"Han Zai, move further away."
"A bit further."
"Further."
Cheng Qi had already put on the Gravity Field Adjustment Gloves and was subtly wiggling his fingers.
These gloves were similar in weight and thickness to ordinary leather gloves, appearing light blue, but upon closer inspection, their surface was integrated with dense chip circuits. When he clenched his fist, a dark blue energy surged on the back of his hand.
Cheng Qi looked up at the massive mountain of medical waste in front of him.
There was no need to remove this entire mountain; he only needed to excavate a suitable space on its side.
Cheng Qi maintained his clenched-fist posture, took a few steps forward, and aimed his palm at the dense, compact pile of trash ahead.
Gritting his teeth, Cheng Qi's eyes snapped open, and he suddenly spread his fingers wide.
Buzz—!
A sound that made his eardrums vibrate violently reached his ears.
Cheng Qi felt a huge numbness, as if his gloved hand had been struck by an electric current. His scalp also tingled immediately afterward.
Immediately.
Visible pale yellow ripples, like those on a calm lake, spread 30 meters forward.
Crack...
Squeak, squeak, squeak...
The sound of metal friction and the tearing of certain polyethylene products arose.
Buzz—
Cheng Qi's other palm also fully opened.
The force field instantly strengthened.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Sounds of levitation came, iron filings peeled off, dust drifted, and his vision was instantly obscured.
Cheng Qi squinted, and after struggling to see the scene before him, his mouth slightly agape, his expression was one of shock.
In the air in front of him, hundreds of pieces of trash, large and small, were suspended, floating in a pale yellow force field.
There was no external force.
Gravity Field Control!
"Good heavens!"
Han Zai's metal head looked up at the sky, "How did he become an immortal!"
Buzz—
Boom—!
Cheng Qi moved both hands horizontally, and the floating trash in front was also moved horizontally by the force field, drifting 10 meters away. The force field retracted, and countless pieces of trash crashed to the ground.
And before his eyes, the spot that was originally piled high with trash.
A space of 60 square meters had already been cleared.
Cheng Qi's heart rate quickened a bit. Although he had imagined it before, he hadn't anticipated such high efficiency.
He looked down at the pair of light blue tech gloves in his hands.
They truly were divine artifacts, solving an urgent problem!
Buzz—
Boom—
Next, Cheng Qi continuously used the Gravity Field Adjustment Gloves to move the trash in front of him.
"Go, Cheng Qi, you're the best in the universe!"
Han Zai finally had some free time. He tied some colorful plastic bags into flower clusters and waved them up and down, doing things in a reversed manner.
An hour later.
Cheng Qi roughly calculated that he had moved nearly two thousand tons of trash.
This was a workload that his former self could never have imagined.
Indeed.
Hundreds of years ago, the reason why humans were able to rise to prominence on Earth and stand out among other animals was precisely because they knew how to use tools rationally.
At this moment.
In front of Cheng Qi, a huge basin had appeared, and the medical waste had been mostly cleared.
During this process, Han Zai also carried out a screening.
They no longer found any relatively complete tech equipment; broken fragments were the norm here.
Cheng Qi stood at the bottom of the basin, which, of course, didn't expose the earth but rather another layer of trash beneath.
He picked up a metal nameplate from the black mud, wiped it gently, revealing a line of text—
—'Dann War Equipment Manufacturing Group'.
Cheng Qi's eyes lit up. At this moment, he truly felt closer to his goal.
Continue moving and sorting.
With the Gravity Field Control Gloves, the efficiency was astonishing.
In about 20 minutes, Cheng Qi and Han Zai had screened approximately 200 tons of discarded trash from the Dann Group.
Their bodies were covered in mud, and their respiratory tracts were filled with metal dust.
Streaks of sweat also ran down Cheng Qi's forehead.
Hardship and exhaustion were nothing; what was unacceptable was that, up until now, he still had no significant gains.
The disposal standards for war-related trash were extremely high; core components had to be removed.
As for firearms, there was no need to mention them; they were basically cut into fragments before disposal.
There was only one hour left until the scheduled meeting with Hyena.
Cheng Qi felt a slight anxiety in his heart.
After another 10 minutes of moving, Cheng Qi stopped his actions.
Deep within the trash mountain, he discovered a sealed, massive metal fuel drum, easily the size of a two-story building, with all entrances and exits welded shut.
"No one would bother to process trash that's about to be discarded."
"Why seal all the entrances?"
Cheng Qi manipulated the Gravity Field Control Gloves, gently shaking the huge fuel drum. A clattering sound of metal colliding came from inside.
"There's something in there."
Cheng Qi narrowed his eyes, then winked at Han Zai. Han Zai understood, and his arm transformed, flipping out a metal cutting torch.
A bright white flame formed a sharp cone, slowly moving across the massive fuel tank. The cut was gradually widening.
This abandoned fuel tank was surprisingly thick; it took a full 9 minutes to cut out an entrance large enough for one person to pass through.
Thud!
Han Zai kicked the fuel tank, and the cut-out steel plate crashed down.
The light inside the drum was dim.
A rotten smell emanated, along with unknown black ashes, steaming and drifting inside.
Cheng Qi squinted, tied a scarf over his mouth and nose, and slowly stepped into the huge fuel drum.
Whoosh!
A white, skeletal object suddenly dropped from above Cheng Qi's head, and a pair of skeletal hands gripped Cheng Qi's neck!
Cheng Qi hadn't anticipated this at all and was thrown into disarray.
He took two steps back, regaining his composure.
Only then did he realize that a white skeleton was suspended above his head. It wasn't a ghost or evil spirit; rather, the skeleton's hands hung down naturally, happening to rest on Cheng Qi's neck.
Cheng Qi took a deep breath, adjusted his mindset, and looked into the depths of the fuel drum.
The next moment.
He witnessed a horrifying scene.
Bodies.
Approximately 30 bodies!
Like the one above, they had died long ago and had all turned into white bones.
"Why would there be dead bodies in the Dann Group's trash?"
Cheng Qi was shocked. Although Scavengers had previously found some human limbs, those were merely from murder and body-dumping cases, nowhere near comparable to what he saw today.
In the dim light.
Some of the bodies' clothing had not completely decayed.
Cheng Qi lowered his head to check their dog tags.
—'Huaxia Interstellar Exploration Team, Sixth Brigade, Third Special Operations Group'.
"They are soldiers."
Cheng Qi's eyes widened slightly, "Exploration Team, Sixth Brigade, Third Group... Isn't this the renowned Limit Warrior Team?"
Cheng Qi, being only eighteen, inevitably harbored a heroic dream.
Before, he had listened to many military programs through his grandfather's old, over-tuned radio.
The Limit Warrior Team were iron-blooded heroes from 20 years ago.
They were fearless and selfless, exploring the stars, and also bore the mission of interstellar rescue, saving tens of thousands of refugees during their service.
Whenever a Limit Warrior Team member sacrificed his life, it would inevitably cause countless civilians to line the streets in mourning.
Also on a day 20 years ago, this heroic team suddenly announced its disbandment and gradually faded from public view.
Once, when a young Cheng Qi belatedly heard about this, he couldn't help but feel regret, even crying in sadness.
Now.
He leaned down to examine the skeletal remains beside him, his pupils slightly contracting.
No.
There were cutting marks on all their neck bones!
The weapon was sharp, and the force was great!
Cheng Qi's body trembled slightly.
"They were all slit by someone!"
"And then sealed in this iron can and discarded as trash!"
"There must be a dark truth hidden within this!"
Out of regret for the heroes, Cheng Qi collected their dog tags one by one.
"Ding Feng..."
"Lin Lanyue..."
"Long Zhanxiao..."
Cheng Qi memorized their names, hoping that one day, if he could leave Earth, he would, to the best of his ability, uncover the truth behind their deaths.
When he reached the deepest part of the fuel tank.
Cheng Qi saw eight relatively 'large' white skeletal remains.
More accurately, those eight skeletons were wearing a rather large combat suit.
"That is..."
Cheng Qi's body began to tremble uncontrollably, "That's the Limit Warrior Team, and what they are wearing... is the X-12 Extreme Warrior Exoskeleton that I've fantasized about countless times!"