Harvesting

"That's all you're going to take?"

"Why should I keep trashes in me?"

"True enough… but those treasures aren't trashes."

"But they're trash to me."

"Even money?!"

"Even money!" Chang Xiuying suddenly wavers, 'It's not like I can buy things in the system shop with these external gold, right?'

[You can actually. It's like an exchange for the same value.]

"Alright! Alright! I surrender! What do you want me to do?"

"Just… just take all of these treasures. It's not like it will be kept well in this cave. In this case, it will really turn into trashes in a thousand year."

"You just admitted that they'll be useless." She pointed out with a grin.

"In a thousand years without care."

"Still going to be trashes."

Qiang Zhihao exhaled heavily. He retrieved a small gold ring from nowhere in particular as it vacuumed all of the riches inside the cave. Surprisingly, both of them were still intact with the ground. Chang Xiuying silently wondered about this unbelievable fact and the theory and knowledge she has accumulated in years of research.

Indeed, how strange. Everything here defies the laws of the universe but some laws remained. But then, she has to get used to this kind of things. It's not like everything is normal here anyway.

The tall male handed her over the golden ring. "This is called the Imperium Axis, a high-leveled one at that. It stores a lot of things. My master also said that there are more functions of it and it is up to us to find it out. He discovered this way before I became his disciple so I don't know it too."

"Hm. A command center… fair enough." She said while holding the ring with great caution as she examined it, bringing it upward towards the light source. Her smile widened as she carefully traced the wired pattern on the surface, "A piece of art. I'm curious who made this."

"As much as I want to answer that, but I don't know," his words fell into deaf ears again without him knowing. He just thought that she heard and never really gave attention, for the least, she heard, and that's all okay.

"I'm grateful for the gift." She slightly raised the ring in front of her like a kind of offering to Qiang Zhihao before slipping it on her right thumb finger. She smiled knowingly, "I'll dissect you some time."

"Uh… excuse me, what?" The tall male peeked at the little girl as he questioned innocently. What is 'dissect'?

"Nothing," she sing-songed, "Well then, where to next?"

"The next one is weaponry, then the library," He nonchalantly said as he led Chang Xiuying the way towards the said room. A long dark hallway and a little light at the very end seem to not even get closer after such a long walk. Suddenly, Qiang Zhihao turned right and the little girl followed without hesitation.

As she felt a warm and comforting wall of water greeted her, she opened her eyes and saw the variety of weapon she always hoped to use. The opportunity finally presented itself in front of her! Such a blessing!

It has a lot of collection of weapons from long range, short range, and body equipment; neatly aligned according to their size and types.

From knives, swords, hammers, spears, and guns though there are no shotguns, just revolvers, rifles, and pistols which intrigued her. How can all of these be here? But upon closer inspection, the guns are much more advanced than the ones on Earth.

She slowly goes over each one of them before placing them in her Imperium Axis. She carefully brushed the cold metals like it's her babies. Her eyes sparkled as she admired how intricate the masterpiece is. Her resolve hardened, to find who made these weapons.

After she was done with the weaponry, emptying it, they made their way towards the library which is only a few walks away from the weaponry.

Oh wow.

The library was full of books from foreign writings to complex styles of penmanship. The room was 2 stories high as the shelf surrounded the place in a circular manner. She smelled oak and lemon dew.

Her eyes caught a pedestal at the center of the library, its structure was plain. It's just a regular triangular one but at the top of it, there was a gold crown with red claws and emerald nails. A small green light hovered above it that emitted a strong glow as it blinked when Chang Xiuying neared the pedestal.

'What the?'

"Xiuying?" Qiang Zhihao's voice suddenly sounded behind her. She turned around to meet his suspecting eyes.

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

"Why do you ask?" She cocked an eyebrow.

"You've been eyeing the guardian in a long time." He motioned his chin towards the glow hovering at the pedestal.

Her gaze landed again on the green glow, 'Xue, can you analyze it?'

[On it.]

She mentally nodded as she focused her attention at Qiang Zhihao who eyed all of the things that caught his attention. She suddenly thought of a reason as to why.

"Why don't you take some of the things that interest you?"

"Excuse me, what?" Qiang Zhihao turned his gaze towards the little girl, confused but with a hopeful glint in his eyes. This doesn't go unnoticed by Chang Xiuying.

"Go on, get whatever you want. I'm sure of it. You know how much I love books, so go now before I change my mind."

"Yes!" He dashed towards the wall full of books as he shoved whatever interests him into his own Imperium Axis.

Chang Xiuying watched how the grown-up man frantically runs around just to take everything caught his undeniable attention. His face relaxed as his usual strained and stiff expression was now gone.

She unknowingly smiled and then turned her focus towards the ball of light, waiting for Xue's analysis.

[Host, it's a high-grade shape-shifter. It transforms into something its master wants within a certain capacity of its power. There are a lot of functions to input into it in order for this glow of light turned into something very much useful. There's a small metallic wire at the center of the glow, concentrate to it as such you can see the intricate details of the wire and I will do all the work.]

"Thanks," she mumbled.

[Oh, before that I can file all of the options you can put into this equipment.]

Chang Xiuying's face stiffened, 'F-file?' She had enough of those while she was in Earth! It's always paperwork, reading, do-overs! Can she just have a break from it? It's hunting her even here! What kind of sorcery!?

"No need. Put them all in."

[As you wish.]

She sighed in relief that Xue never questioned her about it or even forced her to pick some of it.

[Well, there's a lot of functions to list. It's a strain for me if I did those all. It's a win-win situation for both of us and the downloading process will take 2 weeks. If you want to fasten the process, pay 10,000 Rubies.]

"I'll think about it…"

Silent overwhelmed the room, besides the constant shuffle of Qiang Zhihao's undying excitement. She pursed her lips, deciding to just ignore Xue's retort; her excitement that is being contained earlier is resurfacing as she ran carefully walked towards the shelves. Her fingers slowly brushed the line of books on the shelves, feeling how nostalgic it is to be in a big library for so long.

She was overwhelmed with the smell of old books, her drug in Earth, except the smell of chemicals and the whirring of machines when she was in her laboratory.

The squeaking sound of old wood seems to be music in her ears. However, the screech of a man and a thud the ground emitted was not. Her eyes fluttered open as she eyed the tall man who stood up like nothing happened. He slowly glanced over the little child that was already looking at him, "You saw nothing… you heard nothing…"

Her eyes squinted then snorted, "Sorry, it seems to be etched into my memory forever. Isn't it good? There's something hilarious to remember about you. Considering that it didn't happen that much, right?"

"You're half right, but yes, it didn't happen that much. It's still embarrassing though… just don't tell it to others." He awkwardly scratched his nape, unbeknownst to him as to why is he doing this kind of stupid action.

"You thought I have someone outside who knew my secret other than you?" She said while raising an eyebrow.

"Isn't that the case?"

"No. You're wrong in that regard. Do you really think that I will reveal my secret here?" She scoffed.

"Fair enough…" His voice lowered as he bit is lower. Again, why is he doing this? That, my friend, is so strange.

"… wait… didn't you peered in my memory? So why didn't you know about that simple matter?"

"I just looked at the most important one. I don't need to completely look in your memory, I still know the words 'privacy'."

Chang Xiuying fake gasped, "I thought you didn't."

"Did you just disrespect me?!"

"What are you talking about? I did not do such a thing." She shook her head, "Have you finished picking all of the things that you wanted?"

"Yes, I already got everything."

"Great." She asked Xue to try doing what Qiang Zhihao did earlier, vacuuming all of the things here then transfer into her Imperium Axis. The tall man stared with disbelief at the child in front of him who turned her attention again towards the glow of light.

'Xue, I'll pay 10,000.'

[Great.]

She cursed under her breath. She wanted to ignore the feeling that Xue turned smug once she said those exact words as if the AI expected her to say it.

That calculating brat!