62: Chapter 62 Blue Star Victory Day

Hearing Chen Mu's questioning, Maya said nothing; she simply took out her phone and handed it over.

On the screen was a screenshot of a joint announcement released simultaneously at midnight by the official accounts of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It was in five languages, all with the same title:

"Joint Statement on Extraterrestrial Contact Matters"

Chen Mu squinted and read further down.

"After several hours of solemn negotiations between the five permanent members and Ambassador Chen Mu, the representative of the 'Guga Planet Civilization,' the other party has fully recognized the firm will of human civilization to defend its sovereignty and dignity."

"Both parties have agreed to conduct further consultations on the issue of spatial jurisdiction within the Solar System under the framework of the United Nations, based on mutual respect and equal dialogue."

"Our side reiterates: sovereignty over the Earth-Moon System is non-negotiable, and humanity's right to develop the Earth-Moon System has received written confirmation from the other party."

"This is the first diplomatic victory achieved by human civilization when facing an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, fully demonstrating the irreplaceable nature of multilateral mechanisms."

The signature consisted of the national emblems of the five countries lined up in a row, as solemn as a post-war treaty.

Chen Mu stared at the screen for a full five seconds.

Then, he handed the phone back to Maya, quite speechless. "This is what they fucking call winning? They clearly leased Mars to me, so how did it turn into them winning?"

"The social media managers of all five countries have pinned this post," Maya finally couldn't help but burst out laughing. "They even started a 'Blue Star Victory Day' hashtag in the comments section."

"Mr. President's account posted a new video at three in the morning, saying..." She cleared her throat, imitating the President's signature tone, "'We made them sit down and talk. This is the art of negotiation; it is the posture of a winner.'"

Chen Mu rolled his eyes and was about to curse when a series of dense, crisp sounds erupted outside the window, making the glass panes buzz.

"Then what's with the gunfire? Surely the President's supporters aren't so excited that they're celebrating with an armed coup?"

Maya swiped the screen and clicked on a TikTok video.

The first scene: A square in a city in Texas. The sun hadn't fully risen yet, and dozens of rednecks in camouflage vests stood in the beds of pickup trucks, AR-15s in hand, muzzles pointed diagonally toward the sky.

Muzzle flashes flickered in the morning light, and shell casings popped out of the ejection ports like golden rain, clattering as they landed in the truck beds.

They were shooting and shouting, "Win! Win! Win!" spit flying everywhere.

Maya swiped again.

The second scene: Tokyo, Sakura Country, at the Shibuya Crossing. People in a country with strict gun control had found an alternative; they had emptied out their firework stocks.

Countless streaks of light shot into the sky from between the buildings, exploding into waterfalls of purple, red, and green against the grayish-blue morning curtain, dyeing the sky like an overturned palette. Below, the crowds held up their phones, screaming, crying, and hugging each other.

The third scene: Paris, France, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The people had brought out all the heavy fireworks they hadn't even been willing to use on National Day. One after another, the booms sent fine ripples across the surface of the Seine River.

The tip of the tower loomed in the smoke like a fortress standing tall amidst artillery fire.

"To celebrate this total victory for humanity," Maya explained while suppressing her laughter, her fingers quickly swiping through more similar scenes on the screen.

The London Eye was surrounded by fireworks, the trails of signal flares drifted over Moscow's Red Square, boys in the slums of New Delhi sprayed homemade gunpowder tubes into the sky, the people of the East were as festive as if it were the Lunar New Year, and even terrorists in the Middle East were firing rockets at the sky.

"The people of Blue Star spontaneously designated today as 'Blue Star Victory Day.' On this day, everyone picks up a weapon and fires at the sky, symbolizing driving away the aliens in space."

Chen Mu's mouth hung open; he truly hadn't expected things to develop this way.

He slowly turned his head and looked out the window.

The New York skyline was waking up in the morning light, with wisps of blue smoke rising from between every skyscraper.

Seeing this scene, a distant memory from a past life surfaced in Chen Mu's mind.

On the night of Lunar New Year's Eve, every household would light firecrackers, the firelight crackling and the air thick with smoke.

The elders said that the sound and firelight were to drive away a monster called 'Nian'.

And now, New York, Washington, London, Tokyo, Paris... the entire Blue Star was celebrating the New Year.

They fired guns and set off explosives, venting gunpowder and flashes at the boundless space, convinced they had just driven away a massive fleet from deep space.

"I've become the Nian beast?!"

Chen Mu understood. No one on Blue Star could win against humans; unless you completely silenced them, they would find a way to win.

He closed his eyes, and the system interface silently popped up on his retina. After Blue Star announced 'victory' today, the fear value had already entered a state of stagnation.

[Current fear value: 250 million]

It seemed that humans, as a species, adapted to things with startling speed.

When the alien fleet arrived, they trembled; when threatened with the permanent darkening of the sun, they panicked.

But once the narrative of 'winning' was shoved down their throats, and once gunfire and fireworks packaged absurdity as courage, they would complete the switch from fear to numbness overnight.

No matter how powerful the deterrent, once used repeatedly, it would become background noise.

If you just keep slapping someone, their face goes numb; you have to give them a sweet date occasionally so that the next slap hurts even more.

"Let them enjoy their 'win' for a while."

Chen Mu took out his phone and subconsciously opened Sima Bei's livestream, only to find that he wasn't broadcasting.

Strange? On such a grand day of universal winning, the famous 'Winning-ology' streamer actually wasn't live. Had he really quit the internet?

Chen Mu cast it to the back of his mind and turned to the shop to buy 100 alien soldiers, spending ten million fear value.

This time, Chen Mu didn't give them any equipment; they were all basic, 'blank' soldiers. After all, for the next act, he needed some extras; he couldn't keep performing solo on stage.

Chen Mu stepped back before the light screen, swiped his finger through the air, and opened the [Equipment] tab. His gaze locked onto an entry shimmering with golden light:

A-Grade · Planetary Environment Reshaping Module.

Price: 10 million fear value.

Basic Function: Can forcibly generate a basic ecosphere and geographical wonders on the surface of a standard terrestrial planet. Duration and coverage area depend on energy input.

Cosmic Illusion can create phantoms, but phantoms are ultimately just paper.

This A-grade terraformer, however, could implant real chemical traces into the soil of Mars, such as fine-tuning the atmospheric refractive index, creating magnetic anomalies in specific surface areas, and even forming geometric landscapes visible to the naked eye from orbit that were too regular to be natural.

Combined with Cosmic Illusion, he could turn Mars into any alien civilization he could imagine. Perhaps in the future, he could even develop an interstellar tourism project for Blue Star.

Finally, he took an alien soldier and used a custom image template to modify its appearance.

After all, to truly play this scene well, he needed a crucial 'character'.

His current identity was a Dove faction observer from Guga Planet. Mild-mannered, rational, and easy to talk to, he was dedicated to the survival of the Blue Star civilization, even to the point of arguing with the hardline Commanders of his own fleet.

This persona had earned him Maya's trust and even gained him the goodwill of some high-level humans.

However, the Dove persona was weak. He couldn't play an observer who deeply loved human civilization while simultaneously and frequently creating fear and applying pressure to humanity.

If he kept issuing orders in the name of the 'Commander,' over time, humans would inevitably become suspicious. Why were all conflicts being relayed by him, the Dove envoy?

He had to have a concrete 'alt' to bear all the infamy for him.

A scapegoat that all of humanity could see, hate, and ultimately be forced to yield to.

At the same time, this would lay a solid foundation for the script following tomorrow's United Nations General Assembly.