To ensure transparency, the second round of trade negotiations was broadcast live online, just like the first.
As a result, once the information surfaced that the trade contract needed to be signed by an Awakened One, all the live stream chatrooms exploded.
"The contract for trading with an alien civilization can only be signed by an Awakened One? That's way too discriminatory against ordinary people!"
"Then the negotiation team on-site can only stare blankly, huh."
"So does that mean Han Qiu has to be called to the scene?"
"The negotiation site is in Beixing territory, and Han Qiu is still a wanted criminal in Beixing. Would he dare show his face?"
"If no Awakened One can sign the contract, then Beixing has no choice but to rescind the warrant. It's for the bigger picture."
"You're all assuming Han Qiu is an Awakened One? The one who publicized the Convention was the Administrator of Ascendant Home. That's the one who's one hundred percent an Awakened One."
"Anyone bringing up the Administrator of Ascendant Home is talking nonsense. That person has been mysterious for years. How could they possibly show themselves?"
This issue didn't just shock the live stream viewers. The trade negotiation team, and even the high-level officials of various nations watching the broadcast, hadn't expected things to turn out this way.
At the negotiation site.
The private-enterprise owner on the human side shrewdly pressed further: "The trade contract can only be signed by an Awakened One? There's no such clause in the Convention. Is this a Star Sea Court regulation, or is it your own personal decision?"
The moment he said this, the rest of the negotiation team all turned to look at Mr. Ga.
That's right. The Convention said nothing about civilization trade contracts needing to be signed only by Awakened Ones. It only mentioned that legitimate trade channels had to be used.
"This is indeed not a hard requirement of the Star Sea Court," Mr. Ga admitted. "But it is a universal rule for trade between Star Sea civilizations."
"Since it's not a hard requirement, just an unwritten rule, then there's no need for us to follow it," the owner immediately seized the initiative.
"Exactly." Zhao Ming chimed in. "Our negotiation team has come as representatives of Tianshui Star's civilization. Naturally, we have the right to sign contracts."
Faced with the two of them, Mr. Ga remained unmoved and offered an explanation.
"Forgive my bluntness, but the lifespan of non-Awakened Ones is very short. You humans, as well as your decision-makers who haven't shown themselves, could die at any moment to the Doomsday Rules or other disasters.
A hundred-year trade period requires a stable contract signatory, so it's more appropriate for both parties to be Awakened Ones with higher risk resistance."
Once Mr. Ga said this, quite a few people watching the live stream before their screens broke down, cursing furiously.
So the reason it wouldn't sign contracts with ordinary people was because it thought ordinary people could die at any moment, making any contract pointless. That was why it only signed with Awakened Ones, who were powerful and expected to live long.
The reasoning made sense, but the fact that Mr. Ga said it so bluntly made it hard for the vast majority of people to accept.
How many Awakened Ones were there in total? Most people simply couldn't put themselves in that position or empathize.
Moreover, the implication in Mr. Ga's words seemed to be that it didn't regard ordinary individuals as equal counterparts at all, valuing only Awakened Ones.
To put it harshly, Mr. Ga only regarded Awakened Ones as tradeable humans, and everyone else didn't count as people.
This arrogance and cold indifference naturally enraged the general public, and every platform was filled with a storm of criticism.
"This ugly mantis-person looks disgusting and says disgusting things. Why doesn't it just drop dead!"
"So what if you're an Awakened One? If everyone else in the world died and only Awakened Ones were left, I bet they wouldn't survive either."
"Can the human negotiation side grow a spine? This is our own turf. Tell them it's take it or leave it. Humanity has already joined the Star Sea Court anyway. There'll be plenty of alien trade opportunities in the future."
"Get this mantis-person out of Tianshui Star!!!"
Unlike the masses, who were highly emotional after feeling personally offended, the negotiation team on-site certainly couldn't start hurling insults.
Zhao Ming thought for a moment and pointed out a key issue: "The fulfillment of the contract should be guaranteed by the Star Sea Court as a third party, right?
If that's the case, then even if something happens to the signatories, the contract should continue to be enforced as normal. Otherwise, wouldn't the Star Sea Court enforce it?"
Hearing this, Mr. Ga seemed to grow a bit impatient and spoke rapidly in a long string of words.
The Star Sea Court likewise defaults to cross-civilization trade contracts being signed by the Awakened Ones of both parties, because a civilization's representative isn't necessarily an Awakened One, but an Awakened One holding Authority is naturally a civilization's representative.
You should know that some races in the Star Sea only live twenty or thirty years, replacing a generation very quickly. A hundred-year contract would span several generations.
Take you humans, for example. If your great-grandparents' generation signed a contract, and by your generation you felt the contract was no longer worthwhile and wanted to renege, on the grounds that "when that contract was signed, our generation hadn't been born yet, so it doesn't count"...At that point, it would make contract fulfillment extremely troublesome."
After Mr. Ga finished speaking, everyone was momentarily at a loss for how to respond.
It added one more sentence: "If the Star Sea Court didn't default to this unwritten rule, then why is only an Awakened One allowed to perform Deep Dive of Consciousness, and other individuals can't?"
The people on-site and watching the live stream were stunned, not knowing what Mr. Ga meant by "Deep Dive of Consciousness."
But Guan Tong, who had already returned to the shelter and was watching the live stream in front of his computer, understood perfectly.
Chen Na was there too. Hearing this, she turned her head and asked him, "Brother Guan, what is Deep Dive of Consciousness?"
"It's a function that gets unlocked after becoming an Awakened One. Through this function, you can enter the Star Sea Court's database."
"Wow, that sounds amazing. So can you activate it now too, Brother Guan?"
Guan Tong shook his head. "There's only one chance per Rule Period."
After he returned from that consciousness space in the database, his Deep Dive of Consciousness count had gone from "1" to "0."
This meant that even an Awakened One couldn't visit the database an unlimited number of times.
As for how to reacquire or increase the count, he currently had no idea.
"I see. Then since this Mr. Ga mentioned Deep Dive of Consciousness, it must be an Awakened One..."
Chen Na murmured, then looked up and asked, "Brother Guan, if Mr. Ga insists on only signing with an Awakened One, will you go?"
That question was actually something Guan Tong had been asking himself from earlier.
If he went, there was a high probability his identity would be exposed.
If he didn't go, and no other Awakened One went either, the trade contract might not get signed.
He could only give an uncertain answer: "Let's see how things play out first."
Maybe the human side would reject the demand, or maybe the officials would send an Ascendant posing as an Awakened One to sign the contract.
Back to the scene.
Mr. Ga's words contained quite a bit of important information.
Whether it was Deep Dive of Consciousness or the fact that Awakened Ones seemed to have long lifespans, both were entirely new knowledge to the vast majority of humans.
And if Awakened Ones generally had long lifespans, then they were indeed suited to be civilization representatives. If there were a human individual who could live from ancient times thousands of years ago all the way to the modern day, then no one would better represent all of humanity than that person.
"I don't know what the exact situation of your Tianshui Star civilization is, but the contract must be signed by an Awakened One." Mr. Ga reaffirmed its position.
The human trade negotiation team was momentarily unable to decide, and then word came from the decision-making level: set this dispute aside for now and continue negotiating the rest of the trade terms.
So the negotiation team temporarily skipped the step of signing the contract and continued onward. Once all the trade details were settled, it wouldn't be too late to sign the contract all together.
Meanwhile, on the back end, the high-level officials of various nations urgently convened to discuss the matter.
Mr. Ga's attitude was firm with no room for compromise, leaving humanity only two choices.
Either refuse and let everything fall apart, abandoning the trade.
But this was a result humanity as a whole could not accept.
Don't be fooled by how many people online said they could trade with other civilizations. Who knew when other civilizations would come, or when humanity would be able to connect with other civilizations?
Rejecting the trade would make planetary development a minor issue, but failing to obtain the chaos energy used for research was a major one.
Moreover, once trade stopped, the Star Scar Merchant Group wouldn't build a liaison station on Tianshui Star, making it impossible to conduct further exchanges after this Rule Period ended.
After all, the unanimous plan of the various nations' higher-ups was "long-term wool-gathering."
Besides, Mr. Ga claimed its civilization had passed the trial of the Doomsday Rules. That experience was very important to humanity too, and they might be able to extract some key information in the future.
Therefore, humanity could only make the second choice: accept.
But now, the true Awakened One, the Administrator of Ascendant Home, was mysterious and elusive, never showing their face.
Han Qiu, who claimed to be an Awakened One, was hard to verify as genuine or fake. Who to send to sign was a major problem.
Among the various nations' higher-ups, someone proposed that Beixing's officials temporarily freeze the warrant for Han Qiu and let him give it a try, but Beixing's side shot it down immediately.
There was no choice then but to find someone else.
The Administrator of Ascendant Home was out of the question. What about sending another Ascendant? If a non-Awakened One went, would Mr. Ga see through them as a fake? That too was a problem.
After some discussion, a name gradually surfaced, entered the range of discussion, and was finally settled upon.
One hour later.
Knock, knock, knock.
A knock came at the office door. Shi Jingyi, who had been working, looked up. "Come in."
The door opened, and Zhang Minglu, Li Meng, and several other high-level members of the Countermeasures Research Office walked in together.
"Dean Shi, sorry to disturb you."
Shi Jingyi hadn't expected these people to show up at her door. She rose and asked, "Is there something you need from the academy?"
"Dean Shi, there is indeed an urgent matter. The highest decision-making layer believes that for this matter, you may currently be the most suitable candidate."