Chapter 417: Chapter 409: [Let There Be Light]: A Greeting from "Yellowstone
"Abilities have their own checks and balances."
"The same is true for Wonders. Based on research from the Nirvana’s records and my own judgment, the characteristics of the Unceasing Water are ’growth’ and ’water’."
"Judging by the name alone,"
"The very concepts of ’cease’ and ’earth’ are its natural counters. The Xirang Research Institute, thanks to the Wonder, the Jiuzhou Platform, is a leader in this field. For the Artificial Earth, I suggest starting with approaches like sealing and suppression. By finding a way to inhibit the rampant growth of the Unceasing Water, we can make it slowly return to a dormant state."
Shi Ming repeated the advice given by the Star Spirit from the Wishing Lamp.
Everyone has their specialty.
In this regard, the Xirang Research Institute could indeed do a better job than he could.
"Of course, if there are other ideas or approaches, we can discuss them together later."
Aside from Xivier from Gold, none of the others present were research specialists. Discussing the scientific details here was pointless. No matter how much more was said, the attending representatives could only take the Unceasing Water samples and summarized data provided by Shi Ming, return to their King-level ships, and relay it to their researchers.
Therefore, Shi Ming only provided a potential line of thought and all the information he could.
He didn’t elaborate further.
The third item on the meeting’s agenda was the major counter-offensive against the sea beasts.
Reclaiming dominance of the seas was crucial. Of the original 100,001 wandering ships, only 61,299 remained. However, the sea beasts had suffered even more devastating losses. In this war of attrition, humanity’s advantage in the tug-of-war with the sea beasts was steadily growing.
This was especially true with the emergence of a top-tier combatant like Shi Ming.
The time for a counter-offensive had come. The coordinates discovered by the Map of the Endless Sea would be shared, but not entirely for free.
In exchange for this convenience, the various King-level Wandering Ships also had to take on corresponding responsibilities. The "Endless Ocean Wonders Mutual Aid Organization" was officially established, and as its president, Shi Ming basically gained the right to reasonably use all registered Wonders within the organization.
With that, the three main topics of the summit were concluded.
But the meeting wasn’t over.
Next was the aid plan for the sunken King-level Wandering Ship, [Fireseed], spearheaded by Da Yu and Katyusha.
In this matter, the various King-level Wandering Ships were not stingy.
On the contrary, seeing a peer fall was a grim reminder of their own mortality.
The wandering ship Fireseed had borne the brunt of the invader’s first attack and had sunk as a result. It was an unavoidable disaster. If it hadn’t been Fireseed, it might have been the Lighthouse, the Twelve Stars, or another wandering ship that had sunk...
No one could guarantee they would have fared better than Fireseed had they been Rui Liang’s first target. Whether it was out of sympathy for a fallen peer or to pave a way for their own future survival—to share the risk in times of crisis—it was only right for them to make a gesture of support now.
Especially when they learned that Grand Patrol Envoy Shi Ming had already contributed the Calm Sea Pearl.
These people naturally knew what to do.
Da Yu unreservedly provided plans for building artificial floating islands and their infrastructural expertise. Katyusha, being close to the Ice Sea and rich in Pure Dome Crystals, provided a large quantity of Energy Stones. The Lighthouse, still heavily in debt to Shi Ming, didn’t have many Energy Stones in reserve, so they offered up a Wonder.
The other major King-level ships all made their own contributions.
The people of Fireseed accepted the aid.
Truly important meetings with far-reaching consequences have never been about formality or scale.
As this simple meeting was about to conclude, the Lighthouse’s new Governor, Anatoli, suddenly spoke up:
"The Endless Ocean is about to enter a new era. The Lighthouse is willing to share ’Let There Be Light’ free of charge to facilitate timely communication between the King-level Wandering Ships. We will also provide corresponding technical support and a promise of absolute confidentiality."
Oh?
Share ’Let There Be Light’ for free?
Vladimir from Katyusha, as well as many other captains, had clearly not anticipated such selflessness from the Lighthouse’s new Governor.
’Let There Be Light’ is the foundation upon which the Lighthouse maintains its network of subordinate General-level and Gold-level wandering ships.
It’s their core competitive advantage.
In the Land Era, zero-latency "instant messaging" might not have sounded like much. Everyone had mobile networks, and every individual could enjoy the readily available conveniences of technology.
But in the Wandering Era, out on the Endless Ocean, satellites had fallen, fiber-optic cables were destroyed, and tropospheric scatter technology was useless. Other communication methods, like ionospheric reflection and microwave relay, were severely diminished in effectiveness. A one-to-two-hour information delay was the fastest possible speed of transmission between ships.
With ’Let There Be Light,’ the Lighthouse could seize the initiative in coordinating many matters.
And this technology was no longer replicable.
Since the offer was made, the captains of the various King-level Wandering Ships were naturally willing to accept. As for the so-called promise of confidentiality, everyone understood what kind of information could be transmitted through it, and what kind could not.
Any message sent via ’Let There Be Light’ would not be one that required absolute secrecy.
"Thank you for your generosity, Mr. Anatoli."
Six terminal devices for ’Let There Be Light’ were presented as gifts to the attending King-level ship factions, packed in heavy boxes lined with precious, soft sea beast pelts.
Only eleven ’Let There Be Light’ terminals now remained.
After gifting six and Anatoli keeping one for himself, the remaining four devices would be sealed away permanently, never to be activated again barring exceptional circumstances.
One of Anatoli’s attendant Angels brought a box over. As he was handing it to Shi Ming, Shi Ming just smiled and shook his head.
With a flicker of his Spiritual Power...
...a greeting from the Huangshi came through on the ’Let There Be Light’ channel.
Anatoli froze.
...
...
...
「On the Lighthouse, far away in the Columbia Sea.」
Trellin, who had stepped down from his position as Supreme Governor to work behind the scenes, was the one who had proposed the "’Let There Be Light’ Sharing Plan."
He understood full well that the Lighthouse’s decline was inevitable.
But even so, by leveraging its powerful foundation inherited from the Land Era, it could still play an irreplaceable role in the transition between the old era and the new.
Sharing ’Let There Be Light’ for free was a pledge of allegiance.
"A pity."
’The dream of making the Lighthouse great again can only be left to our successors.’
He sat in his office, the four remaining ’Let There Be Light’ terminals laid out before him. After this summit, they would be decommissioned, sealed, and never used again.
BEEP~
All four devices chimed at once.
’Is the handover complete?’
Trellin casually picked up one of the devices.
When he saw the sender’s name, Trellin froze. Even for a veteran politician who had seen the rise and fall of the world over many years, in this moment, it was as if he had been struck by lightning. The device slipped from his hand.
The message that had come through was:
[Huangshi: Hello, everyone! This is Shi Ming.]
In that instant, Trellin understood why he had lost to Shi Ming time and time again in their confrontations.
From the very beginning,
...his opponent had already infiltrated his headquarters.
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