Chapter 34: Unfortunate Opportunity Ii (1/2)

”What do you think faith is?” the president returned the question.

After some thought, Gerard answered, ”Faith? America is faith. War is my faith. Victory is my faith.”

”He wants eight men who can teach them what faith is. Can I count you in?” the president asked.

”If it's for America, it would be an honor.”

”No, I can't let you go or Star Wars is really going to happen.” The president shook his head helplessly.

”What do you think faith is then, Mister President?” Gerard asked again.

With a bitter smile, the president answered, ”No idea. I'll launch a meeting with the United Nations. I'm sure other countries know of this matter as well.”

The president shut his phone and Gerard looked up at the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p with a grave expression on his face.

”Faith?” Gerard mumbled to himself.

”Do we await orders or withdraw, Officer?” a soldier asked.

”Withdraw. Leave the rest to the president,” Gerard instructed.

The next morning, president's office.

A hundred and ninety-four monitors with faces on them.

The monitors were of different sizes, closely placed before the president's seat.

The biggest screens were a meter long; there were only six of them.

The smallest ones, about ten of them, were only about the size of a palm.

There was a country flag on the top right-hand corner of each monitor.

The president started, ”I'm sure you guys already know of this?”

The presidents of one hundred and ninety-four countries started nodding their heads.

The United Nations had a hundred and ninety-three member countries and two observing members.

The discussion was lively at this point.

Through his earpiece, the president was bombarded with all kinds of translated content.

Nevertheless, half of all talks were meaningless since countries were merely promoting their faiths.

Frustrated, the American president slammed his fist on the table, effectively shutting the crowd.

”There are so many religions but I only need eight representatives!” he said helplessly.

A commotion burst out again.

The American president continued, ”Regardless of disagreements, they have requested eight people from us. What are you guys chit chatting about? It's of no use. Since this happened in my country, I'll make the decision.”

The crowd went wild again.

The American president cut off all connecting lines before taking his earpiece down.

What all these people did was just talk about their own cultures.

He pressed a b.u.t.ton on his telephone.

”Call in a few professors,” he ordered.

Twenty minutes later, three professors entered.

”Read this and share your thoughts,” he said, handing over a doc.u.ment with the alien's photograph in it.

They read through the doc.u.ment and kept quiet for a long time.

”So what are your thoughts?” the president asked.

The younger one among the trio spoke up, ”It's not the aliens' first time visiting our planet. According to him, we are always undergoing reincarnation. If that's the case, it really doesn't matter who's to be sent over, does it?”

Looking at the professor who spoke, he continued, ”What kind of people should we present to him then?”

”Logically speaking, religious representatives should be sent over. A Christian priest, monk, witch, Daoist priest, prophet, shaman, and so on,” the professor enumerated.

Another professor interrupted, ”Or a scientist, athlete, chef - all of whom are contributing to the progress of mankind.”