Gods, Ashes Descend

Chapter 20 The Bitter Reality

An hour later, Carl parked the car in the wilderness and looked at the dozens of prosthetic bodies that Li Wei had taken out, shouting excitedly.

"Bro, no wonder you're hiding from the company. What kind of new technology is this? Never mind, don't tell me."

All I know is that if we do this a few dozen more times, we'll be rich! We can rent a decent place in the city and replace this beat-up car of mine.

Li Wei poured cold water on the idea without hesitation.

"All I know is to do it again, make them realize something's wrong, and then set up a high-end cybernetic body as bait. You're doomed."

Karl paused for a moment, then asked in surprise.

"Why am I the one left to die? Aren't we on the same side?"

Li Wei shrugged.

"My human transport bag makes getting through checkpoints a breeze; it's quite useful. What about you?"

"But why don't we find corpses ourselves and make prosthetic bodies instead of relying on the scavengers?"

"No, the bodies all belong to someone else, unless you want to get shot."

Karl's mind raced, and he clapped his hands excitedly.

"Yeah, to hell with the cleaners, we can totally take on smuggling jobs! Getting things into the city can be a huge sum of money."

Seeing Karl getting into it, Li Wei rubbed his forehead and gave him a reminder.

"Working is risky. I don't want to stand out. If I'm exposed, I'll be hunted down by a bunch of people."

Carl, with a knowing look on his face, patted Levi on the shoulder.

"Don't worry about me selling you out. Even if you're taken away by the company, I won't get a single penny. After all, the company dogs would rather give me a bullet to the head than a large sum of money."

Don't worry, trust me. Nobody cares about two drunkards who come to the city to drink. I'm a regular customer, so it's perfectly normal for me to corrupt a newcomer.

Didn't you say you wanted to buy a motorhome? The cheapest cargo van costs at least 20,000 yuan, and a fully furnished motorhome with solar power would cost at least 70,000 to 80,000 yuan.

And if you're out there alone, you don't need to build two machine guns or anything like that for defense.

A campervan with nothing in it is a tempting target even for me in the Badlands, let alone homeless people; it's like easy prey delivered to their doorstep.

Seventy or eighty thousand yuan is a huge sum of money. Even if Li Wei really picked up trash, he would have to work for ten years or so. Moreover, Li Wei couldn't possibly stay here for ten years. Faced with the harsh reality, it seemed that he had no choice but to take the risk.

"Alright, I'll take the job, but you need to be more discreet about your cover, or you'll get ripped off."

Carl grabbed the steering wheel and slammed on the gas, shouting happily as he sped off.

"Screw the trash, I'm going to turn things around! Don't worry, brother, I'm got some sense, otherwise I would have been dead already."

Now let's go sell this pile of junk. Buddy, I'll treat you to a nice meal at a restaurant, buy you a decent set of clothes, and tomorrow we'll go to the middleman to pick up some work.

"Who buys these counterfeit prosthetic bodies?"

"Outsiders, Adcardo, these are the only reliable ones among the wanderers."

Although the money offered was less, it was safe.

Although the Night Wanderers of the Chaotic Blade Society pay more, they're a bunch of scum, and you never know if they'll suddenly decide to shoot you when they're unhappy.

"You know quite a few powerful figures."

"Of course, your Uncle Karl has been working at the bottom for thirty years, he has a lot of connections, let me tell you..."

We drove at breakneck speed, chatting all the way, until we were about 300 meters from the Adcado camp.

He rolled down the car window and waved towards the campsite.

He turned to Li Wei and said.

"Li, get out of the car. We'll put the prosthetic body in the box and carry it over."

Li Wei glanced in the direction of the camp and asked a question.

"Should we drive there and then deal with it?"

"Want some bullets? I bet there are several sniper rifles aimed at our balls right now. We're outsiders, we're not allowed in the camp."

He simply got out of the car. He was just a lowly garbage collector, not V-Zhentian, so it was normal for the camp not to let him in.

As Carl and I walked toward the camp carrying the bags, two motorcycle taxis soon appeared, with two gunmen on the back pointing their guns at Levi and Carl.

Upon getting closer, Carl recognized someone and immediately shouted.

"Hey! Mitch, it's me, Garbage Collector Carl. I got a batch of decent cybernetic bodies, and you guys were the first ones I thought of."

After getting out of the car, Mitch observed that only Levi and his companion were around, and then raised his hand to signal them to put their guns away.

He spoke to Li Wei and the other person.

"Open the bag, let's check it."

Carl quickly bent down and opened it, revealing a jumbled mess of prosthetic bodies, some still bloodstained, but most of them were intact.

Mitch whistled.

"That's good, quite a lot, but we'll have to wait for our prosthetic doctor to examine it before we can say how much it's worth."

Carl pulled a pack of cigarettes from his chest and handed one to everyone.

"I know the rules, we'll wait here."

Someone came, put the bag on the back of the motorcycle, and rode back.

Mitch lit a cigarette, nodded in Levi's direction, and asked.

"Brother, what's your background? You've been in the military, and you have the feel of someone who just came from the battlefield. You don't look like a garbage collector, but you're still a natural person. Soldiers all have to use cybernetic bodies to protect their lives. It's pretty strange."

Li Wei lit a cigarette, took a puff, and said calmly.

"I'm a garbage collector now, and I've been doing it for over a month."

"There's a story behind it, but I won't ask any more questions."

Since they were not familiar with each other, they had nothing to say to each other and fell into silent waiting.

A moment later, Mitch's eyes lit up.

"The money has been transferred. The goods this time are good. Please reserve them for us next time you have this kind."

Carl was all smiles.

"OK, wow~ that's a lot. Let's go, Li, let's get a good drink."

After driving to motels, Carl transferred 600 euros to Levi, saying the rest was for expenses. He then went inside and drank to his heart's content, eventually collapsing on the floor from exhaustion.

Li Wei helped Karl back into the car, figured out how to use the accelerator and brake, and slowly drove off in first gear. The dazed Karl kept muttering that he wanted to get rich, to live a decent life, and at least eat real meat before he died, instead of that damned synthetic meat. He told the damned noodles to die.

The next day, I heard Karl howling like a banshee early in the morning.

"My car!"

When Li Wei opened the door, he saw engine oil spilled all over the floor, and trash he had vomited inside the car.

He sighed and called out.

"You can forget about getting any jobs with that piece of junk. You need to get it overhauled."

Carl looked grief-stricken.

"If you can't drive, just say so. It's obvious that you drove back in first gear. The gearbox is almost ruined."

Li Wei crossed his arms and leaned against his door, complaining.

"Who told you to drink yourself into a stupor? I had to slowly drive the car back. You can take your time fixing it."

"Can't you just book a room?"

"Who knew your beat-up car was this bad?"

"Fuck, even a new car can't handle you driving like that. Damn it, I have to teach you how to drive before I take on any jobs. You can't do it if you don't know how to drive."

But for now, you go fetch water, I'll fix the car.

"You decide."