January 15th, 9:00 p.m.
Nine hours had passed since the alien intelligent entity was placed on Tianshui Star.
Ever since the livestream was cut off, the authorities had still not explained why, even after all this time.
Faced with public questioning online, the official response was merely, "We are assessing the situation. Please remain calm. It will be made public at the appropriate time."
This vague statement only made the public more curious.
On the Ascendant's Home forum, related discussion threads had flooded the pages, with everyone guessing why the authorities were keeping things under wraps.
Some believed there might be some benefit involved, and a small group wanted to monopolize it.
Others believed the alien entity posed a threat to humanity and that the authorities were handling it.
Strangely, during previous Rule Periods, "insiders" often came forward to leak information.
Yet this time, no one claiming to be a member of the Contact Delegation had appeared to explain what was going on.
This inevitably made many people wonder: Had those people been restricted from communicating with the outside world?
They were right.
"Damn it, why is there no signal at all in this godforsaken place?"
Inside a vehicle resembling a large RV, a Solloma person fiddled with a portable computer he had brought along.
The person beside him said, "Give it up. There are barely any people living on this huge icefield. Where would signal towers even come from?"
"This uses a direct satellite network. It doesn't need ground signal towers at all."
"You two really are idiots," another person in the vehicle said. "The signals around here must have been blocked long ago."
On the Sainantata Icefield, not far from the alien spacecraft, several large insulated vehicles that had arrived that afternoon were parked nearby.
These insulated vehicles