Chapter 1166: Chapter 165: Arms Trade
The negotiations with the alien civilization were long and tedious. The elder of that deathly pale-skinned race looked decrepit and frail, yet his mind was perfectly clear, and he was exceptionally cautious and earnest during the talks,
insisting every so often that the Earthside negotiators stop and carefully explain each of Earth’s measures in detail.
Only then did the people from Earth finally learn the specific reason these Aliens were asking for help—
having lived long-term in a sealed underground environment and subsisting on the meat of irradiated organisms, the genes of these alien survivors had undergone irreversible mutations,
and though their expeditions repeatedly risked the journey to the surface, searching for data and collecting electronic devices in an attempt to reconstruct their technological tree,
they still could not prevent their technology from gradually breaking off by generations, nor could they stop the symptoms of genetic mutation in their race from growing ever more severe.
Compared to water scarcity, the problem of genetic mutation was more far-reaching and heavier—there were fewer and fewer newborns in the tribe, and even if a woman could conceive, the infants born were highly prone to deformities and died young.
If they did not receive aid from the outside, their race was destined to perish and be annihilated,
which was why the most venerable elder in the tribe led their most elite expedition team to this laboratory their ancestors had called "The End of the World," gambling everything to draw in the beings they regarded as aliens.
"Those stone dictionaries are tutoring materials their race uses to teach young children. That also explains why they could produce such detailed and complete dictionaries so quickly."
Bai Haozheng, looking slightly strange, translated for Li Ang: "According to the epic tales passed down generation after generation in their tribe,
their ancient civilization once had a technological level close to that of modern humans on Earth, even slightly surpassing it,
capable of constructing kilometer-tall skyscrapers on the surface and launching rockets to explore near-Earth satellites.
But five hundred years ago, just like the planet where the Desolated Lions live, they were invaded by an unknown fleet of flying craft from an external civilization that descended from the sky,
their surface cities subjected to carpet bombing, their entire civilization wiped out in one blow.
Only a small number of survivors managed to escape into the underground and thus avoid destruction,
while that alien civilization, after completing the bombardment, left in a hurry without further invasion."
"Hm? The same as with the Desolated Lions?"
Li Ang’s brows furrowed slightly. During the battle over the Portal Planet, the Desolated Lions had once revealed that their planet had been invaded by a powerful alien civilization,
their ancient Transcendents slaughtered on a massive scale, utterly unable to resist,
and the Magic Sunflower Plant casually scattered by the alien civilization as they departed
had also dealt a devastating blow to the Desolated Lions’ civilization, forcing dozens of generations to remain imprisoned within their cities.
Li Ang asked, "The ones who invaded these Alskalisans and the ones who invaded the Desolated Lions’ planet—could they be the same civilization?"
"They probably aren’t,"
Bai Haozheng shook his head. "The timing doesn’t quite match up.
And according to the epic tales passed down in this tribe as retold by the elder, the alien civilization that invaded them appeared as spheres of light descending from the sky,
they never actually encountered any living Aliens,
and they don’t even know whether those spheres of light were weapons or some kind of flying craft fleet.
It doesn’t match the Desolated Lions’ description."
"So we’re talking about two different groups."
Li Ang said thoughtfully, " ’A single pillar of incandescent smoke and flame, as bright as ten thousand suns, rose up in all its splendor. It was a weapon unknown to anyone, a thunderbolt of iron, the messenger of death—it reduced the entire city to Ash. Gale winds arose; clouds billowed upward; dust and gravel fell like rain; bodies were burned beyond recognition; hair and nails sloughed off. Even food became poisonous.’ "
"The Mahabharata."
Bai Haozheng nodded. "It is indeed suspicious. The epic myths left behind by the various ancient civilizations on Earth all, without prior collusion, record similar weapon effects.
Perhaps ancient Earth also once suffered a similar alien invasion, only for it to be twisted and corrected away by the corrective force of the Killing Field Game.
Unfortunately we lack relevant evidence and cannot prove it."
Li Ang cast him a casual glance. The Special Affairs Bureau and the Heterodox Academy possessed a vast trove of ancient texts, and with a living specimen like Su Ni Sheng, whose true age was unknown, the data they held was certainly far richer than his,
but since Bai Haozheng did not wish to speak, he obviously had his own concerns, and there was no need to press further.
Li Ang said offhandedly, "I have a question,
if these Alskalisans were destroyed by an even more advanced alien civilization, how can they be so at ease in using the Star Gate?
Have they really forgotten their hatred, and are they not afraid of being wiped out again?"
"Mm..."
Bai Haozheng narrowed his eyes, staring at the distant alien elder whose lips were moving, and said, "The Star Gate and the alien civilization that invaded them are not the same thing.
In the records of their ancient civilization, the definition of the Star Gate is the same as ours: a passage to an unknown world, where danger and opportunity coexist.
But the alien civilization that invaded them appeared abruptly and had nothing to do with the Star Gate."
"Nothing to do with it?"
Li Ang’s brows furrowed. The Alskalisans were so certain—were they lying, or telling the truth?
If Star Gates had also appeared in Earth’s history, then where did those Star Gates lead—to this Alskalisan planet before him, or to other planets?
The doubts were piling up, and in Li Ang’s mind there faintly emerged a conjecture.
Perhaps the true nature of the Star Gate is not a channel for plundering resources and seizing living space,
but rather... a Noah’s Ark for fleeing disaster.
Li Ang’s train of thought was interrupted by the others in the mission,
the first phase of diplomatic activities had come to an end,
and the members of the delegation took off the supplies they were carrying and handed them over to the Alskalisans before them.
According to the terms of the diplomatic talks, the Earthside would provide them with aid,
supplying water, food, Medicine, and other materials to help the Alskalisans survive.
In return, the other side would cooperate with Earth in exploring this planet and jointly developing the planet’s resources—namely, those remnants of ancient technology.
In name, this was a rescue operation, but everyone present knew that the Alskalisans were in fact trading away the right to rule their planet in exchange for a chance for their race to survive.
"Fortunately for this group, they ran into Gru, the Special Affairs Bureau, and the Global Occult Coalition.
If they’d run into European Heavy Industry or the Demon Scientist Alliance instead, the terms awaiting them would not be so favorable."
Li Ang thought idly, "European Heavy Industry might well have treated these people like livestock, penning them up with good food and drink,
then, under the banner of ’cooperation,’ looted their technological artifacts and works of art and put them into museum display cases."
The one-hour time limit quickly arrived,
some members of the delegation lifted the effect of the Labor Candy early, allowing their chewing-gum substitutes to automatically disperse,
while the others remained at the entrance of the Star Gate—
the Earthside insisted on keeping all primary support activities taking place on the Alskalisan planet, allowing exit but not entry,
so the next batch of support personnel would still use Labor Candy, or stand-in props similar to the gum,
to carry supplies into the Star Gate and follow the Alskalisans back to their underground encampment.
And all of that had nothing more to do with Li Ang.
After a brief word with Bai Haozheng, Xing Hechou, and the others, he used the Colt Revolver and, after a few ultra-long-distance teleports, returned to the offshore waters of Yin City.
——————
Crackle, crackle. Crackle, crackle.
Early in the morning, just as Li Ang woke up from bed, he heard a burst of keyboard clacking as fierce as a storm.
He got up and saw Chaichai squatting in front of the computer desk, her ten fingers flying and darting, tapping the keys with the steady rhythm of a concert pianist.
"What’s up, you flaming people online again?"
Li Ang yawned and crawled out of bed,
even though his current body no longer needed sleep for his organs to recover,
years of living like an ordinary person had still left him with the habit of sleeping soundly every few days.
"What do you mean, would I be the kind of person who gets into flame wars with others?"
Chaichai stared at the screen without blinking, pouting in protest.
"Heh."
Li Ang curled his lip and went to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth.
Back when Chaichai was addicted to Honor of Kings,
she’d often be driven mad with rage by people asking if her jungler was a devout Buddhist who never killed,
or politely suggesting she uninstall because Honor of Kings wasn’t that easy,
to the point her teeth practically itched.
At first she’d wanted to improve her gameplay so she wouldn’t get flamed,
but once her skill rose, she came under System punishment instead—always matched with sleepwalking teammates, throwers, and even "can’t carry the girl" types.
Because she couldn’t just open mic freely, Chaichai had specially learned the more efficient Wubi typing system,
so she could transform into a keyboard pianist when needed,
chatting and bantering away while using the power of language to annihilate her teammates’ or opponents’ family registries,
with a peak typing speed that could even go toe-to-toe with stenographers at conferences,
once leaving teammates who met her utterly stunned—since when did Honor of Kings have a plug‑in that spat flowers and filth that fast?
When Li Ang came out after washing up and saw that Chaichai was still pounding away at the keyboard, he walked over and glanced at the screen.
"I used to only be able to make 28nm chips. After using the Thinning Leg Instrument my sis recommended, now I can manufacture 4nm chips! Thanks, sis[Flowers][Flowers][Flowers]I’ve put the lithography machine on my homepage, stop asking me where I bought it[Heart][Heart][Heart]"
"The new 152mm howitzer is amazing! The shrapnel radius after detonation covers a 70m*25m rectangle, wipes out people and livestock, and even sensitive skin types can use it~[Flowers][Flowers][Flowers]"
"Six‑ton MacLis Submother Bomb, the blast effect is insane! The giant‑drum MacLis Submother Bomb that’s gone viral across the net again is still priced explosively low. A good bomb is worth experiencing twice! Recapture your childhood memories! Our classmates in the Middle East who love it have already bought two drums!"
???
Staring at the lines of text in the PowerPoint doc, Li Ang asked in confusion, "What are you even typing?"
"Copy for a micro‑merchant’s products,"
Chaichai replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She gently pushed Li Ang’s head aside from in front of the screen and said seriously, "I’m going to be a new‑era business elite woman with a career of my own."
"Uh, you feeling okay...?"
Li Ang, a bit worried, reached out to feel Chaichai’s forehead. The Qinge Armor still felt cold and slick.
"Of course I’m fine."
Chaichai rolled her eyes, typing new lines into the PPT—"In the land of the free United States, shootings every day. Hoard food not guns, and your house is just a granary; hoard guns not food, and everywhere becomes a granary..."
while explaining to Li Ang, "Didn’t I call Mule the other day to chat about the war over in Rio de Janeiro?"
"Mule told me the American Military-Industrial Complex and European Heavy Industry are still in a standoff."
"European Heavy Industry may have the upper hand overall, but their plate is too big—they have to consider interests in India and Africa,"
"whereas the American Military-Industrial Complex has been lying low for a while. Now that they’ve suddenly jumped out, they’re dead set on swallowing all of South America,"
"so for now the two sides can still fight to a fifty‑fifty, and the war in Rio de Janeiro has to go on."
"Both sides are still sane enough to keep the war at the Transcendent level and not mess with ordinary people."
"But it’s a different story elsewhere."
"The whole world is about to be plunged into a sea of war, so we’ve got to take this window to flip some weapons back and forth."
"Huh?"
Li Ang’s eyelid twitched. "You’re going to traffic weapons?"
"Just helping Mule with a small favor."
Chaichai said with great enthusiasm, "The Ark Project run by Mule and Miss Liu has gathered more and more refugees."
"In North America and Europe, more and more Transcendents can’t stand the oppression from European Heavy Industry and the others,"
"so they’ve decided to join the Ark Project and flee on the high seas."
"These refugees seem to believe that interest groups like European Heavy Industry are only going to get worse—oppressing internally, waging war externally,"
"so the Ark Project may one day have its own security company, armed‑force export company, and even mercenary‑style military,"
"to protect ordinary civilians from the ravages of war."
"Uh..."
Li Ang thought it over. The Star Gate activated in Siberia did indeed herald a bad possibility.
A faction with a Star Gate could carry out mass migration, relocate their ordinary populace to the Portal Planet, and treat Earth as a battlefield,
but those factions without a Star Gate,
or ordinary people who couldn’t get migration credentials, might be forced to stay behind on Earth, now the battlefield of civilizations.
War was inevitable and drawing closer day by day,
and the Ark Project cooked up by Liu Wu Dai and the others really did need to plan for the future.
"So you decided to help Mule move weapons?"
"Not trafficking—open and aboveboard dumping."
Chaichai explained, "Pistols, rifles, machine guns, grenades, howitzers, rocket launchers, surface‑to‑surface missiles, surface‑to‑air missiles."
"As long as someone pays, they can buy them."
"It’s not just Mule doing this; arms dealers, Brokers, and even Transcendents around the world are all taking part in this humanitarian‑relief‑style arms trade."
"Selling to Military Warlords, guerrillas, and even ordinary folks."
"An era of war and chaos is almost here. Ordinary citizens in the United States having missile‑grade heavy firepower to protect their homes and property is perfectly reasonable, right?"
"...Fine."
Li Ang rubbed his temples.
Apart from East Asia, public security in the rest of the world was deteriorating at a breakneck pace.
Gun trades were frequent, Genetic Elixirs flooded the black market,
and Transcendents, through all kinds of channels, had gotten their hands on various true or fake intel on the Star Gates and passed it on to the mundane world after "processing," further deepening ordinary people’s panic.
The new year did not look like it would be easy.
