Everyone's playing Red Giant? I, Black Hole, devour everything!

These few words were spoken casually, yet they caused the president's expression to change slightly.

He looked at Old Chen, seemingly wanting to confirm whether the young man's words represented Old Chen's attitude.

Old Chen didn't speak, but his silence itself was a statement.

The president withdrew his gaze and turned it back to Lin Tian.

"Old Chen, Commander Lin, have you ever considered that if we used the resources meant for fighting the war elsewhere, our two countries could completely—"

"Mr. President," Old Chen spoke up this time, "if you don't intend to reveal your true purpose, then we're afraid we'll have no choice but to ask you to turn back."

The moment those words were spoken, the air seemed to freeze.

The president of the United States remained silent once again.

The silence lasted for a long time.

After a while, the adjutant couldn't help but whisper a reminder to him: "Mr. President—"

The president waved his hand, signaling him to be quiet.

He finally spoke.

"Old Chen, Commander Lin. My real purpose in coming here is not Japan—or rather, not just Japan."

"I want to cooperate with the Great Xia Kingdom to jointly develop the black hole route."

Old Chen frowned slightly, as if to confirm that he hadn't misheard.

Even Lin Tian, ​​who was standing behind Old Chen, had a subtle change in expression at that moment.

Lin Tian's lips curled into a slight smile: "Mr. President, have you forgotten something? Didn't your country's New Manhattan Project already receive a special grant of 3.5 trillion Star Dollars?"

"What, you've come to us for cooperation without even a trace?"

The president's expression turned somewhat grim for a moment.

"Commander Lin is right, the New Manhattan Project has indeed been launched, but we have to admit that in the area of ​​black hole routes, Great Xia has far surpassed us. Even if the United States invests more resources, it will be difficult to catch up without several years of accumulation."

"So you just want to come to Great Xia Kingdom and reap the rewards, Mr. President? Do you think there's such a cheap thing in this world?"

The president was speechless for several seconds after hearing that.

"I know that a mere promise of cooperation won't sway you," the president said slowly. "Therefore, we are willing to pay."

Lin Tian's tone carried a faint smile: "Mr. President, what kind of reward could compare to the value of the black hole route?"

The president paused for a moment, then uttered a sentence that shocked everyone present.

"What if it's an ancient relic related to the will of the universe?"

Old Chen's gaze paused for a moment.

Lin Tian's gaze also turned serious at that moment.

"Continue," Old Chen said slowly.

The president secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he had finally shown interest, but his face remained solemn.

"Deep within the third star sector of the Beacon Nation lies an ancient ruin, discovered eighty years ago when our Beacon Nation first set foot on the world's highest peak."

"The existence of this site has never been known to any other country. It took us three generations to barely glean some scattered information from its periphery."

"According to our research, this relic was left by an ancient civilization at least two billion years ago."

"Two billion years." These words echoed in Lin Tian's mind.

His quasar incubation site comes from the Ayrs, a civilization that is hundreds of millions of years old.

And this relic of the United States is actually more than a billion years older than the Ayers.

That was before dinosaurs appeared on Earth, and life on Earth was still in its most primitive single-celled stage.

What does it mean for a civilization to be able to build ruins in that era?

"Not only that," the president continued, "this civilization also seems to know the truth about the will of the universe; the writings and symbols they left behind mention many concepts that we still cannot understand."

"One of the frequently mentioned terms, according to the analysis of scientists in our beacon nation, is very likely to point to the essence of the will of the universe."

The truth about the will of the universe.

Lin Tian's heart involuntarily quickened.

He understood the weight of those words better than anyone else.

On the eve of their demise, the Ayrs, at the final cost of their entire civilization, glimpsed some secrets about the will of the universe.

But those secrets were too fragmented, like a broken jigsaw puzzle, leaving only some incomplete pieces.

If we could obtain records of the cosmic will from another, more ancient civilization, then perhaps we could piece together more of this puzzle.

"Mr. President," Lin Tian's voice rang out again, "you said that your country discovered this relic eighty years ago, and obtained information about the will of the universe from it."

"Then, in eighty years, why has your country only managed to reach the Quark Star route?"

This is a very direct and potentially fatal question.

The president's expression stiffened slightly, but his answer was without hesitation.

"Because of this site, it has been kept under lockdown."

"blockade?"

"Yes, we simply cannot enter its core area. Scientists in the United States have spent decades studying it and have concluded that the interior of the ruins is protected by an extremely powerful gravitational barrier. Any object that tries to force its way in will be torn to pieces by that gravity."

"So you've been researching for eighty years and haven't made any progress," Lin Tian concluded.

The president did not deny it.

"So what conclusions did you reach? How can we get in?" Old Chen asked.

"To unlock the gravitational barrier of the ruins, it is necessary to resonate with an extremely extraordinary celestial body. The United States has been studying this for a long time and has always believed that this celestial body is a quark star—which is also an important reason why we are deeply researching the quark star route."

The president's tone turned slightly bitter as he said this.

"But now it seems we were wrong. This celestial body is probably not a quark star, but a black hole. And—at least a black hole with millions of times the mass of the sun."

Millions of times the mass of the sun.

Lin Tian's brow twitched slightly.

He suddenly realized that this matter was much more complicated than he had expected.

The United States attaches far more importance to this site than he previously estimated.

They spent eighty years, invested countless resources, and even pushed the Quark Star route to where it is today, all just to open the door to this relic.

And now, they have finally discovered what the key is—a black hole.

But the holder of the key happens to be their biggest competitor.

"So you want to use this relic as a bargaining chip to exchange for the Great Xia Kingdom's black hole route technology?" Lin Tian asked.

"Yes," the president readily admitted. "We don't know exactly what's hidden in these ruins, but we can be certain that they are far more valuable than the Ayrs ruins you discovered."

"An ancient civilization from two billion years ago, a civilization that knew the truth about the will of the universe, the value of the legacy they left behind is something you can imagine without me saying it."

The surroundings became quiet again.

Old Chen and Lin Tian both remained silent.

Suddenly, Lin Tian spoke.

"Mr. President, have you considered this: now that you've told us about the existence of the ruins, aren't you afraid that the Great Xia Kingdom will simply invade the United States and seize them?"

The president was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed.

"Commander Lin, do you think I haven't thought about this? Do you think I didn't prepare for the worst before I came here?"

"Since I dared to come, I was already prepared. From now on, I only have forty-eight hours."

"If I don't return within forty-eight hours, the Quark Star fleet I've arranged will immediately take action to disrupt the gravitational field balance around that ruin."

"Once the gravitational balance is disrupted, the ruins will immediately initiate a self-destruct program, and then no one will be able to get their hands on anything inside."

"This arrangement took effect the moment I set off, and it will be automatically triggered after 48 hours."