The dusty night has cleared up, and for the whole 24 hours of the windy night, Jay stays awake almost all the time, scared that he will get swept by the wind. Now that it has passed Jay could heave a sigh of relief.
He never wants to go through that again. He could breathe the polluted air, sure but the wind is so aggressive that breathing still feels heavy.
Maybe I should go back to the city?
He got hungry sometime ago. It turns out that not having food for 24 hours makes you feel hungry, who would have thought? Not Jay though, his head isn’t in the right place since he died. Maybe it wasn’t in the right place long ago. He keeps forgetting what to do and has no direction at all.
[Build a functional mech]
He opens the blue screen to check if the quest is still there. The Mech building system is a miraculous piece of technology, it would be a waste if he didn’t use it. The quest to build a functional mech seems doable now that he has most of the parts…
Jay rushes back to the place where he left his hammer arm and the couch chair. Surprisingly it didn’t fly that far away from the place he put it. He places them all around himself.
Could this be considered a Mech?
He got an arm, a leg, and a couch chair. If he hooks them all together using some wire and battery. Is this a mech? Well in his opinion he still needs a control panel but that it’s right? No matter, Jay just needs to take a shot at it.
Jay brought the parts all together and used some wire that had been left here to connect it all. He only has a single leg so he attaches it to the middle of the couch right below where you sit, then he realizes that he only has one arm and balancing would be impossible.
His solution is to make the arm into a leg, the hammer arm is just a limb without function so it’s not hard to convert it into a leg. With a half-broken welder, he found a metal piece and attached it to the hammer. Then he got another leg.
Next, he attached both of the legs to his couch, and the result looked like it came out of a mech horror story. If it could stand it would be around a meter tall.
With that done he ventured out to find a battery and control panel. Along the pile of trash, Jay also found many family possessions like an old school watch or a picture. After another hour of looking, Jay could only find a manually crank battery and a broken control panel.
This would do
Jay went back to his crouch monstrosity and started hooking up the battery. It’s not that hard since the wire that delivers the power is not broken, So he could connect it to the battery output. Next, he connects it to the broken control panel that has only one button working.
Finally, the only step left is to crack the eclectic into the piece. He had to work overtime to crack the eclectic energy. About a hundred cycles in the light on the control panel lit up signifying that it got enough power to start.
Jay presses the button and the leg moves!
[Congratulations! You just made your first mech!]
[Please name your creation]
If the professor at the university saw his creation they would weep. They would never in a million years categorize this as a mech. But Jay didn’t care, he still got his sweet reward.
“I’ll name it couch with legs.”
[Would you like to name it Couch with legs?]
“Yes”
[....]
Jay felt like he had disappointed someone with this name.
[Congratulations you just finished your first quest!]
[You’ve earned 1 upgrade token and 100 mech points]
[Couch with legs]
[Class: very lightweight mech]
[Grade: F-]
[Build by Jay Rolona]
[This creation could be barely called a mech, its only useful function is an abstract art piece. It couldn’t even walk with its legs. It is completely and utterly useless as a mech.]
Jay feels insulted, even if the insult is directed at the mech he’s still the one who built it. However, the evaluation that the system gives him is true, this piece of junk couldn’t even travel around, it just exists.
But he wasn’t gonna complain since he got his reward. He opened the system menu again to see what he could do with his 100 points and upgrade token.
[ mech recycler I] [100P] [22 Brain capacity]
[ Mech UI designer II] [120P] [30 Brain capacity]
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
[ Trash King specialization F] [80P] [12 Brain capacity]
There is only one thing new in the shop so Jay click on it for more information.
[Trash king specialization F]
-In a world where others see only discarded remnants, The Trash King sees potential waiting to be unlocked. This Trash King specialization is a testament to resourcefulness, innovation, and the ability to turn even the most overlooked components into formidable advantages on the battlefield.
[Warning you could only pick 1 specialization at your current rank.]
“What’s Specialization? why is it [F] instead of the Roman numeral?”
Jay blurted out after reading the skill.
[Mech specialization is a field that lets the mech designer tap into their potential. choosing a specialization makes it so that you pay attention to more detail about that subject or have more understanding of how it works. Specialization could also manifest your creation with —--- —---- powers.]
What the hell? Do all mech designers have these? And why does it censor…
[The specialization is graded differently because it’s not static knowledge but a form of —--- —---- that could be vastly improved over time with the lowest grade being F and the highest being S]
So it’s like a superpower? neat
Jay has to stop himself from impulsive buying the specialization. The system already told him that he could only have one and he didn’t think having [Trash King specialization] would be good. Sure the description sounds dope but most of the time he isn’t going to use it. Maybe if he lived here it would come in handy.
With his quest done, he needs to hurry back into the city. He didn’t eat anything for an imperial day and his stomach was growling. He was surprised that he could even survive this long in the first place.
The walk to the city is rather far, the debt collector didn’t want anyone to find him. It takes several hours to get close to the dome. Looking up Jay could see a massive dome that covered the whole country of Zember. The country's whole foundation is built on a platform that is elevated by 10 meters off the ground, even though the sea of trash still hasn’t reached it yet.
When he approached the dome Jay realized something crucial, he didn’t know how to get inside. Throughout his whole life, he didn’t leave the dome, he was born and raised here and his family isn’t rich enough to get him anywhere else. Life inside it is not bad so Jay would like to continue that trend.
Jay trod along the wall and all he could find was a smooth wall and a sea of junk. He came across a big letter that spelled out Zember, which must have been like a greeting sign for a visitor.
Going along more of the seemingly endless wall, Jay came across a robot. The difference between a Robot and a mech is a lack of human control. Many mech philosophers debate on how a robot is a mech, Most of them got shot down. Jay personally thinks it’s pointless. Why think when you could enjoy the machine?
Anyway, that’s not the point, the robot flew over him. When it gets close he could see that the robot uses its 4 hover blades to fly. Its overall shape looks like a clover leaf. If the clover leaf can fly and made out of metal. It's no larger than one meter.
It flew in front of him and scanned him with its laser scanner. The red light ran hine from his foot to his head.
“Missing Citizen detected calling in enforcer”
“What!?”
“Please stay where you are until they arrive.”
Jay panics a little, enforcers are not typical and not the same as police. They are basically a more trained version of police officers who usually respond to serious crimes such as terrorism. Jay stood still hoping they wouldn’t shoot him thinking he wanted to run. He wouldn’t bank on him running away from the enforcer either, the best play for him is to wait for them to come.
I should be clear… right?
He has no crime record, and he never steals stuff. The only thing he could be jailed for is some substance that he used in the past but they are normally pretty slack about those laws. And above all, they register him as a missing person. So he should be safe…
When a hovercraft arrives at his spot it has two big hover blades. They use the same hover technology as the drone robot but on a much larger scale. The hovercraft glides and its door side upward, 4 enforcers jump down wearing their body suits and force armor. Jay could see a striking Z logo on their shoulder confirming their identity.
“Put your hand up where we could see them!” One of them commands him.
“O..Ok”
Jay replied with a shaky voice, It is hard to not be nervous right now since he is being pointed by 4 guns. It looked like they could shoot him at any moment. Jay obeys their order and holds his hand up extra high.
“Name?” Another one asks him.
“Jay, Jay Rolona from the D district,” Jay said with a slightly fast pace “ I.. I got left out here by loan sharks”
“Do you have an ID?”
“No, they took my smart watch when they knocked me out.” As soon as the enforcer hears that, one of them throws a smartwatch at him.
“Put it on”
Jay quickly grabs the smartwatch and wears it on his arm. Its interface loads up and syncs his data to confirm his identification. The smartwatch also did a body scan on him to confirm suspicious activity. How did he know?
[Body scan deteded]
The system kindly tells him what happens to his body.
“You got chrome?”
“Oh.. yeah I got a heart implant. The old one isn’t working as it used to, haha”
Jay smiled dryly, technically he didn’t lie about his condition. The old one just got yanked out of him. Jay became more nervous when they all went silent. Until one of them spoke.
“You’re good, don’t spend your money so poorly next time.”
They must have run a background check on me...
“I will take that lesson to heart” Jay smiled “C..could I get a ride, my heart implant will fail me if I’m here any longer.”
The 3 of them look at one, Jay assumes that the boss of this operation.
“Suit yourself and savor this. Not many C-class got a ride in the Glarant and got off scot-free”
“I will enjoy every moment of it..”
The boss waves his hand to follow him. Jay and the other enforcer enter the Glarant aircraft. The inside is a sleek design with a hull around 3 meters long to escort the enforcer and other people. Mainly prisoner. Their ride is usually short so there is no point in building seats. An inconvenience for untrained personnel such as Jay.
He awkwardly stands between the enforcers. The Glarant takes off after they all enter and he can see the sea of junk slowly getting further away. Jay thinks back to what he has done for the day and shuddles. It is a life-changing experience that he would not rather experience a second time.