Age of Cosmic Exploration

"What exactly are we missing..."

In the busy meeting room, as many took the stage to espouse their viewpoints, no one realized that Yao Yuan and a small of people had already slipped out of the room.

In a secret meeting room near the meeting room, Yao Yuan hosted the discussion in an indescribable tone. He was not angry or disappointed, he sounded... unusually calm.

The people in the room shivered involuntarily when they heard him. Other than these few people, no one knew how that felt like.

Liu Bai’s eyes twitched and he said immediately, "Ol’ captain, do calm down... At least we have to wait for Captain Wong to return first."

Yao Yuan lowered his head slightly. "Don’t worry, I am incredibly calm, Liu Bai, you don’t have to worry about me... Let’s continue discussing the issue at hand. First, being expelled out of the Shelter is impossible. At least while we are here, there are rules to follow, but once we step out of this place, we will have to deal with the collective assault of several hundred or even thousand alien spaceships, so... at least before this thing is resolved, we are not going to leave this Shelter!"

Present were also Ren Tao and Xiao Niao. Ren Tao did not comment anything, but Xiao Niao nodded immediately to add, "That’s right, we mustn’t leave the Shelter until we are certain of these aliens’ real intentions. Also... I hate to say this, but I wish to confirm whether Blue 6’s recent activities are normal or not. After all, this happened after he left the Hope."

Others showed contemplative expressions, only Yao Yuan retorted, "No, that is not possible. At least the possibility is below ten or twenty percent. We can be certain he did not carry any weapons or technological products on him, and secondly, I believe in Guang Zhen’s observation skills. Until Guang Zhen confirms Blue 6 has leaked something to these people, I will not believe Blue 6 has done something to harm this ship!"

Xiao Niao was silenced immediately and the room was quiet. After a long time, Ren Tao opened his mouth to ask, "What is your plan? You are the chancellor, you have total control over the power of foreign affairs and the military. What do you plan to do then?"

"...Wait." Yao Yuan looked intently at Ren Tao and answered.

"Wait?" Everyone mumbled in confused repetition as they looked at Yao Yuan.

Yao Yuan repeated with confidence, "Yes, wait... I can give any order and they will be accepted by everyone... But! Do you all really want to have a society comprising of only heroes and commoners? Naturally, I can become the hero again, but what’s next? These people... everyone else can only be commoners! Do we really wish to have humanity’s future always decided by me or an extremely small group of elites?"

The room was quiet again. In fact, those sitting there could be considered Yao Yuan’s trusted subordinates. Even though he had the title of Chancellor and was undeniably the leader of humanity, Yao Yuan did not care for power. He had been trying to cultivate a sense of democracy on the Hope. After all, it was he who built the House of Representatives from the ground up.

However, Yao Yuan was not an indecisive individual. He had always maintained a straight-forward style of doing things. The many crises the Hope had faced ever since it left Earth cultivated this quality in him, but this time... he chose to hand the choice to the majority?

(Is this due to feeling of grievances?)

Xiao Niao, Ren Tao, and Liu Bai had this thought in their minds.

Man, the wisest of all creatures (when on Earth) became so insignificant after they entered space. This was to be expected, but at least human beings still had the courage and hope to climb upwards, and the Hope had exemplified that again and again in its journey. However... this journey also showed mankind the absolute crushing power and danger of the difference between space civilizations.

For example, the war with the space merchants. Even though they were a normal and dying level 2 space civilization, that dangerous victory was won with the sacrifice of plenty of heroes. The victory was not really worth celebrating!

After that, they hid from all space civilizations that they might stumble into, hiding in the dark corners of space for so many years. Later, to save the Noah One, they ran into the Blue Race... The large military fleet that humankind could not even envision, and they had no choice but to again hide themselves like a f*cking turtle...

After saving the Noah One, humankind again had to escape like an ant facing the impossible Song of Destruction...

The real scary thing about survival in space was not weakness but being content with one’s weakness!

This was something humankind knew, but after a series of interactions with impossibly powerful space civilizations, even though humankind had evolved to the peak of level 2 space civilizations and had faced other civilizations weaker than them, there was still fear and despair gripping them... This was truly the meaning of being content with and accepting of one’s weakness!

And this was probably where Yao Yuan’s feeling of grievance came from...

These were the thoughts coursing through Ren Tao’s and Xiao Niao’s minds. In fact, Cheng Wen, who was present, thought about it as well. These clues appeared naturally in the Thinkers’ minds...

"Wait!"

Suddenly, Xiao Niao yelled out. In fact, both Ren Tao and Cheng Wen’s lips were twitching, but they were just slower than Xiao Niao, who then added hurriedly, "Wait a minute, Chancellor, please scan the spacesuits of all the aliens gathered outside and compare them to the information we have in the central mainframe."

Yao Yuan was startled by this unusual demand by Xiao Niao, but he still used his communicator to pass on the order to the people in the surveillance room. Very soon, the answer Xiao Niao was waiting for arrived...

"Space merchants! These people are wearing spacesuits similar to the space merchants’!"

The information made the hearts of the people in the secret meeting room grow heavy. This was truly an impossible coincidence... Or should we say, incredible encounter. After all, the Hope had warped so many times after parting with the space merchants. They had also used warp drive to save the Noah One. The complication of the travel routes they had taken confused even humanity themselves.

However, after so many twists and turns, they still managed to run into the space merchants? Just how incredible was this? The possibility of this happening was smaller than one percent.

"Could it be another branch of space merchants? Blue 6 said that the space merchants are a large conglomerate that has level 2 space civilizations, level 3 space civilizations, and even level 4 space civilizations. Perhaps this is another group of space merchants who use the same uniformed spacesuits?" Speaker Matt asked.

However, he soon shook his head. The reason was simple: the spacesuits had to be built to suit the race’s own physical constitution. For example, a bug-type alien would not fit into a human being’s spacesuit. They had different body shapes, so how could they use the same spacesuit? Furthermore, from the AI comparison, the similarity to the space merchants’ spacesuit was more than 90 percent, which could only meant that... it was almost certain that these were the space merchants that they had combated with!

"In other words... our secrets have been leaked?"

The possibility made everyone there break out in cold sweat. What did this mean? This meant that human beings could be facing the collective assault and raids of several level 3 space civilizations and several hundred level 2 space civilizations. The scariest thing was that the Hope could not use space warp. They were stuck in the Shelter and were practically cornered!

Yao Yuan stood up and announced, "When Guang Zhen’s group returns... The Hope will enter highest combat alert. We might need to cut our way out!"

The secret meeting ended just like that. The few orders given by Yao Yuan were carried out. Other than the few of them, no one knew about the real situation. After all, this might be a crisis that might end the human race, so it was better to keep it under wraps and not raise the alarm.

After the secret meeting ended, Yao Yuan called for Bo Li. After ensuring there was no one around, he whispered quickly, "How is ’that thing’ coming along?"

Bo Li looked at Yao Yuan before shaking her head. "Still in the works, having to deal with efficiency and launching method..."

Yao Yuan interrupted her before she could finish, "We don’t have the time, you know how dangerous the situation is. If it is truly the same space merchants scheming against us, then we are truly in deep trouble. ’That thing’ is the only thing that can help us destroy this Shelter at the shortest notice. I need your confirmation that I can use it when the situation calls for it."

Bo Li was deep in thought for so long that Yao Yuan started to get impatient. When he thought she had gone stupefied, she said, "Give me two days, and do not come to disturb me in these two days. I will try my best to provide you with the half-prototype. But whether it will be successful or not, I cannot guarantee, and this might harm the Hope in return, so you better think about it..." Then she turned to get into the electromobile without waiting for Yao Yuan to answer.

Two days...

That was when Guang Zhen’s group was scheduled to return!