Chapter 1 The Meeting

Under Lulu's introduction, Hao Ren finally arrived at the central tower of the Kuiper Station. The stationmaster had prepared a temporary reception room specifically for this meeting. After entering, Hao Ren found the room to be much simpler than expected. The furnishings were basic. The rectangular cabin was decorated with only a fish tank at the far end and a few green plants next to it. Besides these, there were only the necessary tables, chairs, and several fixed data terminals. Conditions on a space station were probably limited, and normally, such a workstation wouldn't be specially prepared as a reception room for big shots to drink tea and chat.

As soon as Hao Ren entered, he saw a dozen or so little green men sitting on either side of the long table in the center of the room. Like the crew members he had seen at the bottom of the Blood Lake, these individuals were about the height of children, with oversized heads, bizarre facial features, and greenish-blue skin. Their limbs were rather slender. They all wore similarly styled yellowish-green clothing, the material of which seemed to be a mixture of rubber and fabric. Each person's clothing had a different symbol, indicating their origin from different fiefdoms. Watching this scene, Hao Ren couldn't help but think of those old sci-fi movies from years ago. He thought, today, the historic meeting between Earthlings and little green men is finally happening…

The little green men in the room seemed to have been waiting for a while. Upon seeing Hao Ren's arrival, they immediately stood up and awkwardly placed a hand on their chest in a gesture of respect. This action was a "standard posture" established by the Xiling Empire to facilitate goodwill between humanoid races from different civilizations. One of the little green men, who appeared to have a more yellowish skin tone than the others, seemed to be the representative of this delegation. He formally addressed Hao Ren with diplomatic rhetoric: "It is a pleasure to meet you, Inspector. I extend greetings on behalf of the Kabala United Kingdom, subordinate to the Campbell Civilization Sphere. We shall…"

Hao Ren quickly responded politely, "No need for formalities, no need for formalities. I'm not used to this…"

Upon hearing this, the little green man immediately nodded and said rapidly, "Alright, let's get down to business then. How is the ship?"

Hao Ren was taken aback. He had just been acting out of his hick instincts, being polite as a reflex, but he hadn't expected these little green men to be even more straightforward than him…

However, he was happy to oblige. He immediately smiled and sat down at the table, pulling out a stack of holographic information disks from his personal space, which he had prepared in advance, and pushing them forward for the little green men to distribute and examine. He introduced himself while doing so, "We're all here to handle business, so no need to be reserved. My name is Hao Ren, you can just call me by my name…"

At this moment, Lulu, seeing that they had started discussing serious matters, proactively began serving tea and water on the side. The little green man leader who had spoken earlier fiddled with the information disk while nodding his oversized head up and down. "Hello, hello. My name is Kabala, the Grand Leader of the Kabala United Kingdom. Thank you very much for finding our ship. That ship is related to an important deep-space exploration experiment and also records several newly developed routes, which is of great significance to us…"

Hao Ren said "Oh," and then asked for the names of the other little green men one by one. However, this newbie's understanding of the major civilizations in the universe was severely lacking, so he had no idea that the little green man in front of him named Kabala was actually a famous figure in the universe: Although he was only a fiefdom's leader, he had a high degree of recognition among the major civilizations. He was one of the most outstanding of the Campbells, who were passionate about exploring the stars. He had led his pioneering forces on a voyage to the wild star regions outside the Campbell Civilization Sphere for thirty-seven years without returning home once—of course, if he hadn't gotten lost, he could have returned a few years earlier. To this day, he had discovered a double-digit number of habitable planets, and three star routes were named after him. Countless colonies were established because of him. This interstellar explorer was like a powerful and never-shut-down starship engine, hardly knowing what it meant to stop. He charged through the universe like a whirlwind, but never stayed on any newly discovered colony for more than two years. A famous quote of his was widely circulated: The explorer's mission is to discover new worlds; the mission of building these worlds is left to future generations.

It was precisely because of this explorer's eccentric personality that he had discovered a large number of colonies in his life, but never stopped to seriously build even one of them. He indulged in the joy of discovering new worlds, but as soon as he set foot on the land of a new world, he would immediately lose interest and set sail for another planet. The construction of these colonies was all completed by other pioneer teams following behind him. This style of only exploring but not building earned him the nickname "Kabala, the one who digs pits but doesn't fill them"—which he happily accepted.

It wasn't until two years ago, when his wife forced him to stay home at the cost of her life, and he was vaguely appointed as the Grand Leader of the Kabala United Kingdom, that this legendary explorer's journey finally came to an end. His crew, his wife, and the insurance company that insured his ship were all overjoyed about this.

At this moment, Kabala was leading a group of little green men around him, studying the information projected on the information disks. When they saw the section of the ship's hull protruding from the silt at the bottom of the lake, looking somewhat twisted and strange under the reflection of the blood-colored lake water, everyone began to nod. A dozen huge green heads swayed up and down: "That's it, that's it."

One of the little green men even touched the back of his head with some emotion: "The guys on the Tianjiao Star 4 ship are really lucky. They flew so far when they died…"

Hao Ren felt that cultural differences were truly magical.

"This ship is still sinking at the bottom of the lake in the Dream Plane," Hao Ren said, seeing that the little green men had finished studying the information disk, and shifted their attention back to him. "You should all know the situation of the Dream Plane, right?"

Kabala nodded: "Yes, yes, a mysterious space—unfortunately, development is prohibited. I've always wanted the opportunity to take a fleet to the Dream Plane to see if there are any interesting places… but the last time I applied for the development rights of the Dream Plane, I was kicked out."

Upon hearing this, Hao Ren almost choked on his own saliva. He finally understood how strong the exploratory spirit of these little green men was—they were even planning to explore the Dream Plane with a fleet! This suicidal spirit was no less than Dou Dou at home, gnawing on a power strip! Fortunately, this world had Corvus 12345 keeping watch… otherwise, who knew how many races as suicidal as these little green men would pop out every day!

"Since you know, that makes things easier," Hao Ren didn't say the complaints in his stomach, but just nodded calmly. "Let me say this: because that place isn't very stable, and recently the 'Wall of Reality' has also had a bit of a… small malfunction, we've formulated a relatively safe construction plan to retrieve the ship without affecting the stability of the universe or the natives of the Dream Plane. The plan is like this…"

Then, Hao Ren confirmed the entire construction plan with Kabala. This plan was briefly mentioned in the data disk just now, but not in as much detail as he was saying. The little green men nodded as they listened. Finally, Kabala tapped his two little short hands together: "Okay, reliable. Actually, we brought the construction machinery with us this time. We'll temporarily hand it over to you for safekeeping later. But I still want to confirm… can't we really take a look around in the Dream Plane?"

Before Hao Ren could say anything, the data terminal jumped out: "Don't be suicidal—the Dream Plane is currently in conflict with the real world. Letting you in to salvage the ship at this juncture is already a risk. Expanding the scale of the operation would be no different from welding a detonator or sawing a light bulb."

The little green men might not know what welding a detonator or sawing a light bulb meant, but they clearly knew that this was not feasible, so they all agreed dejectedly. Kabala nodded to Hao Ren: "Wait a moment, let me discuss the details with my chief minister."

Then, two little green men huddled together with Kabala, whispering and discussing. Hao Ren found that these little green men really matched his personality: no pretense, no nonsense, no red tape, and they would immediately get to work when there was something to do. They were practical and down-to-earth. For example, that Grand Leader of the United Kingdom named Kabala was not afraid to stand on the table to speak in order to enhance his aura… In short, they were a group of interstellar explorers that he quite admired. Perhaps it was only with such a character that these Campbells could quickly become one of the most important civilizations as the youngest race in the era of the Great Cosmic Exploration.

While Kabala was discussing the details with his chief minister, the other little green men, because they had nothing to do, also gathered in groups and chatted. Hao Ren was sitting very close to them, so he could hear their small talk. Basically, it wasn't anything confidential, just personal matters. Hao Ren heard two little green men discussing the troubles that had happened in their fiefdom. One person said: "... We were so scared at the time, a big explosion out of nowhere, leaving such a big pit…"

The other person continued the topic: "Speaking of which, have you found out which civilization circle those four people in the pit came from?"

"Where can we find out? We don't even speak the same language. Later, after we finally understood each other's language, they themselves couldn't explain how they came here. And to be honest, those four crazy humans didn't communicate with us properly at all. They seemed to treat us as monsters…"

"I heard they almost fought with you a few days ago?"

"Oh, that was a misunderstanding. They thought we were going to touch that sphere. They said it was some kind of sacred pearl and wouldn't let anyone touch it…"

Hao Ren was just listening for fun at first, but at this time, he increasingly felt that this description was familiar. After thinking for a long time, he suddenly reacted: "Wait! What did you say about a sacred pearl? And four people? Four ascetics?!"

(So boring, asking for a monthly ticket.)