Chapter 4682: The First Success

The fact that the aquadites took the initiative to contact him spoke to their interest in the offer, especially since he had been the one to promise to consider their terms. It appeared that just a whiff of the realization that he was willing to sell the method to Transcendent impunity was enough to awaken the hunger for this power and method.

After all, any reasonable person would have assumed that the humans would never sell such a priceless treasure. They had no way of pressuring human civilization since they didn’t have the coordinates of this civilization. And at the time, it certainly appeared that the Emperor of Water would rather die than share the secret to Transcendent impunity.

Now, just the fact that he was willing to consider giving them the method to Transcendent impunity made them realize that they had the opportunity of a lifetime at their disposal at the moment.

The S’rrigin knew that he couldn’t afford to let this chance go. Who knew when they would get such a priceless opportunity ever again? Worst of all, if the arakai managed to get their hands on the method first, then they would be in a world of danger.

He resolved himself to pay any price, as long as it wasn’t worse than all the risks of the alternative.

When the second meeting commenced, Rui simply leaned forward on his table, weaving his fingers into a steeple in an authoritative manner, although he wasn’t sure if the gesture meant anything to the aquadites.

"I have yet to make up my mind on the offer," Rui began their second meeting in a serious voice. "I assume you have something to add?"

The S’rrigin made a strange gesture with his head, which the translation artificial intelligence promptly informed him was the equivalent of a nod to the aquadites, before making a sequence of ultrasonic sounds.

"Indeed, Emperor of Water," the S’rrigin’s words were translated. "We seek to offer you a wealth of hyperdimensional and esoteric resources of a negotiable amount and offer you intelligence that a civilization such as yours that has yet to make contact with the Orion Interstellar Community will find useful. We are also willing to offer you real-time war intelligence into the arakai’s movements, since we share a common enemy."

Rui stirred at the offer, looking mildly impressed. But inwardly, he was cackling. He had achieved his goal. Indeed, the aquadites hadn’t realized how much leverage they had. If they knew that the arakai had already gotten their hands on the method for Transcendent impunity, they would be much more forceful and much less generous.

He continued acting aloof for the next half-an-hour, conveying his reluctance for the trade, causing the S’rrigin to up his offer until they reached a manageable set of affairs. Normally, trade deals of this kind were negotiated with dedicated diplomatic teams, but that didn’t apply to entirely alien civilizations that had a very scant relationship with each other. Rui was confident enough in his negotiation skills, and the S’rrigin was a thorough politician through and through, so they were more than fit for the task.

When Rui finally expressed a final resigned approval for the exchange, the deal was settled after both sides documented the terms, officiating with their respective marks.

Rui cackled inwardly as he detected what appeared to be satisfaction in the aquadite leader’s eyes. The man had no idea just how much he had been scammed, and by the time he did, it would be too late.

*****

Far away in Arakai Web Civilization, Divine Mother o——o- painstakingly constructed a clone with her Webverse. The vice leader of the War Faction had studied the principles of the method for Transcendent impunity that her sisters had procured upon the threat of death over the past day. The information that the Mindstitch had shared with all of them was crucial and enough for them to reverse engineer the rest of the method.

Many Divine Mothers had been too afraid to try out the method for the first time, for it came with risks. They feared, more than anything else, the risk of them failing and killing themselves. In fact, some of the Divine Mothers even suspected that this was a red herring that the enemies had fed to the Mindstitch to get the entire War Faction to kill themselves.

Ultimately, o——o- herself decided to undertake the first attempt just to make sure that it worked. Before her was an identical clone of her body, filled with the exact composition and dimensions, as well as mass distribution. She scrupulously recreated an absolutely identical clone, to the point where even she couldn’t detect anything even remotely off.

She heaved a deep breath before commencing the process. She created an identical mind web copy, using that to transfer her consciousness from her mind to the brain web of the clone. Having already used her Webverse, she knew that if she failed, she would be disappearing for quite some time. At a time when the War Faction was quite leaderless due to the death of their leader, the Web Conqueror, it would be devastating if she disappeared as well, but risks had to be taken to reach greater heights, as far as she was concerned.

When she completed the transfer, she didn’t so much as hesitate to blow up her own mind, leaving her body to slowly fade away.

Her clone remained on the ground for several moments before finally waking up. The clone gazed at her hands, flexing them once or twice.

"It. Worked."

She was probably the first Divine Mother experimenting with the method who succeeded, and it had only been a day since she got her hands on the method. She could teach it to the rest of her sisters, and she estimated that they would all be ready in a matter of days before they immediately headed over to human civilization to wipe them all out.

BZZZT BZZZT BZZZT

The Divine Mother scowled as she received notification of a council meeting arranged by none other than ooo—o-, the leader of the Pluralist Faction. O——o- hated her, but she knew that she couldn’t ignore her, nor did she want to. Whatever move she was making, o——o- needed to be there to keep it in check.