【Talent Skill: Turn Trash into Treasure – Level 2
Proficiency: 50/200
Each use allows one discarded (or damaged) item to be turned into a usable item.
Note: Intentionally damaging a usable item renders the skill ineffective.
P.S. Skill cooldown: 20 minutes. Usable 3 times per day.】

After the upgrade, Turn Trash into Treasure had a shorter cooldown by 10 minutes and gained one additional use per day.

The experience needed to level up had increased to 200.

Based on Lin Chu using all her daily uses, it would take her 50 days to reach the next level.

Which meant the next world after the next was when it could upgrade again.

Although the pace was slow, the extra daily use still made Lin Chu quite satisfied.

The last time she went to the delivery station, she brought back too much junk.

Mostly expired food.

She gradually figured out the logic behind how Turn Trash into Treasure worked.

For example, an entire box of milk or instant noodles—things packaged as a whole—could be transformed all at once.

But for loose food items, like assorted snacks in a mixed gift box, she had to transform each one individually, which wasted uses quickly.

These past few days, with less work and nowhere to go, Lin Chu had used a charger salvaged from the station to charge her phone and started watching downloaded dramas.

Watching shows made her crave snacks, but with only one transformation at a time, it was never enough.

Now with one extra use per day, that meant one more pack of snacks each day—not bad.

Of course, if she needed to transform an important item, food would have to wait.

She had already decided what to use her first upgraded transformation on.

She took out a zombie corpse from her space.

It was one she had collected but never ended up trading with her two partners. Since it was going unused anyway, she wanted to test what it could turn into.

But after a flash of white light, Lin Chu stared speechlessly at the “corpse” before her.

It was still a corpse—just no longer a zombie.

The grayish zombie skin had turned back to a healthy human tone.

Its dirty, tattered clothes were now clean.

The previously hideous and feral expression had turned peaceful.

Even the skull she had smashed open was now perfectly restored.

Well…

It had indeed gone from a horrifying zombie corpse to a normal human corpse.

Lin Chu sighed and stored it back into her space. She’d find a place to bury it before leaving this world.

One failed attempt. Twenty minutes later, she tried again.

No major difference this time—though this one even had burial makeup applied.

Leaning on her bed, bored and watching her show, Lin Chu began pondering more possibilities.

Maybe…

She could try dissecting the body?

She was always a person of action. No sooner thought than done—she put on a white lab coat and went straight to the dissection room.

Three hours later, Lin Chu placed her hand on a pile of dissected bones with high expectations.

A white flash.

A strange thing wobbled as it stood up from the dissection table.

Lin Chu stared at the creature—a “bone monster” with its head between its legs and arms mounted on its pelvis. A vein on her temple twitched.

Text appeared in her mind:

【Item: Bone Robot
Rarity: A
Description: Randomly assembled from zombie bones. Has the intelligence of a 1-year-old human. Fragile.】

The moment she read the word “fragile,” the bone monster took two steps forward, lost balance, and fell off the table.

And completely fell apart.

By the time she rushed to save it, it was too late.

The item description had changed:

【Item: Bone Robot (Damaged)
Rarity: A-
Description: A broken bone robot. Cannot be restored.】

It was a failure, a defective product—but it gave Lin Chu a glimpse of greater potential for her Turn Trash into Treasure skill.

If she could really transform zombie bones into robots that could understand human speech and follow commands, she could use them as shields in future dangers.

Undeterred, Lin Chu cleaned up the mess and immediately began dissecting the next zombie.

She still had four corpses left. If one didn’t work, she’d try again.

But the success rate of the bone robots was extremely low.

Even after using up the last four zombies, she had no luck.

Under the cover of night, she went out and collected ten more.

Even if she couldn’t succeed in this world, she’d take them to the next one.

Besides, she didn’t have anything else that urgently needed transforming—this was a perfect way to grind skill proficiency.

Finally, when she was down to the last zombie, she succeeded.

A zombie skeleton taller than herself sat up on the dissection table. It looked at her, and its jaw bones moved up and down.

“Hel…lo…”

Its voice was hoarse, with a tinge of robotic distortion.

Lin Chu’s eyes lit up with excitement.

She quickly checked the item info in her mind:

【Item: Advanced Skeleton Robot
Rarity: S
Description: Made from a zombie skeleton. Uses electronic neurons for sensory feedback. Has the intelligence of an 8-year-old child. Can follow simple commands. Can be repaired after damage. Hard to destroy.】

An 8-year-old child’s intelligence!

Previously, her best result had only matched a 3-year-old’s level—and that one had mismatched arms and legs.

This robot’s bones were all perfectly positioned.

As a forensic expert, Lin Chu felt deeply satisfied.

Those misaligned robots from before had been driving her OCD crazy.

She ran her hand over the skeleton robot’s bones.

Smooth and slightly warm to the touch—it reminded her of the first bone club she had ever made with the skill.

“Master, hello. Please give me a name,” the robot said, its jaw moving more clearly than any previous one.

Lin Chu thought for a moment.

“Let’s call you Xiao Er.”

She wasn’t good at naming.

She was the boss—so her underlings would be numbered. This was the first, so it was “Number Two.”

“Okay. Xiao Er thanks Master.”

Lin Chu had it step down from the table and walk a few steps.

Xiao Er complied perfectly.

Because it was all bones, each step produced a clacking sound.

It wasn’t as agile as a human, but it walked just fine.

Lin Chu was very satisfied.

She tried storing Xiao Er into her space.

Since it wasn’t a living creature, it was easily stored.

Lin Chu was thrilled.

She liked living alone and didn’t enjoy being disturbed. Being able to store Xiao Er meant the shelter could still be peaceful with just her around.

In the future, when the shelter expanded, she’d give Xiao Er its own little corner to live in.

She also remembered what Yu Hongfei said—once the shelter grew bigger, they could build a yard to farm.

Lin Chu decided Xiao Er could help manage the vegetable garden in the future.

Suddenly, the future looked much more promising.