71: Chapter 71 Humanity Has Never Had a Bargaining Chip

Inside the Situation Room, hearing the President's question, the Secretary of State replied, "Mr. President, Ball Chief Chen Mu said that in this trade, there are no rules except for the prohibition of force."

"I think a cruel game will surely unfold between us and those aliens. As for whether we can collect taxes, I can only say it depends on each person's own ability."

The President nodded in agreement. "Next, regarding that Chief of Staff Danzo—could he be the hawk sent to supervise Chen Mu mentioned in Maya's intelligence?"

"The relationship between him and Chen Mu seems somewhat incompatible. Can Chen Mu really keep Danzo under control?"

Professor Bloom spoke up, "Mr. President, I wonder if you remember the cute penguin girl Chen Mu drew at the United Nations General Assembly today?"

Everyone nodded, and he continued, "Chen Mu called her the Ninth Princess, and the alien soldiers who appeared at the banquet today also had the appearance of penguins, so I have a bold hypothesis."

"Chen Mu using her Q-version image as a national flag at the UN General Assembly was no random act, but a very strong political signal."

"In the power structure of Guga Planet, Chen Mu's backer is very likely this Ninth Princess of the Emperor, while behind Danzo, there might be another prince or princess."

"Blue Star is merely a microcosm of this political struggle, while the real battlefield is on the Guga Planet mainland."

The President was silent for a moment. "Then what should we do?"

Professor Bloom gave a bitter smile. "We can do nothing. In an interstellar-level power struggle, given Blue Star's size, participating rashly would likely give others an excuse to wipe out Blue Star."

"Just like how some politicians, to protect dirty secrets, would send someone to silence witnesses."

Everyone present subconsciously glanced at the President, then quickly looked away.

The President coughed awkwardly. "Alright, next question. Why do the Guga people look so much like our Blue Star penguins? And why are they also humanoid?"

"Regarding the penguin form and humanoid evolution, I have some preliminary deductions." Professor Hoffman looked up from his tablet.

"I analyzed that the intelligent life of Guga Planet is penguin-shaped. According to evolutionary principles, this suggests their home planet's environment in ancient times was likely a frigid planet."

"In low-temperature environments, reducing the surface-area-to-volume ratio is the optimal evolutionary strategy, which is similar to the evolutionary path of our Blue Star Antarctic penguins."

"But that's not the point. The point is, why do they also possess humanoid characteristics?"

He pushed the tablet forward; on the screen was a screenshot of a Penguin Soldier, with auxiliary lines marking its body outline.

"My judgment is that any civilization in the universe capable of stepping into the stars must possess high intelligence."

"Therefore, their body structure will inevitably converge toward a certain 'humanoid' form, because they need a skull large enough to accommodate a highly developed brain, and similarly, they need lower limbs capable of upright walking to free their forelimbs."

Hoffman put down the tablet. No one in the room spoke; only the air filtration system continued its low hum.

The President asked, "Alright, next question. Why, when the Guga mothership hovered over Washington yesterday, did our air defense systems not react? Weren't we able to see them through astronomical telescopes before?"

Dr. Rao had been silent for almost the entire meeting until this moment, when he turned the tablet in front of him around. On the screen was a sonar map.

"Mr. President, these are all the detection records from NORAD when the Guga mothership hovered over Washington yesterday."

He stated flatly, "Radar, infrared, sonar, satellite links—all blank. No warning or tracking whatsoever."

"The defense systems we humans are most proud of failed to produce any effective response. That mothership was right there, yet we couldn't see it until it chose to reveal itself."

He placed the tablet on the table. "So I must state a fact: previously, our space telescopes could see the fleet in the Kuiper Belt not because our technology was advanced enough, but because they actively disabled their optical cloaking."

"Therefore, from the fleet revealing itself at the edge of the Kuiper Belt to today's mothership arrival, all our observation data, intelligence analysis, and military assessments have been built upon an assumption we hadn't realized at the time."

"We thought we 'saw' them, but in reality, what we saw was what they permitted us to see."

"Otherwise, we might not have known they were coming until a million-ship fleet descended upon the White House."

He looked at everyone sorrowfully. "So, the President's use of civilizational self-destruction as a final deterrent two days ago was, in their eyes, equivalent to a child whose toy was confiscated threatening to throw himself down the stairs."

"And all the threat contingency plans, game models, and red-line simulations we wrote before—to them, perhaps from beginning to end, it was just a group of ants fooling themselves."

The room was quiet for a long time.

No one argued; no one tried to scavenge for even a bit of salvageable ground within humanity's shredded self-esteem.

Finally, the President broke the silence. "In other words, all our bargaining chips never existed. We weren't negotiating at all; we were being assessed."

Bloom closed his notebook. "Chen Mu has known this all along, which is why he repeatedly told us how fragile this negotiation is."

"However, I suspect the reason Chen Mu agreed to use technology as rent is very likely because he wants to reach an agreement with Blue Star before the radicals do. This might be related to the struggle for succession involving the Ninth Princess behind him."

The President sighed. "Cole, notify the Permanent Five. Tell them everything discussed in this room just now, exactly as it was."

"Make them understand that humanity has had no bargaining chips from start to finish. As for the Human Spark Project, it can be abandoned."

"Yes!"

——————

Following Chen Mu's announcement at the banquet that New York would be transformed into Blue Star's first Interstellar City, the entire city was in an uproar.

[Brothers, my one-bedroom apartment in Queens was still being criticized by my mom last month as a bad purchase. Just now, I got a call—a Dubai Prince offered twenty million dollars.]

[I said I'm not selling. He got anxious and asked if it was too little, saying he could increase the price. I said it's not that it's too little; I'm waiting for it to double. New York is going to be an Interstellar City. When the aliens come, they'll have to rent a place to live, right? I don't believe they'll sleep under bridges.]

[New York real estate prices have risen by 1,200 percent in the past two hours. This kind of surge makes Bitcoin miners go silent and brings tears to Dutch tulips. I've been buying stocks for thirty years and have never seen a curve like this. One sentence from Ball Chief Chen Mu is more effective than a hundred Fed rate hikes. My biggest regret is not buying the dip yesterday. My second biggest regret is not buying enough today.]

[I'm finished, brothers. I rent in Midtown Manhattan, and my landlord just knocked on my door saying the rent is tripling next month. I'll be sleeping under a bridge next month.]

[This is a gold mine! I've already sold all my belongings and am heading straight for New York. I used to do international purchasing; now I'm going to do interstellar purchasing. Feel free to contact me...]

[You're all discussing housing prices and rules, while I'm the only one thinking: will New York be hiring Interstellar Civil Servants in the future? Will the requirement be learning Guga? Will I need to say "Gugu Gaga" during the interview?]

[I suggest New York citizens change their household registration overnight. In the future, your self-introduction should be: Hello, I'm from the Guga Star Zone - Blue Star War Zone - New York Starport - Brooklyn Slums, Third Block.]

[Wait, why? What's wrong with my Lujiazui trio? I suggest Shanghai immediately launch the Oriental 5c over there to confront the Penguin Soldiers and reclaim the title of Interstellar City.]

[We in London used to compete with New York for the title of global financial center; now there's no need to compete.]

[New York is becoming an Interstellar City, while we're still across the Atlantic counting pounds. I asked my boss if we should move to New York, and he said he's considering reorganizing the entire company into an Interstellar Trade Consulting Company. I asked him if salaries would go up, and he said he'll wait and see.]

[I heard New York is becoming an Interstellar City, so I've already registered all kinds of trademarks overnight. Don't ask me what I plan to do; I don't know either. But I'll claim them first, just in case they're useful.]

The next day, Chen Mu, who had just become the Blue Star Planet Chief, was woken up by noise once again!