The Legendary Junkmaster

Jason's eyes went wide as he slowly stepped inside the once sealed room. Several other doors led elsewhere from here, which gave him the impression that this hidden structure must be pretty significant! 'It's completely intact!' Jason exclaimed internally as he glanced around.

The floors, furniture, walls and doors showed no signs of deterioration at all! If Jason knew what it was, he would have described the experience as like stepping into a time capsule!

Harry felt overwhelmed emotionally as he glanced inside. He had waited for this day for so long that when he finally entered the hidden area, hot tears streamed down his face.

As Jason glanced around, he got the impression that there was nothing valuable in this room. It felt like a reception area for guests and workers. After a few more steps, a humming noise entered their ears, startling them in the process!

Jason felt the hair on his arms and neck stand up at that sound! He recognised it right away. 'Electricity!' Jason's eyes went wide as excitement built up in his mind. His heart began to beat rapidly, and then… The lights came on!

The entire room was lit up by what looked like larger versions of his torch implanted in the ceiling. Jason gasped as his eyes adjusted to their brightness. Harry, however, was visibly shaking in the doorway. He stared at the lights with a mixture of fear and awe on his face.

"Gramps! Do you know how amazing this is?" Jason exclaimed excitedly as he jogged around the room to see if he could trigger anything else.

"No! How could I? I just deal in junk!" Harry whined. He knew that this structure was far beyond his comprehension. 'Looks like I made the right choice to bring the boy here.'

Harry sighed as he gradually accepted that the light was not some kind of weapon that would kill him. Jason's enthusiasm was enough to defuse his fears as he wandered deeper into the room. "How do these things even work?"

"Electricity…" Jason chuckled as he saw the confused look on his Gramps's face. "Don't worry about it."

"Ah, it's not that…" Harry stroked his chin as he gave off a sheepish expression. "I was just wondering what the parts would be worth if we dismantle it."

"Don't6 even think about it!" Jason growled with such force that it shocked Harry. "This is priceless if left as is. The parts, however, are next to worthless."

Harry frowned as he digested this information. "How can it be priceless if we can't take them back to sell?"

"Because…" Jason let out a wolfish grin. "If we leave it as is, I can study it to see if we can replicate it!"

Harry broke out in a knowing smile at Jason's reasoning. If the parts were cheap, nothing was stopping them from buying them in Highrise. If Jason could figure out how to make them work like this place, then they could charge a fortune to install it in people's homes!

"I like your thinking, kid!" Harry flashed Jason a thumbs up as a soft laugh escaped his throat. "So, where should we start?"

Jason took another excited glance around as he hesitated. None of the doors had any signs to indicate what lay beyond them. "Take your pick. Just don't touch anything until I see it. Just come and get me if you spot something that looks interesting."

Jason quickly chose a random door and disappeared into the unknown. Leaving Harry to figure things out for himself. Once he was alone, he immediately activated his Scanner skill. He wanted to understand as much as possible about everything that he looked at.

Behind his door was a long white corridor that was illuminated by more of those ceiling lights. It allowed him to see glass panels installed at regular intervals all along each wall. 'Hm, what's on the other side?'

Jason's curiosity spiked as he slowly made his way along the corridor. Every time he reached one of these 'windows', he would stare at their contents with great interest.

Every room that the panels looked onto was filled with clean glass containers that were either empty or held unknown liquids inside. Jason could see doors that allowed entry into each room on the other side from himself.

'What were they doing down here?' Although he was curious, he did not forget his primary goal. So far, he had not seen anything that could give him any information about the old world at all. 'I'm sure there's some value to everything down here, but it's all beyond my skill level to understand it.'

Jason was growing frustrated as he neared the door at the end of the hall. His Scanner kept coming back with notifications that warned him he had to upgrade his skills to access the knowledge.

Syssie also appeared to be losing her cool with the situation. It would be horrible if they came across something that could help their situation but could not understand it! Jason reached out to open the door at the end of the hall when a frantic voice sounded behind him.

"Jason! Help!" Harry yelled down the corridor from the other side. As Jason spun to look at him, it was evident that he was scared out of his mind.

"What is it?" Jason shouted as he raced along the corridor back to where he had started.

"I… I don't know!" Harry's eyes were full of fear, and a dark patch had appeared on his trousers as he pointed towards the open door that he had chosen.

'He pissed himself?' Jason frowned as he stared at where Harry was pointing. He was somewhat reluctant to experience what his Gramps just had, but his curiosity was through the roof right now!

Jason slowly walked towards where Harry had chosen to explore with ragged breaths. His mind was screaming at him not to look, but he could not stop himself!

A loud gasp escaped his throat, and he began to shake when he took a look inside. 'A monster!'