One day, she would leave this slagheap behind.
The lessons she learned here—how to endure, how to survive, how to master her own abilities—would be the foundation that carried her into Comosta.
Until then, every piece of rubble was a test.
Every trip an exercise in control and resilience.
Iseul tightened her grip on the trolley handles, exhaled through the mask of her suit, and started forward again.
One more trip.
One more step.
One step closer to the world her parents had dreamed of—and the Gift she was determined to master.
The scrapyard was a harsh testament to remain, forming a dangerous maze of chaos, radiation, mutated beast plant life, and wasted progress.
She climbed her way back down the valley pit, unloaded her trolley, and got to work.
Having dug for three hours so far and created piles of usable things like clothes of all different grades, old torn nano skin suits, solar and pulse batteries, Mecha drones, other technology pieces, and different types of corroded metals, she was exhausted as she sat down taking a breather.
She was quite surprised that she hadn't shown any signs of the radiation having any effect on her despite her low radiation suit protection.
What it gave her was almost nonexistent in the E section environment.
Radiation level was up by 9.3% compared to the F section.
Which may not seem like a lot, but that is a lot for radiation.
She eventually got back up after a short break and busied herself with going back in and sorting through all the scraps of things.
Eventually, after digging deeper until reaching solid red radiation-barren ground, Iseul struck something unusual.
"Hmm? What is this, ashrat?"
Iseul moved more trash and broken junk aside.
"?!!!!"
She was a bit in shock.
Could this really be what she thought it was?
"Oh my giftedness, junkfuck!!"
She cleared away the last of the metal and rubble until half the body of a massive mecha was revealed, buried sideways under more stuff.
"Woah!"
Iseul nearly jumped for joy seeing the large figure.
The bottom half looked like it once belonged to a pleasure-model or maybe even a synthetic brain unit, though badly warped and stripped of its outer shell.
Whoever discarded it must have thought it worthless.
But Iseul didn't care.
After spending so much effort unearthing it, she wasn't about to leave it behind.
She had already found quite a bit of F- and D-grade metal scattered around the site, and this mech frame was worth far more.
"Two birds, one stone," she muttered, stuffing the surrounding scraps into her bags while making space around the mech.
Tears welled up in her eyes when she pried open a rusted hatch along its side.
It was B-grade alloy!
No signature locks, no scan-keys—just open.
Either it was defective, or once used for something disposable.
Still, even broken, she knew she had struck it big.
Material alone was worth 150,000 credits at least!
This area had to be rich once, or else why throw away good stuff that still worked?
She'd never understand the life of the financially privileged.
If she could salvage and refurbish even part of it, she could set up a stall or trade the pieces to the twins at Moon Market.
Excitement only lasted a moment before survival instinct kicked back in.
She began clearing a proper path, organizing her haul into bags—metal and sellable scraps in one pile, rarer components in another.
"I should have come to Section E a long while ago, ashrat."
Iseul mentally praised herself, despite normally bad luck.
Even though she would have probably died from radiation alone.
She planned to keep the expensive parts for private trade and sell the rest by weight.
But as she sorted, a faint rustle froze her in place.
"Mm?"
Iseul quickly turned, looking around on guard.
"Rustle."
Hearing the noise again, she moved closer to the sound, pulse ray gun warming up.
"Sweak! Hiss."
Over there, by the trolley!
Iseul pressed closer, pulse quickening, then inched toward the source of the sound.
A glint of silver caught her eye.
For a second, she thought it was just falling loose junk—until it moved.
"Is it a metal rat, ashrat?!"
Her stomach dropped.
She locked eyes with vibrant reptilian green ones.
"!!!!"
Lurking in the shadows was an E-level metal-eating ratshake, its eyes fixed on her.
Gasp.
She jumped, startled.
Iseul stumbled back, falling to the floor, her pulse ray sliding a few feet away from her.
Panic seized her limbs.
The snake constricted itself into a ball, feeling threatened by her looming presence.
"Hiss."
She tried to steel her body from moving, afraid to provoke the already provoked snake.
She stayed put until her nose itched.
"Oh no, rustfuck!"
Iseul tried to hold the sneeze in, wanting to live another day.
But sometimes, survival is not up to people—it's up to fate.
"Aaachoo!"
She sneezed harshly and loudly, spooking the snake.
"Hiss."
Before she could react, it lunged.
At the last second, she threw up her arms as the snake lunged for her face.
The beast sank its fangs into her forearm.
"Ahhhhh, hollowcut!!"
Iseul's vision doubled and filled with black spots painting over her view.
Pain exploded as her scream tore across the clearing.
Her radiation suit alarms confirmed her worst fear:
{Radiation suit breach detected. Emergency medical attention required within fifteen minutes to prevent fatal contamination.}
Her vision blurred.
Where's her weapon?!
Wrenchprick, she didn't have it!
Iseul searched wildly. Her gun was dropped.
She fumbled for her pulse ray and blasted the ratshake's body into fragments—
But its head stayed latched, teeth locked deep into her arm.
Her radiation suit had been breached—emergency alert:
{Reach nearby Radiation Expeller or Absorber in fifteen minutes before fatal exposure sets in.}
Jang Iseul's eyes widened in horror.
She pulled out her F-grade alloy HoloRay Blade from its sheath, prying the snake's jaws off her suit, which was now punctured along with her arm.
She was pretty sure it was broken.
'Arcfuck! What the hell can Iseul do now?!'
She really felt regret now!
She had to get out of here quickly!
Iseul dragged herself up.
In shock, she fell back to the ground, dizziness overwhelming her.
"Clank clank, rumble rumble."
The area of scrap she was in, where the snake came from, began shaking.
The ground rumbled again as things began falling.
The shadow of the 2-meter-high perimeter wall she created began encasing her and her shadow as it came tumbling down her way.
Iseul looked up, having no strength left to move, having used it all defending herself and prying its head off her arm.
"Am I going to die a glitchspawn?"
The thought hammered through her mind as blood rushed from the wound—
And as she watched the junk quake bury her alive.
She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the items that were going to be the cause of her death crush her.