Richest Rag-picker

Chapter 499: Chapter 471: It Won’t Come Off

The main culprit behind all this, Fang Chenyi, was completely oblivious to everything.

Of course, even if he knew, all he could do was shrug and say he was sorry.

After all, he hadn’t caused any of this intentionally.

After flipping the asteroid over, Fang Chenyi began to inspect it carefully once again.

But even after inspecting the entire thing, he still hadn’t made any new discoveries.

Shaking his head in resignation, he had no choice but to return to the spot with the circular disc.

Staring at the strange patterns on its surface, he was at a loss for what to do.

He reached out, trying to retrieve his Rune Stone, only to discover with dismay that the thing seemed to have fused to the surface.

No matter how hard Fang Chenyi pulled, he couldn’t get it to budge. He even took out his garbage-picker and clamped it directly onto the Rune Stone, trying to wrench it free. But the only result was that he lifted the entire asteroid up again.

’Fuck, it’s a one-time deal? Once it’s on, you can’t get it off?’

’That was my special reward! Damn it, why does this feel like I’ve suffered a double loss?’

’Hey, System, System! Don’t you think you owe me an explanation? Forget about not getting the asteroid, now my special reward is gone with it?’

Who knew if it was because the system just liked being cursed at. Previously, when Fang Chenyi had spoken to it politely, it had never once responded. But the last two times he’d cussed it out, it had eagerly scrambled out to answer.

[Host’s query detected. The system will now provide an answer: The Host has discovered the asteroid’s hidden secret and performed the primary processing. The one-month time limit to find the asteroid has been lifted. The asteroid now belongs to the Host, who may dispose of it at will.]

The notification in his mind left Fang Chenyi a little confused.

’What’s this all about? It already belongs to me?’

’And the one-month time limit is gone, too? But I haven’t even taken it with me. Could it be that just picking it up with the garbage-picker counted as completing the mission?’

After thinking it over, that seemed to be the only reasonable explanation.

He sighed in resignation. ’If I’d known it was this simple, I could have just grabbed it with the garbage-picker from the start. Why did I have to fret so much?’

’Sigh, this system is such a troll. If it knew, why didn’t it just say so? It made me fumble around here for nothing. Is it just messing with me for fun?’

Of course, he was just venting. No matter how dissatisfied he was, Fang Chenyi wasn’t going to actually do anything to the system. After all, he owed his current success entirely to it.

But then, another question occurred to Fang Chenyi. He called out to the system in his mind again:

’System, System. I know your ass is still listening. I have a question: my special reward, that Rune Stone, is stuck now. What do I do?’

[Host’s query detected. The system will now provide an answer: The Rune Stone is, in fact, a key for this asteroid. After the Host collects enough keys and inserts them all, there will be an unexpected surprise.]

’Well, I’ll be damned. An unexpected reward.’ Hearing the system’s reply, Fang Chenyi’s heart leaped with excitement.

’An unexpected surprise. If the system itself calls it a surprise, it can’t be anything ordinary.’

’So, according to the system, this Rune Stone is actually a key. In that case, what’s inside the asteroid? Could it not be a solid rock after all?’

’Could it be hollow?’

At this thought, Fang Chenyi reached out and knocked on the asteroid’s surface. TAP, TAP, TAP.

However, the sound was indistinguishable from knocking on solid rock.

’Clearly, it’s just a rock.’

Still, the system had given him that explanation, so Fang Chenyi knew it had to be true. He hurriedly shouted to the system in his mind again:

’Finish what you were saying, damn it! Don’t you know how annoying it is to leave someone hanging? The rest of the keys! How do I get the rest of the keys? Do I just have to go pick up more of the right items?’

It seemed Fang Chenyi had figured out this was the way to get the system’s attention, so he kept up the verbal abuse.

However, the result was not what he’d expected. This time, no matter how much he yelled, the system’s voice didn’t sound again.

This left him speechless. ’This system is so damn unreliable.’

’Leaving things half-said like that is just infuriating.’ But there was nothing Fang Chenyi could do about the system. He shook his head, his gaze falling back on the asteroid before him.

After a moment’s hesitation, he once again clamped the garbage-picker onto the asteroid’s only indentation. With a heave, he lifted the entire thing up again.

With a flick of his arm, he released the garbage-picker’s grip. The indentation that had been facing up instantly slammed down to face the bottom with a THUD.

Fang Chenyi did this to be absolutely certain.

Who knew if current technology could even reach these depths of lava? But if some device did manage to dive this far down, his actions would keep the secret hidden.

After all, an asteroid this large would be impossible to retrieve from the lava, let alone simply flip over.

Not only that, but it would also prevent the indentation from being detected by any scans.

After doing all this, Fang Chenyi put the garbage-picker back into his woven bag and carefully stowed it away, keeping it close.

Only then did he head toward the nearby edge. Since there was nothing more he could do with the asteroid and he couldn’t take it with him, Fang Chenyi decided he might as well leave for now.

He’d been down here long enough, after all. Who knew how worried Qi Xiaotian and the others must be?

With that, Fang Chenyi reached the edge. He grabbed the hard rock surface with both hands and began to climb.

One meter, five meters.

Soon, Fang Chenyi climbed out of the pale blue, rippling zone and entered the orange-red lava region.

At the same time, a red glow once again enveloped Fang Chenyi’s vision, reducing his visibility to zero.

Using both his hands and feet, Fang Chenyi scrambled upward.

Ten minutes, then half an hour passed.

Time ticked by, but Fang Chenyi was dismayed to find that after climbing for so long, he still hadn’t reached the top. This left him thoroughly puzzled.

’I knew it was a long way, but I don’t remember it taking this long to get down, did it?’

Being completely blind now made Fang Chenyi extremely uncomfortable.

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