Verdigris laughed again, the "hee hee hee hee..." sound irritating Bob. "Humans have an idiom: getting something for nothing. Mr. Bob, I think you should be quite familiar with it..."
Bob tried to make his manner as sincere as possible. Looking at Verdigris, he said, "Of course I am. But that idiom does not apply here today, because we are not hunters, and none of you are white wolves. The Zerg's brutality is only one aspect. In less than two years, they developed the potential to shake Alvin's rule. I'm sure none of you wishes to see that. After all, Alvin is not the weakest among the five great civilizations. If the Zerg devour the Alvin Spiral Arm, with sufficient energy to support them, then in another two years, I fear your rule will also be in jeopardy..."
"No lifeform can leap from a Level 2 civilization to a Level 5 civilization in just two years. Envoy Bob, we are all human. Even if we ought to support the Alvin Civilization, we do not want our aid to be tainted by lies... If you do not intend to pay for the war we wage, then at least give everyone an answer they can accept..." The speaker was the envoy from Gusta, a Level 5 civilization. Clearly, in everyone's view, Alvin had grossly exaggerated the Zerg's potential for war. Deceiving allies in order to avoid paying war expenses was disgraceful.
And in a council where interests came first, it would not work either.
Bob understood that. After all, it was precisely because Alvin had failed to correctly assess the Zerg's potential that the Zerg had gradually grown from insignificant to formidable, until they could no longer be contained. Fortunately, since he had dared to come today, he naturally had a secret