Chapter 9: Exchanges

As Erin spoke, she gently waved her hands while her lips moved slightly and began a soft chant, as if a conductor was conducting her orchestra.

　　Suddenly, a series of falling numbers popped up on the information window of the single tactical armor, which was the ambient temperature of the surroundings. The drop was not fast, and the average person wouldn't even notice it if they didn't feel it carefully.

　　At this moment, Ayrin's hand stopped waving while chanting the last syllable, and just when Li Xue didn't understand what she was going to do, a layer of solid ice suddenly condensed between the two of them, and then began to slowly rise.

　　More than ten seconds later, a table and two chairs that were completely carved out of cold ice appeared between the two. The table and chairs didn't have any decorations, but a light blue film of light fluctuated slightly on its surface, adding a few hints of mystery and beauty.

　　At this time, Ayrin's face flushed slightly, and she laughed with a slight gasp, "In a place like this where the water element is scarce, it's really a struggle for me, a first-ranked, half-assed magician, to create a table!"

　　"It's not a good idea to keep standing and talking, please take a seat." After saying that, Irene walked to the side closer to herself and elegantly sat down.

　　Looking at the scene in front of him, even with Li Xue's heart nature, he was slightly shaken. The various data collected from the scene of cold ice condensing out of thin air just now had already been sent back to the command headquarters through various channels, hoping to analyze whether this was real magic or just a brilliant blindfold.

　　Li Xue similarly walked over to his seat but did not sit down, standing there steadily like a black battle flag.

　　Seeing this, Eileen sighed slightly and said, ''You can actually not have to be so wary of me, I came out to negotiate with you guys with a hostile-free mindset, you can't talk about anything if you keep on being like this! And I can feel that you guys have at least four deadly attacks against me right now, and I can't do anything that can threaten you."

　　Hearing this, Li Xue slowly sat down, but his hips did not touch the ice, and with the assistance of the tactical armor's power system, he could effortlessly maintain this position all the time. It would allow the other party to let their guard down, but it would also allow them to power up as fast as they could and quickly pull away from a safe distance in the event of a critical situation.

　　"Aren't you going to take off your helmet? Facing what you thought was a beautiful young girl, wearing a helmet is not what a gentleman would do ooh!" Erin looked at Li Xue and laughed lightly.

　　When Li Xue heard this, he rolled his eyes in his mind, he wasn't a professional negotiator, he couldn't completely control his facial expression and eyes, which was a very fatal thing in the middle of a negotiation.

　　Moreover, he had to use the optical system on his helmet to capture and observe the details of the girl's expression on the opposite side of the room to speculate on the other party's psychological state to make up for his own shortcomings in negotiation skills.

　　Looking at Li Xue who didn't say anything, Ayrin didn't say anything else either.

　　At this time, Irene took the lead and said, "Re-introduce myself, my name is Irene, Irene Hales, the second daughter of the Hales family of the Roland Empire, Your Excellency can directly call me Irene."

　　Li Xue was not too surprised after hearing these self-introductions, after all, all the signs that Irene had shown before were showing that it was highly likely that she was really an otherworldly visitor.

　　Li Xue was silent for a while, seemingly pondering how to answer. "My name is Li Xue, I am a China soldier."

"What about China, I don't really know this country, it seems like I really might have traveled to a completely unknown continent."

　　Then, Ayrin asked again, "May I ask if you know of any other continents?" Hearing Ayrin's question, Li Xue felt that there was nothing to hide, so he spoke, "We have seven continents here, but there is no Roland Empire you are talking about on any of them."

　　Hearing this, Ayrin caressed her forehead and muttered, "It seems like we've really come to a faraway place this time!" At the same time, she speculated in her mind, "The other party has completely grasped the situation of every continent, whereas the Empire only knows about the nearest ones, and the ones that are farther away haven't even been there yet, so it seems that the other party's technology in sailing or flying far exceeds the Empire's."

　　"Then why are you here, according to what you said, you should be from another world?" Li Xue looked at Erin's face and snapped.

　　"That's a long story, are you willing to listen to me?" "Yes." Li Xue immediately agreed, after all, this was the most needed thing at the moment, it was about the otherworld that most likely existed, the more information the better naturally.

　　"This matter also has to start from the war between the Roland Empire and the Fro Empire ...," Aileen used an unhurried voice to expound to Li Xue about the events that happened before she and Keleia came here.

　　"That's how it happened, we mistook your army for pursuers sent by the Fro Empire, that's why we attacked you and took one of the officers hostage, trying to escape." Ten minutes later, Ayrin finished her and Kleya's "shocking" experience.

　　After a short pause, Ayrin once again added, "What we did was due to a misunderstanding, and had nothing to do with the Roland Empire, nor did we have any intention of making enemies of your country. Moreover, your officers did not suffer any serious injuries, our family will compensate your country for all the losses and is willing to develop friendly relations with your country."

　　After Erin finished speaking, Li Xue took dozens of seconds to digest this information, then said, "Please wait, I need to report this information to the top." Then he got up and left his sitting position, heading towards the back.

　　This matter was of great importance, he didn't dare to use the communication system that came with the Single Tactical Armor. After all, the old U.S. electronic reconnaissance satellites were staring at this neighborhood almost all the time, although the possibility of the signal being captured and deciphered was very low, but it had to be guarded against. He needed to use the large high-security communication device that came with the straight-30 to report back.

　　Before Li Xue boarded the helicopter, he said to the deputy company commander, "Luo Tian, send some water and food over to her, it looks like she hasn't eaten in a while."

　　Although he wasn't sure if she could eat food from another world, he couldn't let someone starve. Luo Tian nodded his head in response after hearing this. Although they were still fighting not too long ago, but now that they have surrendered their weapons and we have always given preferential treatment to prisoners, we naturally have to send some food and water over.

Li Xue had only just connected the communication with the command center when he heard the opposite side impatiently say, "You've finished talking with her? How is it, is the other party an Otherworlder or not ..."

　　But before the other party could finish, another voice interjected, "Li Xue, before we begin our report, we will be asking you a few questions to determine if your mental state is normal and your sanity is clear."

　　Li Xue was not surprised when he heard this, this kind of routine questioning would be done when such extremely important reports were conducted. Even a single word difference in this kind of report could result in unpredictable consequences.

　　Ten minutes later, after Li Xue had finished answering the five tricky questions from various angles, the earphones suddenly began to ring with the sound of a receptive music.

　　Hearing this music, Li Xue's entire body suddenly tightened. That music was nothing else but the nightmare of countless high school students for three years - the music of the audition stage before English listening began. Even though ten years had passed, the sound that had been engraved into his DNA was not so easy to forget.

　　At that moment, a female voice came out accompanied by a slight electric current: "The price of the shirt is..." but it was cut off before the voice could finish reading, and then a voice asked a question: "Please complete this sentence within thirty seconds. "

　　When Li Xue heard this question, his whole body was bad, but still he immediately made an answer, "The price of the shirt is nine pounds and fifteen pence, so you choose item C."

　　After answering, Li Xue just couldn't help himself and opened his mouth to inquire, "That question just now was..."

　　"Haha! That question just now was added temporarily by someone's suggestion, and I also felt that this would fetch a better test effect." Before Li Xue could finish, that side answered him with a big laugh.

　　"Is this a test to see if I have been taken over?" After hearing the reply, Li Xue didn't hold back his laughter and spat in his heart.

　　"The test is now over, please start reporting the results of your communication with the target." After hearing the instruction, Li Xue put away his smile and reported, "I will next be repeating every sentence that I exchanged with the other party."

　　After about ten minutes, Li Xue ended his report, he did not add any subjective judgments or speculations, he just finished repeating every sentence he exchanged with Ayrin word for word.

　　In this particular situation, every judgment and speculation of the person concerned with subjective intent would have a great impact on the decision-making level.

　　"Can you be sure that you didn't omit or add anything to your retelling?" Although the command headquarters had a recording of the conversation between the two, without a translation ring, the words spoken by Erin were still heavenly to them, so they could only rely on Li Xue's paraphrase.

　　"I have received training in this area and can guarantee the accuracy of the repetition." "These conversations need to be speculated and analyzed by professionals, so take a break and stay put." "Yes!"

　　Li Xue cut off the communication, touched an unknown water bottle, sat down on the helicopter's suspension ladder, and looked over to Erin's side.

　　There, Luo Tian placed the self-heating military rations with an army-green stainless steel water bottle on the ice table, then gestured to Ayrin to try to express something.

　　After several fruitless exchanges that instead made Ayrin laugh, Luo Tian directly unpacked the self-heating military food, opened the heating pack, unscrewed the lid of the water bottle and put it in front of Ayrin, and then directly walked away without even looking back.

　　Looking at Luo Tian's deflated appearance, Li Xue laughed unkindly. He unscrewed the kettle and took a few gulps before connecting the communication with the command headquarters. Since he was staying put anyway, it would be better to communicate with her again, and he might even be able to get more news related to the otherworld.

　　After receiving the command's approval, he stood up and walked towards Erin.