Afton wasn't an average guy though, even with most people disregarding this poor, crazy man's items. He knew there must be something more to it... He had played games after all.

Leaning down, he picked up one fo the smooth rocks and used his inventory to examine it. His eyes widened as he saw the description. He was astounded by it! ​​

[Smooth Rock]

A worthless stone that's been rubbed fanatically for years... Why have you picked this up?

...

Wow, did he just get judged by his Pipboy? Shaking his head, that wasn't important right now, what was is the fact that he'd been fooled by this old man! How dare he sell obviously useless objects and give him the impression that he was some kind of wise old wizard!...

Sighing to himself he looked at the pieces of scrap metal just to make sure he wasn't missing anything.

[Scrap metal]

Part of an old military truck that unfortunately drove over a mine.

...

Again!

[Scrap metal]

The handle of an old fork...

Afton glared ferociously at the remaining pieces of metal, determined to find something USEFUL!

[Scrap metal]

An extremely valuable piece of metal one owned by a Japanese Emporer... Just kidding, it's just part of a shattered frying pan.

To the people passing by Afton looked more crazy than the old dude selling the worthless objects. He was examining scrap metal so closely you'd think he was searching for a serial number on them.

Afton sighs to himself, he shouldn't known better than to trust 'game logic', even if this world had formerly been a game. "Last one." he mutters to himself as he looks at the last, and largest piece of scrap metal the old man was peddling.

[Scrap metal?]

A block of lead-lined aluminium with a receiver attached to it...

Raising a brow at the description Afton personally looked more closely at it, finding some writing on the bottom of it. It read, "Free completely safe medical procedures, delivered at the Mojave Drive-in"

...

Afton was tempted to just crack the metal open to see what was contained within it, but decided to just leave it be. This was apparently the right course of action since he got a notification on his Pipboy.

[Midnight Free Medical Procedure! : Recieve your reward for finding the super-secret key!]

...

Afton wasn't sure if this was real, or some kind of trap. Judging by the language, whoever this was from was either an imbecile or just someone who didn't take anything seriously... Or both!

Shaking his head, he'd look into completing the quest once everything else had been dealt with... The location of the Mojave Drive-in was apparently all that way back near Nipton. A good distance for what good very well be a shitty reward.

"I'll give you 10 caps for this. I needed a paperweight." he says to the old man.

...

Hmm, he hadn't noticed before but they didn't seem to be moving. Giving them a poke causes them to slump over like a corpse... Checking his pulse revealed that he wasn't dead, just sleeping.

Shrugging his shoulder he drops 50 caps into the old man's top and leaves with the strange object.

Afton buy a few more things from around the market place, most of which had burnt a small hole in his pocket... He'd spent around 500 caps for a mere four objects, to most people it'd be madness... But for him? He saw it as a bargain.

[Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual]

[D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine]

[Duck and Cover!]

Afton didn't waste any time and discreetly absorbed the knowledge contained within the skillbooks.

[+3 Sneak]

[+3 Medicine]

[+3 Explosives]

With that done, he headed straight back to the guy selling the Protectron. Hopefully Boone wouldn't be too upset at his rather long absence.

"You!-Ahem, You." the desperate man corrects himself at spotting Afton again. "I've decided to reconsider my pricing, my Wife-no, daughter, has recently had a medical emergency so I can't drop the price that much... 500 caps."

Afton struggles to hide his smirk, this guy was shit at bartering, not to mention quite stupid. Mustering all the effort he can, Afton droops his shoulder and sighs sadly, "Well, that's unfortunate... I only have 232 caps on me, my sick mother wanted me to buy something nice before... Before she passes away." he says, wiping a fake stray tear from his eye.

The man looks beyond confused at having his tactic thrown back at his face, though, something else caught his attention, "232 caps? DEAL!" he exclaims without worrying about the passerby's that he'd inadvertently caused to jump at the volume.

Afton straightens up and grins mischievously at the man, "Thanks." he says before picking up the rather heavy Protectron and leaving, "Ah, my mom's been dead for a while by the way."

The man sputters in indignantly but seems satisfied with the amount of caps he'd received for the defective robot. To be honest, most wouldn't consider it worth the 200 caps he'd spent... But for someone with a maxed repair skill like Afton, there were many things he could do with it.

Boone raises a brow when he spots Afton walking back with a broken Protectron in his arms. He was about to complain that he'd taken too long but found his words caught in his throat by what Afton'd brought back... "Why have you bought that." he states dryly.

Afton just smirks at him, "You'll see. Help me wheel the bike up to Samuels shop. No point keeping it down here when we can sit in his shop while keeping an eye on it.

Boone just shrugs and does as he's told, pushing the bike up the overpass and parking it next to Samuel's shack. Afton dumps the Protectron next to it, "You will Protect this bike with your artificial life. Understand?"

"Your Property will be safe, this is a RobCo guarantee... RobCowitdtholdsallresponsibilityshouldyourpropertybestolen." it adds at the end so quickly Afton almost misses it... How devious.