Age of Cosmic Exploration

The few days of travel was nothing compared to travelling in space. For any real space civilization, the few days were equivalent to the time spent during dinner.

Just like that, a few days passed and the Shelter was close before their eyes. With one last order from the Shelter, the Hope could enter this large construction.

But...

How big it was!

Before this gigantic structure, the Hope was equal to an ant beside an elephant’s foot, or a grain of sand against a giant mountain. Within a day of travel, the building went from observable through naked eye to unable to be contained by one’s sight.

This was a construction larger than a terrestrial planet; not those small planets, but one that could rival the size of Earth. From the information given by Blue 6, this Shelter was built about 3,000 years ago with the combined effort of 9 level 3 space civilizations and several hundred level 2 space civilizations. It took about 400 years.

Actually, along the way, they could see certain things that confirmed this fact. A few small planets in the solar system had large holes in them and two terrestrial planets had giant craters and ditches on their surfaces. This was where the giant amount of materials that were used to build the Shelter came from.

Today, this Shelter still had 6 level 3 space civilizations and 642 level 2 space civilizations. Even though this number was enough to shock Yao Yuan and company, it made Blue 6 scoff with derision. From his perspective, this Shelter was already on its decline because the Shelter that the Blue Race came from had 40 plus level 3 space civilizations, 3,000 level 2 space civilizations, and it was at least three times bigger than this Shelter!

However, this was common sense. Due to the Law of Preservation of Soul, it limited the wild expansion of life. No matter how powerful or advanced a civilization was, as long as it had no way of stopping the exhaustion or decrease of soul, then eventually it would start to deteriorate to make way for a new race to appear. Rise and fall, this had been going on in the cosmos for millennia. There was no permanent race, other than perhaps the legendary god tier civilizations...

However, no matter what, this Shelter was already something impressive for the Hope. Many space civilizations called it home, and that in itself was a concept and problem humanity could not grasp. Using a simple example, some races relied on carbon oxide for survival, while others relied on oxygen, and some might be aquatic species that lived underwater. Wouldn’t the close living arrangement cause problems? What about the habitats? Or a universal language?

These were questions humanity had a hard time answering, and many scientists wanted to enter the Shelter to find out. However, due to the prohibition ban, most research requests were denied. Amongst the many complaints, there was a deep sense of regret, and it affected Yao Yuan too.

"To be honest, this is quite a big regret..." Yao Yuan told Guang Zhen and Bo Li beside him. "Such a miraculous building, at least from our point of view, is nothing less than a miracle. Under normal circumstances, after paying sufficient tax, we are allowed to wander freely in it, but now we have to force everyone to hide in the ship like prisoners..."

Bo Li did not say anything, but Guang Zhen smacked him on his shoulder and said, "The chance will come. Wait until we become a level 3 space civilization and then we can enter such Shelters openly. Until then... we just have to be a little patient."

Yao Yuan sighed and his gaze calmed down from fury to acceptance. Finally he nodded. "What else can we even do but sit quietly and wait?"

On the screen in central command, the giant space harbor appeared before everyone’s eyes. With the leading of the colored signals, the Hope slowly headed towards the interior of the space harbor. During the docking process, everyone stared unblinkingly at this miraculous creation, a harbor door that was big enough to accommodate a giant mountain, and an unimaginably sprawling docking space. It made many people gasp involuntarily.

After the Hope parked at the designated spot, aliens soon approached the Hope in their vehicles. At the ship’s entrance, Blue 6 and his troop of Defense Unit soldiers already stood waiting. After a simple negotiation, a bunch of information was transferred to the Hope’s AI.

"This is the price list over the past decade, related taxes, exchange value for technology, and ways to earn currency as well as reputation at this Shelter. However, since we are not going to stay at this Shelter for long, we can skip most of these, except for material information and mineral information."

Guang Zhen looked at the information list that was posted on screen and told Yao Yuan.

Yao Yuan nodded and replied, "Then I will leave this in your hands, Ol’ Wong. Other than the designated workers and AI robots, only Defense Unit soldiers are allowed out of the Hope. Of course, the noted exception is Blue 6, the cosmic adapter. He too will accompany you... Keep a close watch over him, listen and observe, pay attention to the alien lifestyle, culture, and the way the different space civilizations treat each other. Even though this is a supply stop, it is also... our first real deep contact with space civilizations."

Guang Zhen chuckled and clapped. "Don’t worry about this, I know what I can say and what I cannot. I will help collect as much information as we can. Regarding Blue 6... I suppose this will be his biggest test yet. We will see whether he is trustworthy and whether his actions match his words..."

"Let’s hope so..."

At the same time, after the Hope received the price information from the Shelter, they started discussing the trades. What kind of rare minerals were they going to sell? It had to be valuable enough, but not so valuable that it would make the level 3 space civilization to want to raid the Hope. The key was these minerals had to have a valid origin. There were so many things to discuss.

Just like that, the Hope idled in the harbor for one full day and one full night. In that period, no alien came to rush in or disturb them. After all, it was only one day. After paying the necessary taxes, they could stay there for a whole year and no one would care. The harbor was not part of the soul zone, so it would not affect the real citizens of the Shelter. They could stay as long as they wanted.

After that one day and one night, the several hundred people whose eyes were bloodshot left the meeting room. Finally, only 10 plus people remained in the room, one of them was Blue 6.

Blue 6 was also visibly tired. He yawned and said, "Your Highness, just like how it was discussed, I will intercept the other civilizations in the capacity of humanity’s minister of foreign affairs. I will introduce ourselves as a mining civilization that was lucky enough to come across a valuable ore vein. The valuable vein caused us to come into war with another space civilization, and even though we appeared victorious, many were lost and only a few spaceships survived. Our main ship was in a bad situation and needed a restock, so under such circumstances, we have some valuable ores we have to trade and one of them is the Star Dust Gold."

Yao Yuan nodded. "We have to be incredibly careful, our cover cannot be blown... Regardless, you have to communicate often with Commander Wong Guang Zhen."

Blue 6 turned to Guang Zhen respectfully. "After leaving the Hope, other than diplomatic issues, I will listen to the crown prince’s arrangement for everything else. There is no doubt about that..."

"In that case... go take a rest for the day. Tomorrow, we shall enter the Shelter to buy the materials we need to resupply this ship. Then be on the lookout for good stuff. It can be products or technology, as long as it is within our price range and will not attract the wrong attention if we purchase it..."

While the Hope was in discussion, deep inside the Shelter, another civilization’s higher officials were in deep discussion as well.

This was a level 2 space civilization, a once-dying level 2 space civilization. However, due to a miracle, they had escaped that fate and their standing in the Shelter thus improved. Of course, it only improved slightly. After all, they were still a level 2 space civilization and the height of their power was still quite low.

"Is it confirmed? This ship really belongs to the level 2 space race known as human beings that we have tried to raid before?"

"...Not yet fully confirmed. Parts of the ship have changed, but its general shape is still the same. After a computer analysis, it is 80 percent similar to this human being’s mothership..."

"They have more than 100 cosmic adapters? And their leader is the legendary Immortal? How can such a space civilization even exist? You all must be lying!"

"You will know whether we are lying or not after an inspection... But war or any sort of fights are banned inside the Shelter; how are we going to check whether they are the same civilization or not? Or... should we give this information to the level 3 space civilization?"

"No, this information can only be sold to level 4 space civilizations or above! Level 3 space civilizations do not have enough value to trade for this information. Of course, if this is really the human beings... rather than handing them over to level 3 space civilizations, we might as well cooperate with other level 2 space civilizations and then raid them clean!"

"Then what’s the plan? Launch an attack in the Shelter?"

"No... the human race seems to be extremely cautious. At the time they let us go, and that was after we killed many of their cosmic adapters... Then we will force them! We will collude with other level 2 space civilizations to force them to let us enter their spaceship. If they agree, then we can confirm they are really human beings. If they refuse, then we will threaten them to make them leave the Shelter...

"After they do... We will assault and raid them!"

Translator’s Thoughts

Lonelytree Lonelytree

Compensation for the chapter I’ve missed earlier. Sorry for the inconvenience.