“What, do you think I’m inhumane?”
Watching the dejected middle-aged man leave the shop, Doctor Jiang suddenly asked out of the blue.
Feng Xue was taken aback, then shook his head and said,
“You saved my life. How could I think something like that?”
“Whether you do or not doesn’t matter. I just want to tell you that, in the Rust Zone, don’t judge people by appearances. Plenty of people who look honest and pitiable on the surface may be hiding no end of schemes in their hearts!” Old Jiang’s tone suddenly turned somewhat solemn. Hearing him say this, Feng Xue asked in surprise,
“Was there something wrong with that customer just now?”
“Who knows? That pair of prosthetics of his were military-grade, not the toys used by the big shots up above. Even if something like that were damaged, it would never be thrown into a dump, let alone when the main components were still intact.
“As for scavengers or junkmen picking it up, that still isn’t something a laborer selling his strength could afford to buy… Don’t tell me he went to a battlefield and picked them up himself?
“To be honest, I don’t really care where his prosthetics came from. I was just thinking: if I fixed them properly, would he immediately vanish off the face of the earth, or would he get killed by the Sweepers who’ve had their eyes on him all along? In any case, with the way he looks like he can barely scrape together repair fees, there’s no way he could tear off his mask, transform into a Soldier King, and reach the peak of life.”
There was a hint of mockery in Old Jiang’s words, but Feng Xue heard a heavy dose of worldly wisdom in them. So deliberately refusing to fix them properly, even stringing the man along the whole time, was actually for the man’s own good?
……
Over the next few days, Feng Xue entered a frenzy of studying.
During the day, while adapting to this new body that far surpassed his old one in performance but was rather difficult to control, he helped Old Jiang with odd jobs such as organizing tools and moving parts. At the same time, he learned the unspoken rules of this slum from the way Old Jiang received all kinds of customers.
At night, he immersed his consciousness in the offline database, absorbing the knowledge Old Jiang had carefully selected. Occasionally, he would also connect to the local network to get used to the impact that chaotic flood of online information had on his thoughts.
However, the content on Gelian’s network was unexpectedly barren. The overwhelming majority of it was empty entertainment gossip, paparazzi tabloids, or all sorts of grating talk shows. If he wanted to find some public news, all he got were monotonous corporate advertisements, which gave him a maddening feeling.
Yet precisely because of this monotonous entertainment environment, Feng Xue was instead able to devote himself wholeheartedly to acquiring all kinds of knowledge, which actually raised his learning efficiency.
Of course, it wasn’t that the network environment was truly that barren. It was just that… in a place like Gelian, anything with even a little content cost money. And Feng Xue was still completely penniless. As for wages, what apprentice got paid? Having food and lodging was already pretty good. If one insisted on being precise, he still owed money for the brain-computer interface!
……
It was another early morning. Feng Xue squeezed the bland, tasteless nutrient paste that could nevertheless meet a day’s energy consumption into his mouth, forcibly ignoring its awful texture, then staggered into the workshop and began organizing the bits and pieces Old Jiang had newly acquired yesterday.
Old Jiang’s shop was not only an unlicensed prosthetics clinic; it also bought some “junk.” After all, the Rust Zone bordered the dump. The shops here more or less all took in odds and ends. It was just that, depending on each person’s eye, needs, source-energy system, and backing channels, the purchase prices and types of items varied wildly.
Thanks to the ultra-high learning efficiency of direct data connection through the brain-computer interface, as well as the brain drive’s keyword search function that allowed him to skip rote memorization, although only two weeks had passed, Feng Xue had already chewed through most of the basic theory in the offline database. At the very least, he now had a grasp of various terms, basic principles, common prosthetic structures, and material properties.
But this also gave him a problem many novices were prone to—
Itchy hands.
Fiddling with those oddly shaped parts, Feng Xue always felt an impulse to show what he could do. But he knew very well that these were Old Jiang’s property. His moral standards, which were somewhat high compared to those of this world, made him restrain that impulse. Then he said directly to Old Jiang, who had just gotten up,
“Doctor Jiang, I think my theoretical foundation is more or less there. Can you let me get some hands-on practice?”
Old Jiang had just squeezed a tube of nutrient paste into his mouth. Hearing Feng Xue’s words, he froze slightly, then unhurriedly swallowed the nutrient paste before saying,
“You brat, you haven’t even learned to walk and you already want to learn to run? Theory is theory, hands-on work is hands-on work. They’re two different things. You think you can cobble together a usable prosthetic just by reading a few books?”
“I just want to practice a little!” Feng Xue said somewhat unwillingly. “It doesn’t have to be anything complicated. Something simple will do. Mainly, my hands are itching!”
“Heh.” Old Jiang stopped what he was doing and looked at him with a half-smile. “Fine, your hands are itching, right? Then how about this: starting today, for every job I take, whatever I do, you follow along and do the same. Whatever materials I use, you use the same materials. If you can achieve eighty percent of the function, I’ll pay you a wage!”
“That really isn’t necessary…” Hearing the old man say this, Feng Xue immediately wanted to refuse. He still knew his own limits. But Old Jiang cut him off.
“Oh, it’s very necessary. One-star prosthetics are just garbage. If you cobble one together, it won’t even cover the cost of materials. Two-star and three-star ones, even if your skill is a little lacking, can at least roughly recoup the cost. If you fail, it won’t be to the point of wasting the materials. In short, listen to me!”
Seeing that Old Jiang had put it that way, Feng Xue no longer declined. And Old Jiang’s prosthetics clinic, with its good reputation and low prices, clearly had no shortage of “teaching cases.”
“Ding-ling-ling…”
With the sound of the wind chime at the door, a customer walked in. Having seen quite a few customers these past days, Feng Xue glanced at his clothing and knew he was probably a loader. Seeing the man come up to the counter, Old Jiang glanced at the hydraulic pincer that no longer looked remotely like a hand, then beckoned to Feng Xue and said,
“Examine it!”
The man being treated as a “clinical trial” did not get angry at this. Instead, he smiled and said,
“Doctor Jiang, is this your new apprentice?”
“Picked him up by the roadside. He’s got some comprehension, so I’m teaching him for now. Whether he can actually learn anything depends on his luck.” Old Jiang had a casual air, but Feng Xue examined the prosthetic very seriously. Only after about two minutes did he say,
“The main issue is gear wear. The two worst ones have cracks and can only be replaced.”
“Mm, not bad. About how much would it cost to repair?” Old Jiang nodded, indicating that the diagnosis was correct. Feng Xue thought for a moment and said,
“Judging from the state of the prosthetic, for this level of work intensity, D12-grade gears should be enough. Adding up these several sizes… it should be about 50 credits.”
Hearing this quote, before Old Jiang could say anything, the man’s face twitched. Even so, he still prepared to take out the money.
For a bottom-level worker like this man, the wage was about 5 credits a day.
Repairing the prosthetic required ten days’ wages. This price could not be considered cheap. After all, a tube of nutrient paste that met a day’s consumption cost only 1 credit, while a low-end capsule apartment that could house one person was only 50 credits a month.
But for a two-star prosthetic like this, other prosthetic doctors probably wouldn’t even bother repairing it. Compared to the price of directly changing to a secondhand prosthetic and the lost work time needed to adapt to it, this price was already quite low.
But at that moment, Old Jiang reached out and stopped him. He gave Feng Xue a look that said, “Watch closely and learn well,” then said,
“The new apprentice’s skill is poor. Just give 10 credits.”