Chapter 12: European Emperor
"Ah~~~~~~" Qi Huan screamed, hugged the doorpost mournfully, and struggled to rub his forehead back and forth twice. He wanted to go, but was sleepy.
His twists and turns in his shouting startled Quan Hai, "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"It's okay, wait a minute." Qi Huan, who had vented his emotions, sighed resignedly and rushed back upstairs to change clothes. People who are used to a 22-hour day would not understand the pain of him losing an hour of sleep every day.
"Ouch!" The sound of footsteps that were moving upwards suddenly stopped, and was replaced by Qi Huan's groan of pain when he hit the "hidden weapon" on the stair railing.
"Don't worry, there's still enough time. I'll give you five minutes." Quan Hai at the door couldn't help laughing and shouted upstairs.
Three minutes later, Qi Huan, who had finished washing up with two tufts of messy hair, locked the downstairs door.
"Your hair is still messy." Quan Hai reminded him.
"This is not hair. This is the antenna that connects me to the human race's home planet." Qi Huan refused to admit that he had forgotten because he was still asleep, and spoke nonsense in a serious tone.
Quan Hai: ...
On the way to the gathering point, the two discovered that the street next door, where the security robot was blocked last night, had collapsed on nearly half of the street, and the protective net made it impossible to pass. This unfortunate accident forced them to take a detour.
After jogging past two street corners, I could see a convertible six-seater airship parked on the side of the road in the dim light. The first four seats were already occupied, leaving the last two seats empty.
The man in green sitting in the driver's seat looked back frequently, and when he saw them, he immediately waved his arms and greeted them, "Hurry up."
The two of them quickly quickened their pace and rushed over.
Sitting on the airship, the breathless Qi Huan hadn't found where the buckle of the seat belt was before the airship rushed into the air. Frightened, he immediately grabbed the handrail beside him.
"The protective belt on the back seat is broken, hold on tight." The wind was howling, and Quan Hai could only shout to explain to Qi Huan.
The fierce wind hit Qi Huan in the face, making it so hard for him to open his mouth as he was riding an airship for the first time. He could only nod to show that he understood.
A closer look revealed that the airship was actually very old and shabby. It creaked everywhere, the leather seat had two corners worn out, and the exposed cushioning had been dyed dark yellow, and most of the paint on the armrests had fallen off, making them a little prickly to hold.
The food store also has an old airship, the hull is covered with scratches, and you can find no less than ten traces of paint peeling wherever you stand, but Boss Wan cherishes it very much and only uses it when he needs to personally deliver goods to some big customers. Qi Huan didn't understand it before, but after comparing it with the rough airship in front of him, he realized that the one in the food store can be regarded as the top-of-the-line version that the natives of the base can use.
Qi Huan was trying to adapt to the bumpy air. A man in a work vest in the front row turned around, glanced at him coldly, and scolded Quan Hai with some dissatisfaction, "Next time, move faster. There are more than two of you here."
"Okay, sorry." Quan Hai agreed without further explanation.
Qi Huan also nodded obediently, feeling embarrassed.
The man refused to give in and glared at Qi Huan's hand that was holding the protective support. "Are you okay? You came here with one hand to cause trouble. Whose fault is it if the time is delayed?"
Quan Hai raised his eyebrows and retorted, "I told Brother Man that we should leave at the appointed time. There is no need to wait for us."
The man in the vest choked and turned back angrily, "That's what I said, but if I really leave you behind, you'll blame others."
It won't affect your relationship with your teammates, right? Qi Huan looked at Quan Hai with an apologetic look on his face.
"It's okay, he just likes to bully newcomers." Quan Hai explained with his lips, indicating that he didn't need to worry about it.
There is a huge hexagonal metal pit on the north side of the base, which is as large as a dozen football fields. The bottom of the pit is covered with densely packed hexagonal fences. Looking down from mid-air, it looks like a huge gray-black honeycomb, empty and cold.
In the morning light, you can vaguely see twenty or thirty figures standing scattered around the pit.
Brother Man was the man in the driver's seat, and he was also the owner of the repair shop where Quan Hai worked. He skillfully maneuvered the old airship to circle half a circle in the air, and soon chose one of the four sides of the metal pit where there were basically no people, and landed with everyone.
When Brother Man stood at the edge of the pit, the other three people who got off the boat were vying for positions on his left and right.
Quan Hai simply left about ten meters of space and took Qi Huan to the far left. The five-meter distance between each station was considered the "industry rule", which was convenient for communication and reserved a certain "territory" for everyone.
"What are they doing?" Qi Huan was puzzled.
"He's got a good position." Quan Hai whispered, "Brother Man has been coming here often since the beginning. He knows the local areas where the airships in each star field are used to opening their cabins. He is also very lucky, so the places he chooses usually have good stuff, so everyone wants to be closer to him."
"European Emperor." Qi Huan suddenly realized.
Quan Hai didn't understand, "What?"
"No, he just has good luck." Qi Huan smiled. Actually, he used to have good luck. He always got the right answer for every elective course he took in college, won the special prize of a threesome with a foreigner in the shopping mall lottery, and always had the highest-level equipment in the game roll.
Quan Hai opened the backpack behind him, took out an empty backpack from it, and handed it to Qi Huan, "Put the bag in front later, otherwise the things might be stolen."
Qi Huan took the backpack and opened it while glancing at the other people. Except for Brother Man, everyone had an empty backpack on their chest. The fight for seats was settled. The man in the workwear vest took the empty seat between Brother Man and them, and the tall and thin man sitting in the passenger seat took the seat to Brother Man's left.
"Why don't you bring your bag, Brother Man?"
"He has a space bag." Quan Hai gestured to him to look at the belt buckle on Man Ge's waist.
It was a triangular white copper buckle, and it looked nothing special at first glance. According to Quan Hai, it was found by Man Ge in a pile of goods, and he used it after repairing it. It could hold half of the airship's stuff, didn't take up much space, and was safe.
According to Qi Huan's understanding, it might be a backpack that uses space folding technology, and the buckle is the "entrance".
"This is just a low-level version. The high-level one is said to be able to accommodate the command hall of our base, and can also accommodate pets and other things." Quan Hai added quietly.
Qi Huan was dumbfounded.
While they were saying these few words, two groups of people gave up where they were standing and moved towards them. It was obvious that Man Ge's European aura was well-known.
However, the edge of the pit was about two hundred meters long, and the six of them could not occupy much of it.
Ignoring the gradually growing 'team' around him, Quan Hai fished out two tubes of nutrient solution and handed one to Qi Huan. He passed on his 'experience' to Qi Huan while drinking, "If the thing next to you is a small device or robot, look through its energy box first. Energy stones are easy to sell and small in size, making them convenient to carry. If it is a fragment of a large part, look for high-grade metals with a mirror texture. If you are lucky, you may find gray iron, which looks like a gray-black mirror from a distance, and has small wavy lines on the surface if you look closely. You may also encounter some other miscellaneous gadgets. If you really don't recognize them and can't make a decision, just ask me to help you decide whether to take them. Or you can put them in your bag first, just like the energy stones, and take a closer look when they come out."
Qi Huan nodded frequently. He had just flipped through the purchase page of the Tongling Hall yesterday, and now he knew the general appearance of the energy stone.
"The last and most important thing is to remember, safety comes first! You only have ten minutes. When the ten minutes are up, come back immediately after hearing three whistles. Don't be greedy. Otherwise, the garbage chute will open and you will fall in with the garbage and die."
"Yeah." Qi Huan responded obediently. His hands were not convenient to use, so today he just wanted to gain some experience. He didn't expect to gain much.
The two squatted beside and chatted while waiting, and several groups of people came one after another. After twenty minutes, Qi Huan's feet were numb from squatting, and a shuttle-shaped starship with sharp lines finally appeared in the sky against the sunlight.
Seeing the shadow, everyone at the metal pit stood up. Qi Huan stomped his numb feet and was about to stand at the edge. Quan Hai pulled him and motioned for him to stay where he was while he went to the edge.
"You are at the edge and it is easy for others to take your territory." Quan Hai raised his eyebrows at Qi Huan and shook his arms to transform into six "fangs and claws" tentacles. In this competition of hand speed, his six arms were like turning on a three-times speed cheat.
Qi Huan smiled and made a six gesture to Quan Hai, then stood where he had arranged.
Not only Quan Hai, many people around him changed into orc forms in advance, looking ready to go. Qi Huan took a deep breath, and inexplicably felt a little nervous as if he was about to play in a game.
The starship was traveling at a very high speed and arrived near the base in the blink of an eye. The huge hull was glowing with a cold silver-gray luster, with light purple energy patterns flashing from time to time, like a giant metal beast splitting the air, with a terrifying momentum and a full sense of oppression.
A spherical hole opened in the base's protective shield, and the starship flew through the hole at lightning speed and landed above the metal pit. The surrounding area was suddenly filled with surging air waves and flying sand and rocks.
The sand hit the metal pit wall with a crackling sound. Qi Huan's cheeks and arms were bruised by the sand and he couldn't open his eyes at all. He held on tightly to an iron ring at the edge of the pit, which he didn't know what it was used for, and he managed to stabilize his body.
After a lot of effort the wind died down a bit and he heard a loud crashing noise. When he opened his eyes again, the hatch on the belly of the starship had been closed and it turned around and flew towards the harbor in the northeast corner of the base.
Before their eyes, a colorful "metal mountain" appeared. It was about thirty or forty meters high and was located on the side close to them.
Qi Huan couldn't help but admire in his heart, Brother Man is indeed reliable!
A long beep sounded, and people rushed forward like a race to the pit. The mountain of metal was so huge that the garbage pickers looked sparse in comparison.
Qi Huan, who was busy sighing, was a step behind due to his lack of experience, and when he tried to catch up, he was far behind others.
Fortunately, his usual good luck also played a role. In the area facing him and Quanhai, there were many robots and small machines in the messy metal fragments, which meant that many energy boxes could be dismantled.
Qi Huan happily picked a robot and started to disassemble it according to the techniques Quan Hai taught him.
Some energy stones were removed before being discarded, so the box was empty and it was a waste of effort to open it. In addition, Qi Huan's left hand was inconvenient, so after four or five minutes, he only stuffed two energy stones into his backpack.
"You hollow slag, do you have any shame?" He was busy dismantling who knows how many energy boxes, when he suddenly heard Quan Hai cursing. He looked up and realized that it was the man in work clothes vest on his left who saw that he was dismantling the boxes slowly, so he secretly crossed over and rushed to dismantle many energy boxes on his side, but was discovered by Quan Hai.
"I was just picking up things and didn't pay attention to the place." The man pretended to be confused, trying to get away with it.
"Get back!" Quan Hai threw two pieces of broken metal at the feet of the work vest. In fact, Quan Hai would not say anything if he picked up a few pieces, but he had already run to the position above Qi Huan's head, obviously bullying the newcomer.
Qi Huan was afraid that Quan Hai would start a fight, so he quickly climbed up the metal mountain. There were only a few minutes left, and it was not worth wasting time on such a person.
He took a few steps up and was almost at the sea when he saw a flash of light not far away, which hurt his eyes.
"He's slow, and it would be a waste if he can't pick up all the energy stones anyway, so why don't I help him here?" The man was shameless and refused to leave. He had already dismantled several energy stones, and he was reluctant to let go after tasting the sweetness.
When Man Ge heard the noise, he also looked over. Quan Hai was furious and was about to pull the work vest to ask Man Ge for justice, but was stopped by Qi Huan.
"It's okay. Let's be fair. You help me and I help you. Whatever we pick up is ours, okay?" Qi Huan pointed to the area on his left hand that originally belonged to the work vest and discussed calmly.
There were messy metal fragments there, and the dazzling reflection just now also came from there.
"Okay." The work vest nodded hurriedly, "Don't regret it."
Qi Huan looked at Brother Man again. Brother Man nodded, understanding what he meant, "I will testify."
"Then let's continue." Qi Huan spread his hands.
Everyone lowered their heads again. Quan Hai wanted to speak, but Qi Huan pulled him down two steps, motioned him to look at the flashing light, and whispered, "Does it look like gray iron?"
Quan Hai was stunned for a moment, then nodded vigorously. The small machines and robots were filled with low-grade energy stones of grade E and F, and it was hard to say how much energy was left. Relatively speaking, gray iron was more valuable.
"Anyway, we won't lose anything," Qi Huan patted his shoulder, "There are only four minutes left, we can talk later if you have anything else."
Quan Hai waved his six arms and went back to his work without any worries. Qi Huan followed the direction of the flash, turned over a board that was pressed diagonally on top, and found a gray metal piece that was about 20 centimeters long.
The thing looked a bit like a bearing connector. Except for the broken edge, the rest of the edges were smooth and finely crafted. There were three wedge-shaped holes of different sizes. If you look closely, you can see faint stacking patterns. Qi Huan guessed that was the water ripple that Quan Hai mentioned. He stuffed the thing into his backpack and went back to dismantling the energy box.
A few minutes passed quickly. In the end, everyone stopped looking closely and started stuffing things into their backpacks to fill them up first. Qi Huan also crammed a lot of things into his backpacks.
A long whistle-like sound was heard all around, and everyone immediately stopped what they were doing, turned around and ran back.
After three sounds, the fences at the bottom of the metal pit opened layer by layer, turning into a giant multi-layer screen. Metal pieces of different sizes rolled down to different layers and slid away along the tunnel with sharp and piercing sounds.
"The next process is rolling. Anyone who falls in will surely die." Quan Hai walked to Qi Huan with a large backpack. When he saw him sticking his head out to look, he said half in a threatening and half serious tone.
Qi Huan made a "tsk" sound and retracted his gaze, forcing himself not to imagine the bloody scene.
"Tie your backpack tighter." Quan Hai patted the half-open mouth of Qi Huan's bag.
Just as Qi Huan's fingers touched the rope, there was a sudden noise in the distance. Diagonally across the half metal pit, six or seven people were pushing and shoving each other and rolling around in a ball.
"They must be stealing something." Quan Hai sighed.
Many novices are so excited when they find good stuff that they can't wait to take it out and check it out, which easily makes people jealous, and those with darker hearts will directly grab it. After all, there are no security patrol robots next to the garbage pit, so it's all about fists.
An old hand like Brother Man would never open the bag at the edge of the pit. He asked everyone to get on the old airship and flew directly back to his own repair shop.
Twenty minutes later, six people sat in the repair area in the backyard and began to "inspect the goods" using the test boxes in the yard.
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