Wasteland's Only King-Chapter 60: Mendeleev’s Woe

In principle.

The chauffeur with white gloves should be opening the door for Yin Yao first.

But ’Principle’ had specifically told the driver beforehand that today’s activities would follow Yu Jin as the highest standard.

So.

That’s why Yu Jin got out of the car first, with Yin Yao following behind him.

Tong Zhiyong was confused, yet deeply shaken.

He noticed that Yin Yao looked just like an ’assistant’, always walking a few steps behind Yu Jin, with absolutely no sign of stepping out of line.

Hiss—

Tong Zhiyong drew a sharp breath.

He hurried forward and took the initiative to greet them.

"Ah, Yu—Yu Jin, my classmate!"

"I’m the chairman of Sanyuan Heavy Industry. We warmly welcome you to our chemical plant for this environmental project!"

"..."

Yu Jin glanced at Tong Zhiyong, then looked away.

[Warning! Warning!]

[You are approaching ’Tier Eight Pollution Source—Mendeleev’s Woe’!]

[The pollution source is massive. With your ant-like body, you cannot withstand its contamination and erosion. Leave immediately!]

"Mendeleev’s Woe?"

Yu Jin was slightly surprised to see this system naming.

Thinking about it, it actually made some sense.

Chemical plant pollution is different from the pollution of garbage or sewage rivers—it contains all kinds of toxic heavy metals, and it’s no exaggeration to call it a blend of several elements from the periodic table.

Still, this time, the system’s evaluation wasn’t wrong—

Under normal circumstances, waste and residue pollution from chemical factories can indeed be quite harmful to humans, especially with direct contact.

However...

As a Tier Seven Evolver now, Yu Jin was still heavily suppressed, but not to the extent that he couldn’t handle such chemical pollution.

"A Tier Eight Pollution Source—if nothing goes wrong, I should be able to get a Tier Seven Crystal reward."

Yu Jin took a deep breath, excitement rising inside him.

He saw the hope of breaking through to Tier Eight in the short term, as long as today’s trip to the chemical plant yielded enough!

...

...

Sanyuan Heavy Industry factory area.

Tong Zhiyong was leading the way for Yu Jin and Yin Yao.

Behind them, a few credentialed media reporters carried cameras, snapping pictures along the way.

Further behind the reporters—

A dense crowd, yet moving in neat unison: no less than two hundred buzzcut youths fell into step.

They’d arrived after Yu Jin, climbing down from the large trucks with gray-green canvas covers further back.

Apparently—

They were civic-minded volunteers with a strong sense of environmental responsibility, eager to participate in this pollution cleanup operation at the chemical plant.

The arrival of these two hundred enthusiastic citizens made beads of sweat appear on Tong Zhiyong’s forehead.

At this moment.

Tong Zhiyong wiped his sweat as he introduced the plant to Yu Jin and Yin Yao:

"Chemical plant pollution generally falls into three categories."

"Solid waste, liquid waste, and gaseous waste."

"Solid waste is typically the solid residue generated during chemical production, containing toxic heavy metals and hard-to-degrade organic matter..."

"..."

As they talked,

The group, all wearing masks, came to a large warehouse in the rear production area.

"At Sanyuan Heavy Industry, we have always strictly complied with the national standards for waste emissions!"

"All our waste residue is processed immediately in a rigorous manner. Only after meeting discharge standards is it transported to designated areas for landfill..." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Tong Zhiyong’s sense of political correctness was at full throttle—repeating official slogans over and over.

Until—

The group stopped in front of the warehouse door.

Inside, piles of black solid waste were stacked like little hills.

Even through their masks, they could smell the pungent stench wafting out.

"This is...?"

Yu Jin raised an eyebrow, looking at Tong Zhiyong.

The media reporters’ eyes began to gleam as well.

Tong Zhiyong wiped his forehead awkwardly and said,

"Due to our massive daily production scale at Sanyuan Heavy Industry..."

"Some of the solid waste has not yet been processed."

As he spoke,

Tong Zhiyong waved to his subordinates behind him.

With Yu Jin watching and the media cameras rolling, he put on a show of ’harshly reprimanding his subordinates for substandard work.’

At the same time,

He proactively invited Yu Jin and the others to help purify and clean up this batch of solid waste.

BOOM—

Rumblemumble—

Just as Tong Zhiyong finished speaking, several dump trucks drove up.

"We at Sanyuan Heavy Industry are equipped with imported foreign waste incinerators!"

"Our incinerators have the latest displacement and adsorption technology. The waste produces no toxic gases when burned, and the leftover residue can all reach landfill standards!"

Tong Zhiyong spoke as

his chubby figure squeezed into protective gear and walked up to the waste pile, shoveling it into the dump trucks himself.

Yu Jin said nothing, just rolled up his sleeves and joined in immediately.

[With your ant-like body, you alone have started the purification of ’Tier Eight Pollution Source—Mendeleev’s Woe’!]

[Given the massive scale of the pollution, the system will evaluate your purification results and award rewards upon completion!]

Then.

Those two hundred buzzcut volunteers joined in as well.

[Your purification action motivates two hundred Wasteland Wanderers to voluntarily participate!]

[Due to the influence of your ’Wasteland Leader’ achievement—]

[These Wanderers will be temporarily considered your subordinates, and their purification results grant you additional rewards!]

[Current Purification Progress: 0%]

[Hint: The higher the purification progress, the richer the rewards!]

As the saying goes, many hands make light work. Ten tons of waste looked like a lot, but with everyone working together, it didn’t take long before it was all loaded up into the dump trucks.

Of course.

This was also because the loaders joined shortly after, taking over most of the heavy lifting.

Half an hour later.

Rumblemumble—

Dump trucks rumbled forward, dumping the waste into the incinerators under everyone’s watchful gaze.

After that...

"Yu Jin, if you would, please!"

Tong Zhiyong invited Yu Jin forward.

He stepped sideways, revealing the conspicuous red button on the incinerator console.

Just a push of the button, and these ten tons of waste would be handled promptly.

The environmental campaign would wrap up nicely—right in front of the media.

Yu Jin had no reason to refuse.

He strode forward and pressed the button.

BOOM—

Rumblemumble—

The incinerator roared to life.

A wave of heat washed over them.

Half an hour later.

The incinerator quieted down.

Clap clap clap—

Thunderous, lingering applause broke out at the scene.

Click click—

The media reporters were already in place, snapping pictures from every angle.

"Hmm?"

Yu Jin looked at the prompt on his panel, his eyes narrowing.

[You have led your subordinates to purify ’Tier Eight Pollution Source—Mendeleev’s Woe’!]

[Purification Progress: 5%!]

[Do you want to end the purification at this stage and claim the corresponding reward?]

Yu Jin did expect that Tong Zhiyong’s performance was all about ’achievements’ and face-saving projects.

But it never occurred to him that a whole ten tons of waste added up to only 5% of the purification progress.

"This is..."

"Awesome!"

Instead of being annoyed, Yu Jin broke into a grin.

This meant that his harvest from the chemical plant today would far exceed expectations!

But before that,

Yu Jin would need to ’find’ the remaining 95% of solid and chemical waste.

As luck would have it,

Among the ’Space’ attributes he awakened just this morning, there was an Ability—’Spatial Perception’ to see underground...