The next morning, the shopkeeper for Tom's Fat Weiners--Tom, probably--gazed into my soul, and I gazed back, offering to him, in a very manly fashion, my bundle of paper napkins.
He offered a faint smile beneath his bushy mustache, pulled out a handful of coins to finger around, and nodded when he found his chosen coin--which was honestly a little weird. When he pushed that delicious silver coin into me, I rumbled in ecstasy.
Uhnn-yeah.
-65 Paper Napkins
+1,795 XP
+1 Level [Level 4]
+1 Class Point
My god. That was amazing. I wouldn't say something so pedestrian as to compare it to sex, but being penetrated by a thick, hard piece of currency was something that sent waves of pleasure through me. I wanted more.
I needed more.
As long as I could continue making products that would attract more trash to be thrown into me, I could continue to get stronger and relive that euphoria.
And so the day went on. Trash was thrown in, napkins were put out, and as I ruminated over my plans, I randomly received bursts of mini-orgasms through the day. Feeling the gritty, rigid edges of throbbing hot coins slide in and out of me, manhandled by indecisive, mysterious strangers who thrust the gold and silver and copper coins into me, demanding that I take it all--FUCK YES. Every time it happened, I imagined that my blood would flare alive with fiery lust.
But I didn’t have blood.
Because I was a trash can.
By sunset, I unlocked the next sensory skill, Hearing, and as soon as I did, I was overwhelmed with noise. Chatter at the restaurant tables, laughter from a group of children, passing conversations from nobles, clattering of wagon wheels on the stone streets, crows cawing, footsteps, passing winds, tapping furniture, a woman beating a carpet, a really bad pun involving alligators and detectives, a cough walking by, and another conversation that approached me.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
It was a couple of city employees. They looked more like construction workers, but they wore armbands that held the nation's flag--a gold lion's face on a white background. They stared into my vending slots--which was pathetically bare--felt around my slick metal exterior, tapped at me, lifted me gently from my bottom, groped and fingered me in my most curious places, and when they were satisfied, stepped back and said, "What the fuck is this?"
"What?" said the older guy.
"What is this?"
"A recycler."
"But it has no marking, no tag, no identification, no nothing. I have no idea who this belongs to. We can't work on it without any way to access it."
"It might be one of those new models."
"New models?"
"From the Teckers. They're updating new things all the time. It's good business, you should look into it."
"Later. Right now, we should find out who owns this stuff. This is probably a violation of city ordinance."
"Uh, let's just tell our supervisor. She'll know what to do."
This was bad. There was no telling what could happen if I were found out, and I wasn't ready to start my plan just yet. Premature discovery was just as bad as premature ejaculation--which I had never suffered, of course.
I had no idea how fast the city could react to my presence, but I knew I needed to hurry as fast as I could. I knew how to level up, I knew how my new body worked, and I already knew everything about the world--well, the important parts. I needed to get mobile as soon as possible.
And to do that, I needed to finish the Sensory skill tree. The next skill on the list was Touch, which enabled me to feel on my metallic skin. I would be able to feel the stone beneath me, the humid air across my lips, the roughness of a used napkin, the touch of a beautiful woman, and an even more vivid experience of a rock-hard coin dropping into me.
I shivered with anticipation.
My beautiful trash can body hummed as I processed the trash into raw materials. While I waited, I noticed that the workday had come to a close and everyone was absent in the streets. The lantern posts were lit, bathing my metallic surface in a warm glow.
+429 Earth Element
+17 Fire Element
+61 Water Element
+7 Air Element
+2,570 XP
+1 Level [Level 5]
+1 Class Point
"Unlock: Touch."
"Touch unlocked."
Immediately, something punched me in the back of the head, and my face slammed against the concrete sidewalk. My head throbbed in pain as I felt the grit of the dirt on my face.
I looked over to see a cloaked figure--a city employee!
Those fuckers were already dealing with me, to throw me into a compactor, to smelt me down into nothing, to destroy me by throwing me into an even bigger recycler!
Or... no, it was just a thief.
Beneath the hood, I could see a young feminine face--a teenage girl--just before she threw some type of cloth over me.
Clang.