“Black Star said himself he isn’t coming.” Manison shook his hand. “He has already made his stand. He suggests everyone should focus on the agreement we had during the Meeting of the Gods, and once we come to a conclusion, just inform him of it.”
He would never lie about such things.
“Alright then.” The rest nodded.
“Let’s talk business,” Manison said slowly. “Since we’re decided to form the association, we’ll first have to set down the rules, regularize the positions of the association, confirm the nature of the organization and its development direction, and decide on the laws its members must follow.
Kasuyi followed up and said, “That’s right. Our core goal is to unite the strength of all Beyond Grade As, be it now or in the future. The Ancient Ones’ structure is too lenient, and its entry point is too high, so this time, we can’t repeat their mistakes. We must have a clear set of laws and regulations.”
A peak Beyond Grade A said, “According to the proposal Black Star gave, the main use of the association is to solve conflicts between Beyond Grade As. I think that’s a good path, and it’s best we start there. For example, we can have the rule that members can’t easily initiate physical conflicts with other members except for the purpose of sparring, to maintain the image that the Beyond Grade As are united. Also, members shouldn’t be allowed to deliberately escalate the conflict and avoid peaceful compromises…”
Everyone started discussing their ideas one after another. The rules and regulations were being filled up very quickly.
This time, Sorokin, who was the major investor, suddenly said, “The rules are good indeed, but the biggest problem is to make sure the Beyond Grade As are willing to follow them. As everyone knows, Beyond Grade As all have their own pride and have been enjoying tons of privileges. It won’t be easy to make them follow rules.”
“That’s right. This is a core problem,” Manison said. “Not only must we make sure the members accept the restrictions from the rules, we also have to make sure that even after the outsiders see these rules, they’ll also still be willing to join the association. Not everyone agreed with what we said during the Meeting of the Gods, so in order to prevent others from just ignoring us, as usual, it’ll all come down to the use of intimidation and benefits. We have to let the other Beyond Grade As see the price of disobeying the rules while also understanding the benefits of joining the association.
“Intimidation is easy. We seniors won’t have to do anything. We’re a form of intimidation by ourselves. Benefits, however, must be displayed through many aspects. We shall build an interest network of Beyond Grade As, unite and share our resources, and provide help to each other through many means. As for the new members in the future, we can use our resources to help them to build their Beyond Grade A forces, as well as provide some guidance from the peak Beyond Grade As…
“Also, we can even include the Ultimate Knowledges of the five classes as a benefit.”
Hearing this, everyone was shocked.
“Ultimate Knowledges? This is basically fighting with the three Universal Civilizations in the market of recruiting Beyond Grade A allies. They’ll definitely object to it to an extreme extent. This isn’t a small issue.”
“Have you forgotten our initial goal so soon?” Manison said slowly. “If we can’t break the forced monopoly that the three Universal Civilizations have on the Ultimate Knowledges, even if the Beyond Grade A Association is formed successfully, it’ll still be controlled by the advanced civilizations. We’ll have no choice but to continue working for them all the same.”
Some nodded in agreement while more stayed silent. They felt that this was too big a step and too risky. Opinions were varied.
“Since you insist on doing so, the three Universal Civilizations will have a lot to say to us,” Kasuyi said with resignation.
“Therefore…” Manison looked around and finally showed his true goal. “We need a leader. He must be able to take the pressure and never compromise, and I’m the only one who is able to take on that position.”
Everyone glanced at him.
Someone started praising him and said, “Manison is strong. He has a lot of connections, a huge organization, and he’s senior. He is indeed the most suitable candidate.”
Quite a number of people there were invited by Manison, so they were going to support him from the beginning.
This time, another peak Beyond Grade A candidate said, “Who doesn’t know what you’re planning? We’re all the initiators of the association. I think I’m more suitable than you.”
Everyone there was a Beyond Grade A. One person speaking for everyone was impossible. Even the president would only be taken more seriously when it comes to making decisions but could never truly order around these people. Most decisions would still have to be made together by the elders. However, due to the unique nature of the Beyond Grade A Association, this kind of opportunity was extremely rare.
This time, Milizaus said slowly, “Although Black Star isn’t here, he also intends to be a candidate. The forces the Black Star Army has in the Flickering World are unquestionable. Our organization will only be truly powerful with him as the president. Furthermore, the Evolutionary Totems will soon be sold to the public. At that time, Black Star will be much more important to the three Universal Civilizations. He’s suitable as the lubricant between two sides and will be able to tremendously reduce the pressure the association will face… I vote for Black Star as the representative.”
Han Xiao did not join the meeting because he wanted to let others settle the issue, but it was mainly because he was not willing to face the other candidates directly, including Manison. Since he could not compete with the others in terms of connections, all he could do was bring up the profit he could bring and let the others decide. This way, he would avoid direct conflicts with other peak Beyond Grade As. More importantly, he did not want to disrupt the Great Director Manison’s plans.
“Black Star is indeed very useful, but he’s far from experienced. I wouldn’t want a youngster to stand above my head.” Sierron snorted.
Everyone had different people they wanted to vote for, so they started arguing. Surprisingly, quite a number of people voted for Han Xiao, who was not even here.
After quite some time, someone said, “I think that the management structure should be balanced. The position of the president shouldn’t be permanent. They need to be re-elected regularly.”
This suggestion was agreed on by most. They only did not want to step up now, but it was certain that being the president would be beneficial once the association became stable. Also, in terms of maintaining balance, no one wished for one person to be the president forever.
This time, Manison looked at Kasuyi, who did not participate much in the discussion. He narrowed his eyes and said with a deep voice, “Vote for me this time. I’ll fully support you in the next election.”
Hearing this, for some reason, Kasuyi suddenly felt a chill up his spine.
Why do I feel like I’ll have to keep my Psychic shield up at all times from now on?
Chapter 1082 - Return
Chapter 1082 Return
Everyone there was standing at the top of the explored universe. They all had different forces under their command, such as armies, financial groups, and political powers.These people did not like discussing nonsense, so the issues were solved very quickly. It did not take long for the rough structure of the association to be formed. On the surface, it was a platform to settle conflicts between Beyond Grade As, while internally, it served to unite the Beyond Grade As. The rules, regulations, and reward system all had a brief outline to be fine-tuned accordingly in the future.
At the same time, the official preparations for the organization were brought forward. These initiators started to relay the message to every Beyond Grade A to recruit members. At the same time, they had to choose a location to build the headquarters of the Beyond Grade A Association in the Flickering World, which
needed the Black Star Army’s help. Also, every Beyond Grade A would have to set up an agency in their territory to serve as embassies. It felt quite similar to the United Nations.
The preparations would have to take about several months. Before the official formation of the association, the management positions had to be decided. Currently, it was in the form of President, Vice President, and the Governing Council.
After their discussion, they decided to set the duration of one term for the president and vice president to be thirty years. One could only hold the position for three terms consecutively at most but would still be able to take on the position of director after stepping down. Once two terms had passed after stepping down, that person would be eligible to be re-elected for president or vice president.
The president had the most responsibilities. He had to both have appeal and the strength to take on pressure from the three Universal Civilizations. Currently, Manison had the most support, but no one would ignore Han Xiao and confirm the president before he returned.
As for the proposal Manison made to break the monopoly on Ultimate Knowledges, the opinions were currently diverted. In the past, the Ultimate Knowledges were only given by the advanced civilizations as a method to woo Beyond Grade A allies. Even if their allies learned them, they were not allowed to easily teach them to others. Han Xiao had experienced that in the past.
If the association turned the Ultimate Knowledge into one of their rewards, it would basically break the three Universal Civilizations’ rules, which would cause severe responses from the three Universal Civilizations.
However, if it really worked, rights would be taken back from the advanced civilizations, and the Beyond Grade As would indeed be free from many limitations and become more independent.
This was an unavoidable step to increase the position the Beyond Grade As had in the universe so that the new Beyond Grade As in the future would not have to become allies of the advanced civilizations for Ultimate Knowledges. At the same time, the Beyond Grade A Association would be able to attract newbies much easier, which was extremely beneficial for those peak Beyond Grade As who had the full set of Ultimate Knowledges of their own class.
On this issue, what the people argued about was the timing. Some felt that this should only be carried out once the association had established a firm base, since this was basically directly confronting the three Universal Civilizations, and a new association would not be able to hold against such an intense conflict. Some felt that it should be carried out as soon as possible to regain their rights, emphasizing why this association existed in the first place.
There would be a lot of time to discuss these details. On the other hand, an excuse or opportunity for the outside world was needed to form this association. They planned to contact some Beyond Grade As to fake some conflicts with each other in the next few months and escalate the issues into physical fights. The key point of this plan was the impact it would bring. The Beyond Grade As involved would only be acting, but they would have to make sure that the conflict would damage different organizations.
Not only were they going to have a huge fight in the Flickering World, but they were also going to encourage their own organizations to cause friction in the various Star Fields, once again letting the other organizations realize how much the conflicts between Beyond Grade As could impact others. This way, the public would lean toward hoping the Beyond Grade As would stop fighting, which would set down the path to forming the association. This plan would both give the three Universal Civilizations pressure and face. Neither side wanted to expose the conflict of interests between them to the public.
After the bosses confirmed the strategy, they started executing it very soon. The Flickering World became even more boisterous than before, and the free competition zone became more chaotic. At the same time, Beyond Grade As started having conflicts with each other in various Star Fields at the same time.
Due to the appearance of this phenomenon, the three Universal Civilizations temporarily put their conflicts behind, and the upper echelons held a remote conference together to discuss how to deal with it.
…
In the completely secured conference room, the remote projections of the federation, church, and dynasty gathered.
The dynasty’s Ruler Urranrell, the federation’s President Bader, and the church’s Pope sat in each corner of the triangular meeting table with their own upper echelons.
In usual times, the three of them fought each other in every way imaginable, but when the explored universe started to become unstable, these three sides would come together and decide the fate of this universe.
Bader looked around and said, “I don’t even remember the last time the three of us hosted a meeting like this.”
“Of course you don’t remember. The last meeting wasn’t during your term,” the church’s Pope said calmly.
Bader gave him a glare but had nothing to say.
The Federation of Light was indeed the one that changed their leader most often. The federation’s president had already changed many times before the church’s pope even changed once.
“Let’s get down to business,” Urranrell said expressionlessly. “The unification of the Beyond Grade As is pushed by the big picture. If our objection is too forceful, the Beyond Grade As will strongly repel it. In order to avoid the fate of becoming mere tools, there’ll be more new Beyond Grade As in the future who will decide to hide their strength and live a low-profile life. In that case, our efficiency in recruiting allies will increase tremendously. At the same time, recording the total number of Beyond Grade As in the universe will become more difficult.”
Bader nodded in agreement. “We have to not let the Beyond Grade As smoothly form that development union or whatnot but not use extreme methods. We’ll have to work together. We can’t target our own allies, so we shall target each other’s. The dynasty will target my allies, I will target the church’s, and the church will target the dynasty’s allies. This way, we can cause some trouble to some of the Beyond Grade As, especially to those who are still undecided.”
“That will only act as an obstacle and make forming the union more difficult. It won’t solve the root issue,” the Pope said calmly. “If the Beyond Grade As unite as one, they’ll have a horrifying amount of influence on all Star Fields. They’ll even be able to shake the structure of the entire galactic society.”
Bader shook his head and said, “Sadly, it’s not possible to clear out all the Beyond Grade As. Not considering how big a price we’ll pay, we still have to make sure those extremely powerful individuals exist in this explored universe. They’ll apply pressure to those Beyond Grade As who’ve hidden their strength and escaped to the secondary dimensions, as well as act as a form of insurance for when we explore unknown territories. We never know when we’ll run into another unknown advanced civilization, and we can’t give up this advantage we have.”
“In the calculated model of the galactic society, this is a problem that was bound to show up sooner or later,” Urranrell said with a deep voice. “It’s just like how the workers formed worker’s unions in the early days to protect their own interests. The situation we’re facing now is similar, only the targets have changed into special individuals with great strength. Since the exploration era, we’ve been oppressing them way too much. This day was destined to arrive.
“Therefore, we have to make preparations on both sides. If the formation of the union can’t be stopped, we’ll have to try to divide them. At their management level, there’ll certainly be Beyond Grade As with different opinions and interests, whom we can either bribe or woo to be our eyes and ears. We can then use them to affect the union’s decision making.”
The pope narrowed his eyes, looked at the two of them, and said, “Speaking of which, the Mechanic Emperor and Black Star are the main ones who initiated this. Their opinions are divided to begin with… Humph, seems like both of your people are difficult to deal with. My Kasuyi is the be
st as always.”
“Manison is very, very ambitious,” Bader said with a displeased tone. “In recent years, he’s been doing a lot of things behind our backs. It’s very possible he wants to be completely out of the federation’s control. Frankly, we can’t really control him now.”
The Pope looked at Urranrell and asked, “What about the dynasty? Your Black Star loves to cause trouble too. Are you going to teach him a lesson?”
“You guys don’t have to be concerned with that. We have our own plans for Black Star. The Evolutionary Totem will be sold to the public as promised. You don’t have to worry about that,” Urranrell said casually.
The dynasty planned on continuing to ease the tension between them and Han Xiao, so they decided to be patient and wait for Gaud to grow till they could solve the technical issue of the Evolutionary Cube. This way, they would be able to reduce Han Xiao’s control over the Evolutionary Totem business.
Of course, Urranrell was not going to explain this plan to others.
Seeing this, Bader changed the topic back and said, “Other than dividing them, we’ll also have to infiltrate them and not let our people be stopped outside their doors. They want to form the association, so they have to give us some high positions in return and let our people have a say in the management level of their association. Basically, they’ll be open spies who’ll inform us of what they’re up to…”
The three of them discussed the matter for a while, made various proposals for the measures they should take, and slowly came to some agreements.
…
Time slipped by quickly while the structure of the universe gradually changed.
A few months later, in Black Star Palace…
Buzz!
With a flash of light, three people appeared in the army commander’s office. It was Han Xiao, Ames, and the Mysterious Energy Host. They had returned from the secondary dimensions.
The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385 Page 760
