Wasteland's Only King-Chapter 59: Heavy Industry
"This is Yu Wenbo reporting for you!"
"Today is September 7, 2025, Jiang City’s very first Public Environmental Protection Day!"
"We are here at Jiangcheng University!"
"As you can all see..."
"The top leaders of Jiang City, Grand Principal Jiang, the vice principal... and other bigwigs, are all gathered here."
"Standing in their midst are two people. One is someone you’re all familiar with—Yu Jin!"
"Yu Jin, Jiang City’s Environmental Ambassador, president of the Environmental Protection Club at Jiangcheng University, just two days ago led students in a successful cleanup of the Pearl River!"
"The other, Yin Yao... she’s Yu Jin’s classmate!"
"So now, let’s follow the camera as we interview the ambassador and main organizer of today’s citywide environmental event, Yu Jin!"
Yu Wenbo squeezed his way, struggling through layer upon layer of media crowd.
After braving the gauntlet, he finally made it in front of Yu Jin as he’d hoped.
"Yu Jin!"
"Do you have anything you’d like to say about today’s citywide environmental activity?"
Yu Wenbo raised his voice, shouting out his question.
There were just too many journalists crowded around, all vying to interview Yu Jin.
"Environmental protection!"
Yu Jin replied.
"Anything else?"
Yu Wenbo pressed him.
"Environmental protection!"
Yu Jin answered again.
"Exactly!"
"Environmental protection, environmental protection, and more environmental protection!"
Yu Wenbo turned to the camera, raised a fist and shouted.
...
...
The speeches from the leaders were done, the media interviews were done, the group photo session was done...
Nine o’clock sharp.
Yu Jin finally got into the backseat of the car.
Yin Yao was in the back too, looking haggard and exhausted, dark circles under her eyes.
Ever since her rebirth, she had barely slept through a single good night.
Daytime was always spent sticking close to Yu Jin, and at night she’d log on to "Wasteland" and grind levels.
Thankfully...
Hard work pays off in the end.
Or, you could say, she just got absurdly lucky.
Yesterday, the new City Lord of Dawn City used "Space Black Hole", not only saving Yin Yao, Chen Gang, and the others, but even managed to literally "scare" two Tier Three Mutated Sand Scorpions to death on the spot.
Because of that, the group snagged two Tier Two Infection Crystals without lifting a finger.
One went to Yin Yao, one to Chen Gang.
And after using one Tier Two Energy Crystal and one Tier Two Infection Crystal, Yin Yao could feel that she was getting closer and closer to Tier Three.
If nothing unexpected happened, after wrapping up today’s environmental activity and then pulling an all-nighter fighting outside the city, she should be able to break through to Tier Three.
Tier Three...
In her past life, she struggled for two or three months and only just barely reached Tier Three!
But now?
In just a few days, she was about to surpass her past self already!
This—this is the advantage of rebirth.
Of course.
The biggest advantage Yin Yao had always valued was Yu Jin, sitting beside her right now.
Ssshhk ssshhk—
The car sped down the street.
The view outside the window flashed by Yu Jin’s eyes like a slideshow.
The two of them were heading for Jiang City’s Economic Development Zone.
In earlier years, Jiang City was built on chemical and heavy industry. In recent years, the new energy industry has developed bit by bit, but the chemical factory areas still remain.
Because of the sheer size and scale of the chemical plants, their emissions have been out of line with Jiang City’s policy for a long time, yet because they’re so massive, it’s not something that can be solved overnight.
In fact—
If Yu Jin hadn’t specifically requested to target the "chemical plants" for cleanup, and if Yin Yao and even her grandfather hadn’t personally vouched for it, the leader of Jiang City would never have made the chemical factory district the focus of this environmental campaign.
Pollution from chemical factories isn’t something you can clean up in a day or two...
Even Yu Jin, at this point, had no idea what exactly Yin Yao had planned.
But—
Given she’d promised to help clean up the factory pollution, Yu Jin had no doubts about the kind of power she had.
"Lu Shizhang, Principal Jiang, and the others went to the city center, setting an example by picking up trash on the streets, the whole thing broadcast live on TV..."
"Each neighborhood’s also calling on local residents to come out and put environmental protection into practice."
"As for the chemical plant, I’m going with you. There will be a few media outlets too."
"Of course, if the reporters are too much for you, I can make them disappear."
Yu Jin stared out the window, thinking of what Yin Yao had said to him earlier.
Back seat of the car.
The two of them stayed quiet—neither spoke up, and the air was filled with silence.
Time ticked by slowly.
Soon after—
The black sedan, with its white license plate, sped out of the Jiangcheng City District and headed straight for the chemical factory zone in the southwestern suburbs.
Several news vans followed at a distance behind the black car.
And behind the media vans...
A number of large trucks, covered plainly with army-green tarpaulin, rumbled along the same route.
...
...
Southwest Suburbs of Jiangcheng.
Economic Development Zone, Sanyuan Heavy Industry.
At the chemical plant entrance, a crowd had already gathered.
The journalists, tipped off ahead of time, waited at the factory gate, cameras set up from every angle.
Even though these reporters didn’t get permission to follow all the way into the factory grounds, hovering at the gate and poking around was still fair game.
"The leaders are almost here!"
"Everybody, shape up! Look alive, show some energy!"
At the gate, a middle-aged man in a suit, balding on top and with a bit of a paunch, barked out brusquely.
Tong Zhiyong, chairman of Sanyuan Heavy Industry.
Sanyuan Heavy Industry, as one of the big-name chemical enterprises in Jiang City, really didn’t need to have Tong Zhiyong himself show up, even with the media and environmental campaign going on.
But—
He’d heard the rumors: the female college student coming today had a background powerful beyond words.
A political friend had said to him, literally, just three words: "Her last name is Yin."
Just those three words scared all the fat off Tong Zhiyong in one go.
"Did you get that waste residue ready, like I told you?"
Tong Zhiyong shot a nervous look back at Xu Jun, the plant manager, who was standing there terrified.
"Don’t worry, it’s all set!"
"We’ve got a whole ten tons ready!"
"It’s stacked up outside the incinerator!"
Xu Jun replied quickly.
Even though it was only last night that they’d gotten word that, out of nowhere, this citywide environmental campaign was suddenly zeroing in on their plant.
But—
After scrambling all night, they’d pretty much cleared up all the waste residue and liquid.
In fact—
Thanks to Tong Zhiyong’s "foresight", they’d purposely left about ten tons of waste for "the big shots" to have their performance moment!
There are always unspoken rules behind so many things.
If the big shots turn up and everything’s already clean, won’t that just make them look bad?
What they want is an achievement, but just enough for show.
Ten tons of waste won’t get Sanyuan Heavy Industry in trouble for "illegal dumping", but it’ll be more than enough for the big shots to flaunt their "environmental commitment".
"They’re here!"
Tong Zhiyong had been squinting into the distance, and the instant he saw the white-plated black sedan, he hurried forward to greet them.
At the same time—
Bam bam bam—!
"Balloon firecrackers" went off right on cue.
Bang—!
The security guards posted on either side of the gate twisted open their party poppers.
Click, click—!
The media out front went wild, snatching up every moment with their cameras.
Moments later—
The black sedan came to a smooth stop at the factory gate.
The white-gloved chauffeur got out of the driver’s seat, hurried to the rear, and opened the door.
"Sanyuan Heavy Industry warmly welcomes our leaders on their insp—"
Tong Zhiyong’s face was all but blooming with fake enthusiasm, grinning as hard as humanly possible—almost sickeningly so.
But in the next second—
His "inspection" got stuck in his throat, left unfinished.
Because—
The first person out of the car wasn’t that powerful "Miss Yin" at all, but a somewhat familiar-looking male college student.
"Shit, I’m buttering up the wrong person!"
Tong Zhiyong cursed silently, immediately sidling over to the other car door.
Except—
No sooner had he taken a step, foot still hanging in the air, than he suddenly froze.
Wait a second...
Something doesn’t seem quite right?
