The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5437

Chapter 5437 Heavenly Relationship Management

Was Veronica an agent of harmony or an agent of chaos?

Was she a protector or a destroyer?

Was she a hero or a villain?

Just thinking about these questions generated a lot of headaches in her cybernetic mind. There was no way she could form direct answers to them. No matter which one she chose, she could always think of an argument that contradicted her conclusions!

However, Veronica was not as young, clueless and naive as she was in the past. She had gone through a lot of growth and managed to make a lot more progress in shaping her views about herself.

Her artificial purple eyes glowed brighter as she cut through the confusion and reasserted her identity.

"I refuse to abide by this false dichotomy of yours." Veronica issued her response. "There is no way that people can be allocated to just two diametrically opposing categories. We are way more complicated than that. The way you have framed your words is too misleading, mother."

Cynthia smirked as she looked down at the cybernetic incarnation of her son. "I did?"

"No one is purely good or evil." Veronica eruditely explained her views. "In the same way, I do not think that anyone can be completely selfless or selfish. Most people tend to fall along various points in those spectrums. I am neither an agent of harmony nor an agent of chaos. I am... me. Just me. I make my own decisions. I will not allow any heavenly authority or my irrational hatred towards one to determine how I live my life."

Her mother approved of her views.

"You have a clear head on your shoulders, my child. There will always be people who seek to pin you with a label that falls in line with their interests. If they try to paint you as an agent of harmony, they will try to engage in moral kidnapping to force you to work 'for the greater good' of the human race and other such nonsense."

Veronica grimly nodded. She immediately thought about her interactions with the Survivalist Faction and the rest of the Red Association.

Although she did not necessarily ascribe malice to the way the mechers had treated her so far, she could certainly recognize an element of exploitation in their relationship.

"There will also be people who oppose you or what you represent. They will portray you as an agent of chaos whose presence will only lead to great disaster if left unchecked. It is not pleasant to be turned into a common enemy of an entire society, and the threat of it may deter you from doing whatever it takes to achieve your goals."

Veronica always felt restrained in society. From the need to keep so many secrets to her inability to experiment as much as she liked, she would have been able to make much greater progress if she became unbound by the constraints set by the Red Two and other authorities!

Cynthia stroked Veronica's head. "I do not wish to tell you how you should live your life. You have grown old enough to make your own decisions in this regard. What I want to tell you is that you do not have to entertain so many concerns about the debts and obligations imposed by the various heavenly authorities. They are powerful in many ways, but helpless in other ways as they are notoriously inflexible. Many cultivators in the past and present have succeeded in bamboozling them. A debt is only heavy when you are unable to get rid of it through other means."

Her words helped to reassure Veronica's nerves.

Not every debt had to be repaid.

The problem was that Veronica always abided by the principle of fairness. As a mech designer and an entrepreneur, she often relied on win-win agreements to earn long-term profits.

It was not in her nature to scam her business partners, especially when the latter had always shown enough goodwill.

"I do not want to play fast and loose with karma." Veronica said with a sigh. "If the burden is not too heavy and if the contract is not unreasonably lopsided, I do not mind settling my debts in an honest fashion. You have already confirmed to me that the Milky Way and the Red Ocean are not strong enough to threaten me all that much. That means that they don't have enough leverage to force me to do stuff that I do not want. I am confident in my ability to maintain mutually beneficial relationships with them. The worst that could happen is that I will walk away from them and make do without their support."

Her mother looked approving. "That is a sober approach to managing your relationship with these heavenly authorities. Too many cultivators have revered the heavens so much that they have effectively surrendered their goodwill."

From what Cynthia had described, these heavenly authorities pretty much sounded like the spiritual equivalent of a large super-organization such as the Red Association.

While the mechers were undoubtedly powerful enough that Veronica had to act carefully around them, there was no reason for her to surrender to them and become their slave.

It was still possible to become friends and business partners with the mechers.

Veronica just had to apply this approach to the huge and overarching heavenly authorities that she became involved with. She was willing to work together with them if it was profitable enough.

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