Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
As the outer space development market gradually heated up, the industrial capacity of Celestial City also increased to an astounding level. Especially in the heavy industry sector as asteroid mining provided the heavy industry sector with raw materials. Wireless power transmission almost reduced the cost of electricity to the minimum. Other than the high cost of the space station itself, there would be no other place on Earth more suitable for the development of the heavy industry sector.
In less than a year, Celestial’s production capacity already caught onto the New Malaysia Special District and the Ange Island Industrial Park. It was expected to surpass the combined production capacity of the two industrial parks in the next six months.
Just half a month ago, Future Mining successfully achieved smelting and production of multiple types of steel in the space environment, such as Grade A, B, and C. At the same time, Future Heavy Industries also completed the integration of the technology provided by Jiang Chen and made breakthroughs in the two technical difficulties of “molybdenum neural connection device” and “power armor core chip”, taking it from theory to production.
It was now possible to build a production line of T3 Power Armor in Celestial City.
Backed by the resources of the modern world, the production and assembly technology of the apocalypse, the factors that restricted the production of power armors would no longer exist. When power armors stepped down from the assembly line, Jiang Chen could already see terrified and shocked faces.
After Jiang Chen returned to the modern world, he planned to start a large-scale expansion plan. The proposed expansion would turn the Power Armor Brigade into two Power Armor Divisions and two Mechanized Infantry Divisions! The focus of research and development of power armor would also be shifted from land to outer space, to Gauss Rifles which were more suitable for low-gravity environments, and to replace the existing aerodynamic engine with an ion propulsion engine.
Days passed one by one, and soon, it was June 13.
With the Outer Space Security Summit held by Celestial Trade approaching its start date, the top ten foreign ministers of the UA, Hua, Russia, Britain, France, Frankberg, Nippon, Arabia all arrived in Coro City. The president of Xin and the foreign minister held a grand welcoming ceremony at the airport.
Celestial Trade and the Xin government invested a lot of effort to make this meeting between the ten countries happen. The drones and the police were dispatched together, and the patrol frequency doubled to strengthen the security of Coro City, which was already extremely safe. Celestial Trade even mobilized a special combat brigade from the New Moon Island military base and temporarily deployed it in downtown Coro to ensure the safety of representatives.
The venue of the conference was set in the new parliament building in Coro, and the hotel where the representatives were staying was the Hilton next to the parliament building. The wealthy Celestial Trade directly booked out the entire building for a week. Foreign ministers and senior officials lived on the top floors, and soldiers with kinetic skeletons filled the rest of the hotel.
Everything was meant to show one thing:
The importance Celestial Trade placed on this summit.
Whether it was the emphasis on the topic to be discussed or the countries participating in the summit.
A week before the summit, there was gossip and rumors about the topic of the summit. Some people claimed on social networking sites that the Outer Space Security Summit was likely related to the recent X2 bacteria in Finland. There were even people with more wild imaginations who linked the X2 bacteria with aliens, Area 51, the moon landing conspiracy theory, and Celestial Trade’s Mars Colonization Project together to describe X2 bacteria as Martians’ plan to fight back.
Driven by public opinion, this summit naturally attracted media attention.
However, the major media were resentful to discover that the content of the summit discussion wouldn’t be made public. Whether the content would be made available was also a topic surrounding the summit.
Everyone wanted to get first-hand information about the summit. Everyone wanted to be in the storm eye of the controversy and win the envy of their global peers. However, the voices from governments was rarely consistent, and the media couldn’t obtain any information.
What kind of issue made Celestial Trade so cautious?
Not only the reporters outside the Hilton, but all those who were interested in this meeting all shared the same speculations.
Two days before the summit, Jiang Chen took Lin Lin’s report on X2 bacteria and finally returned to the modern world. Originally, he planned to return yesterday, but a small delay in Lin Lin’s research forced him to delay his return by one day.
Returning to Coro Island by boat, Jiang Chen didn’t go home but went to the Presidential Palace.
When he arrived at the Presidential Palace, Zhang Yaping was enjoying the presence of the Frankberg foreign minister as the two joked and laughed. Jiang Chen didn’t disturb the pair. Instead, he followed President Zhang’s secretary and sat down in the lounge. He slowly sipped on his coffee while he waited for the end of the informal diplomatic conference between the two countries.
He didn’t have to wait for long. Soon, he heard footsteps.
“You finally stepped outside.” Zhang Yaping sat down on the sofa opposite Jiang Chen. With a weary expression, he asked his secretary: “Pour me a cup of water. No tea, just hot water.”
The senior foreign ministers of ten countries visited and Zhang Yaping didn’t have time for a break this week. What made it worse was that the Outer Space Security Summit would start soon, but Jiang Chen suddenly started to play hide and seek with him.
Although it wasn’t the first time he disappeared, it was the first time before such a major event.
“There have been some recent developments.” Jiang Chen smiled and ambiguously skipped the question. “You did a great job.”
“That depends on how you interpret the word ‘great’.” Zhang Yaping shook his head helplessly. He took the water from the secretary, whispered a thank you, then signaled her to leave. He then looked to Jiang Chen. “Every country’s foreign minister is asking me one thing. Guess what is it?”
“Extraterrestrial civilization?” Jiang Chen smiled.
“Yes.” Zhang Yaping sipped the water and soothed his throat. In a half-joking tone, he said, “Everyone wants to know what tricks you’re playing, whether extraterrestrial civilization is indeed a thing or whether it’s just a smoke bomb. Of course, the foreign ministers are most concerned about the steps you’ve taken in the study of extraterrestrial civilizations. Kerry also threatened me with a warning, saying that anything about unilaterally liaising with extraterrestrial civilizations without the consent of the United Nations would be regarded as a provocation of war by the UA… what a joke.”
Zhang Yaping shook his head and put the cup aside.
“Aliens? He’s seen too many Hollywood blockbusters.”
Although Zhang Yaping had already seen the agenda of the Outer Space Security Summit, he didn’t take extraterrestrial civilizations seriously. It was to be expected since Jiang Chen never disclosed the details of Celestial Trade’s space activities to him.
Looking at Zhang Yaping, Jiang Chen had a strange expression.
Zhang Yaping noticed Jiang Chen’s strange look. He stopped and asked, “What’s wrong? Was it something I said?”
“Nothing, it’s my bad.”
Jiang Chen paused for a moment and looked at the confused Zhang Yaping. “What if I told you that the extraterrestrial civilization we mentioned in the invitation… is not a joke?”
