After Gaia left, the old man and the President went to an underground conference room.
Representatives of the major families were already seated in that conference room. Under the dim lighting, everyone's faces were barely discernible, masking their expressions.
After the President helped the old man onto the head seat, he got himself another seat and sat down.
Everyone sitting here right now had a lot more power than him, so even Mr. President would have to show some courtesy.
In the large conference room, everyone was chattering nervously and quietly, their eyes occasionally glancing over at the old man sitting on the head seat.
This patriarch of the Klaus Family, who had retired decades ago, was here in the flesh. It seemed that the rumors were true.
Then, why did he gather them here today?
"Mr. Klaus, the information has been prepared. We can begin the meeting," a secretary reported to him in a low voice.
"Alright!" Old Master Klaus nodded. His emotionless gaze surveyed the entire room, sending chills down everyone's spine. The conference room instantly fell silent.
"Everyone present here today are acting heads of their respective families. We're all busy people, so let's cut to the chase."
The old man looked at everyone with a stern gaze and said loudly, "The Stargate to another planet is real and in Jerusalem!"
"What? Preposterous?"
"Stargates really exist? Then, won't the interstellar spaceships that we invested in be completely wasted?"
"Could it be fake news? Why does it sound like something straight out of a Sci-Fi novel?"
Everyone murmured in shock, their understanding of the world had been flipped upside down.
The old man snorted coldly. "I know that you won't believe me immediately, so I have prepared a video that was taken on the said foreign planet. Please take a look."
The projector at the side immediately started playing the video that Gaia had personally taken.
The various heads of the major families carefully watched it. The expert analysts amongst them also started to verify the authenticity of the video.
The video was quite short, being only a couple of minutes long. Some of the details had even been replayed a few times to be verified.
After the video was finished, the expert analysts came to a conclusion.
It was real!
Moreover, the Stargate was situated in Jerusalem. It would be unbelievably easy for anyone here to verify the existence of such a thing. Mr. Klaus would not be joking about a matter like this.
Therefore, everyone started to believe that this legendary Stargate was real.
The old man nodded and continued, "The topic of today's meeting is to discuss the usage of the Stargate to develop Planet Mushu. As the ones who discovered Planet Mushu, the Klaus family shall be leading this project."
"All in favor?" The old man's gaze swept through the entire room. As the head of one of the most influential families in the world, his air of authority was undoubtedly imposing.
"I see!"
"Holy crap! That's insane!"
"No wonder Old Master Klaus returned!"
While everyone was discussing this major discovery, quite a few people had horrible looks on their faces.
These guys were carrying their families, who were largely inferior to the Klaus Family, behind their backs. Underneath this front of cooperation, they were all vying for power against the Klaus Family in one way or another.
If the Klaus Family used the Stargate and rose to power once more, that family could easily take over the market share that these smaller families have built up so far.
This was a major reshuffle that involved the entire world and the Klaus Family had the first pick.
This meant bad news for these families.
"Mr. Klaus, you're asking for a little too much here!" A fat middle-aged man said with a chuckle, he tried to break the current stalemate by saying, "The Klaus Family definitely did discover Planet Mushu first, and we acknowledge that it is a wonderful contribution. However, isn't it a little too much to be taking the leading position in this project just based on something as minor as that?"
"Hehe!"
Old Master Klaus looked over at the other party.
This guy was the head of a small family, there must be someone else backing him.
Old Master Klaus maintained his poker face as he continued, "I'm not done. Additionally, the demands of the Klaus Family are far from just that. The leadership for this project was just the appetizer, now it's time for the main course."
"What? That was only just the beginning?"
"Then... Doesn't that mean that the Klaus Family is the only one who gets to eat meat, while our families are left to scavenge for the leftover scraps?"
Everyone was furiously speculating over the further demands that the Klaus Family would make, at the same time, venting their dissatisfaction.
Old Master Klaus wasn't angry. He revealed the trump card in his hand.
It felt like he was holding four aces at that point. Only under the leadership of the Klaus Family could everyone enter Planet Mushu. Moreover, the Klaus Family had the capability to develop this planet on their own. Them giving up their chance at a monopoly and allowing other families to participate was already a huge concession on their part.
With that, the tone of this meeting was set.
The Klaus Family would definitely have the upper hand. What was left was to actually figure out how they would split this pie.
"Oh well, I'll leave that part to the think tanks to deal with." The old man thought.
...
Half an hour later, the old man walked out under the protection of the bodyguards.
"Let's go.
"Come have a drink with me tonight and get a good night's sleep. We'll make a move tomorrow."
"Okay."
"Also, I've agreed to your request. I'll appoint you as the advisor of the project when the operation starts. However, you'll be treated the same as everyone else. There won't be any special treatment."
"Understood."
...
Jerusalem.
At this moment, the temple ruins were brightly lit.
With the Klaus Family deeply involved, the logistics for the projet were quickly established.
Dozens of large tents were erected overnight, and large quantities of resources were transported to the location.
Tall barricades were erected around the temple ruins, and various lines of defense were quickly set up. It looked exactly like what one would expect from a warzone.
All remnants of third-party forces in the area had been cleared out. All resistance was met with swift annihilation.
Under this crazy policy, the secret of the temple ruins had been successfully protected to the point where even the soldiers on duty did not know what they were protecting.
...
In the temple ruins, three scientists were doing some testing on the stone gate using various instruments.
Further afield, there were even more researchers hard at work.
A small data processing center was built here. A large number of researchers were typing on their keyboards, rapidly processing the information on the newly discovered planets.
Not far from the data processing center, a simple emergency center was also built.
In one of the white tents, two young soldiers were lying on the bed, bodies drenched in blood. Every so often, moans of agony could be heard from the two.
One of them had his right arm severed.
The other had layers of bandages covering his entire torso.
This was the reconnaissance team that entered the stone gate in the evening, or rather what was left of them. Out of the five people, only the two returned alive.