The Mech Touch

Chapter 7582 Low Bargaining Power

Ves had managed to come to an accord with the Dark Apostle.

He had made a promise to give up his claim on his own true body.

Suffice to say, he did not do so eagerly.

While he often felt ambivalent about the prowess of his phase lord constitution, he still appreciated its imposing physical might and its impressive spatial affinity.

Giving up such a fantastic body and migrating back to a purely human form represented a massive loss in strength and capabilities.

He would no longer feel as invincible as now. One of the greatest reassurances of possessing the body of a phase lord was that it made him immune to most forms of assassination.

Having been the target of those himself, Ves knew that he could absolutely not take this threat lightly. This was especially the case for a leader and innovator as successful and prominent as himself.

If he truly surrendered his true body to the Dark Apostle, then Ves would have to return to a state where his human vulnerability once again became a persistent weakness.

Good gear and strong escorts may help with blocking the vast majority of targeted attacks, but Ves knew from rich experience that such external aid could only help him so much.

A man prone to making enemies and causing trouble was bound to get his feet wet on occasion!

Given how often danger knocked on his doors, he shouldn't have conceded his true body so easily. Many humans would kill to obtain such a god-like physique. Not only was it strong and powerful enough to contend against mechs and even high-ranking mechs with good equipment, it also granted its bearer an unimaginably long biological lifespan!

The Red Ocean was filled with old fossils who had lived for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years.

Even if these ancient aliens had spent much of those years in hibernation and tended to develop utterly atrophied minds, the fact that they managed to live through the rise and fall of many civilizations was undoubtedly true!

This benefit alone was enough to move a huge amount of individuals!

Yet Ves did not count himself among them. To a man who had stepped on the path of Spiritual Ascension, he knew that there were far more ways to attain immortality than following this alien method.

He also did not fall into the trap that he could sit back and relax for a couple million years.

Red humanity faced far too many threats to guarantee its own survival! There was no telling if humans would still exist in this dwarf galaxy a century later.

Ves was especially in danger of getting hunted down by an extra-galactic God King after getting soul marked!

Due to this immense threat, Ves could not afford to distract himself too much with too many irrelevant activities.

To him, the pursuit of godhood by imitating the practices of the phase whale race became a detriment.

Even if Ves managed to become an ancient phase lord in record time, so what? He seriously doubted that such a powerful brute would be able to make any meaningful contributions in the fight to repel the Subjugation King!

God mechs had already proven multiple times that they could easily smack ancient phase whales around.

Once the former all received their superdimensional upgrades, this disparity would only grow wider.

It didn't even matter if the ancient phase whales all developed their own superdimensional gear. These smart and powerful aliens may be able to develop numerous phasewater organs that directly amplified the performance of their flashy weapons and raiments, but Ves doubted that they could come close to the reality-defying effects of a God Kingdom!

When it came down to it, Ves remained convinced that the strongest individual combat unit was a god mech.

It represented the best hope of defeating or killing the Subjugation King. None of the other freaks and would-be gods had much of a chance of doing the same.

Not even the emergence of Goliaths or high-ranking deathborn managed to change his long-standing belief in the superiority of god mechs.

To Ves, the best way to ensure his continued survival and that of his family was to do his utmost to improve the strength of mechs and especially god mechs.

That meant that he needed to become a Star Designer as quickly as possible!

Short of becoming a god pilot himself, the best way for him to make a substantial enough difference was to become a vaunted Star Designer and gain the qualifications to develop his own salvation.

Even if red humanity already enjoyed the services of a dozen or so highly-qualified Star Designers, that was far from enough in his opinion.

Compared to the previous state where a united human civilization enjoyed the services of a hundred Star Designers, the current state after the Great Severing already exposed many shortcomings due to losing access to way too much expertise.

The Red Ocean's mech industry desperately needed to nurture a new generation of Star Designers to accelerate the progression of mechs!

Compared to becoming a stronger brute, Ves vastly preferred to pursue power through his original ambition.

There was nothing wrong with winning battles by enabling others that were willing to fight on his behalf.

Perhaps there are many people that would never make such a sacrifice, but Ves never considered himself to be a fighter in the first place.

He ultimately valued his humanity more. He instinctively felt that giving up this massive burden and all of the responsibilities that came with it would ultimately help him progress further in his primary profession.

Unlike Ketis who insisted on becoming a so-called dual cultivator, Ves never really cared too much about becoming strong in other ways. He was much more willing to discard a powerful advantage if it was not an essential component to his dream.

The Dark Apostle naturally felt all of his counterpart's sincerity. He had no reason to doubt or question Ves at all because this kind of sincerity could not be faked.

While Ves technically could not make good on his promise until at least several more years had passed, the giant leader still had an unreasonably high confidence that he would definitely get what he wanted sooner or later.

Whether they would achieve separation through messing around with a lesser Collie organ or whatever did not matter. The specifics could be investigated at a later time.

What mattered the most at the moment was overcoming their current ordeal.

The Dark Apostle focused his attention on the Riot Mark III's predicament once more.

"Your sincerity has won me over. In order to encourage you to fulfill your promise, I will cooperate in any way I can. If you still want to, I can move forward and distract the deathborn lord."

The injured Ascended Giant did not make this offer lightly, but he felt the need to prove himself worthy of Ves' generosity.

For once in their lives, both occupants of the same true body had formed a genuine bond of trust between each other!

"That will not be necessary." Blinky shook his head. "We shouldn't take any needless risks. Since I have already made a concession, I might as well do it again. Remain stationary and let me reach out to the Riot Mark III."

The condition of the ace spearman mech had worsened due to the unforeseen delay. Ves truly did not think he could afford to waste too much time with nonsense, so he tried to send a message that sounded as direct as possible.

"Prophet's Bane! I know that you can hear this transmission! Do not pretend to be feral and unintelligible. You should be intelligent and rational enough to comprehend human speech. Let me be straight with you. I want you to set aside your hostility towards Rosa Orfan, let her regain full control over your mech and help her defeat all of the enemies in her way."

"..."

Ves naturally did not receive a response, but he was not finished.

"I am not asking you to comply for free. As long as you agree with my demands, I am willing to accommodate any reasonable demand. While I am not willing to let you devour Saint Orfan's soul and take over the Riot completely, I can still agree to other requests. For example, do you want to spend more time where you retain sole control over the Riot? Do you want to obtain a small-scale avatar that will enable you to interact with society more easily? I am even willing to build a small army of D-mechs that solely answer to you. Each of these boons can directly or indirectly help you gain advantage in your struggle for dominance."

He felt bad for Saint Orfan for making such suggestions, but what could he do? If she was strong enough to resist the mental attacks of her current opponent, his bargaining power wouldn't have been reduced to this point!

Though the Riot Mark III did not show any immediate reactions to his enticement, Ves could still feel a shift in mood from the rogue machine.

He successfully managed to arouse the Middle Demon's interest.