Chapter 43: Chapter 31 Picking Up Trash_1

In the end, Duanmu Huai decided to ignore this skill as if he had never seen it. In doing this, he figured he wouldn’t have to worry about not knowing anything about it. Most worries come from knowing too much, right?

After shrugging off the anxiety, Duanmu Huai began rummaging through the ruins to find something useful.

As an experienced player, he knew the Ancient Saints’ relics like the back of his hand. After a simple exploration, Duanmu Huai confirmed that these ruins used to be an administrative office of the Ancient Saints—a place similar to a government agency.

But… well, this was great news!

Although according to conventional logic, places like secret bases or military research institutes are the kinds of places where you can find the most advanced technology. But players know better. The Ancient Saints, certainly not fools, must have been afraid that Chaos would discover their secrets. So, they destroyed all their confidential materials and equipment when they evacuated. Unless you’re lucky, you won’t find any useful materials by searching there.

However, government facilities are a different story.

While they certainly won’t have any secret Ancient Saint weapons or technology blueprints, they are stocked full of stable, mass-production-capable, and common technological products. Furthermore, these types of locations are more likely to have leftover Ancient Saint technology intact.

This is like when a city is invaded by aliens; if the government can’t hold out and has to run, they’ll definitely destroy the secretive weapons in labs and military bases first.

But who would care about the stuff in police stations or food agencies, right?

For Ancient Saints, these things might be negligible, and they wouldn’t mind ditching them. But for future generations, even a claw machine designed by the Ancient Saints’ technology would be groundbreaking!

Among the ranking of players, four elements in the Ancient Saints’ technology tree are top-tier T0 level technologies: energy, biological modification, space travel, and shields. The Ancient Saints battled Chaos for a long time, so their tech tree is highly resistant to Chaos. The Ancient Saints are particularly skilled in genetic modification. Take a look at all the species on this planet, from elves to dwarves, lizardmen to ogres, and humans to goblins; all of them were created by the Ancient Saints.

On the contrary, the Ancient Saints’ firepower wasn’t top-tier. Well, that actually made sense. If the Ancient Saints’ weapons were top-tier, then they wouldn’t be the ones running from Chaos. Instead, they would be beating Chaos to a pulp.

What Duanmu Huai wanted most was the Ancient Saint’s energy core technology.

Of course, he wouldn’t be able to manage the most advanced tech, similar to nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines, where you wouldn’t usually see their power systems.

But in this era, forget nuclear power; there weren’t even steam engines. Duanmu Huai didn’t expect a top military secret-level power system, but at least some kind of internal combustion engine should exist, right?

Police cars don’t use nuclear power, but that doesn’t mean they can’t run, right?

There’s always a reward for hard work; after a tireless search, Duanmu Huai eventually found a piece of debris that looked like a flattened shipping container. Although it was crushed flat by a boulder, similar to an empty can of soda, he identified it as a transportation container utilized by the Ancient Saints!

There you are!

Looking at the wreckage buried under the rubble, Duanmu Huai’s eyes brightened. “Let me see… no radiation leakage, the values are within the normal range… perfect!”

Upon seeing the values detected on the Power Armor screen, Duanmu Huai clenched his fist in excitement. No radiation leak meant it was highly likely that the core power system of this container was intact!

But … this container was mostly buried under rubble, posing a bit of a problem. Fortunately, Duanmu Huai had help.

“Ogis, help me cut these stones and remove them.”

Duanmu Huai commanded, pointing at the rubble covering the container. Ogis nodded in acknowledgement and reached out, slicing up the enormous stones and dragging them aside with her thread. Duanmu Huai, protected by his Power Armor, went straight in and started digging out the remaining pieces.

Soon, he located the vehicle’s cockpit. It was a disaster inside – even a shattered skeleton was buried under the earth. It seemed like one unfortunate frogman didn’t escape in time and met its end here.

Such a tragedy.

Duanmu Huai paid respect for two seconds before diving into the cockpit—a round oval-shaped room without any steering wheel or joystick. Clearly, the Ancient Saints had their own way of controlling their vehicles. However, Duanmu Huai didn’t care about that. He brutally tore apart the protective layers as if he was preying on an unconscious predator. He forcefully broke through its defenses and penetrated its core.

“Found it!!!”

Feeling the familiar sensation in his hand, Duanmu Huai was delighted. He quickly calmed his emotions and carefully took out an object from the cockpit.

It was a polygonal sphere, slightly larger than a basketball. It looked like a transparent glass shield, with a faint light inside that seemed ready to go out any second. At first glance, it seemed as fragile as a candle in the wind.

However, Duanmu Huai knew this was just a facade. When he scanned it, the system had already provided the answer.

[Antimatter Energy Core (Unidentified)]

“Wow, tech archaeology is the bomb,” Duanmu Huai marveled. Imperial technologies use plasma reactors, which are a type of nuclear fusion device. But the Ancient Saints used antimatter even for an ordinary transport. This was leaps and bounds ahead of Imperial tech—like the difference between a horse cart and a spaceship.

Besides, Ancient Saint technology is always reliable; their history provides ample proof of their capabilities. Even if they’re unable to beat Chaos, they can always escape.

On the other hand, the empire always suffers heavy casualties when facing Chaos, with their technology constantly regressing with each encounter. While everyone else advances through the battles, Imperial tech seemed to regress. Ultimately, there won’t be much left.

No matter what, possessing the [Antimatter Energy Core] means Duanmu Huai has tapped into the energy technology tree of the Ancient Saints. Considering the Ancient Saints’ cool temperament and dual cultivation with chaos and reason (theory), this was a big win!