Wasteland's Only King-Chapter 35: Ambassador

Noon. The sun blazed overhead.

The scorching, harsh sunlight reflected off the surface of the Pearl River, making it so dazzling and glaring that it was hard to look straight at it.

But still—

Gurgle—

Gurgle, gurgle—

Every so often, a string of bubbles floated up from the center of the Pearl River channel.

Before long—

With a splash, Yu Jin popped his soaking-wet head up from beneath the surface, pushing a bundle of trash into the plastic sack on the little boat.

The next moment, he dove back underwater headfirst.

Just like that, he repeated the cycle, again and again.

Time ticked by, minute after minute.

Yu Jin kept moving, showing zero signs of slowing down.

He looked like some tireless Superman. The only thing on his mind right now was to clear as much garbage from this polluted river as possible.

It was this scene—

That left thousands of people on both sides of the Pearl River speechless for a long time.

"President..."

The Environmental Protection Club members who had been slumped on the boats or resting onshore clenched their fists instinctively.

Honestly, they’d come for the course credits.

Even after a whole morning of labor, there weren’t many club members who genuinely cared about "environmental protection."

Environmental protection—those two words—it’s too big, too abstract!

Even if they managed to completely clean up this filthy river, so what?

Maybe within ten days or half a month, there’d be garbage floating here all over again, and the stench would return.

Lots of people couldn’t help but think this way.

Even Principal Jiang Haichuan, standing on the shore, had similar thoughts.

But...

Yu Jin’s effort at this moment was a silent yet ear-splitting rebuttal.

No one knew how long had passed.

Plop—!

The sound of someone else hitting the water rang out.

This time, the one jumping into the Pearl River wasn’t Yu Jin, but Tang Yunxuan from the boat.

"Hahaha!"

"Diving in really isn’t as hot as I thought!"

"Old Yu, not cool, man—you didn’t invite me for something this fun—"

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

Tang Yunxuan shouted too loud and accidentally swallowed a mouthful of water.

The members of the Environmental Protection Club on his boat burst out laughing.

After the laughter, more "plop" sounds followed one after another.

On both sides of the river—

Some who were strong swimmers, especially the middle-aged and elderly guys, grinned, stripped off, and dove straight in.

"Can’t let the young lads hog all the spotlight!"

The old guys said so with pride.

But...

The people entering the water weren’t there just to "cool off." They all copied Yu Jin, taking deep breaths, diving to the riverbed to scoop up trash, then passing it to the boats or the riverbank.

"Hey!"

"Don’t all jump in at once!"

"If you can’t swim well, don’t be reckless. Put on a life vest before you get in!"

On the riverbank—

The safety officer in his cap shouted, spurred to excitement as more and more people dove in.

...

...

Time passed slowly.

The blazing sun overhead had already slipped quietly toward the horizon.

Before today—

No one would have thought this river cleanup would continue from morning all the way until dusk!

Most people were already sprawled out, exhausted.

Even if they had the will, their bodies just couldn’t go on.

And yet—

In the center of the river, Yu Jin kept diving in and climbing out, never pausing.

"Damn, the dude’s hardcore!"

Reporter Yu Wenbo, wearing a life vest, leaned by the shore, panting hard, but still managed to face the camera and give his evaluation.

"That stamina..."

"That dedication to protecting the environment..."

"So impressive I’m running out of words..."

He was far from the only one to sigh like that.

But compared to the shock they felt at first, now everyone was slowly growing numb to it all.

If Yu Jin hadn’t taken a token break every hour or two, just a few minutes at a time, they’d seriously think he was actually possessed by Superman!

On the riverbank—

Principal Jiang Haichuan, even though he hadn’t gotten into the water, still led by example and spent a while sorting trash onshore.

Same with Vice Principal Grell and Jiang City’s top official.

It’s worth mentioning—

Around noon, right after seeing Yu Jin dive into the river, Jiang Haichuan and the top official started quietly discussing something.

The top official left, only to return several hours later.

Very few people knew what they talked about, but the vice principal Grell, who’d overheard, was visibly shocked.

On the other side—

Yu Jin was leaning against the edge of the boat, gasping for breath.

Even with the physique of a Tier Five Evolver, that level of labor was seriously taxing, and since Yu Jin had barely rested, he was definitely starting to tire out.

[Purification Progress: 99.9%]

Yu Jin looked at the panel in front of him, furrowing his brow.

The Pearl River was a closed body of water, not that long—just about 500 meters.

Looking around now,

You couldn’t see a single scrap of trash on the river’s surface.

And under the water, Yu Jin had already cleaned out all the confirmed and even the suspected pieces of garbage.

Along the way, he’d even used his Light Touch ability.

"Why is it stuck here?"

Yu Jin was puzzled, lost in thought. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

He used Light Touch again, sweeping every corner of the Pearl River with his eyes.

"By all rights, it should be completely clean now..."

"I even used Purifying Light to get rid of all the foul smells."

Yu Jin muttered to himself, subconsciously looking up.

And just then—

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a few aunties holding garbage bags, standing behind the crowd on the bank some distance away.

They were glancing around, muttering under their breath.

Yu Jin didn’t know how to read lips, but he still recognized the tell-tale "national quintessence" mouth shape.

Five minutes later, Yu Jin got out of the water and climbed to shore.

Ten minutes after that, the safety officer found those aunties in the crowd—and sure enough, they were planning to throw trash into the Pearl River.

After some serious ideological education, the aunties left, faces black with embarrassment.

Facing the media, the safety officer stated that ’enforcement would be strengthened around the river, and local residents would face strict management concerning littering and illegal dumping.’

[Purification Progress: 100%]

Yu Jin let out a long breath, finally feeling relieved.

"So it needed root cause control!"

Thinking it through, Yu Jin found the system’s judgment totally reasonable.

If you only fix the symptoms—not the root causes—it’s just a show, and can’t count as 100% purification.

With Yu Jin coming ashore and finding the true cause of the pollution,

This massive river cleanup involving thousands officially came to an end.

Swoosh—

Swoosh, swoosh—

In front of Yu Jin, lines of system messages scrolled one after another, flickering like computer code, flooding his vision.

But—

Yu Jin didn’t have time to read carefully before he was surrounded by media cameras from all sides.

At the same time—

Jiang University’s principal, vice principal, and the top official approached Yu Jin, all wearing hearty smiles.

A moment later—

Under the witness of countless cameras—

The top official announced personally—

"In response to Daxia’s environmental protection policy and vision for sustainable development—"

"After careful discussion, we hereby appoint Yu Jin as ’Jiang City Environmental Ambassador’!"

"And, two days from now, this Saturday, we will launch a city-wide environmental action!"

"It will be led and organized by Yu Jin. All the media are welcome to follow up and cover the event!"

As his words fell—

New lines of text instantly appeared on Yu Jin’s panel...