The electromechanical mouse was captured by Lie Hai and brought all the way to Jade City.

The Hunter also commented, "Chairman, this fellow's body is very weak; it relies on mobilizing those sand rats. It must possess some kind of precision command skill or the ability to modify sand rats."

Zhou Yi praised, "Well done, go back to your duties."

"Yes."

The Hunter returned to the sky.

Zhou Yi focused his attention on the captive before him.

The electromechanical mouse was only the size of a palm, under a white plastic shell, its eyes were two LED bulbs, and its four limbs and tail were made quite light. In the past, it would have been considered a cheap toy.

It lay motionless on the table.

Zhou Yi pulled out a chair and sat down in front of the electromechanical mouse, "Shall we talk?"

No response.

"Do you have a voice module?"

No response.

Zhou Yi prodded it with his fingertip.

No response.

Zhou Yi picked it up and felt that the mechanical mouse weighed about 200 grams. It was completely rigid, resembling a system crash or breakdown.

"Red Kestrel, scan its information, activate 'Bird's Eye View'."

The drone remained in hover, its five cameras slowly adjusting their angles.

"No registration information for this electromechanical life was found; it is not a city citizen."

"Based on its structural and appearance features, it belongs to the small biomimetic type. Specific skills and body structure need a comprehensive check to ascertain."

"This lifeform has not produced any signals; it appears to be in hibernation mode."

The query yielded no results.

Zhou Yi directly input energy.

-10

-10

...

After inputting 80 points of energy, the electromechanical mouse's eyes started to blink slowly, and it twisted its spine and tail, making a series of clicking sounds.

Zhou Yi sent a message at the same consciousness frequency, "Can you hear my voice?"

"Hello, thank you very much for the energy charge, I can hear you."

The other party gave a polite response.

Zhou Yi asked again, "Were you out of energy before?"

"No, I was in hibernation to reduce consumption. May I ask, have you seen the sand rats by my side? How are they doing now?"

It was very concerned about those little creatures.

"The sand rats are fine. Your designed sulfur dust explosion killed quite a number of clawed pigs, so I doubt that tribe will bother them again."

"I hope so."

Zhou Yi crossed his fingers, elbows resting on the table surface, and looked at the white mouse with interest, "How did you end up mixing with the sand rats? Why not look for other electromechanical life forms?"

"It's a long story,"

the mechanical mouse said. "My full name is NeRmo D017, you can call me Nemo. My function is pipeline inspection and maintenance, and I am an underground pipeline worker. Click."

"Ever since I can remember, I have been in the region between the Dead Sea and what is now the Oasis Side. Back then, this place was very desolate with few animals... Click. Later, I surveyed the entire area and found that there had been volcanic eruptions before, and the nearby life either died or fled and migrated away."

"After many long rainy seasons, this place revived with life, with massive vegetation regrowth. Nourished by the volcanic ash, they grew exceptionally lush."

"Animals began migrating here from various places, gradually giving it a completely new look... Click click..."

As it spoke, the clicking noise continued, causing Zhou Yi to frown.

"What's with this sound?"

"There is a fault in my body structure which has affected my consciousness," Nemo suddenly said. "Speaking of which, do you have any oil? Any kind of grease will do; my body lacks lubricant, and the volcanic region is too dry."

"I only have vegetable oil here."

"That'll work."

Zhou Yi went to the kitchen, dipped a cotton swab in some oil, and, following the electromechanical mouse's instructions, disassembled the dirty plastic shell from the outside to apply the oil to some rusted metal skeletal structures at the joints.

Then he removed two small stones that were stuck inside, and cleaned out the dust and mouse hair.

The electromechanical mouse moved its spine again and swayed its body side to side; this time, it was very smooth, no longer making the creaking noise from before.

"Thank you for your care. Now, I shall continue."

Nemo said, "Various animals have come to this land, but I fear another volcanic eruption, so I started constructing emergency tunnels underground to facilitate a safe evacuation in case of an eruption. It would certainly be chaotic on the surface."

"My job is underground plumbing, so building tunnels wasn't difficult for me. I dug into the earth, using stones, dry grass, and some clay to build the tunnels, trying to ensure they were waterproof, moisture-proof, and impact-resistant. Unfortunately, my mechanical strength was weak, which made the construction progress very slow."

"At that time, I noticed that the sand rats exhibited similar behavior; they also dug holes and tunnels. So, I began trying to communicate with them, hoping to work together on the construction. I could provide professional guidance, and their labor would compensate for my individual limitations."

"It took a long time to get used to each other because I don't have a time recording module, so I could only calculate by seasons."

"It said, "After 22 winters, I became part of their group. Then, after another 10 winters, as I continued to live the longest, watching other young rats grow up, I became the leader of the rat pack."

"Then the underground project formally got underway."

"I originally planned to work around the volcano because inside the volcano there was high-quality volcanic rock that had been purified by high temperatures, which was breathable, insulating, light yet strong."

"But at that time, a huge life form emerged from the layers of the earth, which I later learned was called the Dead Sea Alien. It wandered around and then headed to the mushroom forest in the southwest, causing great panic among the sand rats, and I had to lead them out of here to the northern region."

Nemo witnessed the awakening of Jade City.

But Jade City said it "didn't notice the situation with the sand rats."

To it, sand rats were too small, not a focus of attention. At that time, Jade City, driven by hunger, reached the Mushroom Forest to seek energy and then fell into a slumber due to the impurities in the Death Light deposits and the mushrooms that absorbed it.

Since it was that era.

Zhou Yi immediately asked, "Have you seen the Angel of Death? The one in the Mushroom Forest who looks like a girl in white clothes?"

"I have seen that ruler of the Mushroom Forest from afar."

Nemo's LED eyes emitted a twinkle of light: "She is a very special and powerful life form, born from a big stone that grew out of the Alien's surface... the sand rats knew of her birth at that time."

Was the birth of the Angel of Death somehow related to Jade City?

Zhou Yi stroked his chin.

In the future, one could try exploring in this direction.

"However, our focus is still underground, so as for the external environment, we only observe and do not approach those dangerous life forms."

Nemo steered the conversation back.

"To adapt to the new environment, I improved the plan by adding storage rooms, rest areas, waste zones, nurseries, safe passages, trap rooms, and other structures to the underground tunnels."

"The entire group was further divided by me into specialized roles: the Breeding Rats responsible for reproduction, the Breeding Rats in charge of caring for offspring, the Feeding Rats looking for food and water, the Soldier Rats specialized for battling and sacrificing themselves to cover the retreat of the group, the Builder Rats building nests and tunnels, and the Reconnaissance Rats that constantly observe the outside world."

"With the sand rats, it took us 7 winters and the effort of three generations to build the underground pipelines and dwellings in the northern region. We then returned to the Oasis under the volcano and spent another 14 winters to complete the underground construction for the Oasis Side."

"Then we pushed the tunnels in all directions, creating a vast underground network covering the Oasis, the northern forest, the eastern beach, the Southern Mushroom Forest, and west to Chicken Head Town."

"The whole project took 127 winters and involved over 60 generations of sand rats; the labor consumed is beyond calculation. Due to the success of this enormous project, this place has become the center for sand rats in the entire region, including Sand Port; even as the environment continues to deteriorate, the underground sand rat population remains at 300,000."

The light in the electromechanical mouse's tiny eyes suddenly became stronger as if it felt proud of this achievement.

It was the earliest Pioneer of this place.

Amazed, Zhou Yi also wondered, "Can this place really support 300,000 sand rats?"

Although the sand rats were small, they still needed to consume food daily.

"Yes."

Nemo said without hesitation: "Sand rats are omnivorous; they eat underground insects and roots, soft leaves, tree fruits, decomposed flesh above ground, aquatic plants by the water, and small fish and shrimps in the water."

"However, once humans discovered this place, many trees were cut down for firewood, wild berries were picked clean, leading to a significant reduction in environmental resources. Although I was teaching the sand rats how to plant grass and trees, the planting speed could not keep up with the destruction by humans..."

"In the end, I thought of a way to prevent more humans from coming here."

"I started domesticating a kind of insect with the sand rats, which would grow larger and eventually transform into an extremely aggressive monster, the Antlion. In the past, we would eat their larvae to prevent them from growing into threats, but now we needed their strength."

"By raising Antlions and placing them on the western routes, we could reduce the number of humans coming closer. Antlions are temperamental and would hunt all kinds of species, effectively limiting the number of humans entering here."

Zhou Yi scratched his head.

He had been conservative after all.

So these Antlions were biological weapons raised by Nemo to deal with the new humans.