The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5179

5179 /7079

Negotiations did not progress smoothly.

The Master that Ves tried to extract benefits from had little patience and wanted to obtain immediate benefits.

The problem was that Ves did not have any readily available samples to trade with. The T Institute was mainly preoccupied with producing death sympathetic materials at the moment, but that was not particularly troublesome for the Red Association to obtain by relying on their own proprietary methods.

Jovy helped a lot. Having him vouch for Ves and his claims did not entirely persuade the older woman to accept a deal that was based on shaky grounds, but it at least prevented him from getting kicked out right away.

"There is no need to conduct a trade straight away." Jovy interceded on Ves1 behalf. "He will need to return to his fleet and work to produce the hyper materials that you seek. He has the ability to provide you what you need, though he is probably limited by his stock of materials. It would benefit you if you keep your communication lines open and wait until he has successfully produced what you need to expand upon your collection."

The female Master paused for a moment. She glanced at Ves' badge. Although it only boasted two dots, they happened to be of the right colors.

"Very well. It does not hurt to wait if your associate here can supply the desired materials. I am willing to exchange other materials, MTA merits and certain favors in return. The value of my remuneration is dependent on the speed in which your friend can supply a rare hyper material that we have yet to discover anywhere. Mind you that 1 am already in contact with many different suppliers. If any of them are able to supply an unregistered material first, I will only provide a tenth of the original reward."

"A tenth is not enough." Ves shook his head. "It takes a lot of trouble and effort to artificially produce these hypers by leveraging rare E energy variations."

The Master crossed her arms and tilted her chin. "I care not how you supply the goods that we require. I can only promise you that our remuneration should satisfy you if our demands are met in a timely manner. Our research and development projects must progress as quickly as possible. Our time is limited. The sooner we are able to deepen our understanding of hypers, the sooner our society can make use of them on a wider scale. We must endeavor to strengthen humanity's collective strength as quickly as possible."

"I understand. I share the same sentiment. I will do what I can to contribute to our cause." Ves seriously spoke.

Of course, it wouldn't help to obtain a lot of benefits in the process.

The two hashed out a more detailed agreement in the next few minutes. Since everything was so vague, the two did not hold onto too many solid definitions. The numbers might become outdated after a few months.

Ves did not fear that he was getting ripped off with Jovy by his side.

Although the RA Senior Mech Designer was supposed to be on the side of the Association, his current capacity allowed him to look after Ves' best interests for the duration of his assignment.

The only setback that Ves faced was that he could not use this exchange to obtain exclusive knowledge on archetech.

"I work in a different department and research group from that of Master Teresa Norville." The woman explained. "I cannot arbitrarily take their research and transfer it to others. You must approach her or a member of her department if you wish to gain access to this type of knowledge."

"I see."

In the end, the female Master promised to reward Ves with hundreds of millions of MTA merits or a selection of rare materials that was useful in all kinds of different projects.

As Ves and Jovy exited the office, they took a brief break.

As Jovy walked up to a railing and looked down at a hall where hundreds of mechers and associates were walking to their next sessions, he glanced at Ves who was studying the list of events that were starting in the next block.

"How do you like the conference so far, Ves?"

"It's... great."

"You don't sound very certain."

Ves shrugged. "It is definitely a great place to be for a mech designer like myself. All of these presenters are offering free lectures on a lot of advanced and cutting-edge subjects for free. It's a bit annoying that my badge has to possess the right dots, but I can live with that. It is just..."

"You are not satisfied with what you can obtain for free?"

"Nothing comes for free. I feel like that no matter what these people are giving to us, it is only an advertisement for greater services that you need to pay for. It's quite hard to gain enough satisfaction when I don't have what the other party needs."

Jovy did not look surprised at that. "This happens more often than you think. Even in an organization as rich as the Association, we must still fight to obtain the resources we need to further our own projects. No one can make much progress if they attempt to rely on their own individual efforts. We are encouraged to specialize in our own narrow fields and use our strengths to trade what we need from each other. The more productive and successful mechers who are able to establish enough working relationships will climb the hierarchy faster. This is how the system works."

The Mech Trade Association had always worked like this, and the Red Association was no different in this regard.

Ves kind of appreciated this as it gave him an opportunity to make trades with the mechers who were already accustomed with making these kinds of deals.