Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Since it could talk and move, that meant that the robot trash collector that in front of him could not be called “rubbish”. But was it a threat; did it have an aggressive nature and would it cause harm to humans?
Chen Jin conducted two little tests. He took out the baseball bat from the side pocket of his backpack and lightly tapped its body a couple of times. It did not make any defensive or retaliatory move; only twisted its cameras and gave him a strange look.
“Hi, hello!” Chen Jin waved his hand in greeting.
“Wah wah, Wah wah ~” The robot immediately executed a reply.
He waved his hand, “how are you?”
It waved its mechanical arm too. “Wah wah ~”
Chen Jin extended his hand towards it. “Let’s shake hands!”
“Click clack~” It extended its mechanical arm as well. The three metal pieces on the tip of its arm opened up, grasping the ends of Chen Jin’s glove and shaking like how it would shake his hand.
“Damn, what a high level of intelligence!” Chen Jin was stunned. The robot responded to everything that he said to it. Just by stretching his hand, it could quickly comprehend what he meant. With the current level of technology on Earth, there was no way it could produce robots of such high intelligence. His judgement of this world’s level of technological advancement immediately improved – it was leading Earth by at least few decades.
Chen Jin murmured, “This world definitely is not an undeveloped one; on the contrary it’s very advanced and very prosperous!”
As for the “trash robot” looking up at him from his feet, Chen Jin had basically confirmed that it should be friendly towards him. Even if it was not a friendly robot and an evil one, Chen Jin was confident that he could destroy 10 of such robots without much problems using the baseball bat in his hands. After all, its size was smaller than a backpack. For example, he could just knock out both its camera eyes and it would be blinded instantly. What was there to be afraid of?
Chen Jin decided to keep this robot. It was just that it had sustained severe damage, and he needed to repair it. Chen Jin studied mechanical engineering for three years in the university, so he definitely had a basic understanding of mechanical repair. However he spent most of his time playing games and only skimming some of the necessary content.
But there was one point that definitely worked—when a machine is broken because it was missing some parts, simply replace the parts with functional ones. Following that idea, he rummaged through the rubbish bin for a while and poured out all the trash. As expected, he found a broken caterpillar track as well as two loose inducers. He could fix the two gears on the robot, but unless he welded together the broken parts of the propulsion belt, it was useless.
As for the broken right eye camera, he had to find a new one and replace it. Therefore, the primary goals in the next part of Chen Jin’s exploration was to find a whole, unbroken propulsion belt and a functional right camera. The trash robot who could still move, albeit with great difficulty, followed behind him the whole way.
Chen Jin realised that he had a good conversational companion after finding out that it could understand part of what he said. He even gave this trash robot a name.
“Wa-Wah, can you mimic how I speak? Wa-Wah, could it be that your vocal unit is only capable of making the syllable ‘wah wah’? It cannot vocalise more complicated words? Wa-wah, let’s hear you call me Master”.
“Power-Less, Power-Less.”
As expected, the trash robot who Chen Jin had named “Wa-Wah” said a different word. But what it expressed was “insufficient power.” On its chest was a row of tiny lights that continuously flickered red. It walked more sluggishly; slowly losing pace with Chen Jin.
“You’re almost out of battery?” Noticing that there was something peculiar about Wawa, Chen Jin quickly grabbed it and put it on the deck of his scooter. He fixed it firmly on the deck using a length of rope. To prevent it from toppling over, he tried his best to drive in a steady manner.
Sometimes the terrain was uneven, and he had to slow down the scooter. Walking along while carrying a rubbish-filled nylon poly bag and hauling the scooter with Wawa on it had caused his speed to decrease, not to mention increasing his burden at the same time.
At 3pm in the afternoon.
Using a total of about eight hours, Chen Jin had completed one round of exploration around the surrounding areas of the huge crater.
The total travel distance exceeded 40 kilometers, with one-third of the journey undertaken on foot. Right now both his legs were swollen. His body felt as heavy as lead which was very uncomfortable. But the gains were good. Luckily, besides the snakeskin bag of rubbish, he also found a spare camera to replace Wawa’s right one. It had fallen off from another robot; the outer appearance was whole and undamaged.
As he did not find an unbroken caterpillar track, he intended to bring the broken one back to Earth. It should be fixed without too much trouble by getting a master welder to weld it together. By now, the robot Wa-Wah was completely out of power and had went into sleep/standby mode. Chen Jin still had to think of a way to recharge it.
“It’s time to go back; I found a full bag of rubbish and also a robot. That’s quite some gains!” At this moment, Chen Jin had never felt so exhausted. He only wanted to go back and get a good rest.
Thus he drove Windrunner onto the smooth inside of the huge crater, and making use of the steep ups and downs of the terrain, Windrunner’s speed very quickly rose to over 80 kilometers per hour. Chen Jin did not dare to turn the switch to further increase the speed. He even had to apply the brakes to reduce the speed.
About 4 minutes later, he was back in his little camping ground at the bottom of the crater.
…
The collapsible metal A-frame ladder had arrived; Chen Jin stepped on it and returned to the bathroom on Earth. He took a long shower in the bathroom to wash away the stinky sweat. Wearing a pair of shorts, he walked out. Looking at the portal above the toilet, he pulled a cord and drew out a curtain hanging on it, cleverly shielding the portal.
In this way, no matter who entered his bathroom and used its facilities, as long as they were not searching with a purpose, they would not discover the existence of the portal with only a passing glance. And Chen Jin had no intention of telling anyone about the existence of the portal! Including his parents.
There was no particular reason. He simply did not want the appearance of the portal to disrupt the happy and peaceful life at home or to attract unnecessary trouble. The risk inherent in the other world was something that he rather face alone. That was a world that belonged to him including the sole enjoyment of it and he did not wish to share it with anybody else. “Let’s just take it as….. A type of console game where I am the only player”
Falling heavily onto his bed and hugging his Kasumigaoka Utaha bolster, an extremely tired Chen Jin quickly entered a deep sleep.
…
“Open the door!”
Bang, bang, bang!
“Son, get up for lunch already, hurry and open the door! Son, son! If you’re still not opening the door, I’m going to let your Dad break down the door or force the lock!”
Standing at the entrance, He Li felt somewhat anxious. She had been knocking on his door all morning to no avail, hence she let him continue sleeping. However, how could he still not open the door when it was already 12 pm?
He did not pick up even after she called him more than 10 times. Could it be….. Her son had died a sudden death after gaming through the night?
At this point, He Li immediately panicked. Turning around, she moved towards the corridor outside the living room, intending to take out the firefighters’ axe and break the door down!
Click!
Just when she decided to get the axe, the door opened. A bare-shouldered Chen Jin rubbed his eyes furiously and asked with some impatience, “Mom, what’s the matter that you’re yelling at me to get up so early?”
“Early? It’s already 12 pm. What were you doing last night? Why are you only getting up now? Usually, you don’t even lock your door, why did you lock it today?” He Li asked a string of questions.
“Mom, don’t ask so much. I went to exercise last night; I over-exercised and did not get a good rest…”
“Exercise?”
Instantly, she came upon a realisation. Smiling, she said, “So you found a girl to have fun with. Do you like her? Son, it’s good to be young, but everything has to be done in moderation.”
Chen Jin could not be bothered to answer. “Mom, I’m so hungry, is there something delicious to eat?” His stomach was starting to growl.
“Yes, lunch is ready. Wash your face and go eat….. Son, you look so weak, you really need to nourish yourself.” Seeing his skinny frame with his ribs showing under his chest, He Li could not help but shake her head .
