Chapter 156: Contact Between Two Civilizations

The Stellar Ship Azure 5, carrying the first tourists to the Stuo Civilization,

took a slightly longer route because it stopped at the Civilization Exchange Zone near Neptune’s Orbit. This added some extra travel time.

However, the tourists on Azure 5 weren’t really bothered by the detour.

For these lucky people who had won the chance to be among the first humans to visit the Stuo Civilization,

the Civilization Exchange Zone between the Stuo and Human Civilizations was also a new place for them to see.

Unlike completed developed areas within Human Civilization’s borders,

the area around Neptune’s Orbit wasn’t fully built up yet.

Besides Stellar Ships carrying researchers to the Civilization Exchange Zone,

there were normally no other passenger ships traveling here.

Whether it was planned in advance or decided suddenly,

just as Azure 5 was leaving the Civilization Exchange Zone,

Stuo Civilization Researchers in the zone sent another message to the Human Civilization tourists onboard:

“Welcome, friends from Human Civilization who are about to visit the Stuo Civilization.”

“We hope you have a smooth journey. We hope you’ll see the different sights you want to see and that this will help the smart beings of both our civilizations understand each other better.”

The message itself didn’t hold much meaning,

but for the tourists on Azure 5, it felt like a meaningful moment.

In the end,

including the time for the stopover, the journey took almost a month.

Azure 5 arrived at the Stuo Civilization’s Planetary Fortress carrying tens of thousands of tourists.

Even though tens of thousands of tourists arrived at once, which seemed like a lot,

it obviously caused no trouble for the Stuo Civilization, which was also highly technologically advanced.

This visit was about ordinary people from both civilizations touring each other’s worlds.

Overall,

it was naturally different from the earlier visit by the official Human Civilization delegation to a Stuo Civilization city.

The main plan was to let these tourists experience the different customs and styles of the Stuo Civilization.

It didn’t involve anything particularly important or serious.

Of course,

even though the two civilizations had opened up some tourism between them,

they couldn’t just let tourists roam freely in each other’s territory.

Both Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization set aside specific areas for tourists to explore.

Right now, with Human Civilization tourists on Stuo Civilization ground,

they were accompanied not only by Intelligent Robots from Human Civilization but also by Intelligent Machinery from the Stuo side.

This ensured that something unexpected wouldn’t happen during this large-scale exchange between the civilizations.

Naturally,

the first group of humans to visit the Stuo Civilization weren’t worried about such matters.

The moment they stepped inside, they saw exactly what they had come for,

feeling the completely different style of this alien place compared to Human Civilization.

The city buildings looked nothing like those back home.

You could say the buildings had a kind of mathematical and geometric beauty, but they didn’t match any style from Human Civilization’s history.

“Is this a Stuo Civilization city?”

“Oh, right, are we allowed to take pictures?”

“Yes! I’m already filming a video! But it’ll take ages to send the footage back… I still haven’t gotten replies to videos I sent earlier!”

People chatted amongst themselves.

For these first visitors to the Stuo Civilization,

everything they saw was new and filled them with curiosity.

Even spotting a Stuo Civilization individual walking far away made them stare in wonder.

After all, this was Human Civilization’s first time contacting an Extraterrestrial Civilization.

For these tourists, it was their first time being so close not just to an alien world, but to another intelligent species.

Following the schedule,

the first group of Human Civilization tourists were first taken to a museum.

Compared to the Stuo Civilization Museum the Human delegation had visited earlier, this version was richer and more detailed, with added things Human tourists would find interesting.

Besides showing the history of the Stuo Civilization and their home planet,

it also told them, in a simple way, how Stuo individuals reproduce by splitting off parts of themselves.

The museum also used a Holographic Projection to show the tourists a famous artwork from Stuo Culture.

Even though their tastes in art were different from humans,

the tourists found it fascinating. The sheer newness of it all outweighed any other issues.

Later,

the tourists were taken to an area like a zoo, an ecological preserve.

There, they saw not just plants and animals from the original ecosystem of the Stuo home planet, but also species from ecosystems of other civilizations the Stuo had previously encountered.

Experiencing ‘water’, a key part of Stuo culture,

was naturally also included for these first visitors.

Humans definitely couldn’t sense liquids as finely as Stuo individuals do,

but the Stuo provided some baths filled with liquids humans could feel, letting the tourists try it out.

After that,

the food these past few days for these Human tourists was provided by the Stuo Civilization.

Surprisingly, although some of the offerings looked weird and very alien, they tasted strangely good.

The Stuo were a Stellar Civilization. Even though they didn’t have sensitive taste buds or food enjoyed purely for taste,

imitating Human food to create something pleasing to human taste buds was simple for them.

Throughout their visit,

the tourists mostly stayed amazed and interested.

Meanwhile,

as the first Human tourists arrived in the Stuo Civilization,

the first group of Stuo tourists also reached Earth. They were equally excited and curious, experiencing everything in the Human world.

Even though Stuo society worked differently than Human Civilization, due to their Sacred Decider,

this Sacred Decider hadn’t forbidden its own people from visiting Human lands to see things for themselves.

Of course,

this opening of some areas for tourism between Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization

had more symbolic meaning than practical importance beyond satisfying people’s curiosity.

It symbolized that the exchange and connection between the two civilizations were entering a new stage.

Now, for most people in both groups,

an earlier time of extreme nervousness about the other, unknown and unpredictable civilization was mostly over.

At the Negentropy Research Institute,

Qin Yu wasn’t paying much attention to these tourism exchanges happening in designated zones.

In the larger picture of cooperation between Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization, it was just a small event.

In the 75th year of the Human United Era (HUE),

more and more scientific research projects were being undertaken jointly by Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization, focusing on specific fields of technology.