Inside the Yinluo Civilization's ascent-descent module.
After Mr. Ga explained several details regarding the first trade item, he temporarily departed with his two assistants, granting the human trade delegation space to hold a private discussion.
Though it was called a private discussion, there was no way for the humans to know whether listening devices were installed in the cabin.
So the discussion proceeded on the default premise that Mr. Ga could hear everything.
The representative from one nation's official Ministry of Commerce spoke first.
"Judging from the trade content, Mr. Ga isn't entirely unreasonable. Those planets are too far from Tianshui Star. We humans have no way of extracting the resources on them. Leaving them untouched is simply waste.
We humans have our own examples. During peacetime, some poor, weak nations that struggled even to feed their people, even if their territory held vast mineral resources, had neither the conditions nor the capability to develop them.
But by leasing those mining sites to developed nations for development, the shared profits they received could fill their people's bellies and fund technological advancement. For both the resource-owning nation and the developing nation, this is genuinely a win-win."
Someone in the delegation shook their head and retorted: "That example doesn't fit. From what I know, not a single one of those people who sold off their nation's resources at fire-sale prices used the profits to benefit their citizens. Every one of them fattened themselves up, squandering the profits on debauchery or buying weapons to form mercenary armies and become warlords who oppressed the common people."
"What you're describing is different from the current situation. Now the entire global populace is watching. No one would dare do that."
"I believe there's nothing new under the sun."
"So you're opposed to this trade?"
The opponent nodded: "I don't approve. I believe that even if humanity currently lacks the ability to develop other planets, we shouldn't sell off the future of our children and grandchildren for a few petty gains."
At these words, several people in the delegation wore expressions of confusion. One of them spoke bluntly: "In this era, talking about children and grandchildren, don't you think that's a bit delusional?"
In the three years since the Fire Thief brought the Doomsday Rules, Tianshui Star's newborn birth rate had approached infinitely close to zero.
The global population had dropped from a peak of ten billion to only a few hundred million now, and it was still continuously dwindling.
Against such a backdrop, talking about "securing the welfare of children and grandchildren" did indeed seem hollow and unrealistic.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Ming spoke up at this moment, expressing support for the "don't sell" viewpoint.
However, his reasoning was not for the sake of any children or grandchildren.
"I believe Mr. Ga is lying to us."
The moment he spoke, everyone's gaze converged on him.
"You mean the trade content is fabricated?"
"No." Zhao Ming said, "Mr. Ga said we humans have no ability to develop those planets in the foreseeable future... I believe that statement is a lie."
Everyone was stunned, not quite understanding.
How was that a lie? Humanity had exhausted tremendous effort just to land on Terra and build a base, let alone other distant planets.
Zhao Ming explained: "I think everyone has overlooked a current reality. Humanity's current development model is not linear, but leapfrog development.
After the Doomsday Rules appeared, who could have imagined that in just eight years, humanity would master memory transfer technology, protein synthesis technology, embodied intelligence technology, adult gene compilation technology, and a whole series of advanced technologies?"
At these words, everyone fell into deep thought.
Zhao Ming continued: "'Having the ability within this century' is a reasonable prediction based on conventional circumstances. But humanity is not in a conventional environment now. One year of development equals the past seventy years, or even seventy years.
Where originally humanity would need a hundred years to reach these planets and develop resources, now it might only take eighty-seven years, or perhaps even shorter."
The trade delegation members listened to Zhao Ming's explanation and found it somewhat reasonable.
Although the Doomsday Rules had brought endless disaster, they had also passively pushed humanity into a phase of "explosive technological development."
In this phase, all resources served the various advanced technologies. Combined with the push from certain rules and Mind Power items, humanity's development speed could truly be described as advancing a thousand miles a day.
During peacetime, humanity's technological development had crawled along slowly, simply because resources couldn't be concentrated.
In an environment without survival crises, people wanted entertainment, socializing, art, commerce, civil wars... all of these devoured massive amounts of resources.
But in the current era, everything served survival, and all resources were concentrated on technological development.
"There's another point." Someone mentioned, "Now that Bruce's rule has collapsed, as long as humanity can unite and stop fighting amongst ourselves, the potential we release will be even greater, and our development will be even faster!"
Everyone nodded, and many wore expressions of temptation, seeming to shift toward supporting the rejection of this trade.
At this moment, a private-enterprise owner also voiced his opinion: "Everyone, there's no need to take an all-or-nothing stance on this deal. I've been in business for decades, and I know well that in the business world, it's more about negotiating while doing."
"Negotiating while doing?"
"It means starting with a beginning, seeing the results first, like sampling fruit at a fruit stand."
A cunning glint appeared on the private-enterprise owner's face: "This Star Scar Merchant Group wants several planets in one go. Of course we can't give them all. Otherwise, if we get burned, we'd suffer a catastrophic loss, the kind you can't recover from.
And I've never believed in any damn independent third-party civilization review. As long as the Merchant Group privately greases the right palms, that third party might not be so independent after all... My idea is, we first lease them one planet as a trial, see how it goes.
If the results are good, then we slowly negotiate the rest. If the results are bad, then we don't discuss the others either. This way, even if humanity takes a small loss, it won't be crippling."
"I support this boss." Zhao Ming stated, "Doing while observing while negotiating is indeed more reasonable than either accepting everything wholesale or rejecting everything outright."
Others nodded as well. This indeed aligned with humanity's conventional way of conducting trade.
Even beyond business, many wars throughout humanity's past history were fought while negotiating. Situations of total, unrelenting conflict to the death were rare.
Now they were doing business with an alien civilization. The counterparty had changed, but the essential nature of business had not.
Several people silently reminded themselves that they had clearly said before coming that they needed to demystify alien civilizations and treat them as people during negotiations. Yet when the negotiations actually began, they still forgot.
Soon, word arrived from the joint video conference of various nations' Higher-ups, supporting that boss's approach: first negotiate with Mr. Ga over a single planet.
Formal negotiations resumed quickly.
When Mr. Ga heard humanity propose a single-planet trade, he immediately rejected it.
"We traveled thousands of miles to reach this star system. If we only obtain development rights to one planet, the subsequent development costs would be too high... It's like your human technological products, phones, computers, and such. If you don't mass-produce and distribute them at scale, if you only make one unit, would the price still be so cheap?"
At these words, many viewers watching the live stream felt it wasn't unreasonable.
"He's got a point. A lot of products are cheap precisely because they're sold in massive quantities to dilute the cost."
"This planet development feels like demolition. You deploy several bulldozers and wall-breakers, but if you're only demolishing one house, the cost wouldn't even cover the fuel for the construction vehicles."
"The high cost is the mantis-person's problem. What's it to us humans? Don't forget, humanity is the client! Why should we accommodate the contractor?"
"No no no, mutual benefit and win-win is what matters. Otherwise, if they spread the word across the star seas that humans are difficult to deal with and greedy in trade, what civilization would come to cooperate with us in the future?"
At the negotiation site, contrary to some public opinion holding the "star sea civilization alarmism" view, the human trade delegation stood firm and refused to budge.
"We can only negotiate one first. To put it bluntly, we have no idea about your Star Scar Merchant Group's credibility."
"The Star Scar Merchant Group's reputation is universally praised. You can rest assured on that point."
"Sorry, this is our bottom line in this trade. If your Merchant Group cannot accept it, then we can only end this trade."
The human side's firm stance seemed to surprise Mr. Ga somewhat. It looked toward its two assistants on either side, its two-lobed lips trembling, emitting a series of strange "kak kak" sounds from its mouth.
The two assistants made similar sounds, apparently communicating in their civilization's language.
The human side couldn't understand a word of what they were saying and could only wait.
Mr. Ga spoke with the two assistants for a while, then addressed the human side: "Very well. In order to build credibility with our new neighbors, we are willing to take a loss on this trade."
Take a loss on the trade?
Every human present maintained their skepticism.
"The Star Scar Merchant Group is willing to accept your conditions, and first negotiate the resource development rights to a single planet."
Mr. Ga's arm swung, and the holographic projection on the table highlighted a single planet.
"Let us discuss this planet then."
The human side looked carefully and frowned one after another.
That dark-red planet was none other than "Meltstar."
The human side exchanged glances, each thinking to themselves: the Star Scar Merchant Group's real intention is not in the wine!
Meltstar held extraordinary significance for Tianshui Star's civilization. Especially in the Debate of the Oracle rule, humanity had learned from the "Dialoguer" that Meltstar contained a substance capable of allowing humanity to break through the limitations of materials science: magnetic substrate!
Since then, humanity had been fixated on going to Meltstar to obtain this substance, so that numerous fields could break through their underlying limits and reach entirely new heights.
Last year, humanity had even formulated a Meltstar spaceship launch plan, to be launched during this year's February window period. But ultimately, the plan ended in failure.
There were many reasons. The main one was still that Bruce had stirred up a series of outrageously destructive events, forcing every major nation to prepare for war, which delayed progress on many important matters.
Now Mr. Ga suddenly named Meltstar's development rights...
This gave the human side a feeling: perhaps the Star Scar Merchant Group had been eyeing Meltstar from the very beginning, and their earlier refusal and discussion were all an act to confuse humanity.
It was like many people shopping at a street stall. They spot something they like but fear the stall owner will hold it hostage and raise the price, so they keep a poker face and first buy something else. Finally, they adopt a casual attitude, getting the stall owner to throw in the thing they truly wanted all along.
What no one knew was that at this moment, Guan Tong, watching the live stream in front of his computer, upon discovering that Mr. Ga wanted Meltstar's development rights, his expression instantly turned gloomy.
"...Absolutely not."
"Huh?"
Beside him, Chen Na looked at Guan Tong curiously, not understanding why he had such a big reaction.
Regardless of whether the human trade delegation and the various nations' Higher-ups agreed or not, Guan Tong would definitely oppose this resolutely.
Not just because of the magnetic substrate. The key clue corresponding to the mysterious Authority linked to the Wordless Book, that key, was very likely on Meltstar!
If Meltstar's development rights were taken by the Star Scar Merchant Group, would that clue be taken as well?
Even if the Star Scar Merchant Group knew nothing about it, when Guan Tong had no opportunity to search for clues in the past, he would inevitably face obstruction from Star Scar Merchant Group members stationed there.