“I didn’t know that. I always thought you just dumped everything together and moved on.” Lil said surprised.

I shook my head “That was the primitive method true but once humanity discovered that doing that tends to cause problems we moved on to sorting the trash. Metal went one place, plastic to another and so on in an effort to keep things clean. All this.” I pause to motion at the piles of miscellaneous garbage. “Is only like this because the corporations couldn’t give enough of a fuck to sort it.” I said with a scoff.

“You seem to not like the corporations all that much, some sort of story there or nah?” she asked and I shook my head.

“No story I just don’t like the way corporations evolved. At the start they were just businesses like any other but as they got bigger and bigger it stopped being about good products and service and more about profit and exploitation. There are a few exceptions like Jakobs that’s all about tradition and consistency and even Vladof that is all about getting good guns in the hands of the oppressed as cheaply as possible. The rest sort of lost the desire to actually be a decently perceived presence in the name of profit and power.” I said seriously.

“Yeah that tracks, gotta take the good with the bad all around. Just sucks there’s more bad than good.” she said with a shrug.

“I want to change that at least as far as my own corporation is concerned. It might cause me some financial turmoil at first to clean up the mess Atlas caused but I am confident I can make a truly respected corporation in the long run.” I said with a thumbs up.

Soon we arrived at the small junkyard that had a single building in the center with a couple turrets on top of it and bandits swarming the place. I grinned at this before crouching down and shooting towards the nearest bandit, a psycho, with my hands covered in all of my elements blazing at full force.

“!!!” 

The psycho went to scream in terror but barely got the first syllable out of his throat before my hands ripped through it like I was tearing apart tissue paper. I activated the [Adrenal rush] trait and my body swelled slightly as my veins protruded under my clothes and my skin reddened. It was pandemonium in the bandits as I ran faster than anyone they’d ever seen between them ravaging anyone unfortunate enough to get within my range. I put my decade of martial arts experience from earth to good use as I did so killing with such chilling efficiency that they didn’t see me as a person anymore but a demon from hell(the elemental hands probably didn’t help). Soon enough all that was left was a single shivering midget curled up under a pile of trash hoping we didn’t notice him.-

“You good?” Lil asked with a concerned expression as she walked up after watching me single handedly ravage the population of bandits here.

I breathed out a heavy steaming breath as I let the [Adrenal rush] fade to return me to my normal if slightly tired state.

“Hold that thought, let me feast first.” I said as I held out my arms dramatically as I extracted all the lifeforce from the dead bandits all around us.

For extra dramatic effect I even made it so that all the red energy flew towards my face so it looked like I was literally eating the essence of all these bandits.-

“Ah much better. Their fear only makes them taste all the sweeter.” I said with a smirk. Without skipping a beat I thrust my arm into the pile of shuddering trash and yoinked out the midget by his throat and brought his head up to look my mask in the eyes. “You will be my messager this day. Go, go and tell all you meet of what you witnessed here!” I say to the terrified midget before dropping him.

I swear that midget fucking blurred with how fast he ran once he was released.

“What was all that about?” Lil asked curiously.

“Reputation of course. Bandits are superstitious as fuck so if they hear about someone that has burning hands and eats the souls of their victims it creates a legend. On a backwards planet like this legends give power, metaphorically speaking that is.” I said with a grin.

“Could I do that?” she asked with an interested look.

“Sure though you’d have to build a certain image in the populaces minds to do it, like a signature move or power. For example in time mine will be the devouring of souls when I take the lifeforce of those I kill. Yours could be fire if you can get that aspect of your powers to work right.” I said honestly.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” she said thoughtfully.

With that done we started digging through the trash to find the stuff Scooter wanted as well as anything else he might be interested in. It didn’t take us long to find all the parts he wanted as the area wasn’t that big and the stuff was on the larger side. As for interesting stuff I found a few after market parts that a genius mechanic like Scooter would absolutely be able to use.-

We headed back to New Haven with the stuff in our inventories. Scooter was thrilled to get it all and even paid pretty good for the after market parts we found. That taken care of we sashayed our selves over to my house that had a faint odor that made me wrinkle my nose. 

“What the fuck is that smell!?” I demanded angrily.

“Believe me you don’t want to know.” Roland said with a haunted look while in his clean clothes I had provided previously.

“The pipes were so backed up we had to shoot the blockage and it sprayed everywhere. We all got covered in whatever that was. We need new clothes by the way, destroyed the others before taking LOOONG showers.” Mordy said with a hollow look as he sipped a beer.

Even Brick looked traumatized as he just sat in his chair with a blank stare at the ceiling. I mentally patted myself on the back for passing that job off to these three while I went off with Lil to the junkyard. That said I wasn’t heartless and took out some of my tequila and poured each of them a glass to take their minds off the ordeal.-

From there I took out some balsam and cedar scented candles courtesy of the old man and lit them up to chase away the scent of whatever that foulness was. While they drank away their trauma I left my house alone and packed it up before heading over to my refiner that had once again stocked up on a lot of material. I opened my house back up and started bringing the refined stuff in for storage. To be honest though a lot of it was fed to my maker thing in my crafting room as I now had enough material to put another refiner together.-

About an hour into moving the materials Brick and Roland came to help since they had gotten bored of being traumatized. With their help I got all the materials loaded up and the parts for the new maker thing ready for assembly alongside a shield and worker bots just like the first. We left my house once again and found a good spot a bit away from the area the first refiner was in and got to work putting the second one together and functional before releasing the worker bots.-

I grinned at this sight as it meant the trash clean up process had just doubled in speed. This also meant it was going to take half as long for me to get the next refiner made as the materials will be ready much sooner. I could already see the image of dozens of refiners and hundreds of robots active and visibly reducing the trash as far as the eye could see. It was a glorious vision and one I was more than happy to bring to fruition.

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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro

_______________________________________________

Alexander Drake

Lifeforce:402,199

Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade]X4, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade], [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade], 

Stored traits: [Flame projection gland], [Mechanical engineering expertise(degraded)-Common grade

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep