5030 Rumors Ves was taken aback by all of the explosive intelligence shared by Master Benedict. While he was glad that the Kingdom of Mechs was apparently able to function properly across all distances, he did not expect for the mechers to talk about splitting up this magnificent feat of spiritual engineering. This was too fast and radical! Ves hardly knew whether it was even possible to cut off a chunk of the kingdom and have it function on its own without any apparent issues. What if the people advocating for this option were wrong? What if tampering with the creation of the Progenitors of Mechs to such a radical degree would end up ruining it entirely? Both branches of humanity would suffer as a result! If not for the fact that the survival and future development trajectories of all humans were at stake due to the Great Severing, the mechers would never tolerate such talk! Ves continued to mull over what he heard. He realized that there was strong pressure to split up the Kingdom of Mechs on both sides of humanity. "The original humans back in the Milky Way are scared witless by Messier 87." Benedict told Ves. "They are unable to accept a reality where they are no longer the galactic overlords. While there are still plenty of mechers in the old galaxy that look forward to benefiting from the explosive advancements that we can make by taking advantage of a more supportive environment, there are also people who do not think the risks are worth it. What if a powerful alien supercivilization is able to use the Kingdom of Mechs to locate and teleport over to the Milky Way? Even if there is only a 0.01 percent chance of this happening, this is already too great of a risk! The Great Severing was considered an ultra-low probability event as well, but look what happened. The ancient phase whales played us all for fools." Ves understood this sentiment. Not everyone was willing to take a gamble like himself. When the continued existence of original humanity was at stake, its leaders could not afford to play games! He could already deduce that it was the Survivalists back home that were more eager than most to cut off such a strong direct connection between both branches of humanity! "Then there are the mechers on our side of the cosmos." Benedict continued. "As long as we can overcome all of the new challenges, our mech industry will undoubtedly become strong beyond our imagination. Why should the original humans gain access to all of our hard-earned work when they have experienced none of the dangers and only made marginal contributions? Ever since our two galaxies have moved too far apart, it is no longer possible to keep our interests united anymore." As a red human himself, Ves also felt that it may be a tad bit unfair to share all of his hard work related to living mechs to the lazy bums back in the old galaxy. It was a lot easier for him to put his support behind this radical proposal as he did not have any strong attachments to any people in the Milky Way. The same could not be said for other people. These folk were probably in favor of keeping the two branches of humanity as closely connected to each other as possible. Any cutting of ties would definitely cause the two groups of humans to become more alienated towards each other! "Why do you think the Polymath is such a strong proponent of this idea?" Ves asked the other mech designer. "Is it because she is concerned about the survival of original humanity?" "That may play a factor, but there is a much more compelling reason why she wants red humanity to carve out its own kingdom." "Is it because... she wants to obtain greater control over it?" Ves guessed. Master Benedict nodded. "That is what I think so as well. Think about it. A single Star Designer cannot exert much influence over the Kingdom of Mechs when there are a hundred other competing mech designers of the same rank. The situation is radically different when the Polymath only has to share power with a handful of other Star Designers. Even if the separated kingdom is much weaker, the greater control makes up for it as the few Star Designers left can implement all sorts of plans that they could not push through back during the Age of Mechs." For whatever reason, Ves easily believed this reason. Although he only possessed a shallow understanding of the Polymath, her apparent usage of a fragment of the Metal Scroll clearly indicated that she was ambitious and hungry for power! Ves couldn't determine whether it was good or bad to let the Polymath gain so much say over red humanity's entire mech community. It was too much power for any single person to handle in a responsible manner. "Do you know how many Star Designers and god pilots we have in the Red Ocean? The Red MTA has never been quite clear about this matter." "We have 14 Star Designers and 8 god pilots according to one of my sources." Master Benedict replied. "There are more Star Designers in our dwarf galaxy because they became attracted by the availability of phasewater and new alien technologies. The amount of god pilots is relatively less as the Big Two regarded the aliens of the Milky Way to be a greater threat than the natives of the Red Ocean. If not for the coincidental arrival of the Destroyer of Worlds, it would have been exponentially more difficult for our isolated civilization to resist the natives that now outnumber us by a massive margin." Ves blinked. It turned out that he was not only responsible for enabling the rise of a god pilot, but also dragging her to the Red Ocean in time to get dragged along to this wild intergalactic adventure! "That's not a lot of god pilots." Ves muttered. "I hope that the Red MTA figures out how to increase the success rate of breaking through to god pilot. There has to be a way to make this happen with the help of exotic radiation." Benedict smiled. "I have news on that as well. The mechers have gathered more clues that suggest that it will become easier for expert pilots to advance to ace pilots. The quantity of ace pilots will likely explode in the next decade as many high-tier expert pilots who have been hindered by their bottlenecks are able to break through with the help of the constantly improving conditions." "It will take a lot more time for them to grow into senior ace pilots and even more time than that to have any hope of going through the Mech Body Merger Process." Ves pointed out. "It is still questionable whether red humanity will remain alive by that time." "That is true, Ves, but leave this matter to the Red MTA. Since the mechers are so eager to retain their rule over our society, they must also take up the corresponding responsibilities." The two talked a bit more about major developments and high level matters. Ves did not know where Master Benedict got all of his news from, but he turned out to possess a surprising amount of insider information despite the fact that he was still a relatively new second-class Master Mech Designer! "The mechers have already discovered a lot of different properties and uses of E energy radiation. This is not that difficult to understand as it is merely an external source of psionic power. It is R particle radiation that is truly perplexing to everyone. None of us have worked with it before. It doesn't even exist in our extensive scientific theories. We have to start completely from scratch to even gather basic information about its properties. Taking advantage of it is another difficult hurdle. We do not even know how it affects life and matter as of yet. It will take many years for basic research to emerge." Ves frowned when he heard this. "If R particle radiation is so new and elusive, why did the Red Two mention it in their public address? How did they manage to catch it in the first place?" Master Benedict looked a little less certain. "From the rumors that I have heard, it is actually the god pilots that have initially picked up on its existence. They have near-absolute control over their god kingdoms. Even the most subtle changes cannot escape their detection. Whatever they found out about the particles that are spewing out of the Dark Source, it was important enough to mention it in the same speech that announced the Age of Dawn." It made sense. God pilots should indeed be able to pick up on R particle radiation. They may even have a few clues on how it affected red humanity. The big speech certainly suggested that it might be able to make a massive difference in the long run! However, Ves and many other mech designers became frustrated by the lack of useful information about this phenomenon. Nobody possessed the hardware to capture R particles and study their effects on different objects. It was not as if they had a pet god pilot on hand who could conveniently assist in the study of R particles! "What do you think R particle radiation can actually do?" Ves asked. "I have heard many rumors about that, but none of them are credible. I think it is safest to assume it can amplify the effects of E energy radiation. That not only conforms with the Red Two's publications, but also fits a certain logic. Both kinds of radiation originate from the same galaxy. Just as there are exotics in the Red Ocean that synergize well with phasewater, it is not that big of leap to assume that E and R radiation have a close relationship with each other." Ves grew more and more suspicious about the value of R particle radiation. Not everything produced by a black hole was valuable, but he had a growing hunch that it would become a key resource in the future. It may take a generation or two before red humanity figured out the truth, so there was little point in thinking about it further. Ves and Master Benedict eventually shifted their discussion to other topics. They exchanged their findings on how exotic radiation changed their work and how they expected it to change in the future. Even though their design philosophies were far apart, it was always useful to share their own views and gain a second opinion on many matters. Ves happened to be able to provide a lot of feedback due to his extensive understanding of spiritual energy and spiritual engineering. Master Benedict might not be as well-versed in this area, but his foundation and insights in regular mech design were much stronger! "It is not just us that are trying to adapt to the new circumstances." Benedict warned Ves. "Don't forget about the aliens. The puelmers and the other native alien races are trying to improve their technologies as well." "Do you know if exotic radiation is affecting phasewater in any way?" "E energy radiation has no discernable effects on phasewater. That does not mean the native aliens have other ways of strengthening their forces. They are stealing more and more tech from us. Any advancements we make will eventually fall into the hands of the Red Cabal. There are still cosmopolitans lurking in the shadows who are trying their best to complete their misguided goal of uniting humans and aliens." "Those bastards pushed us into this desperate position in the first place. They're fools if they think we would feel any gratitude towards them for 'saving' us from a problem of their own making!" The continuing interference from the cosmopolitans was definitely making everything worse. These crazies would not stop until humans and aliens magically joined hands and formed a true cosmopolitan society across the Red Ocean and beyond!