The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7619

Chapter 7619: Lobbying

"I understand your frustrations, Ves. I truly do." Jovy earnestly said as he continued to sit behind his desk while finishing his cup of tea. "You have been an exemplary contributor to red humanity. It is not an exaggeration to state that you are one of the principal leaders who have shaped the direction of our civilization in this new and dangerous age. You have already earned a prominent place in the history books. Yet even you must abide by the rules."

Naturally, Ves did not like that last sentence.

"I thought that becoming a high-tier galactic citizen was supposed to exempt me from these rules. I have already done so much to earn the trust of most leaders. I have an existing stake in the stability and prosperity of our society. My clan is supplying much of the superdimensional matter that is being used by others to construct superdimensional mechs. I find it absurd that you suggest that I should subject myself to a regime that prevents me from building more superdimensional mechs unless I have acquired the corresponding ’tokens’ that amount to nothing more than an artificial currency created for the sole purpose to set up a highly profitable racket for the Red Association."

He knew how the game was played. The Red Fleet definitely squeezed a lot of benefits from third parties who sought to acquire the tokens necessary to build and field their own warships!

There was nothing functional about these tokens. Ves should know because he owned a handful of them himself! He distinctly remembered that he obtained them through a combination of exchanges and rewards.

In other words, the Red Fleet effectively milked him by replacing real compensation with a couple of extremely cheap metal ornaments!

While Ves acknowledged that the true value in the tokens lay on their associated permissions, the fact of the matter was that it was all artificially constructed!

To put it in a different way, the Red Fleet effectively created value out of nothing!

Now, it seemed that the Red Association had become so jealous of the other superorganization’s earnings that the mechers decided to create their own scam!

"We trust you, Ves, but even the brightest paragons have their dark sides. You should know that better than most people. Past compliance does not determine future submission. People change. The greater the temptation, the greater the probability of violation. After the debacle involving the takeover of Bridgehead One by one of our former leaders, our Survivalist Faction has become much more critical of problems that have a chance of spiraling completely out of control."

The Polymath’s treasonous and outrageous actions had massive consequences for the Survivalist Faction.

The latter not only suffered a massive credibility loss, but also suffered a crisis in confidence!

Although the Survivalists managed to keep their turmoil quiet and stabilize their ranks, their standing had dropped significantly within the complicated factional hierarchy of the Assocation.

"Wait." Ves suddenly made a realization. "This scheme that you have described... did it originate from the Survivalist Faction?"

"Not exclusively, but I have to admit that many of my colleagues have already become invested in it." Jovy plainly said. "There is already a strong consensus within the Survivalist Faction that the proliferation of superdimensional mechs must be curtailed. The more conservative members of other factions are also in favor of this idea. They may differ with each other when it comes to the details, but they have a common desire to regulate what they see as a highly unstable element in our small and fragile society. They think that all red humans are all standing on a pane of glass. It only takes a single wrong move from a superdimensional mech to shatter the entire surface and cause all of us to plunge into the abyss."

What a melodramatic analogy!

Ves seriously doubted that red humanity’s situation has become so precarious that a single bad incident could cause all of human civilization to collapse.

"What about the Transhumanists? I doubt this faction is as eager to impose so much regulation on a new source of power."

Jovy responded with an amused expression. "You are correct in that, but that is far from the complete story. It is true that the majority of the core members of the Transhumanist Faction is opposed to this proposal. However, are outnumbered by those that do. Even if this debate is still taking place, the naysayers cannot stop the rest from believing that our common Association must do its job and make our society safer through regulation and control."

The discussion centered around a core activity of the Red Association. Ves could see how that could easily turn into a matter of principle and belief.

The Red Association had suffered a number of losses in recent years. Its prestige had diminished, causing many people to lose the respect they used to hold for the Mech Trade Association.

"What about the Evolution Witch?" Ves suddenly remembered that they had yet to go over the stances of the people at the top. "What about the Xenotechnician? Neither of them seem like the sort of individuals who are in favor of increasing regulation."

Jovy nodded. "True. Yet they have yet to voice their opinions. That is a powerful signal in itself. On the one hand, they show due respect to the current process and the people who are advocating for different stances. If the god pilots spoke out immediately, the entire debate would recenter around our leaders, making it much more difficult to keep the debate pure. On the other hand, it also shows that our god pilots and Star Designers are not overly invested in this matter. Perhaps they are already in favor of the principle, or perhaps one of them may be opposed, but unwilling to invest political capital to fight against a consensus that already seems inevitable."

Ves snorted. "Inevitable? Really? As far as I know, the jurisdiction of the Red Association only encompasses the territories of the Red Ocean Union. It no longer holds power in the territories of the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact. Both colonial star empires did not take the risk of declaring independence just to let the mechers regulate their own machines."