The Mech Touch

No wonder Master Quan was so bad at persuading Ves.

The hidden traitor never staked everything on winning over the only known human phase lord from the beginning!

As far as the cosmopolitans were concerned, converting Ves to their cause was just an optional bonus objective.

It would definitely be nice if Ves saw the light and joined the Cosmopolitan Movement on his own accord, but it had never been an essential component to their plan.

The cosmopolitans did not really suffer a loss if their target failed to cooperate with their initiatives.

This was because their original plan called for taking matters into their own hands!

Rather than trying to cooperate with a foreign and unreliable element, wouldn't it be nicer if Master Quan or another trustworthy cadre of their movement became a phase lord?

The Red Cabal's recently announced bounty program attracted many people, but no one was more enthused about the rewards for claiming the top bounties than the cosmopolitans!

Claiming the head of a tier 3 galactic citizen granted the killer or any other designated human the opportunity to become a lesser phase lord.

Killing a tier 2 galactic citizen gave the responsible party a direct pathway to becoming a greater phase lord!

These rewards were enough to stoke the greed in many people's hearts, but the meaning of these bounties were different to the cosmopolitans.

They had lived much of their lives working to bring humans and aliens together. Yet they never managed to make much progress because it was far too difficult to earn the trust of hostile aliens.

No matter what the cosmopolitans did to prove their goodwill to the aliens, the other humans always ruined it all. The greedy and destructive behavior of most of humanity made it impossible to lower the hostility between the two sides!

This was why this opportunity became so important to the cosmopolitans. As long as they killed any tier 2 or tier 3 galactic citizen, they could directly assimilate into alien society and earn the genuine trust and appreciation of their phase whale mentors.

The aliens of the Red Ocean had never shown as much open-mindedness to humans in the past. They showed universal revulsion towards the invaders from another galaxy and never put much effort into distinguishing between different human groups.

All of that had changed recently as the Red Cabal took the threat of red humanity a lot more seriously.

Though the cosmopolitans hated the Red Two for pulling off Operation Night Jazz and making it much more difficult to reconcile the two sides, they were also secretly grateful for the emergence of the new bounty program.

Every cosmopolitan wanted to become a bounty hunter after they heard all of the rich rewards!

Not only would they have a chance to attain biological immortality by becoming a powerful phase lord, but they would be able to develop a friendship with a powerful phase whale and integrate into the core alien power hierarchy!

This was an unprecedented opportunity! The members of the Indigo Cell and the other radicals had never managed to get close enough to the aliens.

They were always treated as unwanted guests as best. No matter how many technologies and important human secrets they passed on, the cosmopolitans never even received any thanks for their vital contributions.

This was different!

The cosmopolitans had studied the aliens and their leadership long enough to know that the rewards were all legitimate.

The phase whales were truly willing to treat humans with sincerity in order to keep the bounty program effective.

It was impossible to stir up human infighting if the Red Cabal was not even willing to honor the promised rewards to the fullest.

With that thought and motivation in mind, Master Xieliq Quan fully became invested in the plan to enable one his fellow cosmopolitans to earn the trust of his phase whale tutor.

It would have been great if he was able to earn this fantastic opportunity, but even he was not delusional enough to know that he could get away from this planet alive.

The mechers had taken many security precautions. All forms of teleportation and warping were jammed. Lots of mechs and other assets constantly patrolled or remained on guard so that they could respond to any incidents. Powerful warships and well-equipped defensive installations blockaded much of the space around the planet.

Master Quan did not have the means to escape Bortele III with his life intact!

Since it was impossible for him to live after he had made his move, he simply accepted his fate without any procrastination and sought to make his sacrifice as worthwhile as possible!

The old Master Mech Designer was confident that one of his fellow members of the Indigo Cell would make good use of his final efforts!

His eyes grew crazed and focused on his prey with overwhelming conviction and determination.

Ves had to die in order for the cosmopolitans to advance their cause!

No other outcome was acceptable!

From the moment Ves tried to pull away while calling for help, multiple different events took place at the same time.

"MEOW!"

Lucky had already been poised to make his move.

The gem cat had spent years with Ves, so it was not surprising that the two could understand each other to this extent.

Yet before Lucky's energy claws had a chance to shred Master Quan's head, the entire man's body heated up as all of his implants and modified organs started to initiate a lot of complex processes while overheating!

All of these augmentations possessed fairly normal functions on the surface. It was only after Master Quan flipped a mental switch that they completely abandoned their original jobs and assumed new ones!

"Ahhh!"

The Master Mech Designer screamed in pain as his entire body started to break down as his insides became unrecognizable.

Previously innocent technological augmentations turned into much more dangerous devices after they spontaneously combined and rearranged themselves.

This happened so quickly that by the time that Lucky was halfway into killing the old man, the would-be assassin released a powerful electrical shock that not only blasted the gem cat head-on, but also pushed the victim away!

"MEEEEEEOOOOW!"

The powerful shock immediately burned Master Quan's chest and inflicted catastrophic damage to his health, but the effect was good!

Lucky's archemetal body possessed a high resistance against electrical currents, so the cat did not actually receive any crippling damage.

The furious cat shook his shocked body and tried to fly forward again.

Yet before he could get close enough, the complex alien metal garment worn by the old man unfolded and started to envelop both Ves and Master Quan!

In fact, the metal construct did more than that. Parts of it actually started to fuse with Master Quan's body, producing a horrendous fusion between flesh and machine.

The formation of this thin but surprisingly resilient metal curtain isolated Ves from his protectors!

By the time the mechers responded to the crisis, they found that it was impossible to teleport Ves away or form a protective energy shield around his body.

They weren't able to see through or affect the thin metal cage through multiple means.

"What is this device?!"

"None of our scanners are able to identify either mech designers."

"Lock down the entire arena and call for reinforcements!"

The closest first-class multipurpose mechs had already begun to move. It was unthinkable for them to rescue their principal by opening fire on the strange metal sphere, so they all moved forward at the highest possible speed in order to physically break it open!

All of this took time, however.

This was a crucial distinction for Master Quan. He never expected to be able to hold back the mechers for long. He just had to delay them for a few crucial moments in order to pull off his dangerous plan.

"Surrender your life so that a more deserving human can become a phase lord!

"Never!..."

A huge amount of power erupted from this bizarre metal cage. An abnormally strong and weird space suppression field came online.

Ves was familiar with space suppressors, so he immediately felt that this one was considerably different than normal.

His body felt a lot heavier. His control over his body had also become a lot worse. Ves did not know what was going on. The sense of danger continued to increase as Master Quan continued to activate one extreme measure after another.

Ves needed to be more proactive!

If he did not break this situation straight away, the highly prepared Master Mech Designer would surely find a way to kill his target!

"Don't...underestimate...my...strength...!"

When Ves decided that it was no longer important to protect his dignity during a live broadcast, he let go of his restraint and tried to unfold his true body.

Phase lords were known for their physical prowess! Their resilience far exceeded almost any other life form.

If Ves wanted to overcome this crisis, it was essential for him to rely on his superior physique.

Just as he was about to unfold his true body right away, Ves experienced a wave of pain that ran across his entire form!

"What?!"

The oppressive field prevented Ves from unfolding his true body!

He could feel as if the existing spatial folds had been strengthened to the point where they became solid and permanent fixtures.

Though Ves could feel that he could break this temporary state as long as he exerted enough power, he was too weak at this time!

Master Quan smirked. "We already know your weakness! The bulk of your powerful physique shall remain locked as long as you have lost control over the space that occupies your form!"

Ves felt a lot more alarmed at this development! Though he was still a lot harder to kill in his current state, he became a lot more afraid of what other measures Master Quan prepared.

The man might be insane, but he was also a highly knowledgeable mech designer. Since he had chosen to go through with this radical measure, then he had to have taken Ves' vastly superior physical condition into account.

The only question was where Master Quan expected to gain all of the power needed to inflict fatal damage onto a phase lord.

Whatever actions the crazy cosmopolitan pulled off so far only isolated Ves for a brief amount of time.

The strange metal curtain was overloading its advanced and alien systems so hard that it already started to melt and fry from all of the excess load.

Suppressing a phase lord with such a small contraption was far harder than it looked!

Ves could already feel that the abnormal space suppression field had begun to weaken.

He became confident that he could forcefully unfold his true body just a couple of seconds later!

However, Master Quan knew this as well. The dangerous conspirator never intended to give Ves anymore time!

During the time that Ves and Master Quan became entangled with each other, the situation in the arena had changed drastically.

Alarms had begun to ring while many spectators only just started to realize that something had gone terribly wrong.

In the middle of Phoca Arena, the Dustweaver no longer fought against the Elite Fey Fianna. The battered mech abruptly began to overload and transform its systems in record time!

The mech pilot of the Fey Fianna grew confused, but suddenly received instructions to restrain the Dustweaver as quickly as possible!

Unfortunately, the drone mech was not able to respond in time.

It only took a few seconds for the Dustweaver to transform into a radically different machine!

It no longer looked as charming and proportionate as before. A large amount of parts had molded into the arms and the weapons of the Dustweaver.

Just as the arena's security system started to box the aberrant machine inside a cage of strong transphasic energy shields, the mutated Dustweaver abruptly threw out its transformed oscillator hammer!

W00000000000000M!

The energy shields did not break, but their formation got delayed long enough for the Dustweaver to lift and aim its radically upsized molecular disintegrator straight into the direction of the metal curtain!

Even though there were numerous other energy shields in the way, the machine did not seem to take them seriously!

Just before the overloading machine was about to open fire, all of its decay energy abruptly transformed into pure destruction energy!

The stability of this energy attribute was so poor that it accelerated the breakdown of the transformed Dustweaver!

The mech might not even last more than a second before it malfunctioned and broke down, but it didn't seem to matter because it was able to remain functional enough to pull the trigger.

KRHRAAAAAAAAAA!

An incredibly loud and indescribable noise exploded from the Dustweaver as it fired a destructive energy wave from its abnormal molecular disintegrator!

The extraordinarily powerful attack passed through all of the transphasic energy shields in the way as if they did not exist and struck the metal curtain in an instant!

"NOOOO!"