Chapter 115: Disassembly (1/2)
Two days later, Lu Yin weaved through the comets flitting through space and appeared at a dull yellow planet. This was one of Iltoco’s recycling plants; the entire planet was under their control. His spaceship was allowed to land after they confirmed his identity and purpose, and he met a plump middle-aged man with a bright smile down below.
“Welcome to Iltoco; I am Ahke, the manager at this small plant,” the middle-aged man said eloquently.
“I’m Lu Yin,” Lu Yin said with a node.
“Welcome, Student Lu. Let me give you a tour,” Manager Ahke said cordially, hiding his shock at the surname.
Lu Yin looked up at the dark yellow sky without any trace of a sun. The thick layers of yellow clouds gave off an oppressive feeling that was anything but welcoming. He shook his head, “It’s alright, Manager Ahke, please bring me to the mission location.”
“Alright, come with me” Ahke nodded, leading him to a giant plane that quickly left the station and flew into the distance. He started a brief introduction to the plant, “Student Lu, this planet is full of toxic gases that make it unlivable. Iltoco bought it specifically to store scrap metal; the stuff is everywhere, from abandoned spaceships and planes to weapons and armor…”
Lu Yin looked on calmly. This was a planet approaching its demise; perhaps it had birthed a civilization once just like Earth, but various causes had left it on the verge of destruction. It could only be used as a dumpyard now, and a few hundred millennia could drive it out of existence.
The ground was unbelievably dry, with not a single source of water to be seen anywhere. People in hazard suits were sifting through all the rubbish down below, likely slaves that Iltoco had brought over from other backward planets to search for useful items in the trash. There were more of these people than he could count; had Earth not been protected by his identity, its cultivators would have been sent to battlefields and the normal people would join those down below, living on such abandoned planets and sifting through rubbish until they died.
“Student Lu, which disassembler do you use?” Manager Ahke asked. There was just too much garbage in the universe, and a considerable portion of it was man-made. Many companies sifted through abandoned trash and reused what they could; this both reduced their costs and cleared the universe’s trash. There were many different models of disassemblers, devices powered by star energy that could strip materials apart. The better one’s control of star energy, the finer the disassembly. Astral-10 accepted such missions because it trained students in star energy control.
“I don’t need any disassemblers,” Lu Yin replied.
Ahke was stunned, “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
Lu Yin frowned, “Find me a quiet place, I don’t need any disassemblers.”
Lu Yin walked down from the plane and frowned at a breath of pungent gas. While this gas wasn’t toxic to cultivators, it stung.
“I’ll have someone get you an air freshener,” Ahke offered immediately.
Lu Yin shook his head, “No need. You can leave, I’ll call you when I’m done.”
Ahke didn’t bother with any more pleasantries and just left. Once he was on the plane, however, he switched his gadget on, “General Manager, the student from Astral-10 doesn’t need any disassembler. He either relies on his star energy or some innate gift.”
“Must be an innate gift; he’d need to be a lockbreaker to disassemble materials with star energy alone, and he wouldn’t accept a mission like this if he was. Don’t bother him; wait for the results and we’ll see,” a pleasant female voice rang through. Ahke acknowledged and hung up.
The mound Lu Yin had been brought to wasn’t all that tall. He flew up and looked through the countless abandoned planes and spaceships in his surroundings. They came in all sorts of sizes, with the biggest one extending far into the horizon. Glancing at the dark yellow clouds, he stretched his limbs and summoned his die, “Time to start, let’s hope I roll a two right away.”