The Recycling System: From Scrap Collector to Billionaire

Chapter 2: Gold

Jake brushed the dust off his clothes and pushed himself up off the pavement. The instant he was on his feet, a massive display materialized right in front of his eyes.

Points. Redemption Store. Lucky Draw. And two more options: Recycle and Repair.

A system? Jake's eyes went wide. Was this actually happening to him?

Having just stared death in the face, his nerves were a little steadier than usual, so he didn't waste time gawking, he started tapping through each function one by one.

"Recycle." He pointed the command at the big double-door refrigerator strapped to his cart.

[One stainless steel double-door refrigerator detected. Recyclable for 20 points. Proceed?]

He nodded and confirmed without a second thought.

A ripple of light swept over the fridge, the appliance that had taken up half his cart's space simply dissolved into a beam of light and vanished.

At the same moment, the points counter on his interface ticked up from 0 to 20.

Now let's see what Repair does.

Curious, he aimed the function at the shattered flat-screen still sitting in the cart.

[Repairing this item will cost 3 points. Proceed?]

"Yes!"

Another flash of light, and a brand-new 65-inch television sat where the wreckage had been, not a scratch on it.

Jake nearly dropped his jaw. He stepped forward and ran his hand over the screen that, moments ago, had been a spiderweb of cracks, unable to believe what he was touching.

Holy, I think I just got rich. Okay. Okay, calm down… He wiped his mouth and stood frozen for a long moment before the shock finally started to wear off.

Recycling one fridge had earned him twenty points. Repairing something only cost three and it happened instantly.

"Fix everything!"

He aimed Repair at the mangled washing machine and the smashed computer still loaded on the cart.

Another flash, and a pristine washing machine and a fully intact computer sat gleaming where the ruined ones had been.

"The wheel's busted too, fix that."

One more flash, and the cart that used to rattle and shudder over every pothole was suddenly rock-solid. Nothing looked different from the outside, but every part underneath had been rebuilt from scratch.

"This is it, I hit the jackpot! Home, let's go home!" Jake swung himself onto the cart and pedaled hard toward his neighborhood.

Maybe it was the adrenaline, but he felt stronger than usual, his legs pumped the pedals with real force. Passing by Mrs. Alvarez's tamale stand, he slowed down without quite meaning to.

"Those appliances look brand new, what in the world?" Mrs. Alvarez eyed the load on his cart with open suspicion, clearly wondering if the boy had robbed someone's house.

"They're just stuff people didn't want anymore," Jake said with a grin. "Hey, weren't you saying the other day you wanted a flat-screen? This one's brand new."

"It actually works?" That got her attention fast. She'd been wanting a television for a while but always balked at the price, a TV this size could run three or four thousand dollars, and that was a lot of tamales.

"Come see for yourself. I'll guarantee it, brand new," Jake said, leaning against his cart.

"Get out here and help carry this in!" Mrs. Alvarez hollered for her husband, and the three of them wrestled the TV into the house together.

They plugged it in, hooked up the cable, and under three sets of expectant eyes, the screen flickered on perfectly, not a flaw anywhere. The plastic protective film hadn't even been peeled off yet.

"Jake, just name your price." Her husband, Mr. Alvarez, folded his arms, clearly annoyed. "You've been hanging around our porch all week, I knew you were angling to sell this to her eventually."

"No, no, I swear I was just passing by. Didn't I hear you two mention wanting a TV? I happened to have this one lying around, brand new, otherwise I wouldn't even bring it up."

"Would you knock it off." Mrs. Alvarez elbowed her husband. "Jake's just trying to help. You've been promising me a television for months and never followed through. Now he's got one he doesn't need, we're buying it."

"Fine, fine, it's already in the living room, what am I gonna do, send it back?" Mr. Alvarez threw up his hands, torn between annoyance and laughter.

"Jake, name your price. I'll pay you right now," Mrs. Alvarez said, nodding with satisfaction.

"Let's call it a thousand bucks. Friends-and-family rate," Jake said, smiling.

"Deal. A thousand, done."

"When Jake says a thousand, you actually give him a thousand?" Mr. Alvarez groaned. "That TV's worth four thousand easy. Jake, you're underselling yourself."

Jake didn't know what to say to that. It was the first time he'd ever heard someone complain that a price was too low.

"A thousand's plenty. I didn't have much invested in it anyway. You two have looked out for me for years, this is the least I can do."

"Jake, you sure know how to talk." Mrs. Alvarez patted her chest solemnly. "I'm finding you a nice girl to date, mark my words."

A few minutes later, Jake strolled home with a thousand dollars folded in his pocket, pulling it out every so often just to look at it. Making money had never been this easy in his life.

"Bro, why'd you bring home so many appliances?" His sister, Amy, eyed the haul with curiosity the moment he walked in.

Jake ruffled her hair, grinning ear to ear. "Amy, our luck's about to change. Starting today, your big brother's going to make some real money. New clothes, a nice house, all of it."

"Ugh, here we go again." Amy rolled her eyes, though a small, pleased smile tugged at her mouth. "I'm not seven, you know."

"Give me ten minutes to get cleaned up, I'm taking you into town to buy clothes. I've gotta hook up the washing machine first, it's brand new, never used. No more hand-washing for us."

"Bro... this isn't another pyramid scheme thing, is it?" Amy asked gently, watching him with a hint of worry. "Last time you told me we were about to move into a mansion..."

"Do not bring that up." Jake winced. "Look at us, we're broke, nobody would even want us in a pyramid scheme. And I'm not a kid anymore, I'm your big brother. Now go get ready, we're heading to the city."

Amy gave him one last uncertain glance before disappearing inside, as if trying to read the truth off his face. Jake sighed. That old disaster really had left a mark on her. But this time was different, once the money started coming in, he'd prove it to her.

After hooking up the washer, Jake didn't bother tidying up. Instead, he headed straight for the small scrapyard behind their house, where piles of old material had been accumulating for months, mostly copper wire and scrap aluminum he'd been holding onto, waiting for prices to climb before selling.

"Recycle."

He aimed the command at the pile.

[Copper, iron, aluminum, gold, and silver detected. Recycle all items?]

"Wait, hold up. Gold and silver?"

Jake froze. How could there be gold and silver mixed into his junk pile?

He dropped to his knees and started digging through the copper and aluminum scrap, and sure enough, buried inside a coil of old copper wire, he pulled out a lump of caked mud roughly the size of two fists.

No way. Did somebody dump this in with the scrap by accident or on purpose?

He aimed Recycle at the lump in his hands.

[1.5 lbs of pure gold and 0.5 lbs of silver detected. Recycling grants 100 points. Proceed?]

Holy, a pound and a half. If gold's running around forty bucks a gram, that's... that's over twenty thousand dollars sitting in my hand right now?!