Chapter 356 - 331: Hidden Threat

Chapter 356: Chapter 331: Hidden Threat

「January 15th, 9:00 PM.」

Nine hours have passed since the intelligent entity from the Alien Star was placed on Celestial Water Star.

So much time has passed since the live broadcast was cut, yet officials have still offered no explanation.

In the face of public outcry online, the official response was simply: "The situation is currently being assessed. Please remain calm. We will release information at the appropriate time."

This vague statement only fueled public curiosity.

On the Ascender’s Home forums, related discussion threads were completely flooded. Everyone was speculating about why the government was keeping things under wraps.

Some believed there might be some benefit that a small group of people wanted to monopolize;

Others believed this alien entity was a threat to humanity, and the government was in the process of dealing with it;

Strangely, in past Rule Stages, "insiders" would often come forward to leak information.

But this time, no one claiming to be a member of the contact delegation has appeared to explain what was going on.

This couldn’t help but make many people wonder, ’Have their external communications been cut off?’

They guessed correctly.

"Damn it, how can there be no signal in this godforsaken place?"

Inside a large, RV-like vehicle, a member of the Soroma People fiddled with their personal laptop.

The person next to them said, "Give it a rest. Hardly anyone lives on this vast ice field. Where would they even build a signal tower?"

"This is a direct satellite link. It doesn’t need a ground-based tower."

"You’re both idiots." Another person in the vehicle said, "The signal around here must have been jammed long ago."

On the Sennantata Icefield, not far from the Alien Star spacecraft, multiple large, insulated vehicles that had arrived in the afternoon were parked.

These insulated vehicles were all provided by Sisiya for the contact delegation’s temporary use, lest their bodies give out after staying too long on the bone-chilling ice field.

Ever since Louis’s question in the afternoon led to the deaths of ten people, they have been under restriction, and to this day have not received permission to approach the Alien Star intelligent entity again.

This left many people feeling restless.

Some people, led by Louis, desperately wanted to contact the alien entity and conduct research; not being allowed to approach it was a form of torture for them.

Then there were others who just wanted to leave—to get as far away as possible.

This alien entity was too different from what they had imagined; staying near it was simply too dangerous.

But neither of these requests was permitted.

They could not approach, nor could they leave.

Someone tried to sneak away, only to be captured by the mobile team led by Sikokun and placed with the soldiers.

All they could do now was wait for orders.

"Don’t you guys find it strange? Why jam the signal?"

"To prevent information from leaking, obviously. Do you even need to ask?"

"What’s there to be afraid of? They can’t possibly keep something like this a secret forever, right?"

"That’s true..."

The members of the contact delegation discussed this in their insulated vehicles.

They knew the decision to jam the signal must have come from the Human Federation; it wasn’t something the Governor of Sisiya would decide on their own authority.

But you can only hide something like this for half a day, or maybe a day. To completely conceal it from the public for the entire half-month Rule Stage would be very difficult. Even if they could, it would cause intense public dissatisfaction.

"I don’t think the Human Federation is doing this to hide it from humans," someone in the vehicle said calmly. "What they’re really trying to hide it from are the Parasites."

"Hide it from the Parasites? Why?"

"Oh! I get it. If we use the Parasites as food, the dilemma resolves itself. The problem is, the Parasites can’t find out about this."

"Exactly. The Parasites inherit the memories and intelligence of their hosts; they aren’t stupid. The moment information about the Alien Star intelligent entity is made public, they’ll surely realize they could be used as food... In that case, what will they do?"

"...They’ll definitely refuse to admit they’re Parasites."

"That’s right. Humans currently have no way to distinguish Parasites. If they refuse to admit it, it will be very troublesome for humanity. We’d worry about making mistakes and treating humans as Parasites."

"Then just ask it!" someone blurted out, pointing out the window in the direction of the Alien Star intelligent entity. "Ask it how to distinguish Parasites! Once we get the method of identification, we can use it to catch them without making any mistakes!"

"Correct. If we can figure this out, the think tanks behind the Human Federation and its committee members certainly can too... And the Parasites can figure it out as well. Which means the reason they’re not releasing the information now is..."

Everyone was suddenly shocked as they realized the gravity of the problem.

...

"If the Parasites knew that we could ask the Alien Star intelligent entity for a way to identify them, what would they do?"

In the North Star Strategy Research Room, faced with Gao Liangwei’s question, Zhang Minglu replied without a second thought, "They would launch a destructive operation."

"How would they destroy it?"

"They would form and deploy a large armed force of Parasites to the ice field and attempt to kill the Alien Star intelligent entity."

"Not bad." Gao Liangwei nodded. "Humanity could certainly deploy a heavily armed force to protect it, but there would be a problem... What if Parasites have infiltrated our ’heavily armed force’?"

"That is indeed a problem," Zhang Minglu said gravely. "If Parasites have infiltrated the crowd on site, and they can’t kill the Alien Star intelligent entity, they might resort to sabotage by asking malicious questions."

"Yes."

An armed force composed of Parasites might not be able to contend with humanity’s military, and a large-scale operation would definitely be discovered.

But they could use the chaos to their advantage, approach the alien entity, and suddenly ask an extremely difficult question.

Since the alien entity won’t attack the questioner, everyone else on site would pay the price for this extremely difficult question with their lives, which is exactly the outcome the Parasites want.

"Therefore," Gao Liangwei said, "the Human Federation council has made a decision. Not only must the questions be restricted, but the specific personnel responsible for asking them must also be strictly screened."

"Until we get the answer to ’how to identify Parasites,’ we absolutely cannot let our guard down."

Zhang Minglu nodded heavily. "Understood."

Gao Liangwei then asked, "That station master—have they posted anything?"

"No."

"Have someone contact Shadow. He might not be the station master, but he definitely knows him, and we might be able to get some information from him... Since our last operation established a long-term channel of cooperation with Shadow, we should make regular use of it."

"I understand. I’ll have someone contact him right away."

Zhang Minglu left Gao Liangwei’s office and immediately contacted Silver Fox.

He knew that Chen Na at the base was closer to Guan Tong, but the former was just a child, after all. It was more appropriate to have an adult like Silver Fox make contact.

After Silver Fox came to him, she contacted Guan Tong via video call. The connection went through almost immediately after she sent the request.

"Silver Fox, Dr. Zhang."

"Hello, Shadow," Zhang Minglu said directly. "I’d like to ask you to contact the station master of Ascender’s Home and ask about the hidden information regarding the current rule."

A thought struck Guan Tong, and he nodded slightly. "I can do that. I’ll have an answer for you in five minutes."

"Alright."

Five minutes later, the video call connected again.

"Well?" Zhang Minglu asked impatiently.

Guan Tong said, "The station master has information, but he wants to make a trade."

"A trade? What do you mean?"

"He wants to know what happened in the hours after the Alien Star intelligent entity arrived, and why the officials cut the live broadcast."

’So that’s it.’

Hearing this, Zhang Minglu thought, ’This means that mysterious station master, who can obtain hidden information about the rules, can’t spy on the situation at the site now that the signal’s been jammed.’

’But...’

"Dr. Zhang, is that a problem?"

Guan Tong saw the hesitation on Zhang Minglu’s face and sensed there might be an issue.

However, Silver Fox, who was beside Zhang Minglu, knew what he was hesitating about.

She spoke up, "Shadow, can you guarantee that the station master isn’t a Parasite, and that he won’t, intentionally or unintentionally, leak the information to the Parasites?"

Zhang Minglu glanced at Silver Fox. This was indeed his concern.

He didn’t doubt Shadow, but he worried that if the mysterious station master had ties to the Parasites... then once he learned about the "question and answer" situation, wouldn’t the Parasites find out?

"A Parasite?" Although Guan Tong was confused, he immediately said, "The station master is not a Parasite. I can guarantee that."

Zhang Minglu and Silver Fox exchanged a glance.

"Since it’s a guarantee from Shadow, I can trust it," Zhang Minglu said. "I agree to the trade."