Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 319 - Chapter 319: Chapter 318 0.142 Amoeba Points

Chapter 319: Chapter 318 0.142 Amoeba Points

The information exchange this time, back and forth, took another 5 hours.

In fact, this message was a small trap laid out by Zhang Yuan. The real Amoeba Civilization should have known this news theoretically long ago.

Nearly four hundred years had passed since the explosion at Eta Carinae. If it were a normally functioning information trading station, and information hadn’t been relayed back to headquarters in over four hundred years, the delay would be excessively high. What then would be the point of these trades?

If the other party wasn’t the Amoeba Civilization but an imposter, they most likely wouldn’t be aware of the addition of this piece of information and thus would fall into a dilemma when making a choice.

“It all depends on how the other side responds…”

“This known piece of information is of little value to the Amoeba Civilization, but for other civilizations, it should have quite a high value. If the other party denies this information or provides a high appraisal, it would indicate an impostor, and we need to be even more cautious.”

The distance between the two parties was closing slowly, and Zhang Yuan and the others were closely observing the pitch-black spaceship.

Its surface was smooth and streamlined, much like a real stealth spacecraft. If not for the omni-directional illumination from visible light, it would have been difficult to locate it in the dim universe. The gaping dark openings of its gun ports indicated a certain combat capability.

5 hours later, the result came in.

“The information is suspected to be known, classified as Level 1 information. For this transaction, we will pay you 0.12 Amoeba Points.”

When they saw this result, many were startled, unsure whether to breathe a sigh of relief, to become more anxious, or whether they were all engaged in a battle of wits with thin air.

“This attempt at probing has failed…”

“Or maybe the other party really is the Amoeba Civilization.”

It felt like playing a game of guessing truth and lies, with the probabilities of being correct or wrong almost equal.

Yet there were still some who held onto their own beliefs, convinced that this fraudster was extorting humanity’s precious knowledge!

Especially Mr. Lan Bo at the forefront, who couldn’t help but burst out loud, “No, no matter what information it is, he claims it’s suspected to be known information! There are benefits to disguising oneself as Artificial Intelligence!”

“Fraud, this is blunt fraud!”

Zhang Yuan glanced at him, furrowing his brow, but said nothing for the moment.

“Mr. Lan Bo, waiting here for hundreds or thousands of years just to swindle a bit of information seems insignificant to me.”

“Yes… I also feel that way. Isn’t the cost a bit too high?”

Following that, everyone present discussed for a while and sent out another piece of information.

“The Noah Civilization’s Negative Energy Network Space construction spaceship has arrived at the Orion Arm. The current progress of the Pan-Galaxy network system construction is 55.67%.”

“Please appraise the value of this information.”

This statement was also half-true, with one figure altered from 45.67% to 55.67%, appearing correct but actually being false.

This trap was set even deeper.

Several hours later, the other party responded: “The information is suspected to be known, but there are some data errors, classified as Level 1 information. For this transaction, we can pay you 0.022 Amoeba Points. In total, 0.142 Amoeba Points.”

This response left Lan Bo and the others speechless, their heads bowed in thought.

A professor, frowning, said, “This time there are only 0.022 Amoeba Points. Two probings have yielded no results. It’s very likely that they are indeed the Amoeba Civilization… but something feels odd to me; their rhetoric is too ambiguous, offering many different interpretations. This kind of analysis is pointless.”

But the problem arose: Humanity’s only two pieces of information about an Alien Civilization sold for a mere 0.142 Amoeba Points, while the cheapest information from the other party cost 1 Amoeba Point.

It wouldn’t make sense to sell information about humanity itself, the Gleize Civilization, or the Golden Sun… As for selling technology, to be honest, the two parties were about to pass by each other soon, and in such a short time and under these circumstances, with the initiative entirely in the hands of the other party, Zhang Yuan didn’t want to trade rashly.

After pondering for a moment, Zhang Yuan said, “Forget it, let’s not trade anything else. Let the other party pay the 0.142 Amoeba Points. I want to see what Amoeba Points are exactly. If we could forge the currency of an interstellar civilization, couldn’t we produce it massively and make a fortune in the transactions?”

Hearing this, Li Zhendong laughed and said, “If it were found out, wouldn’t the Amoeba Civilization hang us up and chase us to the ends of Earth and sea?”

As an information specialist, he was already eager, extremely curious about the currency used among interstellar civilizations.

Li Zhendong then continued to talk to himself, “Who cares, the universe is so vast. Just find a planet to hunker down on, who could catch us?”

Soon, the reply came.

“Unknown civilization, greetings. Amoeba Points, as an advanced virtual currency, require a massive amount of computation and a suitable operating environment to maintain their function. We hope your civilization is ready with the corresponding supercomputer. Please do not attempt to decrypt this currency at will, as we will not be responsible for any resulting losses…”

The message was followed by a series of detailed technical specifications.

Massive computation to maintain this currency?

“Digital currency?” Bitcoin?

Zhang Yuan immediately thought of this, but soon shook his head. The currency of an interstellar civilization would hardly be something like Bitcoin…

He looked over these parameters and spoke, “The computation seems simple enough. Prepare an idle supercomputer for them to send over the Amoeba Points. Wait, can this supercomputer be physically isolated?”

An electronic expert quickly responded, “Physical isolation is certainly no problem, just don’t connect it to our network. But this computer must be connected to our communication device, otherwise information transfer can’t just happen out of thin air.”

That was a risk humanity must take.

Zhang Yuan ordered, “Then take some time to physically isolate this communication device’s network system from our local network.”

“Understood.”

A group of information specialists hurriedly completed all the security measures, and the Kunlun Mountain finally began to receive the so-called 0.142 Amoeba Points.

At this very moment, the distance between them was merely… one hundred million kilometers!

As the distance narrowed, communication became smoother, without the significant delays like before.