Chapter 7: The Enhancement of the Scrap Yard

The mountain of tires resembled a black hill, with hundreds of discarded tires stacked in overlapping layers. Rainwater had pooled in the grooves, forming green puddles, and scattered among them were blackened toys and socks—who knew who had thrown those here.

In Xiao Rusttide’s memory, the two Rusttides always made a trip to the junkyard and brought back piles of metal. It looked forward to the day it too could be taken there to “hunt.”

But it knew nothing about what happened inside the junkyard.

Perhaps it was just collecting trash? Eating any metal it found? Ye Mi wondered.

The truth was not far off.

The junkyard lived up to its name, filled with all kinds of discarded debris. The two Rusttides led Ye Mi unerringly to the metal scrap section.

Here, broken appliances were piled high: refrigerator doors hung open, interiors speckled with mold; television screens were shattered, spiderwebs spun across picture tubes; sometimes a microwave would emit a faint “ding,” a leftover timer still ticking somewhere inside.

Further off, a dozen rusted car shells lay scattered, their windshields fractured like spiderwebs. One school bus still clung to patches of yellow paint, its door creaking noisily in the wind.

The air was thick with the smell of rust and rotting wood, tinged after the rain with a damp, musty odor.

And their task here was simple—

To eat.

Or, more accurately, to devour.

Without sparing Ye Mi a glance, the Rusttides bent their heads and began searching for metal. The big one lumbered toward a mound of scrapped engines.

Imitating them, Ye Mi made her way to the heap of car shells, where the metal was broad and plentiful.

The days spent in the lab with Ian had given her some understanding of Rusttides. Even if she didn’t know exactly how to devour metal, she could mimic their actions well enough.

More than that, her body was driven by instinct. She felt herself begin to melt, dissolving into countless black threads that hungrily wrapped themselves around the metal.

She didn’t need to be taught.

It was a strange sensation—her mind remained clear, but her body flowed like a tide of living metal. Each thread was like an extended tendril, greedily devouring, like a parched soul gulping ice water on a sweltering day—desperate, and satisfied.

She had to grow stronger.

With that conviction, Ye Mi devoured everything in her path with wild abandon, leaving almost nothing behind.

As she absorbed more and more metal, she felt her body swell and shift. The black threads thickened, gradually reconstructing themselves into a taller shape—one approaching adult human proportions, with long limbs and a smooth torso.

But soon, a problem arose.

Indigestible impurities began to accumulate within her metal form: plastics mixed in with the trash, even strange chemical coatings...

These contaminants made her movements sluggish, and ugly mottled patches appeared on her metallic surface.

“Ugh…”

Was it too impure?

Ye Mi didn’t know much about the Rusttide body—after all, Xiao Rusttide had only existed for less than a week and had experienced nothing. She was still unfamiliar with her own form.

She would need time to adapt.

But she thought this issue was normal. Just as humans needed to refine metal and remove impurities, so too here.

Ye Mi was just pausing to consider an efficient way to rid herself of most of the contaminants when Spikes noticed her predicament.

It came over and gently pressed against her arm.

Ye Mi tilted her head in confusion, sending a few chunks of cheap plastic sliding off her shoulder.

Suddenly, Spikes demonstrated: it devoured and broke down a car shell, then began to tremble violently. Its metallic body spun at high speed, as if swept up by a hurricane, the spikes transforming into sharp blades as they whirled.

With a screech of metal grinding on metal, rusted fragments and impurities were flung from its body, clattering across the junkyard floor.

It could no longer absorb such poor-quality metals; it was simply teaching Ye Mi.

The big one lumbered over to join in, demonstrating as well.

It completely disassembled its right arm, black threads cascading like a waterfall, automatically filtering out impurities in the process. When it reformed, only pure metal remained.

Ye Mi understood.

She closed her eyes and began to try controlling each and every black thread within herself.

It was far more difficult than she’d imagined—like trying to manipulate thousands of fingers at once, each requiring precise adjustment.

On her first attempt, she only managed to awkwardly shudder, shaking off a few large plastic shards.

The second time, she tried spinning like Spikes, but lost her balance and collapsed, nearly dissolving back into mist.

The third time…

Gradually, she found the rhythm.

The black threads began to pulse in harmony, and the impurities were gradually expelled.

The indigestible plastic residue fell like rain, and her body grew sleeker, more fluid—stronger.

When the last impurity was finally removed, Ye Mi’s new body stood noticeably cleaner and sturdier in the dim light.

No longer did Xiao Rusttide’s body resemble a child, but rather a form similar in size to Spikes—a fully grown adult.

Rusttides grew at a remarkable pace.

She flexed her fingers, then punched clean through a car shell before her; every movement was precise and free of any sluggishness.

Ye Mi could feel the heart that housed her silver core beating more powerfully than ever.

But it wasn’t enough.

She repeated the thought to herself.

To face the Bureau’s security forces, this evolution was far from sufficient.

But at least, she had finally taken the first step.

Gazing down at her flowing black threads, she sent her burning desire for strength to the two Rusttides.

The big one’s electronic eye flickered but didn’t respond right away.

It raised its arm; the metal surface writhed and, in an instant, reformed into a massive hammerhead, which it brought crashing down onto the ground.

Boom—

A shockwave sent debris flying, and the entire junkyard shook.

Ye Mi watched with envy. She possessed nothing like that power.

Why was the big one’s body so different from Spikes’?

She studied them closely and arrived at a clear conclusion: it was the metal.

Though both devoured metal, the big one’s body had a distinctly heavy quality, like the armor of a war machine—thick and impenetrable. Spikes, on the other hand, was not corroded like an ordinary Rusttide, but gleamed with a silvery sheen, armor bright and new, as if forged from a special attack alloy—deadly and sharp.

If she wished to grow stronger, she too would need powerful metals.

Ye Mi tilted her head, her electronic eye flickering with a strange light. She suddenly smiled, though as a Rusttide, it was impossible to tell.

Powerful metals—weren’t there plenty right before her eyes?