Chapter 405: Struck gold!

Yah, this thing is still quite hard to open!

Zhang Jie fiddled with the treasure chest, trying everything from a physics holy sword to a handsaw, but couldn't budge the massive thing in the slightest.

If he couldn't open it right away, other humans would slowly gather like cockroaches, and then the treasure chest wouldn't be his anymore.

This thing looks unusual; ordinary crates don't have such excellent outer packaging, it's as if it doesn't want to be opened at all.

What kind of metal is this? It's incredibly hard!

This doesn't faze Zhang Jie; even the hardest metal can't resist his custom-made super welding torch.

As the metal melted into molten iron flowing down, Zhang Jie finally lost his patience.

With a tremendous boom, the incredibly sturdy metal door was blown open by Zhang Jie, and the contents finally saw the light of day in its lifetime.

Just as Zhang Jie thought, the inside indeed contained quite a lot of good stuff.

It seemed to be discarded household goods from a wealthy district—there were paintings, ceramics smashed by Zhang Jie's blast, and... a coffin?

It was a large silver-white iron coffin; though called a coffin, Zhang Jie felt it was more like a cultivation tank.

Weedy Lake, struck gold!

When the human female was still around, she often said that.

Thinking of this, Zhang Jie felt only a slight loss, and even the excitement of seeing the treasure faded considerably.

Exactly, unbeknownst to him, the human female had been gone for half a year.

Zhang Jie didn't even know the human female's name, her identity, where she went, or whether she would return—all of it was unknown.

Zhang Jie was just a lone survivor on this garbage star, never lacking things to pass the time.

For example, tomorrow's trash-picking time.

This thing also won't open.

Zhang Jie knocked on the cultivation tank, but found it couldn't be opened at all, and its metal seemed even harder than that of the crate.

But it didn't matter; Zhang Jie was strong enough to drag it by hand, and he hauled the large coffin holding the mysterious object onto his electric tricycle.

The crate held plenty of stuff; before the wasteland dwellers came to fight over it, Zhang Jie picked through it, and his final haul was still quite satisfying.

Two large boxes looked like they contained beverages, well packaged and usable.

A single mysterious silver coffin, though currently unopenable, Zhang Jie considered it the biggest gain of this haul.

There was also a large piece of crate metal; the metal looked decent, so he pocketed a chunk.

Soon his little vehicle was full of assorted seemingly useless junk, squeaking all the way back to his shelter.

Inside the shelter, miscellaneous junk piled up haphazardly; though it looked useless, in fact most of it really was useless....

Since these are all scrap, if a color could represent their quality, it would be pure white.

Next to the shelter stood a carefully constructed shed of metal and various materials, also serving as a small workshop.

A modest half-built airship lay quietly in the workshop's center, already coated with a thin layer of dust.

Zhang Jie dragged the huge silver-white tank inside and began carefully examining this golden treasure.

The huge silver coffin had a blue observation window at its center.

It wasn't large, but it was hard to see what was inside.

Its side bore the number 7089, seemingly a specimen from some biological experiment.

What if opening it releases some virus....

Zhang Jie kicked the tank with his foot; the murky fluid inside shifted, and a human face slapped against the view, startling him so much he nearly pissed himself.

What the hell is this!

Oh, it was just buoyancy making it stick—scared the hell out of me.

Zhang Jie patted his chest and continued observing the large tank.

Its exterior was seamless, tightly fitted, with no apparent way to open it.

What on earth is inside?

Is this situation meant to protect them, or just to keep them from coming out?

Zhang Jie couldn't care less; as a scavenger, he pries open any boxed thing, no matter what it is!

With the welder's constant hissing, the sealed hatch was pried open by Zhang Jie into a gap, revealing a petite figure soaked in unknown fluid before his eyes.

This is....

A ship-shaped lifeform?

Such an absurd conclusion popped into Zhang Jie's mind, but he quickly dismissed it; this thing differed from the complete humanoid ship lifeform he had seen.

More accurately, she should be considered a castrated version.

At that moment, she resembled a rag doll floating in a river—pale face, eyes shut tight—making the whole silver cultivation tank look like a giant coffin.

Zhang Jie fished her out, studied her for half a day, yet couldn't figure out how to activate her; this was beyond his grasp, and merely recognizing her consumed all his knowledge.

Good news: struck gold.

Bad news: it's utterly useless....

If he were a bit more bestial, he'd use this little guy as a magic pill dispenser, but Zhang Jie isn't that depraved; he just keeps trying to figure out how to activate her.

In the end, living up to expectations, Zhang Jie found a recess on her chest large enough for a fist, surely a high-energy reactor.

Thus our 7089 ended up eating dust....

Little did he know, as Zhang Jie casually tossed her into a corner, a chunk of metal packed with high-energy radiation fell squarely onto her chest.

Even a mere touch of that metal would cause instant necrosis in a normal person, but Zhang Jie just tossed it aside as a ordinary glowing scrap.

Yet that high-energy radiation became the core crucial for activating 7089; humanoid warships are extremely receptive, and even a trickle of electricity lets them steadily store energy.

Meanwhile, Zhang Jie had once again gone out to cut crate metal plates, thinking he could squeeze another haul before the wasteland dwellers arrived.

Little did he know, an hour after he left, a pair of white eyes lit up in the scrap yard....