Chapter 559: Conclusion and Trade
Chapter 559: Conclusion and Trade
While Liam and Hermione were sitting in Agent Z's office and had barely finished half a cup of coffee, K and J returned. J looked particularly distressed, as if something had upset him.
"How did it go? Did you manage to send the Light of Sator away?" Z asked as soon as K and J pushed open the transparent glass door of his office.
"Of course we did." K sat down in the chair next to them and picked up his coffee. "If we hadn't, Earth would have been reduced to a pile of space debris by now."
After saying that, K turned to Liam and the others. "We owe a lot to you for holding off the Evil Queen Selena. Otherwise, I don't think we would have managed to send the Light of Sator away before the deadline."
After some polite expressions of gratitude, Z, representing Mib, began trade negotiations with Liam and his team. To Liam's surprise, Mib was not very interested in the Magic Artifacts he offered. Instead, they showed a strong desire to acquire technology from the Radiation World.
After three long days of negotiations, Liam finally signed a thick technical trade manual with Z and the Mib staff. The manual included most of the technology from both Mib and the Radiation World. Mib specifically requested the production methods for various Elixirs and a large portion of the Radiation World's industrial system. In return, Mib provided most of the technology they possessed.
Additionally, Mib, when dealing with a helpful and strong ally like Liam, preferred to conduct fair trade to build goodwill for future assistance. Therefore, in addition to providing a substantial amount of technology, they also offered a large number of uncracked alien artifacts to compensate for the value difference in the trade.
"Why are you so interested in our technology?" Liam asked Agent K during the celebratory feast, holding a glass of champagne. K was not particularly interested in such events, but he had dragged J along because his partner was feeling down after a breakup. However, the relaxation wasn't working well, as J was now drinking glass after glass of alcohol.
"True, your technology is somewhat behind what we have, but to us, these seemingly outdated technologies are far more important than the advanced ones we currently possess." K, as the founder of Mib, knew the inside story, and this information wasn't classified. So, when Liam asked, he began to recount a bit of history.
Mib's history wasn't very long. In 1950, the United States established a severely underfunded organization with the sole purpose of making contact with aliens. Everyone treated the matter as a joke, except the aliens. In 1961, humans from this world had their first face-to-face encounter with aliens in the outskirts of New York. On the first night, nine people met these aliens, including K, who was then an agent in the organization and presented the first bouquet of flowers from humans to the aliens.
Fortunately, the aliens they encountered were a group of refugees from the Galaxy, and this world's Galaxy had its own rules. Under the proposal of these alien refugees, Earth became a shelter for the homeless.
Since then, more and more alien refugees have arrived on Earth, reaching a population of around 5,000 today. Meanwhile, Mib has obtained a lot of technology from these alien refugees. Through these technologies, they gained considerable wealth and became independent from the United States, representing humanity as a whole rather than a specific human country.
"Velcro, microwave oven, liposuction. These technologies were all obtained from alien technology, and we secured patents from them, providing us with an independent financial source. But the usefulness of these technologies is limited to that." K took a sip of his champagne, looking somewhat frustrated. "The knowledge we obtained from the alien refugees is too fragmented and lacks a coherent system. Moreover, it's difficult to integrate technologies from other civilizations into our human technology. When facing the arrival of aliens, we must have enough power to suppress them. In the universe, there are many evil aliens like Selena, and we need to keep them at bay to prevent them from affecting the lives of ordinary people."
"In such a situation, we have no choice but to forcefully learn all the knowledge we can get our hands on, in hopes of becoming powerful as quickly as possible. However, this approach poses the greatest challenge: these scattered, disjointed pieces of knowledge not only fail to promote human development, but if discovered by outsiders, they could completely undermine our research capabilities."
"That's why we hope to obtain the knowledge you possess." K seemed much more animated as he spoke. "While the knowledge you have isn't as advanced as some of the alien knowledge, it is entirely consistent with our human knowledge system. Even though the knowledge you bring comes from a strange world that hasn't developed integrated circuits and has instead pushed vacuum tube technology to its limits, it is still far better than the alien technology systems we've seen before."
"There is indeed something wrong with that world", Liam nodded. "A world that has been rebuilt after destruction, I am very grateful for the knowledge you provided. With this knowledge, I believe that world will recover to its pre-war state much more quickly."
Liam wasn't being polite. Among the alien technologies he had obtained from the Mib, there were methods for rapidly removing radiation contamination and treating genetic mutations. Once these technologies were mastered, the recovery of Earth in the Radiation World would greatly accelerate. While Liam's Plants had indeed helped the recovery of Earth's Situation Circle, the process was still too slow.
"Ah, I'm glad to be of help", K smiled, seeing Liam's genuine gratitude. He continued, "As for those Magic Artifacts, most of them can be replaced by certain technological products. The more powerful Magic Artifacts, however, require the user's own power to activate, which we cannot provide. Besides, these Magic Artifacts cannot be mass-produced. In such a case, we naturally don't need them."
Liam nodded in agreement. K had pointed out the biggest problem with Magic Artifacts: they couldn't be mass-produced and couldn't meet the needs of large-scale equipment. For humans in a tech-based world, something that didn't fit their system, no matter how good, was unnecessary. Using such items would not only fail to provide a positive effect but could also weaken overall coordination.
"Indeed, only what suits us is the best", Liam echoed K's sentiment. "So, this trade has allowed us to each get what we wanted. It is truly a fortunate and celebratory event."
"Let's raise a glass, then, to our bright future." K raised his glass and clinked it with Liam's. At this moment, J stopped drinking and started dancing to the music, looking much more spirited, seemingly beginning to recover from his heartbreak.
The next day, Liam and Hermione began their travels in New York. After spending a week visiting all the sights, they bid farewell to their Mib friends and left the world.
This journey earned Liam 20 Deviation Points, as the changes to the plot were not significant. However, since the Men in Black world was a tech-based world, Liam and his companions immediately headed to the Radiation World to see how the technology and technological artifacts they had exchanged were being used.
"Very useful stuff", Knight, the current head of the house, commented when Liam arrived. "The things you brought this time are incredibly helpful. Our five-year plan to transform the Glowing Sea is expected to be completed next month."
"That sounds great. By the way, have you made any progress with the alien technological artifacts I brought?" Liam nodded and asked.
"I'm sorry, but it will take a long time", Knight shook his head. "The technology on those artifacts is completely different from ours. It might take a very long time to extract anything useful from them."
"Don't worry, I'm not here to rush you", Liam reassured him. "I gave you those artifacts to provide some inspiration. I don't care how your research goes, as long as it helps in some way."
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
