Reboot: Mechanic

Shi Tian wanted to enquire a bit more from Old Man Chao, but never did he expect his question had frightened the crap out of him, causing him to flee like there was no tomorrow.

"Sigh, seems like I have to do my own research." Shi Tian lamented. 

At the end of the day, only he could rely on himself and not others. 

Shaking his head, Shi Tian headed back to the main lobby and entered the elevator. As for the security guard, he was already out patrolling. 

Sometime later, Shi Tian retrieved a metallic key that was imprinted with his specification and unlocked the door to enter room 404. Taking a few glances at the interior, Shi Tian breathed a sigh of relief.

After roaming in the wilderness and going through near-death situations, it was indeed relaxing to know he could finally have a safe habitat to rest in.

The air purifier in the living room gives off a sense of freshness, though, he merely believed it was just his mentality working. For some reason, he had never been affected by the air quality within the environment, especially when he was in the wilderness where pollution was at the extreme.

'Ugh, my head hurts,' Shi Tian thought to himself, walking toward the bed and collapsing on top of it. Today had truly been a hectic day for him, and it was only now did he finally get a chance to rest properly.

His physical body was completely fine after some recovery, but his mentality was taxing on him. 

Without realizing it, Shi Tian's eyes gradually closed as he fell into a deep slumber. Maybe it was because of the fact that he knew he was safe here which caused his vigilance to lower, allowing his body to finally take the proper rest he needed.

Being in a deep slumber, Shi Tian found himself dreaming and reminiscing about the past. A past that he knew he would never be able to enjoy or experience again.

–

By the time Shi Tian woke up, the sky outside the window was quite dark already. 

'Why is my face a bit wet?' Shi Tian wondered silently, placing his hand on his face, only to realize it was droplets of tears.

"Hah, must have been the dream I was having…" He smiled bitterly, walking toward the bathroom to wash his face. With the water splashing on his face, Shi Tian felt refreshed as he stared at the mirror, looking at the reflection. 

A moment of silence occurred when Shi Tian finally had the chance to look at his current appearance. Nothing much had changed on the surface, but the mentality and experience he had gone through had changed immensely. 

The most concerning matter was the fact that he still looked like a youth despite not being in this current era. His body hadn't undergone any changes, especially when his metabolism was quite messed up. It was as if he was merely asleep for a few days and not 100-something-plus years. 

"I feel indifferent when killing or when seeing a bloody scene. And I don't even have much emotion left. Even being angry doesn't affect my thinking." Shi Tian mumbled, touching the mirror as if he was searching for an answer.

"Sigh, forget it." Shi Tian decided to leave the matter aside again. Every time he attempted to figure things out regarding what happened to his body and how he managed to remain the same throughout these years, his head would start getting a headache. 

Instead of causing himself to have a headache, it was better to be more practical and worry about surviving now.

Wiping his face with a clean towel, Shi Tian went to the living room and checked his inventory. There was barely any Source Crystal left in his pocket and only a handful of grenades. As for the cartridges for his pistol, only 5 were left, and not much else. 

Shi Tian took a deep breath and exhaled softly, feeling a heavy burden was still placed upon him. Everything he had right now was temporary, and without a way to earn an income, he couldn't maintain such status.

Chaotic world or not, money was still an important factor. Without money, one can't even enjoy something simple as proper air. 

Based on his observation, the slum area's air quality was around the 80s whereas his current area was around the 50s. It goes to show that even Gearits City was not able to completely blockade the pollution from the wilderness.

'Let's check up on the current news and see what I can find.' Shi Tian thought to himself, browsing through the Cellos device.

While browsing, he learned that the military had uncovered a new region, but was unable to explore much due to the high pollution and monsters that resided in the region. It was estimated that each of the monsters on the outer region were around Grade E whereas the further one ventures in, the more they will discover Grade D and above monsters. 

The grading of monsters ranked from the lowest F to the highest A, with special cases being listed as Grade S. Encountering a Grade S monster was essentially walking through the door of hell because no one could survive against them. 

'Boring,' Shi Tian was uninterested in the military actively looking for people to conduct surveillance first as the vanguard. 

The military was just a bunch of greedy people, so why would they be willing to offer others a chance to explore the new region if they could have gotten the resources themselves?

The simple answer would be that they are uncertain of the possibilities and wished for others to be a scapegoat first.

And just when Shi Tian was about to browse through another topic, he read the last sentence from the article.

The New Region is said to be an experiment site from the times of the Great Disaster! 

'An experiment site?' Shi Tian nearly dropped his Cellos device in astonishment.