The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5478

Chapter 5478 Calamity Beasts

Ves did not want to expand his collection of design spirits too much.

He preferred to surround himself with a network of intimate and committed spiritual friends rather than an army of strangers that could go rogue at any time.

If he desperately needed a specific kind of power or domain that his existing design spirits did not cover, then he could conduct a focused search for a specific kind of mutated beast that met all of his criteria.

Mutated beasts used to be rare in the past, but now they were popping up like mushrooms all across the Red Ocean.

Many of them originally used to be ordinary exobeasts. They minded their own business and tried to survive in their own exotic environments, when suddenly E energy radiation caused them to grow stronger, smarter and weirder at a rapid rate!

No one had a coherent explanation why this was the case, and why it only happened to creatures that were originally non-sapient.

Whatever the case, people quickly found out that naturally evolved exobeasts mutated at a much higher rate than artificial designer beasts.

Perhaps there were a lot of mysterious factors behind these differences, but one obvious explanation for this divergence was that designer beasts possessed optimized genes.

There were much less useless junk genes in their DNA. Many of their biological processes had also been strengthened to the point where the rate of ordinary mutations had dropped to a minimum.

This ensured that any artificial species remained constant over the generations.

All of the natural exobeasts lacked these optimizations, so they had a much greater capacity towards mutation from the onset.

This effectively meant that hunting preserves such as Ocanon VI had suddenly become a lot more interesting to many industries!

From biotech institutions that wanted to turn a uniquely mutated exobeast into an entire species to development companies that wanted to reproduce a special E energy interaction through technological means, the demand for all of these creatures had increased by a massive extent!

Even hunting grounds under the management of the Hunting Association could not escape this craze.

More and more hunting teams accepted highly prized commissions to hunt down any mutated beast that had attracted the interest of these big companies.

Since the Hunting Association strictly prohibited these greedy and ambitious organizations from sending down lots of mechs from the air and capturing the desired mutated beasts with overwhelming force, it was up to the professional hunting teams to do the job!

It was a win-win-win-win arrangement for the most part. The carefully managed ecosystems did not get messed up. The local economy received a greater influx of outside money. The hunting teams earned much greater income to support their more personal hunting activities. The Hunting Association gained more authority and importance as everyone played by its rules.

This was why Ves was not allowed to command the Bluejay Fleet to send down a squad of first-class multipurpose mechs and hunt any of the mutated beasts that caught his attention.

"We do not have anything on this planet that can restrain your actions." President Oscar Tarich calmly explained as he led the Larkinsons on a trip to the most dangerous and exotic Chasseur Continent. "If you insist on sending down your mecher troops, we will not stop you from taking away our natural treasures. That does not mean we will forget what you have done. Our Hunting Association will condemn your actions and deny you and your clan any further services. This will have grave implications for you. At the very least, none of the hunters who rely on our Association will frequent the mech store operated by the local branch of your Larkinson Clan."

The unspoken message was that the Hunting Association refused to extend special treatment to Ves!

With the backing of a god pilot, there was no reason for the Hunting Association to bow down to the special requests of anyone, including a tier 3 galactic citizen!

Ves never had any intention of breaking the rules. He just wanted to explore whether it was possible to retrieve his desired specimens in the most efficient and convenient manner.

He quickly raised his palm in surrender. "There is no need for you to worry whether I will break your rules. I have great respect for your customs and traditions. The Swordmaidens that are stationed on this planet will be more than eager to set out and hunt down the prey of my choosing."

President Tarich relaxed and smiled. "That is best. It is not that I am unwilling to give you a favor. You certainly deserve to be rewarded for the massive contributions that you have made to red humanity. The real issue is that we must be fair to others. No hunter should be denied their opportunity to hunt down our most valuable exobeasts. Your hunting team can only compete fairly with other ones if they are all chasing after a highly prized beast."

Ves smelled a sense of ritual behind these rules. The Hunting Association most certainly had concrete reasons to set up their hunting grounds this way.

Of course, greater competition also made it easy for the Hunting Association to charge for various different services.

Hunting teams had to pay fees to enter a hunting ground. They had to pay a fee for any collateral damage they inflicted on the environment. They also had to pay a fee to cover the cost of cleaning up any artificial debris or remains that they had left.

Most importantly of all, once these hunting teams came back with their valuable prize in tow, they needed to pay huge tariffs that were proportional to the market value of their prey if they wanted to ship their catch off-planet!

The income earned from this export business had skyrocketed as of late. Ocanon VI and many other hunting planets profited so much from charging so much tariffs. This was sorely needed as the infrastructure needed to keep all of the mutations under control had skyrocketed as well.

All of this sounded fair to Ves. Hunting planets had to be carefully managed in order to continually produce powerful mutated beasts at a steady rate. Their evolution was not actually free, so some people had to be the ones to pay the price.

The conversation soon turned on what they were about to encounter on this aerial safari trip.

"The Chasseur Continent is the most natural and least-regulated landmass of Ocanon VI. We have demarcated numerous large hunting grounds, but our light interference made it so that many exobeasts are able to migrate outside of their original territories with no restraint. Huge exobeasts that can only be hunted by mechs occupy the same spaces as smaller exobeasts that you can comfortably kill with a rifle in your hands. Multiple huge beasts are also allowed to stay together, making it harder to challenge a collective. It is only in the most extreme situations that our Hunting Association is forced to take direct action."

"So you're breaking your own rules." Ves couldn't help but remark.

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