Hao Ren had always been curious about the "Survivor society" living on the Zenith Seat Space Station and the Moon surface base. Unfortunately, he had never been able to contact the latter directly, so his understanding of that society could only be based on Nolan's limited observation data. Clearly, that level of understanding was far from enough.
N-6's arrival had brought him a huge surprise. However, before he could ask N-6 about the society in the heavens, another "source of intelligence" had delivered itself right to his door.
N-4 said that she knew a great deal about the Zenith Seat and the Moon surface base, even more than N-6 did—because she had served for a longer time. Although that longer service had not granted her higher overall authority than N-6, it had allowed her to learn more about the Survivor society. Before revealing that intelligence, however, she also wanted to know what these unidentified "space visitors" led by Hao Ren were all about.
Trust was built on the sincere efforts of both sides. Even if Hao Ren only wanted the most basic information about the Zenith Seat and the Moon surface base—the sort of thing anyone could learn by flying a spaceship over there and taking a look—he still had to offer an equivalent bargaining chip in exchange.
"We come from outside your star system—I mean, outside your entire stellar system." Hao Ren felt there was no need to hide anything. To a native who had never left her own planetary system, his origins meant little. A noble or a peddler from a kingdom ten billion light-years away would be nothing more than a distant story to N-4, to say nothing of the distance between worlds separating them. "Coming to your planet was entirely accidental. We came to this star