Mosaic City, located along China's coast, is quite large city sometimes called the Crossroads Between Nations due to its diverse population. While it was once a large tourist spot, the city was placed under a blockade as the military appeared claiming there was a radiation leak. The true hazard, however, is much more sinister.
Brynhild had read articles about places like this. Giant trucks drove around town, collecting everyone's trash and dumping it all in one spot. Right here. In her eyes, the humans responsible were making the world a better place, and even got rewarded for their brave efforts. Her time was probably better spent fighting Shadows and freeing the town, yet Brynhild still came out here to recycle junk. There may be no benefit in the short term, but one day these scraps could earn her a new weapon.
The android gathered up as much raw material as she could and carried it all to the junk dealer. A few pieces had been dropped on the way in. Next time she'd have to remember to put everything in a bag first. Brynhild placed the objects on the counter (as neatly as possible) and waited for the store's owner to speak first.
Another round of contributing to the junkyard. Brynhild had learned a lot from the last trip here. Carrying a large sack of materials over her shoulder, she entered the building. Doing her part to keep the town clean in a different way than usual. Everything about this felt strange, but it was useful. For each bag delivered, she got one step closer to affording a new spear or some armour. Getting these rewards would earn her a better weapon much faster than simply killing shadows. Having another source of income was good.
In any case, Bryn dropped the bag off in the appropriate location. Judging from what happened last time, this was the part where she waited for something to happen.
How did ordinary humans get paid for this? Not the ones that explored the outer circle and foolishly tried to fight monsters. Those people collected materials from the same places Brynhild did, so they probably made the same amount. She wanted to know more about how this place functioned on a normal day. The people running this place only purchased items found in the Shadowlands, so how did they operate before this emergency? Would saving the town accidentally put the junk yard out of business? Did they even exist when shadows aren't around?
A problem for another day. After spending the past ten minutes standing around, Bryn figured that she should try to get out of here. She could wonder and contemplate back home instead of wasting everyone's time here. Delivering the bag of goodies for the week, she awaited the blonde's reaction with the usual silence.
Were they ever going to stop accepting trash? This store seemed to purchase everything that got brought in. No matter how many broken statues she delivered, the value never decreased. The owner still wanted more junk for the ever growing pile out front. Who needed all of these items? What was all of this for?
Being in this place always made her question useless things. No one could give any answers to her ramblings, which were not important enough to ask about anyway. The human (?) supported the war against shadows, so stopping this place world be stupid. Being a little eccentric wasn't a reason to be punished.
As if she could ever stop that woman if she tried.
Brynhild arrived with another package of broken things. No more wondering why this place existed. From this day forward, the transaction would be simplified: show up, get paid and leave. So far part one had been accomplished. Now for the other two.
The sewers did not seem to have that much trash for recycling. A lot of the materials there were pure trash that had been thrown away by human society. There was no need to move such waste from one dump to another. Besides, everything (supposedly) smelled awful, and the (supposedly) human owners might not appreciate the new scent. This isn't a good time to experiment to find out what's socially acceptable.
A special trip to the airport did reveal a few items worth delivering the the scrapyard. The unidentified barrel made a sloshing sound as Brynhild dropped it off. “Here's more fuel for your collection.” She was unable to determine what kind of liquid had been shoved inside the container, but it looked important enough to be worth something. At the very least, it shouldn't be left alone in an environment filled with Shadows.
Car parts are heavy. Her strength may be higher than average, but not ridiculously so. The engine that Brynhild “discovered” had to be wheeled in on a cart. Conveniently both were right next to each other in the abandoned factory. Whoever worked there apparently never had the chance to install it into anything. Outwardly the thing looked fine, if a little dirty from being abandoned. At first glance she tried comparing its existence to her own, but quickly realized how depressing the topic could get and stopped thinking.
“This engine doesn't look like it's taken much damage; it should still work properly.” The uncertainty needed to be there. There was no way for her to figure out if this delivery even worked. It was a miracle she even knew what this did. Her history lessons ended way before any automobile got invented. Since it didn't burst into flames, the engine had to be worth something. At the very least, the cart would earn her money.
Brynhild still had a few car parts left over to get rid of. This whole process of taking things only to sell them later made her feel uncomfortable. Even if the owner and his business were probably dead and gone by now, these things still belonged to someone. Taking anything out of the factory should could as stealing. . . right? She never really understood how that worked back in her own country, and certainly didn't know anything about Chinese laws. Not that her ignorance would work as an excuse, but it's not like there's any police around to arrest her.
Regardless, this ethical problem could be worked out later. At this point nothing could stop Bryn from getting paid today. Right now she only wanted to get rid of these car batteries. Similar to last time, she had no way of knowing if they worked; they just looked expensive. The nicer explanation involved something about toxic materials and needing to throw batteries away in a certain way, but the book she read about cars yesterday never explained why or how.
It was hard to strike a balance with these things. The items sold here had to be useful or they wouldn't be worth any money. At the same time, Brynhild didn't want to hand over anything overtly dangerous. The reasons behind why this place bought strange items didn't matter. Leaving weird chemicals around could be dangerous for the people working here. . . which she already gave to them.
In order to not make another contribution to their pile of explosive liquids, she'd try to avoid the deadly stuff; at least for a while. Until she was sure nothing bad happened due to something she had sold, it'd be better to stay safe. Brynhild delivered a taped-up box, mostly to hide how boring the things inside might be. She didn't plan on explaining until after she got paid.