"Old Wang, how are things on your end? What was it like dealing with the Snake People? Those were genuine aliens! That trip lasted several months, didn't it?"
There was no need for pleasantries between old friends. Zhang Ming got straight to the point. "I kept worrying you'd all get eaten."
When Old Wang realized the call was from Zhang Ming, he froze for a moment, then said helplessly, "The whole experience came down to one word-humiliating!"
"I hated how weak humanity was, and I hated how weak I was!" Recalling the experience left him red-faced and a little heartsick.
"Aside from certain cutting-edge technologies like chips, where they lag behind us, the Snake People are far ahead of us in biological science. They're also much stronger individually."
"Just imagine it-a single monster they raised could have killed every one of us. You have no idea how oppressive that felt!"
Zhang Ming pictured it and laughed. "Like Li Hongzhang of the Great Qing Dynasty boarding a ship belonging to the Great Powers, terrified he'd sign an unequal treaty and end up condemned for all eternity?"
"Exactly, not to mention that there was a faint hint of malice in their attitude... We even detonated a hydrogen bomb because of it!"
"They call weapons of mass destruction like hydrogen bombs 'world busters.' That name is practically another version of 'world hunter.'"
"When they brought that up, I really broke out in a cold sweat."
"But we did take a precaution and deliberately detonated the hydrogen bomb near Earth. We didn't wake any colossal creatures."
Old Wang recounted some interesting parts of the process. What had been harrowing at the time had now become a unique source of bragging rights.
He finally said with feeling, "In the end, the Macrosteel People might have