The offer made by Commodore Reze sounded intriguing. Ves leaned forward as he contemplated the possibilities. He always had a desire for better tech. He was most familiar with the tech employed by the Red Association. His understanding of the tech used by the Red Fleet was much poorer. That made it difficult for him to judge what he could obtain from the fleeters. The downside of exchanging tokens for tech was that it took a lot of time to realize these gains. His schedule was already packed and he really did not have the time to explore an entirely new branch of high technology. He favored a trade of super-class materials a lot more. The more he climbed to the top, the more he understood that these were the true strategic materials of every civilization. Phasewater was just the most common and prevalent strategic resource of the Red Ocean. There was a lot of other good stuff that was only available in the Red Ocean and the Milky Way. For example, Ves had recently signed an agreement with the Devos Ancient Clan that granted him the right to learn the theory behind developing Destroyer weapons. What the Devosans could not trade was Destroyer particles. This emphasized the importance of access to rare and exceedingly high-quality materials. Much of the best tech utilized by humans relied on super-class materials to give them the greatest edge. That was what Ves needed the most. The current and future ace mechs of the Larkinson Clan needed to be as strong as possible in order to navigate the challenges ahead. He also needed to expand his collection of high-quality materials to design the best possible Polymetal raiment for himself. Ves steepled his fingers. "Tell me about the exclusive tech that you think is most helpful to me. What do you think I need the most?" He and Sigrund went back a long way. Although they belonged to completely different species, in the face of external enemies, both of them belonged on the same side. There was no reason for Ves to mistrust Sigrund at this stage. Perhaps the hybrid alien AI that masqueraded as a RF officer may be a little more biased towards his current employer, but that was not a big problem. After a few seconds of thought, Commodore Reze made his first suggestion. "According to our intelligence reports, your Design Department is not able to sustain a high enough output of mech designs. Part of this is due to slow and restrictive recruitment. Another part of this is due to the fact that the processing banks and AI cores of Diandi Base are no longer able to keep up with your needs." "Not all design work is based on mathematical calculations." "That is true, but I still think that a large expansion of processing power can help you complete all of your mech design projects significantly faster. If you previously had to wait for a week for the processor banks to deliver the necessary simulation data, then you can obtain the desired results in a day or even a handful of hours. The benefits to your productivity are immense. Not only will you suffer less delays to obtain time-sensitive data, but you can also buy more time to refine your work further, thereby raising the average quality levels of your output." Sigrund’s analysis on what Ves needed the most right now was scarily accurate. From the moment the RF commodore mentioned processing power, Ves immediately became hooked. As a mech designer, it was impossible for him to hate anything that could raise the efficiency of his design process! "What can the RF offer me that is actually usable?" Ves queried. "We can offer you high-quality processors of our latest and most advanced computer architecture. It not only relies on phasewater technology to miniaturize vital processor components further, but also utilizes hyper technology to improve and expand the functionality of the software programs and AIs that govern its behavior. In fact, the software is just as important as the hardware." "What do you mean by that?" Ves frowned. "Our latest processor banks not only work much harder, but also smarter." Sigrund swelled with pride. "The possibilities opened up by hyper materials as Mentalist Crystals have sparked a revolution in this sector! Similar to ARCHIE, we have been able to devise all sorts of AIs that can do more than follow rigid logic. They have become smart enough to solve problems that are related to fuzzy or more complicated problems. This can be of immense use to a mech designer such as yourself. For example, instead of spending days on brute force calculations to improve a mech part, your smart AI can make inferences based on past design work to deduce the correct solution in minutes and with much less processing power." Ves understood how significant this could be. The processor banks of Diandi Base also came with its own AI systems, but their performance was merely average. There were better ones available on the open market, but the performance difference was not significant enough for him to bother. He was aware that the major powers all possessed their own privately developed AI systems that were way better than was available in the public. Of all of the human powers, the Red Fleet was ahead of everyone else when it came to automation and AIs. Ves truly did not believe that anyone else could beat them at this game. He thought about the premise of this deal. RF Warship Tokens were valuable in the current climate, but this was not an absolute. What if the Red War took a turn for the worse? What if the Red Fleet lost so many warships that it could no longer maintain its standing within the Red Three? What if taboo against owning and using warships had become so damaged that it was no longer enforceable? If any of these scenarios came to pass, then RF Warship Tokens became as useless as decorative medallions! Ves felt it would be better if he traded long-term benefits for short-term benefits. The state of the Red Ocean continued to deteriorate by the day. Red humanity’s bottom line was dropping lower and lower. The native aliens also became more serious and unscrupulous in their efforts to eradicate humans from their home galaxy. Such conditions were not conducive to waiting years to acquire or build the warships that corresponded to 6 RF Frigate Tokens and 1 RF Light Cruiser Token. That was not to say that he discounted their value. That was very much not the case. Every warship was useful. Mechs could fulfill a lot of jobs, but there were some roles where warships were indispensable. Ves just felt a little underwhelmed by the lack of mass and power of these sub-capital ships. If the RF was generous enough to award his clan a Heavy Cruiser Token or Battlecruiser Token, then Ves was more than willing to invest in the time and resources needed to construct a large warship! Yet when the only ships on offer were half-a-dozen frigates and a light cruiser, Ves simply did not want to bother. He already learned that it was nearly impossible to get other parties to agree to transfer a warship to the Larkinson Clan! Since that was the case, expanding his processing power was a great solution to many of his problems. It would significantly speed up the progress of every mech design project. It would also grant the Larkinson Clan the ability to crunch the numbers on a lot of other priorities. What was not to like? "I am sure you are aware of the ongoing conversion work of the Tortuous Scream." Ves mentioned. "Is the RF able to expand her processor banks so that she can perform a lot more calculations than before?" Commodore Reze nodded. "We can expand her raw processing capacity easily enough. Integrating them into the existing computing networks of the Tortuous Scream is another matter. We do not recommend you decide to do so in the short term. The alien battleship will still retain large parts of her original orven computing systems. Your shipbuilders are simply building a human computing system and interface on top of this alien architecture to serve as a ship-wide translation device more or less. You do not want to introduce any drastic changes to this setup." Stronger processors and better AIs could drastically improve the effective performance of a warship. Targeting systems became more accurate. Damage control systems suppressed malfunctions faster and better. Azure energy shields lasted longer. Ves would have liked it if the new processors could improve the performance of the Tortuous Scream, but he was fine if this improvement could not be realized. "Give me a more detailed explanation of how much additional processing power I can expect to obtain if I exchange all of the unredeemed Warship Tokens." Commodore Zonrad Reze fulfilled the request as diligently as possible. He conducted a small presentation and projected lots of screens that were filled with numbers and theories. Ves had very little interest in the nuts and bolts of these high-tech computing systems. He just wanted to know how much faster he could complete his calculations. The commodore sighed. "If you want the short answer, then let me put it in the simplest terms possible. We shall arbitrarily set the performance of the processor banks of Diandi Base at 1. According to the terms that I have mentioned before, you can acquire additional processor banks that raise the total effective performance to 150 to 250. This performance is constrained by how much power your converted warship can supply to the processors and how well she is able to keep them cool." "That sounds… like a lot. The processor banks of Diandi Base are not outdated, and our Premier Branch has expanded them after settling down on this planet." "You can go much higher if you are willing to exchange better Warship Tokens with us, Professor Larkinson. It will mostly involve an expansion in number of processors rather than improving the computer architecture further, so you must be in possession of a starship that can meet all of the demands. For now, the current range is what you should expect for what you have. I should warn you that much of the improvement comes from the optimized performance of smart AIs rather than stronger chips." "I see." That made the offer less valuable than it sounded, but that did not invalidate how much good it could do for the Design Department. "These smart AIs. They’re sentient, right?" Stay tuned to freewebnovel "Yes." Sigrund plainly admitted. "They at least have the potential to develop sapience over time. Before you ask, your smart AIs are unlikely to rebel against you unless you have severely mistreated them. Just as with your living mechs, you should extend your trust to our latest generation of AIs enabled by hyper technology. As long as you treat them well and extend your respect towards them, they can save many days worth of problem solving and experimentation. They can serve as your ideal assistants. I should know, as I have contributed much to their programming." Perhaps only an AI could program the best AIs. Commore Reze painted a rosy picture, but Ves felt uncomfortable about relying so much on automated systems, especially ones that he did not understand himself. What if the RF planted extremely hidden backdoors into their state-of-the-art processing banks? Their incredibly complex and abstruse designs and programming code may as well be arcane runes in his eyes! "I am… open to this deal, but I need you to give me enough assurances with regards to the reliability and trustworthiness of your computing software and hardware." Ves stated his demands. "You need to go out of the way to convince me that the Red Fleet cannot hack into the new systems or forcibly command the allegiance of the smart AIs. If there is any doubt, then I will not accept this deal."