5 CHAPTER 5

"Huh?"

Axel was dumbfounded. When did he break this alien's vehicle?

No, an alien's vehicle is a spaceship, right? How could he have damaged such an advanced vehicle?

And now he wants me to pay for it? Pay what money? Dollars? Do aliens use cash? Is the dollar a universal currency in space?

Yuri saw this guy staring at him dumbfounded and not saying a word for a while, and couldn't help but wonder.

'Did I not hurt his head just now? Could it be that he doesn't understand what I'm saying? Did the universal translator in my watch break?'

Thinking of this, Yuri leaned down and quickly carved out an English sentence on the ground with his hand - "Give me your money."

Then he pulled Axel up and twisted his head towards the words on the ground.

Axel: "..."

What the hell is happening?

"...I can give you money, but there's something I don't understand. With your speed, you could easily steal my wallet without me knowing, which would save time and effort. Why not just do that?"

Don't you just want money? Just take it, why make me suffer!

Axel didn't dare say the last sentence, just shouted it in his heart.

Yuri frowned and slapped Axel in the face, shouting, "Do you think I'm the same as you thieves? I'm a law-abiding citizen and would never steal! Let alone steal your money!"

"Do you understand? If you do, hurry up and hand over your wallet!"

Axel had nothing to say and could only tremble as he fumbled his wallet out of his clothes.

Yuri took the wallet and slowly opened it, while also kindly comforting Axel.

"Wouldn't it have been better to do this earlier? You've delayed us for so long, but I can see that your life must be pretty difficult since you've turned to a life of crime at such a young age. I'm not a robber, so I'll only take what's fair... Damn!"

The moment he opened the wallet, Yuri couldn't help but curse.

The wallet was filled to the brim with fifty-dollar bills, and there were even five Franklins!

There were only three bills below twenty dollars, and not a single coin!

At a glance, there was at least two thousand US dollars in cash in the wallet, along with more than ten credit cards.

This created a great sense of imbalance in Yuri's heart, whose entire net worth had never exceeded five hundred dollars. Are all criminals this rich nowadays?

"Why the hell do you commit crimes when you're so damn rich!"

Yuri couldn't help but think of Jim and Terry's million-dollar plan. Could it be that they really have a way?

"Beep-beep!"

Suddenly, the omnitrix badge on the XLR8's chest lit up with a red light, accompanied by an alarm.

Yuri realized that he almost forgot about it and quickly took out the cash from his wallet, then warned fiercely, "Kid, don't let me catch you again!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Yuri disappeared in a flash.

Two seconds later, in an empty alley several blocks away, a red light flashed for a moment and then disappeared.

Yuri, back in human form, walked out of the alley.

The omnitrix had a time limit for transformation, generally lasting around ten minutes.

This was because the user's DNA might be overwritten by the DNA of the transformed species, causing them to be unable to transform back permanently. Therefore, to protect the user's DNA, the omnitrix specifically had this protection mechanism.

Despite this, Yuri knew that the protection mechanism of the omnitrix was not rigid. It would judge based on the user's situation whether to extend the transformation time to avoid threatening the user's life, so it was unlikely that the transformation would suddenly be lifted in the middle of a life-or-death fight.

"I still need to find a way to remove the protection mechanism, or else I'll always feel uneasy."

Yuri thought to himself. In the original work, Kenny, Ben's son in the future, had once used the intelligence of someone to crack the protection mechanism, so he should be able to do it too.

He just hoped that this omnitrix of his didn't have an upgraded protection mechanism...

Looking down at the Omnitrix, the originally green screen was now red, indicating that it had entered a cooling state and he could not transform temporarily. The cooling time was also ten minutes.

After a while, Yuri returned to his car.

Counting his spoils...err...counting his legal compensation, he had a total of two thousand three hundred and seventy-five dollars. Combined with his original savings, Yuri's net worth now amounted to two thousand seven hundred and two dollars and fifty-five cents.

His pocket suddenly swelled, and Yuri finally decided to change his car repair plan.

He drove the car to a scrapyard behind the Keystone slums.

The scrapyard was piled up with more than three hundred abandoned vehicles, and several rust-stained tin huts were standing in the back.

A wooden sign was placed at the door of the hut, with "James's Auto Tuning Shop" written crookedly on it.

An hour later, Yuri walked away with a large pile of used parts, almost filling the entire trunk.

All of them were dismantled from abandoned cars that no one wanted, totaling $700.

Rather than leaving the car in the shop for someone else to modify, he only bought the parts and went home to modify it himself.

Half an hour later, Yuri stopped in front of a low and narrow house, which was his home.

From the outside, the house was less than ten meters long and less than five meters wide, with white iron walls and a blue iron roof.

Although the area was small, the door was very large, almost taking up an entire wall.

Yuri got out of the car and walked to the door, stretched out his hands, and pulled the door open easily.

The door was not locked because there was nothing inside the house.

There was no bed, no sofa, no chair, no furniture, not even a window, just an empty room.

Rather than calling it a room, it was more like a garage.

In fact, it was indeed a garage, and after opening the door completely, Yuri drove his old and dilapidated car into it.

The old car was much longer than a typical sedan, nearly eight meters long and three meters wide, almost filling up all the space inside the garage.

The outermost movable space could only allow one person to walk around.

Essentially, Yuri lived in his car, and the reason why he didn't live in a motorhome was that he couldn't afford the parking fee.

The year his parents died happened to coincide with the new mayor of Keystone City taking office. Then the new mayor had just done a big thing, reducing the city's orphan relief fund—he felt that the money was useless anyway, and there was no difference in a little more or a little less. It was better to use the saved budget to provide free housing for orphans until they reach adulthood. That meant Yuri didn't have to pay rent for the tin house until he turned 21.

Yuri locked the door tightly and turned around to look at the old and dilapidated car that was close at hand, taking a deep breath.

"It's time to get to work."

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