The Mech Touch

Ves attended a few more sessions after his humiliating visit at the testing center.

He came to respect the dots on people's badges a lot more this time. Everyone who possessed any dot had genuinely earned it. No one with a dot was a fool when it came to the field in question.

Perhaps the only reason why Ves was able to carry a red and purple in the first place was because studies on E energy radiation and cultivation science were not as mature.

Since most people were still relatively new at figuring them out, people like Ves who seemed to know a clue or two about these new fields managed to gain the recognition of an expert rather easily!

This would never happen in a few years from now. The fact that this conference was held only a few months after the Great Severing meant that far too many people were starting from scratch.

Geniuses or not, it was unlikely that they would be able to gain any sort of advantage over Ves.

The enlightenment fruits he exchanged a lot of Ascension Points for condensed years if not decades worth of study and practice in cultivation science!

Given that Ves possessed so much expertise in this special field, he tried to look for sessions where he could leverage his understanding to greater effect.

Ves did not actually find any closed sessions that interested him. They were a bit too basic and entry-level to provide him with useful insights.

"This is only the first day." Jovy said. "The closed sessions scheduled for the next hours are mostly meant to fill up any gaps in basic understanding. Once the Survivalists are satisfied that most people have strengthened their foundations, the more elaborate sessions will start. This includes yours as well."

"I see. I guess that makes sense."

Ves eventually chose to attend a closed session on hyper materials. This was a really popular session that was actually repeated at different time slots just so that more and more mechers and associates could get up to speed on this new type of materials.

Although the lecture and explanations on hypers did not go into too much depth, the presenters actually explained a lot of interesting new discoveries that the Red Association had yet to release to the public.

"Our analysis of signals and emissions that have radiated from Messier 87 reveals that there is a high prevalence of hyper materials in this supergalaxy." A male material scientist explained. "We have attempted to model the local environment at different galactic coordinates to predict how the presence of so many hypers would affect planets and star systems. The results range from minor, localized disruptions to extreme deviations in the laws of physics. We do not possess enough reliable data to narrow this range. The conditions also undergo massive shifts depending on whether we are studying a star system at the outer edge or close to the center of the dwarf galaxy."

A female scientist projected a vague galactic map of Messier 87 and began to overlay it with different colors that represented the estimated occurrence of hyper materials.

"The prevalence of hypers in the outer rim of this supergalaxy is relatively low, but already far more abundant than we can ever expect to find in the Red Ocean. The impact on the local environment should not be high, but it is likely that it is engulfed by a noticeable degree of interference in all bands. The effect grows progressively worse when moving towards the core. At one point, the presence of hypers is so high that their effects on the local regions will essentially turn them into large-scale hazardous regions where the laws of physics are bent and broken at a much greater frequency."

An exobiologist spoke up at this point. "It is impossible for humans in our current forms to survive in any of these new hazardous regions. We lack the adaptations to maintain our functions in an extreme high energy environment. It is highly probable that these regions contain ecosystems that are completely centered around the prevalence of specific hypers as well as specific variations of E energy radiation. The alien species that have evolved out of these special regions may possess unimaginably powerful personal strengths, but are likely unable to leave their native environments without suffering severe consequences. They would be like fish out of water."

That sounded somewhat reassuring. The power of these superaliens sounded incredibly scary, but they should have little interest reaching out to areas outside of the core regions of their massive galaxy. This made it a bit less likely for the more powerful and established alien species to reach out to the new dwarf galaxy that appeared all of a sudden.

Even the weaker alien species who resided in the galactic rim of Messier 87 might not find it worthwhile to travel all the way to the Red Ocean. The difference in exposure to E energy radiation was too great.

However, Ves knew that he could not completely assume that the natives of this big galaxy would stay away entirely. There were always a few exceptions. Who knew what kind of oddball threats might seek to plunder the Red Ocean before anyone else arrived.

There was also R particle radiation that might attract unwanted attention. The Dark Source spurted two jets of matter at relativistic speeds in directions that were almost impossible to capture at close range.

It was only when the jet began to lose power and dissipated into expanding particles that it became a lot safer to harvest them. The Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy might not be positioned at an ideal location to capture a lot of R particles flying into space, but it still received a light share of them at all times!

"We have employed several experimental procedures to artificially increase the concentration of E energy radiation in limited areas to tentatively simulate these high energy environments. Our methods are still rudimentary and not yet up to our standards. We are reluctantly able to simulate the environment at the furthest edge of Messier 87's galactic rim, but our exposure to exotic radiation is so low that it is impossible to replicate an environment at the galactic center. We are still developing new solutions that will allow us to increase the concentration of E energy radiation even further, but we are uncertain how many years it will take to achieve a breakthrough."

Ves looked intrigued when he heard that. He had already managed to increase the concentration of E energy radiation. It was extremely unlikely that his method resembled the one utilized by the Red Association. There was no way the mechers utilized anything as esoteric as totems!

This was also why he did not think about approaching these researchers so that he could offer his assistance. The mechers would probably balk at relying on 'tech' they could not understand or control.

As long as Ves was the only one that could actually create new design spirits based around particular domains and attributes, the mechers would become dependent on his continued input. This was simply too much of a bother to them, so they would likely continue to work out their own solutions.

That did not mean that there was no possibility for cooperation at all. Ves perked up when a speaker mentioned how their research groups had difficulty obtaining samples of hyper materials with special properties.

"A large variety of hyper materials are sensitive to select variations of E energy radiation. Hypers that are responsive to a single variety often possess common or related properties that are interesting for many reasons. However, we have found it difficult to form large quantities of hypers that are paired to rarer forms of E energy radiation. Their natural occurrence in background radiation is low to non-existent, which considerably hinders our studies. If we are unable to solve this supply issue in the coming months, we intend to open a new exchange where different parties can deliver any hypers with the properties that we desire in exchange for MTA merits." Now that sounded really lucrative to Ves. He understood that there were spiritual attributes that were so rare or nonexistent in Messier 87's exotic radiation that even the mechers found it difficult to produce the associated sympathetic materials.

This could become a huge hindrance in many applications. One of them was designing a new kind of high-ranking mech that incorporated hypers that matched the domains of their powerful pilots.

The Red Association should be willing to pay a large price for rare sympathetic materials, especially in the short term when everyone was just getting started in this field!

Ves smelled a potential deal here. He felt that he would not have to wait a few months before this rumored exchange came online.

He looked at Jovy and quickly communicated his desire to meet with one of the speakers in private.

"Are you sure about that?" Jovy transmitted back over their private communication channel. "The mechers detest anyone who approaches them and waste their time in vain."

"I do not believe my offer will be a waste of time. I have only just begun in my own efforts to produce hyper materials, but 1 should have already amassed a decent variety at this time. I can also broaden my efforts and produce hypers of other attributes that I have developed a familiarity with. A few of them are definitely not a component of E energy radiation."

Jovy sent one deep look towards Ves before he nodded. "I will quietly arrange a meeting after this session is over. You shouldn't have to wait too long before you will get your turn."

It took over an hour for the session to come to an end. The attendees asked a lot of questions, and the answers actually helped Ves to enrich his understanding of this new classification of materials.

Once Ves managed to get his turn, he entered a small office compartment.

"Professor Armalon." An older woman acknowledged her fellow mecher. "Since you are willing to vouch for this gentleman, I shall grant him 3 minutes of my time. Begin."

It took a moment for Ves to realize that he had to make his pitch.

"I think it is best to give you a small demonstration of what I can do on the spot." He spoke. "Would you agree to this? I can promise you that it is harmless, though the effect might surprise you, Master."

He noticed that her green badge boasted purple dot among other ones, so he felt it was okay to display this particular capability.

The Master looked intrigued, but showed no fear. "If you are of the opinion that it will aid in your case, then you may proceed. I shall lower the responsiveness of the security systems in this compartment. It would not have you do to make the monitoring system regard you as an acute threat."

That disturbed Ves a bit, but not enough to deter him from his next actions.

Blinky was still recovering from his earlier ordeal at the moment, so Ves would have to do this more directly.

He called up a bunch of design spirits and began to channel their glows.

The Master showed a faint reaction as she was being subjected to the glows of Helena, Lufa and the Solemn Guardian!

This was a careful selection on his part. E energy radiation already possessed a death attribute component, but it did not contain the purity and duty attributes as far as Ves knew.

This meant that it would be a lot harder for the Red Association to produce hypers that were related to these attributes, at least for a time!

Ves did not believe that the clever and inventive mechers would remain stifled for long, but the timing was important.

So long as he could meet their demand of rare sympathetic materials faster than the alternatives, he might be able to secure a modest business deal by relying on other party's lack of patience!