Chapter 4026 Greater Sincerity


    The birth of Gaiapletely upended the Aduc Family!


    When Ves returned to the Spirit of Bentheim, he found that numerous Larkinsons had also heard about the birth of a new design spirit.


    The reason why his nsmen already knew so much was because there were third order mechs that had already spilled the beans!


    Pretty much every mech and design spirit had felt Gaia''s birth.


    Despite the distance between the Larkinson fleet and the Aduc fleet, Gaia was so powerful and released so much energy in the first moments of her existence that she was like an explosion in the night!


    Everyone who possessed a bit of sensitivity towards spirituality had definitely sensed that something extraordinary took ce!


    Not just the Larkinsons, but also certain individuals among the Glory Seekers, the Crossers and other groups in the vicinity of the Aduc fleet''s orbit must have sensed the wave of power propagated by Gaia''s emergence!


    Fortunately, aside from making dozens of expert pilots and high-ranking mech designners suspicious, none of the third parties followed up and made any pressing inquiries. Ves became relieved when he found out that Gaia''s unexpectedly powerful birth did not attract too much unwee attention.


    He had no way of determining how long that wouldst. Ves already had a hunch that a spirit as powerful as Gaia would never remain unnoticed, especially when she possesed such a strong rtion to Old Earth and universal life energy!


    As Ves wanted to give the Aducs time to process their changes ande to grips with Gaia, he decide to spend his time on other matters.


    His assistant Gavin just happened to provide him with a helpful distraction.


    "Do you remember our negotiations with the Voiken Family, boss?"


    "Hmm? Oh, I remember. I recall there is a significant disagreement between us and the Voiken Family about the division of earnings for a potential coboration project centered around a line ofw enforcement mechs."


    Ves had not forgotten about the Pacifier Project. It was probably one of the mostmercially lucrative ventures of this design round. Part of the reason why he thought it was so promising was because the Voiken Family would beying all of the groundwork for the introduction of this revolutionary neww enforcement solution.


    It was a pity that the Voikens attempted to scam him by limiting their coboration and the proceeds from it to a single mech model. While that wasn''t unusual in most cooperative ventures between different mech designers, this was a different situation!


    When Ves figured out that Professor Taigen Herman Voiken intended to publish an entire mech ecosystem targeted towardsw enforcement agencies, he did not get fooled.


    He was not unustomed to situations where others exploited him for his own gains. This was merely the way that human society and many other societies worked.


    If he somehow got scammed, then there was little he could do about it aside from epting his losses.


    However, now that he became aware of it in advance, there was no way Ves would make it easy for the Voiken Family to profit from his unique design solutions!


    "Well, I am happy to announce that our negotiation team has managed to achieve a lot of progress in the past week."


    "Oh?" Ves raised his eyebrow. "That sounds curious, Benny. There is a lot of money and interests at stake here. Shouldn''t the Voikens be standing their ground and making it difficult for us to secure any concessions?"


    Gavin smirked. "Ordinarily, you are right, but the situation of the Voikens is not as optimistic as ours. Time is not on their side. While our n is set to establish itself in Davute and rise to greater heights, the detachment of Voikens sent to the Red Ocean are still strangers in a strangend. ording to Minister Shederin, they have already missed the first and most crucial phase of the opening of the new frontier. If the neers dy any further, they willpletely get suppressed by theirpetitors."


    "Is their situation bad?"


    "Don''t forget what faction they are aligned to." His assistant reminded Ves. "To those who are in the know, it is not difficult to find out the MTA factions that are favoring specific pioneers. This is not too relevant for us as we are tied to factions that are able to get along with many other groups and factions."


    That wasn''t entirely true. The Survivalists and the Transhumanists may both be rtively harmless to other powers, but thetter had a serious conflict with the first-rate superstates!


    Whether that would have any consequences to Ves and his n remained to be seen, but for now Gavin''s statement mostly held true.


    The Voiken Family was apparently in a different position. Ves quickly thought about it. The Preserving Order Faction probably held the greatest sway in the more developed and stable regions of human space back in the Milky Way Gxy.


    These were the areas where humanity was at its most prosperous! A lot more people were happy with their lives and their ce in society. Thest thing they wanted was for chaos and disorder to disrupt their sweet arrangement!


    Unfortunately for the Voikens, the Red Ocean Dwarf Gxy was apletely different environment. This was a frontier that was filled with people who sought change!


    A bit of chaos and disorder did not sound that bad to them. If every zone in the Red Ocean hadpletely stabilized, then there was no room for other pioneers to rise to power!


    Even if the pioneers aligned to the Preservers did not intend to do anything of note in the Red Ocean, their ideological leanings already made it impossible for them to receive a warm wee from other groups!


    After Ves derived all of this from the brief amount of information provided by Gavin, he grinned and leaned back in his chair.


    "I see. If this is true, then the Voikens need us even more than I thought. If they can''te up with a killer product that can establish their mech designers in the regional market, then they will not have the capital to do anything of note in this dwarf gxy."


    New novels chapters are published ?n !


    "Exactly, boss. While we have shown our willingness to take our time, the Voikens have no choice but to crack and give up the high ground in order to bring our talks closer to conclusion. We have already settled the most important terms."


    Gavin passed on a secure data pad to Ves.


    When Ves perused the iplete treaty document, he skipped through all of theplicatedwyer speak and focused on the key phrases that he truly cared about.


    He quickly began to frown.


    "Is this real, Benny?"


    "What is the problem?"


    "ording to this term, the split in earnings is heavily favored towards the Voikens. It clearly says here that the Living Mech Corporation only gets 20 percent of the earnings while Voiken Industries is entitled to the remaining 80 percent! This is too far apart from the 50 percent target that I set at the beginning!"


    His assistant coughed. "You should read the text more closely. While Minister Shederin found it possible to convince the Voikens that we should earn half of the proceeds from selling thepleted Pacifier Project, this will almost certainly mean that we cannot demand a satisfactory share of the earnings of the rest of the Voiken mech ecosystem. In order to make sure our contributions to its sess are fully ounted for, Minister Shederin took the liberty of altering your original demand and insisted on a different one that better satisfies ourmercial interests."


    Ves slowly widened his eyes. "Do you mean…"


    Gavin grinned. "That''s right, boss. Our negotiating team has convinced the Voikens that we are entitled to a fifth of the proceeds of each sale that is rted to their ambitiousw enforcement mech ecosystem! While Professor Taigen Voiken has not told us how many mech models and auxiliary equipment and supplies that entail, a conservative estimate already puts us at a dozen unique mech models, of which hundreds of derivative variants can be spawned. In other words, if everything goes right, we would pretty much earn 20 percent of the money that Voiken Industries is earning from theirplete catalog ofw enforcement mech lines and rted products!"


    This was a massive concession!


    If Voiken Industriespletely focused on servicing thew enforcement sector, then this was hardly any different from owning 20 percent of thepany and earning a proportionate amount of money in the form of dividends!


    "Hahahaha!" Ves exploded inughter! "Shederin has struck once again! I knew it was the right choice to pick up a family of professional diplomats. Power is the foundation of our strength, but rtionships are the key to our future development. Having good talkers in our n can make a huge difference!"


    The more Ves engaged in matters at this level, the more he discovered the importance of diplomacy. No one was strong enough to defeat every opponent and ovee any challenge by themselves. Being able to make friends and convincing others into giving up more concessions could easily yield powerful advantages!


    Of course, Ves did not forget that the root of this sessy in the desirability of his own services.


    The fact that the Voikens agreed to surrender 20 percent of the earnings of their entire mech ecosystem showed that they fully understood the value of his glows, most particrly that of Lufa!


    When Ves thought about how Professor Taigen Voiken would be able to generate huge advantages by relying on the killer function of Lufa''s glow, it did not sound too excessive to pay a high amount of ''royalty fees'' to the Larkinsons.


    Gavin wasn''t finished, though. "There''s more, boss."


    "You mean the Voikens agreed to give away more than this generous share?"


    "That is correct. In order to express their friendship towards us, the Voiken Family has even agreed to gift us argebat carrier."


    "...Say what?"


    "I wasn''t misspeaking, sir. You should scroll to the end of the current draft. It mentions the ship right at the bottom!"


    Ves did so and saw that the Voikens seriously offered to transfer possession of one of thebat carriers they brought over from the old gxy to the Larkinsons!


    While the ship was not as impressive as the Wild Torch that the Wild Fighter Association gave away as a prize, Ves did not look down on this generous gift.


    The Voiken gift was not an ordinarybat carrier!


    ording to the brief details provided by the document, the ship was able to carry up to 100 mechs!


    "We didn''t give up anything important topel the Voikens to gift thisbat carrier to us, right? I don''t want to find outter that we epted this gift in exchange for lowering our share by 1 percent or something. This would definitely be a loss for us in the long run!"


    "Don''t worry. Minister Shederin never let up on his Voiken counterparts. He already guessed that this gift is an attempt from their patriarch to deepen his family''s rtionship with our n."


    "Well, it''s working. I already feel a lot closer to the Voiken Family in my heart! If Master Barnard Ss Voiken can gift us a capital ship on top of that, then I will make sure to put in additional effort to watch out for his descendents who have relocated the Red Ocean!"


    "Err… I am afraid that their generosity can only go so far. They still need the bulk of their fleet to protect and anchor their own presence in the new frontier."


    That was right. Ves was being way too greedy. No pioneer in his right mind would give away a strategic asset as essential as a capital ship in exchange for favors and illusory promises!


    In any case, Ves already became satisfied with this gesture. The Voikens of today were different from the Voikens more than a week ago. They had lowered their demands and showed a lot more sincerity towards him and his n.


    "If this is how the deal will look like, then I have no problem with it." Ves rxed and smiled. "Tell Minister Shederin that he has done a good job and that he should proceed ording to his own judgment."


    Shederin had fully earned his trust this time!