Master of Kaidan
Chapter 103 Garbage Mountain and Dump are Different

Chapter 103: Chapter 103 Garbage Mountain and Dump are Different

"There are ominous signs on the garbage mountain?" Feng Xue showed a surprised expression, "Isn’t it said that the landfill is the digestive organ of Infinite City, and that everything other than garbage is decomposed daily?"

"Take a look at that garbage mountain first," Old Li spoke with a tone of helplessness, as if he were standing right beside Feng Xue, pointing at the distant garbage mountain.

Looking at the garbage mountain that towered majestically, which had seemingly become the core of the landfill area, Feng Xue couldn’t help but feel puzzled. It certainly didn’t look like something that would disappear every few days.

"Infinite City initially had only four major landfills, but they were receiving garbage from countless worlds, so the garbage here has piled up to a level that even the landfill’s decomposition can’t keep up with," Old Li explained. "You can think of it as the interior furnaces of the landfill areas being completely buried under garbage, and although they continuously decompose garbage, the mountains just keep getting taller. Thus, collapses on these garbage mountains occasionally occur. Generally, it’s not a big deal; it’s just getting buried by garbage, but some unfortunate fellows would fall into a cavity in the mountain and then nothing remains of them, not even the decomposed slag."

"So, the garbage mountains in the Four Major Landfills are places where you can pick up garbage every day?" Feng Xue’s question made Old Li pause for a moment, but he still answered:

"That’s correct. Moreover, there’s a ticket system in place here; simply put, you pay a fee to enter and can pick up whatever you find, and the managers don’t intervene.

"The main reason for this is that many who have failed in their challenges at the Tower of Babylon reside in the Four Major Landfills," Old Li continued. "Although they aren’t as powerful as the landfill managers, the managers and these experts can’t always stay on the garbage mountains. These experts could secretly stash something, and those checking can’t do anything about it, so they simply adopted a ticket system.

"Of course, there are also corresponding recycling stations run by the managers, where you can sell garbage you don’t want. The purchase price is also higher than in ordinary landfills—at seventy percent of the estimated value."

"That’s just like an orchard model..." Feng Xue grimaced, but didn’t dwell on this issue. Being able to bring Phantom Objects into the area, and the ticket system, were all good news to him. He was more concerned about the earlier topic—

"So, what’s the situation with the ominous signs in the garbage mountain?"

"It’s as you suspected. Those who die on the garbage mountain aren’t decomposed by the landfill, and since there’s no wall around the landfill area, dumping bodies isn’t cost-effective. They just end up left on the garbage mountain. In reality, compared to ’harvesting’ in other landfills, hunting in the garbage mountains of the Four Major Landfills is more like ’hunting’. The garbage here is of interest mainly to those in manufacturing professions, and the ominous signs are what most people are chasing after."

Listening to Old Li’s explanation, Feng Xue understood the exaggerated prevalence of phantom objects in this landfill area. He started walking to retrieve his own Phantom Object while maintaining his conversation with Old Li:

"Based on what you’re saying, is the occurrence of ominous signs in the garbage mountain very high? I’ve slain ominous signs in the wild too, but I never saw any Phantom Objects drop."

"..."

Old Li on the other end of the work badge suddenly fell silent until Feng Xue was almost near the location of the Sealed Golden Chest. Then, he finally spoke:

"Um, did you forget to throw a base after killing an ominous sign?"

"Uh..."

"Phantom Objects are formed when a large amount of elements concentrate on an item, so unless the ominous sign itself carries an ’item,’ you must add an item as a base to potentially form a Phantom Object. Of course, sometimes if the elements are right, even a stone or a stick on the ground can serve as a base. Anyway, there’s no lack of possible bases in the garbage mountain..."

Old Li tried to say this in a way that was least discouraging, and Feng Xue felt a bit embarrassed, realizing that his lack of Phantom Object drops wasn’t because he lacked a base, but rather because he had directly refined the corpses of the ominous signs.

Overall, prophetic signs dropping Phantom Objects were essentially similar to his Golden Finger’s Reforging function, where Pseudo Artifacts or True Objects absorbed elements and, once a certain standard was met, could form a Phantom Object.

However, in terms of success rate, it seemed like the chances of prophetic signs dropping were slightly higher than his own Refining, which Feng Xue could only attribute to the natural conditions where compatible elements more easily aggregated.

After all, he didn’t know which elements were compatible; he was merely Refining based on his needs.

"Hey hey, you haven’t been knocked down, have you? Don’t be sad, since you’ve made it to the Four Major Landfills, with your strength, killing a few prophecies isn’t a hard task. Hey, are you still there?"

Old Li seemed to realize that Feng Xue hadn’t responded in a while, and was a bit worried, but Feng Xue brought his work badge to his ear, smiling and saying,

"It’s nothing, I just got spotted."

"Oh, then it’s fine. The people lurking at the bottom of the landfill area are all nobodies. I’m gonna hang up now, contact me later if there’s any issue." Old Li decisively ended the call, and Feng Xue nonchalantly put it back into his pocket, turned around, and said outright,

"Come out."

"I thought you were just a rookie, but it turns out you’re quite clever, no wonder you’ve made it this far." As Feng Xue finished speaking, three people dressed in a somewhat end-of-century, unconventional style appeared before him. However, Feng Xue didn’t let his guard down. Although he had detected them through the reactivated element of [Sharpness], he could only roughly discern their direction before they fully revealed themselves.

These guys were skilled.

After a moment of standoff, the leader with the bizarre bird-like hairstyle seemed impatient and said,

"Kid, given how you look, the Phantom Objects must be hidden outside the city, right? If you’re smart, you’ll take us there quickly. We might leave you with some dignity if we’re pleased, otherwise, heh heh..."

While delivering this classic villain line, the wild-haired man was clutching a double-barreled shotgun with a nearly three-centimeter caliber.

It looked like a low-quality model consisting only of barrels and a handle, but there was no doubt it was a Phantom Object—

Name: Phantom Object·Double-barreled shotgun

Elements: [Weapon], [General], [Shooting], [Cutting]

Description: This is a double-barreled shotgun that can fire any item smaller than its caliber without needing gunpowder, and for some unknown reason, using it as a melee weapon to strike enemies inflicts cuts like a small knife.

Note: Don’t use it to fight against a Boxer!

...

"So, Phantom Objects could really be any comedic stuff... Speaking of which, if I hadn’t given the remote toy to Chen Xiyao, could I have paired perfectly with this thing? Hmm, and a filter." Just as Feng Xue looked at the Golden Finger’s Phantom Object panel and his mouth twitched slightly, amidst the stunned gazes of the three odd characters, he struck a pose like a Boxer...