Finally, he turned back inside and closed the door behind him.
Kai walked past Diogenes' workbench, took off his boots, and lay down on the cot without taking off his robe.
Slowly, his eyes grew heavy, and finally, he fell asleep once more.
This time, Kai did not dream; he slept soundly until morning.
In the morning, he was woken by the noisy clatter from Diogenes' workspace. The clanking of metal was starting to feel familiar. Kai lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling, focusing his mind on his body.
In his mind, a number appeared.
10%.
He then sat up and rubbed his face.
A moment later, Diogenes stood up and opened the locker in the corner of the room. He took out the usual rations, two bottles of water and two pieces of hard bread, and threw them to Kai.
Kai caught one bottle and one piece of bread, and began to eat in silence.
He was starting to get used to the hard texture of the bread; at least it was edible. He was also getting enough hydration. But he was still hungry.
Kai then remembered he still had one can of rations he hadn't eaten yet, kept inside his Toolbox. Immediately, he opened the Toolbox under his cot and pulled out the canned ration.
"By the way, Diogenes, what is this canned food called?" Kai asked suddenly while prying open the lid.
Diogenes, who was finishing up his meal, replied, "It's usually called a nutri-can. Even though it tastes terrible, it's enough to meet your nutritional needs for a day. And it's fairly cheap, too."
Kai nodded and began eating the contents of the nutri-can. It was as bland as before, but if Diogenes was right, it would give him more energy for the day.
Kai stared at the nutri-can in his hand for a moment after finishing it, then placed the empty can on the floor. He took out the low-tier crystal from yesterday's scavenging out of his robe pocket and tossed it into his mouth.
The cold sensation spread through his chest as usual. He then focused his mind to check his stability percentage.
18%.
Not bad, Kai thought.
Diogenes cleaned up the rest of his meal, then turned to Kai.
"Today, you're going out alone," the old man said simply.
Kai, who had already put on his boots and was holding his toolbox, looked over. "Why?"
Diogenes pulled a crystal from his pocket. A mid-tier. "This crystal provides about 27 to 30 percent, and that's enough for two days. I don't need to go out today."
Kai stared at the crystal for a moment, then nodded. He had a rough idea of the stability degradation rate. He then opened the workshop door and stepped out.
"You can go to the zone I scavenged yesterday," Diogenes called out, already back in his chair. "There might still be some leftovers there."
The workshop door clicked shut behind Kai.
Diogenes' scavenging area turned out to be entirely different from the zone Kai had explored yesterday.
It was denser. The piles were higher and more tightly packed, but precisely because of that, more items were protected from other scavengers, hidden in crevices unseen from the main path.
Kai put on his gloves, extended his fragment scanner, and began to walk.
The first signal came from beneath a fairly deep pile. He dug with his hands and pliers until he found the source: an old microwave, its casing crushed on one side, but the internal components were still relatively intact. It still held a few fragments. He then extracted them with the compressor.
It only filled a sixth of the compressor's bar. A small amount. But enough to start.
He kept walking.
After a while, his fragment scanner vibrated again, pointing toward a washing machine. The inner drum was still intact, and the interior revealed a decent glimmer of fragments. Kai spent almost twenty minutes dismantling it—removing the front panel, opening the motor casing—before the compressor could siphon it properly.
His hands were dirty up to the wrists.
Next was an electric stove, which proved to be much easier. It was already smashed, exposing its contents directly. Just compress and done. Fast, but the yield was low.
Then, an air conditioner unit he found behind a pile of long iron beams turned out to be the most troublesome. The outdoor unit was still connected to copper pipes that were somehow still attached, and every time Kai tried to detach it, the entire pile above it shifted slightly. He had to dismantle it from the other side, crawling into a narrow gap between two iron frames to reach its compressor from behind.
The position was uncomfortable. His knees landed on sharp metal edges twice.
But the fragments were substantial. His compressor bar was now over three-quarters full.
The second microwave he found was practically shapeless, its casing crushed, the digital screen shattered, and most of its internal components had fallen out. But the transformer was still there, wedged in a sheltered corner, and that was what held the most fragments.
Kai pulled the transformer out with his pliers, cleaned the contacts, and aimed the compressor.
Click.
A crystal dropped into his palm.
He looked at the crystal. Gray as usual, but there was something different. In the center was a thin streak of orange, like an uneven stain. Not a bright orange like a mid-tier, but definitely not an ordinary gray either.
Kai rolled it between his fingers.
He had never seen anything like this before. Somewhere between a regular low-tier and something more, perhaps. Or maybe it was just a fluke from how the fragments were compressed.
Curious, he popped it into his mouth.
The sensation was different from a normal low-tier; it spread further than usual, reaching into his back and shoulders, which ached after a full day of dismantling.
In his mind, the percentage number appeared again.
31%.
Kai paused for a moment. Hey, not bad. So this is the difference, he thought. Not just the tier, but where the fragments come from.
...
He didn't know why he decided to climb that hill. Maybe because he felt today's scavenging haul was sufficient.
Maybe because he had been looking at the same things all day—piles of iron, narrow crevices, rusted metal—and something made him curious about what lay beyond that elevation.
The climb wasn't easy. The piles at the bottom were fairly stable, but the higher he went, the more material shifted under his feet. Twice he had to grab onto protruding iron frames to keep his balance. Once, a metal panel slipped beneath his boots, forcing him to jump to another foothold before he could fall.
Until finally, he reached the peak.
And in the distance, past the sea of iron heaps that stretched to the edge of the fog, he saw it.
A cluster of small lights.
And around those lights, silhouettes were moving.
A camp.
Kai stood atop that hill of junk, the winds of Sector 13 striking his face, his eyes fixed on the distant points of light.
Kai stared at the points of light for a few more moments before finally turning around.
Who are they? Other scavengers like me? Or some kind of group? Kai thought. Maybe I should ask the old man later. If there was one thing he understood about Diogenes, it was that the old man definitely knew a lot more about this world.
Kai then began to descend the hill of junk carefully.
He decided to scavenge for a little while longer in the lower area. He found a large machine with half of its casing melted, along with a circuit panel pinned beneath a concrete pillar. It took about forty minutes to dismantle and siphon the remaining data fragments.
Kai glanced at his compressor. Its bar was nearly half full.
Wow, that filled up quite a lot.
Feeling satisfied, he rolled his neck until a sharp crack sounded.
Forget the next, I'm too lazy, he thought. His stability was already in the thirties anyway. There was no reason to push himself. He shoved the compressor and the fragment scanner into his toolbox, and began the walk back toward the workshop.
The journey back felt longer. Just as Kai passed through a narrow gap flanked by two walls of junk, his footsteps suddenly stopped.
In the distance, about 200 meters ahead of him, a shadowy figure was moving.
It was crawling on its hands and feet. Its body seemed to be covered by some kind of black, ethereal cloak. The hood of the cloak covered almost its entire head, leaving only its face exposed.
Kai gasped and took a step back.
A Null Servant!