Chapter 7369: The Importance of Influence Although it sounded insane, both Ves and Casella knew that as long as the incentives grew strong enough, people would make it happen somehow. Stolen resonance technology could only proliferate if red humanity managed to fulfill one core condition. Not even the heavily limited supply of Mentalist Crystals posed a hindrance to this cutting-edge technology. It merely limited the amount of compact applications of this tech. The Red Fleet already planned to incorporate the bigger version of stolen resonance generators into plenty of cruisers and battleships which should have plenty of space to spare for a new module. No, the real imitation of stolen resonance technology was the availability of ’acceptable’ willpower sources. If everyone abided by the contemporary rules and customs of the Red Association, then no acceptable willpower source existed at this time. The repurposing of dead expert pilots or ace pilots for the sole purpose of activating stolen willpower generators was a horrendous violation of their rights! Perhaps people might argue that the use of alternative willpower sources such as swordmasters may be more acceptable, but they were still humans, and deserved to be treated better than commodities! This presented a persistent problem to red humanity. All of the major players had enthusiastically embraced the possibilities promised by stolen resonance technology, but awkwardly tried to ignore the horrendous cost of proliferation. The creation of any stolen resonance generator inevitably demanded the sacrilege of at least one high-ranking mech pilot or swordmaster. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦 Was it worthwhile to create a super warship if it demanded the sacrifice of a hero of the human race? There was almost no way that the big shots could reconcile this agonizing contradiction! Therefore, if red humanity wanted to create a more ’acceptable’ source of extraordinary willpower, the idea of granting this power to the native aliens inevitably rose up in people’s minds. It was a thoroughly forbidden idea, yet its allure could not be denied. If the goal was to create as many stolen resonance generators as possible, then it made complete sense to ’teach’ the native aliens how to nurture willpower cultivators among their own population! However, such a suggestion was thoroughly taboo. Even if the aliens could not pilot their own mechs for various reasons, allowing them to raise their own ’high-ranking phasefighter pilots’ or whatever would still do much to strengthen their warmaking potential against red humanity! The native aliens would master a new path to godhood that was much more accessible to the common alien than becoming phase lords. The consequences would be severe. The population of aliens was much greater than that of humans in the new frontier. Thousands or maybe millions of willpower cultivators might emerge in the span of a few years! Even if they were all relatively weak at the start, they were still a lot more powerful than their peers. If they all got organized and sent to invade the territories of red humanity, then they would be able to win a lot more battles! Would the rise of a new extraordinary soldier class among the native aliens do more damage to red humanity than all of the stolen resonance generators that could be made from their defeated remains? Ves could not possibly answer this question. One important complication to this scenario was the simple fact that the native aliens may very well decide to keep their willpower cultivators away from the Red War. If they did not fight against red humanity, then their enemies would not be able to harvest them and use them to make more stolen resonance generators! Therefore, anyone who secretly wanted to seed willpower cultivation among the native aliens had to consider many thorny issues. A thoughtless implementation could easily spark disaster! Yet was that enough for desperados to stay their hand? Ves did not think so. He knew what humans were like. Greed could not be separated from them. Even if there were plenty of people who stubbornly clung to notions of honor and righteousness, there were always enough individuals who possessed very little scruples. This applied to every level of society, including the top! Ves did not believe that all of the tier 1 galactic citizens unanimously supported the ’correct’ viewpoint. It only took a single deviant with ulterior motives to teach the native aliens how to cultivate their willpower. In his opinion, the most likely culprit would be the Polymath. Due to special reasons, the Cybernetic Empire possessed the weakest mech piloting tradition by far. It also possessed an abundance of warships as well as humongous war planets, each of which could derive a huge amount of benefits from stolen resonance generators! Despite her roots as a mech designer, the Polymath was well-known for her extreme rationality and utilitarianism. It was highly likely that she harbored little to no respect towards mech pilots. She probably regarded them as tools in human form. They were useful, but they did not deserve special treatment unless they had attained godhood. Yet it was not just the Polymath who had the incentive as well as the willingness to break the rules. The Red Admiralty had long been dissatisfied that their proud dreadnoughts never managed to catch up to the power and majesty of god mechs. This was their chance to close the gap further. Even if it was impossible to close the gap in terms of quality, the Red Fleet could still resort to quantity to mass produce artifact warships equipped with stolen resonance generators! So long as the fleeters managed to accumulate thousands of them, they could probably undertake the responsibility of defending the border regions by themselves! Ves could think of numerous other tier 1 galactic citizens who might wish to bestow the aliens the ability to form their own willpower cultivators. From the Xenotechnician to the Evolution Witch, any of them could choose to disregard the rules and change the balance of power of the new frontier by themselves! This was their privilege as those who became powerful enough to dictate the rules! With so many potential mavericks at the top alone, Ves honestly expected for the native aliens to ’coincidentally’ produce their first willpower cultivators in less than a year! Of course, just because he suspected imminent foul play from the people upstairs did not mean that it was wise to voice his suspicions. Both Ves and the Saint Commander only exchanged a single meaningful glance before diverting to safer topics. One of them happened to be the Myth Reproduction Theory. When Ves briefly explained what he knew about it, the Saint Commander looked intrigued. "I have to admit that there is a compelling logic behind this theory." She said even as her domain field grew more active due to how much mental power she was devoting to these new ideas. "It would certainly explain why no ace pilot has yet to break through up to this point. It is still difficult to believe that there is an invisible plane of our universe that can be locally shaped by our thoughts and emotions. How credible is this theory in your opinion?" "While nothing is ever absolute, my confidence level in the core premise of this theory has surpassed 95 percent." Ves straightforwardly replied. "This is because many of my personal experiences from the past align neatly with this theory. I know it is difficult for people with a strong materialist mindset to accept that reality works this way, but I am not one of them. For better or worse, we need the power of rituals to overcome the limitations of existing technology and materials." Saint Commander Casella frowned as she thought of a dangerous implication. "I can see how ritualism can offer a great amount of convenience to red humanity, but what about the native aliens? Their population is much greater. They occupy so many star systems for so many years that their ability to establish imprints in the local galaxy far surpasses our own. Unless we can conquer large swathes of alien-occupied territory, I cannot see how our race can compete with the native aliens." "It is not as bad as it sounds." Ves responded. "It is true that our population is far smaller, but we are qualitatively superior. The Red Collective has spurred on a collective embrace of qi cultivation. By combining ancient mysticism with modern science, the collies have enabled trillions of red humans the ability to strengthen themselves in a relatively short amount of time. The more progress they make, the stronger their imprints in the other realm. Then there are god pilots and Star Designers. Their ability to create and deepen their imprints on the new frontier is unfathomably great. I doubt that ancient phase whales can match them on a 1-to-1 basis." The mental and spiritual development of phase lords and phase whales generally fell far behind their physical evolution. This was not a strange idea. It was a logical consequence of trying to converse resources. It also gave red humanity a reprieve. Their own gods might not be as physically imposing as ancient phase whales, but their presence in the imaginary realm was far greater! This difference was extremely important. It may even be a decisive factor in red humanity’s eventual turnaround in the Red War. The Saint Commander gradually realized the implications for themselves. "Your imprint." She almost gasped. "Your strength as a mech designer and a phase lord may not be particularly high, but your influence is disproportionately immense. All of your achievements propelled you to a level of fame and notoriety that is impossible to match by the other members of your generation. The fact that you have been promoted to a tier 2 galactic citizen is an official recognition of your influence over our society. With everything that you have done since the Great Severing, the imprint or imprints that you have left behind has already reshaped a significant part of our universe. As long as you remain prominent, you should be able to do the same." This may be the true meaning behind the galactic citizenship system. One of the core criteria that determined an individual’s galactic citizenship may be their ability to create an impact on the imaginary realm. Those with no galactic citizenship of any kind possessed so little influence that they literally did not matter in this discussion. Whether they lived or died had no noticeable effect on the imaginary realm. Those with low-tier galactic citizenships became strong and influential enough to nudge it slightly. They might not amount to anything by themselves, but had the potential to exert a measurable influence if they acted in a large enough collective. As for high-tier galactic citizens, their influence had reached such a height that they could single-handedly create or alter imprints in the imaginary realm! This applied to both god pilots with extremely high individual combat power as well as fleet admirals who may be individually weak but possessed enough authority to move around thousands of warships across different battlefields! It also applied to noncombatants such as Star Designers whose inventions could easily change the balance of power in the Red Ocean. In this ’ethereal battlefield’, Ves clearly recognized that he already ranked among the top, just below the tier 1 galactic citizens! Ves understood a bit better now why the bigshots valued him so much and encouraged him to innovate. Now that he became aware of these hidden dynamics, he believed that he had a lot more room to play. There was a big difference between staying ignorant and becoming aware of the power of myths and imprints. A grin slowly appeared on his face as he thought of the many possibilities. As long as the Myth Reproduction Theory truly worked according to the rules as he understood it, then he had a lot of room for manipulation. This was of great importance. It could not only change the future of the Ascended Giants, but also power up his upcoming mech designs, particularly his highly anticipated elemental Carmine mech designs! It became even more important for him to return to the Terran Alliance in order to supervise the final development of his Woodsap mechs. This collaborative mech design project will definitely offer an excellent stage for him to blend myths into mechs!