Chapter 45: Recycler

Words : 1217 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

Chapter 45: Recycler Half the items don’t even make sense to Luca. This shopping catalog was too much for someone who could only afford discounted goods. There were categories like food, furniture, planting, apparel, technology, and weapons. The number of things to look at blinded him, and he didn’t know what to check first. But then he noticed a blueprints category and saw how all of them were labeled ’basic.’ So, would he see ’advanced’ versions too? Then Luca looked at the prices of each item. They were in points; frankly, he didn’t know if they were expensive. "Do we have any CP left over from earlier?" Luca was hopeful, but how much CP could he get from one person? "We have a balance of 100CP, Host. Technically, we can only buy things under the Miscellaneous category, which are mostly waste products or a few packed snacks." "Even trash was for sale?" Unlike D-29, who wasn’t exactly happy about having access to the Trove but only being able to afford trash, Luca’s thinking was the other way around. As a certified money-grubber and penny-pincher, Luca knew that someone’s trash was somebody else’s treasure. And as the resident poor person, he was usually that somebody. His eyes shone as he hurried towards the Miscellaneous category to look for trash! They even had radioactive waste?! Wow! However, that meant he needed to be careful when handling such items. Luca even decided to wear his protective suit, which they had given him back in Tesseris, to protect his pills from being contaminated by himself. How ironic. Based on the icons, most of the trash was packed in cubes. But Luca was banking on finding a particular kind of trash. "Aha!" He exclaimed after guessing correctly. [Corrupted Trash Cube] [50CP] He remembered that the cheapest items on the Trove were individually wrapped candies that were 5CP each. So, each cube was just like buying 10 candies for him? If this works, then this would be such a bargain! His only reluctance actually stemmed from the Dungeon selling something like this when it was evidently asking for CP points. So, he wasn’t that confident that his plan would work as intended. But he still decided to try. If it failed, then Luca would just punish himself by looking for his roommate! Somewhere in a classroom that lectured about military hierarchy, a certain white-haired point farm felt a chill run down his spine. But Luca’s focus wasn’t on him but on hoping his plan would work. With bated breath, Luca confirmed the prompt about buying an item. [Acquired: Corrupted Trash Cube x 1] Thankfully, it was directly stored inside the inventory instead of landing in front of him. He had been concerned about the health hazards of having something like that out in the open. "Host, I’m not sure I follow. What did you need trash for?" "I’m going to try something out, so you better pray for me," Luca said as he headed for the Recycler’s chute. It was rather large and could probably fit a few Elephants. Then D-29 witnessed its host taking out the trash cube he just bought! "!" It was inky black and looked only partly presentable because it was already cubed like this. But Luca was sure that was a random eyeball right there, so he hurried to close the chute before he developed detailed nightmares over it! Luca prayed for the recycler to accept his first offering, leaping for joy after it started up! "Host! It seems like that worked!" D-29 didn’t think such a method would work! Was this a bug or a loophole? But it decided not to mind that, for this was a display of the Host’s prowess (stinginess). [Acquired: 200CP] "200?!" Luca was giddy with joy at how his plan was working. He didn’t expect such a pie from the sky! "D-29, are the items from the store unlimited? Or are there purchase limits?" "Host! It seems like some items have purchase limits! This trash cube can be bought 99 more times after the one you just bought! But from what the manual tells me, this should be a limit based on the current level of the Dungeon." "Oh? Then would the purchase limits increase with each upgrade?" "That, and add in new items according to what you’re allowed to purchase at that level!" Luca thought about it and wondered what items he could aim for without buying and selling his entire quota. What if he needed it for an emergency? Like a chipmunk saving for a rainy day, opting to look for items that could help him survive. As an accidental couch potato who’s been trying to work hard to lessen his physical handicap, Luca wanted to prioritize ways to improve his body and reflexes. The store showed a couple of pills, scrolls, and potions that were priced at 1,000CP, but figured these were mostly one-time-use items. And his current maximum CP was only 15,100, given the purchase limit, so those wouldn’t be good long-term solutions. Pills and potions would have been more convenient, but Luca needed something more permanent. So, his goal was to look into the manuals and the tomes. The downside was that he needed to use these multiple times to maximize the effect. He wanted three manuals in particular: Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength. The others were also tempting, but with a staggering price of 5,000CP per manual, he’d only have 100CP left. With his mind made up, Luca began buying and selling (cheating his own dungeon) to be able to buy the items he needed. The poor guy who didn’t like spending anything had to close his eyes before confirming the purchase of a Manual of Constitution. He was going to test this first in case it was a scam. [Acquired: Basic Manual of Constitution x1] It was found in his inventory, like the trash cubes he bought earlier, and mentally selecting it opened a new prompt. [Use Item?] [Yes] or [No] The moment he selected ’yes,’ Luca’s body was enveloped in golden light as the Manual disintegrated before him. This was definitely not a scam because Luca felt the effects the moment the lights dissipated. Wasn’t that a little too convenient? "How was it, Host? Did you get the desired effect?" "Yeah, and it’s saying I could use this at least three times at this level! Just how fit would I be after doing that?" Luca looked at the 10,100CP remaining and suddenly thought that the idea of Xavier didn’t seem so bad now. If he was going to end up feeling this good, then maybe it would be okay to be a little bit embarrassed every now and then. What was dignity and pride when it couldn’t feed him? Luca spent the remaining time buying and using both the Basic Manuals of Dexterity and Strength. For the first time, he actually felt like racing toward the custom training pods to see if the Manual of Dexterity affected his hand speed. This was crucial to him, as unbeknownst to the guy whose real-life knowledge mostly came from reading and articles, most of his classmates were trained with the tempered hand speeds of single dogs. And he needed to catch up!

Chapter 45: Recycler

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