From Scrap Mecha to Sci-Fi Heaven

"Yo, isn't this Lin Xiao Ge? Back again, huh? Planning to take care of this old man's business today?"

Upon entering a scrap yard, the old shopkeeper, who was leisurely sipping tea and basking in the sun on a recliner, instantly perked up when he saw Lin Yu. His wrinkled face broke into a smile, resembling a blooming chrysanthemum.

"Well, that depends on whether you have anything I can use, Zhang Ye."

Lin Yu expressed his gratitude for the old man's enthusiasm but remained indifferent.

This old man's scrap yard was the one he visited the least.

It was simple; this old man had a sharp eye and never let anything slip through the cracks.

However, precisely because of this, there were actually the most good items here.

Previously, he had painfully bought several important components from this place, which was why the old man was so enthusiastic about him.

"Hahaha, feel free to pick! If you find something, I'll give you a fair price."

Upon hearing Lin Yu's words, the old man laughed heartily.

"Come on, who comes to a place like yours looking for a fair price? You should give me a discount."

Lin Yu retorted with a hint of annoyance, not holding back as he began rummaging through the mountain of various old parts and tools in the junkyard.

In a scavenger recycling station like this, the main income comes from sorting out various regular recyclable materials, which are then sold in bulk to various processing and recycling channels. The remaining unsellable items are left here for anyone to pick through, with on-the-spot pricing.

After a rough scan, due to the old man's good eye for goods, there were indeed some valuable items here.

Unfortunately, what he needed right now was only No. 5 heavy hydraulic oil.

"Hmm?"

After rummaging through piles of electronic waste for nearly half an hour, Lin Yu's eyes suddenly lit up.

It was a micro supercomputer the size of a wardrobe!

In the intelligent era, computers are the soul and productivity. Even the smallest supercomputers are worth a lot, and it's obvious just by thinking that this thing must be just an empty shell.

However, due to power issues, supercomputers generate an enormous amount of heat during operation, and many superconducting components can only operate at room temperature or even ultra-low temperatures. Therefore, supercomputers have extremely high cooling requirements.

Hydraulic oil, despite its name, serves more than just a transmission role in hydraulic equipment.

If a hydraulic system overheats, it can lead to a series of performance issues, so hydraulic oil often has a very high specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity.

In simple terms, specific heat capacity determines the maximum heat absorption capacity of a unit substance, while thermal conductivity determines the speed of heat absorption. The higher the specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity, the better the cooling effect.

Moreover, because it is oil, it can even directly provide immersion cooling for electronic components.

Thus, many high-grade hydraulic oils serve not only as hydraulic transmission media but also as cooling fluids for various equipment.

Especially for supercomputers, they typically use high-grade hydraulic oils!

Lin Yu was immediately invigorated and hurriedly dug through the other electronic waste, pulling out the entire wardrobe-sized supercomputer.

As expected, it was just an empty shell; the valuable electronic components inside had long been stripped away.

But when he gently shook it, a very viscous liquid sloshing sound came from the shell's inner layers.

This type of supercomputer not only uses oil for internal cooling but also has a large amount of cooling liquid filled in the shell.

"Zhang Ye, I'll take this supercomputer cabinet; it would make a nice display piece."

Lin Yu said nonchalantly, directly calling out to the old man.

"Hehe, ten thousand, no bargaining."

The old man chuckled, looking at Lin Yu with a hint of smugness in his eyes.

"Ten thousand? You might as well go rob a bank."

Lin Yu's face twitched.

Ten thousand; he had only spent two hundred thousand to assemble a mech.

If we only consider the supercomputer cabinet shell, that was definitely a lion's share.

But if we factor in the high-grade hydraulic oil, even if it was used, as long as it hadn't aged or failed, it could still be considered a reasonable price.

One could only say that this old man's eye for value was indeed sharp.

"Can you make it a bit cheaper?"

Since the old man was already clear about the situation, Lin Yu simply gave up on the idea of finding a bargain and shamelessly asked for a lower price.

There was no way; he really couldn't come up with ten thousand right now.

He had scraped together twenty thousand, and with the manufacturing of Dawn having completely drained his resources, he had less than five thousand in total.

This amount of money would be more than enough to find a bargain for hydraulic oil, but if he were to buy it at standard market prices, it would definitely not be enough.

"Hehe, that won't do. This is the price; it's already very fair."

The old man just chuckled and shook his head.

"How about this? I see you have a few items here that can still be repaired. I'll help you fix them, and you give me half off."

Lin Yu glanced around and proposed a mutually beneficial plan.

He had seen several valuable items while rummaging through earlier.

However, on one hand, he didn't need them, and on the other hand, it wasn't easy to find a bargain from the old man.

So, he decided to bring them out for a trade.

"Oh? You can repair them?"

The old man looked Lin Yu up and down with suspicion, but he was clearly interested in the proposal.

The items here were mostly collected as waste and were basically unusable.

But if they could really be repaired, even if just temporarily, their value would not simply double.

However, if it could be easily repaired, then these things wouldn't have been reduced to scrap.

Finding someone who could repair these broken items was not something one could easily do even in the Black Snake gathering place.

"Since I brought it up, of course, I can repair them."

Lin Yu remained calm as the old man scrutinized him, showing no signs of unease.

He had a level three mech engineering qualification; he could design, manufacture, and repair mechs himself, let alone simpler equipment. The principles were the same; while he wouldn't dare say he could create, repairing common damages was a piece of cake.

"Alright, you fix these few items for me, and I'll give you the supercomputer cabinet for free."

Hearing Lin Yu's decisive nod, with no hint of jest on his face, the old man's expression turned more astonished. He looked at Lin Yu with a hint of suspicion but ultimately agreed with a cheerful demeanor.

"Then it's settled."

Lin Yu immediately didn't waste any more words, asking the old man for some tools, then selecting a few items and rummaging through the scrap pile to take apart a bunch of useful components.

He skillfully disassembled various small parts from different tools, and in no time, he actually managed to repair several pieces of equipment completely, and it didn't take much effort at all.

As the saying goes, what's easy for the skilled is hard for the unskilled, and that's just how it is.

"You really can repair them?"

The old man, who had only intended to watch for fun, was increasingly astonished as he observed Lin Yu. Finally, he looked at Lin Yu with a hint of eagerness: "Lin Xiaozi, what do you do?"

Before Lin Yu could answer, he quickly followed up, "Are you interested in working for me? Collaboration is also fine."

"Sure, when I can't make ends meet, I'll come to Zhang Ye to ask for a bowl of rice."

Lin Yu didn't make any definitive statements; after all, saying polite words wouldn't cost him anything.

After thanking him, he loaded the supercomputer cabinet onto his old, dilapidated vehicle and drove away.

The old man watched Lin Yu's departing figure with reluctance, standing still for a long time.

"Heh."

After a moment, he chuckled again, shaking his head.

Saying he would come to ask for a bowl of rice when he couldn't make ends meet implied that as long as he could survive, he wouldn't come.

This young man had quite the ambition.

However, to have such a level of skill and knowledge in a place like Wasteland was indeed something to be proud of.

Only those without ability would be called arrogant; those with ability would be called overflowing with confidence.

"The supercomputer cabinet, the only thing of value left is the cooling liquid inside… high-grade hydraulic oil."

He clasped his hands behind his back, walking towards the recliner while mumbling to himself.

"However…"

"The main control hard drive of the Dawn Type III flying car, the main control system inside seems to be a simplified version of the intelligent control system used by Beihe Heavy Industries for their own series of mechs…"

"Used for high-precision motion capture myoelectric sensors, spherical electromagnetic joint shafts…"

"And the two-phase battery from the Pioneer Group, although its endurance is not as good as nuclear batteries, it excels in rapid charging and discharging. If made into a battery pack reasonably…"

The old man habitually calculated the few items Lin Yu had recently bought from him, suddenly pausing slightly, a strange thought emerging in his mind.

"This kid, damn it, wouldn't he be building a mech himself?"

As soon as this thought popped up, it made his eyelids twitch.

To need high-grade hydraulic oil, he must have a corresponding high-spec hydraulic system.

Coupled with the few items he had bought before, it was indeed hard for him not to associate it with this direction.

But soon, he regained his rationality, realizing the impracticality of it.

He had already tried to think highly of the other party as much as possible.

But building a mech from scrap parts was akin to designing from scratch, taking on the entire design and manufacturing process.

And this process normally should involve at least a department of a group, with dozens or even hundreds of people responsible.

Now, having one person take it all on, and even needing to consider parts compatibility, repairs, and adapting and modifying plans on the fly, how could that possibly be something one person could handle?

Or, to put it another way.

"How could a mech engineer, especially one who can handcraft a mech from scrap parts in such an environment, possibly fall to a place like Wasteland?"

Shaking his head and chuckling, the old man mocked himself for this inexplicable foolish thought.

Wasteland could not cultivate mech engineers, especially Wasteland Descendants, who might not even have received an education.

And a true mech engineer, even the most inexperienced one, would definitely not fall to the level of coming to Wasteland.

(End of Chapter)