Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 244 We Want a Spaceship!

On the fourth day, the Gleize Civilization hosted another mathematics conference. Since Zhang Yuan himself was a mathematics expert and had not slackened in his studies over the years, he dutifully represented humanity at the conference.

All the presentations were very profound, and to Zhang Yuan’s surprise, though he wouldn’t comment on other disciplines, the mathematics of this civilization was indeed very impressive!

It might even surpass human mathematics!

In human society, there are many areas of mathematics that are still foundational, yet they had already been perfected and proven by the Gleize Civilization!

"Regarding your idea, I have a question. In our language, it’s called the Hodge Conjecture..."

"Our current best approach is like this..."

After a discussion that lasted three hours, Zhang Yuan became increasingly excited, his old face flushed red.

It was as if a fierce flame was burning within his chest; this kind of exchange truly had a thrilling and exhilarating feel!

Of course, human mathematics did not embarrass Zhang Yuan either. The "Mathematical Grand Unification" plan and some grand schemes, including a small part of New Civilization History and that alien paper fraudulently obtained from Zero-XZ, also caused the opposing mathematicians to exclaim in surprise and amazement.

The thought directions of both sides were quite astonishing, and just in mathematics alone, there were many areas where they could complement each other.

After the conference ended, Zhang Yuan deeply understood the benefits brought by the exchange between different races.

There were some brilliant and wonderful ideas that could likely never have been conceived by human thinking alone.

He pondered secretly within his heart, "If a civilization is open-minded enough, an alliance of multiple civilizations must certainly be stronger than a single civilization..."

"...Mr. Anbo, the mathematics you’ve presented are indeed very impressive achievements. But I noticed they are all old stuff from forty or fifty thousand years ago... Could you reveal a bit about your latest progress in mathematics?"

As he walked out of the conference room, Zhang Yuan casually asked.

Mathematics, being clear-cut—right is right, and wrong is wrong—does indeed facilitate quick narrowing of distances when there’s someone to communicate with, even making racial differences not too important.

Anyway, such things are highly esoteric and converting them into productive capacity is very, very difficult.

This Glizerian named "Anbo", a professor, had been in an almost frenzied state during the mathematics conference, and even after the conference ended, he still seemed reluctant to stop, continuing to ask questions after Zhang Yuan.

However, upon hearing Zhang Yuan’s question, his enthusiastic mood seemed to be suddenly doused by a bucket of cold water.

"Ah, it’s not that I don’t want to say..." Professor Anbo sighed deeply, "it’s just... not worth mentioning! Not worth mentioning at all!"

He left very depressed, and before he left, his entire silhouette seemed to stoop.

Back in the residential area, after inquiring with a few peers, Zhang Yuan suddenly realized that nearly all the content exchanged these past few days was excellent culture from before the emergence of the second Alien Civilization.

Since the era after the second Alien Civilization emerged, there had been hardly a mention.

Zhang Yuan had some speculations in his mind, "That is to say, after the second interstellar civilization appeared, problems arose quickly..."

This matter was very strange, really strange...

"Even, the second interstellar civilization might not necessarily have been benevolent..."

"But why then assist them in developing to the Electric Era?"

Finally, a week later, after all the art and science exchanges had ended, all the high-ranking officials gathered at the table to begin the final cooperation negotiations.

Zhang Yuan got straight to the point, "...Honorable Ganyador, after such a long period of exchange, it’s clear that our two sides can indeed understand and appreciate each other."

"Cooperation is certainly the best choice for both of us. We bear no deep hatred nor is there a need to compete over a planet."

"The vastness of the stars, our human gaze has never been confined to just one planet."

Zhang Yuan tentatively said, "But I want to know what kind of cooperation you truly desire. Is it trade between both parties, or an exchange in the realm of science? Perhaps cultural development..."

The leader of the Gleize Civilization hesitated, then after a few exchanged glances among his group, it seemed they had reached a decision.

Ganyador suddenly said, "We... want a spaceship!"

"A spaceship that can travel between Constant Stars. For this, we can pay almost any price!"

"Including the knowledge you desire and a large number of production tools, all of which can be part of the trade."

Zhang Yuan’s pupils slightly constricted, taken aback, and suddenly, he broke out in a cold sweat!

Initially, he thought they wanted the "Earth Era time," which would, of course, be impossible. He remained silent for two seconds before realizing they meant something else.

"Impossible!" After refusing, he added, "...at least it is impossible at the moment."

"Our human civilization can indeed produce Constant Star Level spaceships and has produced more than one throughout its long history. However, that was our great mother civilization, not our current sub-civilization."

"Our current production capabilities are far from being able to produce Constant Star Level spaceships. We would need at least one to two hundred years of development... Thus, I am temporarily unable to accommodate your request."

This was the plain truth, obvious even to a fool. If humans could produce Constant Star Level spaceships, they would completely overpower the Gleize Civilization, and there would be no need for negotiations.

Moreover, the cost of building a Constant Starship is far too great, each consuming a massive amount of a new civilization’s production capacity.

Even if there are indeed plans to build such ships in the future, these ships are intended for the "Seeding Plan" and "Wandering Plan."

"If we were to sell a spaceship to the Glizerians..."

Zhang Yuan frowned, weighing the pros and cons. If it was just to acquire some knowledge but would consume the development time of an entire civilization for decades or even a century, then the costs needed to be considered.

"If the benefits are substantial, it might be feasible... but if it’s just for mathematical knowledge... No." He shook his head slightly. Even as a mathematician intensely curious about solving certain mathematical problems, he couldn’t jeopardize the interests of the entire human civilization out of mere curiosity.

The other party then asked, "Then what kind of price do you think we need to pay to acquire a spaceship?"

After a while, Zhang Yuan spoke again, "Ganyador, I think you might underestimate the difficulty of building a Constant Starship. How big of a ship do you need? How many people will it carry, how far will it travel, and the complexity of the ecosystem... How many production tools will it need to carry? All of these are considerations."

"The more complex the spaceship, the higher the cost... and this price... is actually very difficult to estimate."

Ganyador replied directly, "We have considered this problem for a long time. The price is not a problem, as long as your civilization can build it... we can definitely pay the price!"

Resultantly, they actually presented a very detailed plan, including parameters for the spaceship’s ecosystem and the population it can carry, clearly well-planned and not a spur-of-the-moment impulse!

This left the entire negotiation team somewhat perplexed, exchanging puzzled glances, overwhelmed by surprise.

"Wang Junpeng, what’s going on? Even I can’t simply approve this trade request... Do you know that the Earth Era time took the productivity of tens of millions of engineers, a whole thirty years of construction, and we only have five hundred thousand people now..." Zhang Yuan quietly asked through the headset.

Wang Junpeng was also stunned. As one of the first diplomats to arrive here, he was now perplexed too, "I really... don’t know their true intentions!"

Could these Glizerians also be planning a deep space colonization like humans? That was too incredible!

"Are they giving up on this planet?"

"..."

Zhang Yuan cleared his throat, regaining his composure, carefully considering the proposal given by the other party. His brows knitted and then relaxed intermittently.

The compensation they offered was indeed very generous, not only providing humans with precious knowledge, including mathematics and basic cosmology, but also, they would gift a few valuable artifacts left behind by an alien civilization!

Including one... so-called "fully automated universal factory"!