Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 651 - 647 Formal Negotiations

Chapter 651: Chapter 647 Formal Negotiations

Humans could not afford to be at a disadvantage in this negotiation. By bluffing their way through, they could manage to intimidate the opposing party, but they had to keep pushing forward even if they were inwardly panicking.

Next came the confirmation of the New Human Side’s bottom line in the talks. According to the majority opinion, handing over all 400 AmiBa Points for a promise of peaceful development was not entirely unacceptable... After all, preserving the War Star was paramount for humans, and spending an additional 400 AmiBa Points didn’t really matter much.

However, such a move would likely allow the adversary to see through the New Human Civilization’s true state.

Once the opposite side tested Humans further, they would be fully exposed. Even if they were not exposed, years of deceit and manipulation had already exhausted everyone greatly.

"If we concede too much during the negotiations, the other side might suspect and start making huge demands," one of them said.

"But we do not wish for the negotiations to break down either."

People knew too little about the Apollo Civilization; they were in the dark about their character and thought patterns, making it quite unbearable not to know what the opposing side was thinking.

In just the last instance of probing, New Human Civilization had exaggerated their war damages. But what the reaction of the adversary was, whether it matched their expectations or not, Humans did not know, as they couldn’t simply plant spies within the Apollo Civilization’s War Star...

In short, these negotiations were extremely challenging yet particularly crucial; everything would depend on the negotiators’ ability to improvise.

After some discussion, a few negotiation officers who had previously met with the Apollo Civilization were definitely going to partake, as they were somewhat familiar with the other side.

Including Zhang Yuan, the author of the "Extra Color Perception" paper, should also attend, especially since the Apollo Civilization repeatedly used this paper as an excuse. If they still decided to play tricks in this regard, he could argue fiercely based on its merits.

He was confident that the paper was entirely reliable; since it had already been successfully tested in Humans, how could it possibly be false?

On another note, as the director of the Scientific Council Staff and a former Captain, Zhang Yuan had a significant share of authority and needed to accept such responsibilities.

Even though this mission was highly dangerous and could pose threats to life.

"I have no issues on my end..."

Seeing everyone deep in thought, Zhang Yuan spoke, "Thus, we don’t need a large delegation. Given the high risk of this matter, if negotiations fail, it could easily escalate to war... If too many top leaders go, it could turn into a massacre by the other side."

"Therefore, everyone here just needs to prepare for either war or successful negotiations. Captain, you needn’t go; staying in command at the headquarters is the best option."

The Captain nodded, "Understood, I’ll leave it in your hands then."

After finalizing their discussion, they carefully selected 20 diplomats in total.

Then, Humans sent a message demanding the opponent’s military forces to retreat a certain distance, creating conditions for negotiation, or else all talks would be off!

Three days later, the Apollo Civilization’s military indeed retreated 2 astronomical units, showing their sincerity.

Next, both parties’ spaceships began formal negotiations near the Air Defense Identification Zone.

...

Al Planet Six, a mammoth squid and one of the Great Nobles at the pinnacle of the Apollo Civilization, enjoyed a life of luxury unimaginable to the common people from the moment of his birth.

However, Al Planet Six had recently found himself in a foul mood due to becoming ensnared in a significant trouble.

Initially, the higher-ups, buoyed by excitement, intended to seize a War Star through intimidation—an idea proposed by him.

If they had truly seized that War Star, it would have significantly enhanced the prestige of their faction and the entire family...

Instead, they encountered a tough nut to crack, one they had yet to break through.

Mobilizing such a large army had led to a series of damages; his subordinates had begun to falter in battle, political rivals had started slinging mud, and a mixture of internal and external problems had left him feeling somewhat drained.

Al Planet Six realized that if this operation failed completely, his prestige would plummet, and his base of power would be vulnerable to cleansing by political enemies from within. He would fall from his lofty position and would no longer be trusted by the Sovereign Civilization.

Thus, with a certain goal in mind, the Big Squid had no choice but to personally head to the front lines to engage in diplomatic negotiations, trying to salvage the situation.

In any case, he was determined to extort more benefits!

"Definitely! Damn new humans!"

The emotions of the Apollo Civilization’s individuals usually manifested on their faces. When their faces turned dark and shiny, it meant their brains were flushing with blood in a state of rage, alertness, or about to launch an attack.

This physiological phenomenon evolved from primitive conditions. In ancient times, these giant squids survived by preying on a shallow-sea creature known as "cat shrimp." Although large, these squids were not very aggressive. To avoid being preyed upon by hunters, they evolved a defense mechanism of polluting the water with black ink.

However, in the interstellar era, this defense mechanism signified rather unfriendly etiquette. No one liked being spewed in the face, hence these giant squids typically concealed their enormous heads, to prevent opponents from reading their expressions.

If they couldn’t hold it in, they could spit ink inside their helmets—after all, nobody would know.

"3000... 3000 AmiBa points is our bottom line!" Al Planet Six, facing a human negotiator only a third of his size, opened the negotiations aggressively.

The originally proposed four thousand AmiBa points had been reduced to three thousand, which he considered a significant concession. In fact, Apollo Star Person "Al Planet Six" was also very nervous. His spaceship was filled with loyal followers. If the negotiations went poorly, his political enemies would surely seize the chance to criticize vigorously, so it might have been better not to bring them.

"For the court’s judgement, we’re offering a 25% discount..."

The human negotiators sitting in front of the giant squid remained silent—the squid’s way of speaking was too coarse. If they were to engage in serious negotiations, using such excuses seemed like mockery.

Zhang Yuan was seeing these fully armed squid-like aliens face to face for the first time. These creatures were massive, approximately 10 meters in length, hidden within custom-made mechanical armor. Through their eyes, they could only make out vaguely exposed white muscles.

As a science advisor, he merely listened to the negotiations from both sides without directly voicing opinions.

"Cough, cough..." Zhang Yuan coughed lightly, a pre-arranged signal indicating that humans should adopt a tougher speaking manner to prevent the squids from continuing their deceptions.

The meeting place was on board a large spacecraft belonging to the Apollo Civilization. This enormous spaceship had come alone and was stationed at the border of the human Air Defense Identification Zone, surrounded by over a dozen armed spaceships from the New Human Side.

It was essentially a mutual deterrence situation.