Chapter 147 - 145: Found Insulated Sandwich Panels

Rick Kaye saw Sev return empty-handed after rushing off to buy Mutated potatoes and couldn’t help but frown. "Don’t tell me you didn’t buy them because they were too expensive?"

"That’s right. The price doubled. I’m not going to take that kind of loss," Sev said.

"Why are you being so stingy? At worst, I’ll compensate you five times the price once my injuries heal," Rick Kaye said.

"No need. You might be rich, but there’s no reason for us to be suckers. I’ve already figured it out. We’ll plant potatoes in the yard ourselves. With Rose’s Ability, we can definitely harvest a batch of potatoes before winter arrives!" Sev said.

"What? You want to waste my apprentice’s precious Ability on planting worthless potatoes? Do you have any idea that if her Ability is used to cultivate plants, it should be used for precious medicinal herbs? You’re recklessly wasting a godsend, do you understand?" Rick Kaye said indignantly.

"All I know is that we all love eating potatoes, and they fill our stomachs," Sev said righteously.

Rick Kaye was left speechless. He turned his head away in a huff and ignored her.

Hearing her mother say she needed help cultivating potatoes, Rose was instantly overjoyed. Compared to other wild vegetables, she preferred potatoes, and they kept hunger at bay!

Considering the limited space in their yard, Sev decided to make several large planter boxes. To make the boxes, she naturally sought out a ready-made, free craftsman—her good eldest son, Rusty. However, to get him to make the boxes, she first had to bring back enough scrap metal.

Sev took Rusty and pulled a handcart. Just as they stepped out the door, they ran into Hayden Hanson. "What a coincidence! Are you heading out too, Hanson?"

"Yeah, I am. I plan to buy some Nutrition Blocks. What about you two?" Hayden Hanson asked.

Earlier, when Sev asked him about the price of potatoes, he guessed she might want to buy some. So, he intended to buy a batch and give them to her in the winter if her family didn’t have enough to eat. Running into them right now, he could only come up with a random excuse. After all, the last time they went to dig up potatoes together, he had obtained enough to last the entire winter. If he said he was going to buy potatoes now, it would be hard to explain.

"Oh, I’m hoping to buy some scrap metal to make a few large boxes," Sev replied, lowering her voice.

Hayden Hanson didn’t understand why she needed to make large boxes, but he didn’t press the issue, given they were out in public. "Why don’t I go with you? The owner of the scrap yard, Timothy Gable, happens to be an acquaintance of mine. I can ask him to show you some slightly better-quality scrap metal," he offered.

"Really? I’ll have to trouble you then, Hanson," Sev said. Better quality meant her son Rusty would expend less of his Ability when reforging them.

Upon arriving at the scrap yard, the first person Boss Jacobs spotted was Rusty. "Kid, why are you back? There’s no work for you today."

"Mr. Jacobs, I’m not here for work today. I came with my mom to buy scrap metal," Rusty said, puffing out his small chest and pointing to the person behind him.

Every time Boss Jacobs had seen this boy before, he had always kept his head down and his small body hunched over. This was the first time he had seen him standing tall. When he got a clear look at Hayden Hanson trailing behind the boy, a broad smile instantly spread across his face.

"Oh! Mr. Hanson. If I had known you were acquainted with this kid, I would have paid him a bit more in wages back then," Boss Jacobs said apologetically.

"We’re neighbors. This is Rusty’s mother, Miss Steele. I’m accompanying them today to buy some scrap metal. Do you have anything of better quality?" Hayden Hanson asked.

"Yes, yes, I do! Coincidentally, a new batch of goods arrived the day before yesterday. The Black Scorpion Mercenary Corps from District Eight found an old pre-nuclear war scrap metal recycling station. You know how it is. They usually sell the usable large items to the Seventh and Sixth Security Zones. The scrap yards in District Eight don’t even want the leftovers after those zones take their pick, so they unloaded it on me for cheap," Boss Jacobs explained.

Sev followed Boss Jacobs into a simple steel-framed warehouse, finding it piled high with all sorts of scrap metal items. There was bent and rusted construction rebar, mechanical equipment parts, deformed old alloy pots, buckets, plates, bowls, and more. There was even an old-fashioned grinder that was severely rusted!

Her voice trembled slightly with excitement as she asked, "Boss Jacobs, is everything here sold by weight?"

"Naturally! Since you’re Mr. Hanson’s friend, I won’t hide anything from you. Apart from the folks from The Slums who come to pick out things they can barely make do with, the rest of this is sold to the official maintenance department. They take these, throw them into the high-temperature Melting Furnace, melt them down, and press them into alloy plates. Those plates are then used to repair the perimeter walls or the alloy interlayers inside houses. They are my main major client, so the price I give them is definitely lower than the retail price. However, since you’re Mr. Hanson’s friend, I will certainly give you the lowest price too," Boss Jacobs said honestly.

"How could I accept that? Boss Jacobs, it’s better if you just charge me the normal retail price," Sev hurriedly waved her hands, not wanting Hayden Hanson to owe a favor on her behalf.

"Years ago, Mr. Hanson saved my wife from the jaws of a Mutant Beast. I will remember that favor for the rest of my life. I already feel ashamed that I can’t just give this to you for free. If I were to sell it to you at a high price, my wife would definitely kick me out of bed tonight!" Boss Jacobs said sincerely.

Only then did Sev realize that Hayden Hanson and the boss shared a life-and-death bond. No wonder Boss Jacobs had been so candid with them. Since she was accepting the favor, Sev decided not to stand on ceremony any longer. She straightforwardly asked, "Boss Jacobs, do you have any scrapped steel-framed houses here? Something similar to this warehouse of yours—even if it’s smaller, that’s fine."

She had noticed that the warehouse was constructed from colored steel sandwich panels with insulation—exactly the material she needed to build her greenhouse!

"I don’t have any steel-framed houses, but I do have some steel panels left over. Back when I first took over this scrap yard, I figured I should sort and store all the scrap into different categories. So, I found an opportunity to scrounge up a batch of these panels to use as dividers. But I later realized that poor folks rarely come here to buy anything, and the rich look down on using scrap, thinking it lowers their status, so they don’t come at all. And the officials don’t care about the type; they just melt all the scrap metal down into alloys anyway. Over time, I couldn’t be bothered to sort things anymore. I just packed up all those dividers and stacked them over in that corner," Boss Jacobs said, pointing to a section of the warehouse.

"Are you selling those dividers? I’ll pay the full price for them, not the scrap price," Sev asked eagerly.

She wanted to build a vegetable greenhouse but couldn’t find the materials. If she bought these steel panels and had Rusty piece them together, she would have the basic structure of a greenhouse. As long as she could get her hands on some light-transmitting, temperature-regulating resin for the roof, everything would be perfect!

"Well, they’re useless just sitting here anyway. If you want them, I’ll sell them to you for half price," Boss Jacobs said.

In reality, he was deceiving Sev with those words. The price of these insulated sandwich panels had skyrocketed after the great war, primarily because of the word "insulated." He had even lined his own house with a layer of these panels to keep it warm in winter and cool in summer. However, he could see how much attention Hayden Hanson paid to Sev and her son, and he wanted to use this opportunity to do Hayden Hanson a favor.

Sev and Boss Jacobs politely haggled back and forth for a while before she eventually bought 150 square meters of the insulated colored steel sandwich panels for 80,000 points. Boss Jacobs even threw in a matching alloy folding stepladder to make it easier for them to work at heights during construction. Finally, he personally helped Sev load all the panels into a simple cargo truck. He had gone to great lengths to scrounge up this truck. Even though it was incredibly dilapidated, its saving grace was that it was solar-powered, making it exceedingly practical!

Seeing how generous Boss Jacobs was, Sev decided to buy up the remaining pile of heavily rusted scrap metal sitting in the corner. The officials outright refused to accept these kinds of things. Putting heavily rusted scrap metal into the massive Melting Furnace would negatively impact the alloy’s quality, weakening its strength and reducing its lifespan. Boss Jacobs had originally planned to find a time to haul them out into the wilderness and dump them. He hadn’t expected her to want them.

"My kid is currently learning how to forge, so I’m buying this for him to practice on," Sev fabricated an excuse.

In reality, she wanted this heavily rusted scrap metal for two reasons: first, Rusty could easily strip the rust away; and second, once the rust was ground into a powder, it could neutralize some of the acidity in the soil, provide iron for the plants, and help improve the soil structure. They weren’t truly garbage at all.

"Then I’ll just give these to you. I can’t charge you for this," Boss Jacobs quickly said.

In the end, Sev acquired a total of three tons of scrap metal. Two tons were heavily rusted freebies, meaning she only paid the price for one ton of scrap metal—1,500 points.

Such a cheap price thoroughly astonished her. Boss Jacobs gave her a brief rundown: After the great war, the prices of almost all supplies had increased by several or even dozens of times, but scrap metal was the sole exception. Because while metal was also contaminated, processing it was very simple. As long as the radioactive dust on the surface was cleaned off with water or a blower, the radiation levels would drop to a safe margin. Boss Jacobs actually had a specially-made blower here strictly for treating scrap. The radioactive dust blown off would be sucked into a collection box, which simply needed to be taken out to the wilderness and buried every so often.