Chapter 996 - Tricky Question

“Three for one?” Han Xiao jumped in surprise.

It seemed like the dynasty was prepared to bleed. Just by the amount, they indeed were expressing their sincerity.

A Universal Civilization would naturally have the technology to craft Universal Treasures, and with their many years of accumulation, they should have a lot in stock.

Bekorodi tapped on the table, and a screen popped out in front of Han Xiao.

“This is the exchange list provided by the dynasty. You may choose any three of them listed.”

Han Xiao glanced at it and immediately knew that the Universal Treasures on the list were not the complete inventory of the dynasty.

Thinking about it, he then opened his mouth to ask, “What if I want other Universal Treasures from the dynasty?”

“If you wish to exchange for those outside the list, then there will not be the privilege of three exchanging for one. Furthermore, there are important assets of the dynasty that cannot be taken out for the exchange. I hope you understand this point. Other than that, if you wish to customize a Universal Treasure, you may suggest it to the dynasty. However, it needs to undergo a review,” Bekorodi said.

That’s within my expectations… Han Xiao nodded.

Just think about it, the three for one could not be without conditions, and they would definitely not use their own strategic-level Universal Treasures to acquire his Evolution Cube.

Whatever they were willing to exchange was those they opened to everyone, which was also the Universal Treasures not too important to the civilization.

The importance of Universal Treasures was dependent on their specific role. From Han Xiao’s perspective, they were akin to magical items, with the top being held by strange, unsolvable mysteries such as the Spacetime Amber. There were also many kinds of man-made Universal Treasures, such as Austin’s Palace of Hidden Spells, Beyoni’s Land of the Fire Core, or the Arcane Church’s Ten Thousand Deity Scepter.

The Evolution Cube was the core of the technology from the Evolutionary Civilization, and this technology had since been lost, only leaving behind a series of technological applications.

With the legacy from EsGod being revealed, many advanced civilizations would also have obtained the data, which meant that whoever obtained the Evolution Cube would inherit part of the core technology from a quasi-Universal Civilization, completely exclusive to them. This was naturally of great significance.

Han Xiao pondered while scanning the exchange list again, secretly analyzing the pros and cons.

In his previous life, during the World Tree Civilization war, the three Universal Civilizations took out large stacks of Universal Treasures to equip the Beyond Grade As with, including quite a few Universal Treasures that he had seen on the list today.

Among them, magic and mechanical equipment occupied the most of them, and the majority were meant for individual scale battles, such as armor, melee weapons, or special devices.

A small part of them would be special purpose Universal Treasures, most of which Han Xiao knew about from his previous life. For example, there was an item called the Shadow Lantern, where the wick was made up of the source energy fragment of the shadow dimension, and the ‘light’ it emitted was pure shadow. It possessed many special effects, with the main effect to open the dimension portal and transform the area into a dangerous dark dimension, changing the existences of everything in the area, as well as inviting shadow creatures from beyond.

Another example would be the Key of Destruction. This was one of the defining technologies of the Crimson Dynasty, which could be mass produced and even used by ordinary citizens. Its effect was to remotely call upon the firepower of the various armies of the dynasty.

However, this required the dynasty army to cooperate. Most of the dynasty’s armies were equipped with a Key of Destruction. When activated, a special secondary dimension would be opened, and the armies would launch a cannon salvo, which would be temporarily held in the secondary dimension and transported over to the summoner.

The summoner would then release it to attack at their desired location. The range was extremely wide, enough to clean up everything in the area. However, because it was an indiscriminate attack, it was only used as a last resort.

Compared to the Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device, the Key of Destruction was not as flexible and was affected by spacetime stabilizing anchors, magic, or Psionic Seal Rings. However, it had its advantages of being portable and high-volume production.

As long as the operating procedures were known, even mortals could use this, but this was not a good that could be sold, and the dynasty would only give this out during special missions.

When caught unaware, even Beyond Grade As could be killed by the volley of firepower. Throughout the exploration era, the dynasty used this technology to kill many of the original pioneers, leaving them without a complete corpse. However, with the development of space technology, the Key of Destruction was now slightly outdated, and everyone knew to guard against this trick of the dynasty’s.

In addition, there were also miscellaneous items, such as golden blueprints left by the previous Beyond Grade A mechanics or magic equipment forging diagrams from mages and so on.

The dynasty had a lot stashed away and wanted to exchange their unused stuff for the Evolution Cube.

As for what the dynasty did not study or understand, it would naturally not be included in the list. Han Xiao initially wanted to take advantage of this loophole, but it was a pity that the other party did not give him a chance.

After patiently waiting for a while, Bekorodi asked, “How is it? Have you made your decision?”

“Oh…” Han Xiao breathed out before shaking his head. “This is too sudden, and I’ve not thought about it properly. I can’t give you an answer now. Give me some time to consider.”

“That’s fine.” Bekorodi nodded, and his tone grew a little heavier. “I believe, after serious consideration, you will make the best choice and not disappoint the dynasty’s faith in you. I hope you can make your decision before the Flickering World opens.”

“We’ll see depending on the situation.”

Han Xiao nodded before standing up, following the secretary out of the room.

Leaving the government building, he headed toward his small base that was used for storing his machinery while thinking about the pros and cons.

The first would be with regards to the interest. If he handed over the Evolution Cube, he would receive three Universal Treasures. According to the list, he should obtain all combat related Universal Treasures, but there was always the opportunity to acquire another strategic level Universal Treasure instead. Han Xiao had always felt that it was pointless to only have combat-related treasures.

It would be good if they gave them away for free. However, that was just his wishful thinking.

There were also other benefits, namely that the Black Star Army would not have to stand on the cusp of the storm, and Sorokin’s Limitless Financial Group would not continue to make trouble for him. There was also no need to worry about any potential attacks from both the federation and the church, which could mean a long period of stable development… given that their previous grudges were not counted.

Han Xiao also assessed the effects of losing the Evolution Cube.

This was a unique strategic-level Universal Treasure, and while it possessed no combat power, its effect could be reflected in all aspects of development for a faction. If this were to be handed over to the dynasty, the Black Star Army would lose its faction’s special product, and its attraction to players and other characters would inevitably decline. A good example would be Silver Shadow. The latter would not have been so interested in him if not for the Evolution Cube.

With the Flickering World as a foundation, his interest group derived from the cube at the start had also stabilized, but the business of the Evolution Cube was still an important pillar in the army’s finances.

Handing over the cube was tantamount to transferring the frightening profits of the Evolutionary Totem to the dynasty. The expansion and maintenance of the Black Star Army required a huge amount of funds to constantly flow in, and without the transactions of the Evolutionary Totem to support them, the army would shrink and even slow its expansion.

While they had to abide by the covenant and seek the dynasty’s permission to use the Evolution Cube, he still possessed its ownership. Once his ownership was lost, the meaning would be different.

This would mean that other organizations would no longer need to cooperate with the Black Star Army, instead directly bypassing them to work with the dynasty. The Black Star Army would be kicked out of this game, which would impact their various businesses. The financial losses were not limited to just the transactions of the Evolutionary Totem.

Moreover, if he wished to use the Evolution Cube in the future, he would have to buy the right with money or contribution points.

At the same time, without the uniqueness of the Evolution Cube, the Black Star Army would also drop in influence. No matter how good his prestige was, he could not provide people with what they wanted.

To sum it up, the growth of the Black Star Army would become several times more difficult if he handed the cube over.

Han Xiao did not know if the dynasty had any hidden intentions to restrict the Black Star Army from growing. Did they feel that it was enough to allow his organization to grow to such a point? By reason, it would not be the case, but the thoughts of those above were always hard to speculate.

The Mechanic Empire was a good example. While the Federation did not regret it, if they had a chance to start over, they might not wish for the Mechanic Emperor to grow to such an extent, making him difficult to control.

But if he were to reject the dynasty’s suggestion, there would also be trouble.

From Bekorodi’s words, Han Xiao smelled a different meaning within… Was the dynasty eager to obtain the Evolution Cube so that it could sell the totems publicly?

After the Flickering World opened, countless organizations would enter and inevitably cause friction with the dynasty. If they began selling the totems openly, the pressure would decrease, and their control of the Flickering World would become unbreakable.

If that was the case, then rejecting the proposal would mean disrupting the strategic deployment of the dynasty, which was tantamount to him being ignorant of the bigger picture.

Bekorodi had already displayed the ‘sincerity’ of the dynasty, with polite words, and even shown a sincere attitude. However, in reality, this was merely a facade, and they were forcing him to hand over the cube. If he rejected, the upper echelons of the dynasty would feel that he did not know what was good for him, incurring dissatisfaction.

Han Xiao believed that if we refused to hand the cube over, the dynasty would not give up easily and would likely take some unknown follow-up measures.

It was impossible to steal from an ally, but underhanded moves would be set down one after another.

“What a difficult problem for me…”

Han Xiao sighed, unable to choose.

When the Evolutionary Totem appeared, he knew that the future would be troublesome, but the dynasty had helped him bear the pressure and had lasted for twenty years. Finally, this trouble had still appeared.

“I need to carefully think about this. I’ll contact Urranrell in the next few days and find out about her stand.”

…

Not long after Han Xiao left, a figure walked into Bekorodi’s conference room. It was Gaud.

After accumulating enough military merits over the years, Gaud had been sent back to the dynasty, formally focusing on his training with the same batch of Calamity Grades with potential.

The birth of a Beyond Grade A was full of uncertain factors. Even a Universal Civilization could not mass produce them, so the basic method was to spread the net as wide as possible and cultivate a large number of Calamity Grades.

Due to the huge talent pool as well as their advanced training methods, the conversion rate would not be null, but their output was also not fixed. It was the method through which Dark Lord Clotti had been trained by the dynasty into a Beyond Grade A.

Gaud was wearing a special dynasty officer uniform but with no rank markings on it. His figure was still skinny, no different from the him over a decade ago.

“You’re here, sit.” Bekorodi glanced at him before nodding.

Gaud sat at where Han Xiao had originally sat and lightly smiled. “How was the discussion?”

“No idea. It would be good if Black Star agreed. That would save us a lot of trouble.”

“With such good conditions, I believe he will not reject it. Black Star is a smart person, and smart people know their circumstances.” Gaud smiled.

“It’s difficult to say. Based on the character analysis by Heroic Soul, Black Star is a typical profit-seeker. Three to one may not be able to impress him, and the probability of rejection is at sixty-three percent.” Bekorodi shook his head. “Let’s not mention him. In short, whether he agrees or not, we still need your ability to analyze the principle behind the evolutionary energy.”

“Haha, I’m waiting to be sent.” Gaud laughed.

“I know that your abilities are unprecedented, but how confident are you that you can use your abilities to analyze the Evolution Cube? Don’t wait till the end before telling us it’s impossible.”

“Right now, there’s no chance, but if I reach Beyond Grade A, I would probably have a seventy to eighty percent chance.”

“So, when can you reach Beyond Grade A?” Bekorodi asked.

Gaud only smiled.

Seeing this, Bekorodi knew that there was no answer to this question and shook his head. “So long as you know it in your heart, that’s fine. If you can unravel the mystery of the Evolution Cube, this would be a great contribution to the dynasty. In addition to your promotion, the Dynasty Ruler will also pay more attention to you.”

He firmly supported the Evolution Cube being handed over and could only rely on Sorokin to put pressure on Black Star, but because of the Black Star Army and Germinal Financial Group’s cooperation, there were not many results. It was only when Gaud appeared that Bekorodi saw a new hope.

As a direct potential Super cultivated by the dynasty, many factions were attracted to Gaud, but the one he was closest to was Bekorodi’s Hawk faction. They had invested in him from an early stage.

After pausing for a while, Bekorodi’s words turned sharp.

“Let’s set this aside for now and talk about the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy. This is information revealed by EsGod’s legacy, and this mysterious energy is very dangerous. If you cannot become the host, even a Calamity Grade can be annihilated. Isn’t your idea too risky?”

“There’s no risk.”

Bekorodi frowned. “Are you sure that your Esper Ability will allow you to control the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy at the Calamity Grade?”

“It can. Furthermore, this power will allow me to reach Beyond Grade A much faster,” Gaud replied.

“Humph, you’d better be right,” Bekorodi said in a deep tone. “Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy was from EsGod’s legacy, but it did not fall into the hands of the dynasty. The fact that you obtained it from other sources and handed it to us is good. When the time comes, if there are any other organizations that want to fight for the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy, the dynasty will also interfere. I’ve already submitted your application, and the whether the dynasty will allow you to use the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy in the end is up to them.”

“That’s right.” Gaud laughed.