"It's really a rice seedling." Hank couldn't wait to examine the plant closely with a magnifying glass. "With this rice seedling, we'll have food..."

"It's up to you guys." Zhou Zhao shook his head and turned to leave.

He wasn't interested in these things. Perhaps the Mayflies could replicate the genes of this rice seedling to produce more seeds. Perhaps decades into the future, the surface of Alfas would become vibrant with life, but none of that concerned him.

He was just a B-class 'Mayfly,' glowing with the faintest of lights like thousands of other Mayflies, constantly struggling at the subsistence line, leading a mundane life, earning money to solve problems for others.

Resisting the tyranny of Sky City and saving humanity—such grand aspirations were things only the leaders of the Mayflies would consider. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Walking through the alleyways of the abandoned buildings, stepping carefully on beams protruding from the walls barely wide enough to pass, he could take in the entirety of the Woodpecker's House from this vantage point.

Under the gray sky, buildings stood tilted on the polluted ground. The horizon extended into a band of rust, with towering skyscrapers like mountains piercing the clouds, symbolizing past prosperity—majestic yet desolate, with the setting sun dropping there as if never to rise again.

Zhou Zhao returned to his room, an inconspicuous basement hidden beneath rubble. The entrance was overgrown with wild grass, and an indescribable stench frequently wafted from the long-abandoned sewer opening. Even if someone noticed, they would dismiss it as just another ruin.

Upon entering, the air purification system began operating, quickly expelling the odor. Zhou Zhao opened the refrigerator, took out a bottle of ice water, and, along with the leftover dinner from last night, sat down at the table.

A sound came from under the bed, followed by a bang from hitting one's head.

"Come out." Zhou Zhao said calmly.

A little girl emerged from under the bed, wearing a yellow tattered vest, her face youthful. She didn't look very old, with two cute bun hairstyles and a wisp of hair curling upward from her forehead.

The appearance of the little girl instantly added a touch of vitality to the room, which sharply contrasted with the otherwise lifeless surroundings.

"Brother Zhou Zhao, you're back~"

Her sweet voice rang out. Zhou Zhao quietly watched the girl clowning around, curious about how far she would go.

Until the latter clicked her tongue, sat on a chair, rested her hand on the chair back, crossed her legs carelessly, and picked her nose with her little finger.

"Can you really not react at all when such a cute bunhead loli sweetly calls you brother? Are you sure you're a man with normal physiological functions?"

"How disgusting." Zhou Zhao put on his headphones. "I'm eating."

"Statistics show that raising a pure and lovely little loli in the wasteland world, scavenging for food during the day to feed her, and snuggling with her at night has always been the dream of countless men. Have you heard of the little girl, the uncle, and the dog?"

"That's probably more about chasing a sense of warmth." Zhou Zhao pondered. "Maybe it's about the sense of accomplishment in raising a daughter."

"Ugh, so it's some nauseating 'fatherly love,' not perverted beastly desires? Boring." The girl snapped her fingers.

"I know why you were discarded." Zhou Zhao sighed.

Obviously, this foul-mouthed loli was not a human. Her name was Justin Bieber, a military bionic he picked up two months ago at the Woodpecker's House, more precisely, it was an incomplete bionic head; most of its components were damaged, except for an intact chip.

As for the bionic body, it was fitted with the brain from a family companion-type bionic 'Little Clair' found at another junkyard. Replacing the faulty chip inside the brain resulted in the current form.

Just thinking about the 'loli' facade harboring a 'roughneck' soul made Zhou Zhao feel his meal turning unappetizing.

Clair jumped beside the young man, looked at the food in Zhou Zhao's bowl, nodded, and said:

"This prefab looks like something from before the Third Technological Leap, ghost knows how long it's been frozen in the underground cold storage of the old federation. Don't kill a human by eating it."

"Speaking of eating."

Clair clung to Zhou Zhao's arm, sweetly called out:

"Brother Zhou Zhao, I'm hungry~"

"So hungry, if we don't eat soon, my energy will hit zero. Of course, if you deliberately don't feed me and plan to secretly do something to me while I'm unconscious, I wouldn't be able to resist, ya-ha~" Clair coyly covered her face.

Zhou Zhao, with tired eyes, watched Clair rolling around the room, finally clutching her neck and showing an 'X—X' expression before collapsing to the ground.

He sighed softly, stood up, and unplugged a tapered connector from the wall, attaching it with a long fire hose, welding the two together simply.

Seeing this, Clair's eyes sparkled, resting her cheeks in her hands, her expression almost melting:

"Let's get it in quickly; I can't wait any longer!"

Zhou Zhao lifted Clair's scalp, aligned the tapered connector with the port, and fuel flowed down the hose. Clair sat rigidly, and only during charging would she become quiet.

Even bionics from the old federation could convert fuel into electricity.

For Zhou Zhao, the fuel was not very useful. He wasn't interested in raising a daughter nor needed any form of companionship. Since his sister and mother passed away, wandering alone for years in the End of the Earth, he had long been accustomed to solitary life, not wanting any ties with others.

Bringing Clair home meant having someone to guard the house while he was out. If an unseeing drifter showed up at his door, Clair would unhesitatingly activate the electric trap to kill them.

"Here, take this." Zhou Zhao said as he tossed a rice seed to Clair, who had finished charging.

He had just swiped it.

"I'm telling you, just give up on your unrealistic garden plans. I know the allure of greenhouses for you Jiulong People, but the seeds have Genetic Locks. It's unrealistic..."

As Clair took the seed, she noticed something was wrong. She stared intently at the seed, with data telling her that there was a viable embryo beneath the seed coat.

She exclaimed, "Bloody hell, where did you get this?"

"What's up?"

Clair's demeanor changed completely, her expression turning exceedingly serious:

"You have no idea what the Genetic Lock of a seed means for Alfas. The people of Sky City treat these seeds as top-secret taboos, because it's through these seeds that they can continuously divide the surface forces and achieve complete control over the people on the surface!"

"I know, that's why I need to steal it. My companions will come over to take these seeds soon." Zhou Zhao shrugged and said.

"Do you think it'll still be the Law Enforcer riffraff coming to catch you?"

"If news of these seeds reaching the surface gets to the people above, they wouldn't hesitate to deploy the army, might even bombard the place. Even if it means destroying the l2 district along with the seeds, they would never allow these to fall into the hands of the Mayflies."

Zhou Zhao's expression changed.