The year is 2086, and the world is a wasteland in the aftermath of World War III. Radioactive dust shrouds the sky, mutant beasts roam the land, and survivors eke out a miserable existence in dilapidated settlements.
Among them is a special group: scavengers. They venture deep into the ruins to search for relics of the old world, bringing them back to settlements in exchange for food and ammunition. Any intact artifact from the old world could be worth a fortune.
Chen Shi, a low-level scavenger on the verge of starving to death, unexpectedly awakens a System: the Everything Disassembly System.
When someone else finds a robot from the old world, they treat it like a treasure, hoping to repair it and sell it for a hefty sum.
Chen Shi reaches out and touches it. The robot turns into a pile of scrap metal, copper wire, and broken chips.
“Are you crazy? That thing could have bought a hundred bullets!”
Chen Shi says nothing. He takes the scrap metal and copper wire, slips around to the back alley, and tinkers with them for a bit.
The next day, he returns carrying an electromagnetic rifle made from repurposed scrap metal.
Everyone is stunned.
Before long, a saying starts making the rounds across the wasteland:
“Don’t hide things from Chen Shi. One second it’s your treasure, the next it’s his spare parts.”
Later, someone asks Chen Shi, “What are you, really? A scavenger? A merchant? Or a spy for some faction?”
Chen Shi thinks for a moment, then says:
“I just take things apart. It just so happens that I kept taking things apart until the old world was gone.”
