Chapter 24
Am I Really Going Back to Earth?
“Money?”
Money sounded useless.
“Resources! Rare earth metals!”
Right now, Zhao Yu had built just one star destroyer cannon. While the first one required technology points to build, he needed a lot of materials to ma.s.s-produce the rest. The thing was, the moon lacked these resources.
Other than the star destroyer cannon, there were many other places that required resources. For example, the second-generation nuclear power plant required helium. However, the amount of helium he had on the moon was only enough to last for three years.
Zhao Yu thought for a moment and walked out of the control room.
From where the butler could see, he asked, “Uncle Da, what material resources are we lacking now?”
“There are a lot of resources that are lacking. Laser series weapons, superconducting materials, orbit guidance devices, energy storage, magnetic resonance, and so on all require rare earth resources…”
“Uh, just tell me what we are missing…”
“Gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, Eebium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, yttrium…”
“Stop!”
Zhao Yu said helplessly, “You don’t need to tell me all their names. Just tell me how many types of them we are missing.”
“We are missing almost every type of rare earth metal. It’s best if we can find raw ores to facilitate our processing, such as bastnasite, bastnaesite, xenotime…”
“We are also lacking rare metals such as gallium, t.i.tanium, tantalum, vanadium, niobium, radium…”
“Understood. Just stop! I get it! We are missing a lot of things!”
Zhao Yu interrupted, “Give me a list of the items that you lack. Mark clearly how much of each of them you lack…”
“Sir, the more these resources, the better. I can’t really tell you how much we need.”
“..”
Zhao Yu was stunned for two seconds,”Well… I got it. First, list out the resources needed for the star destroyer cannon and the resources needed to build the s.p.a.ceship…”
“Sir, are you planning to seize Earth? Oh, yes! This should’ve happened a long time ago. I’ll go and draw up a battle plan now…” Uncle Da’s voice sounded a little excited.
“Stop! I am not waging a war! Trade! I’m just trading with Earth!”
Zhao Yu was speechless. He hadn’t noticed it before, but ever since the three astronauts showed up, Uncle Da was starting to act quite aggressively.
Uncle Da was very angry, “Sir, forgive me for being blunt, but you are a lion. The king of beasts! How can a lion a.s.sociate himself with filthy hyenas?”
“Well, are you saying we have the capability to destroy Earth right now?!” Zhao Yu asked.
It was rare that Uncle Da did not answer immediately. After more than ten seconds of silence, he said, “According to our calculations, we should be able to wipe out at least half of their population. There’s still too little information. If we can monitor the situation on Earth, we should be able to calculate more accurately…”
“Yes, bring this up after you’re sure you can destroy Earth. I don’t want to be treated as a villain by the Earthlings. Also, I don’t want there to be suicide squads coming to kill me every single day…”
“Alright, we’ll talk about destroying Earth later. You have to settle the list first. You have to take things one step at a time!”
After sending Uncle Da away, Zhao Yu looked at the watch on his hand and felt very nervous.
“I didn’t know this watch was worth so much.”
If trading with Earth worked, He could potentially trade this watch for a bunch of rare materials. The thing was, he just wasn’t sure if earthlings would agree to his terms.
“It’s a little inappropriate to ask for trade when this is the first time we see each other. I don’t want to be too pushy. I need to have a good first impression…”
“Still, is there any way to make them want to trade with me?!!”
Suddenly, Zhao Yu thought of a possibility.
There were three Earthlings living in his base.
In the past few days, Zhang Yi Xia had been chatting with the three of them. They got to know about each other. These earthlings happened to have learnt about the projection touch watch.
A moment later, Zhao Yu had an idea. If this worked, he might have just found a way to make the most out of what he had.
..
“Tao, Sister Xia doesn’t seem to know about Earth at all. Do you think these aliens have just arrived on the moon?”
After spending so many days together, Liu Ning had developed some feelings for Zhang Yi Xia. She felt that she was very sincere.
“Impossible!”
Zhang Tao shook his head, “This moon base has 180 floors, and that’s just what we’ve seen. What we haven’t seen might be even grander than that. There’s no way that they built all of this in a very short time?! ”
“Also, these aliens definitely know us very well. Otherwise, everything that they’ve shown us, including the architectural style, language, and so on, wouldn’t be almost the same as Earth …”
“Liu Ning, I am not saying that these aliens are a threat to us, but don’t be fooled by them…” w.a.n.g Dong Dong laughed.
“Fooled? You’ve talked with Sister Xia for the past few days. Does she look like a bad person to you? ”
“Um, well, you have a point…”
w.a.n.g Dong Dong pondered for two seconds. ” Perhaps, it’s just as we guessed. Zhang Yi Xia came from Earth and was raised here by aliens. Maybe she doesn’t know much about civilisation on the moon…”
These few days, no matter how hard they tried to get information from Zhang Yi Xia, they could not get anything useful. It was not that Zhang Yi Xia did not want to say anything, but they felt that she really did not know.
“I agree with that. Zhang Yi Xia doesn’t seem to be faking it. Well, it’d be too scary if she was!” Zhang Tao nodded and continued,
“Hey, why do you think these aliens have not interacted with us for the past few days?”
Other than sending Zhang Yi Xia over to deliver food and chat, there was basically no other purpose. They did not interrogate them or torture them. On the contrary, they treated them well and kept them in a quite comfortable environment. In fact, after ten days, Zhang Tao felt that he had gained three pounds of weight, and his double chin was about to pop out.
Ding dong!
Just as they were talking, the doorbell rang. The three of them fell silent and stopped talking.
Liu Ning quickly got up and opened the door.
Outside the door, it was Zhang Yi Xia with a plate of fruits.
“Fresh fruits. Anyone want to eat?!”
The three of them stared at Zhang Yi Xia for a bit. They just couldn’t believe that her smile was fake.
“Thank you, Sister Xia…”
After eating and drinking for a while, Zhang Yi Xia didn’t leave as usual. This made them a little curious.
“Sister Xia, don’t you have to report back today?”
Zhang Yi Xia glanced at the door mysteriously and said excitedly, “Ning Ning, you might have to go back to Earth!”
“What?! ”
“Just this morning, our supervisor issued a form for everyone who wants to go to Earth to register and partic.i.p.ate in the a.s.sessment…”
Zhang Yi Xia’s eyes lit up in excitement, “I’ve also signed up. If I pa.s.s the a.s.sessment, I’ll be able to go to Earth to see all the wonder things that you mentioned…”
The three of them looked at each other. Zhang Tao asked in a deep voice,” Did your supervisor tell you when he would let us go back? ”
“I asked the supervisor in private. From what he said, the higher-ups seem to have made some kind of decision…” Zhang Yi Xia nodded.
“What decision?” Zhang Tao said anxiously.
“I don’t know!” Zhang Yi Xia shook her head and smiled. ” But it’s definitely a good decision. Listen to the supervisor. The maintenance department is already repairing your s.p.a.ceship. When the repair is completed, you can go back…”
“Ahem!”
Zhang Tao coughed and glanced at Liu Ning.
“Sister Xia, are your leaders just like us?” Liu Ning asked.
“Obviously not!”
The three of them widened their eyes.
“How can a leader be as ordinary as us?!” Zhang Yi Xia said seriously.
“..”
“What?” Liu Ning was surprised, “I mean, do they look like us?!”
Zhang Yi Xia scratched her head and looked at the three of them in confusion.”What do you mean? If he doesn’t look like us, what should he look like?”
“Oh, my!” Zhang Yi Xia suddenly slapped her head, ” I almost forgot about the important matter. Give me your cell phones! ”
Zhang Tao was a little vigilant. He glanced at his fully charged phone and asked,”You want our phones?!”
Zhang Yi Xia waved the watch in her hand and smiled,”I told the supervisor that you guys are still using your phones. He said that he wanted me to help you upgrade…”
“Upgrade?!” The three of them were a little surprised. Could it be…
“That’s right. It’s more convenient to upgrade to my level. The battery life is longer…”
Zhang Yi Xia laughed, “I only charge my watch once every month or two, but you guys need to charge yours every single day! That’s too inconvenient!”
What?
The three of them looked at each other in disbelief. They couldn’t believe that these aliens just gave them this piece of advanced technology for free. If anything, they were starting to think that there was some kind of conspiracy behind this?
“Your watch is high-tech,” Zhang Tao said nervously, “Aren’t you afraid that we’ll learn how to build these ourselves?!”
“What are you talking about? It’s just a watch…”
Zhang Yi Xia looked confused, as if she didn’t understand why he was so concerned.
Suddenly, the watch vibrated. There was a signal. Without really caring for her privacy, Zhang Yi Xia picked up the call.
A holographic projection appeared. It was Ba Jie. He looked a lot more serious than usual
“Zhang Yi Xia, the ship has been repaired. You can bring them over now!”
“Okay, supervisor, we’ll be right there!”
Zhang Tao was shocked. Were the aliens really going to let them go back to Earth?