novelTrade Exchanges
| ← Ch.432 | Ch.434 → |
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The first group of Protoss immigrants had settled down smoothly.
Immigration tasks and activities had not been completed. It was only the beginning.
The spiritual artifact that was their ship—and there were 10 of those—did not stay for too long. They returned to the time-space portal near the orbit of Jupiter and entered it in order to transport a second group of Protoss immigrants.
The number of immigrants reached 10 million!
With rapid speed, an average of one trip back-and-forth was made every month.
120 million immigrants would arrive in one year.
This was a long-term job. The Protoss emigration plan was expected to last more than 50 years.
In addition, the Protoss had a special physical constitution. They consumed a large amount of food, and their cost of living was higher.
The Protoss could be regarded as 100% illiterate. Due to the issue of their lack of knowledge and depth, it would take at least a decade for them to cultivate a certain level of quality in this area so that the Protoss would have "value" to contribute to society.
Therefore, nearly all of the foreign Protoss were a burden for humans.
A very heavy burden.
So, by the time that the fifth wave of Protoss immigrants arrived, the burden had become somewhat unbearable for the Federation.
"They can't ship people here anymore. We are at our limits."
The federal officials went to negotiate with the senior administration of the Protoss, explaining that they were in a very awkward position.
The current Earth Federation had achieved a very high degree of integration after hundreds of years of development. The standout nations were the two superpowers and about 50 medium-sized countries. There were another hundred or so developing countries who, because of poverty, backwardness, government incompetence, or other causes, had surrendered their leadership one after another. Those countries were then turned into free cities under the jurisdiction of the Federation.
In addition, there were the space cities floating in outer space, as well as the hundreds of immigrant cities on other planets.
The Federation was presently made up of about 60 countries and more than 800 free cities.
The primary income of the federal government was composed of 2% of the GDP from the member nations and 3% of GDP from the free cities.
Upon the addition of the Protoss migrants, the Federation could only support up to about 50 million Protoss annually.
If there were over 100 million Protoss to support, the Federal Treasury would probably go bankrupt quickly
Hearing the reply from the Protoss' senior administration—that the immigration process would last for at least 50 years, likely more—the Treasury would probably vomit blood.
The current extent of the burden could not be sustained at all.
"But we have no money. We can't pay." The senior administrator of the Protoss shook his head and said, "There will be no break in the immigration process. It might even be accelerated in the future. There is not much time left for us."
"This..."
The Federal parliamentarians looked at one another in dismay. They were between a rock and a hard place. But it was absolutely infeasible not to collect money. If this continued, the Federation would go bankrupt!
"I do have a few solutions." Parliament member Guo Xin said, smiling."I have a solution for this predicament."
"Mr. Guo?"
Many of the members' eyes focused on him, and their expressions became somewhat strange and convoluted.
Parliament member Guo Xin was the spokesperson of the Chen family's political interests. He was trained and cultivated by the Chen Family Consortium, and was their mouthpiece. He represented the interests of the family group. Hence, he was not well-liked.
Moreover, the Chen Family's attitude toward the Protoss was tougher, and he could be called a representative from among the "hard-liners." Their hard-liner stance was not only conveyed verbally, but was also shown through tangible actions.
For example: the military exercise in space that was witnessed by the first group of Protoss.
This was another example. There were some Protoss who went to the human residential areas to make trouble, and even some who committed murder and arson. They were all punished by the law. If they committed crimes in the Chen family's free cities, they would be punished according to the law.
The most extreme case was one where a Protoss committed three counts of rape and killed eight innocent human beings. He was sentenced to death and executed immediately!
That Protoss criminal also became the first Protoss who was killed by humans.
The event caused a storm of protests, but also a round of applause.
The Protoss senior administration was incensed, but the evidence was conclusive. In the end, they had to strengthen their control over their people and swallow their anger.
Because of various incidents like these, the Chen family's tough attitude was known all over the world.
Faced with a proposal put forward by Parliamentarian Guo and considering the financial pressure on the Treasury, the other members had no choice but to say, "Go ahead, Mr Guo."
"My solution is to carry out economic and trade exchanges between the Protoss and human beings."
Guo Xin scanned the room and said, "Indeed, even if we exclude the value of land, the cost of resettling one Protoss migrant is more than 5 million credits. With our federal financial resources, we can only help to settle a maximum of 10 to 20 million Protoss every year. Any more, and we will be digging into the federal reserves that we have accumulated over a period of more than a hundred years.
"This is absolutely unsustainable. The Federation will be dragged down sooner or later, and our public support rate will also plummet.
"The only solution is to conduct trade with the Protoss—we should proceed with a mutually beneficial trade cooperation.
"This can only last if the two sides engage in this win-win situation."
Trade and commerce cooperation?
Some members wondered, "Is this sort of cooperative viable? Besides their physical strength, the Protoss have no competitive advantage in other areas. How could the cooperation be carried out?"
"Of course, we'll start with the most basic cooperation." Guo Xin folded his arms."The so-called Heavenly Realm is said to be a piece of landmass that is even bigger than the Milky Way. Due to the crisis of the primal chaos, their Realm has shrunk by more than 90%, but the remaining land is still bigger than the entire Milky Way.
"With such a large area of land, the underground mineral resources could arguably be described as unlimited. We can import some minerals from the Heavenly Realm.
"In addition, there are many animal and plant resources in the Realm. These biological resources can be traded to cultivate some commercial species that are also able to thrive in the Earth's environment.
"In addition, after the so-called "Revival of Magical Powers, " Earth can enter the era of mystic cultivation. But those who are awakened will generally be weaker, and they would be groping their way in the dark, so to speak. Because of this, their cultivation process would have no structure or method, and there would be many accidents where the practitioner could become insane. In order to create regulations and reduce accidents, we should import a batch of the Protoss' rare books on cultivation and their cultivation methods and skills. We should study those books and methods carefully to improve the overall strength of local practitioners."
Guo Xin listed the above three types of product in a row:
The minerals and ores in the Heavenly Realm.
Animal and plant resources.
The cultivation methods, skills, and secret, rare books of the practitioners of the Heavenly Realm.
These three types of goods had great commercial value and could be used to start trade cooperation.
The members of Parliament turned their gazes towards Guo Xin, revealing their admiration. They had no choice but to nod and say, "So, the Heavenly Realm would more or less become the Federation's raw material supply base... There's definitely profit to be made here."
Brilliant.
It was very brilliant.
Immediately!
The Business and Trade Cooperation proposal by the Federal Parliament was brought forth to the Protoss' senior administration.
At first, the administration was very opposed to the proposal. They asked, "Didn't you promise that you will help to resettle our Protoss immigrants? What about your promise?"
"The number of people that you have sent is too great. It is beyond the limit of sustainability. If you don't think of ways to take up part of the responsibility, what we can provide in later days will only be a place to land and basic rations. We can't guarantee other support."
"That... we have to discuss this."
...
The Protoss' senior administration closed their doors and began discussions.
Immediately, dissatisfied and angry voices rang out.
"How abominable! They said that they would help us, but they couldn't do it in the end. And they dare to talk about conditions?"
"There is nothing to talk about at all. Our Protoss have a remaining population of more than 20 billion in the Realm, the majority of which are Masters. We need to migrate at least half of them to our old planet. It may not necessarily be enough, even if we occupy their entire land. There won't even be any space for them to stand. It's bad enough that they are still here, but they even dare to talk about conditions with us, demanding this and that... I really want to slap him!"
"This is originally our mother planet. Those 'humans' are merely apes who were magically transformed and enlightened by our ancestors, who used their spiritual energies and techniques on them millions of years ago. They were born as beasts and slaves. Yet they dare to treat us as equals today and speak about their demands. They act so recklessly!"
"I've had enough, too! Why don't we ask for instructions from a few of the elders and sages? We can send one of them to destroy the fleet of the monkeys, and after eliminating the greatest threat, we will rise up as a group and kill all the monkeys on the planet. Then, there'll be no problem for us at all."
"Yes, I haven't had any action for a long time. We'll kill all those abominable monkeys who want to use the law as a means to restrain us!"
Their comments became more and more extreme. The call to kill was getting louder and louder.
Many of the senior leaders of the Protoss were filled with little kernels of discontent, but after openly venting their emotions, those little kernels had turned into a strong and murderous intent.
"Shut up!"
The highest-ranking Protoss in the room, who was the leader of the senior administration, glared at the crowd."We can't mobilize the sages recklessly. Once they have been summoned, a corner of the chaos encompassing our land may be overlooked, and the Heavenly Realm will be swallowed by the primal chaos!"
The friars of the Shenguang Qi under the sages would not necessarily be able to withstand the attack of the nuclear bomb.
On the other hand, regular human military units on Earth were equipped with rifles that could kill friars of the Ningye Order. Their military was also equipped with tanks, planes, and cannons that could kill the friars of the Jiedan Order. On top of everything, they also had sonic missiles, the extremely powerful "mother of all bombs, " small nuclear missiles, and other weapons. Even with their total mastery over spiritual skills and techniques, any of these weapons could kill the friar-practitioners from the highest orders.
With the support of all sorts of magical foreign objects, the humans of Earth were by no means lambs that could be easily slaughtered.
A minority of the Protoss in the senior administration were clear-headed enough to know this fact very well.
It was not certain that the Protoss would emerge unscathed from a full-scale war with the humans of Earth. They must not take extreme measures before they were absolutely sure of their victory in a full-scale war.
Besides, even if they could and did employ certain measures to eliminate all of the humans on Earth at only a small price to themselves, what about afterward?
The Protoss did not even know what science and technology were. What methods could they employ to solve the problems faced by the billions of Protoss immigrants, such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, and so forth?
Just the issue of food alone was problematic enough. In the Heavenly Realm, they would have needed to till tens of billions of acres of land in order to produce enough food for the tens of billions of Protoss, with a yield of two or three hundred pounds of harvested crops per acre. However, the total area on Earth that could be farmed was much lesser.
But those humans had easily achieved the production of 1, 000 pounds of harvested crop per acre every year using indoor agricultural technology. Crops could be harvested throughout all four seasons.
A few clever Protoss noticed these issues and immediately realized that the "humans" that had evolved from apes would be of great use to them!
It was best to enslave the humans, not to kill them.
Therefore, starting a war was the last resort at that time. It absolutely could not happen!
After thinking about it, the top-ranking Protoss in the senior administration said, "How about this. We can agree to the first two conditions, but they have to pay a suitable price!"
"As for the techniques, skills and rare books on spiritual cultivation, haha, they can forget about it. They are untalented monkeys. It's not necessary for them to cultivate their spiritual skills."
What?
Many of the senior administration were surprised.
"Y-you're actually agreeing to this?"
"You can't agree. If you give those monkeys an inch, they'll want a mile!"
"Serving the Protoss is their duty! We can't accept excuses such as insufficient funds and ability! They still have the energy to give more, and at least 99% of their properties have not been dedicated to us! Those monkeys need a lesson. They are simply too cunning!"
"Yes. If they don't obey, we can kill a group of them, and then they'll naturally obey us. We'll let them know the rules of the Heavenly Realm!"
"..."
Hard-liner comments were still widespread.
Thud, thud.
The leader of the Protoss knocked twice on the table."Enough! Stop talking about this. There are fewer than 50 million Protoss who have emigrated into our old planet, but there are one or two billion humans! We don't know the depth of their abilities. If we start a confrontation rashly, we'll be the ones on the losing end!"
"We'll temporarily agree with their cooperation requirements and wait until we have enough people and sufficient strength. When we are 100% confident, then we'll reassert the relationship between master and servant. We still have time; why rush now?"
"Yes!"
Noticing the anger of their leader, the Protoss in the senior administration could only bow their heads in agreement.
...
The initiative for the trade cooperation was thus settled.
Less than two months later.
A specialized cargo ship appeared at the exit of the time-space portal with its shipment.
Batches of minerals, ores, animals, and plants from the Heavenly Realm were continuously transported to Earth.
The goods were then sent to an auction site on the moon and sold in public auctions.
They were tested using certain instruments, and it was discovered that most of the products from the Heavenly Realm possessed very special physical and chemical characteristics. Hence, the first batch of goods were quickly snapped up by various merchants and sold at very high prices.
...
Haierfa.
Crater City.
Chen Jin's mind received a call from his daughter, Chen Xing Yue. He listened to some of her reports.
"Dad, the Chen Family have won more than one-third of the items from the Heavenly Realm that have been put on auction on the moon. We've spent hundreds of billions.
"However, the Protoss have not provided even one set of exercises or secret tips found in their rare books on spiritual cultivation. Nothing similar has been provided. It seems that they are very vigilant.
"And then there's the problem of Protoss overpopulation. 10 million of them immigrate here every month. In a few years, Earth will be so crowded with the Protoss that it will become unlivable. Many people think that this is a bad idea. Living space is limited. Our culture, our values—our perspective regarding the world and ideas about life are very different from theirs. If this continues, there will definitely be problems in the future." Chen Xing Yue thus raised her concerns.
"This is inevitable." Chen Jin nodded."Before integration, there will be fierce conflicts between the two sides. Peace is often the product of war.
"I estimate things will go on a maximum of ten years. After ten years, the population of the Protoss on the earth will exceed 1 billion. Tensions will definitely arise. There will always be one side who can't hold themselves back.
"In the meantime, our Chen family will slowly develop and accumulate strength. We will increase the construction of military power. It would be best if our military expenditure does not drop below 5%.
"In addition, we must prepare our escape plan. Since the spacecraft equipped with the curvature engine has been successfully manufactured, we will step up construction on the neighboring planet and open up several sub-bases. Not only do those Protoss have a large population base, but they also have a lot of aces up their sleeves. We must not underestimate them.
"And we also have to speed up our research on spiritual cultivation and skills. Use simulations by the supercomputers and produce some spiritual cultivation techniques. We should nurture more human practitioners. If we maintain our strength in both the areas of science and technology and spiritual cultivation, we will have a dual advantage. They are merely the Protoss from the Heavenly Realm. When the time comes, they will be nothing to fear; they will have no choice but to integrate into our society obediently, " Chen Jin said calmly.
"Yes, Dad!"
Chen Xingyue was full of confidence too."I firmly believe that mankind will win."
| ← Ch. 432 | Ch. 434 → |