Volume 3: Dance of the Aurora Chapter 1: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
"Please answer this call."
Fang Cheng stared at the text on his phone. The eight colorful characters were flickering and even changing colors. He had never known that caller ID could be so fancy.
"Hello... Hello, hello?"
"Hello, intelligent life on Earth. I am your exclusive observer."
The voice is very natural and doesn't sound synthetic.
But Fang Cheng found it difficult to read any emotions from them, even though reading people's expressions was what he was best at.
But the wording is too weird...it's the Earth and the observer, making it seem like an alien is monitoring the Earth.
"Hello, can you hear me?"
Observer No. 1
In comparison, human's mechanical vibration language is too simple. There is no way he can't learn this way of information communication that can only transmit single-digit bits per second.
What's more, this one-dimensional language only needs a time series to be encoded. If this kind of question is asked in the final exam of the cross-species linguistics course, it would be a free pass.
"Hello... Hello? You just said you are... an observer?"
Good, good, contact successful! Observer No. 1 was secretly delighted.
After all, it is not uncommon for a native creature to respond only after a call has been made for tens of thousands of years.
"Yes, I am your exclusive Observer No. 1. This identity gives me the following powers:
1. Direct detection of native civilizations, including all non-invasive observations and sampling in accordance with the "minimum impact principle".
2. Monitor diseases or biomass crises that may threaten other species within the activity range of the observed species and take appropriate measures.
3. Prevent technological explosions in the observed civilization that may be harmful to the universe, and provide beneficial guidance for its technological and scientific development.
4. Other interventions as determined by the regulations.”
The voice on the phone spoke a long passage like a string of words, and Fang Cheng just felt dizzy.
"I am now speaking directly to you under the powers granted to me under Section 21 of the Interspecies Exchange Regulations. If you have any questions, please ask them directly, but I can choose not to answer them."
"Ah? What rules?"
The voice on the phone ignored Fang Cheng's question and continued speaking:
"According to the regulations, when a registered rare low-risk native intelligent life is facing an extinction crisis, observers have the right to intervene in the individual in accordance with the 'minimum impact principle' to stop or alleviate the crisis, without destroying the technological path and scientific cognition of the civilization as a whole..."
“…”
The second paragraph made Fang Cheng even more confused. He suspected that he was hallucinating because he was too frightened.
"In short, your species is about to become extinct, and I'm an alien who's here to help you prevent this disaster."
Aliens, what a weird name.
Since metal creatures have been able to travel between different planets since ancient times, the modifier "alien" is very funny to them. After all, they become aliens just by going out for a stroll.
It's like calling people from the next city "outsiders".
"ah?"
Fang Cheng felt that the mental shock he had received today was about to reach his limit, and his sanity was on the verge of collapse. He could only utter interjections now.
Observer No. 1 also had this feeling. Although excessive mental stimulation of low-level creatures did not violate any regulations, it could not effectively convey information from a practical point of view.
As for why the regulations are not violated, it is because this kind of stimulation is unpredictable in most cases.
He decided to let the children on Earth relax for a while.
"You are very emotionally unstable right now... Well... According to the information I have, this should be able to make you relax."
Everything in front of Fang Cheng's eyes turned dark, so dark that he couldn't see his hand in front of him. The moment it turned dark, he was frightened and screamed, but he couldn't hear his own voice.
Suddenly, a bright door appeared in the center of the field of vision. It was hard to tell what the door was made of. All that could be seen was a soft white light shining through it.
"Let's go in and take a look."
Fang Cheng walked towards the door in the darkness. After one foot stepped into the room, he noticed that the three walls in the distance were surrounded by crystal clear floor-to-ceiling windows. The breeze blew the snow-white curtains, and outside the door was a white sand beach and a dark blue sea.
He walked slowly into the house. In front of him was a plain screen that did not completely block his view. He could still vaguely see the shadow behind it.
The shadow looked like a human, and curiosity drove him to move his steps and slowly walk behind the screen.
The touch of solid wood from the soles of his feet made Fang Cheng realize that he was not wearing shoes. Only then did he realize that the sweatshirt he had just worn had completely disappeared, replaced by a set of white silk pajamas.
The brown color of the logs slowly unfolded before his eyes, and a large bed came into view. At this moment, he smelled a faint fragrance in the air, which was a bit like a mixture of laurel, honey and sandalwood.
Fang Cheng slowly moved his gaze upwards and saw the white and delicate feet, the softly curved thighs and the scattered black hair... His body reacted the next second.
"Ahhh, that's enough, that's enough. I know you are aliens."
Amitabha, one should not dwell on anything, and should not have a mind of right or wrong; all appearances are not real, and all things are illusions...
"You're so fast."
"? I'm not fast, I just don't have ..."
Forget it, I won’t explain it.
Fang Cheng calmed down and sorted out his thoughts. He had accumulated too many doubts so far, and new questions were still popping up.
He was going to ask the one closest to his mouth first.
"Why...why did you contact me by calling my cell phone..."
Since aliens have proven that they can manipulate humans' five senses, they must also be able to make sounds directly inside the human brain.
"That's because the base station you built is very convenient. Communicating through this handheld communication terminal can save a lot of energy. If you want to directly affect your thinking world to make a call, it's better to have a device that can serve as a medium. Using a mobile phone will cause damage to your brain."
What the other party said makes sense. Why would aliens choose to deliberately show off their communication methods? But what damage has been done to the brain? Am I going to become stupid after watching something I shouldn't have just watched?
"The operation on your five senses just now was also done through the mobile phone. Simply put, it used this terminal to generate some directional electromagnetic fields to affect the sensory system of your cerebral cortex."
"The image just now was not created by me based on my own experience, but was re-encoded based on the information in your brain. It is similar to a dream, so it will not have an excessive mental impact on you."
"Then...can I ask where you are now? In this city...on Earth?"
This shouldn’t be said. Fang Cheng was just testing the waters.
"I am in the synchronous orbit of the Earth's rotation, hanging above your head. However, due to the eccentricity, I am swinging north and south with your position as the reference system."
Fang Cheng then noticed that there was a very slight delay in their conversation, which should be the communication delay in the synchronous orbit.
"Have you been here all this time? Even when I was doing the experiment just now?"
"That's not the case. I just come to Earth periodically to collect data, and I just happened to run into you this time."
"Then... could you please tell me where you usually are?"
Fang Cheng's sanity had almost recovered, and he entered a polite and respectful conversation mode. He reached into his pocket, fumbled for the Bluetooth headset, put it on, and freed his hands.
Regardless of whether the other party is truly an advanced civilization, or is using the name of an advanced civilization to command him, reason tells him that the best choice now is to obey the arrangements of that alien.
