Chapter 7360: Collaborating With Ritualists Though the higher-ups shot down his request to make an attempt to establish a stronger myth, it may have been for the best. When Ves reflected on his mindset at the time, he readily admitted that he had been overtaken by hubris. He went too far. His competitive urges had acted up when he learned about the nature of myths and rituals. He did not feel content with reproducing an existing myth in a pathetic manner. The difference in scope, scale, accuracy and other factors made him feel so inferior that he felt shamed at all of the inadequacies. His inner Gloriana must have made a resurgence, prompting him to devise a much more elaborate plan that actually involved the kidnapping and ritualistic sacrifice of actual ace pilots! Now that he regained his sanity, he gradually realized that harvesting the lives of actual saints for the express purpose of reusing their spirituality in a macabre experiment would taint his name and reputation forever! Perhaps it would bring him a lot closer to realizing one of the visions where his society turned against him and shackled him in an ominous chamber. Though Ves knew that the higher he climbed, the more he could get away with transgressions, he had yet to join the ranks of the true power players. Until he became as powerful as the likes of the Polymath, he needed to remain careful about his words and deeds. He could only occasionally dictate the rules whenever he introduced a grand new invention or convinced the public to accept his crazy ideas. Outside of that, he was still a part of the same society as everyone else, which meant he needed to abide by its various rules. In a civilization that had been influenced by a strong and ubiquitous mech culture for centuries, mech pilots and especially the ones who had tread on the path to godhood earned an exalted status among humans. They were more than simple soldiers and warriors. Anyone could become a fighter if they joined a dojo or enlisted in an infantry or naval unit. No. Mech pilots possessed greater honor and valor because they had not only been blessed with compatible genetic aptitude, but chose to develop their potential and become professional mech pilots in an age where they bore the main burden of engaging in warfare. Even though the age where mechs had nearly completely displaced other war platforms such as infantry, tanks and warships had come to an end, that did not diminish their status in the present age all that much. God pilots remained overbearingly strong. With these immensely powerful standard bearers taking the lead in protecting fragile human space, it became natural for other mech pilots to benefit from their existing glory. This was especially the case for ace pilots, who had made it much farther on the path of godhood than most of their peers! For these reasons and more, openly talking about sacrificing ’disobedient’ ace pilots still remained a definite taboo. It did not matter whether they betrayed their oaths and turned their hostility against their fellow humans. It did not matter that they harbored intentions to destroy life-saving research samples and technology. It did not matter that their actions forced red humanity to scramble scarce forces and resources that could have been better spent at combating the alien threats. So long as millions upon millions of mech pilots fought at the frontlines and served as examples to other people, they would continue to retain the honor and status that they had rightfully earned. Under this climate, it was a really bad idea to earn the universal hostility of the entire mech piloting profession. It was especially egregious for a mech designer like Ves to become tainted with this stigma! Even if he harbored nefarious intentions towards mech pilots, he should not act stupid and engage in forbidden experiments directly. Instead, he should learn from examples such as the Xenotechnician who regularly attracted suspicion, but had never been caught red-handed. Relying on proxies and remote-controlled dummies was the kingly way. Ves had climbed too far on the ladder to put his primary identity at risk. As Ves grew increasingly more sober, work on the second trial continued to progress without interruption. Dr. Zeron Khabeel and his associates from the Ritualist Department provided a huge amount of external assistance. The only downside was that it became necessary to expose these external consultants to many details of the Larkinson Clan’s attempt to reproduce stolen resonance. There was no way that the details would remain confidential for too long. Ves possessed a strong awareness of how many players had gotten involved in the Red Collective. Many members originated from groups like the Red Two, the first-rate colonial superstates or other distinctive organizations. Aside from the Cybernetic Empire, every other major player would soon gain a lot of information about the methods and solutions that the Larkinson Clan intended to employ in their own experiments! This meant that Ves and his fellow Larkinson researchers had a limited amount of time at their disposal. If they could not produce a successful result in the next handful of days, the other research teams within the escort fleet would definitely combine their own advantages with the ’best practices’ of the Larkinson Clan and win the race! "There is no need to be too afraid, sir." Dr. Zeron told Ves. "Our Ritualist Department is not that large. We also prefer to work with true insiders such as yourself. The mechers, fleeters, Rubarthans and so on have called on our department’s aid after they all learned that our rituals may be able to play an indispensable role in their respective research projects, but we are merely fulfilling our obligations towards them. Helping you is much more to our liking." Ves gave the ritualist a deep stare. This was not a casual remark. It was a pretty strong declaration of support. It made sense. Ves may not consider himself to be a full RC insider, but his role in founding the superorganization and shaping its structure was undeniable. More importantly than that, taking over the Phase Lord Department and rectifying it caused his name to become even more tied to the Red Collective. Yet these reasons should not be enough for the Ritualist Department to take a bet on Ves. The other groups possessed many capabilities that surpassed his own. The ritualists needed to bet on a winner. If they invested in the wrong party, then they would not only waste their time and resources, but also fail to gain enough backing. Though neither Ves nor Dr. Khabeel had not mentioned any explicit terms, they had both entered into an implicit agreement. As long as the ritualists helped Ves succeed in this race, he would need to pay them back with political and material support. This was nothing new or special. It was only fair for him to stick up to his new ’friends’ after they had lent a hand to him when he needed it the most. Ves felt a little reluctant to get into bed with the ritualists. Though Dr. Khabeel and his associates all behaved like normal academics, he knew that ritualism was not a field that promoted sanity. Just as Ves almost succumbed to the temptation of sacrificing living ace pilots to establish a new myth, other ritualists most likely experienced similar situations! In his opinion, ritualism was just as dangerous as biotechnology. Both fields had a predisposition to ethical violations. So long as the researchers who specialized in these fields broke the rules, they could potentially achieve huge breakthroughs in their R&D activities! The temptation would never go away. It would continue to exist and grow stronger as the circumstances around them continued to deteriorate. The increasing pressure exerted by two major wars against implacable alien foes had already caused numerous incidents, many of which never made it to the news. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶 Nevertheless, the damage that these deranged researchers inflicted on themselves and others could not be remedied so easily. People were willing to do practically anything to achieve groundbreaking progress. The overall situation was still relatively good for the time being. Ves predicted that true madness would only break out when major regions and states started to fall like dominoes. At that time, red humanity would suffer so many losses that nobody would have any energy to care about ethics violations at the time! Until that critical moment arrived, Ves and other eager researchers needed to do their best to hold their urges back. It was not yet time for them to go all-out. This was why he remained fairly docile as he and his collaborators carefully constructed an artificial Incubator. Of course, the version created by the Larkinsons could not possibly turn into a moon-sized monstrosity. They created one that could barely fit inside the available workshop space. To be honest, the large metal sphere shared very little in common with the real Incubator. However, that did not matter all that much. The point of a ritual was to borrow the power of an existing myth to make it easier to generate specific reactions and transformations. It made no sense to invest an excessive amount of resources into a ritual, only to gain a reward that was not as valuable. "A good ritualist must never strive for perfection." Dr. Zeron Khabeel readily shared his insights to Ves. "In fact, we must do the opposite. We must strive for efficiency. We need to develop rituals that enable us to obtain the greatest possible reward with the least amount of investment. Cutting corners is not a sin. It is a virtue in our discipline. Our difficulty is to cut as much as possible without risking the integrity of the ritual." This was a relatively unusual approach. Ves never expected ritualists to adopt such an ’economical’ mindset. He suddenly understood this bunch a bit better. He did not expect them to adopt a mentality similar to cutthroat businessmen. They sounded little different from corporate raiders who swept into bloated companies and stripped them down to the bone while still keeping them functional, if only barely. As a mech designer, Ves was not unfamiliar with this approach. Though he tended to value quality a bit too much, he knew that commercial mech designs often needed to make a lot of compromises in order to make them affordable. The same applied to rituals. A long and tedious process that involved lots of expensive materials and difficult preparation served nobody. What red humanity needed the most was not an extravagant ritual that could only produce an excellent result once, but a cheap and cost-effective ritual that could easily produce acceptable results a thousand times! Ves admittedly grew a little concerned when Dr. Khabeel and the other experts continued to simplify the experimental design, but he still placed his trust in their expertise. Since he agreed to cooperate with the ritualists, he should give them enough space to do their jobs. The outcome of the second trial would determine whether Ves had made the right choice. As the preparations neared completion, Ves already learned a lot of lessons about modern ritualism. Just observing them at work and listening to Zeron’s lectures was enough for him to strengthen his basic foundation in this essential area. Since this was a rare opportunity for Ves to learn useful knowledge, he frequently asked questions. "I have noticed that your work in our project is not as simple as it looks on the surface." "Oh?" Dr. Khabeel adopted an attentive expression. "That is sharp of you, sir. What have you noticed exactly?" "The ritual that you have designed is... complicated and made out of many different parts. I can sort of recognize the ones that correspond to the original myth, but... I feel like you guys have added more parts to them that do not bear any direct relations to the actions of the Goliath Hive. You seem to have tacked them onto the design for whatever reason." "That is observant of you, Larkinson. Your understanding of ritualism has reached a deeper stage if you are able to identify this much."