The Mech Touch

Ves recalled everything he witnessed during his recent visit to Ocanon VI.

The entire planet turned into a hunting preserve. Large groups of hunters had set up shop and regularly hunted the mutated beasts that constantly popped up across the untamed planet.

None of that sounded particularly noteworthy, but what surprised Ves the most was that the people who took up this lifestyle had started to cultivate according to the instructions of the Hunter's Code!

Back then, Ves quickly figured out that the Huntsman deliberately reformed the Hunter's Association and encouraged the spread of mysterious rituals in order to profit from all of the successful hunts.

It was only now that Ves filled in the remaining pieces of the puzzle and understood the Huntsman's entire layout.

Just as Ves suspected, the Huntsman definitely engaged in a form of predatory or carnivorous cultivation!

By setting up all of these hunting preserves and stimulating the development of a large and prosperous extraordinary hunting community, every professional hunter would constantly transfer a variety of energies including maybe faith energy through sacrificial rituals!

The Huntsman did not even have to do anything to sustain this cycle aside from rewarding the hard-working hunters with miniscule injections of his own strength!

The god pilot and his support staff came up with a meticulous plan and executed it perfectly.

With the help of the extensive background of the Red Association, the Huntsman was already far ahead of the Destroyer of Worlds.

It wasn't Irene's fault. The fact of the matter was that a former off-shoot of the Five Scrolls Compact had access to much more complete high-level cultivation knowledge than a relatively young and shallow first-rate superstate!

Even though the New Rubarth Empire once represented the dominant attitude of the human race, it was clearly lacking when it came to respecting and preserving old traditions.

Ves did not ask why the mechers declined to give the Destroyer of Worlds the same level of support they provided to the Huntsman.

He also did not ask why the Destroyer of Worlds took the initiative to ask the mechers for assistance.

What was the point of asking questions when he already knew the answers?

Ves just became a little more disappointed in the Red Association.

In an age where red humanity confronted multiple existential threats, the mechers still refused to do what was best for the greatest whole and instead sought to advance their own interests.

What if the Huntsman and the other 4 god pilots who led the Red Association failed to resist the looming calamities?

Leaving out the Destroyer of Worlds seemed like a mistake! She was by far the most destructive god pilot among them. She possessed the best chance at harming whatever God King-level adversary that was on the way.

However, the decisions of the mechers was not entirely illogical. If Ves looked at the Red Ocean from a resource-oriented perspective, then it was clear that this small dwarf galaxy could support the growth of only a handful of god pilots.

The more True Gods vied for the same pool of resources, the more their overall progress slowed down.

The current population of humans in the new frontier was highly deficient. The short time that the greater beyonder gate opened up for business was clearly not enough to fill up all of the available living spaces in just a relatively small corner of the dwarf galaxy.

Ves widened his eyes in realization.

So that was why the Polymath was so insistent on producing a lot of batch humans!

Her ploy to explosively increase the population of humans by producing them en masse out of biofactories may be a desperate attempt to increase the production of faith energy!

That certainly explained why the mechers embraced this initiative even as they rebuked the Polymath's ambitious takeover attempt.

Every major policy decision appeared to be related to the power of faith in one way or another.

Ves began to comprehend so many more high-level layouts now that he was able to understand the greater context that drove the decision-making at the top.

At this time, Irene looked visibly upset and conflicted at the options presented by the wiser and more knowledgeable True God.

"You do not have a choice." The Superior Mother spoke with a voice that became more ethereal as she spoke with divine authority. "The Red Ocean is too small for you. Do you know why the phase whales take so many years to increase their phasewater concentration to 100 percent? It is because their home galaxy cannot sustain a higher growth rate without losing equilibrium. This is also one of the reasons why the phase whales are characterized by low fecundity. Since the aliens are suffering from resource scarcity, red humanity is faring even worse. Every gentle and sustainable means of cultivation is ultimately limited."

That was bad news to the Destroyer of Worlds. Her morals and conviction caused her to resist Cynthia's suggestion.

The god pilot grimaced. [I do not think you are wrong, Cynthia, but there has to be a better solution than harvesting the faith of unwilling alien victims. Earlier, you alluded to the possibility of increasing the faith that can be harvested from a fixed population of people.]

"Humans are weak, but possess limitless potential. If you can create a church and spread your faith among the masses, you may be able to derive more faith from them. However, the population of the Rubarthan Pact is not sufficient enough. You will need to increase their devotion and fanaticism to a drastic height in order to gain the most out of them, but that may still not be enough to meet your needs."

[What if we institute policies to explosively increase the birth rate? What if we invest large amounts of resources into the birth of artificial humans?]

"Not enough." Cynthia shook her head. "You are vastly underestimating the scale needed to reach the fourth rank. A small pond cannot breed a large fish. The cost of becoming a God King is too great. This is why I suggest you change your target and harvest the faith of aliens instead. Unlike humans who have only arrived in this dwarf galaxy for a short amount of time, all of the sentient aliens in the Red Ocean have evolved and proliferated for eons. So much of it is available for plunder. It is true that the side effects of doing so will be severe, but we can devise targeted solutions to mitigate the repercussions."

Irene still looked conflicted. Even Emma started to grow more restless as the god pilot struggled to resolve this dilemma.

Ves sympathized with the god pilot. Despite the massive kill count on her name, she was not actually a murderer at heart. She always saw herself as a professional and disciplined soldier.

She could always justify each act of killing no matter the scale. She was just following orders in all of those cases.

At most, the people who issued orders to her claimed most of the responsibility for her occasionally excessive deeds.

This was different. This sort of killing was much more selfish and damaging. Unbridled killing would definitely escalate the Red War and enrage the native aliens to the point where neither side could stop fighting unless they completely annihilated the other party!

Yet... did the Destroyer of Worlds have any other choice?

What else was she supposed to do? Cynthia had clearly told her that every other alternative was worse.

"Please listen to my mother, Irene." Ves spoke up as he continued to stroke Emma's back. "As she has mentioned before, the demands you have issued are so difficult to meet that you will have to make compromises that you are not comfortable with. From my perspective, your greatest mission is to protect and guarantee the continued survival of red humanity. Your continued refusal to accept the solution offered to you suggests that you believe that your honor and integrity are more important than the lives of every red human who depends on you. Are you truly willing to stand by your principles in the face of human extinction?"

[...)

"I truly wish you can develop your strength in a more benign and healthy fashion." Ves continued in a gentler tone. "However, we do not live in an ideal environment. We are constantly beset by scarcity and shortages. Our position is similar to humanity back during the Age of Stars. We are so outgunned and outnumbered by our alien adversaries that our chances of defeating them back then was virtually zero. Do you know what our race did when we faced those impossible odds?"

The early starfaring history of humanity in the Milky Way was ingrained in the hearts and minds of every modern human.

[We flipped the board.] The Destroyer of Worlds knowingly answered. [We stopped playing by the unfair and restrictive rules of the aliens and started to take what we needed by force, deception, subversion, betrayal and more. Humans conducted many shameful acts that have gone unrecorded because they were unwilling to pass their stories on to their descendants.]

Ves stared directly at Irene's current form. "Honor is a luxury. Winning is a necessity. If the former has turned into an obstacle to the latter, then you must distinguish your priorities. Everyone you care about will die if you make the wrong choices."

Even though he was just a cultivator of the first major rank, his words somehow had a profound effect on a god pilot.

God pilots always had a reputation for being decisive and harboring no doubts, but it appeared that the reality was a lot more nuanced than the descriptions.

Ves was not too surprised. The Destroyer of Worlds retained more of her humanity than her peers. Her internal struggle also centered around a contradiction between her goals and her principles. Not even the most decisive True God would be able to resolve such a difficult conflict so easily!

This was where Ves came in. He possessed an outsider's perspective to this problem. He believed he possessed a much more rational and objective understanding of the matter at hand.

"The legendary deeds and actions of Supreme Marshal Caramond Perle and his growing band of human supremacists are often characterized as evil, dishonorable and despicable. Yet when people like us study this part of our early history, we often celebrate and admire the humans who sparked off the magnificent Age of Conquest. Do you know why? It is because the end justifies the means. Those heroes of old fulfilled their greatest mission. They saved the human race from extinction, enslavement or total assimilation. We not only retained our freedom and our right to determine our own destiny, but also dominated the galaxy! How could latecomers such as us possibly blame or recriminate the early human supremacists for getting their hands dirty?"

The Superior Mother backed up her son. "History is cyclical. It has a tendency to repeat. It would do you well to study the wisdom of our predecessors. Back then, they rejected the hypocritical values of the Cosmopolitan Movement and decided that the aliens did not deserve to be treated as equals. When the future of humanity is at stake, respect and care towards the enemy has become a luxury that you can dispense with. Do not put the interests of hostile aliens above the interests of the humans that you should actually care about."

Under the double persuasion of two Larkinsons, the god pilot finally crumbled.

[Fine.] Irene finally said. [Perhaps I will regret this decision one day, but this is the burden that I am willing to shoulder as long as my actions can contribute to the survival of red humanity. The premise to this is that your proposed solution is effective. If your strategy is not viable enough, then I would rather stay true to my principles and fight to the death with my honor and dignity intact.]

"You do not have to be concerned about that." The Supreme Mother grinned like a Cheshire cat. "I have already made good use of this time to compose a preliminary blueprint that should fulfill your essential needs. We shall make an excellent demonic cultivator out of you, Irene."

[Demonic... cultivator...?]