The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3870

Chapter 3870 Fishing for Concessions

"So let me get this straight, Ves. You made contact with a powerful alien leader. Not only did you manage to convince it to conduct a major trade deal, you also persuaded it to get onboard your insane plan to raid the Phase Kingdom."

"Correct. The last part is conditional on our ability to lure the Swarmers to the Phase Kingdom. Before our task force returned to Fort Fishblood, the Cerebral King had transferred a lot of data about the fish-whales and more specifically the Swarmers. I've already passed this data repository to the Larkinson Biotech Institute."

"And what is this I hear about our mechs getting pulled into spontaneous duels and sparring sessions against the Evolver fish-whales?"

"Hey, nothing went wrong. Everything went fine as far as I could tell. The language barrier and cultural differences aren't as difficult to deal with as we thought. As long as we approach each other with good intentions, we will be able to forge new friendships by focusing on what we have in common."

This was a lesson that Ves had applied in many different contexts. While he was surprised how easily his troops managed to break the ice with their fish-whale counterparts, he had no reason to reject this development.

Calabast looked suspicious at what she heard. She never put her faith in luck and happenstance. If something favorable or unfavorable occurred, there had to be an underlying reason why it unfolded in a specific manner!

"These fish-whales have never encountered a race other than themselves in their lives. They adapted to the existence of humans and mechs remarkably quickly, don't you think? Doesn't that make you wonder whether they have contacted outsiders before?"

Ves tapped his armored finger against the table. "I did, but I soon rejected it. The fish-whales genuinely behaved as if they haven't met outsiders before. The fact that they did not act aggressively is not an automatic sign that they are plotting a conspiracy. I think our glows must have played a key role in convincing the fish-whales to hang out with our mechs. The fish-whales shouldn't have much experience with this phenomenon."

This was a plausible explanation. Those who did not have any experiences with supportive glows often reacted positively to them during their first encounters. That may have fostered additional trust from the fish-whales.

Ves and Calabast continued to argue about other related topics. The spymaster did not hold back in grilling Ves about the dubious decisions he made during their first proper contact with the Evolver fish-whales.

Meanwhile, their pets engaged in a different sort of conversation.

"Meow?"

"Squeak."

"Meow meow."

"Squeak squeak!"

Lucky curiously sniffed Arnold's form that was currently clad in a custom protective suit that accommodated his extra legs. _{frёeweɓηovel.coɱ}

The mutated beast turned design spirit had done well since the Larkinsons adopted him. His chubby form had grown a little fatter, which was a sign that he was not short of nutrition these days.

What was more impressive about Arnold was how his spirituality had grown by leaps and bounds. Not only did he possess more spiritual weight, he also became affected by the high-quality spiritual feedback provided by Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson.

"Squeak squeak."

"Meow meow."

"Squeak!"

"Meow!"

When Lucky jumped on top of Arnold's suited body, the gem cat acted smugly as he pretended to ride the mutated arganid clisenta.

Arnold initially tried to shake the annoying cat off his back, but the cat was too good at staying in position!

"Squeak!"

Three different copies of Arnold appeared in the blink of an eye.

No matter how good Lucky was at sticking onto an exobeast's back, there was only one of him and three of Arnold!

The identical copies Arnold did not last long. They barely appeared for a second before two of them disappeared.

Lucky lost his grip and floated in the air as the Arnold that was originally beneath its paws disappeared from existence.

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

The Arnold that had initially appeared to the left couldn't help but gloat. He had become a lot more proficient in his abilities as of late! ꜰʀᴇᴇᴡᴇʙɴoᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ

As Calabast listened to Ves as he explained his reasoning and motivations, she tentatively nodded.

"I wouldn't have resorted to such direct measures, but then again you didn't have much time on your hands. The choices you've made are forgivable since you had to resort to haste and immediate benefits in order to convince the Cerebral King to agree to a more extensive deal. Still… these other concessions are not trivial either. Let's see what you have promised. Aside from the information package that you have already transferred over, you also agreed to transfer 2,000 tons of low-grade exotics, 2 million nutrient packs, 30 mech-grade power reactors and a single starship-grade power reactor."

"Do you have a problem with that?" Ves asked.

"This is way too much, Ves!" Calabast snapped. "The information you have transferred to the Evolvers has reduced our information advantage. The materials that we are in the process of shipping over will skew the balance of power between us and the fish-whales. The Cerebral King can quickly make use of the power reactors and other materials to increase its battle strength. The goods that the king fish has promised in return are much more difficult for us to convert into advantages. It will take years of dedicated research before they can be used to empower our mechs. That won't help us in the short term!"

"You have a point, but it shouldn't make a difference. The reason why I agreed to give them those power reactors is because it is to our benefit that they gain an immediate power boost. The stronger they become, the greater their confidence. You should have seen how reluctant the Cerebral King looked whenever I talked about attacking the Phase Kingdom. Only by boosting the strength of the Evolvers can we convince them to overcome their institutional inertia and accept that the circumstances have changed!"

Giving the Evolvers power reactors was like giving wings to a tiger. As long as the Cerebral King was smart enough to make proper use of the energy output of the reactors, the fight against the Phaser fish-whales shouldn't be as one-sided as before!

Calabast scrolled through the list displayed by the data pad. "Let's move on to the concessions that you have extracted from the fish-whales. In exchange for the concessions that you have made, the fish-whales promised to provide us with basic information about fish-whale organ design and production. The Cerebral King has also agreed to supply us with 50 sets of partial Evolver fish-whale skeletons, 30 normal fish-whale organs and 1 'king-grade' fish-whale organ."

"That's right. Do you have any questions regarding these demands?"

"Let me ask you this. Why the fish-whale skeletons? They're not actual phase whale bones, you know! This is literally biojunk!"

"Maybe you're right, but I beg to differ." Ves replied. "The bones of the stronger fish-whales are quite tough and hard. They are also decent carriers of my design philosophy. Even if they aren't as useful as I hoped, I can still use them as raw materials for totems and other remarkable products."

Calabast didn't fully understand this argument, so she decided to move on to complaining about the next points.

"And the organs? What do you intend to do with them? Are you thinking about integrating them in our mechs? I seriously don't see how you can make it work. These organs are designed to strengthen fish-whales. There is a huge distance between this and augmenting mechs!"

Ves chuckled. "I think you are misunderstanding something here, Calabast. While I do have the intention to figure out whether it is possible to integrate those ready-made organs in future biomechs or cyborg mechs, that is not my main purpose. My actual goal is to combine our possession of the finished goods with the basic knowledge on organ design that we've received to reverse engineer this application of phase whale biotechnology!"

The woman finally comprehended his underlying motive.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Ves grinned. "Exactly."