    However, Feng Xue, who had identified everything on him earlier, was not surprised by this. He switched the Golden Finger to the recasting panel, aimed the crosshair at the "Phantom Blade," and selected the sole [Suffocation] option.

    As the confirmation button lit up again, Feng Xue almost closed his eyes as he pressed it, and a numeric input box popped up along with the prompt¡ª

    [Please select the amount of "Identity" to invest (optional).]

    "Ah, this..." Feng Xue''s face showed distress as he was unsure how much to invest, but based on his past experience with mobile games, he knew it was inappropriate to invest nothing at all. Guided by the thought that the "Identity" extracted from corpses couldn''t prolong life anyway, he dumped all 84 towers'' worth from the corpses into it.

    With this action completed, a vortex formed from the crosshair in the central panel of Feng Xue''s vision, and a massive amount of data along with the [Suffocation] element swirled into it, drilling into the sleeve sword like a funnel-shaped tornado.

    This process sounded rather fantastic, but in reality, there were no special effects, just a fast-spinning vortex that Feng Xue observed, where streams of Identity collided continuously, appearing as strings of code constantly rearranging before forming into characters with some significance.

    When the last bit of information disappeared with the vortex, what remained in front of him was a completely altered sleeve sword.

    The previously shoddy PVC material now had a hint of metallic solidity, and the enclosed blade gleamed with a cold light; even the internal gear structure had undergone significant changes.

    With the help of the identification function, new attributes appeared before Feng Xue:

    Name: Phantom Object¡¤Suffocation Blade

    Elements: [Assassin], [Flying Prop], [Suffocation], [Weapon]

    Description: The personal weapon of an assassin, this weapon can add most of the user''s abilities, including those of other weapons, to its use. Enemies wounded by it will struggle to breathe, making it difficult for them to engage in strenuous movements.

    Note: Remember to pick it up after use, or, if it''s too troublesome, you can use it in close combat.

    ...

    "This entry is quite detailed!" That was Feng Xue''s first thought upon seeing the lengthy text before him.

    While still simpler compared to many game equipment descriptions, the extensive details were a significant improvement over the typically two-line attributes shown by his Golden Finger previously.

    "The ''Identity'' I invested earlier, did it constitute the [Weapon] element? Does this mean that if I had invested more ''Identity,'' I might have generated elements like [Automatic Recovery] or [Guaranteed Hit]? And this ''Phantom Object'' prefix, it sounds similar to ''True Object'' and ''Pseudo Artifact.'' Could it be some kind of special proprietary noun?"

    Feng Xue scrutinized these few lines, feeling a sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, and after much consideration, he finally found the answer from a very ancient memory¡ª

    "Isn''t this Phantom Assassin''s first skill?"

    As an old player who started playing Dota from the era when the Immortal Shield still needed to be crafted, Feng Xue had a deep impression of the hero Phantom Assassin, especially her simple ultimate that aside from increasing critical hit rates, mesmerized many bettors.

    However, compared to her ultimate, the much-altered Suffocation Blade had little presence, being merely a general utility tool for heroes to finish off or keep enemies in place. In fact, it only became noticeable when Dota 2 began allowing the inheritance of passive buff and attack effects.

    Now the item in Feng Xue''s hand, although sharing the name, did not rigidly repeat the skill effect but was a more realistic adaptation.

    However, even according to the settings, Phantom Assassin''s first skill should be an actual "Skill," a method involving an enchanted dagger, where the dagger itself is not important.

    But the item before him seemed more like it had the Phantom Assassin''s skill permanently attached to one piece of equipment.

    This seemed to imply that his Golden Finger was not simply grabbing fantasy items for refining results.

    So, what exactly determines the refining results?

    This question flickered briefly in Feng Xue''s mind before he suppressed it; the examples were too few at present, and figuring this out would likely require many more experiments...

 Chapter 5 - 5 Finding a Job

    Chapter 5: Chapter 5 Finding a Job"Ha!"

    With a soft clang, a metal blade, roughly as long as a palm, stuck into a wooden plank. Gazing at the crudely circled target drawn with mud, Feng Xue mockingly said, "At least it hit the target," before stepping forward to pull it out and retracted it back into the Sleeve Sword.

    After being reforged, the Suffocation Blade''s range, accuracy, and penetration had improved considerably compared to the original low-quality toy; however, correspondingly, the complexity of the mechanical expansion operation also increased.

    Including how to pop out the blade, how to unfold the crossbow arms, or how to launch the blade¡ªall required a level of precision far beyond the original toy. Nevertheless, Feng Xue didn''t mind; after all, compared to the original toy, which at worst would cause a minor pain if accidentally triggered, the device now was a lethal weapon.

    After spending a night researching, he had somewhat figured out some traits of what he called "phantom items," the most fundamental being their lack of wear.

    It sounded a bit absolute, but at least from what Feng Xue concluded that was the case for now. Last night, due to unskilled operation, he had shot the blade towards a brick wall. Though the blade was deflected, it did not even bear a single scratch.

    He also tried experiments like sharpening the blade and ultimately confirmed that neither stone nor brick could leave a mark on the blade.

    The thing seemed like a game tool without a durability setting; it would not change due to reasons unrelated to its function.

    However, since it was all he had, he did not attempt destructive experiments, like cutting bowstrings.

    But at least for now, the durability of the so-called phantom items seemed assured.

    As sunlight filtered through the holes in the ceiling and into his room, Feng Xue straightened his clothes and stretched lazily, preparing to head out.

    Despite not having slept all night, he didn''t show much fatigue. Or rather, for him now, sleep was more of a mental need than a physical necessity.

    "It really doesn''t feel human anymore!" Feeling the three remaining days of his life, Feng Xue once again stepped out of his house.

    The area he lived in, known as the landfill area, bore some resemblance to the garbage mountains in Southeast Asia before his transition¡ªa slum centered around a large garbage dump almost as big as a city block before his transition. It was filled with shanties of all sizes, and scavenging was the main source of livelihood for most residents.

    Unlike the famous garbage mountains from before his transition, this place had extremely strict regulations.

    Not only were there rules for the operating hours of the dump and entry and exit times, but there were also personnel specifically assigned to valuation. All items taken from the dump could only be exchanged for one-tenth of their assessed value with the area manager. If someone wanted to keep an item they found, they had to pay a price 1.5 times its assessed value.

    Anyone who violated the rules faced severe punishment. The person Feng Xue had seen being executed with a "Death Sentence" at the execution grounds was said to have been caught hiding items.

    There were seven days until the next opening of the dump, but Feng Xue had only three days'' worth of Identity remaining. This meant he needed to earn four hundred Tars within these three days; otherwise, he would completely vanish.

    Of course, he could also risk it all and attack the local manager''s warehouse like those who had turned into corpses last night. However, given last night''s tragic scene, this clearly wasn''t an easy task.

    Or rather, if it had been possible to snatch items from the local ruling gang, they wouldn''t be facing death due to a lack of Identity.

    Walking along a small path trodden by human activity, with the high-walled dump at the center¡ªthough called high, the wall''s technological content was incomparable to the one seen yesterday that separated the wilderness; frankly, it was just constructed with bricks, something even an ordinary person could build.

    The entire landfill area was an irregular circle, roughly equivalent to the size of a small city district before his transition, surrounded by walls that seemed higher but whose technology content was frighteningly high. Only the wall on the northeast seemed to stretch straight into the distance; that was the stronghold of the gang managing the landfill area, and he clearly had no right to approach there.

    It''s worth mentioning that the gang managing this landfill area had no intentions of recruitment. Feng Xue had asked around, but all he had received was a mocking smile.

    Although it was a slum, it still contained various professions, ranging from blacksmiths, tailors, to doctors who healed the injured and helped the sick. After all, even if Feng Xue always said the people in this world didn''t resemble humans, they still retained concepts of injury, illness, and death¡ªonly they didn''t require eating or sleeping.

    Although Feng Xue had been wandering in circles during the daytime for the past few days, today was a bit different, as he finally had a destination¡ª

    It was a small single-story house near the garbage dump, not very big in area, but it shone with a brightness unlike the surrounding houses, feeling like a classical sculpture from the Renaissance era placed amidst a bunch of postmodern art pieces.

    And in front of this building, there was a line, not too long, with people constantly coming out of the building, some with smiles on their faces, others with expressions of dejection. If it weren''t for the sign that read "Job Center," one might mistake it for a clinic.

    Feng Xue naturally joined the queue, waiting for it to gradually shorten.

    Despite the presence of a job center, work was hard to find. Since his arrival in this world, Feng Xue had come here four times, but the previous three had yielded no results.

    "Next!"

    A somewhat lazy voice called out from inside the house, and Feng Xue immediately walked in. The small house was equally modest, with only an office desk, a row of cabinets resembling those found in a traditional medicine shop, and a young woman who was good-looking but appeared very indolent.

    "What would you like to do?"

    The young woman propped her chin with the end of a pen and issued the short question, which despite consisting of only five simple words, carried a lot of implications.

    The first time he had come, Feng Xue had said he could do anything and was promptly expelled. The second time, he expressed his desire to become a gang member and received a scornful smile. The third time, he came well-prepared, having researched the occupational ecosystem and mentioned transporting, but the answer he received was¡ª

    "You are not qualified."

    Who knew why you needed qualifications to transport, especially since he had seen puny teenagers carrying bricks on a construction site in the west!

    In fact, if it weren''t for some obviously weak individuals getting jobs here, he would suspect that this front desk was like the job center in "Hunter x Hunter," with some hidden conditions!

    However, considering the imminent threat of death, Feng Xue took a deep breath and then uttered his reply:

    "Corpse Collector." S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    As soon as he spoke, the indolent woman immediately lifted her head, scrutinized him for a moment, and then nodded:

    "Are you sure?"

    "Huh? That''s it?" Feng Xue asked, somewhat astonished. The woman didn''t intend to respond but only repeated:

    "I''m asking if you''re sure!"

    "Yes, I want to be a Corpse Collector." Feng Xue didn''t dare hesitate and hurriedly nodded in confirmation. The woman, hearing this, immediately stood up, turned to the cabinet resembling one in a traditional medicine shop, and from one of the drawers, she took out a palm-sized badge and handed it to Feng Xue:

    "This is your employment badge, please keep it safe."

 Chapter 6 - 6 Onboarding

    Chapter 6: Chapter 6 OnboardingStepping out of the job placement office, Feng Xue still felt everything was so surreal. The previous rejection was baffling, and his current acceptance just as inexplicable.

    Even more inexplicable was that his proof of employment consisted merely of a palm-sized metal badge¡ªhe didn''t even know how to start his job!

    "So you should at least tell me how to use this thing!" Feng Xue fiddled with the metal badge in his hand, utterly dazed. He had asked the staff at the job placement office, but they were like NPCs, reluctant to say anything beyond work-related matters.

    He opened the Golden Finger panel and targeted the metal badge with the identification function. As expected, a line of text appeared¡ª

    Name: Corpse Collector Badge

    Elements: [Communication], [Recording], [Certification], @#£¤%E^U^%$&*^&%*%...

    "Is this an intelligent machine?" Feng Xue looked at the few elements, his eyebrows slightly raised, but he played with the gadget for a long time without discovering how to activate it.

    It was only then that he realized a problem¡ª

    He was missing some crucial cognition.

    It wasn''t that he had amnesia or anything like that, but he lacked the common knowledge that was expected in this world.

    Take modern society for example, if you didn''t know where the ATM was or what an intelligent machine was, even if a company issued you a payroll card, you wouldn''t know how to use it.

    The same principle applied to this work badge. Even if it was a payroll card, Feng Xue didn''t know where he could actually withdraw the money.

    "Who should I ask about this?"

    The first name that popped into Feng Xue''s mind was Old Li, since he was the only person he had spoken to more than ten sentences with since his arrival.

    Furthermore, Old Li seemed to possess knowledge beyond that of ordinary civilians. Although Feng Xue didn''t know why such a person would live in the slums, he felt Old Li could possibly answer his questions.

    The only trouble was¡ª

    He had no money.

    "Tsk... I thought I was broke because I couldn''t find a job, but who knew I''d still be broke even after finding one... I hope Old Li will extend credit to me since I have a job now."

    Feng Xue shook his head helplessly and headed straight towards his home. He didn''t know exactly where Old Li''s house was, but from what had happened yesterday, it should be near that dilapidated house of his own.

    With that thought in mind, Feng Xue took a step forward, but he hadn''t gotten far when the work badge in his pocket suddenly began to vibrate.

    He immediately took out the silver-white metal badge, and to his surprise, a map now appeared on the once-featureless badge. On the map, two lights blinked continuously.

    At the same time, a stream of information flowed into Feng Xue''s mind¡ª

    "A corpse has appeared at the City South warehouse. Please go there immediately."

    Feng Xue compared the lights on the map and concluded that one of them must represent him. He tried swiping his finger across the screen a few times and discovered that he could zoom in and out freely, prompting him to grin:

    "What is this, some kind of malicious navigation?"

    Though he made such a remark, he still immediately followed the map towards the light located in City South.

    The landfill district, after all, was only about the size of a small city, and although Feng Xue''s physical strength wasn''t extremely exaggerated, it took him only twenty minutes to reach his destination.

    However, the scene before him made his eyebrows twitch; the blood all over the ground made him doubt once again whether the people in this world could regenerate like the civilians from Bitter Realm.

    He had been in this world for less than a week, but he had already seen more than a hundred corpses. Feng Xue thought that at this rate, only forensic scientists and funeral home staff in his past life could keep up.

    Currently, there were hardly any civilians on the streets, except for three or four people nervously transporting corpses, a table covered with Wheat Bran Bricks, and a few robust men armed with weapons.

    Looking at this scene, identical to the previous night, Feng Xue took out his work badge to check and found it had once again returned to its ordinary state.

    He hesitated whether to announce his occupation, but suddenly someone patted his shoulder. Feng Xue swiftly turned around, his ring finger slightly curved, clearly ready to launch his Sleeve Arrow.

    However, when he saw who it was, his expression froze briefly before he heard the artistically disheveled, yet shabbily dressed middle-aged man''s flippant voice:

    "Don''t space out, get to work!"

    "..." Feng Xue hesitated momentarily, said nothing, and instead pulled over a readily prepared cart at the roadside to start the work of a Corpse Collector.

    Perhaps due to the larger number of deaths this time, Feng Xue gathered a total of six corpses, taking the six Wheat Bran Bricks given to him by gang members, and pushed the cart towards the direction of the city wall.

    Not long after, he saw Old Li also dragging a cart of corpses, boredly standing at the intersection. Seeing him approach, Old Li immediately waved and called out:

    "Hey, hey! Little Feng! Aren''t you a bit slow?"

    "..." Feng Xue looked at overly familiar Old Li, his eyebrows furrowing again. He couldn''t help feeling that this "chance meeting" was a bit too coincidental.

    The first time being tricked for bricks was not worth mentioning since the landfill would open and the entire district''s people would head there, but the following two chance meetings, once in City West and once in City South, inevitably made him somewhat suspicious¡ªafter all, he was a fan of mysteries.

    Seeming to notice his wariness, Old Li gestured dismissively, adopting a completely unarmed posture, pulling the cart with his back to him and saying:

    "Don''t worry. You''re employed now, right? We''re colleagues now."

    Saying that, Old Li apparently still worried he wouldn''t believe him and took out a metal plate and shook it at him.

    Feng Xue immediately activated the Golden Finger, and soon, a line of information also appeared¡ª S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Name: Old Li''s Corpse Collector Badge

    Elements: [Communication], [Recording], [Certification], @#£¤%E^U^%$&*^&%*%...

    Balance: 1784 Towers

    ...

    "It has a name? And what does balance mean? Can this thing actually store money like a payroll card?" Although his alertness slightly diminished, it was quickly replaced by strong confusion. But more than that, what he cared about most was¡ª

    "How did you know I had gotten a job?"

    Hearing that, Old Li did not stop but casually responded, "That, you''d know once you formally get your job and your tag coalesces."

    "Formally get my job? Am I not formally employed yet?"

    "Uh..." Old Li''s steps faltered briefly, then he said with some emotion:

    "I mean, you didn''t just pick up a few corpses and then impulsively go to the job placement office to choose a career, did you?"

 Chapter 7 - 7 Labels

    Chapter 7: Chapter 7 LabelsListening to Old Li''s words, Feng Xue felt awkward for a moment, but Old Li reacted first, shaking his head and saying,

    "Well, I don''t know if you''re lucky or unlucky...anyway, talking about this is useless now..."

    Feng Xue was infuriated by Old Li''s enigmatic behavior, but he was more concerned about the "useless" information. So, he temporarily suppressed his desire to ask further and pulled the conversation back,

    "So what does it mean to officially start working? And what are these ''tags''? How do you condense them?"

    "This isn''t something that can be explained in a short amount of time..." Old Li glanced at the corpse on the cart and then showed Feng Xue his work badge,

    "For now, just finish the job. Then you can unlock the functions of the badge. Like this, you''ll select the map, hold this magnifying glass, then enter ''Corpse Collector Old Li''s House''. You can input this with your mouth or with your hand; there are no requirements for language or script. It mainly captures your consciousness. If you''re confident in your concentration, you can just think about it in your mind, and that would be fine too."

    As Old Li was speaking, he demonstrated to Feng Xue how to use the map function to find his house. Feng Xue, with his sharp eyes, also noticed items next to the map like "Account" and "Contacts."

    "Is this really an intelligent machine?" Feng Xue found it absurd that Old Li, dressed in ancient clothes, was teaching him to use a smart device, but he immediately heard Old Li continue,

    "Anyway, once you''ve dealt with the corpses, come find me at my house, and then I''ll explain everything to you in detail. You just knock on the door."

    Having said this, Old Li didn''t give Feng Xue any more chances to ask questions and pulled his cart away toward the distance.

    Watching his hurried figure, Feng Xue remembered the setting of this world where corpses could transform at any moment, and he quickened his pace. At the same time, he couldn''t help but wonder why Old Li had stopped if he knew it was dangerous.

    He certainly didn''t think Old Li, who had already tricked him out of one-fifth of his life upon arrival, was the compassionate Holy Mother type.

    ...

    After walking towards the wall for a while, Feng Xue saw that there was nobody around. He quickly ducked into an alley and swiftly started the refining process on the six corpses.

    The refining result was good¡ªonly one of the six corpses failed, and the rest provided him with a total of 203 tower currency, and one element of "Female" and "Death" each.

    "Out of nine corpses, two failed, resulting in three elemental outputs. I wonder if that''s the usual rate, or if there are other hidden conditions..."

    Feng Xue mused as he gazed at the seemingly sophisticated "Death" element. However, before he could ponder more deeply, a bizarre sensation spread from deep within his body.

    It was an incredibly strange feeling, like a numbed arm slowly regaining circulation, a tangible flow emanating from his limbs and bones and restructuring within his body.

    Despite never having had a similar experience, Feng Xue felt a peculiar sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, and once everything had settled, looking at the "Corpse Collector" tag inside his body, he finally understood the source of that feeling¡ª

    The process was exactly like when he had reforged his Sleeve Sword yesterday!

    Although one could be seen directly and the other had to be felt, the principle behind both seemed to be interconnected.

    "Is this the so-called ''tag''?"

    Feng Xue tried concentrating his attention on the "Corpse Collector" tag within him, and immediately a wealth of information flowed.

    That might not be an accurate description, though, because the tag itself didn''t exude information. It was more like an encyclopedia, filled with extensive data; when Feng Xue focused his consciousness on it, he could "read" the knowledge within it, much like reading a book.

    It included basic information about the Corpse Collection job, such as how to determine if someone was truly dead, how to transport corpses more efficiently, and how to avoid infection from any pathogens the bodies might carry. In addition to that, it granted Feng Xue the ability to view others'' tags and establish a connection with his work badge.

    "No wonder Old Li said I would understand once I had condensed the tag..." Feng Xue felt the knowledge within the tag, took out his work badge, and as the power of the badge linked with the tag, a verification interface appeared¡ª

    [Please enter your username.] sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Feng Xue thought for a moment and entered the two characters "Ð¡·ë" (Xiao Feng), and with a twist on the interface, a new panel appeared before him.

    It was a UI design very similar to that of a smartphone from his previous life, with a sleek dark background and four small squares labeled "Map," "Account," "Contacts," and "Browser."

    But this browser wasn''t for surfing the Internet; instead, it was similar to an e-reader, transforming the knowledge in the tags into easily understood text and pictures, facilitating learning and memorization.

    Indeed, while the tag contained knowledge, it was just that¡ªknowledge. To apply it effectively, he needed to learn on his own.

    Without lingering, Feng Xue pressed the map button. Following the method Old Li had taught him earlier, he entered the search term, and soon, a red dot representing the "Corpse Collector Old Li''s House" appeared in the southwest of the map.

    "The southwest, huh... I thought he lived near my place..." As soon as Feng Xue spoke, he realized he was overthinking it. After all, considering the work notice he received today, Old Li probably showed up in City West yesterday because of a job, right?

    Wandering for about fifteen minutes, Feng Xue reached a devastated residential area that was no different from where he originally lived, guided by the map.

    The place corresponding to the so-called "Old Li''s House" turned out to be a large container.

    It was about twelve meters in length and less than two and a half meters in width and height, painted entirely in blue with a refined-looking security door on the side that gave off a post-apocalyptic punk vibe.

    "Why do I feel this isn''t reliable at all..." Although Feng Xue knew that in other countries, many people liked to convert various odd items (trucks, containers, caves, and even planes) into houses, this large container still felt somewhat unacceptable to Feng Xue, who was particularly attached to the idea of a house.

    Nonetheless, considering this was an Otherworld, he still stepped forward and approached the door that looked somewhat legitimate, only noticing there was a card slot on it.

    "Really, they use room cards?" Feng Xue grinned wryly, knocked on the door, and quickly Old Li''s voice came from inside the container. But as the door opened, the scene inside was not what Feng Xue had expected...

 Chapter 8 - 8 Did I Just Turn Into a Digimon?

    Chapter 8: Chapter 8 Did I Just Turn Into a Digimon?"Here we are," Mr. Li''s voice came through as the door opened, and Feng Xue also saw the scene behind it.

    The world behind the door was much larger than it seemed from the outside; excellent lighting, from an unknown source, made the windowless container interior appear bright without being harsh.

    At this time, Mr. Li was no longer dressed in the simple brown attire he had worn before but in a silky smooth pair of silk pajamas. Beneath the exterior of the container was a modern European-style decoration, with only a few oriental pieces, like the Black Gold Stone tea tray and a complete set of tea ware on the coffee table.

    However, more than these minor details, what caught Feng Xue''s attention the most was the information he sensed from Mr. Li through his own label¡ª

    Occupation: [Corpse Collector]

    Labels: [Corpse Collector], [Newbie Guide], [Street Wanderer], [Invisible Rich]

    Alright, Feng Xue seemed to understand what was going on with Mr. Li''s eagerness to mentor.

    Compared to Feng Xue''s realization, Mr. Li, who had been smiling faintly, suddenly fell into shock. After a moment, he said in a dumbfounded manner,

    "How did you condense a label already?"

    "Isn''t it by completing work that one can condense a label?" Feng Xue saw Mr. Li''s expression and was also baffled; he had just collected a corpse normally, and then he had condensed it, right?

    "It is true that labels can be condensed by completing work, but the issue is that it requires..." Mr. Li started to say, then shook his head and gestured with his hand:

    "Never mind, come in first, and we''ll talk."

    "Oh," Feng Xue nodded. If at the beginning he had some resistance and doubt, seeing Mr. Li''s label of [Newbie Guide], he had already relaxed a lot. Although he still wasn''t very clear about what labels meant, at least it showed that the other person wasn''t some random character popping out to introduce him to the world view out of the blue.

    Following Mr. Li into the room, Feng Xue felt this place was filled with incredibility. The container, which looked at best twenty-nine square meters from the outside, had just this living room that surpassed that space, not to mention the legitimately designed doors surrounding the living room. Through an open door, Feng Xue even spotted a large bathroom behind.

    As previously mentioned, Feng Xue no longer needed to eat after transmigrating; naturally, he didn''t need to use the restroom nor did he have any needs regarding washing up. In other words, these items, which were not urgently needed, were luxuries.

    "Have a seat. Would you like some tea?" Mr. Li finally seemed to have composed himself from the shock and asked. Feng Xue lightly shook his head and said:

    "No need to trouble yourself, I''ll leave after I ask my questions."

    "Alright," Mr. Li didn''t insist upon hearing this and simply poured himself a cup of tea, seemingly waiting for Feng Xue''s questions. Seeing this, Feng Xue went straight to the point:

    "I want to know what exactly this label thing is, also what you meant by formally joining earlier, and lastly, how to use this work badge."

    "Your questions, actually, can be boiled down to one question," Mr. Li sipped his tea, straightened his back slightly, then continued:

    "To answer these, you first need to understand a very fundamental issue, which is, what exactly is [Identity]?"

    "Currency? Energy? Nutrition?" Feng Xue carried on with the righteousness befitting a comedic role, throwing out several answers that were clearly wrong or incomplete. Mr. Li naturally shook his head and asked:

    "Did your world before transmigration have an internet?"

    "Uh, yes!" Although he felt discordant upon hearing the word "internet," considering the End of the Century City Wall, intelligent machines, and spatially expanded residences he had already encountered, he chose to accept this odd premise.

    Mr. Li did not seem to care about Feng Xue''s confusion and simply nodded to himself:

    "Then it''s easy to explain. In essence, you can consider this world as a data world, where all matter is made up of data. The so-called [Identity] is the most basic unit of data. When we absorb [Identity], we are actually consuming data to maintain our existence."

    Mr. Li''s declaration was succinct, but Feng Xue only felt as if a veil had been lifted, making many incomprehensible things since his transmigration seemingly explicable. Yet he still couldn''t help but blurt out his sarcasm:

    "Damn, so I''ve transmigrated to become a Digimon?"

    "Digimon? What''s that?" Mr. Li''s face showed puzzlement, and Feng Xue quickly shook his head:

    "Nothing, it''s just a fictional digital life form from our world."

    "If that''s the case, it''s actually not far off. Come to think of it, ''information'' rather than ''data'' seems more suitable to represent [Identity]." Mr. Li nodded thoughtfully, updating the newbie guide script in his mind, before continuing:

    "Do you remember that [True Object] I mentioned before?"

    "Yes, it''s the only source of [Identity] one can consume, right?"

    Feng Xue said this, and his expression suddenly froze. Seeing his reaction, Mr. Li knew that he probably guessed the answer and revealed an uneasy smile, nodding:

    "You''re not wrong. We are not ''real life''; we''re monsters that eke out an existence by snatching ''information from the real world''."

    "Kaidan?" Feng Xue recalled when Mr. Li spoke of ominous omens and had mentioned "malevolent Kaidan". According to this explanation, were they benign Kaidan?

    "No, we are just [Infinite], nameless, existenceless, unknown, utterly devoid¡ªthe [Infinite] of nothingness. Precisely because we have nothing, we can only maintain survival by obtaining [Identity] from True Objects. Do you know why we woke up in a garbage dump after transmigration? Because, like the other things in the garbage dump, we too are ''trash'' discarded by other worlds."

    Mr. Li''s words were imbued with a desolate feeling, making Feng Xue''s skin prickle as he struggled to free himself from the complex emotions of suddenly becoming "trash". He then asked the more critical question¡ª

    "By your explanation, the landfill area we''re in isn''t the real world?"

    "Yes," Mr. Li nodded solemnly:

    "Not only the landfill, but the entire Infinite City is actually a special Kaidan, a Kaidan that continually receives various ''trash''." S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Upon hearing this, Feng Xue furrowed his brow because the name Infinite City was something he had come across in a manga in his previous life. In that manga, the city was also composed of information, but very few were aware of that fact. Yet, in this world, it seemed to be common knowledge...

    However, in that manga, there was nothing like [Identity], nor were there high walls, omens, or concepts like Kaidan. This made Feng Xue unsure if there was any connection between this world and the manga world.

 Chapter 9: Infinite City and Kaidan

    Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Infinite City and KaidanSeeing Feng Xue remain silent for a long time, Old Li thought he was stunned by the shocking news, so he immediately waved his hand and said,

    "Actually, you''re not at the point where you need to consider these things. The main reason I told you so much is to explain your initial question."

    "You mean employment?" Feng Xue pinched the bridge of his nose, waiting for Old Li to continue, and Old Li did not keep him in suspense any longer, saying directly,

    "That''s right. In fact, the entire Infinite City is like a large server, where everything is data, and people with professions are like different programs. Tags are the ''comments'' for us programs with specific functions. What you asked about ''formal employment'' actually represents the first run of a program after it''s recognized. Simply put, finding a job is like pushing a program to Infinite City, but only after you have demonstrated the function of that program will Infinite City truly recognize you as such a program."

    "By that logic, those corpses that could become omens are just redundant data that can produce bugs, and we Corpse Collectors are essentially data cleaning software?" Feng Xue felt like he was becoming more and more like a Digimon, and even wanted to find a Holy Plan or Arc Light Device to see if he could evolve or something¡ªhmm, maybe he would even need to find a Beast Tamer in the Real World?

    Old Li, unaware of what Feng Xue was thinking, was quite pleased with his analogy. He made a mental note to use this explanation with other novices in the future, but outwardly he just nodded without much change and continued,

    "Just as you''re thinking, once it''s confirmed that we really have the relevant functions, Infinite City has to allocate some computational resources for us programs to run. And the work badge is the medium for receiving resources. Hmm, you can think of it as a salary and a salary card."

    With that explanation, Old Li tapped his work badge a few times and several coins fell into his hand:

    "Complete the work, and Infinite City will issue a certain amount of Tower Coins. You can use these Tower Coins to buy food of equivalent value or other things. Those gang members will be happy to take them."

    When Old Li said this, Feng Xue could clearly see a look of displeasure appear on his face, but since it likely had to do with personal grievances, it wasn''t a good idea for Feng Xue to ask. Instead, he changed the subject to a question he was very concerned about,

    "You seemed very surprised earlier about the speed at which I''m gathering tags. Isn''t it automatic to gather tags after employment?"

    "How could that be?!"

    Hearing Feng Xue''s question, Old Li''s eyes bulged as if his hair had stood on end, and he said, Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "If it was as easy as getting tags upon employment, then tags wouldn''t be so rare!"

    Having said that, he took a couple of deep breaths to calm down his excitement before continuing,

    "Didn''t I tell you? We''re all ''trash'' that other worlds don''t want, we''re the ''Infinite''. Gathering tags is a process from nothingness to existence. Tags can make us more noticeable, from ''that someone'' to ''that Corpse Collector'', to ''that Corpse Collecting street rat'', to ''that Corpse Collecting street rat who likes to guide novices''... Gradually gaining a complete sense of existence like this, eventually becoming fully and independently recognizable by others..."

    "Kaidan?" Feng Xue raised an eyebrow as if understanding something. When Old Li heard these two words, he immediately nodded, his eyes inevitably revealing a hint of longing¡ª

    "That''s right, Kaidan. To become a Kaidan, you need to become an independent entity first, which requires a large number of labels to achieve. The old-timers told me that when Infinite City first appeared, accumulating labels was relatively easy. But later, as the population of Infinite City began to grow, the major gangs blocked the passages from the landfill area to the residential area, completely monopolizing important facilities like the bank and the library, making it increasingly difficult for residents of the landfill area to accumulate labels. Now, the only option left is ''Playing Method''."

    "Playing Method? Not just employment?" Feng Xue, with her sharpness, noticed the difference in Old Li''s words, to which Old Li nodded and said:

    "That''s right, Playing Method. Simply put, it is by imitating the behavior of a certain profession, making oneself develop the corresponding tendencies. Over time, one can accumulate the appropriate labels. We call this ''Playing Method''."

    "Playing Method, huh... So could I, a Corpse Collector, even evolve into a Death God?" Feng Xue rolled her eyes when she heard this term, not expecting Old Li to nod seriously and say:

    "Of course you can, but that''s not something you can achieve with just one or two labels!"

    At this point, Old Li sadly shook his head and turned the conversation back:

    "In short, when Infinite City first emerged, it was relatively easy to accumulate labels. Back then, to qualify for a certain job, you needed to possess the corresponding professional labels.

    "As the pathways to the residential area were cut off, those high-quality professions were nearly all monopolized by gang forces. Occupations like Corpse Collection, being dangerous, exhausting, and barely profitable, left few people alive to accumulate the necessary labels.

    "Later on, employment agencies gradually lowered the hiring standards. As long as one carries the elements corresponding to that profession, they could get employment."

    "Elements? What''s that?" Feng Xue, upon hearing this term that seemed to overlap with her Golden Finger, immediately asked. Old Li, realizing he hadn''t explained it yet, had no choice but to add:

    "''Elements'' are the fundamental units that make up ''labels.'' If ''Identity'' is 0s and 1s, ''labels'' are complete programs, then ''elements'' are lines of code. The so-called Playing Method is actually about using your ''Identity'' to form the corresponding ''elements'' through acting. Except for a few professions with special labels, most people can''t see the elements of others."

    "So you mean, last night, by moving corpses, I somehow carried some element necessary for the ''Corpse Collector'' label, and while collecting corpses after my employment, I managed to accumulate other elements, which just happened to form the complete ''Corpse Collector'' label?" Feng Xue found this explanation a bit far-fetched. If it was really such a coincidence, she might start suspecting a Russian priest squatting in the corner.

    Fortunately, upon hearing Feng Xue''s words, Old Li simply shook his head and said seriously:

    "There''s no such coincidence! Didn''t I say that labels are annotations? Besides accumulation by ourselves, there''s also the possibility of direct assignment by Infinite City. The employment agency lowering the standards can be understood as Infinite City lacking sophisticated cleanup software, so they used whatever software with a cleanup function. Inversely, if it finds a software that cleans excellently, it can directly assign the ''cleanup software'' label to that software. I believe that you did exceptionally well in Corpse Collection both times, so Infinite City recognized you as material for a Corpse Collector and directly issued you a label, encouraging you to keep working hard..."

    "Is that even possible?" Feng Xue opened her eyes wide, asking in disbelief, while Old Li had a face that said "what''s so surprising about that," as he went on:

    "Actually, this is the most official channel for acquiring labels. Decades ago, everyone could directly gain labels by honing their skills. In comparison, the Playing Method is an unconventional method within unconventional methods. If it weren''t for the library being monopolized, we wouldn''t be left with just this one path. However, now that you have one label, you can use the knowledge within the label to learn and adapt. The hardest part, your first label, you''ve already obtained. All you have to do now is to continue studying and learning."

 Chapter 10: A Few Skills Beginners Should Learn

    Chapter 10: Chapter 10: A Few Skills Beginners Should Learn"Study?" Upon hearing this word, Feng Xue couldn''t help but think of the browser in his work tag and the vast amounts of knowledge within the tags, and Old Li''s answer confirmed his guess:

    "In Infinite City, knowledge, information, and power are equivalent. By possessing knowledge, you can play your role more quickly and effectively, and playing your role can earn you new tags, which in turn gives you access to new knowledge, thus creating a beneficial cycle. Once the tags you hold reach a certain threshold, a qualitative transformation occurs. At that point, you can draw power from the tags. For example, the reason why the inside of this house is so spacious is due to the ''Invisible Rich'' tag, which incorporates the ''Hermit'' element."

    "How interesting!" Feng Xue''s eyes lit up with excitement. No one can remain indifferent to extraordinary powers, but immediately afterward, two questions popped into his mind¡ª

    "But if that''s the case, doesn''t it mean that you can tell what abilities someone has just by looking at their tags?"

    "Oh?" Hearing this, Old Li uttered a meaningful sigh and then chuckled, "It seems you, kid, are quite the restless one!"

    Feng Xue immediately became cautious, but Old Li waved his hand and continued:

    "Don''t be nervous. The desire to hide oneself exists in everyone."

    As he spoke, he took out his work tag, fiddled with it for a while, and then gestured towards Feng Xue:

    "Take a look now?"

    "?" Feng Xue looked towards Old Li again, but this time, to his surprise, the information that came back from the tag had changed¡ª

    Tag: Street Wanderer S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Not only had the tag been reduced to one, but the original career item had also disappeared, making Feng Xue squint his eyes:

    "How did you do it?"

    "It''s simple. Just open your work tag, tap on your name consecutively five times, and it will enter a settings page. There, you can hide your existing tags and career. It''s said that if one could advance to ''Kaidan,'' they could freely hide without using a work tag."

    "What developer options..." Following Old Li''s instructions, Feng Xue went to the settings page, selecting to hide the ''Corpse Collector'' career and tag, and then he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

    Based on Old Li''s explanation, he could mostly confirm that the reason he managed to consolidate the Corpse Collector tag so quickly must be because Golden Finger completely destroyed the corpses. Compared to others who simply dumped the bodies in the wilderness, his method, which could be described as data shredding, was obviously more in line with the Corpse Collector job in Infinite City.

    But the issue was that the avenues for ascending in this world were monopolized, meaning that those who already had advantages would surely suppress newcomers. Although the Corpse Collector, a marginal industry, held no interest for them, considering he had barely been in this world for less than a week, his rapid acquisition of the tag could hardly avoid drawing conjectures.

    Seeing that Feng Xue had learned to hide his tags, Old Li poured himself another cup of tea, took a sip, and then said:

    "All the necessary questions have been asked, so I won''t keep you anymore. You should head back as soon as possible, after all, in this line of work, there are no off-hours."

    Feng Xue still had many questions, but the other party''s attitude made it clear he was no longer inclined to talk more, so Feng Xue didn''t continue his stay. After getting up and thanking Old Li, he headed towards the door.

    However, just as he was about to open the door, Old Li''s voice once again sounded from behind him:

    "By the way, after you join, there is an employee benefit that you can find in your account. It''s roughly a fully furnished employee dormitory. Although it certainly can''t compare to my place, it''s definitely much better than your leaky, dangerous housing."

    ...

    Returning to City West''s "Skylight Apartments," Feng Xue took out his work tag and opened his account. The first thing that caught his eye was a curious number¡ª

    900.

    "Fifty Tower Coins for handling one corpse? Or does it include the three corpses from last night?" Feng Xue thought for a moment, chose the withdrawal function, and immediately had nine 100-denomination coins in his hand.

    Feng Xue was not worried about spending Tower Coins raising suspicion, since even those responsible for distributing bricks during last night''s corpse collection had asked whether he wanted money or grain.

    However, having just acquired 600 Tower Coins, Feng Xue was in no hurry to buy bricks, but rather stored the coins back in his work tag and then started looking for the employee benefit Old Li mentioned.

    "To be given a set of rooms just for joining; I couldn''t have even dreamed of this before crossing over!" Feng Xue chuckled at himself, pressed the employee dormitory button, and a map popped up, showing a landfill area with a dozen red dots slowly blinking.

    "Does this mean I get to choose one from these?" As someone immensely fixated on property ownership, Feng Xue immediately perked up, began clicking on each red dot to see the specifics, and after finding that the basic information was similar, simply went out to conduct inspections one by one.

    After walking around all afternoon and collecting a few corpses, he finally chose a new home''s location¡ª

    This property was still located in City West, not too far from his original Skylight Apartments. From the outside, it also looked like a derelict building, only the roof was relatively intact, the floor space was about thirty square meters, and the windows, too dirty to clean and covered in cracks, gave the place a long-neglected feel.

    But, like Old Li''s luxurious villa container, this house also had more than met the eye.

    While the floor space hadn''t expanded, the one-bedroom, one-living-room layout was quite satisfying to Feng Xue. The windows, dirty and broken from the outside, appeared bright and clear from the inside. The lighting fixtures offered a springtime, sunlight-like softness, and though the furniture was filled with an industrial simplicity, it was quite comprehensive. If there was a drawback, it was the lack of kitchen and bathroom facilities¡ª

    This made Feng Xue unconsciously recall the tube buildings he had lived in when he was young in his previous life.

    Of course, he wasn''t yet at a stage to enjoy such luxuries.

    "It''s only been four or five days; why do I feel like it''s been ages since I last slept in a bed?"

    Throwing himself onto the soft double bed, Feng Xue let himself roll around twice, then buried himself in the fluffy duvet. Although his current body theoretically no longer required sleep, mental fatigue still needed rest for recovery.

    As his eyes slowly closed, Feng Xue entered a deep sleep at an unbelievably fast rate, which was nearly a miracle for someone who, just days ago, couldn''t fall asleep without browsing his phone till midnight.

    However, this baby-like deep sleep did not last long. After just two hours, his phone¡ªno, his work tag, began to vibrate frantically.

    "What''s going on? Did I set an alarm?" Feng Xue, still drowsy, picked up his work tag. As he touched the silver-white surface and felt the cold texture, he suddenly remembered he had already crossed into another world. He shuddered, and then a message flowed into his mind through the work tag¡ª

    "A corpse has appeared in Joy Alley, East City. Please head there immediately."

 Chapter 11: The Bustle with Tricks

    Chapter 11: Chapter 11: The Bustle with TricksFeng Xue, who had finally had a good night''s sleep, stuck to the outer wall of the trash site as he arrived in the East District, only to find half an hour had passed, and the corpse he was supposed to deal with had long since vanished without a trace. This made him wonder if he needed to buy a bicycle.

    Sure enough, although it was the poverty district, there were indeed bicycles for sale, just outdated models without gears or shock absorbers, the kind of postman bicycles popular in the fifties and sixties.

    And the price of such a contraption was 2,000 Tower Coins.

    That is, it felt like the lifespan of twenty days could be exchanged for one bicycle.

    However, that said, Feng Xue also understood that this issue shouldn''t be calculated like this. After all, in Infinite City, residents don''t need to eat or drink, nor do they need to use the restroom or wash up. The daily mandatory expenses were only 100 Tower Coins (corresponding to the cost of utilities, food, clothing, and transportation on Earth), so the vast majority of things one would need to buy with Tower Coins could be classified as luxury goods, leading to a situation where the disparity between income and consumption levels is extremely unbalanced.

    With no body to collect, Feng Xue didn''t bother to linger any longer. Although having made a pointless trip annoyed him, the Joy Alley in the East District was clearly not a place he could afford to patronize.

    Well, Joy Alley is naturally that kind of place, but judging from the price lists displayed at the storefronts, even the most basic services started at two to three thousand Tower Coins. For a young man like Feng Xue, who had just managed to solve his survival problems, it wasn''t yet time to think about those things.

    It was just, while he was thinking about finding a grain store to convert his 900 Tower Coin salary into vital "Identity," he heard a series of urgent ringing bells coming from a distance¡ªit was the kind of bell you find on the handlebars of old-fashioned bicycles. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    There was still a while before dusk, and the daylight was still very bright. From time to time, pedestrians could be seen on the streets. However, as the ringing grew closer, Feng Xue noticed that many of the pedestrians had spontaneously moved to the side of the road.

    Watching those who hadn''t initially reacted start to follow suit, Feng Xue immediately moved to the side of the road as well and directed his gaze towards the source of the bell.

    Soon enough, dozens of men in organizational uniforms rode past the intersection on their bicycles, rushing past in a blur before disappearing around the southern corner.

    It wasn''t until the bell sounds faded away that the people at the roadside began to move again, as if nothing had happened, with only the occasional complaint being heard.

    "What''s going on here? A bike gang?" Feng Xue uttered sarcastically, but he didn''t actually think so because he recognized the uniforms¡ªthey represented the uniforms of the Landfill Manager''s force.

    For an organization that managed the trash site and the roads to the so-called residential areas, a group of people racing bicycles seemed too abstract. Intuitively, Feng Xue felt there must be a significant event behind it.

    After pondering for a few minutes, Feng Xue immediately changed direction, heading south.

    Though he certainly couldn''t catch up to those bicycles now, his straightforward logic told him that if there was a big commotion, there might be corpses, and if there were corpses, his work badge would alert him.

    After walking for five or six minutes, Feng Xue''s work badge indeed vibrated with a message, still concise¡ª

    "A corpse has appeared at the Southern Kangxin Clinic; please proceed there immediately."

    "Kangxin Clinic?" Feng Xue looked at the red dot on the map and quickened his pace. Although it might have been a medical accident or someone unsuccessfully treated for serious injuries, with his current capabilities, he was really just going there to watch the excitement. Focusing on the corpse, at the very least, he could earn some money from corpse collection.

    With this thought, Feng Xue, who was already close to the south of the city, quickly arrived at the location of the body. However, unlike what he had imagined, the entire clinic was encircled by gang members in uniforms, and a person dressed as a doctor lay on the ground. Feng Xue could see at a glance that the person was already dead.

    It wasn''t that he had already mastered the knowledge associated with the two Corpse Collector tags, but rather his Golden Finger allowed him to see the information of the corpse¡ª

    Name: Corpse (Male)

    Elements: ["Human"], ["Male"], ["Deceased"], ["Doctor"], ["Treatment"], ["Suture"], ["Rescue"], ["Cutting"], ["Puncture"], ["Blood Loss"]...

    "More than I anticipated... is it because he was employed already?" Feng Xue thought to himself as he looked at the doctor''s corpse, which had more elements than the previous corpses he had encountered. However, he had no intention of getting closer, as those gang members around him looked on guard. It was clear that getting close was not an option. Luckily, there seemed to be no shortage of onlookers, and from the fragmented conversations, Feng Xue heard words such as "door" and "outsider."

    Yet the speakers seemed to have many taboos, often uttering only a sentence or two, leaving Feng Xue struggling to obtain concrete information.

    He followed the crowd, looking towards the clinic not far away. Before long, a woman in her thirties with golden curly hair was dragged out by several gang members.

    "Who are you people? What is this place? Don''t hurt me! I can give you whatever amount of money you want! I have quite a lot of money at home!"

    The woman they dragged out kept shouting in panic, but Feng Xue noticed a problem¡ªthat woman was too normal.

    She wore a complete set of office clothing, light makeup, and clutched a brandless handbag; in all respects, she appeared to be a typical office female. Moreover, from her words, it was evident that she didn''t seem to be a resident here, but rather seemed like she had just crossed over.

    However, according to what Old Li had said, the residents of this world were the "trash" that other worlds didn''t need, thus appearing in the trash site on Garbage Day. But with six days left until Garbage Day, Feng Xue began to doubt the general knowledge Old Li had imparted.

    "No, maybe I''m thinking in the wrong direction... Besides garbage, perhaps this world also has ''humans who aren''t trash.''"

    Thinking about the previous mentions of "outsiders," Feng Xue immediately used his tag ability, looking towards the woman, but as expected, he couldn''t discern anything; as for his Golden Finger... it couldn''t be used on living beings.

    "No tags..." Feng Xue squinted his eyes. While he hadn''t seen anything, this was arguably the most significant clue.

    Since his arrival, his impression of the gang members was that of "decisive killers," if they said they would kill your family, then your family was as good as dead, whether it was the desperate poor storming the warehouse or formally employed doctors, they were killed without hesitation. Only those who violated the rules within the trash site would be hung on execution frames as a display to teach others a lesson.

    But now, a woman without tags was being treated so "kindly" by them, which was clearly unreasonable.

    Either the woman had hidden some rare tag, or she was one of those entities who wouldn''t generate tags at all.

    Of course, it couldn''t be ruled out that the woman had violated some taboo and was going to be hanged on the execution frame.

 Chapter 12 - 12 Ominous Sign

    Chapter 12: Chapter 12 Ominous SignAs those people were about to carry the bound woman away, Feng Xue''s attention shifted to the surrounding onlookers. He contemplated blending in with the crowd to assess the situation if they decided to follow. If not, he would go to collect the Doctor''s corpse to gather some elements.

    Speaking of which, the Doctor''s corpse contained far more elements than any he had encountered before. This was likely because the Doctor held a formal job and had accumulated quite a few labels. Unfortunately, his Golden Finger couldn''t directly observe these labels, and the sensory ability bestowed by the labels didn''t work on the dead, so he couldn''t see just how many sidelines the Doctor had.

    However, this thought didn''t last long. Just as the woman was hoisted onto a bicycle, a weird atmosphere suddenly permeated the air.

    It was an indescribable aura¡ªa mixture of trembling, fear, and perhaps something else. In any case, at that moment, Feng Xue almost uncontrollably shivered.

    Subsequently, nearly every living person within a hundred meters instinctively turned their gaze toward the Doctor''s corpse. In Feng Xue''s vision, a vortex reminiscent of the Golden Finger''s rebuilding function began to emerge around the body.

    This vortex seemed more like a metaphor than an actual scene. As it spun, the elements detected by the Golden Finger began to whirl and coalesce at high speed. Some were shattered in the violent rotation and collision, while the rest merged with a mess of garbled codes to form an abnormally twisted entity.

    That "entity" seemed to be a twisted label, yet it was hard to decipher its precise meaning. Feng Xue even struggled to fully describe the irregular shape of this enigma, but there was no doubt that the corpse was undergoing some transformation under its influence.

    The transformation was incredibly rapid. The screams of the crowd had barely started when the corpse got back to its feet. Its muscles contorted and swelled, the body sprouted countless suture lines, and twisted limbs protruded from gaping crimson wounds as though they were bloody maws, looking bloody and eerie.

    It was only at this point that Feng Xue''s Golden Finger''s identification panel reactivated. However, above the twisted flesh monster''s head in his vision was nothing but large patches of garbled code. Among them, a few recognizable phrases stood out to Feng Xue¡ª

    [Corpse]

    [Suture]

    [Death]

    ...

    Watching the corpse turn into a monster, the gang members immediately exhibited the same fear and panic as the onlookers.

    "Damn! It mutated into a Suture Monster! Ordinary corpses shouldn''t..." muttered what seemed to be a gang lieutenant as he drew a machete. However, he suddenly seemed to recall something and turned to ask the tied-up woman,

    "Did you give him something earlier?"

    "Woo woo, woooo..."

    The woman was already scared witless by the scene before her, and her mouth was sealed with tape, allowing only a series of nasal whimpers to escape. The lieutenant didn''t actually expect to get any information from her and turned to his subordinates, saying, S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "Those of you with weapons, stay behind to delay them, and the rest, get the people out of here! The boss should be here any moment!"

    With those words, he took the lead, raising the watermelon knife in his hand and slashing at Suture, who was still in its "entrance animation" phase.

    ...

    Feng Xue, along with the panic-stricken onlookers, fled the scene, but he didn''t go too far away, instead watching from a distance as about a dozen gang members surrounded Suture.

    The small-time leader did look cool charging forward with his knife, but when he struck Suture, it caused no damage. Instead, it allowed Suture, who was "adapting" to its new body, to react ahead of time. With a palm larger than an adult''s head by two sizes, it casually swatted, and the brave leader was sent spinning into the sky. Before he even hit the ground, Feng Xue already saw the elements on his body appearing in his vision.

    "He''s dead just like that?"

    Shocked, Feng Xue watched the battlefield from a distance as the monstrous figure, moving with a speed that didn''t match its bulky body, suddenly darted to the corpse''s side. Its stomach opened a huge rift, swallowing the leader''s corpse whole, and in Feng Xue''s vision, the elements of the leader''s body were completely scattered, converging into the chaotic codes on Suture''s body.

    "So this is a Monster?"

    Witnessing such a horrific scene, Feng Xue finally understood why Old Li had said being a Corpse Collector was a dangerous occupation. Just the thought of the corpses he handled possibly turning into something like this filled him with dread.

    After considering the Monster''s speed, Feng Xue inconspicuously retreated another few dozen meters. But to his surprise, the gang members didn''t fall back because of the leader''s death. Instead, they maintained a remarkable order, wielding their weapons to draw Suture''s attention.

    Fortunately, it seemed Suture lacked intelligence. After killing someone, it would usually start devouring their corpse, and before it finished eating, as long as you didn''t provoke it, it wouldn''t attack again. Although Feng Xue felt that letting it eat slowly was giving it the opportunity to enhance itself, in a situation where one slap was fatal, there seemed to be no further talk of enhancement.

    From what Feng Xue had observed previously, the gang members in this World clearly possessed far greater martial strength than "ordinary" people. Against typical poor folks, they could generally take on ten at a time. At least, in the days that Feng Xue had been collecting corpses, none of the deceased were wearing uniforms.

    But when faced with Suture, they were as fragile as if made of paper, and with just a gentle push, they would turn into an unsightly mosaic that would not be suitable for children to see.

    This also made Feng Xue truly comprehend the weight of Old Li''s words, "In a small neighborhood like ours, one Monster could cause total destruction."

    "These gang members are more principled than I thought! Even though they''re brutal and monopolize the ladder of progression, when there''s a crisis, they truly step up!"

    As he watched the gang members die one after another, yet still no sign of collapse, even maintaining an "organized march to death" to delay Suture''s progress, Feng Xue gained a new appreciation for the local Manager organization. Of course, that didn''t mean he started to feel good about the gang.

    When it mattered, they did step up, but when it came to interests, they killed just as ruthlessly!

    Seeing that only half of the twenty-some gang members who stayed behind remained, Feng Xue thought it was about time to leave. But before he got very far, a flash of silver caught his eye¡ª

    It was a silver... electric scooter?

 Chapter 13 - 13 Electric Donkey Knight

    Chapter 13: Chapter 13 Electric Donkey KnightThe silver electric vehicle was not some trendy brand, but the kind that simply had a motor added to it. During Feng Xue''s childhood, this type of vehicle was usually called an "electric donkey." If there was any difference from those ordinary electric donkeys, it was probably just a layer of silver paint.

    However, compared to the electric donkey, which seemed rather devalued in Feng Xue''s eyes, the knight riding it was remarkably valiant. He was clad in bright silver armor, holding aloft a two-handed great sword over one meter six in length. This scene suddenly reminded Feng Xue of a meme he had seen in a past life¡ªdepicting Guan Yunzhang riding a bicycle alone for thousands of miles.

    Seeing that the knight on the silver donkey was about to collide with the Suture Monster, Feng Xue did not have time to be shocked by this bizarre scene. He immediately activated his identification ability and focused on the knight. Subsequently, the publicly available information about the knight flooded into his mind¡ª

    Occupation: Landfill Manager

    Tags: Knight, Swordsman, Strong, Manager

    "These four tags are all strong... and there might even be hidden tags..." Feng Xue muttered, then activated Golden Finger. Although Golden Finger could not identify living people, it could be effective on inanimate objects, and Feng Xue was curious if this bigshot''s weapon and armor had any special features.

    Name: Silver Armor

    Attributes: Solid, Defense, Metallic...

    Name: Silver Electric Vehicle

    Attributes: Transportation, Appliance, Assistance, Sturdy...

    "The entries for the armor and electric donkey are quite ordinary," Feng Xue thought, wanting to check out the great sword in the knight''s hand; however, he saw that its hefty blade had already collided with the Suture Monster.

    Logically, the main damage from a great sword is not from cutting but from using the handle and counterweight to smash open armor, or using the sharpened tip to inflict puncture damage, or even being a pyramidal or conical blade, famously called an "Armor-Piercing Sword."

    But at this moment, the weapon in the "Manager''s" hand defied this common understanding. The Suture Monster''s flesh, which remained undamaged even under the assault of numerous small-time henchmen''s cleavers, was sliced open as easily as if by a hot knife through butter by this sword. As the great sword deeply embedded into its body, a chilling scream emitted from the splits all over the Suture Monster''s body; a filthy, yellowish fluid mixed with corrupt blood sprayed out, and from the faint smoke rising, one could infer its likely high corrosiveness.

    Yet the great sword seemed completely unaffected and was forcefully pulled out by the knight''s terrifying power, striking it in a half-circle hard against the Suture Monster''s head.

    Despite looking like a creature of the undead, the Suture Monster appeared to have no clear weaknesses. Even with its head smashed to bits, it showed no sign of falling, but instead, regrew a horrifyingly grotesque head of flesh and blood, frantically waving its twisted limbs to continue its attack, and this brief skirmish reduced the electric donkey underneath the Manager to trash.

    Taking advantage of this straightforward bout, Feng Xue finally aimed Golden Finger''s reticle at the great sword, and a line of text subsequently emerged¡ª

    Name: Phantom Object¡¤Great Sword

    Attributes: Weapon, Sharp, Tenacity, Heavy

    Description: A sword capable of cleaving through armor, often the first choice for novice swordsmen.

    Note: Don''t even think about it, this thing is heavy, and you won''t be able to handle it.

    ...

    "Indeed, it''s a Phantom Object!" Feng Xue had this suspicion when she saw the sword ignore the corrosive fluid of the Suture Monster, and now, upon closer inspection, a bit of excitement couldn''t help but arise in her heart.

    After all, the knight, being the manager of this landfill, only possessed an ordinary Phantom Object as a weapon, whereas she had managed to produce the special effect-bearing Suffocation Blade using just a few corpses and a regular toy.

    However, she was also well aware that since Phantom Objects were not a unique mechanism of her Golden Finger, their inherent value, if discovered by others that she possessed a Phantom Object, probably wouldn''t bode well for her.

    After all, she wasn''t some light novel protagonist from Young Adult fiction, who could freely talk about transmigration or Golden Fingers. One must always guard against others; this was an ancient wisdom of the cultivating community.

    Thinking of this, she involuntarily shrank back deeper into the alley, but her eyes stayed intently focused on the two people fighting.

    It must be said, the defense of ordinary Pseudo Artifact armor was indeed mediocre. Apart from looking good, it barely offered any advantages. After just a few exchanges, the manager''s Bright Silver Armor had become pitted and damaged, with some areas even corroded enough to reveal charred inner lining.

    Yet, the manager seemed not to care at all, continuously swinging his Great Sword and slicing large chunks of flesh from the Suture Monster, as if he was meticulously preparing to mince it.

    The filthy, twisted flesh that fell to the ground quickly lost its activity and turned into nondescript rotten meat, yet through Feng Xue''s eyes, this rotten flesh still carried traces of mosaic and garbled data.

    "I initially wondered why they didn''t simply cremate bodies here. Now it seems, these elements probably aren''t so easily destroyed. Throwing them into fire might even end up adding a burning element to the corpses..."

    Feng Xue murmured to herself, while the manager''s movements never ceased. Although he looked quite miserable externally, a closer observation would reveal that he hadn''t actually been harmed. In contrast, the Suture Monster had already been reduced by at least two-thirds of its volume, transforming from a bloated flesh creature to something nearly the size of an ordinary human.

    Even though it constantly picked up its fallen flesh from the ground, reabsorbing it back into itself, compared to the manager''s rate of attack, the mindless Suture Monster''s actions were far too slow.

    Crack!

    Another powerful horizontal sweep cut the now more mummy-like monster in half at the waist. Watching the two writhing, crawling halves, trying to regenerate, the manager showed no mercy as he swung his huge sword, smashing them into several pieces.

    Until this moment, the monster finally stopped twisting altogether, and in Feng Xue''s Golden Finger observation, the twisted mosaic sphere within the monster also completely dispersed, turning into sequences of garbled data residing in different parts of its flesh.

    "Such strong life force... I wonder if it''s a racial gift of the Suture Monsters or if all such ominous entities are like this."

    Watching the monster finally die, Feng Xue thought to herself, simultaneously curious whether it was because the monster had died that the mosaic info sphere crumbled, or if it was the sphere''s disintegration that truly killed the monster.

    As Feng Xue pondered methods to deal with such ominous entities, a sudden tremor from her pocket occurred, and at the same time, she received an instruction from her badge¡ª

    "Fifty meters ahead, an ominous entity''s corpse has been spotted. Please proceed immediately for disposal."

    "???"

    S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 14 - 14 Phantom Objects

    Chapter 14: Chapter 14 Phantom ObjectsLooking at the prompt on his phone, Feng Xue felt a huge headache come on. Although it was a job, he still planned to hide the fact that he was a Corpse Collector.

    After all, it hadn''t even been a week since he''d arrived in this world, and obtaining a profession so quickly was an unusual event in itself. Not to mention that the gangs, as Managers, had a tendency to Lockdown the channels for advancement. If they thought he''d acquired some special skill for Transferring professions, that could be problematic.

    Of course, he was quite curious about what the ominous corpse could be Refining into. This was another reason he didn''t immediately leave. If the gang members started looking for someone to collect the Corpse, he could pretend to be an ordinary, cash-strapped citizen and take on the job.

    However, having stared down the alley for several minutes, it seemed that the gang members had no intention of calling for Corpse Collection. Instead, they tossed items such as small knives, Short Swords, and leather and cloth armors into the pile of minced flesh.

    "What''s going on here?" Feng Xue couldn''t help but find the scene baffling, feeling as though he was witnessing the strange rituals of a sinister cult.

    The process lasted for about ten minutes until a familiar figure appeared and the electric scooter Knight¡ªthough his steed was no more¡ªfinally ordered his subordinates to pick up the items they had thrown into the chunks of flesh.

    Seeing how Old Li interacted with the Manager, Feng Xue couldn''t help but grin. He could clearly tell that the Manager was in a bad mood, which made him very curious about what was going on.

    As he watched Old Li, with the help of his fellow gang members, toss chunks of flesh onto a cart, Feng Xue immediately turned to leave. There was nothing to gain by staying, so he chose to wait at Old Li''s house for his return.

    ...

    About half an hour later, with a whistle on his lips, Old Li returned to the doorstep, only to find Feng Xue, who had been waiting for a while, and asked in surprise,

    "Why didn''t you just call ''phone''?"

    "Who knows if there are any taboos when it comes to collecting ominous corpses?" Feng Xue spread his hands with an air of ''better safe than sorry.'' Old Li understood what had happened, pulled out his work tag, swiped it at the door, and then turned his head, saying, S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "Anyway, come in and we''ll talk."

    Inside the room, as opulent as always, Old Li casually made tea and asked,

    "You saw the ominous corpse earlier? What do you want to ask?"

    "Um... what exactly is that omen? Why was the scene so gruesome?"

    Feng Xue asked hesitantly, pretending he had only rushed to the scene after receiving the notification. Old Li didn''t suspect anything and casually explained,

    "Ominous corpses usually have a certain degree of Undying nature, and different omens require different methods to be killed. For instance, a zombie-type omen can be killed by blowing up its head, while a mummy-type omen must be burned with fire. The most troublesome ghost-type omens are even immune to physical attacks.

    "Today''s was a Suture monster. Although it''s easier to deal with than a ghost type, there''s no particular method tailored to it. To kill it, you either use a Phantom Object with an Undying-restraining property, or you have to shred it to a fine enough degree."

    "Speaking of which, the method of fragmenting the corpse enough applies to most omens from corpse transformations. After all, as long as the density of ''Identity'' within the omen is reduced to the point where it can no longer form tags, they can be destroyed. Hmm, this knowledge is included in the Corpse Collector tag, didn''t you read it?"

    "There''s so much knowledge, how can one finish it in half a day?" Feng Xue rolled her eyes but caught the keyword she was interested in, and she skipped over this subject, counterquestioning:

    "Phantasms? What are those?"

    Hearing Feng Xue ask this term, Lao Li paused for a moment while pouring tea, then shook his head and said:

    "Phantasms are just phantasms. Just like us living creatures can become ''Kaidan'' after accumulating enough tags, inanimate objects can become the so-called phantasms when they gather enough tags. Even the lowest of phantasms possess durability that common Pseudo Artifacts don''t have, rarely worn down by anything other than phantasms or Kaidan themselves."

    Upon hearing Lao Li''s words, Feng Xue immediately thought of Suture''s exaggerated Defense when facing ordinary gang members and frowned, saying, "According to you, Kaidan also can''t be harmed by anything other than Kaidan or phantasms, right?"

    "That''s not necessarily the case." Lao Li shook his head, divided the tea into a cup for Feng Xue, and after sipping his own, he explained:

    "All solidity is relative. The durability of phantasms is more akin to ''a game Tool without a durability setting''. It doesn''t have a setup for destruction, so it''s hard to Destroy.

    "The difference between Kaidan and phantasms is also here. Phantasms are phantasms, and their very element determines everything about them, but Kaidan, in addition to tags, also have the part of being ''living beings''. Even without destroying their ''element,'' just killing this living being can cause a Kaidan to fall apart on its own.

    "This is why omens from corpse transformation are troublesome because they''re already dead, you must ''kill the corpse,'' which is much harder than killing a person or an animal.

    "Of course, phantasms are not indestructible. After all, at the end of the day, they are just the product of accumulated elements, so as long as you possess the corresponding element, you can have an effect on them."

    "Got it, settings trump all, special attacks defeat immortals." Feng Xue nodded, summarizing, and Lao Li''s eyes lit up, finding the phrase very clever, and immediately wrote it down in his Newbie Guide.

    Watching Lao Li solemnly taking notes, Feng Xue couldn''t help but laugh without sound, lifting the tea cup and taking a sip, reveling in the richness of saliva it brought out. How to put it? Although she no longer needed to eat or drink after transmigrating, it was precisely for this reason that, after many days, a cup of tea gave her a strong sense of happiness.

    After emptying the tea in the cup, she looked up at Lao Li again and asked the question she had wanted to ask all along but feared would arouse suspicion:

    "How exactly are phantasms created? People can gain tags through role-playing, but as inanimate objects, it''s unlikely that phantasms can also use the Playing Method, right? Is there a Blacksmith that can craft phantasms?"

    "This, well..." Lao Li paused briefly, as if organizing his language, and after a moment, he began:

    "There are mainly three ways phantasms come into being. The first is as you said, artificial Manufacturing, but this purely relies on luck. The composition of tags for phantasms is a probability event; no one can guarantee the items they craft will surely have the corresponding tags. In fact, most people with Blacksmith occupations might only produce two or three phantasms over decades.

    "The second way involves Companion Phantom Objects, simply put, these are highly bound items from the legends of Kaidan themselves, like the mummy Kaidan''s linen wraps, Kuchisake-onna''s scissors, and masks, and so forth. These items manifest simultaneously when the Kaidan form, but their functionality and types are very limited.

    "The third method is element richness. In an environment with a higher free element concentration, some Items can absorb a small amount of elements. If luck is on their side, these elements will settle and accumulate, transitioning from Pseudo Artifacts into phantasms, much like how a Corpse becomes an omen.

    "In fact, many believe omens resemble animated phantasms more than Kaidan. Hmm, you must have seen those gang members throwing things into Corpses before, right? That''s actually them gambling on luck to see if they can produce one or two phantasms."

 Chapter 15 - 15 Short-Term Planning

    Chapter 15: Chapter 15 Short-Term PlanningFeng Xue ultimately didn''t ask about the woman who was taken away. Firstly, he had disguised his words to suggest that he had arrived after the fact and had no opportunity to meet the woman. Secondly, he was not clear on how many secrets were involved.

    After all, he couldn''t completely trust Old Li. Although he was labeled as a Newbie Guide, who knows if he also concealed an occupation as a Newbie Killer?

    Moreover, when he asked about the phantom items, Old Li had visibly hesitated, which meant that he wasn''t someone who would inform a newbie about everything. And given the Manager gang''s attitude towards that woman, it was probably not knowledge befitting a newbie.

    On the way home, Feng Xue exchanged 900 Tower Coins for bricks and ate while he returned to his house. Having no strict need for sleep anymore, he couldn''t manage to doze off and decided to examine the functions of the four apps instead.

    The "Contacts" feature wasn''t much to speak of; it combined functions like WeChat, phone, and contacts list. It allowed for voice and video communication and, of course, text messages. However, Feng Xue''s contact list currently only contained Old Li.

    As for the "Account" area, as the name implies, it was a salary account, capable of receiving wages distributed by Infinite City. It also enabled inserting Tower Coins into the account anytime. Although finding it odd to stuff coins directly into a mobile phone, considering this was a data-like world, Feng Xue didn''t find it too hard to accept.

    The "Browser," as previously mentioned, was an electronic book software used for querying knowledge attached to tags. However, because the Corpse Collector tag contained knowledge that was too mixed and varied, Feng Xue was somewhat unsure where to start.

    But what really surprised Feng Xue was the "Map" feature.

    Following his old habits from his previous life of zooming in on maps, Feng Xue suddenly discovered that this map feature was not limited to this landfill area. After continually shrinking the map further and further, he finally saw the true appearance of the so-called Infinite City world.

    At first glance, this massive map depicted a huge city built on a solitary island, the whole island so round it seemed drawn with a compass, which made one ponder whether there was some kind of national territory Refining array. And by the scale, Feng Xue realized that this so-called "solitary island" likely had a real area larger than Australia.

    The continent featured mountains, lakes, canyons, and basins¡ªalmost every terrain Feng Xue could think of was represented. At the heart of this continent was a massive cluster of buildings nearly the size of a province.

    This cluster of buildings could generally be seen as a multi-tiered concentric circle. At the heart was a skyscraper labeled "Tower of Babylon" on the map, surrounded by an area marked as "Residential District."

    The Residential District, which Feng Xue once heard about from Old Li, was about the size of the landfill area he currently resided in¡ªa single urban district. Viewing the map, one could see that its layout was almost no different from a modern urban district in reality, with hospitals, schools, banks, libraries, restaurants, karaoke bars, bath centers, and naturally, plenty of residential blocks. If simply looking at the map, Feng Xue would think it a completely ordinary modern urban area.

    In the four cardinal directions of this area called the Residential District, there was a massive garbage dump each. How massive? If the Residential District was the size of one urban district, then these four garbage dumps together formed the entire city surrounding this urban district. For instance, if the Residential District were the Weiyang District, then including the surrounding four garbage dumps, it would comprise the entirety of West Capital.

    Along these four garbage dumps, roads could be observed extending outward in all directions, the roads splitting into numerous branches, and at the end of each branch was a landfill area centered around the garbage dumps.

    These large and small landfill areas, interconnected by a web-like network of roads, together formed a massive whole, and the landfill area where Feng Xue was located was just one inconspicuous part of these thousands of landfill areas.

    At the outermost periphery of this cluster of buildings, one could also see roads gradually extending outward, and several isolated garbage dumps without tall walls yet constructed.

    Observing this map, some of the things Old Li had previously mentioned slowly became clear; the current situation of Infinite City was also gradually unfolding to him.

    As depicted on the map, the Manager gang''s blockade of the paths wasn''t very strict, because if one were to leave the house from the direction of East City or North City and walk for about two kilometers, they could bypass the Manager gang''s blockade and enter the passages.

    However, considering the worst-case scenario¡ªwhere all landfill area Managers reach a consensus and jointly block the passages¡ªit was also possible to transit between different landfill areas to reach the Residential District.

    The landfill area where Feng Xue resided was among those closer to the Residential District. Using the map''s built-in distance-measuring software, Feng Xue learned that the direct distance here from the Residential District was not even a hundred kilometers.

    The only problem was the ominous signs in the wilderness.

    "Perhaps such loopholes are intentionally left by the gang, because there are always some extraordinarily talented individuals who are difficult to restrain. Instead of stopping them from pursuing their freedom, it''s better to leave them a way out."

    Muttering to himself, Feng Xue closed the map, but his mind couldn''t help but recall the combat during the day.

    That Manager held numerous combat-related tags. Even without accounting for that phantom Great Sword, his own strength and speed were beyond Feng Xue''s reach, and the Suture monster was even more terrifying. At least faced with the Manager, Feng Xue could try throwing a Suffocation Blade, but against the Suture, running was his only option.

    After all, his Suffocation Blade wasn''t like in games, where it could decrease the speed of robots, undead, or even elemental creatures through suffocation. His ability literally just caused suffocation, and a Suture monster wouldn''t be affected by suffocation at all.

    Yet, regrettably, Feng Xue, as a Corpse Collector, was likely to face enemies that were mostly Suture monsters, the type of undead that ignored a suffocation debuff.

    "I must expand my variety of phantom items." Feng Xue pressed his brow and made a short-term plan for his future¡ª

    Collect more Corpses, accumulate as many elements and Tower Coins as possible, then gather a batch of base materials suitable for refining phantom items on the garbage day.

    And during this time without work...

    Feng Xue silently opened the browser, opting to skip over professional knowledge about dissection and corpse handling, and started learning how to distinguish corpse-type omens.

    "The last time I studied this hard was in my senior year of high school..." Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

 Chapter 16 - 16 Garbage Day

    Chapter 16: Chapter 16 Garbage DayAfter witnessing a bad omen, the following days turned mundane. The woman who had been taken away was never heard from again, and Feng Xue did not entertain any secretive thoughts of exploring this matter. Day after day, he busied himself with corpse collection and refining.

    It is worth noting, isn''t this a world equipped with a refreshing mechanism? Every day, Feng Xue received at least five to six corpse collection assignments; apart from a few instances where he didn''t make it in time due to distance, nearly every time, the death toll exceeded fifty.

    Thus counted, in the six days since Feng Xue started his job, nearly two thousand people had died in the landfill area.

    However, Feng Xue had no extra sympathy to spare for the dead; he was just tallying up his gains from collecting corpses over these days.

    In six days, he had gathered over 100 corpses, refined more than thirty elements, and accumulated over three thousand Tower Coins in his Golden Finger with a personal mark that could not be absorbed.

    It''s worth mentioning that for each corpse gathered, Infinite City would issue a hundred Tower Coins as salary, equivalent to what the faction gave. These 100 plus corpses thus dramatically increased his reserved consumable "Identity" to an astonishing twenty thousand Tower Coins.

    But Feng Xue did not feel like a wealthy person, because tomorrow was an expensive day¡ª

    Trash Day.

    Feng Xue already had many elements accumulated, and plenty of "Identity" for recasting, but he sorely lacked the most crucial component, the base material.

    After all, although recasting focused on "casting," one should not forget that prefix "re." Currently, the only things Feng Xue could potentially recast were his white robe and a dagger for self-defense.

    Although he had made a successful start in recasting, Feng Xue could not be certain that the procedure was 100% successful. Thus, before experimenting with the specifics of the Golden Finger, Feng Xue would not use his own items as practice material.

    ...

    As morning arrived, the dimly lit room was automatically illuminated by gentle lighting, and for once, Feng Xue woke up not from a corpse appearing task but on his own.

    He stretched heartily, took down his Sleeve Sword, and hid it under the bed. Then, he grabbed a high-capacity backpack that had cost him 500 Tower Coins and left his small nest.

    According to the knowledge in the labels, he learned that the employee dormitories boasted phantom-level defense; apart from the owner, only by using a phantom could one forcibly break in.

    Though not absolutely safe, until his possession of a phantom was exposed, it was unlikely anyone would bother using one to smash his dormitory.

    Perhaps due to these days of corpse collection speeding up his assimilation process or simply adapting to walking, it only took less than five minutes for Feng Xue to reach the west gate of the landfill. At this time, it could be described as teeming with people¡ªthere were eight gates to the landfill, but considering that they would accommodate hundreds of thousands from the landfill area, the number seemed insufficient.

    "Yo! Isn''t that Feng Xue?" A familiar voice came from behind him; Feng Xue turned around and indeed saw Old Li, who was currently waving goodbye to a young man, apparently having just finished guiding a newcomer. Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "Good morning," Feng Xue casually greeted, as he waited for Old Li to continue. Generally speaking, when this guy showed up, it was always for a reason, and this time was no exception.

    "I remember this is your first Trash Day after crossing over. Do you want some tips?" Old Li had a "wanna bet?" sleazy expression; Feng Xue rolled his eyes and glanced at the label above his head that read "Intelligence Merchant," immediately asking:

    "How much?"

    "500 Tower Coins." Although Old Li knew Feng Xue had likely earned a decent amount from collecting corpses these days, he didn''t demand an exorbitant fee. Feng Xue, upon hearing the amount, didn''t say much but took out his ID card and handed Old Li five coins.

    "Deal!" Old Li took the coins, then spoke in a rather mysterious tone:

    "Do you know about the changing rooms?"

    "Changing rooms?" Although this term was familiar to him, clearly, Old Li was referring to more than just a place for changing clothes. Seeing the puzzled expression on Feng Xue''s face, Old Li smiled slightly and then pointed to a row of rooms by the landfill''s main gate:

    "Those are the changing rooms. Because things brought out from the landfill area require payment, and it''s impossible to thoroughly search everyone before entering, there are often disputes about what someone had on them. Therefore, most people who come to the landfill wear as little as possible."

    As he said this, Old Li glanced around subtly. Only then did Feng Xue notice that over ninety percent of the people gathered around the landfill were dressed very simply, either in shorts and T-shirts or canvas shorts¡ªall emphasizing a complete set with few accessories.

    However, because there were also quite a few people dressed in strange attire mixed among them, looking far more conspicuous than those in simple clothes, this was the fundamental reason why Feng Xue did not notice the issue at first.

    Now that it had been pointed out, he began to understand, at least to the extent that if he went in dressed as he was, when he came out, faction members could point at his cloak and belt, claiming they were brought out from inside, and he really wouldn''t have any evidence to argue against it.

    "So the changing room is for people like me who didn''t know to change clothes? But why wouldn''t they have a billboard or some notification about this? Also, I was wearing this when I crossed over!"

    Feng Xue asked in this manner, but Old Li''s face showed a mocking smile:

    "No, those are not set up by the factions; of course, they won''t advertise it. They''d rather everyone pay their dues once! Usually, clothing''s valuation isn''t too high; it just tricks a hundred or so Tower Coins out of people for a lesson. Of course, if you''re really short on money, you could just go out naked...

    "As for why you didn''t fall for it last time, it''s because they could tell you had just crossed over. The landfill''s setting considers ''newcomers and their personal items as one entity,'' so even if they wanted to trick you, they couldn''t strip those clothes off you. But once you leave the landfill, your newbie protection period is over."

    "How do I use the changing room?" Feng Xue nodded, not dwelling on this issue, but instead looked at the row of rooms, while Old Li flicked the coin in his hand, emitting a "zing" sound, then finally said:

    "100 Tower Coins, you can rent a Storage Box¡ªit contains a disposable set for picking trash. Just put your clothes inside, wear the set, and remember to take the key with you. If you don''t, you''ll find your clothes gone when you return. But after all, that thing doesn''t offer much defense, so it''s best not to put any valuables in it."

    "Alright then, I''ll go change," Feng Xue replied immediately and headed for a changing room. Old Li just waved his hand and then turned to approach another man dressed in strange attire¡ª

    The reason he was working so hard, aside from earning those few hundred Tower Coins of intelligence fees, was also due to his hidden profession¡ª

    changing Room Promoter.

 Chapter 17 - 17 The Skill of Picking Up Trash

    Chapter 17: Chapter 17 The Skill of Picking Up TrashWhen Feng Xue emerged from the changing room, she had already donned a set of canvas clothes, a garb costing a hundred towers with an added temporary storage locker, which was rather uncomfortable to wear but boasted the advantages of being durable and dirt-resistant, making it apt for trash picking.

    Carrying a pair of work gloves, Feng Xue returned to the square and saw Old Li standing in front of someone clad in bizarre attire, explaining something.

    Seeing this, she didn''t approach further but silently shifted her gaze to the massive clock at the entrance of the landfill.

    Six fifty-six.

    There were still two hours before the landfill would officially open.

    "Am I a bit too early?" Feng Xue yawned mightily, feeling very much like those top students who, aiming for half-past seven morning study, arrive at school at five-thirty instead (or possibly to rush their homework), possessing that sort of temperament. However, seeing the gathering crowd around her, she suddenly thought that perhaps this early arrival was the norm. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    After all, the waste that appeared in the landfill had its limits, with several hundred thousand people in the entire dumping area, of which no more than ten percent were professionals. The rest survived thanks to the landfill; coming early meant getting a bit ahead when entering and possibly scavenging more, naturally increasing one''s chances of staying alive.

    One must know that according to Old Li, each trash day, the landfill would welcome tens of thousands of transmigrators, and this week Feng Xue estimated the death toll to be no more than two thousand. Even accounting for the days before her employment, the death toll over ten days wouldn''t surpass four thousand. In other words, if this dumping area was maintaining a stable population of several hundred thousand, at least six or seven thousand people would have to die on each trash day.

    Just as Feng Xue was contemplating whether to find a place to sit for a while, a jarring buzz suddenly came from above. Her gaze instinctively turned skyward, and her eyes widened in shock¡ª

    The cloudless sky, which had seemed to lack any weather changes since her arrival, was now covered with dark clouds. Yet, just a minute before, the sky was as clear and blue as a calm lake''s surface.

    Amid the thick clouds that seemed intent on dragging the sky back into the night, blue and red flashes of electricity intertwined continuously. Somewhere within them, something that one might hesitate to call a depression was forming.

    The clouds, like cotton candy evolving into a doughnut, with the flickering of the dual-colored lightning, slowly transformed into a void. In the pitch black, an invisible storm seemed to be brewing.

    Subsequently, a vast¡ªno, a colossal amount¡ªof material fell from the clouds.

    This included humans, as well as flowers, plants, and trees; large chunks of soil and sandstone, along with refrigerators, televisions, and other man-made objects; occasionally, even a truck would fall from the sky. However, none of these were the most exaggerated; actually, Feng Xue even saw a partially collapsed apartment building, about five to six stories high, tumbling down as well.

    Logically, these falls from thousands, tens of thousands of meters high should have had a massive impact upon hitting the ground, but unexpectedly, even after ten minutes when the dark clouds had thoroughly dispersed, the people outside the landfill felt not a bit of shock.

    "Isn''t it a grand sight?" Old Li''s voice suddenly sounded, but at that moment, Feng Xue had no mind to dwell on these matters and just stared at the once again clear, cloudless sky, murmuring:

    "Is this how I also came down initially?"

    "Uh-huh, you could say everyone did." Old Li didn''t know where he''d gotten a cigarette from but didn''t light it, just held it in his mouth with a somewhat weathered tone:

    "In Infinite City, human life is just that cheap. No matter how many die, it won''t take long before they are replaced because this is the dumping ground for countless worlds. To those vast numbers of worlds, humans really are like trash."

    "Tssk..." Feng Xue clicked her tongue, sucking on her teeth. Although she had understood the fact that the population here was sustained by refreshment, witnessing it firsthand still gave her an uneasy sense of unreality.

    Just then, the gates of the landfill suddenly opened, and the people surrounding it immediately became restless. But apart from a few hotheaded youngsters, no one charged towards the gate. And those few who did step forward were swiftly brought to the ground before they could reach the gate.

    Members of the gang, wearing uniform clothing, took some of their forces to tie up those daring to break the rules on the execution posts outside the landfill. The rest lined up in an orderly fashion and slowly disappeared into the landfill.

    "Bang!" With a dull metallic clanging sound, the gates of the landfill closed again, and old Li, who had suddenly fallen silent, then spoke up:

    "These gang members will first sift through the trash, collecting most of the True Objects before it''s our turn to enter."

    Hearing old Li''s words, Feng Xue wasn''t surprised but simply asked:

    "Speaking of which, what kind of trash is more valuable?"

    This question wasn''t really important for Feng Xue, as she was no longer among those who needed to rummage through trash to survive. However, considering her need for a large amount of recasting base material, she felt it was better to ask¡ªafter all, taking Items out of the landfill required paying 1.5 times their appraised value.

    Hearing Feng Xue''s question, old Li once again revealed a sly smile like that of a cunning merchant. Without waiting for Feng Xue to speak again, he directly quoted a price:

    "1000 towers."

    "No problem." Feng Xue didn''t hesitate and immediately pulled out one thousand towers in paper money from her work badge to hand to old Li. He took the money, smiling with satisfaction:

    "Actually, valuation is quite simple, True Objects are definitely the most valuable, but they are also the least likely to slip through the net. Even if you do get one, absorbing it directly is more profitable than handing it over to the gangs.

    "Next up would be Items with complete functionality, like bicycles, electric ovens, and the like. As long as the function is intact, the appraisal is usually based on market price. However, it''s a matter of luck, and many Electrical Appliances can''t be immediately tested on the spot for condition, so it really tests your professional eye and luck.

    "If you want to ensure your income, choosing metal trash is definitely the right move. The prices are stable, and there''s basically no worry about being unable to sell, but don''t expect to make a fortune."

    "I see." Feng Xue remembered the old television she swapped for five bricks the time she transmigrated, which must have benefited from being functionally intact. Thinking about it, should she choose some Items that look more damaged? But wouldn''t that affect the effectiveness of the recasting?

    While Feng Xuexin was silently pondering this, old Li suddenly seemed to remember something and reminded her:

    "Oh yes, one last piece of advice. No matter whether Extraordinary Abilities exist in your original World or not, those Items with magical powers become Effectless duds here, unless they can undergo a Transformation into Phantom Objects. But encountering Phantom Objects in the landfill is virtually impossible, after all, those gang members aren''t fools. With True Objects, maybe one or two pieces with small Storage might be overlooked, but they definitely won''t let a single Phantom Object slip through."

 Chapter 18: Admission

    Chapter 18: Chapter 18: AdmissionAt 9 in the morning, the garbage dump''s gate finally opened once again, and as the gang members streamed out, the poor who had already gathered outside the garbage dump at last started moving, surging in. This time, no one tried to stop them.

    Even though there were eight entrances to the garbage dump, each one was under the pressure of thousands of people. Almost instantly, more than a dozen people fell to the ground due to instability, and in a place like this, they probably wouldn''t have another chance to stand up again.

    However, these people didn''t need the Corpse Collectors to deal with them, as the garbage dump itself had the function to "clean up garbage". According to Old Li, the garbage dump was like Infinite City''s digestive system, digesting and decomposing the garbage, eventually becoming a part of this world.

    It is said that Infinite City was originally just a high-tech community, but by digesting garbage from all over the world, the world expanded to its current size.

    As for why corpses aren''t thrown into the garbage dump on a regular basis... That''s because, apart from Garbage Day, the garbage dump is always in a "digesting" state. It''s not just about getting in, if you so much as open the gate, those standing at the entrance will be completely decomposed by the coming force.

    But it is precisely because of this mechanism that the garbage dump, receiving a vast amount of garbage every ten days, didn''t turn into the garbage mountains of the past.

    ...

    Feng Xue had no intention of earning a living, and naturally didn''t rush in at the risk of a stampede like those in the front row. Instead, she moved forward slowly following the crowd''s movement.

    This passive moving didn''t last long; after passing through the relatively narrow gate, the vast, trash-filled garbage dump already lay before her. People quickly scattered, some pulling carts and others carrying baskets on their backs, rushing toward the objects that caught their eye.

    In this stage, everyone still maintained restraint, as there were still sufficient amounts of garbage. Unless they stumbled upon a True Object, it was better to spend time picking up a few more pieces of scrap metal than to waste time fighting.

    Feng Xue wandered in the middle of this frantically moving crowd, occasionally noticing one or two bewildered figures on the roadside, slowly climbing out from among the trash with dazed expressions. Feng Xue immediately understood that these were the "trash people" that fell down with the garbage.

    "Pah, pah, pah... That''s including myself in the insult!" Feng Xue criticized her own slip of the tongue, then activated her Golden Finger to start scanning the land before her.

    It had to be said, the work outfit provided by the changing room was extremely sturdy, especially the work boots. The thick soles wouldn''t be penetrated even if they stepped on a sharp blade, which gave Feng Xue great peace of mind as she moved.

    Perhaps due to the overwhelming amount of surrounding garbage, a casual sweep of Feng Xue''s Golden Finger panel revealed a vast array of terms, forcing her to concentrate her spirit to search for appealing elements amidst the dense text.

    "[Beauty], [Entertainment], [Cleaning], [Weapon]... Why is it all trash... Wait a minute? [Weapon]?! Now, that''s something good!"

    Feng Xue numbly swept through a list of terms, her gaze suddenly sharpening. She slowly moved her head back, scanning back and forth over the area she had just scanned, and finally saw the [Weapon] element enter her view once more.

    He didn''t delay and immediately bent down to search for the spot he had aimed at. After discarding some broken stones, torn rags, or twisted metal strips, and snapped wooden planks, a short blade only as long as his forearm appeared in his view.

    Name: Skinning Short Knife

    Elements: [Weapon], [Peeling], [Penetration]...

    "This is..." Feng Xue''s eyes widened. He quickly picked up the short blade, wrapped its sharp edge with a prepared cloth strip to avoid cutting the container, and then placed it in the high-capacity backpack he had specifically bought for scavenging trash. Despite being just a canvas backpack, without any brand value added, it had cost him five hundred towers!

    After a promising start, Feng Xue''s enthusiasm for his job increased. Although trash was everywhere, it was often mixed with soil, broken stones, or concrete chunks. This shouldn''t have been the case, but gang members, in an effort to improve efficiency in selecting True Objects, would engage in destructive mining, directly smashing buildings and boulders, causing much of the previously separate trash to become buried.

    Some experienced scavengers could guess the probability of high-value trash being buried in an area by observing the distribution of the surrounding concrete, sandstone, and soil. However, Feng Xue clearly didn''t possess this skill. His Identity ability was limited to the targets he focused on, and without the power to penetrate the earth, he could only repeatedly scan the trash on the surface or pick through the rubbish other scavengers had pulled from the dirt.

    As he walked on, Feng Xue saw a fallen tree, its trunk¡ªwhich was somewhat useful¡ªhad already been taken, leaving only a crown and scattered leaves. At a glance, the sight was distressingly desolate.

    "[Death], [Withering], [Male]... I''ve already got quite a few of these entries..." Feng Xue shook his head, prepared to leave when his expression suddenly changed¡ª

    "Wait, it makes sense for the tree to have a death entry, but why is there a male entry?" With this thought, Feng Xue followed the entry and found a man''s corpse among the tree crown.

    Through his learning, Feng Xue had become somewhat proficient in identifying corpses, and he immediately recognized that the man had died from gunshot wounds within the last two days. He was adorned in a Ghillie Suit made of leaves and branches, but it was apparent that someone had rummaged through it, as the firearms and ammo he should have been carrying were gone.

    "He must have died before making it here..." Feng Xue muttered to himself, then approached. Although the most valuable items were gone, there was still something on the man that interested him¡ª

    The Ghillie Suit.

    Name: Ghillie Suit

    Element: [Concealment]... S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Yes, this rudimentary thing woven from branches and leaves had only one element, the rest was gibberish, but even just the Concealment element made Feng Xue eager.

    One must understand that elements are accumulations of information. Outside, it was hard to say, but within Infinite City, even if Feng Xue knew how to weave a Ghillie Suit, it would be very difficult to bestow the corresponding element upon it¡ªunless he could take up a related profession.

    Feng Xue folded up the Ghillie Suit approximately, his mood lifted greatly as he resisted the urge to leave right then and continued to delve deeper into the garbage mountain. However, very soon, a roaring sound abruptly filled his ears!

 Chapter 19 - 19 This damn place really has everything!

    Chapter 19: Chapter 19 This damn place really has everything!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. S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    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¡ª50 Tower Coins for the folded-up Ghillie Suit at the bottom of the backpack¡ªthe assistant finished tallying up the total¡ª

    "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¡ª

    "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..."

 Chapter 20 - 20 The Gold Content of Settings

    Chapter 20: Chapter 20 The Gold Content of SettingsIn the cabin, Feng Xue held a pocket watch in his hand, as despondent now as he had been cheerful before.

    In the assessment field of vision provided by Golden Finger, two striking lines of text appeared on the pocket watch¡ª

    Name: Pocket Watch

    Elements: [Tool], [Time], [Stop]...

    Indeed, although he had assembled the "Time Stop" element, the pocket watch had not transformed into either a [Moon Timekeeper] or a [Cassiopeia] as Feng Xue had hoped, but instead became a Pseudo Artifact with the elements [Time] and [Stop].

    The good news was that the recasting hadn''t failed.

    The bad news was that it hadn''t succeeded either.

    "Tsk..." Feng Xue watched the ticking pocket watch with some dissatisfaction before eventually tucking it into his chest. The reasons for not becoming a phantom object were various¡ªperhaps the number of elements was insufficient, or their concentration was too low, or he had not invested enough [Identity], any of these could be possible.

    However, since it was still a Pseudo Artifact, Golden Finger could continue to recast it. As long as he collected elements related to Time Stop, Feng Xue believed that one day he would be able to craft the Phantom Object he desired.

    After comforting himself, the somewhat lackluster Feng Xue aimed at the remaining trash and kept clicking on the recast option. As item after item dissolved into particles and vanished, many useful elements were added to his panel.

    ...

    After a whole day of Refining and recasting, Feng Xue gained several Phantom Objects and also roughly confirmed several rules of the "Recast" function.

    First, recasting inevitably embeds the selected elements into the chosen base material.

    Second, recasting has a certain probability of generating new elements based on the amount of [Identity] invested. The maximum number of new elements is unknown, and while the newly generated elements will certainly fit the base material, they may not match the original elements.

    Third, the likelihood of creating a Phantom Object is not directly related to the amount of [Identity] invested. Although investing more [Identity] increases the chance of generating new elements, if the new elements don''t match the original ones, it could actually prevent the creation of a Phantom Object.

    Fourth, it''s almost impossible to remove specific elements from a Pseudo Artifact without damaging it, but there is a chance for the elements to change during the recasting process.

    Feng Xue remembered the last two points most vividly because he had painstakingly infused elements like [Bloodthirst], [Killing], [Bleeding], and [Penetration] into a dagger. He invested an enormous sum of 500 towers during recasting, hoping for a big win, but not only did it fail to become a Phantom Object, the original [Killing] element had somehow gained a "Not" in front, turning into a [Not Killing] element, and in the end, Feng Xue had no option but to melt it down.

    On the other hand, he managed to put together some unremarkable elements and crafted quite a decent main combat weapon.

    Slipping the dagger into his left arm sleeve, Feng Xue checked his gains.

    In addition to the Suffocation Blade in his right hand and the newly crafted dagger, he had three Phantom Objects in total.

    One was his shirt, which, after successful recasting, had directly transformed into a three-piece suit including jacket, pants, and lining, which looked a lot simpler than Ezio''s design and leaned more towards Altair''s style. However, it didn''t come with accessories like daggers, throwing knives, or belts, and its specific attributes were also quite plain¡ª

    Name: Phantom Object¡¤Assassin Suit

    Elements: [Assassin], [Clothing], [Concealment], [Lightweight]

    Summary: The official suit of the legendary assassin organization "Brotherhood," wear it, and you shall inherit the creed of the assassin. This clothing enables you to enter a state of concealment, making it impossible for others to detect your information. When you wear the hood, your presence will be significantly reduced, making it easier to escape the gaze of others and evade injuries when falling from high places.

    Note: It''s nothing special, take it or leave it.

    ...

    The second Phantom Object was a belt with the assassin''s emblem on it, or to be more precise, one of the three inconspicuous pockets on the back of the belt. At first, when Feng Xue hadn''t quite figured out the recasting rules, he dismantled the three small, seemingly useless pockets in the back of the belt for experimentation. Unexpectedly, one of them underwent a transformation and became a small waist pack, the size of a fist, that could be tied around the waist¡ª

    Phantom Object: Storage Waist Bag

    Elements: [Storage], [Tool]

    Description: A bag capable of containing a large number of items, which can be retrieved at the holder''s will without being counted towards their carrying weight. However, only items that can fit through the mouth of the bag can be stored inside it.

    Note: It''s too big, it won''t fit in!

    ...

    For Feng Xue, this storage tool that seemed like a protagonist''s staple was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise. In reality, this thing was simply for initial padding for him, and even the storage element was part of the small leather bag''s own gimmick. But it had its flaws¡ªafter all, the opening of the thing was only the size of a fist. The size of objects that could be put inside was limited, and it was clearly impossible to store all one''s belongings like some novel''s protagonists would.

    As for the third phantom object, it was crafted from the shoes of the Scavenging Set¡ª

    Name: Phantom Object¡¤Silent Boots

    Elements: [Silence], [Shoes], [Equipment], [Assassin]

    Description: A pair of shoes that can extend the wearer''s lifespan, lightweight and agile. Almost silent when walking, they improve the wearer''s speed and slowly heal external injuries after exiting combat.

    Note: This item is not reliable, and... hugely ugly.

    ...

    "I agree that they''re hugely ugly," Feng Xue looked at the green cloth shoes and decided to go to the Tailor''s shop to order a larger pair of leather boots, wearing these shoes like socks¡ªindeed, they were as soft as socks anyway. sea??h th§× N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    As for landing silently...

    What a joke, this is a phantom object!

    What''s a phantom object?

    A phantom object is something that activates its abilities as long as you meet its conditions. As long as Feng Xue wore them, even if he wore metal greaves over them, he could still land in complete silence¡ªokay!

    After measuring the size of the Silent Boots, Feng Xue changed into a brand new Assassin''s suit and put on the ordinary leather boots that had failed to transform into a phantom object (the boots from the Assassin''s suit he wore when he crossed over) and was ready to go out. Just as he was tying his laces, however, a familiar sensation suddenly descended upon him.

    For a moment, Feng Xue felt the [Identity] inside him begin to spin rapidly, collide, and reassemble. The moment a new tag appeared within Feng Xue''s body, he finally understood what "wear it, and you shall inherit the assassin''s creed" from the Assassin''s suit really meant.

    This thing directly forged an [Assassin] tag for him!

    Feeling the wealth of knowledge surfacing in his mind, Feng Xue began to wonder if the Manager had also obtained tags like Swordsman through the Great Sword.

    After some thought, he took off the Assassin''s suit, but the tag did not disappear. Instead, his work card vibrated with a completely different notification from previous work alerts¡ª

    "New tag discovered, would you like to connect to the browser?"

    "..." Feng Xue grimaced, selected yes, and got dressed again. However, when he entered the backend, intending to hide the Assassin tag, he found the options indicating "In Concealment mode, all tags are invisible."

    At this moment, Feng Xue once again realized the rule of this world where "settings triumph everything," and he also felt more at ease about wearing a phantom object out in public.

    After all, prior to discovering this, the Concealment effect of the Assassin''s suit was only a text shown by Golden Finger, and its actual effectiveness was unknown. It was not like he could face danger without wearing his equipment, nor could he say, "Hang on, let me go home and get some equipment."

    The strong sense of security was accompanied by an unprecedented expansion of self-confidence. Today''s success made Feng Xue believe that as long as he maintained this pace, in less than half a year, he could accumulate a set of Divine Equipment and move towards the legendary residential area.

    "No, I mustn''t get overconfident. I have to stay cautious! Becoming the Sword God of the Ten Mile Slope is my goal!"

 Chapter 21 - 21 The Unexpected Surprise

    Chapter 21: Chapter 21 The Unexpected SurpriseThe tailor shop''s efficiency was surprisingly high, but its fees were predictably expensive. When Feng Xue tried on his brand-new pseudo leather boots, complete with the Sturdy and Comfortable elements, over his Silent Boots, the last bit of inconsistency in his outfit finally faded away.

    "A pair of shoes worth 2000 towers..." Feng Xue lightly tapped the ground with the tip of his shoe, finding the sensation unexpectedly comfortable, without the feeling of wearing two pairs of shoes.

    However, what Feng Xue didn''t know was that the Silent Boots were actually serving as a lubricant.

    Normally, the elements of a Pseudo Artifact wouldn''t come into play. Only when confronted with an Illusory Artifact, Kaidan, or an ill omen would their elements take effect against the Illusory Artifact, Kaidan, or ominous sign. At this moment, since Feng Xue was wearing an Illusory Artifact, he could feel such comfort. Simply put, it wasn''t the Comfortable element that was effective, but rather that the Silent Boots "became comfortable."

    Even though Feng Xue didn''t understand the mechanism behind the activation of Pseudo Artifact elements, it didn''t stop him from enjoying his comfortable new shoes. Donning his cap to enter a low-profile state, he began practicing the knowledge granted by the assassin tag.

    The Corpse Collector tag had provided Feng Xue with not only corpse handling and corpse-related omen skills but also supplementary knowledge about dissection and autopsy, which overlapped with the skills given by the assassin tag.

    Using what he''d previously learned as a starting point, Feng Xue quickly entered study mode.

    Because the knowledge imparted by the tags had already been imprinted in his mind, Feng Xue didn''t face many obstacles in his learning. After all, he had skipped the most tedious and dull "memory" phase. Understanding the content, which could be reviewed at any time, turned out to be not so difficult.

    But this was only true for theoretical knowledge.

    Even though it didn''t take long for Feng Xue to grasp humans'' various vital points, to know how to quickly and easily strip someone of their life, even understand how to make a target die quietly or cause the most pain, transitioning from theory to practice proved challenging for him to accurately hit the right spots.

    The human body is a very precise entity where tiny mistakes can lead to huge misjudgements. At the correct spot, a gentle press could plunge someone into a deep faint; however, a slight deviation¡ªno matter how hard the neck is struck¡ªmight not cause unconsciousness.

    Fortunately, as a Corpse Collector, Feng Xue didn''t lack corpses to practice on¡ªusing them to familiarize himself with human anatomy before actual practice was sufficient.

    ... sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Feng Xue''s life, intertwined with learning and work, continued gradually. Following the work card''s guidance to a warehouse, he looked at the scattered corpses on the ground and adeptly selected a few with relatively reliable appearances to load onto the cart.

    Through his work over this period, Feng Xue had nearly completed his collection of common elements found on corpses. Unless it was a particularly rare type, he generally chose relatively intact bodies to facilitate his own study and research before processing them.

    "Want cash or grain?" Looking at the corpses piled up on the cart behind Feng Xue like layers in a pastry, the gang member asked in their usual manner.

    Feng Xue, already accustomed to such scenes, didn''t say much. After accepting the bricks passed over by the other person and confirming that each contained over 100 towers, he simultaneously absorbed them while pulling the cart towards the distance.

    After half a month, he had gained sufficient understanding of the topography of the landfill area. By navigating numerous twists and turns under the cover of night, he soon arrived with the corpses at a deserted and dangerous building. This building had been transformed by him into a makeshift dissection room just a few days ago. As the shadowless lamp lit up, Feng Xue threw a corpse onto the dissection table and began wielding his dissection tools.

    Although this was a data-like world, these "garbage humans" from other worlds unexpectedly had flesh and blood, their hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and kidneys were all where they were supposed to be, which made Feng Xue wonder if this place was truly connected to a multiverse, or just to a few parallel planes.

    However, considering that young man who brandished sci-fi weapons, Feng Xue thought he might have been too superficial...

    After all, the landfill areas within Infinite City numbered at least a few hundred, and the count was still rising. Perhaps each landfill area was connected to different worlds?

    "So going in from this position can just poke it open... But it might also be because this person''s kidney is larger... Note it down, note it down, I''ll try it on someone else later."

    Extraneous thoughts were quickly discarded during practical learning, and Feng Xue once again immersed himself in his studies. Corpse after corpse was consumed, and then transformed into minute particles, merging into the world. Feng Xue also vividly felt the power flowing from the tag towards him.

    Just like how Old Li could gain the ability to expand space from the "Hermit" elements of the "Invisible Rich," both "Corpse Collector" and "Assassin" tags possessed elements that could bestow power upon the bearer. It was just that Feng Xue had held the tags for a short time, and the feedback was pitifully little.

    However, as he processed more and more corpses, the "Corpse Collector" tag finally returned its first element to him¡ª

    "Transport."

    This element endowed him with better physical strength and endurance, allowing him to transport corpses more efficiently. Though it didn''t seem like a significant improvement, the body is the foundation of everything. Only with a better physical constitution can one talk about other things, otherwise, no matter how peculiar the ability, it ultimately remains a glass cannon¡ªpowerful, yet shatters upon contact.

    "Should I say this is unlocking new skills through proficiency, or is it the increase in ability due to the Playing Method?" Feng Xue wanted to scratch his head, but seeing his gloves stained with filthy blood, he gave up the thought.

    Once again hoisting a corpse onto the dissection table, Feng Xue felt it was much lighter than before¡ªan earlier weight akin to carrying a bag of rice now felt at most like carrying a bottle of mineral water.

    Of course, this might also be an illusion created by the sudden increase in strength, but Feng Xue still became uncontrollably excited. As long as he trained step by step like this, he believed he would soon possess the capability to protect himself in this landfill!

    He refocused his attention on the corpse that was just placed on the dissection table, first attempting the kidney hit trick he had discovered on the male corpse earlier. To confirm the differences that might be caused by gender, this time he specifically chose a female corpse...

    Assassin training was much quicker than formal dissection. In just ten minutes, the corpse was riddled with holes. After carelessly wiping his hands with the clothes of the deceased and preparing to refine the corpse as usual, he was startled to find the refining button had turned gray.

    At the same time, the elements on the body of the corpse in his eyes began to spin wildly...

    "Fuck! The corpse is changing!"

 Chapter 22: Confrontation

    Chapter 22: Chapter 22: ConfrontationObserving the rapidly spinning elemental mass, Feng Xue instantly realized what was happening. Without any hesitation, he reached up to pull his hood tighter, stepping forward with the movement technique he had learned from his assassin training, and he charged towards the door. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Simultaneously, he didn''t forget to twist his head and aim the Golden Finger panel at the remaining corpses. As he continuously pressed the Refining button, the corpses nearby that hadn''t yet fallen victim to Feng Xue swiftly turned into handfuls of flying ash.

    [Refining success, Element[Death]obtained, gained [Identity]25 Ta.]

    [Refining success, this time...]

    ...

    The rare consecutive successes didn''t catch Feng Xue''s attention. He strode with full force, flashing through and rushing out of the dilapidated house.

    His previous impression of the Suture monster was too exaggerated, completely deterring him from the thought of confrontation.

    However, although he intended to run, the monster behind him was not willing to let him go. Accompanied by a roar filled with intense bitterness, Feng Xue felt a chill across his back!

    "Danger!" Overwhelmed by a strong sense of crisis, Feng Xue''s scalp tingled. He exerted all his strength to turn his body, but he still felt a sharp pain graze across his left rib. Had he not undergone assassin training according to the methods provided by the labels, and had he not just unlocked the Transport element, that strike would have certainly pierced his back.

    Enduring the pain, he rolled on the spot, stood up, and continued running. There were no wounds on his clothes, but the pain under his ribs and the slick, moist sensation proved he was bleeding.

    Pressing his hand near the wound on his left rib, Feng Xue tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure while he ran with all his might. Regrettably, after the attack, the speed boost from the Silent Boots was significantly reduced. Otherwise, he felt he could have run even faster.

    This thought didn''t last long before he suddenly halted, as a figure appeared in front of him, blocking his path.

    It was a woman with a lovely face, indistinguishable from that of an ordinary person except for her bloodless skin. She was clad only in a piece of rag that couldn''t even be called clothing, holding a pale short sword in her right hand, her entire presence overflowing with intense bitterness.

    While her appearance made her seem more like a unfortunate woman who had just suffered violence than a harbinger of doom, Feng Xue had no intention of interacting with her. In his vision, above the woman''s head, a sphere filled with extensive mosaics and chaotic data was wildly spinning, containing four discernible elements¡ª¡ª

    [Death],[Female],[White Bone],[Resentment.]

    "I can understand the others, but where did this ''White Bone'' element come from? Is it because of my dissections?" This was the first time Feng Xue felt he might be receiving karmic retribution. He silently vowed that from then on, he would treat cadaver teachers with appropriate respect and try to restore the corpses to their original state after learning, but the ominous figure opposite obviously didn''t intend to give him a chance for repentance. It seemed only a blink of an eye before the bloodless body reappeared in front of Feng Xue, and with a snap of her fingers, the bone-pale short sword could pierce his chest.

    No, that wasn''t like a bone¡ªit was indeed a bone!

    The days of assassin training finally paid off at this moment. Feng Xue instinctively raised his right hand, and as his middle finger bent, a short blade popped out from under his wrist. Sparks flew as the Bone Knife clashed with the short blade, but blood still flowed from Feng Xue''s sleeve that successfully blocked the strike.

    "Ignore the block? Or an energy attack?" Enduring the pain, Feng Xue swung his arm, pushing the female monster back. Despite her speed being fast, her body was eerily light, so it didn''t take much effort for Feng Xue to force her back.

    However, the unblockable attack was too tricky, and Feng Xue dared not engage in a tough battle, but based on his previous escape experience, his speed was far inferior to hers.

    "Phew... night, female... luckily, there was no fog today," Feng Xue felt the pain under her ribs and in her forearm as she took a couple of short breaths. Her eyes became sharper, and by then, she had abandoned any thoughts of escaping. With a twist of her wrist, the Suffocation Blade immediately flew towards the ominous sign ahead.

    This omen''s intelligence was clearly stronger than the previous Suture Monster. Seeing the Short Blade coming, it immediately waved its Bone Knife to deflect it. However, Feng Xue didn''t care that her weapon had failed to achieve its purpose, for in that brief moment, her right hand had already drawn the weapon hidden inside the sleeve on her left arm.

    It was a large black dagger, about 20 centimeters long, with a fierce arc and serrations, and its chilling blade was even quenched with specks of cold light.

    That wasn''t just a description. In fact, at that moment, the blade really was emitting light!

    It wasn''t white light or a gentle glow, but a chilling temperament, as if entwined by endless resentment, filled with intimidation.

    As the Short Blade darted forward, the omen in front of her stiffened momentarily. It was during this gap that Feng Xue, having adjusted her posture, burst forth!

    A chilling streak of blade light traced a frigid path through the night sky. Yet she wasn''t faster than the omen. As Feng Xue was half a meter away from the omen, its sharp white bone short sword reached her first, but at the same moment, Feng Xue''s dagger also swung out!

    "Clang!"

    After a sound like metal clashing, the omen''s white bone short sword broke off seamlessly, as if cut by a freshly sharpened kitchen knife through jelly.

    But the omen had no time to be shocked because, the moment the short sword broke, Feng Xue''s sharp blade had already cut in from its right shoulder, slicing downward as easily as a hot knife through butter, cleaving the body into two slanted halves.

    However, Feng Xue''s assault did not stop there. Unsure if this omen had a resurrection mechanism, he continued to swing his dagger until the mosaic-filled sphere in his vision began to disperse. He finally ceased his actions but, just to be safe, he turned on the Refining function targeting the scattered corpse.

    [Refining successful, gained [Identity]5047 towers.]

    "No labels and elements? How could a corpse usually worth at most 40 towers turn into an omen and produce so many [Identity]?"

    Feng Xue looked at the prompt given by Golden Finger, not quite understanding the principle behind it, but this at least proved that the omen would no longer revive.

    As his spirit relaxed, the pain surged back, but now that the combat was over, the effects of treating external injuries with Silent Boots began to slowly manifest.

    Feeling the tingling sensation at his wounds, Feng Xue looked back shakily at the main combat weapon he had inadvertently crafted during a previous battle in his hand¡ª

    Name: Phantom Object¡¤Dismantling Holy Mother

    Elements: [Weapon], [Female], [Night], [Fog], [Slicing], [Dissection]

    Description: A weapon imbued with the resentment of countless fetuses unable to be born due to abortion. When the conditions "at night", "the target is female (or female of the species)", and "there is fog" are met, it can, regardless of any conditions, pull out the target''s organs from their body, turning them into dissected corpses. When not all conditions are met, it is merely a sharp weapon; however, its power increases with more conditions.

    Note: Mom...

 Chapter 23 - 23 Irreconcilable Contradictions

    Chapter 23: Chapter 23 Irreconcilable ContradictionsListening to the noisy sounds coming from not far away, Feng Xue knew the gang members had likely arrived, promptly pressed down on the hood over his head, and confirmed that he had entered a state of concealment before quickly fleeing the scene of the crime through the narrow alley.

    Having disengaged from combat, the speed boost from the Silent Boots was still quite significant. Combined with the Assassin''s suit which reduced his presence, despite the clothes on his left rib and right arm being dyed red with blood, he successfully evaded the gang members who may or may not have tried to track him and returned home.

    With the treatment from the Silent Boots, his wounds had begun to crust over, and the white robe, soaked in blood, was gradually regaining its cleanliness ¡ª a distinctive feature of pseudo artifacts. As long as they were not completely destroyed, whether they were dirty or damaged, they would slowly recover over time. However, if the damage was too severe, the self-healing could take a long time. At that point, inputting some "Identity" could speed up the repair process.

    At this moment, Feng Xue actually felt quite fortunate. The climate in Infinite City was controlled just like central air conditioning, ensuring there was no fog. Although the Holy Mother could unleash its greatest lethality in the darkness, in fog, and against female opponents, faced with the harbinger of corpse transformation, the damage from peeling organs might still be less than that of merely sharp weapons.

    Nevertheless, today''s incident made Feng Xue realize that the birth of such omens wasn''t an extremely low-probability event. After pondering for a moment, he made a decision ¡ª

    He would only work at night and only take female cadavers unless he acquired a stronger weapon.

    ...

    On the other hand, standing precisely where Feng Xue had fought the omen before, the gang leader "Manager" wore a subtly changing expression. Next to him, two middle-aged individuals were scanning the area, each bearing the label "Appraiser".

    A moment later, as if discovering something, one of them suddenly looked up and said affirmatively,

    "There''s no mistake. The omen that appeared here should be the ''Bone Woman''."

    "Bone Woman? That''s already a very high-level type. Even if just born, it possesses Anomaly Level combat capabilities, and its appearance is close to that of an ordinary person. It''s too dangerous if it were to blend into the landfill area. Can you tell which way she ran?" The other Appraiser furrowed his brows and walked over here while the one who discovered the clue replied with a peculiar expression,

    "No, there''s no need to chase anymore. She was killed here just now. Come look at the marks on this rock. This is a mark dispersion phenomenon that only appears after the omen is slain; otherwise, that rock would never have absorbed ''female'' elements."

    The Appraiser who caught up looked where his colleague pointed and indeed saw the rock with ''female'' elements. Based on their past experience, he even outlined approximately where the Bone Woman had died.

    Inside this marked circle, the two Appraisers progressively found some items affected by the mark''s radiation. However, these elements, not naturally matching the items, wouldn''t solidify but would gradually fade and disappear over time. This was why this phenomenon was called mark dispersion rather than element dispersion.

    Listening to the two Appraisers'' back-and-forth discussion, the Manager finally couldn''t hold back and said,

    "So you mean to say that in less than ten minutes since I received the notification of the omen''s appearance and rushed here, someone has already slain an Anomaly Level omen, the Bone Woman, which is close to a true Kaidan?"

    "As unbelievable as it sounds, the traces at the scene do indeed indicate so," replied the part-time detective Appraiser, pointing at the almost footprint-free ground, marked only by a few inconspicuous drag marks and a few scratch marks, adding,

    "The person likely encountered the omen in that house and chose to flee immediately but was caught up by the Bone Woman, and the battle occurred here, all within about three minutes."

    "This is impossible! Although the Bone Woman appears human, she''s ultimately an omen of a corpse type; she couldn''t possibly be killed that easily!"

    The Manager''s face was filled with disbelief. As the person who had faced omens the most in the entire landfill area, he knew well how troublesome corpse-type omens could be. If it were those with obvious weaknesses, it would be manageable; but for types like the Bone Woman, Suture Monster, and Frankenstein, which could be seen as irrational Kaidan, even he would have to fight by trading blood for blood, unless...

    "It''s very likely that the opponent has a Pseudo Artifact that restrains the Bone Woman!"

    Yes, it must be a Pseudo Artifact. Although ordinary Pseudo Artifacts that contain restraining elements could cause effective damage, they wouldn''t allow the holder to exceed the physical capabilities of the Bone Woman.

    As for having the strength to confront or even overpower the Bone Woman, the Manager had never even considered this, for he was incapable of it.

    This wasn''t a case of "If I can''t do it, nobody can" arrogance, but because the "Manager" role was only bestowed upon the strongest person in the area (excluding equipment). If there were someone stronger than him, the Manager role would be automatically revoked.

    The fact that the "Manager" role was still securely his meant that the person who had defeated the omen was definitely weaker than him. sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    For someone weaker than himself to kill the Bone Woman, who could ignore defenses and possessed extremely high speed¡ªaside from a Pseudo Artifact, the Manager could think of no other possibility!

    "Search for him! We must find this person! Moreover, the Bone Woman is a corpse mutation. There were no reports of a corpse appearing here yesterday, only warnings of an omen, which indicates that the corpse was moved here. Start the investigation with the people who took on corpse disposal tasks last night!"

    The Manager quickly organized his thoughts and issued orders to his subordinates. This wasn''t just because he coveted the powerful Pseudo Artifact the other possessed, but more importantly, it was to safeguard his vested interests.

    Possessing a powerful Pseudo Artifact meant that the other could easily acquire combat-related accolades and, through that, build momentum. Once the other''s strength surpassed his, Infinite City would strip him of the Manager role, and the competition for the role would start anew.

    The Manager role meant control over the landfill and a monopoly on high-quality positions. Having grown accustomed to the conveniences this role brought, the Manager was not about to give it up!

    Thus, anyone who might threaten his position had to die!

    Meanwhile, Feng Xue, who had already fallen asleep, was unaware of any of this. However, his comfortable sleep was short-lived as the vibration of his work badge woke him up.

    "Hello, what''s up?" Feng Xue picked up his work badge and saw Lao Li''s communication request, casually pressing the answer button, then heard Lao Li''s voice coming from the badge¡ª

    "The Manager''s gang has gone crazy, starting a citywide search; if you''ve got any secrets, make sure to hide them well. I''m leaving the landfill area soon, and if you run into any trouble, you can look for Lao Xia on East Street, he''s also a Newbie Guide, and won''t refuse to help you!"

    "Wait a minute, what do you mean by leaving? Do you have a way out?" Feng Xue was taken aback and quickly spoke out to stop Lao Li from hanging up. Hearing this, Lao Li replied helplessly:

    "There''s no special way, just heading into the wilds. Okay, I still have to notify others, can''t talk anymore."

    "It''s just... I also..." Before Feng Xue could finish, Lao Li had already ended the call. When Feng Xue tried to call back, he was met with a busy tone indicating that the line was still engaged...

 Chapter 24 - 24 Here you go, Luda~

    Chapter 24: Chapter 24 Here you go, Luda~His face grim, Feng Xue put away his work badge and finally realized the gravity of the situation.

    He was unclear about the special nature of the Manager role, but he did have a certain understanding of Old Li.

    Though the man seemed a mere Newbie Guide, the fact that he possessed the "Hermit" element''s power was enough to suggest that he harbored many secrets.

    Compared to mere Concealment, the Hermit element was undoubtedly a high-class article of a superior level. But now, even Old Li was planning to pack up and leave, which indicated the intensity of the current search.

    At least the Concealment element was absolutely unprotective of him.

    Old Li didn''t know what had happened tonight, but Feng Xue was certain it had a direct connection with the ominous omen he had killed. Maybe the local gang wanted the phantom creature that killed the omen, or perhaps they just wanted to remove unsettling elements. Regardless, Feng Xue wasn''t about to sit and wait for death.

    He had considered the possibility that the other party might simply opt for appeasement, but in the end, he couldn''t afford to gamble.

    He was too weak, with no power to speak of.

    The Dismantling Holy Mother was useful against a single enemy, but once surrounded, its disadvantages would be exposed.

    Lacking area-of-effect skills, crowd control skills, defense skills, and only possessing the Assassin''s Step mobility skill that came with the assassin label, in a sense, present Feng Xue was like a Phantom Assassin without Blink or a Berserker''s Axe, practically dead in a team fight.

    Escape!

    Once his thoughts were clear, Feng Xue knew this was his only choice. Only by leaving this landfill area, and the local Manager gang''s sphere of influence, would he be eligible to continue growing.

    Having made up his mind, Feng Xue immediately activated the map function on his work badge, zoomed out to see the nearest landfill area to this location.

    In truth, he had considered this when he discovered he could zoom the map. Now, he was simply making the final choice based on his earlier thoughts.

    The outskirts of Infinite City were composed of thousands of landfill districts, each about three kilometers in radius, roughly the size of an urban district, and connected by a side road to a main road (Infinite City had four main roads, each extending outward from four major landfills around the residential areas).

    If he could reach this main road, he could safely travel to other branches and reach most landfill areas around or head straight to one of the Four Major Landfills and arrive at the legendary residential area.

    Though the important side road was monopolized by the Manager gang, the landfill''s walls posed no hard restrictions on departures. As long as one wasn''t afraid of the dangers in the wilderness, there were no truly unreachable places.

    As for Feng Xue''s current landfill, within a less than two-kilometer distance, there were as many as three other landfills he could go to. However, Feng Xue had the pride of a Golden Finger holder and didn''t plan to head to the outlying landfills but preferred moving towards the direction of the residential area instead.

    He knew the closer you got to the residential area, the older the landfill districts and naturally, the stronger their Managers. But that wasn''t enough to deter him.

    One should always move towards better places.

    With this thought, Feng Xue chose the landfill to the east and began to prepare for his departure.

    Having not been in the area for more than twenty days, he didn''t have many possessions. The miscellaneous items were all stuffed into his Storage Bag, and as his white hood once again shrouded his face in shadow, Feng Xue entered a state of near-invisibility.

    He pushed open his room door, and immediately Feng Xue heard some noisiness outside, but it seemed today''s search started with East City due to the omen''s appearance, which gave Feng Xue more time to react.

    Instead of taking the normal route, Feng Xue directly climbed up to the roof. Leveraging the lightweight mobility of the Assassin''s suit and the Silence effect of the Silent Boots, he moved like an elegant cat across the dilapidated rooftops of the slums.

    Although the houses in the slum were mostly unsafe, Feng Xue was not affected at all. In a mere ten minutes, he had reached the high wall on the west side of the landfill. The process went so smoothly that he was somewhat surprised.

    Exiting from City West to head to the landfills in the East would definitely mean taking a longer route. However, compared to heading to the already locked down East District, Feng Xue felt that taking this risk was worth it.

    With a whooshing sound, a passage opened in the high wall for Feng Xue to leave, gazing into the dark tunnel, Feng Xue took a deep breath, and then without hesitation, he stepped inside...

    ...

    Behind him, the passage closed quietly. Once again, Feng Xue found himself outside in the world. Almost the moment he stepped out of the city walls, a biting cold wind made him realize how different it was. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Unlike the landfill, where the temperature remained almost constant as if controlled by central air conditioning, there was a noticeable temperature change outside the walls. He looked up slightly, contemplating the pale blue moon above¡ªan absence in the landfill districts.

    Or rather, the sky above the landfills was actually a massive dome, where the so-called blue sky and white clouds were just images projected onto a screen.

    The tops of the high walls Feng Xue saw were also projected illusions, a fact not too hard to guess. After all, if the walls were truly just high, how would they defend against flying omens?

    Feng Xue, having witnessed the "real" landfill, didn''t have much time to get sentimental. He looked around and, using the walls, headed towards his target.

    Although the wilderness beyond the landfill was more authentic than inside, the utter Silence, devoid of any insect or bird sounds, still made his scalp tingle.

    Of course, he now knew that the absence of sounds was not because of nearby ambushes, but because there were no living creatures besides omens in the wilderness of the landfill (considering omens as living creatures, for the sake of argument), including the trees and forests, which were nothing but Pseudo Artifacts resembling Plant life.

    They didn''t Grow, didn''t blossom or wither, only stood there with the appearance of Plants.

    Walking on this silent and desolate wilderness, Feng Xue felt an unprecedented loneliness. In less than twenty days, Feng Xue had left his Comfort zone for the second time, which was quite frustrating for a former homebody.

    As Feng Xue indulged in a rare moment of poetic reflection, the faint sound of footsteps reached his ears.

    Although the sound was extremely weak, it stood out starkly in the quiet, open wilderness.

    Feng Xue took a deep breath and adjusted his hood to confirm his state of Concealment before continuing. What entered his field of vision next, however, was neither the omen he imagined nor a Corpse Collector out at night, but a field...

 Chapter 25 - 25 The Wilderness is Dangerous

    Chapter 25: Chapter 25 The Wilderness is DangerousIn a wilderness fraught with dangers, seeing a field of crops was truly the strangest thing yet, although Feng Xue had seen only model-like flora before, the wheat in this field was distinctly different, possessing a special allure that made Feng Xue certain that these plants were not just alive, but all "True Objects"!

    Why would there be a field of True Object wheat in Infinite City? Feng Xue furrowed his brow, feeling rather incredulous, yet looking at the stack of straw and wheat bran beside the field... he suddenly had an epiphany.

    It seemed he knew where those wheat bran bricks had come from.

    Originally, he thought it was just bran, but now it looked like those things were also mixed with plenty of straw...

    "No wonder they''re as hard as bricks." Feng Xue, with a lingering fear, touched his own front teeth, suddenly remembering what Old Li had told him about avoiding guarded places when dumping a corpse because there were said to be fields outside.

    So...

    This was the field?

    "Why can True Objects be planted in this world?" Feng Xue''s curiosity had just arisen when he explained it himself, considering this was a world with settings beyond heaven, who knows what sort of agricultural phantom objects might exist?

    However, speaking of which, Infinite City had appeared only a few decades ago, and even if major landfill areas occasionally found True Object seeds in garbage dumps, the time to cultivate them on a large scale was probably insufficient.

    Yet supplying the poor with wheat bran bricks seemed like a convention in Infinite City, thus the issue warranted deep thought.

    Either, as he initially thought, there was some phantom object that could accelerate plant growth, or Infinite City had a stable channel to obtain supplies from the Real World.

    Or maybe... both.

    Utilizing the low presence buff provided by his Assassin''s Suit, Feng Xue observed the field from a distance. He didn''t see any agricultural phantom objects, but he found something interesting¡ª

    Name: Phantom Object¡¤Scarecrow

    Elements: [Expel], [Watching], [Scaring]

    Description: A scarecrow used to disperse unwelcome visitors, placed in the field to scare off less intelligent invaders and protect the crops from destruction.

    Note: Kakashi!

    "So it relies on this thing?" Feng Xue, watching the scarecrow from afar, slightly squinted his eyes. Without doubt, such a field in Infinite City was not an anomaly. If that were the case, the scarecrow would not be some unique phantom object; otherwise, it would have become a coveted treasure by local powers already.

    "It seems this world still has people capable of consistently creating phantom objects." Feng Xue''s original arrogant idea that he alone could mass produce phantom objects diminished a lot at that moment, feeling a bit complex, he circumvented the field.

    Although causing destruction here could draw the Manager''s attention, as long as he thought about how this place was tied to the livelihood of the entire landfill area''s poor population, he could not make such a choice.

    After all, he had crossed from his original stable and peaceful country just half a month ago, and even though he could now dissect corpses without any mental burden, when faced with living people, especially those who were innocent, he still couldn''t bring himself to be ruthless¡ªeven though the chances for these people to continue surviving were not high.

    After circumventing the field, Feng Xue finally left the high walls and stepped into the unsupported wilderness. The only thing he was grateful for was that his work badge''s map function did not crash because he moved away from his work area; otherwise, he truly worried whether his sense of direction would enable him to reach his destination.

    Although the wilderness was eerily silent at midnight, after a period of cautious advancement, Feng Xue began to enjoy the tranquility. The darkness adaptability brought by the assassin tag was unparalleled. Although Feng Xue had not found any bug skills like "Eagle Eye Skill" in the knowledge that came with the tag, the skill "Breath Concealment," which allowed him to completely blend into the environment, was indeed present.

    "Too bad there''s no ''Circle Realm'' or ''Bright Mirror,''" Feng Xue thought with a sense of insatiable greed. But after all, the tags granted by Infinite City only provided the "knowledge" that Infinite City possessed. These things that required a bloodline or personal enlightenment were probably not included, right?

    However, if he obtained a specific Phantom Object, maybe he could comprehend one or two, not necessarily.

    "I just don''t know if I can combine things like Skill Books or Secret Manuals." Feng Xue thought of this, his eyes suddenly lit up as he began to ponder the possibility of crafting "Secret Manual-type Phantom Objects." However, he soon realized a problem¡ª

    He lacked a medium.Certainly, after turning into a Phantom Object, an item''s appearance would change significantly, even transforming from thick-soled boots to soft cloth shoes, but it was still one category.

    To make a Secret Manual, at least the base should be a book, right?

    But previously at the dump, Feng Xue had not seen a single book. Considering Old Li''s previous mention that the "library was monopolized," Feng Xue felt this might not be a coincidence. Books, as carriers of knowledge, just like True Objects and Phantom Objects, were likely the main targets of the Manager gang''s selective scavenging at the dump.

    "Forget it, let''s settle down first. As for having no books... if push comes to shove, I''ll use bamboo slips, or I''ll go directly for a Jade Scroll!"

    Thinking this, Feng Xue seemed to elevate, reorganizing his thoughts and hastening his pace.

    A two-kilometer straight distance wasn''t too long nor too short. With Feng Xue''s current speed, even with a detour, it would take about ten minutes to complete. Following the map''s directions and passing through a forest, Feng Xue finally saw the walls of the giant dome, which could only be seen when close, influenced by a special power. But it was at this moment that a deafening roar suddenly exploded overhead.

    "Fuck!" Feng Xue heard the roar and jolted fiercely, uncontrollably crouching down while tightly covering his ears, yet his eyes were still aimed toward the source of the sound.

    It was a dark red monster over ten meters long, with sharp fangs, lethal claws, massive flesh wings, and a pair of eyes that appeared incredibly sharp even in the dead of night.

    Feng Xue recognized this creature; he could even say he was familiar with it.

    As a Monster Hunter player, Feng Xue had killed this creature at least eight hundred times in the game, if not a thousand. But at this moment, he finally understood the true weight behind the title "Sky King." Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "Could the height of the Blue Star be three meters?" Feng Xue thought.

    Watching the Two-legged Fire Dragon slowly land at the edge of the dome, Feng Xue tried to lower his breathing rate, cautiously concealing his figure, and observed this large creature from the game with peripheral vision.

    Fortunately, the target of the Fire Dragon was not him but several corpses carelessly discarded outside the dome.

    As Feng Xue''s gaze focused, a chaotic sphere above the Flying Dragon''s head, seemingly made up of countless mosaics, was slowly expanding and contracting. The discernible words within it were only five¡ª

    [Fire]

    [Flight]

    [Lizard]

    [Monster]

    [Dragon]

 Chapter 26 - 26 A New Environment, Starting from Garbage Day

    Chapter 26: Chapter 26 A New Environment, Starting from Garbage Day"So there are such big guys in the ominous signs... I wonder if this thing turned into a Fire Dragon after crossing over or did it become one by devouring the corresponding elements?"

    As he watched the Flying Dragon gulp down a corpse in just a few bites, Feng Xue''s thoughts uncontrollably fluttered. After all, his information about the ominous signs was still severely lacking. Yet, from the few phantom items he currently possessed, it seemed that the probability of mutation after becoming an ominous sign was quite high.

    "However, speaking of which, I wonder if becoming a Kaidan will affect one''s own state? Like, if a man turns into a Slit-Mouthed Woman, would he become female?" As this crossed his mind, Feng Xue couldn''t help shuddering, cautioning himself inwardly to be very careful when solidifying labels.

    While Feng Xue was pondering, the Fire Dragon had already eaten all the corpses outside the giant egg. Raising its head like a chick, it looked around, then let out a piercing roar, flapped its wings, and soared into the sky amidst the turbulent air currents.

    Watching the huge figure gradually disappear into the distance, Feng Xue breathed a sigh of relief. He tightened the hood of his suit to maintain Breath Concealment and carefully walked out of the forest. As he arrived at the edge of the giant egg, the technology-filled wall unfolded to reveal a passage just wide enough to accommodate two people side by side.

    "Huh..." Staring at the deep passage before him, Feng Xue let out a breath of relief. At least he wasn''t mistaken¡ªentering another landfill area didn''t require any special pass, as long as you weren''t an ominous sign.

    Still, he didn''t let down his guard. Instead, he braced himself for the possibility of seeing a group of people waiting by the wall as soon as he entered, making his way through the nearly twenty-meter-long corridor. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    The scene he imagined of being surrounded by an audience didn''t happen. When Feng Xue once again stood in the light cast by the wall, a sudden sense of security enveloped him.

    Although he hadn''t faced any substantial danger, the mental pressure still left Feng Xue feeling exhausted. Yet, before he could take a breath, a vibration suddenly came from his pocket.

    "Detected departure from work area, would you like to bind a new work location?"

    Startled, Feng Xue looked at the prompt on his work badge, not knowing where to direct his frustration, but he ultimately suppressed the urge to curse and clicked confirm, starting to choose a new home.

    Yes, because he rebound his work location, Infinite City also allocated him a new property.

    Opening the map, Feng Xue didn''t immediately decide but began to review the general distribution of this landfill area. Compared to the previous one, this area was slightly larger, with a total area close to fifty square kilometers. Unlike the previous landfill area whose manager''s gang name was unknown up to the end, the manager of this landfill area grandiosely named their base after the gang, thus Feng Xue could know the name of the gang here by the "Cross Sword Union Base" label on the map.

    Based on his experience in the last landfill area, Feng Xue still chose his new home diagonally opposite the manager gang''s base. With the Cross Sword Union located in the north of the city, Feng Xue naturally chose an apartment in the south.

    However, to his surprise, the first night after the move was unnervingly peaceful. Compared to the previous place where he''d nearly dealt with one or two corpse collections every night, this place was quiet to an excessive degree.

    But Feng Xue didn''t think that the death rate here could really be that low. Otherwise, where did all those corpses the Fire Dragon had eaten come from?

    ...

    In the early morning, Feng Xue awoke from his sleep. It was now 6:20. He wandered around the still unfamiliar apartment a couple of times before opening the door, ready to take a good look at this landfill area which he hadn''t been able to observe closely the night before.

    To his surprise, although the landfill area still had the temperament of a Southeast Asian slum, with various corrugated paper and composite board houses all around, it had a completely different prevalence of transportation compared to his previous unit.

    Let''s put it this way, in the previous landfill area, pretty much everyone Feng Xue saw was on foot, but in this area, there were a surprising number of motorcycles parked at the roadside and even the occasional car.

    Although there was still some distance compared to the congested roads filled with cars before crossing over, this was undoubtedly a qualitative difference.

    "Just a little over two miles away, and the disparity between rich and poor is this huge? Or is it that the Cross Sword Union here has professions like Mechanics?"

    Feng Xue couldn''t help but ponder, but since she couldn''t just ask outright, she stuck to the plan and kept wandering around nearby.

    If one were to talk about the first place to go after reaching a landfill area, it would naturally be the local garbage dump. According to the information she had gotten from Old Li before, each landfill area had its own unique trash day. However, it wasn''t until Feng Xue arrived at the garbage dump that she suddenly realized why she hadn''t received any corpse collection tasks the night before¡ª

    Because today was trash day.

    Seeing that the garbage dump was already teeming with people, Feng Xue didn''t linger; instead, she found a changing room immediately. She didn''t use the storage locker, but rather bought a scavenging set for 100 towers as if renting it. After all, Old Li had said, these storage lockers were not too safe. Instead of leaving her phantom items here and being constantly worried, it was safer to keep them at home.

    ...

    Not long after, Feng Xue, dressed in a scavenging set, reappeared outside the garbage dump, watching the clock that kept moving and observing the Newbie Guides who roamed through the crowd.

    Although Old Li was a bit money-hungry, it had to be said that he had provided Feng Xue with considerable help for her initial survival. The Newbie Guide profession itself made it easy to come across various bits of intelligence, so moonlighting as an Intelligence Merchant was nothing out of the ordinary.

    Just as she was considering whether to cozy up to a Newbie Guide who seemed easygoing, a piercing buzz suddenly filled the sky.

    Even though she had changed landfill areas, the special effects that signaled the imminent downfall of trash were strikingly similar.

    Even though she had seen it once before, Feng Xue couldn''t help but look towards that deep portal that connected to the Otherworld, even harboring thoughts of "If I could fly, could I follow the portal to the Otherworld?" in her mind.

    But this thought didn''t last long, as a huge amount of trash started to fall from the depths of the clouds, and in just an instant, Feng Xue felt a strong sense of dissonance.

    Because the trash falling from this cloud was fundamentally different from that of the previous landfill area.

    How fundamentally different?

    The style! The style was different!

    Yes, the style.

    The trash that had fallen in the previous landfill area, although varied in type and spanning both ancient and modern technologies, included future weapons like EVA plugs and Single Soldier Power Armor, as well as ancient melee weapons like Half-hand Swords and Cross Swords, and there were even corpses of snipers in Ghillie Suits and bombed-out buildings.

    But the trash falling here was entirely different. At a glance, there were all sorts of transportation vehicles, from bicycles and small sedans to high-speed trains and airplanes. However, what left Feng Xue speechless was that she even spotted a flying saucer!

    Yes, a flying saucer! The kind that often appears in children''s science fiction, used by aliens!

    "This wouldn''t be a transportation-vehicle world, would it? I wonder if I could find a train hero?"

 Chapter 27 - 27 Information on the Exorbitantly Priced Gemstone

    Chapter 27: Chapter 27 Information on the Exorbitantly Priced GemstoneThe Cross Sword Union wasn''t much different from the gang of managers in the former unit. After the dark clouds in the sky had dispersed, the routine filtering began. Feng Xue took this opportunity to sidle up to a newly found Newbie Guide and whispered,

    "Bro, you seem to know quite a bit of news?"

    "Sure thing!" The somewhat elderly man responded to Feng Xue with a kind smile. However, upon seeing Feng Xue''s Scavenging Set, he frowned slightly and said,

    "You don''t look like a newbie either, what do you want to know?"

    "No, no, no, I''ve been here for less than a month! It''s just that I learned my lesson from being tricked last time." Feng Xue waved his hands and tried to use his innocent eyes to show that he was indeed a newbie.

    Although the Newbie Guide felt that Feng Xue might be concealing something, he did not mind, as most Newbie Guides also worked as Intelligence Merchants. After a brief moment of thought, he asked,

    "What information would you like?"

    "What things are valuable?" Feng Xue asked straightforwardly while expressing his frustration,

    "The things I picked up last time were all rare goods, but the old man at the door insisted they were worthless. It''s been tough, I''ve only survived up until today by collecting corpses twice..." S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Seeing Feng Xue''s distressed expression, the Newbie Guide let down his guard and laughed,

    "Sigh, you should know that in Infinite City, it all depends on ''Identity''. Those Tool Cards might be powerful in the original world, but here they''re no different from waste paper. Bringing a few scrap motorcycles over to sell as scrap metal would be better than those things!"

    "Tool Cards?" Feng Xue was intrigued, but he just echoed in agreement,

    "I know, right! Sigh~"

    Watching Feng Xue''s convincing act of Selling Pity, the Newbie Guide got the hint and laughed, saying, "Forget it, you probably can''t afford it if I ask for too much. I''ll draw up a loan contract for you, 1200 towers, pay me back after you get out. How about that? If you want to buy the info outright, it''s 1000 towers. But then I''d have to take the risk of you not making it out. What do you think?"

    "Alright, but how do I sign the contract?" Feng Xue still maintained his newbie demeanor, while the Newbie Guide readily pulled out his work badge and rapidly entered a sequence of commands. Soon enough, a loan contract certified by Infinite City appeared.

    It''s worth noting that this contract wasn''t composed of text, but rather it was like the ''Knowledge'' inside tags, directly appearing in Feng Xue''s mind. It eliminated all ambiguities and even had an evaluation function. As long as the contract was signed, this Newbie Guide would have to offer information worth over 1000 towers about scavenging. And if Feng Xue walked out of the waste dump alive, Infinite City would directly deduct 1200 towers from him to pay the Newbie Guide.

    "How come my work badge doesn''t have this feature? Could it be the other party has some ''Debt'' or ''Loan'' tag or element?"

    Feng Xue was curious but still signed the contract first. As soon as the agreement was reached, the Newbie Guide immediately said,

    "The biggest output in our waste dump are various vehicles. Don''t bother picking up motorcycles unless they are in exceptionally good condition; they''re not worth the trouble. If the car is intact, it might fetch some money, but not much either. Unless it''s a particularly valuable luxury car, a car is only worth around 5000 towers¡ªthat''s an appraisal, you''d get about 500 towers for one. But if you''re just looking to stay alive, two cars would be enough."

    He paused slightly here, but the contract clearly hadn''t been fulfilled, so he had to continue,

    "If you want to make money, pay attention to robots. Our landfill often has various engineering machines; if they''re relatively intact, or just missing an arm or leg, they can still be quite valuable. Besides that, keep an eye out for gemstones. The Union is always overbidding for them, they want all kinds of gemstones, though nobody knows what they''re used for. But one thing is for sure, three months ago someone found a pink diamond about the size of a fist and exchanged it direct for two hundred thousand towers!"

    "So that''s an appraisal of two million? Are you sure it wasn''t a ''Phantom''? " Feng Xue asked incredulously. That was two million towers¡ªenough for a person to live in Infinite City for fifty-four years without doing anything!

    Feng Xue knew that the one who got this huge sum might not live to see the next day, but the appraisal was absolutely accurate! After all, the Appraisers of the waste dump were also subject to the rules of Infinite City. Making frivolous quotes could result in being stripped of their tags, which would be the least of their worries.

    Hearing Feng Xue''s question, the Newbie Guide shook his head with a look of incomprehension,

    "Didn''t I say they were overbidding? The Cross Sword Union''s price for gemstones starts at twenty percent of the appraisal value. But even with that, that gemstone would still be worth a million! Of course, it''s not a ''True Object''. Otherwise, it would have been swallowed up immediately. It''s probably not a ''Phantom'' either; such a big gemstone would have been discovered if it was a phantom."

    "That makes sense..." Feng Xue tucked away the information about the gemstone but realized the Newbie Guide had stopped speaking, and the contract in his mind indicated completion.

    Without a doubt, the prior information about the gemstones had already met the 1000 tower standard.

    Realizing that by asking about "Phantoms," he might have revealed some of his hand, Feng Xue didn''t say anything more to the Newbie Guide and simply activated ''Breath Concealment'' right in front of him.

    Although he wasn''t wearing an Assassin''s suit, he quickly blended into the dense crowd, and among the many dressed in Scavenging Sets, the Newbie Guide soon lost track of Feng Xue.

    As for him, he felt a twinge of regret but did not delve into it. He casually scanned the crowd and had already found his next target.

    Feng Xue, who had melted into the crowd with concealed breath, had no intention of looking back, but began to ponder what kind of world would have such an abundance of motorcycles. However, he soon realized a puzzling question¡ª

    Logically speaking, the landfill should be linked to more than one world; otherwise, the previous landfill wouldn''t have had weapons from the Cold Weapon Era, the modern era, and the High-tech Era all at once.

    Yet the garbage from this landfill seemed to be highly homogenous. Was there some sort of special pattern here?

    "Cards, gemstones, vehicles..." No matter how much Feng Xue thought about it, he couldn''t fit these items into a single worldview. In the end, he could only reluctantly suppress these thoughts for the time being and begin to contemplate what kind of gemstone could be worth a million towers.

    "Is it possible that the President of the Cross Sword Union has been raising a Gemstone Dragon?"

 Chapter 28 - 28 What is all this?

    Chapter 28: Chapter 28 What is all this?Although grumbling internally, Feng Xue still had to enter the junkyard, carrying a huge, fluffy, and obviously cheap backpack, following the crowd. However, he arrived later than usual this time, so when he entered, it wasn''t like before when he could see the recently gang-sorted yet unscavenged trash.

    After finally escaping the dense crowd and reaching a more spacious area, he was greeted with a scene of disarray; motorbike wreckage was visible everywhere, many showing signs of being stomped flat by the scavengers.

    Among these obviously worthless things, there were also some scattered papers.

    Hmm...

    Feng Xue suddenly remembered the Tool Card mentioned by the Newbie Guide and quickly walked over, only to find that the bits and pieces on the ground were nothing more than ordinary playing cards, identified mostly as [Toys] even under the scrutiny of Golden Finger. Only a very few carried the [Gambling Tools] tag.

    "So, could this be some sort of gambling-apocalypse world? But that doesn''t explain the vehicles though!" sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    After confirming that there was nothing else of interest nearby, Feng Xue had no intention of staying. He immediately started running toward the center of the junkyard.

    Thanks to the speed boost of the Silent Boots, Feng Xue managed to leave some of the still-searching people behind until an element appeared in his vision that almost made him choke¡ª

    [Perpetual Motion Machine]

    "Wow, what kind of immortal element is this?"

    Feng Xue almost instantly hit the brakes, not even caring that he tripped over a bicycle handle by the roadside and scrambled toward the location of that element, only to find in front of him a...

    Motorcycle?

    "This is a D-Wheel, man! A D-Wheel!"

    Feng Xue recognized the identity of this object almost instantly. Although significantly damaged, anything with a Duel Disk attached to the front seat but a D-Wheel couldn''t be anything else. It certainly couldn''t mean that Shadow Poem Part III involved motorbike card games, right?

    "No wonder there''s a Perpetual Motion Machine tag, it freaking runs on Star Wandering Particles... But then, could the gemstone possibly be a Jade Beast?"

    Feng Xue grinned and picked up an iron rod from the side to start dismantling the motorcycle.

    He obviously couldn''t take such a large object with him, especially seeing it so damaged, yet still containing its element, meant he should probably just remove the engine.

    Generally speaking, Feng Xue definitely lacked knowledge in this area, but the severe damage made it relatively easy for him to pry open the outer shell. As for locating the core that hosted the [Perpetual Motion Machine] element, just use Golden Finger!

    About ten minutes later, Feng Xue carefully removed several pipes and detached the "iron bucket," weighing about fifty or sixty pounds, from the D-Wheel.

    Stuffing this extinguished, but still possessing the powerful elements of [Perpetual Motion Machine] and [Evolution] into his backpack, he found the [Speed] element slightly bothersome. But with a two-thirds chance, he couldn''t be that unlucky, right?

    Unknowingly, Feng Xue had set a flag for himself, but he didn''t care, as finding a D-wheel at least suggested that the junkyard was connected to the Yu-Gi-Oh World. If that was so, there couldn''t just be one D-wheel around.

    The weight of forty to fifty kilograms would have accounted for seventy percent of his carrying capacity ten days ago, but after unlocking the Transport skill, Feng Xue''s endurance and strength had greatly improved¡ªcarrying a motorcycle engine felt like carrying a power bank on his back. Now, he was more concerned about the size of his bag than its weight.

    "If not, I''ll just have to grab a handcart," Feng Xue thought to himself, harboring some dangerous thoughts, as he stood up again. Due to his intense excitement about the "Perpetual Motion Machine" term, he had neglected the other things around him, only now realizing that the scattered cards had turned into classic Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

    "Professor Kronos... Ah no, it''s the Desire Pot." Feng Xue pulled an unknown joke, but then he tossed away the eternal banned card¡ªit didn''t have any attributes, just a bunch of gibberish.

    "No wonder that Newbie Guide said that no matter how strong a card was before, it''s now just scrap paper... At least that Thunder God thing still packed a punch given enough ''Identity'' supply."

    A bit disappointed, Feng Xue shook his head, abandoning the idea of checking each card''s identity and instead activated the Golden Finger''s identifying feature, returning to his routine of searching for treasures based on attributes.

    These cards weren''t completely useless, he figured; he might as well pick up a stack when he left, seeing if binding them could serve as the base material for a Skill Book.

    ...

    Scavenging is quite the contradictory task¡ªif you sped up, you could miss important items, but if you searched carefully, a more significant item might be picked up by someone else first.

    Feng Xue didn''t spend much time searching, but dismantling the D-wheel had taken up some time, and by the time he set off again, the surrounding environment had deteriorated significantly.

    Nonchalantly flipping open a car door that read "Fujiwara Tofu Shop," Feng Xue didn''t care whether it was a replica and picked up the card beneath it with the "Destroy" attribute. However, this wasn''t a Yu-Gi-Oh card or even a collectible card¡ªit was...

    "How come there''s something from the Island of Greed?" Feng Xue stuffed the card named "Fierce Bullet" (designated to destroy one card), numbered 1029, into his backpack, gaining a new understanding of the landfill area¡ªof course, considering the "junkyard" setting, it could also be counterfeit merchandise...

    "Anyway, anything can be a card, right? But what on earth does a card have to do with a vehicle?"

    Feng Xue felt it was quite complicated to untangle this matter, or it might entirely be unrelated. Considering the gems that had been collected, he wouldn''t be surprised even if he stumbled upon a Heradic Cube soon.

    But soon, Feng Xue lost interest in figuring out such inconsequential matters because his vision had captured an exciting attribute¡ª

    "Destiny"

    "Oh boy, is Fate destined to send me to Heaven?" Feng Xue''s eyes immediately lit up. With this, even if he couldn''t synthesize VAWRUDO, he could probably work on Heavenly Creation. If not, King Crimson could work too!

    As the thought crossed Feng Xue''s mind, he was already on the move, taking a few steps to reach the vicinity of the element, which was covered in...ice?

    "This doesn''t look like perpetually frozen ice, huh?" Feng Xue noted that the ice only bore a string of gibberish, assuming that the unmelting state was just a feature of the junkyard. But as he reached out to scrape away the ice, an intense sense of crisis suddenly emerged in his mind.

    Without any hesitation, Feng Xue immediately rolled on the spot. As the uneven ground scraped against his body causing pain, Feng Xue propped himself up with one hand, quickly adjusting his posture. When he looked up in the direction from which the sense of crisis had come, a man wearing a gray shirt and jeans was holding an iron rod, seemingly surprised that Feng Xue had managed to dodge...