Reborn in America: I Have an Equipment Slot

Irving pushed his overflowing shopping cart and carried large and small bags as he headed toward the small scrap metal collection station he remembered.

Passing by a Circle K convenience store, Kyrie Irving thought he'd grab a drink to recharge.

But upon seeing the price, he immediately changed his mind.

Are you kidding me? A 330ml can of Coke costs $3! What's the difference between that and robbery?

You should know that the vending machines on Northeast Avenue only cost $1.5.

Just a few blocks apart, the price doubled, making Irving realize that capitalists really know how to make money.

Irving pushed the shopping cart and continued walking towards the recycling station.

After walking two blocks, he saw a shop with a sign in English that read "Small Waste Recycling Station".

Although it's described as small, this waste recycling station is actually quite large, covering at least a thousand square meters at a glance.

Paper products, aluminum cans, glass bottles, and other recyclable waste were sorted and piled up into small mountains.

A small electronic sign stands at the entrance of the recycling point, displaying the recycling prices for various types of waste.

Waste cardboard boxes: $0.05/lb (unflattened boxes will not be recycled).

Glass bottles: $0.06/lb (unwashed, not recyclable)

Transparent plastic bottle: 0.02/each

Aluminum cans: $1.49/pound

……

To Irving's surprise, despite it being a weekday, the small scrap yard was still packed with people.

These people, carrying large and small bags, came to exchange the collected waste resources for money; some of them were even ordinary people dressed neatly.

In the United States, this is a common occurrence. One moment you may be thriving on Wall Street, and the next you may find yourself in hell, "killed" for various reasons.

Don't assume that all homeless people in America are drug addicts or criminals. In fact, a significant portion of them become homeless due to unexpected bankruptcy.

Before becoming homeless, these people may have been financial company executives, veterans, businessmen, or graduates of prestigious universities.

However, due to various reasons such as divorce, losing his job, and natural disasters, he quickly became a homeless person.

Irving originally thought that as the most powerful and developed country in the world, the United States must have the most perfect and advanced system.

But now it seems he was overthinking things.

However, even if you become homeless, as long as you don't touch drugs and cheer up, there are still many ways to make money and jobs you can do. At the very least, it's not difficult to make a living.

Of course, all of this is predicated on the premise that you can put aside your pride and not give up.

Seeing that there were still many people arriving, Irving quickly pushed his shopping cart to the very end of the line.

Although the line looked long, the staff at the recycling station were surprisingly efficient, and it was only a short while before it was Irving's turn.

Irving followed the example of the previous white homeless men, first pouring the empty aluminum cans from his backpack into the weighing box, then leaving the bag full of transparent plastic bottles open, waiting for them to pour them into the recycling machine.

But to Irving's surprise, the staff's attitude immediately changed upon seeing his skin color:

"Hey buddy, didn't anyone tell you that these clear plastic bottles need to be washed beforehand?"

"Also, aluminum cans need to be completely flattened to prevent liquid from remaining inside. If you leave some flattened and others intact, how am I supposed to calculate the price for you?"

"So what do we do now?" Owen frowned.

Those white homeless men were about the same age as him; he hadn't expected them to target him specifically.

"Two options," the Black staff member said impatiently, holding up two fingers.

"One option is for you to take it back, clean it up, and come back to queue up again. The other option is for me to buy it back at the average price of $1. Either you lose some money, or you waste some time. It's up to you to choose."

When Irving heard that he could buy back the item at an average price of $1, he was stunned for a moment, but quickly realized what was going on.

The other party said that entirely to deliberately make things difficult for me.

Although these scraps weren't worth much, Irving didn't want to be taken advantage of for no reason.

"Hey, man, I choose three!" Irving took a deep breath and said in a deep voice.

"Are you kidding me?" The black staff member turned to look at Irving.

He was about to curse when, in the next second, he felt an extremely strong pressure and fear emanating from Irving.

It was as if he would lose his life the next second if the other party were willing.

"No, no, no, sir, please don't be angry. You don't need to weigh it anymore. Here is your receipt. Take it and go get your money. It will be much more than you could have originally received. Please forgive my rudeness."

Irving received the receipt, glanced at the amount on it, nodded, and went to the exchange window not far away.

At this moment, on the panel that only he could see, a skill he had recently mastered was shimmering with light.

[Skill: The Majesty of a Superior]

[Effect: When activated, there is a certain probability that the other party will obey your words. (The probability is related to the difficulty of the words.)]

Irving was somewhat surprised by the power of this skill; he hadn't had much hope of acquiring it.

To my surprise, I actually succeeded.

That's right, this skill is the one that comes with the special equipment he obtained earlier, the "Nine-Tailed Whip of the Slave Master".

Irving breathed a sigh of relief, opened his equipment menu, and the equipment information immediately popped up.

Equipped item: Slave Master's Nine-Tailed Whip

Grade: ★★★.

Equipment effect: Grants the prestige of a superior (proficient).

Note: This whip, once used by the infamous slave owner William Jansen, is rife with evil deeds, having injured 194 people and killed 6! Upon equipping it, successfully commanding them for the first time will permanently grant you the equipment's additional effects.

Special effect: The success rate is greatly increased when the target of the command is a Black person.

As Irving was reminiscing, a stack of banknotes suddenly appeared in front of him.

I took the bills and counted them; it totaled $39.25.

What I received was a $20 bill, ten $1 bills, and a 25-cent coin.

Compared to begging, selling scrap metal is significantly more profitable.

Although nearly $40 is not a huge sum of money, it can at least alleviate his immediate crisis.