Consultations

Yue Yuan's words were transmitted from his mouth, converted into electrical signals via the microphone, and then translated into Electromagnetic Wave signals recognizable by the Nair Civilization by the Interactive System, ultimately becoming a language that the Nair People could understand.

The sound finally quieted down the noise in the Nair People's Conference Room. At the same time, the Grand Governor of the First Star Region of the Nair Civilization also came to his senses. He raised his bald, dark head and Compound Eyes at the large screen where humans were located with his compound eyes that showed no emotion. Then he started vibrating the vocal organs in his abdomen.

"Bennell (the man) is the Grand Governor, the highest-ranking official in the Second Star Region. I extend a warm welcome to the arrival of Human Civilization. According to our etiquette, we should hold a grand banquet for our guests, but unfortunately, the differences between our races are too great, and the delicacies we consider to be delicious may not suit our guests' tastes. Therefore, I can only express my regret."

After saying this, the Grand Governor turned around and raised his claw to warn two Nair People were still whispering in the hall. He had heard them; the two seemed surprised that human voices were coming out of their mouths.

The Grand Governor was quite surprised, because on the homeworld of the Nair Civilization, only those ugly, soft, and stupid creatures would speak in this way.

However, the Grand Governor knew that now was not the time to think about such things, so he raised his claw and snapped it a few times to quiet the whispering Nair People in the hall before continuing to speak in the direction of the humans.

"Well, apologies to Human Civilization. Let's get straight to the point. Don't worry about supplies. After receiving the communication from Great Blaze Star, we made some preparations in advance, and therefore, a considerable amount has already been stockpiled on Pot Lid Five Planet."

However, we do not know exactly what kind of supplies you need or how much of each kind you require, so please provide a detailed list so that we can deliver it to you here.

"Well, by the way, you are also a civilization that has mastered Heavy Nuclear Fusion and has experience traveling through the universe, so you must be well aware that energy fuels and various ores are actually not very valuable. We, the Nair Civilization, certainly know this too. However, even if these things are abundant throughout the universe and not very valuable, they still require a cost to mine. Therefore, we charge only the cost of mining and transporting these various mineral resources and common silicates used as fuel. We hope you can understand our difficulties."

The governor of the Nielmans did not reveal any dissatisfaction with human appearance in his words, but when it came to the supplies, he only mentioned the fuel and various minerals needed for heavy nuclear fusion, without mentioning cold nuclear fusion fuel at all.

The meaning is self-evident: Heavy Nuclear Fusion is like burning rocks, and the fuel can be dug up in a sackful at will. However, Cold Nuclear Fusion requires advanced technology to produce, so he intends to sell Cold Nuclear Fusion fuel at a different price.

As for why the 'price' standard wasn't mentioned directly, it's because neither the Grand Governor nor the other Nair People experts and doctors knew what standard should be used to price items between two different civilizations.

After all, the claims that the Nair People had interacted with other civilizations were just boasts. In reality, they had never seen any aliens other than themselves, let alone exchanged or traded with them.

This is their first time interacting with humans in this way, but they've already made all the promises they made, so they can't afford to ruin their own reputation; they still need to save face.

So he plans to have the humans compile a list first. Once the humans have done so, he will have a reference and can then set a benchmark price for his mineral resources and other technologies that he wants to exchange, thus saving face.

Of course, it wasn't just a matter of saving face. The Grand Governor knew very well that the humans absolutely could not know that the Nair People were making their first contact with aliens, otherwise they might be taken advantage of by humans in terms of trade rules.

Because it was real-time communication, it was no different from face-to-face communication. Therefore, as soon as the Grand Governor of the Nair People spoke, Yue Yuan responded directly.

Yue Yuan and the others present were unaware that this was the first time the Nair People had dealt with aliens, so they didn't think about it in that direction. However, they did understand the importance of seizing the initiative, so after a moment's thought, he said, "Charging is reasonable. Our Human Civilization's Cosmic Exploration Fleet has traveled all over the world and encountered many civilizations. We have also resupplyed with them. Their approach is the same as yours; they only charge for the cost of mining, processing, and transportation of minerals and fuels."

At this point, Yue Yuan smiled and looked at the Grand Governor of the Nair People: "Since you can say this, you must understand the basic rules of trade between different civilizations. Yes. As you say, we will provide you with a detailed list of supplies and attach a value reference to each resource on the list."

At the same time, I believe Your Grand Governor is well aware that seeking supplies is only one of our purposes in coming here. In addition, we also wish to engage in technological trade with you. Therefore, when we draft the supply list, we will also draft a list of technologies that are available for sale, and of course, we will also include some technologies that we wish to acquire.

"As is customary in trade, you should also provide a list of technologies that you can sell and technologies that you hope to acquire from us, along with the list we provide. Then, we can use our respective lists as a basis for the next round of consultations, ultimately achieving a win-win result."

Upon hearing Yue Yuan's words, the Grand Governor of the Nair People did not respond immediately. Instead, he said, "Please wait a moment," and then turned off the microphone. He then began to discuss the matter with the Nair People from various sectors who were also attending the meeting.

Seeing this, Yue Yuan also muted his microphone and then asked everyone to analyze the possible responses from the Nair People and the human side.

A short while later, a signal came from the Nair People, indicating that they could continue communicating via microphone.

"Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief of Human Civilization, you are right. We have conducted our exchanges with other civilizations in the same way. So let's set a three-day limit. After three days, we will each submit a list to the other and then proceed to the next round of consultations," the Grand Governor said.

In fact, the Grand Governor did not want to agree to make the list, but when he was discussing with other Nair People experts, many of them believed that not agreeing might risk being discovered by humans that his group had not actually come into contact with other Alien Civilization. Therefore, after some discussion, he decided to agree.

As for the list and pricing, we can just leave it to the experts. Those experts have said that even if the resulting information is flawed, we can simply say that this is how things were in previous interactions with other civilizations; if asked, we can just say it's a cognitive bias caused by species differences—there's absolutely no flaw in our argument.

"Very well, then let's talk again in three days."

After discussing the specific time and procedures for submitting lists with the Nair People, the humans ended the first video call.