Chapter 337: Chapter 336 Alien Trial

Zhang Yuan sighed inwardly, opting not to dwell too much on the issue of the Virtual World being exposed–for now, it wasn’t the most pressing matter. He asked again, “How is the communication with the Badit people going? The public trial by the People’s Court is about to start, isn’t it?”

“The negotiations are going smoothly… They understand that the information they hold is critical for us. Only by proving their value can they hope to survive, and they are willing to disclose some important information. However, they demand better treatment and want us to assure their survival.”

“Assure? They still believe in that?” Zhang Yuan scoffed.

“Such assurances must be public, in the form of written commitments made in front of all the citizens… that is, lenience for some of their crimes stipulated in the court’s verdict.”

“How could that be possible? Even I don’t know what the court will ultimately decide.” Zhang Yuan pondered for a moment, then realized what the Badit people were really up to.

A civilization’s ability to establish itself in the cosmos greatly depends on its actionability and internal unity.

If a civilization constantly contradicts its own policies, how can it maintain any sense of cohesion?

Of course, the Badit people’s tricks were just minor ploys. First of all, the Human government would never make such a promise; secondly, even if the Human government suddenly went back on its word and executed them all, so what?

It would only earn a chorus of approval!

The public’s anger was off the charts; they would tear these war criminals to shreds if they could.

“Our Diplomats, of course, refused to make such pledges, evading the issue with the excuse that ‘executive orders cannot command the court.'”

Zhang Yuan nodded and said, “Let’s go, let’s meet them and see exactly what the public trial holds!”

To minimize the potential for various incidents, the open trial would not allow the general public to attend in person. However, the government would broadcast the process online, and upon hearing this news, all citizens eagerly awaited in front of the big screens.

Trying these war criminals was perhaps the most satisfying process imaginable, with a barrage of comments streaming by at the rate of thousands per second!

There were righteous proclamations suggesting “Spare their miserable lives for the maximum benefit,” a small portion of rationalists urging “Let’s be sensible about this,” but most of the angered citizens called for “Execute them all,” among other malicious demands. Every kind of person with ill intent was represented.

The government had no intention of overly restraining this boisterous wave of public sentiment, recognizing the need for a channel through which the people could vent their emotions.

On the other hand, this trial, in the public eye, was supposed to be a trial of justice, so striking the perfect balance was another crucial matter.

As all attendees took their seats, the court session officially began.

“The court is now in session. Bring the suspects to the stand! To ensure the fairness of this proceeding, this unknown Alien Civilization will be allowed to defend itself against its war crimes.” The judge rapped the gavel and inquired.

“First, I need to know the specific name of your civilization.”

“The Badit Civilization.” The leader of the Badit people, dressed in a space suit, answered with a drooping head.

All languages were translated seamlessly by the internal translation devices, so there was no problem with communication.

“The location of your Mother Star.”

“Badiet Star…”

“The exact coordinate system!”

As soon as the alien appeared online, there was already chaos, with some people starting to furiously insult the appearance of the aliens, and others complaining about the unpleasantness of their voices, among other verbal abuses.

Zhang Yuan felt secretly relieved that ordinary people were not allowed to attend the trial, otherwise there would have been a mess of rotten eggs and fruits thrown everywhere, making it impossible to continue with the proceedings. Although the wisdom of the new civilization had emerged, it was still very difficult for the public to control their emotions when faced with such a significant event.

“Attack them! We must smash their damn heads!”

“Just making a weak comment… have you seen how far it is?!”

“Ah, if only we had Light Particles, or Two-directional Foil!”

“You think too beautifully. It’s precisely because the cost of destruction is far greater than that of communication, that the universe is not a dark forest.”

“The location of Mother Star Badiet Star is… universal coordinates HJB0051…” This noble didn’t know that humans were insulting him online; he just mentioned a set of coordinates, the location of his Mother Star, unaware if they were true or false.

Seeing how readily the other party provided the location of their Mother Star, many people were slightly taken aback. According to the Star Map, that Constant Star was about 50 light-years away from this place, a truly vast distance indeed.

“We’ve already asked several Badit people detained in different prisons, and they all gave the same answer… There shouldn’t be any problem,” Wang Junpeng said softly nearby.

Zhang Yuan rubbed his temples, “So you mean to say, they came from such a remote place specifically to ambush us? The likelihood of that seems rather small…”

Wang Junpeng said, “The other party is indeed an interstellar merchant who spontaneously decided to rob us… Such terrible luck, a disaster fallen from the sky, or perhaps our novice appearance was too tempting for robbers.”

Zhang Yuan shook his head helplessly, lacking any universal knowledge was indeed a major disadvantage for humans, but now that they had captured these aliens, didn’t that knowledge become available?

“Does this mean that the Third-level Civilization’s external exchanges are already so frequent?” He was a bit puzzled, “This is just a very ordinary fleet, yet it can reach such distant places. From this perspective, this civilization is far stronger than ours, inherently possessing great superiority.”

In reality, even knowing the location of the opponent’s Mother Star wasn’t very useful.

On one hand, human technological strength was still insufficient to defeat such a long-established civilization.

A Mother Star System that had been developed for a hundred thousand years was like a fortress, and it would probably not require much effort to destroy the Kunlun Mountain Fleet.

Unless the Kunlun Mountain Fleet had the power to annihilate a planet, there was only a slim chance of possibility.

But such planet-destroying technological levels definitely did not belong to the category of Second-level or Third-level Civilizations.

Anyone with even a bit of common sense knew that the difficulty of annihilating a planet was exceedingly high; a simple estimate would be that it might require antimatter weapons of a trillion-ton Energy Level to destroy a single planet!

Even the mass of the weapons would be thousands of times greater than that of the Kunlun Mountain Fleet; humans currently had no chance of reaching such an Energy Level.

On the other hand, even if humans had enough strength to cross dozens of light-years for revenge, to annihilate the entire Badiet race? Of course, it’s impossible… neither economically nor from a benefit perspective does it make sense. After all, war means death, and once it begins, it’s a matter of life and death.

Zhang Yuan laughed, “But you know, I think, from a moral standpoint, a guy who can calmly reveal the location of their Mother Civilization is definitely not what humans would call ‘morally noble’… If it were me, I’d at least wrestle with it psychologically for a bit, right?”

“It seems, then, that their morality and ours are indeed different. Or perhaps they don’t consider such an act to be betrayal, but rather a form of… deterrence?”