Age of Cosmic Exploration

Of all the alien languages, this junkyard civilization’s language and culture was the one most familiar to mankind.

At the time mankind was cornered into a dead-end, they had plenty of the junkyard civilization’s literature but no way to understand them. After pooling the resources of many linguists and historians, mankind finally had a cipher available to translate the junkyard civilization’s language. Over the years, the translation effort hadn’t stopped. There were new corrections and additions made to the cipher. Overall, the Hope’s experts’ familiarity with this space language was similar to how they were familiar with English, French, or German.

Therefore, when the space merchants sent a signal parsed in the junkyard civilization’s language, everything clicked. Mankind’s identity was not revealed and they could still communicate with the merchants. The expert on the junkyard civilization’s language was ushered to the surveillance room and very quickly the first set of signals was translated.

"We are the 3,400th unit from the space merchant conglomerate. We would like to ask the space civilization before us: do you have anything to sell or trade? We have the highest Level 3 and 4 space civilization technologies, a large amount of rare materials, and genetic prints for many species of biomass. We buy anything and sell anything."

People in the room stared at each other. They didn’t expect the other party to be so direct. There was no preamble, like "we come in peace" or the likes. They went straight to the point: we’re here for business, are you up for trade?

This was not the space contact many people in the room had in mind. This was like a night market stall owner hawking his wares. It was rather... unbelievable.

Such direct communication rendered the diplomatic parlance some of the experts thought up useless. To use back the same analogy, if you started talking about peace within space and such lofty ideas to the night market hawker, he would think you’re crazy.

This was how humanity felt then. Initially, they thought to approach this contact diplomatically, but they didn’t expect the other party to be so direct. Looks like this team before them was not a first time trader; they were extremely familiar with the trading process. Get to the point and cut the crap.

This raised another question for mankind: what to buy and what to sell?

Actually, this question was already heavily discussed in the past ten days. First, knowledge about the distribution of most space civilizations and their unique culture was necessary. If not, it was possible that a sign of respect from mankind’s side, like a marching band, might end up as an offense equivalent to our flipping the bird to some space civilizations. Wouldn’t it be crazy to have a war over something frivolous like this?

The next would be the warp drive technology and the theories behind it. This was so that the Academy could hopefully expand upon it and produce more technologies from it.

Other than the two necessary items, the rest depended upon what other items were on sale. Technologies like terra-forming might be useful as well.

But what did mankind have to trade?

From the merchant’s message, at least mankind had valuable ores, species’ DNA prints, and technologies from 4th revolution or below available for trade. Not to mention the alloys and energy crystals created by the alien plants.

However, Ren Tao warned that anything could be traded, but the products of the alien plants must be kept a secret.

Of course, that secrecy hinged on one thing, and that was whether the space merchants had come into contact with other human beings or not.

If they had, then three things were certain. One, human civilization had many cosmic adaptors; two, human civilization had access to space warp technology, a technology greater than warp drive, wormhole, and even star gates; last, human civilization had anti-gravity technology.

The first problem aside, the second point meant that with space warp technology, mankind could go to any location in space. It was a technology that ignored the limitations of time and space.

However, there was a major weakness to this technology: the greater the cargo weight, the higher the amount of energy used in warp. Of course, if the warp was not to warp a whole planet but just a small fleet, the energy consumption issue could still be solved via the means of polymerized reactors. However, what about the conductors and storage units to support the large surge of energy during warp?

Based on mankind’s current technological level, there was no product in the 4th revolution that could rival the alien plant’s products for this purpose. Without the alien plants, mankind couldn’t have supported the space warping of a maximum loaded Hope and three other spaceships. In other words, the conductors tempered from the alloys produced by the alien plants were the key. Only thanks to it was space warping with large loads possible. The space merchants’ giant, spherical spaceship would require the plant’s alloy to support space warping.

The third question was simple: if mankind didn’t need to fully crack and understand the theories behind it, copying it was entirely possible. However, to apply it on a large spaceship, a high computing power was required.

The only reason the Hope could add two more extra levels was because the central mainframe had been updated to the latest 4th revolution electromagnetic computers. However, what about the space merchants? Could their central computer be at the 5th revolution already?

No matter what, according to the worst case scenario put forth by Ren Tao, anything that had to do with the alien plant shouldn’t be revealed.

After Yao Yuan mulled over Ren Tao’s warnings and words, he told the person responsible for communications, "Use the junkyard aliens’ language to reply to them that we have plenty of valuable minerals and technologies from level 2 revolutions as well as DNA prints for native flora and fauna from Earth up for trade. We are interested in many things, so if possible, ask them to provide us with a list."

Very quickly, the signal was sent from the Hope and the signal from the spacecraft ceased. After a few minutes, the signal returned in the junkyard alien’s language.

"Alright, please wait for a moment while we compile the list. However, since we have too many things for trade, to save time, please be clear about what you need. Is it materials, technologies, or biomass? We buy anything and sell anything."

Yao Yuan responded, "We only need technology and we value information, if they would be kind enough to provide that."

After Yao Yuan’s words were transmitted over, a large amount of electronic signals surged into the Hope’s computer. The amount of data was so large that the people manning the computer thought they were being DDOSed.

However, it turned out that the amount of amount was so large because it was a 3D image. After the person moved the data into the central mainframe, the data was identified as 3D video files and then was slowly categorized.

First, there was basic information of the cosmos, such as constellations, solar systems, dangerous locations in space, notable planets, and distance to places called ‘Shelters.’‘Shelters’ were places in space where multiple civilizations congregated, a pit stop of sorts. Yao Yuan felt his heart twist when he saw the word.

After that came the data on the technologies. There were more than a handful of curious ones, like how to handcraft a stone axe, how to mine and smelt iron, how to wire a light bulb, and even how to create tesla coils. The technologies were listed in a long list. The amount of information was so large that the whole room spent literally hours just to go through the 3D images.

However, there was one thing that gave people pause. Behind every data, material or technology was a term called ‘value.’

For example, how to handcraft a stone axe was valued at ‘0.0000000002.’

While information on the nearest shelters, such as basic information, coordinates, and space chart navigation were valued at respectively 50,000, 70,000 and 100,000. The discrepancy was obvious.

Among this information, Yao Yuan also realized... the highest technology offered was only until the 4th revolution, there was nothing from the 5th revolution!

"Tell them this and make sure that you don’t miss a word, what we need are...

"Technologies from the fifth industrial revolution, or in other words, technologies for Level 3 and 4 civilizations!"