James Bolton was thinking about how to get that energy exchange device out, when suddenly a stream of information surged into his mind, detailing the functions of the energy exchange device as thoroughly as an instruction manual.

In real life, most objects contain energy. In order not to waste this energy, the creators of the energy exchange device—or perhaps other beings (as James Bolton guessed)—came up with the idea of recycling unwanted or obsolete items to exchange for energy, then choosing to either remanufacture or trade for other items.

“No way, this thing actually appeared. Can my brain even hold it?” James Bolton shook his head hard, only stopping when he realized there was nothing unusual.

From the information he just received, James Bolton understood he had struck it lucky. No matter what it could do, just hearing the introduction made James Bolton's eyes light up. Could energy create beauties? Could it make money?

“System, did you hear me? Exchange a few million bucks for me!” James Bolton shouted excitedly, thinking that with this thing, he wouldn’t need a job anymore—he could just stay home and count money every day.

Of course, these were just James Bolton's fantasies. The unresponsive system completely shattered his beautiful dream.

“What a piece of junk, how do you even use it? Not even an instruction manual.” James Bolton was a bit discouraged, wondering if he was dreaming again.

“Aw!”

James Bolton pinched himself hard, and immediately realized he wasn’t dreaming—the pain almost brought tears to his eyes.

James Bolton thought of those novels he’d read, where the protagonist communicated with their mind. Maybe this thing worked the same way?

Sure enough, as James Bolton slowly imagined it, a panel appeared in his mind, just like a game’s attribute screen. Not only did it show his physical stats, but there were also some buttons—though they were all greyed out, probably because there was no energy.

The only button lit up on the whole panel was “Scan,” with (5×5) written after it, which was probably the scan range.

Seeing that he had finally brought out the energy exchange device, James Bolton was thrilled. “Haha, money and beauties, just wait for me!”

Not lingering in the bathroom, James Bolton returned to his room a bit dizzy, and only then, looking at the empty room, did he come back to his senses.

He was still living on the edge, not even knowing what the system could do—was there really any reason to be this happy?

Thinking of the scan button on the system panel, James Bolton subconsciously tapped it in his mind. His vision blurred, and James Bolton saw the energy of every item in the room.

The old laptop he’d used since college had the highest energy, with an 8 floating above it. Other metal items were around 1 or 2, and wooden ones had even less, only fractions of a point.

Remembering that the system had gone dormant due to lack of energy, James Bolton thought for a moment and walked over to the metal washbasin he’d brought from college. He silently thought “recycle,” and suddenly the basin vanished without a trace, startling James Bolton.

Immediately, a voice sounded in his mind: “Recycling successful, 2 energy points returned.” And then, nothing else!

James Bolton was frustrated—why was there no other response?

The greyed-out buttons were still grey. “Maybe there’s not enough energy, should I try a few more times?” James Bolton wondered.

Looking at the other items, none had much energy—just the bed had 1 point, but he couldn’t sleep on the floor at night! Besides, was 1 point even enough?

James Bolton walked over to the desk and looked at the computer on it. Gritting his teeth, he thought “recycle computer” in his mind.

“Recycling successful, 8 energy points returned. Host’s stored energy reaches 10 points. Primary function options unlocked: Martial Arts (Primary), Life Skills (Primary), Miscellaneous (Primary)…”

Several buttons that had been dark in his mind suddenly lit up, each with a roulette-style item bar after it. Calming his excitement, James Bolton carefully looked over the options and got excited all over again.

It turned out that only the system’s primary options were unlocked for now; there would be intermediate, advanced, and even higher-level functions in the future. Each option had several subcategories—for example, Martial Arts was divided into: Internal Skills, External Skills, Techniques, and Random, while the other options also had their own classifications.

The first time, it only cost 10 energy points to activate once and gain some ability or item, but after that, each activation would require 100 energy points.

“I only have 10 energy points. I won’t have so many computers to recycle next time. Which one should I choose?”

After hesitating for a while, James Bolton decided to pick Martial Arts. For no other reason than that every man has a martial arts dream in his heart—roaming the world with a sword, living freely and righting wrongs is every boy’s dream, and James Bolton was no exception.

Besides, James Bolton looked at his own physical stats and felt depressed. Normal people had 5 points, so why did he only have 4? Did the system look down on him? So James Bolton didn’t hesitate any longer, clicked the Martial Arts option, and, not knowing what to learn, clicked Random.

The roulette spun rapidly; a few seconds later, the arrow stopped in front of a gray book icon. James Bolton saw it read: Iron Fist (Primary), External Skill. James Bolton quickly chose to learn it.