The thoughts of someone of their level was different indeed. Hong Dali’s intention was to squander in the universe in the future, Tang Muxin’s worry was how to deal with the aliens. And the first thing that Grandpa Mysterious thought of was safety.

“Wow! Scary!” Hong Dali’s eyes widened in fear and he quickly ate a Dali bean to compose himself. “Are we doomed, then?”

“At the moment, this is what it looks like.” The mysterious man took a deep breath. “The rules of the Dark Forest follows the basic axioms of cosmic sociology. Firstly, survival is the most important thing in any civilization. Secondly, civilization will continue to grow and expand, but the matter in the universe remains the same. From this point of view, in the universe, highly developed civilizations often go after natural resources. This is the same as us. At this time and era, what everyone is after, are resources.

“In the universe, it’s not possible for one civilization to determine if another is good or evil, whether there are any intentions of invasion. That also means, in any civilization, once it reaches the level of technological crushing, they will inevitably adopt a colonial policy rather than equality and mutual assistance.”

The Bureau Chief added, “Actually, you just have to imagine the colonial era hundreds of years ago. Due to their advanced technology, Britain and France did not consider cooperation when they arrived at a new land. Instead, they directly conquered the local civilization by means of military conquest. This is also true in the universe. If their technology is far ahead of us, then they will not live in peace with us. Of course, there is a situation in which war can be avoided. That is, if they have to pay a considerable price to conquer us.”

“That’s scary!” Hong Dali thought for a while. En, it seems I have to speed up my squandering process. Speaking of which, the technology blueprint provided by the system was quite good. “In that case, what should we do now?”

“To be honest,” The mysterious man sighed. “I don’t have any good ideas either. If that Deca could enter our virtual world, that implies that their technology is far more advanced than ours. At least, his vision is much higher than ours. The problem is, we don’t know whether he will come here, or when he will come. This is vexing.”

“En…” Hong Dali got a bit worried too—if a war broke out, how would he continue to squander happily? But he quickly thought of an important piece of information!

System! Small High-energy Electronic Collision Machine!

When the System was introducing this Small High-energy Electronic Collision Machine, it mentioned, “As a universal energy source of the universe”. In that case, Galaxy-level resources should be referring to this. If we can create this Small High-energy Electronic Collision Machine, we would have more power when communicating with the other party. We can then show them that we’re not pushovers!

“Hehe, I have an idea!” Hong Dali beamed. “I don’t think they would launch an attack on us directly. They might be powerful, but our Chuyin’s technology is not for fun either!”

“Really?” Hong Dali actually had a solution?

The mysterious man and the Bureau Chief knew that Hong Dali was careless with minor things but astute when it came to important ones. He had never joked about important matters before. It seemed he had an idea of how to handle this. Although he didn’t mention any details, it must be something good!

They finally felt more at ease, all the pressure was gone. The mysterious man laughed and said, “If you have anything good, that could earn us some time. En, this Deca treated you quite well. Contrary to the rules of the Dark Forest, there can be two reasons explaining his actions.

“Firstly, he wants to get on your good side and find out your location in the universe. Once he finds out, they are sure to find us. That could be one reason why you met Deca inside.

“For example, Earth’s network is ‘Internet’. It covers the entire Earth. A personal computer connected to the network will form an IP. If you think of the Galaxy as a super-large Earth, then this virtual world is a cosmic version of the INTERNET, covering the entire galaxy. Earth will be home, your virtual helmet is equivalent to an upgraded version of the computer. Your cosmic IP that appears after this virtual helmet is connected to the universe is the location of our planet. Deca is equivalent to a more advanced hacker. He found you on this cosmic internet and found the coordinates of the Earth. With that, he tracked you. This was similar to using our IP address to locate the corresponding computer. The only difference is that this is the upgraded cosmic version.

“So if Deca could shuttle through the universe in reality, they would be sure to come.

“Secondly, to find out the scientific and technological strength of our planet. If their technology formed a crush on us, then they will adopt a colonial strategy. If technology cannot be crushed, then they will adopt the principle of peaceful coexistence and trade with us. After all, from the fact that they mentioned Galaxy Dollars, there should exist a huge alliance in the galaxy. This Galaxy Dollar should be the common currency of the Galaxy Alliance.

“So, what we need to do at the moment is make it so they don’t dare to attack us. Even if a war breaks out, we must be powerful enough to let them suffer a huge loss. When that happens, they will adopt a trading strategy. In the universe, strength is the foundation of existence, there is no morality. If we are weak, we are bound to be beaten. This is the truth that will never change in the universe.”

He was indeed the number one person in Heavenly State. So many things went on in that mind of his. Just one thought and he came up with such important information.

Damn, all I did was create a VR helmet, and it accidentally got connected to cosmic-level internet? But this cosmic-level internet sounds really cool! Wahahahaha…

“But Big Boss,” The Bureau Chief was worried. “Even if they could live peacefully with us, there’s nothing on our Earth that could be worthy in their eyes, right? After all, there are endless resources in the universe. The things we have on Earth are not worth much…”

That was a big problem.

To put it bluntly, if you want to trade with others, you have to own something worthy, right? Rice, white noodles, mineral water, these kind of things are certainly not rare. They can’t be traded—would they travel through the universe to come and buy a few thousand tons of rice back?

“Ah, it seems there’s something that is really worth a lot.” Hong Dali ate another Dali Bean. “He spoke about a certain Ideon ore that was worth a lot. Two hundred grams of it could be sold for two hundred thousand Galaxy Dollars. But I have never seen an Ideon ore. He also spoke about some Cheng Jitang Red Bean. Fighting-type pets can surpass their growth limit after eating it and become extra-large. Their fighting ability will also increase. One Chen Jitang Red Bean is worth ten thousand Galaxy Dollars. They are also very rare.”

“This Cheng Jitang Red Bean…” The mysterious man and Bureau Chief looked at each other, then looked at the Dali Bean in Hong Dali’s hands. “Could it be this Dali Bean??!”

“Ah, seems like it.” Hong Dali threw another Dali Bean in his mouth. “Isn’t this just snacks, I eat them by the bunch… Aye. Why are you looking at me like that? What are you trying to do… Wuuwuu!”

The Bureau Chief and mysterious man pounced on Hong Dali and forcefully opened his hands. “Rascal! You’re treating Dali Beans like snacks! They’re worth ten thousand Galaxy Dollars each! Do you know how precious they are! Let go! Quick, let go! I’ll smack you if you don’t let go!”

“Aye, don’t snatch my snacks from me! These are my snacks! They’re Dali Beans, not Cheng Jitang Red Beans…”

After some confusion…

The mysterious man and Bureau Chief did not have full stats and were not Hong Dali’s opponents. The two sat in a corner despondently counting. “Ten thousand Galaxy Dollars gone… Ten thousand Galaxy Dollars gone…”

…

It was a good thing Hong Dali couldn’t eat much of these beans—after eating three to five beans, he felt full…

Satisfied, he burped loudly and wiped his mouth. “Aiya, I always thought Dali Beans were yummy. But now it feels luxurious eating them. It’s different, indeed!”

Isn’t it obvious? Ten thousand Galaxy Dollars each, and you eat a few at one go, anyone would feel the same…

“Little rascal,” The mysterious man wiped his face. He couldn’t look anymore, it was driving him nuts. “Let’s think about what to do next. What we are certain, is that Deca is sure to report this to his headquarters. I believe they will make a trip to Earth very soon to take a look and see the contrast between our technology and theirs. So you must work hard to improve our technology. If there’s anything we can do to help, just let us know. What we’re facing now is a mankind crisis. Nothing could be more important.”

He was not just saying this out of courtesy.

According to the rules of the Dark Forest, Deca would soon track the exact location of the Earth via the virtual network. Perhaps he had already found out. The first thing he would do would be to evaluate the level of Earth’s technology before deciding whether to adopt the colonization policy or make a friendly visit. Hence, the most important thing at the moment was to upgrade their technology.

“Ah, that’s nothing.” Hong Dali thought for a while and casually said, “Just help me think of ideas to squander… This is not a big problem. We don’t need much time either. Hehe.” Squandering would earn him attribute points. Attribute points could be exchanged for technology blueprints. The System could then be upgraded. Once the System was upgraded, he could exchange for more powerful technology blueprints—See that? Squandering was the way to save mankind!