Wasteland Border Inspector

After another half a moment, Cheng Ye finally sorted out his messy thoughts and turned around to take a good look at this "ward."

Calling it a ward wasn’t quite accurate; it was more like a spacious large flat.

There were a full six rooms: besides the master bedroom, two secondary bedrooms, and a large medical room, there was even a gym, a screening room, the living room where he’d just hosted "guests," and even... an enormous kitchen.

In Happiness City, having a kitchen inside a room was already bizarre, not to mention this kitchen had two double-door refrigerators, still powered, compressors humming softly, clearly in normal use.

Cheng Ye paused for a second, then walked over and pulled open one of the fridge doors.

Sure enough, it was stuffed full of all kinds of fresh vegetables, especially a few bright green cucumbers that looked refreshing just at a glance.

He couldn’t help pulling one out and biting into it with a crisp "crunch, crunch"; an indescribable clean sweetness spread in his mouth, making his whole body feel relaxed.

Looking closer, the fridge was packed from top to bottom with more than twenty kinds of vegetables, including varieties he’d seen before crossing over and some he’d never seen—strange and new—basically everything you could think of.

The freezer section below held meatballs, fresh cuts of meat, and even a whole basket of ice creams. Cheng Ye fished out a mung bean popsicle similar to "Green Mood," tore open the wrapper and held it in his mouth; the icy sweetness slid down his throat, so comfortable it made him involuntarily squint his eyes.

Opening the other fridge door, he found it filled with all kinds of fruits—red, yellow, purple—dazzling and eye-catching.

"Too extravagant!"

Cheng Ye couldn’t help exclaiming. He reached out and scooped up several fruits at once, cradling them in his arms back to the two‑and‑a‑half‑meter‑wide bed in the bedroom, then dropped all pretense of image and started wolfing them down, like a "cow chewing peonies."

Fragrant!

Truly fragrant!

After your taste buds go mild, eating those heavy-flavor foods actually isn’t as good as the sweet freshness of these fruits.

That feeling of juice bursting in your mouth gave him an almost floating, transcendent sense of happiness.

Only after he’d eaten more than a dozen in one go did Cheng Ye finally wipe his mouth in satisfaction and lean back against the headboard.

With a slight shift of intent, the panel flickered.

The charging value in the upper right corner was still full; not a single bit of those two thousand degrees of electricity from the truck had gone to waste.

The pendant space, however, was already full. Living Water Essence exchanged at the same charging value could be stacked, but a complete essence at 100% charging value had to occupy a separate slot.

"These four slots are getting more and more insufficient. Fortunately, I already gathered enough information degree for an upgrade long ago!"

Cheng Ye gave his head a light shake and casually switched the panel to the personal page.

[Collector: Cheng Ye]

[Current rank: lv.2 Newcomer (127.5/100)]

[Life level: 2]

[Skills: Shrinking Earth Giant Louse*, Zeye Physique, Tan Ming Envoy, Empty]

[Ability]: Shrinking Earth Giant Louse Coexistence State* (Balanced)

[Not yet unlocked]

[Evaluation: As the information you’ve collected grows ever richer, you’ve begun to touch the hidden veins buried deep in this world. Yet the flame of curiosity in you has not been quenched; instead, after glimpsing just the tip of the iceberg, it burns even brighter. You urgently begin to ask: just how many mind‑bending, sense‑shattering phenomena are still hidden within this heaven and earth? March boldly forward—this step may be a routine exploration for you, but for the native civilization that has dwelled here for generations, it is a crucial leap that tears through ignorance!]

...

After two runes entered his body and were fully absorbed by him, the information degree had been steadily rising.

In fact, three days ago the information degree had already broken through the 100 mark and could trigger a promotion at any time.

But at that time he was within the domain covered by the Immortal Objects, possibly under the Perception of Tan Ming’s residual consciousness and under the watchful eyes of the Elders, so Cheng Ye hadn’t dared to act rashly, holding himself back until now, when his information degree had exceeded the promotion line by 27.5%.

The wait was clearly worth it; having nothing unexpected happen was the best outcome.

At this moment, staring at the numbers flickering on the panel, Cheng Ye took a few deep breaths and silently recited in his heart:

"Promote!"

Hum.

An invisible ripple instantly spread out, cutting off all possible prying eyes in the surroundings.

Right after, streams of azure energy overflowed from the panel, rapidly filling the entire room and covering everything in sight.

It felt both like undergoing an ultimate evolution and like doing a meticulous tidying and filing.

The chaotic energy, under the Collector’s sorting, gradually manifested into concrete forms, turning into sheets of faintly glowing paper.

Whoosh!

The space around him shuddered sharply, and Cheng Ye’s consciousness was instantly pulled away, reentering the Collector’s promotion space.

This time, the floating sheets of paper in the air were several times more numerous than before, like a galaxy of stars awakened by an invisible hand, slowly spinning, assembling, and combining in the air, eventually gathering into thick volumes of books.

The books hovered in front of Cheng Ye, and clear, legible text slowly appeared on the surface of the pages:

[Civilization Collector, Cheng Ye]

[Current affiliated civilization: Solar System | Blue Star | Wasteland Human Civilization]

[Effective civilization information collected in Newcomer period: 121,650 entries]

[High‑value civilization information: 109 entries]

[Rating: Perfect (hidden route reward obtained)]

[Database has been fully organized]

[Please confirm whether to promote rank; you will have another opportunity to choose a promotion route!]

...

"Confirm promotion!"

Bang!

All the books exploded, turning back into individual sheets of paper and starting to reassemble.

Those high‑value pieces of information emitted a faint purple glow as they separated from the ordinary blue information.

They slowly gathered in front of him, eventually forming a sheet smaller than last time but even more exquisite.