“There’s definitely something wrong here!”

Loud arguments echoed through the conference room. A member of the think tank, dressed in a suit, frowned and said, "The Alskalisans claim that due to prolonged water shortages, members of their race gradually died, forcing them to use the stargate to send a distress signal.

"However, according to the information we have on hand, all the gatekeepers on Earth are high-level transcendents who participated in the gate contention war.

"Every time they open the gate and use it to transport supplies, they consume their own energy.

"In other words, those who can use the gate are at least mid- to high-level players.

"The Alskalisans claim that they discovered and activated the stargate in a secret laboratory of an ancient civilization.

"This gives rise to two possibilities.

"One, an Alskalisan transcendent bonded with the stargate and used it.

"In this possibility,

"That transcendent must be able to afford the cost of opening and maintaining the stargate, meaning his strength is very considerable.

"Such a transcendent would be fully capable of purchasing items and supplies from the mall to help his people survive.

"This is clearly inconsistent with the Alskalisans' description in their request for aid.

"Two, there is a difference between stargates and gates.

"Perhaps there doesn't need to be a specific transcendent to pay the toll, or the laboratory maintaining the stargate has energy devices left over from an ancient civilization.

"However, this theory also clearly lacks relevant evidence.

"I think the Alskalisans' claims are very suspicious."

"I agree with Academician Qian's idea."

Another think tank member nodded and said, "In the first exchange, the other party delivered a bottle of purified water.

"The GRU comrades, on the other hand, threw pebbles, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, and live familiars into the stargate.

"However, the things thrown in were like mud sinking into the sea, with no response at all.

"In other words, the things thrown in were captured, caught, contained, and imprisoned by the Alskalisans.

"This is enough to prove that the Alskalisans are very clear about the basic principles of initial negotiations between two unknown civilizations, which is to protect their own information.

"However, a few hours later, they sent over a dictionary, expressing their desire to negotiate.

"Aren't they afraid that we on the other side of the stargate harbor malicious intentions towards them?

"Why did they drop their guard so easily?

"You should know that the items delivered by the GRU comrades also strictly followed the unknown civilization negotiation regulations issued by the Global Supernatural Alliance to the official agencies of various countries.

"To the greatest extent, they can protect human civilization's information from being leaked.

"How did they know that Earthlings are friendly and willing to help them?

"They were extremely cautious in the first few hours, not revealing any information.

"How can they now expose their weaknesses and directly state that there are less than ten thousand people left on their planet, with their civilization on the verge of extinction?

"This is clearly contrary to common sense."

In the conference room, everyone fell into contemplation.

If the Alskalisans were really in a desperate situation, with their race on the verge of extinction, it was indeed possible for them to abandon their caution and ask Earth for help.

But the problem was, it was too fast.

According to the think tank's previous guesses, negotiations between two unknown civilizations would inevitably be full of endless trials, doubts, and suspicions.

Even if the Alskalisans were extremely short of water and on the verge of collapse,

They had survived for hundreds of years, and a few more days wouldn't make a difference in slowly testing and negotiating with the Earth side.

Discussions arose one after another in the conference room. After sending the stone SOS message, there was no further movement from the stargate, and the Earth side did not throw any items into it.

"...If it's just a matter of housing five thousand aliens, we can completely help them solve it.

"We can first send a stone letter, telling them our thoughts and worries.

"After receiving a reply, we can then throw a small amount of purified water into the stargate to meet their survival needs..."

In the conference room, Balalaika, as the representative of the GRU department, was discussing with the representatives of the other two parties in a hoarse voice.

Han Shuishi noticed Li Ang, who was listening to their discussion with interest, and turned his head politely, saying, "Mr. Li, do you have any opinions?"

"Me?"

Li Ang waved his hand casually and said, "This has nothing to do with me.

"But, anyway, in the end, you still have to enter the stargate yourselves, right?

"If the Alskalisans are really as they say in their letter, desperate and with no way out,

"Then, while Earth completes the rescue of the remaining Alskalisans, it can also take possession of their entire planet.

"The ancient civilization relics and the remaining technology there can all be re-excavated and reverse-engineered.

"And there is absolutely no need to pay the killing game to purchase it.

"GRU, the Global Supernatural Alliance, and the Special Affairs Bureau will not give up such a huge fortune, and they will inevitably invest resources in mining it.

"Since the result is already determined, then the discussion seems a bit superfluous."

"..."

Han Shuishi and Balalaika looked at each other and continued to ask, "What if the Alskalisans are lying?"

"There are two reasons for lying,利益与恐惧 (lìyì yǔ kǒngjù, benefit and fear)."

Li Ang said casually, "I can't imagine a reasonable reason for their fear.

"But one thing is certain, as long as the venue for negotiations is set in their world, the potential losses can be minimized."

"You mean, go directly to their planet to negotiate?"

Han Shuishi groaned, turned his head, and looked at Balalaika.

The latter lowered his head and pondered for a moment before slowly saying, "Then let's implement the new plan.

"The technology department will make a new stone tablet letter, telling them that we will send people through the stargate, bringing enough clean water and information recording devices.

"We will conduct more detailed and specific negotiations in their world."

"Sending humans over?"

Someone in the decision-making team asked in doubt, "Isn't this too risky?

"Unlike script missions, script worlds are all screened by the killing game. There are very few dangerous elements after teleporting there.

"But the stargate is a completely different concept.

"Behind the stargate, there may be deadly viruses, bacteria, parasites, or even memetic infections."

"It's not real living people going over, but using this."

Balalaika took out a small metal box containing chewing gum from his pocket.

【名称：能者多劳口香糖】 (Neng Zhe Duo Lao Kou Xiang Tang, All-Capable Gum)

【类型：消耗品】 (Type: Consumable)

【品质：完美】 (Quality: Perfect)

【特效：使用者在咀嚼口香糖后，可通过对口香糖吹气，制造出一个细节模糊的替身。替身不具有自主意识，受到使用者远程遥控，会向使用者传递感知。替身会消耗使用者15%能量，拥有使用者10%的攻击力，承受320%的伤害。使用者可远程令替身自毁，替身最长持续时间为1小时，受到过量伤害后销毁】 (Effect: After chewing the gum, the user can blow air into the gum to create a blurry substitute. The substitute does not have autonomous consciousness, is remotely controlled by the user, and transmits perception to the user. The substitute consumes 15% of the user's energy, has 10% of the user's attack power, and takes 320% of the damage. The user can remotely destroy the substitute, which lasts for a maximum of 1 hour and is destroyed after taking excessive damage.)

【使用条件：无】 (Usage Condition: None)

【备注：一名使用者可拥有多个口香糖替身，但同时间存在的多个替身，可能会令使用者思维混乱】 (Note: A user can have multiple gum substitutes, but multiple substitutes existing at the same time may cause confusion in the user's mind.)

【备注：口香糖替身可以谈话、沟通，但无法使用装备、道具、技能】 (Note: Gum substitutes can talk and communicate, but cannot use equipment, props, or skills.)

【备注：在未来，一些公司会主动购买这种口香糖，并将其下发给员工。在不支付更多劳动工资的情况下，提升每名员工的工作效率。至于能者多劳会不会让员工患上人格分裂？这就不在公司的考虑范围之内了】 (Note: In the future, some companies will actively purchase this gum and distribute it to their employees. Without paying more labor wages, the work efficiency of each employee is improved. As for whether the ability to do more work will cause employees to suffer from personality split? This is not within the company's consideration.)

Balalaika shook the small iron box with the green plastic film on the package and said, "The substitute created by this prop is a pure chewing gum dummy.

"The user can feel the substitute's feelings, but the substitute's trauma, pain, brainwashing, control effects, memetic infections, etc., will not be transmitted to the user. It is absolutely harmless.

"We can let some transcendents use gum substitutes.

"The transcendents themselves stay in place.

"The gum substitutes will then enter the stargate with water and negotiate with the alien civilization there.

"Even if the negotiations break down, it will not harm the transcendents.

"Instead, it can clarify the Alskalisans' specific intentions."

"Huh?"

Li Ang glanced at the small iron box with some surprise. The prop in Balalaika's hand was very similar to the 【替身魔偶】 (Ti Shen Mo Ou, Substitute Puppet) prop that Li Ang had seen at the Plague Doctor's place when he first debuted.

However, in terms of effects, the perfect quality 【能者多劳口香糖】 (Neng Zhe Duo Lao Kou Xiang Tang, All-Capable Gum) undoubtedly completely crushed the rare quality 【替身魔偶】 (Ti Shen Mo Ou, Substitute Puppet).

With this prop, it can indeed protect the personal safety of the envoys and the information security of human civilization to the greatest extent.

As the host, Balalaika made a confirmation, and the others did not say much.

Each department did its job and quickly made all the preparations according to Balalaika's instructions.

A stone letter was thrown into the stargate, notifying the Alskalisans that the Earth side would send an envoy and requesting them to receive them.

The Alskalisans also sent a stone letter after a few minutes of silence, expressing their agreement.

After finalizing all this, the three organizations selected an envoy team of twenty people.

Among them were Balalaika, Han Shuishi, and Bai Haozheng.

Li Ang was also invited to participate—the reason was that Li Ang was knowledgeable and could provide assistance for the negotiations.

Of course, the deeper reason was that Li Ang also owned a gate alone, and his understanding of the gate was much deeper than that of ordinary people.

"Icy mint flavor, with xylitol."

Li Ang casually chewed the square chewing gum and, like everyone else present, blew a huge round balloon.

The balloon quickly dried and solidified in the air.

Gradually, the outline of each user's body surface formed.

Since the 【能者多劳口香糖】 (Neng Zhe Duo Lao Kou Xiang Tang, All-Capable Gum) had been certified by the killing game system, there was no need to worry about the chewing gum substitute generating self-awareness, doubting itself, or doubting the meaning of life.

After preparing everything,

The envoy team, carrying tons of water in metal drums,

Stepped into the stargate amidst the attention of everyone.

——————

When they opened their eyes again, everyone was standing on a platform.

This looked like the central area of ​​a laboratory that had been abandoned for a long time.

Broken stones and dusty, unknown scientific research instruments were everywhere.

Purple weeds grew everywhere in the cracks in the floor.

The laboratory dome was cracked, and a dark red light shone down from the cracks in the dome, enveloping everyone.

Li Ang looked back and saw that the stargate was located in the center of the circular platform in the laboratory.

Cables covered in dust and leading to nowhere extended from the platform.

The main body of the stargate was still shining with red and black swirling light.

"They're here."

Bai Haozheng's suppressed voice sounded next to him. Li Ang turned his head and saw pairs of eyes lighting up in the seemingly dim corners of the laboratory.

A group of lurking Alskalisans walked out of the darkness.

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Like the dictionary and letters described, these alien species, who grew up under the light of a red dwarf star, have a similar body structure to humans.

Their heads, torsos, limbs, and facial features are very similar.

Only their skin is whiter, and they have no hair—probably because the sunlight is weak, they don't need hair, and it is not easy to produce melanin.

The Alskalisans who appeared in the laboratory should be the exploration team of their race.

Everyone was wearing clothing made of leather, holding blades, spears, and simple bows and crossbows made of iron pipes, quite in the style of a doomsday wanderer.

However, some people were holding near-future weapons that, although old and broken, were similar to, or even slightly exceeded, the technological level of Earth.

Friendly negotiations with aliens were not Li Ang's specialty.

He and Bai Haozheng remained silent, watching the language and anthropology experts in the envoy team walk out of the team and carve words on the stone slabs they brought—this linguist was a transcendent from the Global Supernatural Alliance, who had just cracked and mastered the Alskalisan language.

Although they didn't know how to pronounce it yet, they could communicate through text.

The group of Alskalisans opposite them also sent a representative who looked the oldest. The two sides carved words to each other and passed on information.

"Script worlds don't count as alien planets, so strictly speaking, this should be the first time that Earth humans have established diplomatic relations with a clear extraterrestrial civilization."

Li Ang said in a relaxed tone, "Are we the first Earth delegation to make third-class contact?

"In the past, we would have been human heroes who could be broadcast continuously on global television for a month without changing."

In order to avoid information leakage,

The Earth delegation used another extremely rare language to communicate—Old Norse, from the Chamacuro tribe of South American natives.

"No, according to the new Blue Book plan formulated by the Global Supernatural Alliance, we should now be considered fifth-class contact."

Bai Haozheng said softly, "That is, a more advanced human civilization uses friendly information to directly contact an alien civilization.

"Although there is nothing to be happy about this,

"These Alskalisans... are indeed relatively backward."

The alien humans in front of them, in appearance, were like primitive tribes on Earth who were still living a hunter-gatherer life.

However, Li Ang could still find some clues from the details.

Like humans, their age can be reflected in their appearance.

Most of the people in this team are adults, with a small number of young people and old people.

This shows that their ethnic age structure is still healthy, and middle-aged people with rich field exploration experience have a higher probability of survival.

At the same time, the hunting weapons they are holding prove that they will search for edible animals with meat in the city ruins.

The near-future weapons indicate that these aliens still retain some ability to repair and maintain ancient technology. They cannot really be treated as ignorant primitive tribes.

Li Ang coldly watched the negotiations between the representatives of the two teams, and gradually pieced together the panorama of the alien civilization, or rather, the alien race in his mind.