The Mech Touch

Though her mother had gifted Veronica with the curse of knowledge, the benefits were worth it. She would rather live her life with greater awareness of all of the games that were being played over her head.

Learning about the true nature and motivations of the heavenly authorities was exceedingly precious knowledge!

If she wanted to hear this massive truth from the Red Association, her main self would probably have to become a tier 2 or a tier 1 galactic citizen in order to earn this right!

That was way too long for Veronica! It was far more preferably that she learned about this enormous universe-wide struggle in advance so that she could avoid its many pitfalls.

Knowing that the Milky Way, the Red Ocean and Messier 87 were locked in a massive competition did not give Veronica any comfort.

In fact, it did the opposite! She felt the Red Ocean had become a lot more dangerous now that she understood that it had turned into contested land!

"You haven't really answered my last question." Veronica spoke. "Messier 87 is the only galaxy that is both powerful and healthy. The Milky Way may have a strong heritage of its own, but it has been crippled for a long time. How can it remain a viable contender? What is its goal anyway? The Red Ocean has moved so far away that it is difficult to imagine that it can play an active role going forward."

The Lady of the Night lifted the cyborg cat up and stared straight into her artificial eyes. "The heavenly authority of the Milky Way is indeed past its prime. It has been damaged to the point where it is but a shadow of its former self. Put yourself into its shoes. If you have deteriorated to the point where you have been reduced to prey to any other galaxy that is able to invade your domain in the future, are you willing to lie down and accept this outcome?"

"Hell no!" Veronica swung her silvery tail in agitation! "I would do anything to escape this predicament! Wait... is sending out red humanity a desperation move from the Milky Way?!"

The implications were massive if this was the case!

Cynthia erupted in laughter as she swung the cyborg cat like a baby. "Hahaha! You think too highly of the heavenly authorities. They are more powerful than you can imagine, but free will is a powerful force. At most, they can only nudge people along to increase the probability that events will play out in their favor. To give you a more concrete example, lightning tribulations are one of the means they can use to produce outcomes that are more favorable to their interests."

The mother set the cyborg cat back down on her lap and resumed petting.

When Veronica heard this explanation, she thought back on her own personal experiences with lightning tribulations.

She had triggered three of them so far, and they produced outcomes that seemed perplexing.

That was not the case anymore. Realization gradually dawned upon Veronica as the expanding context finally granted her enough clues to fill in the missing pieces!

"Is that the reason why these different heavenly galaxies treated me so differently?! From what I can remember, the Milky Way and the Red Ocean have been really friendly towards me. Is that because I am doing stuff that advances their agenda?"

"You can think of it that way." Cynthia nodded in agreement. "Their options are also much more limited. They do not have many good investment targets to choose from due to their relatively poor ecosystems. Messier 87 is spoiled for choice, so it is much less inclined to be generous or forgiving anymore."

Veronica felt as if she had touched upon a great revelation. It was one that directly affected her outlook towards her life!

"I can understand that, but... aren't they being a little too generous towards me?" The cyborg cat skeptically asked. "It seems to me that they are a bit too eager to lend me a hand. Am I that attractive of an investment target?"

"You are." Cynthia plainly answered and poked her finger against the cyborg cat's chest. "Have you forgotten who you are? The gifts of fate always come with a price."

It took a few seconds for Veronica to guess what her mother was getting at. What kind of gift of fate was she referring to, and why did she refer to it with such an ominous tone?

"Oh. Are you talking about... the Mech Designer System?"

Cynthia smiled. "Like it or not, from the moment you have initiated the fragment of the Metal Scroll, you have become a Holy Son. More than that, where do you think the Metal Scroll comes from? Where do you think the Sacred Scrolls originated from? Each of them are artifacts that have been infused with massive amounts of energy and matter. All of that has to come from somewhere. Do you understand now, my child?"

Damn!

Veronica had yet to make this obvious connection!

Now that her mother pointed it out, Veronica abruptly realized that carrying and making use of the Mech Designer System caused her to accumulate greater and greater debts of karma to the Milky Way Galaxy!

Her ties to the old galaxy had grown so strong over the years because she had never ceased to take advantage of the System!

Veronica had learned a thing or two about the nature of karma. She knew it became exponentially more difficult to resolve all of this karma as it continued to pile up without stopping.

She began to think about the only other person that she knew that owed even more debt to the Milky Way.

Was the Polymath the most favored agent of the old galaxy?

It did not make sense.

On the day of her attempted coup, the Star Designer took the initiative to disconnect red humanity from the old galaxy.

Her Unity Plan also sought to wipe out all of the old traditions of every colonial state and replace it with a completely new and uniform identity that belonged to red humanity alone.

All of that suggested that the Polymath tried to do the polar opposite and rebel against the Milky Way!

Even though her radical scheme had crashed and burned, the Polymath did not really lose as badly as everyone thought.

Perhaps her true goal was to default on her astronomical debt to the Milky Way and start over with a clean break!

If that was the case, then Ves had vastly underestimated the Polymath's scheming!

It made a lot of sense for her to ditch the Iron Resonant Crucifix Crown and her fragment of the Metal Scroll.

She may have benefited enormously from their power back when she was younger and weaker, but now that she had become an incredibly smart and capable Star Designer, their usefulness had started to come to an end.

It was far more preferable for the Polymath to get rid of these shackles of the past and move forward as a free and unburdened True God!

A part of Ves began to envy the Polymath for successfully taking advantage of these powerful relics, only for her to dash before she had to pay her massive bill!

"This is one of the hidden meanings behind the term 'Holy Son'. You are the symbolic 'child1 of the Milky Way, and enjoy its blessing for that reason. Any lightning tribulations that you trigger will cause it to manipulate the circumstances in a manner that will benefit you the most. After all, the more the Milky Way facilitates your growth, the more you can feed back to your mother galaxy."

It explained that the first tribulation successfully birthed the Superior Mother despite the enormously shabby and suboptimal conditions at the time.

It also explained why all of the negative karma resulting from all of the mistakenly attributed deaths that were allegedly caused by his actions produced such a light and tolerable series of lighting strikes.

The heavenly authority of the Milky Way had been playing favorites all this time!

Veronica was not amused to say the least. No one liked to be burdened by a massive pile of debt.

She was fine when she remained ignorant of these strong bonds of karma. Now that she had become aware of them, she truly felt that she could not go on with her life without making a serious effort to repay the Milky Way for all of its help!

This was not an absolute imperative, but it was more of a nagging feeling that just wouldn't go away unless she resolved it. The more she tried to weasel her way out of this debt, the more it would disturb her on an esoteric level, making it harder for her to advance without getting bogged down by lingering regrets!

Veronica made another belated realization.

"Wait, is that why I have accidentally become a phase lord? Is this also why it had become so absurdly easy for me to advance my body cultivation during the last tribulation?!"

Cynthia replied with a smirk. "Why do you ask questions when you already know the answers? As I have said before, the gifts of fate always come with a price. The Red Ocean can be regarded as a vassal of the Milky Way, though that is not actually the case. It is complicated."

"What are you talking about, mother?"

The True God sighed. "It is not easy for me to explain the complex dynamics of the heavens from a human perspective. What is relevant is that the Red Ocean has noticed that you are one of the favored 'sons' of the Milky Way, and decided to act like a copycat and make a bet on you. Its own situation is quite precarious as you know. At worst, the Red Ocean will lose its investment, but so long as you are able to use its blessing to successfully resist the invasion of Messier 87, you will be doing it a massive favor."

"Does that mean that other humans won't be able to advance their phase lord cultivation so easily by exposing themselves to lightning tribulations?"

"I cannot say." Cynthia crossed her arms. "The Red Ocean has a strong incentive to boost the strength of red humanity, as its native aliens are far too primitive and undeveloped to resist the forces of one of the greatest galaxies in the cosmos. However, the red two clearly will not appreciate all of the gifts that it is able to bestow. You are much more suitable to become its agent because you are principled enough to repay your debts and already enjoy the support of the distant Milky Way."

That sounded like a very human power play to Veronica. All of this stuff was becoming more and more complicated. She was already reaching her limit of how much she could bear the growing curse of knowledge.

Veronica felt very mixed about her main self's accidental body cultivation.

Phase lords were much harder to kill if nothing else, so they had a much greater chance of surviving a lot of future crises.

However, thinking about how all of the growing phasewater concentration and body mass increased her debt to the Red Ocean reduced their attraction.

She was not resentful enough to ditch these supposed freebies, but she did not like the fact that she had been roped into a contract without properly understanding the terms!

Cynthia rubbed her palm on the cyborg cat's head. "Calm down. Do not worry too much about all of these debts and obligations. There are many ways to resolve them. If you want to be honest, then work towards paying them back when you have grown powerful enough that you can do so with a slight amount of effort. If you want to be less than honest, then I can point out directions for you to default on your debts at the cost of souring your relations with these two galaxies."

It was way too soon for Veronica to think about this. She was still in a growth stage and would probably have to become a highly accomplished Master Mech Designer before she could even think about addressing these issues.

"What about Messier 87? I cannot stop making use of all of the E energy radiation that it is spitting out, but it clearly has no love for me. In fact, I have probably earned a place on its blacklist given that I am an 'agent' of both the Milky Way and the Red Ocean."

"You cannot have it all, my child. So what if Messier 87 regards you as a threat? Its heavenly authority cannot strike you down with all of its might. So long as that is the case, you can survive even if you enter deep into its sphere of influence. Did you know that there are two kinds of cultivators?"

"Uh, no?"

"There are cultivators who conform to the rules of the heavens. They are able to earn greater power and longevity as rewards for their service. You can interpret them as the agents of harmony who seek to benefit their galaxies out of obligation or because they adhere to a noble purpose. There are also cultivators who defy the restrictions imposed by a heavenly authority. They steal whatever they can and take advantage of every exploit so that they can obtain all of the power and longevity they desire by force. They are pure agents of chaos who are defined by their overriding selfishness and defiance towards greater authorities. Much of the reason why the Milky Way has fallen to this point is due to the actions of these miscreants. What sort of cultivator are you, my child?"