After waiting for a while and confirming that no more garbage would be dumped, her adoptive father took Gavo on a long detour and brought her to a remote corner of the garbage mountain.
It was obvious that this was the most barren part of the entire trash heap.
Gavo looked at the scavengers busy hauling large pieces of scrap, then looked at her adoptive father picking through tiny broken bits in this corner, and could not help but feel a trace of anger.
Clearly, as someone born with defects, her adoptive father could never fit into those scavengers' little circles.
And a deformed man who could not form alliances would naturally be pushed to the most remote place.
Her adoptive father showed no dissatisfaction at all. While rummaging through the garbage on the ground, he gestured with muffled sounds, teaching Gavo which things were useful.
This teaching method was very simple.
Her adoptive father would pick up an item and wave it in front of Gavo. If it was useful, he gave a thumbs-up. If it had no value, he gave a thumbs-down.
Gavo watched silently, and a trace of bitterness rose in her heart.
The best education an underhive scavenger could give their child was teaching them how to pick through trash.
That was why scum could only ever remain scum.
Thinking of this, Gavo felt irritated. To vent, she lifted her little foot and kicked hard at a shattered oversized light tube.
The broken light tube weighed at least several kilograms, but one-year-old Gavo kicked it aside with ease.
"Hm? What's this?"
After kicking the tube away, she saw something that looked like the tip of a drill.
She bent down and used her chubby little hands to brush aside the nearby garbage a few times, and the full shape of the drill was revealed.
Although its surface was covered in rust and showed heavy signs of wear, it still glimmered with a purple-gold metallic sheen.
And when Gavo lowered her gaze, she noticed that the drill seemed to be attached to something.
"This has to be some valuable big item!"
Delighted, Gavo ran all the way over to her adoptive father, who was sorting out small broken bits, and poked his leg.
When he turned his head in slight confusion, she smiled, leaned her body slightly, and pointed behind her with her right hand toward where the drill was.
The moment her adoptive father saw what she was pointing at, shock flashed through his uneven eyes, followed by excitement and wild joy.
He dragged his cart over at a quick pace, dropped to his knees, and began frantically digging away the garbage around the drill.
Not long after, the lower half of the object emerged from the buried trash.
To be precise, it could no longer just be called a drill, because the drill was only one part of it.
This was an alloy arm similar to an industrial lifting arm, with joints moved by hydraulic rods. At its end was not only a drill, but also three devices that looked like metallic tentacles.
"An industrial servitor arm?"
Gavo's big eyes were full of shock.
She had never expected that such a well-preserved servitor arm could be hidden in such a remote corner.
"Why does this feel like stumbling across a wild treasure chest in a CRPG?"
As Gavo thought that, she remembered that she seemed to have unlocked a talent called Adventurer.
Her adoptive father pulled the servitor arm out of the garbage heap and laboriously placed it on the cart, then covered it with an oil-stained waterproof cloth.
This was not meant to protect it from dust.
It was meant to block the view of the other scavengers.
After doing all that, her adoptive father devoutly took out his homemade Aquila necklace, held it to his chest, and offered a sincere prayer to thank the God-Emperor for the gift.
"The Emperor..."
By now, Gavo had basically recovered most of her memories about Warhammer, aside from four blurry figures.
As humanity's greatest immortal psyker, the Emperor selflessly loved mankind as a whole.
Even though the Imperium had become like a tottering tower after the rebellion of the Men of Iron and the Warmaster's betrayal, the Emperor's remains sealed upon the Golden Throne still upheld that tower.
Gavo had once thought about whether she should shout out certain forbidden words to gain the Emperor's attention and quickly escape her current predicament.
But her subconscious told her that such behavior might attract certain terrifying beings instead, so she decisively gave up on that idea.
However, the awakening of these memories also brought with it a cruel question.
"Wait, no. Without the equipment, can I still become a Space Marine?"
Gavo subconsciously looked down at her crotch, almost on the verge of tears.
Becoming a Space Marine required nineteen enhancement surgeries, during which a large number of additional organs had to be implanted.
And those organs were cultivated from the gene-seed stored in the progenoid glands of previous Space Marines.
But because the Primarchs were all male, those organs all corresponded to male hormones and male body tissue types.
Having lost her little brother, Gavo had, in a sense, also lost the qualification to become a standard Astartes.
In one sentence:
Her canned demigod path had collapsed before it had even begun.
But in truth, it was not completely impossible. Maybe some mysterious old miracle-worker could still help her fulfill the dream she had in her previous life...
"Sigh. Since things have come to this, I should just keep picking through trash."
As she began sorting through the garbage on the ground just like her adoptive father, the familiar system notification popped up.
[What pigs can eat is wet waste. What pigs will not eat is dry waste. What will kill pigs if they eat it is hazardous waste. What can be sold to buy pigs is recyclable waste. Achievement completed: Garbage Sorting.]
[Talent acquired: Excellent Employee of the Company. For some reason, you always manage to pick up valuable trash.]
With the combined boosts of Adventurer and Excellent Employee of the Company, Gavo displayed a shocking talent for scavenging.
Under her adoptive father's astonished gaze, this originally barren corner of the garbage mountain seemed to become a treasure basin in Gavo's hands.
From bolts and scrap sheet metal to bearings and gears, all kinds of recyclable materials were dug out by her nimble little hands from massive piles of waste.
Her adoptive father was completely dumbfounded, his eyes wide as two mismatched bells.
Could she really be a genius?
...
After half a day of hard work by the father and daughter, both the cart and the straps on her adoptive father's back were loaded with their spoils.
Her adoptive father pulled the cart in front, and Gavo pushed from behind.
The road home was long, but under the joy of a great harvest, the two of them walked with remarkable lightness.
However, what puzzled Gavo was that her adoptive father did not head straight home.
They took a detour and arrived at a small shack on the other side of the scavenger settlement.
Under her curious gaze, her adoptive father selected several highly valuable recyclable items and silently handed them to an old man standing in front of the shack, whose hair stuck out like a hedgehog's spines.
This old man wore a bright smile the whole time, as though he were the happiest person in the world.
"But he doesn't seem to have much to do with happiness."
Gavo thought this as she looked at his two empty pant legs and his right arm, which ended before the forearm.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]