Luo Qi analyzed the information attached to the message.
The civilization calling itself Hula-a phonetic rendering-had provided coordinates for a location in the void of space.
It also proposed that both civilizations send representatives to negotiate compensation.
Luo Qi almost laughed when he finished reading.
In a world without order or rules, I dug a pit and trapped something whose identity, size, and sex I didn't even know.
Then I turned around and shouted, "Come on out! I'll compensate you!"
Who would believe that?
Wouldn't believing it just mean falling into another pit? One with a whole pile of bodies buried in it, no less.
But you couldn't refuse to go, either, because the other side already knew you existed.
If you displayed too little strength, they would definitely want your technology to fill the gaps in their own development.
If you displayed too much strength, they would definitely join forces.
Luo Qi studied the coordinates, ten light-years away. The appointed time was expressed in terms of heavy-hydrogen collisions releasing energy through controllable nuclear fusion...
In short, it worked out to a hundred hours. They also mentioned that they would keep waiting for up to two years.
At his current speed of thirty times the speed of light, he could never make it in time.
Achieving a breakthrough in engine technology and deploying it within a hundred hours was highly unlikely.
But the real purpose of those coordinates was probably to probe him.
"These interstellar civilizations have a plan behind every objective."
The two sides should have been evenly matched, or one might have held a slight advantage.
But with a third party intruding to disrupt that balance, the scales of victory no longer favored either side.
In the Data World, Luo Qi turned his gaze toward the Ark.
The