Jiang Ye thought this robot was so advanced that it would fetch a good price. Even if it was destroyed by bullets, its many components would be worth something.
However, he never expected that after throwing Gao Yu's body into the trading pod, there would be no information displayed on the screen.
Jiang Ye thought the trading pod was stuck. He took the body out and put it back in several times, but there was still no response. No item name, no appraisal.
"Hey, this is weird," Jiang Ye scratched his head.
He changed his approach. He reached into Gao Yu's chest, blown open by bullets, and fumbled through a mess of colorful wires to pull out a small relay. Instead of selling the body, he put the relay into the trading pod alone.
Finally, there was information:
[Item: Small Relay]
[Item Description: Cheap mass-produced part, low technical content, low cost, complicated recycling process. It's electronic junk that nobody wants.]
[Appraisal: 0 Yuan]
Jiang Ye was stunned.
He quickly reached into Gao Yu's chest again and unscrewed a large bolt.
He threw it into the trading pod, and the bolt made a clinking sound twice.
[Item: Bolt]
[Item Description: Aluminum alloy screw, rough craftsmanship.]
[Appraisal: 3 Yuan]
Jiang Ye buried his head in Gao Yu's chest, peering into the internal structure and parts. There weren't many screws in her whole body. He wondered if selling them all would amount to thirty yuan.
Jiang Ye was unwilling to give up. He pulled out many different parts and put them into the trading pod: capacitors, transistors, balance springs, mainsprings. The results were disheartening; not a single one was valuable!
Perhaps a living spy robot could fetch some money, but this one was riddled with ten holes from five shots and was completely shattered. The trading pod wouldn't take it. The only way to sell it was to dismantle it into parts, but selling all of them would probably only get a thousand yuan, which wasn't worth the trouble.
Jiang Ye decided to first throw the body into the prey warehouse. If he needed any parts later, he could salvage them from the corpse.
Gao Yu wasn't worth much. He then went to check on Natalia.
The wind howled outside the base. As soon as Jiang Ye stepped out, he sneezed several times. To warm himself up, he immediately started running.
He climbed over a high slope and saw Natalia, with her blonde hair, lying on the cold ground.
Jiang Ye walked over, picked her up by the waist, and slung her over his shoulder.
Natalia's model might have been slightly more advanced than Gao Yu's, as she was heavier, weighing about 150 pounds. The extra tens of pounds were probably all in her chest and hips. Jiang Ye painstakingly carried her back to the base, placed her on the floor, stripped off her clothes, and marveled at the lifelike artificial skin. Her skin looked exactly like human skin from a distance, and up close, it was even more realistic than a real person's. Besides the fine hair, one could faintly see the veins under the skin, and even moles and acne!
"Craftsmanship!" Jiang Ye exclaimed, amazed by the advanced manufacturing of the Mil people. He reached out and touched it, feeling the advanced nature of the manufactured product.
Then, he threw Natalia into the trading pod.
As expected, there was still no information.
Just like Gao Yu, she wasn't worth anything once she was dead.
Jiang Ye sighed, carried the body to the prey warehouse, and dumped it in a corner.
He returned to the base, added some coal to the stove, took off his clothes, and went to sleep.
The next morning, he was woken up again by the cold because the stove fire had died out.
Jiang Ye sat up, shivering as he cleaned out the ashes and added new coal to start the fire. Once the stove's heat picked up, he stopped shivering.
A thick layer of ice had formed on the top of the window, which gradually melted, turning into water droplets all over the window.
Jiang Ye wanted to boil some corn to eat, but suddenly realized there was no water in the base. There was only about half a small cup of water left in a pot, not even enough to make a cup of coffee.
No water was simple enough; there was a lake nearby.
He put on his padded jacket and pants, grabbed the pot and a pickaxe, and went out.
The cold wind was biting. As soon as he stepped out, he shivered violently.
The cold air, like slippery ice snakes, tried to burrow into his padded clothes. Even tightening his clothes couldn't stop it.
The ground, originally dark brown, now had a pale white sheen. Jiang Ye thought it had snowed, so he bent down to look closely. It turned out to be frost, spread across the ground like large salt grains. The climate on this planet was very strange; so many small frost particles had appeared overnight.
"Damn, it's really cold!" Jiang Ye cursed. His face went numb from just a few seconds of bending down to look at the ground.
It was probably twenty degrees Celsius below zero, a temperature where water froze instantly. Standing outside and urinating in this weather, if he drank a lot of water, there was a risk of his bird freezing off.
He walked towards the lake, braving the biting wind.
The entire lake was completely frozen. The ice was so thick that not only could people stand on it, but even the base vehicle could probably drive on it. Due to the severe drop in temperature, the ice layer was not smooth but covered with white cracks like a spiderweb.
Jiang Ye walked carefully on the ice, reaching the center of the lake, where the water should be the cleanest.
He placed the pot by his feet, raised the pickaxe over his head, and swung it down hard!
*Crack!*
With a grating sound, cracks appeared on the ice.
He swung again!
*Crack!*
A few small pieces of ice were chipped off. Jiang Ye bent down and picked them up into the pot.
After smashing it more than twenty times, he finally managed to carve a small pit into the hard ice layer. He threw the flying ice chunks into the pot, and soon it was half full.
"That's enough, time to pack up!"
Jiang Ye carried the pot and ran back, his hands frozen stiff.
As soon as he entered the base, a wave of warmth hit him.
Jiang Ye placed the pot on the stove.
The ice in the pot melted quickly, soon becoming a pot of water.
Jiang Ye threw in two ears of corn to boil. While waiting for them to cook, he opened the chat channel.
He wanted to know one thing: in such cold weather, how did people without stoves or padded clothes manage to survive?
In the past, the chat channel was always lively. After all, nearly 100,000 people shared it. Even if only one in a thousand people spoke, that would be hundreds of people.
But it was very strange. When he opened the chat channel today, no one spoke for a long time.
The entire channel was eerily silent, so quiet it was unsettling.
Jiang Ye scrolled up through the message history. Starting from last night, the chat records gradually decreased, and the content was even more shocking!
"I Can't Push In": Brothers, we're really freezing to death! These padded jackets don't keep us warm!
"Little Fat Rat Eating Noodles": I have a great tip for warding off the cold: do squats in place. As long as you keep moving, you won't be cold!
"Fighting with Old Wolf": I'm already digging a cave. Once it's dug, I'll hide in it to avoid the wind. It's not the cold that's the problem, it's the wind that's deadly.
"Old Wolf": @Fighting with Old Wolf, brother, what's your beef with me?
"W Ye's Wife": *Sob sob sob* This coal burns so fast. If it keeps burning at this rate, I'll have no coal for heating in a few days!
"Grave": I envy you for still having heating supplies. I'm preparing to dig my own grave. I'm afraid I won't make it through this winter.
Each message was more tragic than the last.
Hearing them was shocking, and seeing them brought tears.
A strong sense of justice and sympathy surged in Jiang Ye's heart. He felt that in such a critical moment, he had to do something! He couldn't just stare at the chat channel and do nothing!
What should he do?
Like, eat a corn first!
Jiang Ye moved his bear-skin stool and sat by the pot. He lifted the lid. The cooked corn trembled gently in the boiling water.