The Mech Touch

5946 Portal Fantasy

The fifth upgrade track was definitely the sketchiest option that the System presented so far.

The previous ones were all benign in nature. They allowed Ves to either build useful stuff or grant him capabilities that he could use for good or ill.

Random Being Acquisition was different because it directly targeted random beings living throughout the universe.

Nobody wanted to get kidnapped, brought back to a mysterious space before subsequently getting stuffed into a cage!

This option was tailor-made for Ves if he wanted to grow his power by plundering the strength of other alien beings.

He was sure he could gain access to plenty of solutions that would ease the process of extracting valuable knowledge and secrets from the minds of intelligent organisms.

He might also be able to improve his ability to harvest unique or valuable resources from powerful captives.

If Ves was able to use this upgrade track to capture phase whales and phase lords on a consistent basis, then it would be more than worthwhile for him to spend lots of Ascension Points!

It would be even better if he was able to make the Time and Space Gate powerful enough to kidnap aliens from Messier 87!

"This is not an easy option." Ves mentally frowned.

The value of this upgrade track was directly proportional to his ability to extract value from his captives.

If he wanted to make the most out of the Ascension Points invested in this upgrade track, he not only needed to get good at plundering everything of value from a captured alien.

He also had to find ways to convert the acquired beings into loyal minions and subordinates!

Ves suddenly recalled the old cartoon dramas that he used to watch when he was young. There was a period of time when the age-old portal fantasy genre enjoyed a resurgence for the umpteenth time.

Ordinary people who lived in a normal society suddenly got transported into a completely different fantastical setting!

After their arrival, they quickly utilized their modern ingenuity or their 'special powers' to gain an advantage and rampage across their new environments!

Although fantasy could never match reality, Ves had the impression that Random Being Acquisition shared a close resemblance to all of those old stories!

"Is this a way for me to kidnap individuals with special abilities and hoodwink them into serving my cause?"

The universe was unimaginably big. The amount of galaxies spread across the cosmos easily surpassed 2 trillion!

There was a huge variety of living beings out there. The vast majority of them comprised of little more than bacteria and other weak organisms, but the more powerful among them likely developed a lot of weird and unique advantages.

The Alshyr race became powerful by exploiting the power of Worclaw Crystals.

The phase whales were able to make use of phasewater to grow their bodies to moon-sized proportions.

The extinct luminar crystal race invented an amazing form of high technology based on creating special crystals.

The arche had developed a powerful new tech base that worked on radically different principles from conventional technology.

In short, there were lots of powerful alien beings out there that could contribute completely new insights and capabilities to Ves.

From increasing the direct combat power of his personal retinue to providing groundbreaking technological advancements to red humanity, there was huge potential in this upgrade track!

However, there were two dubious aspects about Random Being Acquisition that made Ves hesitate about picking this option.

The first one was that there was a strong element of randomness to the selection process. Who knew whether spending his Ascension Points would yield a profitable result? This was no different from gambling!

The second dubious aspect was that Random Being Acquisition was not entirely unique.

Portal Exploration allowed Ves or a hand-picked capture team to teleport to a completely foreign location and snatch valuable alien targets by themselves!

Of course, the upgrade track needed a lot of AP investment in order to make this capture operation viable. Ves had to be able to generate a two-way portal to prevent himself and his people from getting stranded in the middle of hostile territory.

Since this was a possibility, why should he favor the fifth upgrade track?

"Random Being Acquisition is a lot narrower in scope, but it does its job a lot better. There is no need to risk myself by venturing into dangerous places. So long as any alien being enters the System Space, it should be easy enough to subdue the new arrival. The holding facility is a completely secure prison that can probably block all forms of tracking and detection. It should also offer solutions that allow me to extract much greater value from my captives than if I rely on ordinary means."

That last part was extremely important to Ves. It was always difficult to interrogate different alien beings as their differences made it difficult to figure out how to apply sufficient pressure on these unfamiliar species.

The more extreme and divergent the aliens, the harder it became to understand them, let alone get them to spill their secrets.

"There's too much randomness in this option." Ves mentally sighed. "The benefits may be unimaginably high if I can kidnap an alien inventor… but it can also cause me to waste a lot of AP in vain."

Though Ves possessed a higher than average risk tolerance, that did not mean he lost his appreciation for stabler alternatives.

He decided to set aside further considerations for later. He still had two more upgrade tracks to explore.

"Next."

This time, the setting changed to show a random untamed planet. The lush green environment showed that the globe supported a life-bearing ecosystem.

The biodiversity of this planet was quite impressive. Exobeasts of many different varieties tried to eke out a living. Exotic radiation occasionally caused a few exceptional specimens to mutate and gain extraordinary power.

The calamity beasts that rose up among the fiercest native organisms ruled over their respective territories like kings.

Each of them sought to defend their lands, rule over their dependent tribes and find ways to evolve into god beasts.

It was quite an idyllic sight.

Yet one day, all of that changed when a dimensional tear appeared above a certain region!

The gap in the fabric of space released a flood of energies that originated from a completely different dimension from the material one!

The energies spilling out from this gap had an immediate and catastrophic effect on the ecosystem.

Many exobeasts and exoplants died out as they became exposed to energies that their bodies couldn't bear!

Mass extinction soon engulfed the entire continent, and subsequently the entire planet.

The effect was the greatest on the side of the planet where the tear originated. The opposite side of the planet managed to escape the worst effects, but continuous exposure slowly caused the more powerful and resilient organisms to fall and die.

Doomsday had come to the untamed planet.

However, not everything was destined to end.

"Life always finds a way."

Though more than 99.9999 percent of all species died out after getting exposed to foreign energies, a small proportion of exobeasts and exoplants somehow managed to adapt to the extreme circumstances.

Many of them had mutated before and self-evolved fast enough to tolerate the foreign energies, especially when they resided on the opposite side of the planet.

The more successful among them even managed to draw strength from the foreign energies, allowing them to grow stronger and gain fantastic new abilities!

After an unknown amount of years, the untamed planet eventually managed to recover. The dimensional tear still spilled out energies that were absolutely lethal to ordinary life forms, but the ones that had managed to repopulate the globe had all developed an amazing tolerance for them. Many couldn't even live without the powerful energies anymore!

Ves recognized the incredible value of these new species. Just like E energy radiation, the energies supplied by the dimensional tear produced different kinds of mutations that could provide valuable reagents or exceptionally powerful exobeasts.

"Isn't this a replication of what happened to Aeon Corona VII?"

How could Ves forget his unforgettable adventure at the planet where the Starlight Megalodon had crashed?

He had come into contact with so many wonderful and terrible phenomena while he stayed on the planet.

From befriending Qilanxo to almost getting killed by Sigrund, the mission related to Aeon Corona VII had forged his old self into the mech designer he was today.

Though a part of him still resented all of the trauma and suffering he endured while he endeavored to retrieve a vial of life-prolonging serum, another part of him appreciated how much stronger he had grown after he came back with his life intact.

The thought of being able to create more planets like Aeon Corona VII definitely held a lot of allure to Ves!

The surroundings changed to show a completely different planet. This one was already colonized by humans. Billions of people lived across thousands of settlements spread across the surface.

Another dimensional tear opened up above a random city.

Unlike last time, the tear did not spill out any dangerous and lethal energies.

Instead, the tear took the form of a portal that led into a very strange and alien space.

The local humans quickly took charge of the area and cautiously explored the dimensional tear.

Seeing that it did not introduce any direct harm to the planet and ecosystem, the humans first sent out probes, bots and ultimately human field teams!

After a lot of cautious explorations, the bots and field teams eventually exited the dimensional tear while holding all kinds of bizarre loot.

The haul consisted of unstable crystals, strange metal ores and living creatures that were neither carbon-based nor silicon-based!

Soon, the humans confirmed that the dimensional tear led to a parallel but radically different dimension that was filled with all manner of strange resources!

The local rulers quickly chose to construct a set of defensive fortifications and research institutions around the dimensional tear. Each haul brought back valuable goods that could not be sourced anywhere else in the Red Ocean.

The researchers eagerly studied the strange items and eventually managed to achieve a few breakthroughs.

Mechs that incorporated these bizarre materials started to show up. Each of them exhibited much better performance than comparable machines!

The energy weapons of these strange mechs bypassed transphasic energy shields entirely.

The mechs gained the ability to phase right through deadly attack salvos when activated at the right time.

The strange machines were also able to launch missiles that spontaneously transformed everything around the impact site into shiny and reflective metal!

All in all, the forces who fielded these abnormal mechs clearly gained a lot of power by exploiting the resources taken from the other side of the dimensional tear.

[Upgrade Track #6: Dimension Breach Creation. Allows for the generation of dimensional tears at designated locations at the cost of Ascension Points. These tears will breach the walls of reality and open an entrance to random or specified dimensions. The different dimensions can contain all manner of energy, resources or hazards. This upgrade track can be upgraded to increase the maximum size of the tear, prevent the passage of undesirable matter and energy, breach into more less accessible dimensions and create tears at greater distances. At its height and with heavy investment of high-

quality resources, this upgrade track may gain the potential to breach into a completely separate universe.]

"What?!"

Much of the explanation provided by the System did not exceed his expectations, but that final part completely caught Ves off-guard!

"Is this for real?!"

The System essentially promised that he would gain the ability to travel the multiverse!

Ves would no longer remain confined to the current universe anymore!

Even though the amount of AP and resources needed to strengthen Dimension Breach Creation would definitely be astronomical, it gave Ves hope that he would be able to escape the reach of the Subjugation King and any other enemies that he could not defeat in the foreseeable future.

As powerful as God Kings may be, Ves doubted that they possessed the power to travel to a separate and fully formed universe!

This was definitely another upgrade track with an extremely high ceiling!

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