"A prize-free guess: what type of life form will this alien intelligent entity be?"
"I guess it's carbon-based like humans. That would make communication valuable."
"What's interesting about being like humans? Silicon-based would be best. That might even offer some reference value for human development of artificial intelligence."
"Flesh is weak, machinery ascends!"
"I'm fantasizing again; I wish a beautiful angel robot like in anime would come!"
"What I care more about is the Fire Thief's note in the rule. 'Humanity is not alone in the universe.' Maybe the cosmic civilization alliance made up in sci-fi movies really exists. Just thinking about it is exciting!"
"Even if it exists, so what? With humanity's current space capabilities, we can't even leave our own star system. No matter how vast and wonderful the outside world is, it has nothing to do with us."
"So, based on this, the Fire Thief is definitely an alien, right? Sigh... Why wasn't the first visitor to Tianshui Star a benevolent, advanced civilization? Instead, we got a destroyer!"
After the new rule was released, it unsurprisingly sparked a frenzy of discussion among people online.
Compared to the previous rules, the mere fact that this one had no failure penalty setting allowed people to breathe a long sigh of relief and get some proper rest.
As for this alien intelligent entity about to arrive, it felt a bit like a sci-fi movie becoming reality. Everyone eagerly looked forward to seeing what the alien actually looked like.
Travel Team Base.
After the new rule was released, Guan Tong and Uenoshi only discussed it briefly.
Before the Fire Thief places the alien intelligent entity on Tianshui Star, humanity has no information about it.
What life form it is, what impact it will have on humanity, whether it is good or bad—all of this will only be known after it arrives.
So, after saying a few words to Uenoshi, Guan Tong silently opened his Terminal panel to check this time's hidden rule.
[Hidden Rule Fifteen: The Price of an Answer]
[Hidden Rule Content: The alien intelligent entity placed on Tianshui Star will change its interaction mode based on its appetite state.]
[Note: When the reward is great enough, will a high price become an acceptable choice?]
...What does this mean?
After reading the hidden rule content, Guan Tong didn't fully understand it.
But instinctively, he didn't quite like this hidden rule.
The words "high price" in the note gave him an ominous premonition.
He checked online. Besides speculation about the alien intelligent entity, some people were also guessing whether the Administrator of Ascendant Home would sell or publicly disclose hidden intelligence this time.
Official department accounts from several countries were also waiting.
Guan Tong decided to wait and see for now.
He wouldn't publicly disclose the hidden rule before he understood it himself.
Then came the waiting.
He and Uenoshi waited together until noon, 12 o'clock. Exactly three hours had passed since the rule release, the time for the Fire Thief's placement.
At this moment, the satellite observation departments of several major nations were fully staffed, and soon, they discovered something.
"It's appeared!"
Cheers erupted in the workroom of the Beixing Space Agency.
"Not on the ground! It's in space!"
"Abnormal signal detected! Something has appeared in Tianshui Star's orbit!"
"Is that a spaceship?! How did it appear out of thin air!"
In the satellite footage, a deep brown, oblate spacecraft, somewhat resembling a human chocolate chip cookie, suddenly appeared.
The Space Agency employees all stared at the screen, each face wearing an expression of disbelief.
"It's spatial folding! I bet it's spatial folding!"
"Could it be similar to the principle of teleportation items? Jumping through a wormhole?"
"It's descending rapidly!"
Various instruments beeped and whirred. After appearing in Tianshui Star's orbit, the oddly-shaped spacecraft soon began descending, entering the atmosphere.
"Calculating landing point..."
"Based on calculations, the spacecraft will land on the Sennantata Ice Plain of the Xisiya Empire! Estimated landing time is approximately... Specific coordinates are approximately..."
Various data points were quickly calculated by the Space Agency employees using computers and simultaneously reported to the decision-making level.
After receiving the results, the decision-makers immediately communicated and made contact with Xisiya.
...
"The alien intelligent entity's landing site is within our Xisiya Empire."
After receiving the news, Yelanka felt some pressure.
She had just become Administrator on January 1st. Now, with the landing site within Xisiya's borders, it would undoubtedly put the nation under the world's spotlight.
For her, who had just taken office, this was undoubtedly a test.
But it was also an opportunity.
If she could handle it well, it would prove her capability to serve as Administrator and silence those opposition factions who kept bringing up her age.
She immediately took action, summoning her most trusted Sigaochin.
"I have a task for you."
"Administrator, please give the order."
"Take a rapid mobile team and immediately head to the alien spacecraft landing site in Sennantata. Establish a security perimeter around the spacecraft. Before the Human Consortium's joint contact team arrives, do not allow anyone to approach the landed spacecraft. That, of course, includes your own team."
"Understood."
Sigaochin received the order and set off immediately.
Yelanka then ordered the Xisiya contact delegation to prepare.
After the rule was released, every country immediately formed a team of people who would conduct the first contact with the alien intelligent entity.
These people included scholars, military personnel, and some countries even placed artists in the team.
This was because it was uncertain whether the alien creature had any preferences.
However, the top decision-makers of each country unanimously decided not to participate in the first contact.
This was a safety consideration. No one could guarantee that the alien entity placed by the Fire Thief wouldn't be aggressive.
Yelanka strictly adhered to the resolution agreed upon by the Human Consortium, not attempting to let her country's delegation make first contact just because of the "first come, first served" advantage of proximity.
In less than half an hour, contact delegations from other countries successively arrived in Xisiya, forming the "Human Consortium Contact Delegation."
This delegation was massive, with a full hundred people, plus some accompanying guards, totaling about three hundred people—a considerable size.
Under Yelanka's arrangements, these three hundred people immediately headed for the Sennantata Ice Plain.
This extremely cold land, rarely trodden by outsiders, was a place many in the delegation would probably never have visited in their lifetime if not for this event.
Some time later, the delegation arrived at the spacecraft landing area.
Many soldiers wearing thick combat uniforms had already set up a cordon nearby—precisely the mobile team led by Sigaochin.
Upon seeing the delegation arrive, she stepped forward to greet them.
After verifying identities and completing a secondary confirmation via remote communication with Yelanka, she allowed the soldiers to grant passage.
"You arrived early. Did you witness its landing personally?!"
One delegation member urgently asked Sigaochin, though his eyes were fixed on the alien spacecraft that looked like a chocolate chip cookie magnified a thousand times.
"We saw it," Sigaochin said. "It was like... jelly. It bounced a couple of times when it landed on the ground."
Jelly?
Everyone was baffled by this description.
However, they didn't say much more to Sigaochin, a soldier. After passing the cordon, they all gathered in front of the spacecraft.
"Hey! Hello! Alien!"
"Come out!"
Someone shouted loudly, immediately drawing scornful looks from others.
"Don't make such a racket, acting like you've never seen anything before!"
The speaker straightened his clothes, gave a slight bow towards the spacecraft, and said politely, "Welcome to our beautiful Tianshui Star, guest from beyond the stars."
The spacecraft gave no response.
Everyone looked at each other, puzzled.
Someone brought out devices like soundwave emitters and signal transmitters, attempting to notify the alien intelligent entity inside the spacecraft through non-verbal means, but it was still useless.
Not only were the people on-site confused, but the hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide watching the live stream were also baffled.
That's right. People believed this historic moment of "third contact" should belong to all humanity, not just a select few representatives.
Therefore, the entire on-site contact process was live-streamed. Anyone who could watch a live stream was almost certainly in front of a screen right now, having pushed everything else aside.
"What's going on? Why isn't it coming out?"
"Could it be dead inside? Like in sci-fi movies, only the alien's corpse remains."
"The people on-site are so clueless! What are they just standing around for? If it won't come out, find a way to go in and look!"
"This cookie spaceship doesn't even have a visible entrance. How do you go in?"
Viewers watching the live stream flooded the comments with their thoughts, each seeming more anxious than the people in the on-site contact team.
Guan Tong and Uenoshi were naturally also watching the live stream at this moment, equally confused about the situation.
Could the Fire Thief make a mistake? That seems unlikely...
Just as everyone was bewildered, and some on-site were even planning to attempt an "internal reconnaissance," the spacecraft finally showed movement.
A vertical, barrel-shaped nozzle protruded from the spacecraft, and then a mass of black, sticky substance sprayed out from inside.
All hundred-plus members of the contact delegation looked up.
The next moment, that gelatinous, slimy mass fell towards the crowd.
People exclaimed in surprise. Most instinctively dodged, while others froze in place, unsure what to do.
One male and one female delegation member stood frozen and were immediately covered, enveloped by that mass.
Then a teeth-grating "sizzling" sound emerged, like a ladle of hot oil poured onto a cake.
In less than a few seconds, both the man and woman were completely devoured, not even a scrap of clothing remaining. The mass of black sludge then slumped on the ground, like a large, ugly, pitch-black rag.
The hundred-plus people on-site, along with the hundreds of millions of humans watching the live stream, were stunned after witnessing this scene firsthand.
After a brief dead silence, chaos erupted on-site.
"Ah!" someone screamed.
"...Stay away from it!"
"Quick! Soldiers!"
The contact team members scrambled back. Soldiers, their foreheads beaded with cold sweat, raised their weapons.
And at that very moment, a strange, low, guttural mumbling sound emanated from the mass of black sludge.
"Taste passed... give me food... answer... question..."
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