The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3420

Chapter 3420: Greater Beyonder Gate

The Maryun Ultima System was the figurative and literal center of human space in these promising times.

Before the opening of the Red Ocean, it was already a remarkable star system that had long been used as a stronghold by the MTA.

After the establishment of the Gate Consortium, Maryun Ultimate attracted a huge amount of traffic from every corner of human space in the old galaxy.

Several lesser beyonder gates were situated in highly-guarded coordinates in the outer system. Each of them routinely activated and disgorged a plethora of capital ships as hundreds of other lesser beyonder gates located in far-flung gate systems like Opalis regularly made contact.

The amount of traffic in Maryun Ultima was much more massive than in Opalis, and it showed. The local plot already counted a dizzying array of ships of all shapes and sizes!

A huge number of third-class and second-class starships were waiting for passage, but they weren't the ones that attracted everyone's attention.

It was the first-class starships that hogged all of the limelight!

Tens of thousands of modern MTA and CFA warships patrolled the star system or remained in orbit! While many of them were admittedly escort ships, Ves had never seen so much firepower and destructive potential gathered in a single location in person!

Just the hundreds of battleships alone could wipe out every planet in a typical star system in an instant!

The Maryun Ultima System was anything but typical, though. It had massively expanded in size when the Big Two moved over more than a dozen stars and over a hundred planets.

Despite the huge amount of radiation, interference and gravitic interactions all of these imported satellites generated, the Big Two's mastery of technology completely tempered all of this dangerous activity.

Staying in this star system was no more dangerous than staying in any other ordinary place like the Cloudy Curtain System!

Ves couldn't even begin to understand how the MTA and CFA managed to temper all of these powerful natural forces, so he didn't even try. Instead, he directed his sights towards the distant pioneering fleets with first-class origins.

Every first-class fleet was impressive. Whether it was the size of their capital ships or the excellent materials they were made of, Ves became overwhelmed with the splendor that these pioneers casually put on display!

"It's too bad that no one is allowed to deploy any mechs in this place." He muttered.

Part of the prior inspection process was to lock down every potential source of danger. The MTA made sure that each and every mech was locked in place and made inoperate. A lot of other starship systems had to be locked down as well.

If anyone activated even one of these locked devices, the MTA would instantly overreact!

This was why nobody dared to joke around at this time. Even the arrogant Terrans and Rubarthans had to remain on their best behavior and stow away most of their impressive tech.

Even then, they still attracted much of the attention from the hillbillies who originated from the poorer and less developed parts of human space like the galactic rim!

It took at least a week before the expeditionary fleet advanced all the way to the greater beyonder gate and received its turn to enter the new frontier.

This was plenty of time for Ves to admire the sights and make a couple of plans for the immediate future.

"I would love to trade with these first-raters, but I can't even buy a single nutrient in this high-security zone."

No one was allowed to move out of turn. No physical trade and commerce was allowed to take place either in order to keep in-system traffic as controlled as possible.

In fact, even if anyone attempted to stir up trouble, then the enormous amount of warships, first-class multipurpose mechs and fixed defensive stations would instantly contain and suppress any perceived threat!

"Too strong!"

While Ves continued to exercise his patience, he took a brief look at the amount of MTA merits left in his account.

The Larkinson Clan paid dearly to enter the Red Ocean.

Ves personally gave up 45,000,000 MTA merits, which was the biggest individual contribution in the Golden Skull Alliance.

Gloriana gave up 2,750,000 MTA merits while Juliet and Ketis emptied their entire accounts.

In total, that covered over half of the merits needed to enter the Red Ocean.

The Cross Clan was the second major contributor. As promised, Patriarch Reginald Cross coughed up 25,000,000 MTA merits at once. How he was even able to earn that much, Ves didn't know.

What was even more amazing was that Professor Benedict Cortez offered 17,500,000 MTA merits at once!

This was extremely impressive as Ves was pretty sure that the former Skull Architect started with nothing after he returned to civilized space. In the span of a couple of years, the man must have worked incredibly hard to complete one MTA mission after another. This partially explained why the Cross Clan hadn't been in a hurry to adopt a large amount of mech models in the past year.

"Is every Senior Mech Designer able to earn so many merits in such a short amount of time, or is Professor Benedict really that good?" Ves questioned.

The professor hadn't been boasting when he claimed that he was close to becoming a Master. Even so, there was still an enormous gap in strength and capabilities between the two ranks.

No Senior should be able to rake in so many merits so easily. Not without performing the kind of dangerous missions that Ves had once fulfilled in the Nyxian Gap.

Before his meeting with Master Bouderon, Ves wouldn't have been able to come up with a clear answer.

Now, it became clear to Ves that Professor Benedict must have established a relationship with an MTA faction.

"The question is which one?" Ves frowned in thought.

There were too many possibilities, but some were more probable than others.

"Someone as passionate and crazy about mechs as him fits right at home with the Mech Supremacists. Then again, with his unusual life trajectory, he also fits right at home with the Unbounders or even the Dissolutionists!"

If Professor Benedict really managed to earn a lot of merits with the help of one of the latter two factions, then this was a considerable problem!

The Unbound Humanity Faction and the Dissolution Faction were both unpopular because their ideals undermined the MTA in its current form! This caused them to form a lot of enemies, each of which wanted to make sure that these anarchists didn't get their way!

"I really hope my suspicion is wrong."

It could be that his speculation was off the mark. There were still plenty of ways for mech designers to earn millions of MTA merits without touching any of the MTA factions.

Ves wasn't interested in pursuing this matter any further. At this time, he only cared about the fact that Professor Benedict's contribution brought the total sum of merits incredibly close to the 95,000,000 MTA merits needed to buy a beyonder ticket!

He wondered whether providing introduction letters to Gloriana and Ketis caused the Golden Skull Alliance to fall just short of gathering the necessary merits. _{freewebnoveℓ.com}

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