Chapter 7
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Chapter 7: Collecting Old Computers, Bicycles, Washing Machines
The rat people successfully surrendered, yes, they succeeded. Unlike the imperial people, who were bombed for a full five minutes after raising the white flag of surrender because their flag was black, with a red eye attached. Black meant failure and sadness, and the red eye indicated the pain of surrender – then they were bombarded for another five minutes by cloud-burst bombs.
The mouse people surrendered using radio signals and lights, not like the empire people. They had advanced technology for recycling electronic waste, like old radio tubes. The surrender signals sent through radio and lights convinced humans to not press the nuclear bomb launch button.
Otherwise, the squadron with Space Displacer-equipped fighter jets would have destroyed them with powerful weapons. It took some time for humans to understand the surrender message after decoding the radio signals, thanks to math and geometry being universal languages in the universe.
August 16, 2075, Long Island Laboratory.
The surrendered mouse people and their spaceship were taken to the Australian desert because they carried some level of radiation, exceeding international safety standards due to their bodies, ships, and belongings.
After dismantling and analyzing the seemingly junked spaceships, unique items were securely stored in lead safes and sent to famous laboratories worldwide. Despite past conflicts, the world maintained a united front, almost like being amicable before parting ways.
"The analysis report on that green sticky fungus is ready."
"Show me." Skipping the dense data and formulas, the Defense Ministry official in the lounge looked straight at the conclusion, "… This strain shows signs of natural evolution without genetic modification but with interference suggestive of artificial breeding."
"So, the mice haven’t mastered biotechnology like genetic engineering? They simply utilized natural strains for such complex tasks? Can we use this fungus for power generation?"
Just like no one complains about having too much money, no country would overlook having excess energy. This strain can efficiently utilize nuclear waste and bio garbage, providing a better alternative to incinerating trash for power.
"I’m afraid this won’t work. These bacteria use a type of biological electrochemical reaction to generate electricity. They harness the heat and some radiation released by radioactive elements during natural decay and convert them into the energy needed for their life activities. In this process, the bacteria reproduce rapidly and die quickly due to the radiation. As they die, their bodies decompose, gradually accumulating radioactive elements, which then produce electricity and additional heat."
"So?"
"So, they don’t actually generate electricity through radiation but reproduce and evolve using the heat and high-energy particles produced by the decay of radioactive elements. In reality, the source of electricity is… obtained by decomposing organic waste. Due to this survival habit, if we want to use them to provide electricity effectively, it may require a considerable amount of uranium to allow them to reproduce on a large scale… In a normal environment, they hardly engage in much reproductive activity…"
The price of uranium ore per ton is enough to dispel any thoughts of using it for generating electricity.
"However, they can be used to eliminate nuclear dust pollution. As they engage in life activities, they metabolize these radioactive substance particles. With the mass deaths of the bacterial colonies, these radioactive substance particles gradually accumulate in the environment, effectively eliminating widespread nuclear dust pollution." Additionally, creating a stack of nuclear waste and heavy metals. "Furthermore, we can also use them to decompose uranium ores that originally have no mining value, such as uraninite and uranocopper ores, extracting the uranium and other radioactive elements from them. The yield is quite substantial."
"Can we make some improvements to them?"
"Hmm, that’s difficult. We only have this one isolated sample without more similar bacterial strains or genetic samples from other planetary life forms. It’s almost impossible to make genetic improvements, like embedding or knocking out certain key segments; and in terms of artificial domestication and selective breeding interference, the mice have already done a good job, and it’s hard for us to make much progress on this basis."
"Hmm, later on, we will allocate additional funding for further research on these bacteria."
August 17, Australian concentration camp
The rat people were not happy at first about being placed in this camp with their companions, but when they saw the piles of food that were provided every day, their discontent disappeared. Nothing makes rat people happier than lots of food to eat. If these strange long-hand creatures could ensure that the rat people were fed every day, maybe in just one week, or even three days, the rats would happily stay and not leave.
The human interrogations went much smoother with the temptation of food compared to dealing with the stubborn members of the empire. Although the low-level slave rats couldn’t provide coherent information, there were others in charge of recording, managing, and organizing, like the library rat and the gray elder, who had accumulated a lot of knowledge due to their long lives.
"Sniff sniff ~ A very beautiful place, we once… sniff sniff, had a city like this." The elderly rat person, covered in foul-smelling tumors and sparse gray hair, pointed to what seemed like glasses on their nose and said seriously, "Oh? You mean, you once had this level of technology?" This intrigued the interrogator.
"Yes, yes, sniff sniff~~ Technology, yes, technology, sniff sniff~ we once had that stuff."
In the fuzzy memories of the gray elder, the rat people were not always known as rat people; they were the most advanced civilization in this star sector. They had sophisticated factories that produced various products through microbes and biochemical reactions. They had clean geothermal power plants and in the most distant dreams, it seemed that the rat people of that era did not suffer eternal hunger. However, at some point, how did the rat people become the beings rolling in the garbage heaps now?
"So, you once had a systematic technological system, had factories, and no famine, ensuring food supply?" The interrogator asked while comparing the elder’s statements. "This means your civilization was highly advanced in the past, so why did it change to what it is now?"
"Curse, the curse of the stars!" screeched the gray elder sharply.
"Oh, can you tell me about this curse?"
In the oldest records that the gray elder had read, the rat people were once called the "Lapites." They were born in the depths of the earth. In ancient times, they possessed the Space Displacer. They used geothermal springs to establish a steam pipe system that powered turbines to build geothermal power plants. Using the Space Displacer, they dug huge pits, transforming the underground world into a thriving place with deep wells, intricate tunnels connecting domes and clan halls.
The rat people grew different tiny living things underground like mushrooms and insects to make things they need like silk, soap, bug spray, etc. They even discovered a little about nuclear power from digging up radioactive rocks over a long time. They knew about radiation and atomic energy, which was more advanced than the Empire people.
While humans avoided certain critical technologies to stay on Earth, the mice people adapted to their environment. Normally, they should have gone to space early on, but they thought the sky was just rocky and mossy until a teleporter accident showed them otherwise. They preferred digging underground.
For a long time, the mice people developed a civilization in their sealed space, but a teleporter accident shattered part of their roof, revealing new things to the ruling White clan mice. They became obsessed with exploring the stars, changing from gentle rulers to cruel tyrants causing chaos and abandoning their cities.
When the Ark that held their knowledge and technology was built, the White clan traitors abandoned the other mice on the Ark and vanished into space, leaving behind a ruined world. The mice then discarded their history, system, and names, becoming who they are now.
The mice thought the stars cursed them, turning them into what they were, but they couldn’t go to the surface or to the cold space. They had to gather scrap to survive.
"That’s all the info I have. How about you?"
"Not much new here, but the higher-ups were right in thinking about the Kloros people. Humans never saw the universe as weak because of the Kloros, suggesting the Kloros may have been misunderstood or not developed enough."
The mice’s technology proved this point. They had rockets, space suits, early computers, power generators, research facilities, scientists, and subjects like math, physics, chemistry, and biology.
Besides lacking "sunshine" and aviation tech, they were on par with the old Soviet Union in many ways.
This is all stuff they created hundreds of years ago, and if those rulers hadn’t gone crazy, maybe it wouldn’t be much worse than humans now. "These rats even know about family planning."
"That’s not strange. Wild rats also understand this. If there’s not enough food, they will have fewer babies."
"I’m not talking about that. They interfere artificially. These rats can have 6-8 babies in one litter, and they can reproduce more than ten times in their lifetime. Apart from natural control of reproduction rate, their population control plan involves choosing the smartest or strongest baby from one or two litters and killing all the others."
"It sounds cruel, but for them, it is a way to control the population and improve the quality of the average population."
"So, they don’t engage in this behavior anymore." The interrogator shrugged. "And then, according to the old man’s memory, the wise rats among them, the so-called big-headed rats, are decreasing in number every year. More and more young rats can’t even be good slaves. Civilization has regressed severely. In fact, less than ten years ago, they still had jet aircraft…"
"Regarding their purpose of coming to Earth, do you have any questions?"
"Um…" The interrogator looked odd when talking about this. "Well, you might not believe it… they came to collect junk…"
"What? What did you say?" Everyone who heard this news, including the President of the United States, looked like they were in an April Fool’s joke that happened four months ago.
"Yes, the rat people have lost most of their industrial power. They scavenge wreckage, corpses, materials, parts, and even food from the battlefield’s edge. When necessary, they trade with the victors, buying the spoils. Simply put, they are truly the universe’s garbage collectors."
"Wait, what do they use to buy scrap materials?"
"Well…"
This is a coin, it looks very old, wrapped in a layer of dirt even after being washed for a long time, but that’s not important. What’s important is, even through the dirt, you can see its essence: it’s gold, shiny, and beautiful. This is a gold coin.
According to the bank’s assessment, the gold content is over 80%. It is a coin minted by the past Ratman society, but for the current Ratmen, it is not of much use. It’s just a past commemorative item occasionally found in the garbage pile, not as valuable as food and waste.
Some say: in the interstellar era, gold and silver may lose their value, but that’s unlikely. Leaving gold aside, the price of silver might even soar. As an excellent conductor, silver is in high demand in many places. For an interstellar civilization, the industrial demand for gold and silver is almost exponentially increasing.
However, the production of these rare metals is still limited. Not to mention that these heavy metals come from supernova explosions, they only make up a tiny fraction of the total material elements generated in the universe. In proportion, they are not just common things that you can stumble upon, like discovering a planet made of pure gold.
The vastness of the universe also means that even if there is a planet made of pure gold, if it is inside the black hole cluster at the center of the galaxy, it is meaningless. It’s like having an average salary of 6000 and a total GDP of 60 trillion, but if your monthly income is less than 3000, even if the GDP increases from 10 trillion to 60 trillion, your salary might not increase from 1000 to 6000, and with inflation, your actual wealth might even shrink.
Most of these precious metals are also deeply buried underground. Even if there are surface veins, the cost and time period for planetary surface exploration are factors that cannot be ignored. Therefore, in terms of the comparison between actual mining and consumption, interstellar era gold and other precious metals and rare metals might become even more valuable. Just like the total gold reserves on Earth are actually quite high, far beyond the general imagination, but it’s useless – humans can only extract and utilize so little.
Thinking that cosmic resources are infinite means there is no resource crisis or worthless resources, it’s like thinking the bank vault has one hundred billion and you can withdraw one hundred billion from your account, which is actually funny. It might be less efficient because you need to visit more banks (planets).
Therefore, the mouse people using gold to trade for scrap is obviously a profitable deal for most civilizations that are not declining but advancing. Except for humans, even though human garbage is more and of higher quality, its unit price may actually be much higher. After all, humans are different from the imperial people. They have developed to a certain extent in all subjects except for Space Displacer and Jumper, including the recycling industry!