A Calculated Advantage
While this move might be seen as revealing one's strength, it is also a way to probe the opponent's capabilities.
Humanity has been exploring the stars for many years and has come to know that interstellar civilizations are always on guard against each other. The kind of harmonious meeting is extremely rare between civilizations of the same level unless a higher-level civilization has no intention of Low-level Civilization.
Of course, this doesn't apply to those who have had multiple interactions and get along well, but it's only after you've dealt with each other and understand each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Just like the Human Civilization and the Nair Civilization, they seem to get along well, but this is also based on the absolute strength of humanity.
In any case, all the experiences along the way have instilled in humanity a lingering sense of wariness towards extraterrestrials. And someone like Yue Yuan, who witnessed the unprovoked destruction of the Solar System, is truly capable of any cruelty when dealing with aliens who harbor malice towards humanity.
Morality and ethics are internal matters. Of course, if extraterrestrials genuinely harbor goodwill towards Human Civilization, humanity will naturally treat them with the same sincerity.
"I understand!" the trade manager replied, then nodded and turned to make the arrangements.
Before long, a reply from the Interstellar Transaction Market arrived.
"Oh, Earth civilization, that's truly surprising. You actually possess such advanced materials technology; it's truly breathtaking. However, we must inform you that while this alloy material is advanced enough, it doesn't reach the level of Level 4 Civilization's creations. As a member of the Merchant Alliance, we have experts in this field."
However, while this material may not be considered a creation of Level 4 Civilization, it is still extremely powerful, and its value is enough to exchange for a three-thousand-year-old Life Elixir here.
Honestly, it's been a pleasure cooperating with your Earth civilization. If possible, let's finalize this deal first. Oh, I almost forgot, regarding the exploration of the coordinates of the Life Planet, considering the risks of interstellar travel, we plan to increase the number of warships in our fleet to ensure the safety of this mission.
Although this star system is relatively Safe Star Region, we've heard of some Pirate Civilization. To be honest, a Level 2 Civilization that came here to trade apparently encountered Interstellar Pirate.
The reply from the Interstellar Transaction Market made no mention of the Life Elixir sample with a five-thousand-year efficacy, but as Yue Yuan had expected, it requested an increase in the number of squadrons.
Upon hearing this news, Yue Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, which indicated that the individual combat power of warships in the Interstellar Transaction Market was inferior to that of humans.
In fact, if the Interstellar Transaction Market was intended to wage war against humanity from the outset, then Yue Yuan's probing might not be effective. It would only work if the other party was wary of humanity but did not want to launch a direct war.
This is the advantage of being able to calculate with intention but not with intention.
Fortunately, the Dog-Headed People Commander were decisive enough. If they hadn't destroyed all information related to humanity through a self-destruction, humanity might have been discovered by the Interstellar Transaction Market by now.
Thinking of the Dog-Headed People Fleet, Yue Yuan fell silent for a moment.
Humanity's newly established auxiliary fleet was wiped out just like that—three thousand Lake-Class Warship, which represented fifteen million Dog-Headed People lives, gone in an instant.
Although Yue Yuan didn't have any feelings for the Dog-Headed People on the planet when he first encountered Dog-Headed People Planet, the Dog-Headed People after being nurtured by humans were different and were now considered one of their own.
The Dog-Headed People's loss is also humanity's loss. The starting point is different, the considerations are different, and the feelings are naturally different as well.
That said, humanity's attitude towards the reply from the Interstellar Transaction Market is one of approval.
In the days that followed, the two sides held several rounds of negotiations on the transaction and finally decided on the date and location.
At the same time, the number of fleets to be sent to the coordinates of the Life Planet was determined. Since humanity only had seven million warships in the First Fleet, where Yue Yuan was located, it insisted on sending only one million warships.
Faced with humanity's insistence, the Interstellar Transaction Market had no choice but to say that for the sake of navigation safety, they would send more warships, ultimately settling on six million.
The arrangement of six million warships further convinced Yue Yuan that the warships emerging from the far side of the planet were only those in the open, and that the Interstellar Transaction Market likely had a larger fleet hidden on the far side of the Gaseous Planet.
It's a pity they don't allow human warships to get closer to probe, otherwise, using Neutrino Detection, they could see through the planet and observe the approximate number of warships hidden on its back.
It seems that the Interstellar Transaction Market is also a genuine Level 3 Civilization, and they even know about Neutrino Detection.
Furthermore, upon hearing that Pirate Civilization existed in the Interstellar Transaction Market, the humans became even more certain that they were connected to the Interstellar Pirate who had annihilated the Dog-Headed People Fleet.
At this moment, Yue Yuan looked at the star map again and gave the people present a pre-battle briefing.
He pointed to various locations on the star map and said, "Once the Donghai (East Sea) Warship, carrying the Interstellar Transaction Market's fleet, arrives at the designated location, our First Fleet will advance swiftly along this route to capture the two planets on orbits thirteen and twelfth, and ensure that resource extraction is put on track within two years. At that time, the Lyra and the West Sea will take turns defending against attacks from the Interstellar Transaction Market."
Resource extraction requires Strong Artificial Intelligence, therefore a flagship equipped with Strong Artificial Intelligence must be located near planetary orbit; otherwise, excessive communication latency will occur.
Therefore, if we want to turn these two planets into resource gathering sites for building warships, we must have a fleet flagship nearby.
Fortunately, humanity didn't just build one Lyra equipped with Strong Artificial Intelligence, otherwise things would have been really difficult.
In the First Fleet, besides the Lyra, there are four other Sea-Class Warship— the Donghai (East Sea) Warship, West Sea, South Sea, and North Sea— equipped with Strong Artificial Intelligence and controlled by humans.
The flagship of the Second Fleet was called the Han Hai. The flagship of the Third Fleet was called the Deep Sea.
Because of data sharing, as long as other fleets assign warship permissions to warships piloted by other humans, those warships can use their own onboard Strong Artificial Intelligence to conduct combat command over the assigned warships.
Just like the one million warships that the Donghai (East Sea) Warship took from the First Fleet, they were usually under the command of the Lyra.
This reveals the composition and command structure of human warship groups. Each manned warship can become a combat Command Center or the flagship of a separate fleet, as long as it is allocated enough warships.
Yue Yuan's plan was that the Third Fleet would eliminate the Interstellar Transaction Market's squadron according to plan, and then, together with the Second Fleet, storm into the Star System. At that time, the First Fleet, where he was located, would also launch a general offensive and annihilate the so-called Interstellar Transaction Market in one fell swoop.
Before that, humanity will need to feign cooperation with the Interstellar Transaction Market for a while longer.
After all the instructions were given and everyone had a clear understanding of the situation, the human leadership then turned their attention to trade matters with the Interstellar Transaction Market.
We must obtain the Life Elixir with its three-thousand-year efficacy first, even though research cannot be conducted on the Lyra.
After all, the main combat personnel, applied scientists, and research scientists on the Lyra are still with the Main Civilization.
And so time slowly passed until the transaction was successfully completed.
The trade of exchanging No. 2 Alloy Material technology for Life Elixir with a 3,000-year efficacy went very smoothly. Frankly, if it weren't for the Dog-Headed People's previous ordeal, humanity would have considered this Interstellar Transaction Market a legitimate one.
Perhaps they have connections in both the legitimate and criminal worlds!