The Mech Touch

"Wow." Ves spoke as he left the hall after the open session had concluded. "There is so much depth to phase whales that I never realized how little we actually know about this incredible species."

The presentation provided many answers, but also generated a lot of new questions. Red humanity was doing its best to understand the nature and the properties of phase whales, but there was simply too little time and not enough manpower to lift all of the mystique surrounding this power race.

Nonetheless, Ves came away from this highly informative session with a lot more information about how the natives engaged in their own brand of body cultivation.

One of the most important factors that determined the power and the future growth of a native alien was whether they possessed the capacity to produce phasewater within their ownbodies.

Ves was not quite certain why it was necessary to acquire an internal mechanism to produce phasewater. It sounded as if this was a necessity rather than a convenient way to reduce one's reliance on phasewater harvested from the environment.

Whatever the case, a lot of phase lords deeply desired to get their hands on a PPS. They weren't entirely complete without this set of phase whale organs.

It explained so much about what he had heard and encountered over the years.

It also gave Ves a new perspective on phase lords. Each of them were both individually powerful and incredibly influential in their own societies.

Phase lords had long been equated as the beings who had stepped beyond the limitations of their original races and stepped onto the path of godhood. Their former comrades all worshiped them as living gods and did not dare to treat them as if they were equals anymore!

To hear the presenter equate lesser phase lords as an underclass was a radical change in perspective.

These alien beings who succeeded in transforming their lives indeed managed to ascend to a higher state of being. Yet their journey forward became so difficult that they essentially needed to slave away for the phase whales for a long time or violate a taboo by stealing the PPS outright!

It was unclear how many phase lords resorted to the former or the latter. There simply wasn't enough information as most aliens remained ignorant of what went on at the higher levels of their society. Even if they did know anything, they knew better than to gossip about their supposed gods.

What was clear to most people was that a lot of lesser phase lords were about to descend upon human space.

The reason why the Eminence of Torment turned into a service minion of the Red Cabal was because he probably hoped to earn enough merits to exchange for a PPS from his phase whale masters.

More lesser phase lords were bound to arrive in the ensuing months and years as they trickled to inform the other parts of the new frontier.

Not all of them were highly motivated to save their dwarf galaxy from the scourge of human invaders, but they would definitely do their utmost to make themselves look as good as possible during the war in order to earn a precious PPS!

Ves thought about his own awkward status as a phase lord. He wondered whether he should endeavor to hunt down a phase whale for the purpose of harvesting the creature's PPS.

He immediately rejected this notion. His progress in body cultivation was almost nonexistent. While a lot of lesser phase lords coveted the PPS contained within the enormous bodies of every phase whale, not all of them were capable of transplanting the crucial organs into their own physiques!

Phase whales were large.

They might appear to be around several hundred meters long most of the time, but their true bodies were much larger once they lifted the dimensional folding effect that enabled them to assume more compact forms.

It was conceivable that the organs that made up the PPS were also humongous!

Even if a lesser phase lord had reached the limits of his current stage, he might not be able to fit a complete PPS if the latter came from an elder phase whale that had grown to the size where his titanic body generated its own gravity well!

Perhaps the native aliens developed methods that enabled them to cut the PPS down to size so that they could fit into their smaller bodies, but there was probably a limit to this miniaturization process.

There was no way that Ves could fit a full or reduced version of a PPS inside his own body!

His phasewater concentration still remained at the pathetic level of 0.01 percent. He could barely call himself a phase lord despite the fact that he had already managed to overcome one of the most difficult hurdles.

While his status as a phase lord allowed him to pull off a couple of cool tricks such as teleporting him a short distance away, he remained otherwise unimpressed by what he had gained.

Part of it was his own fault. He never put any serious time and effort into exploring how to increase his phasewater concentration and develop more spatial manipulation abilities.

It all seemed unnecessary to him. As he continued to climb up in society, it became less essential for him to rely on his own abilities.

He was a mech designer. The only advantage that Ves cared about was that phase lords developed a stronger affinity towards phasewater. He indeed benefited a lot from this, and wished to strengthen it even further.

The opportunity costs were too high, though. He could spend his time and resources on much more productive pursuits.

Designing mechs would always remain his primary occupation. This was his main 'cultivation method' and one that he could not afford to give up just so that he could play at being a better phase lord.

Ves proceeded to attend a number of other sessions for the remainder of the second day. He tried to catch up on a decent variety of subjects as opposed to focusing on one subject in particular.

This reflected his varied interests and his engagement in so many different facets of reality.

He attended an open session on the predicted changes to red humanity as E energy radiation continued to affect every part of people's lives.

Since this session was organized by a supporter of the Polymath, the presenter tried to sway her audience into supporting a total reformation and centralization of their scattered and divided society.

"The lengthy history of the human race has taught us that we are our worst enemies. Each period in history where humans gain too much power in a short period of time, conflict, misery and instability follow suit. From the invention of gunpowder in ancient times to the rapid conquest of large swathes of the Milky Way Galaxy, humans have shown time again that they are unable to restrain themselves when granted power beyond their prior means. If we want to prevent this foreseeable calamity from occurring again, we must preemptively solve the time bombs embedded in our fractured society and heal the old wounds before it is too late!"

Although the presenter tried to sell the Polymath's Unity Plan a bit too much, she raised a lot of good arguments.

Perhaps it might be a better idea if red humanity did not remain so divided and mistrustful towards each other.

"What do you think, Jovy?" Ves casually asked afterwards.

"I agree that our society is too flawed as it is. The Polymath has taken the initiative to present a plan to solve the fault lines that continually cause us to treat each other with vigilance and suspicion. It is not the only choice we have. It is up to our wise and capable human leaders to determine the best way forward for us all. I am merely a tier 6 galactic citizen. My voice is irrelevant."

It was not hard to pick up the mocking and jesting tone in Jovy's voice. The RA Senior Mech Designer indirectly reminded Ves that he might also find himself in the company of those 'wise and capable human leaders' by the end of the week!

It all depended on the final verdict of the faction leaders or their chosen representatives.

Ves had learned that the gap between a tier 4 and a tier 3 galactic citizen was enormous. It took way more than a large quantity of average contributions to bridge this enormous void.

Tier 1 and tier 2 galactic citizens consisted of the contemporary leaders of both branches of human civilization. They were the god pilots, Star Designers, the galactic mech councilors, the grand admirals and so on. Even though none of them possessed absolute power to rule as they wished, their collective authority was near total in human society!

Tier 3 galactic citizens existed only a single layer below all of these major leaders.

They were typically MTA Masters and ace pilots who had made amazing contributions and had reached the threshold to the next rank.

They also encompassed CFA admirals who led their own fleet with a wide degree of autonomy.

The leaders of most first-rate states also qualified as tier 3 galactic citizens so long as they wielded enough real power. Figureheads were out of luck.

To think that Ves could become as powerful as those widely recognized and celebrated leaders was unimaginable to his current self!

He was just over 40 years old! He had only advanced to the rank of Senior Mech Designer a short time ago! The gap between himself and people such as Master Termaneo Dervidian was too great!

Ves forcibly calmed himself down before his head became too inflated.

"Why is it the case that only a select few people get to decide on the plan?" He changed the topic by asking another question. "Tens of thousands of people have boarded the Khamater Reign. Each of them are talents and leaders in their own right. None of them are stupid or immature. Why don't you Survivalists extend a voice to them as well? I think that will allow your faction to make a decision that is more representative of human society."

"That is the thing, Ves. We don't want to make a decision that is an accurate reflection of the will of the total population of red humanity. We do not trust the judgment of people who are more ignorant and less aware of the intricacies that keep our society functioning. We have chosen to limit decision-making power to the upper leaders during emergency situations because we cannot get bogged down by bureaucracy and the demands of too many stakeholders."

"I see."

"This won't last forever." Jovy reassured Ves. "Once the emergency has lifted, we can return to a more reasonable decision-making approach."

"I think it will take a long time before that happens." Ves cynically remarked.

He predicted that the state of emergency might last for a century if not more depending on whether the aliens of Messier 87 made an appearance during this period of time.

That reminded Ves to attend a session held by one of the researchers who stared at the supergiant galaxy with really big space telescopes and other advanced stellar observation machines.

Ves and Jovy managed to find an open session that presented a lot of speculations on the possible forms of life that might have evolved in an extreme high energy environment.

Unfortunately, the attendees gained much less out of the presentation than they expected. There simply wasn't enough data to work with. None of the fancy high-tech observation machines were capable of discerning too many details of artificial construction and other activities due to the immense amount of light and energy pollution produced by Messier 87.

In the end, Ves did not get any closer to understanding the possible native aliens that resided in Messier 87 than before. The investigation in this crucial subject had only just begun. It might take decades before people could get a clearer ideas on the monsters they had to compete against.