Bronita's fingertip seemed to slice open the Imaginary tide, and the Erudition radiance bursting from her tea-to-blue gradient hair congealed into a gear-shaped star ring.
The light wheel rotated, and several more gears of differing sizes and shapes were added; meshing together and turning ceaselessly, they ran out the supreme principle of [Story]'s constructive elements—the possibilities derived from civilization.
The energy of the Erudition Path was extracted from concept; pixel particles and data torrents blanketed the heavens and surged like a tsunami, their churning so swift that it was visible to the naked eye even on a planetary scale.
Within the fluorescent-blue tsunami, the Quantum blueprints of warships began to surface.
The Imaginary reactors unfolded automatically like origami art, the structures advancing layer by layer; in that brief span, colossal silhouettes were depicted into being, and after the absurdly large-caliber main cannons and the alloy outer armor were molded and perfected from nothing into something——
Main battleships and star-destroyers descended into the world one after another; the starship swarm aimed straight at the IPC fleet like so many spears, ten million cannon-muzzles primed and ready.
Herta was an Emanator of Erudition, so Bronita, formed through fusion with her, was naturally an Emanator of Erudition as well.
The power of an Emanator could provide ample energy supply for Aether Editing and the Authority of the Herrscher of Reason.
A Genius's knowledge, paired with the truth of narrating civilization and the editing ability to rewrite reality, could perfectly manifest in reality whatever was conceived in the mind.
She could not reproduce or depict Nous, but mere star-destroyers... were nothing more than toys!
She could casually conjure several super-large fleets!
A pity that Herta had not been close with Chadwick in the past—otherwise Bronita could have just hand-cranked out an 'Imaginary Collapse Pulses' weapon; she'd only need one, and it would guarantee these IPC people behaved more meekly than grandchildren.
In this moment, Oswaldo was utterly dumbfounded.
He was stunned speechless!
It felt as though everything before his eyes was an illusion—but he wasn't in Penacony, was he?
Why did it feel like he was dreaming?
His Adam's apple bobbed up and down three times, yet he couldn't squeeze out half a syllable. In his line of sight, before several main battleships, nebula-like azure energy gathered around those grim, terrifying cannon-muzzles.
His amygdala had long since been broadcasting the highest-level danger signal throughout his entire body; a sense of absurdity born of cognitive dissonance made this head of the Market Development Department wear the blank expression of a newborn arriving in the world.
"Boss! The number of warships in the surrounding airspace is still increasing—we, we're completely surrounded!"
The operator aboard the Amber Guardian wore a face full of terror, his voice trembling.
Behold—the originally empty holographic projection screen was now densely packed with red markers, encircling the IPC's proud fleet at the center in a full 360 degrees.
The number was several times that of the IPC's!
"What kind of ability is that?"
Oswaldo swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
In his view, the so-called Emanators—though these fellows blessed by the Aeons were indeed powerful—if Emanators were truly invincible, then the Xianzhou Generals of the Xianzhou Alliance would not have suffered loss after loss across numerous Denizens of Abundance wars, and the Lord Ravager of the Antimatter Legion could not have died to the hunt of a Sea-Patrolling Ranger.
Most Emanators were, in essence, nothing more than mortal flesh-and-blood bodies possessing a certain degree of Path authority, able to directly wield Path energy.
Within the IPC, the view of Emanators was also that they were individuals 'rather troublesome to deal with,' not individuals 'impossible to deal with.'
Oswaldo, too, was an adherent of this viewpoint—whether or not to make an enemy of an Emanator depended solely on whether the reward gained was sufficient to match the cost paid.
But everyone held one clear consensus: an Emanator of Erudition was the exception.
That dread came not from the might of an Emanator, but from the fact that a Genius themselves was a force that would forever change the Galaxy!
Especially this newborn Emanator of Erudition before him—she omitted the very step of tools; if a Genius needed no materials or manpower, and could directly manifest their own ideas into the real world——
Then she was absolutely one of the most troublesome Emanators!
"B-boss, what, what should we do?"
P43's management suddenly felt the warship deck beneath his leather shoes grow soft as a swamp—when in fact it was his knees buckling uncontrollably and dropping him to the ground.
He'd thought this was a sweet gig—accompanying the boss on an outing while skimming a little profit on the side—who could have imagined things would escalate into a situation like this?
Their enemy was not merely a civilization that couldn't fly out of its home planet, plus a magical girl close to Emanator level.
It was an incomparably powerful Emanator of Erudition!
That primed, densely numbered starship swarm—even if the IPC's entire Armed Forces Group came over, they might not be able to win!
The Market Development Department was merely a business division; the starships it was equipped with were more than enough to crush ordinary civilizations, but the one opposite was a Genius!
"Is the assessment done yet?"
Oswaldo's scalp prickled, but as the head, he quickly steadied himself nonetheless, feigning composure as he tried to look at the analysis results.
"The enemy ship class is unidentified. By the technical department's analysis, it may be a fusion model of the latest technology—whether in tech standard or in number, it surpasses our armed ships..."
"If frontal combat breaks out, with current configurations, our probability of victory is 0.01... and the probability of total annihilation is 99.9..."
The analyst really wanted to tack on a suggestion: surrender on the spot!
They were just employees—though the Market Development Department's salary wasn't low, there was no need to fight to the death!
Especially to wage, for no reason at all, a war they couldn't possibly win.
Oswaldo's expression was somewhat numb.
How could he not understand—that so-called 0.001 was in fact merely a consolation offered out of scientific courtesy, purely a matter of praying for a miracle.
"Madam, I think there may be some misunderstanding between you and the IPC."
Drenched in sweat, Oswaldo thought at high speed about how exactly to break the deadlock; first, he ordered the entire fleet to stand down from fire-control alert status.
And then...
Shh—could they make peace?
He was a wildly ambitious, ruthless schemer—not some brain-dead villain like Yun Leng, the Grand Elder of the Yunlan Sect, who'd fight a Dou Huang-rank powerhouse to the death over a single outer-sect steward.
Who would butt heads to the bitter end with an Emanator of Erudition over one trivial matter?
If there was no profit in it, why do it?
As for provoking the IPC?
Please—she'd even provoked Nous himself!
To keep escalating the situation and drag the entire IPC into the water over one small matter—forget competing for a Board directorship, he'd even lose his position as a department head!
Bronita gave Oswaldo a faint, indifferent glance with her silver-purple eyes, paying him no mind at all, and reached out a small hand to pull Caelus to the front.
"The warships are all controlled by intelligent AI; you have a hundred percent command authority—play however you want."
Combining Herta's haughtiness with Haxxor Bunny's dashing spirit, Bronita spoke with a beaming smile, as if she'd bought a limited-edition starship figurine as a gift for her boyfriend, her cherry lips pressing to the corner of Caelus's mouth:
"If it's not enough, just ask me for more later."
Bronita actually had a simpler way to deal with the IPC fleet.
Haxxor Bunny was a super-hacker; she had nearly grown to the point of going toe-to-toe with Silver Wolf, and with the boost of a Genius's wisdom, Bronita was a solidly cosmic-tier hacker.
Paired with Aether Editing and the Herrscher of Reason, she could seize control of the IPC fleet with the utmost ease—even make them slaughter one another!
Bronita had ten thousand ways to bury them amid the sea of stars!
But she bore no grudge against the IPC, and Herta was a collaborator bound to the IPC by shared interests—no need to go all kill-y and fight-y right from the start~
Don't forget, Caelus's main goal was to collect a debt from the IPC!
She only needed to back Caelus up and show off a little pink fist~
Hearing Bronita's generous words—like a wealthy madam giving her boyfriend a gift—one more bead of cold sweat appeared on Oswaldo's forehead.
What did she mean, ask for more if it's not enough?
She could keep creating fleets?!
"Bronita, Bronita!"
The moment she saw Bronita constructing starships with a wave of her hand, Stelle fell silent; thinking of Bronie's power and Herta's knowledge, the gray-haired girl's golden eyes radiated a blazing light.
With a whoosh, Stelle dashed over, clinging to Bronita's arm and acting coquettish.
"Can you crank one up for me—a unicorn?"
"A unicorn?"
Bronita blinked. Herta's rationality told her that, in cosmic warfare, designing mecha in humanoid form was purely a way to lower killing efficiency.
But in just an instant, that was overridden by Bronie's and Haxxor Bunny's personalities.
"Fine, fine, fine~ You really are too much for me."
In a doting tone, hand-cranking out a Gundam was effortless for her, possessor of Aether Editing and the Authority of Reason and seated in the position of a Genius.
"Yay!"
The Stellaron spirit cheered with delight.
March 7th and Topaz—wrapped in her reality-suit—had no mind to spare for Stelle.
"Aba aba..."
Little March cutely widened her eyes, staring dumbly at the fleet that had appeared out of thin air.
Topaz was silent—an unprecedented silence.
Neither she nor her superior Diamond could ever have imagined that Caelus could push the Market Development Department to such a degree.
Oswaldo—this time he was going down hard!
Using that portion of Bronie's consciousness to tell Bronita he wanted one too, Caelus walked up to the man clad in the tailored suit.
"Head of the Market Development Department, Oswaldo?"
"That's me, Mister Caelus, hello."
Oswaldo's posture at this moment could serve as a textbook of interstellar diplomatic etiquette—respectful and courteous, gentle and refined, displaying the IPC's civilized side to the fullest.
Seeing Oswaldo's attitude, Caelus grinned and clasped his hand:
"I believe this must surely be a wonderful misunderstanding."
"We're all civilized people; all this killing and fighting is so unseemly—that's the sort of thing only interstellar pirates do. What if it spread to the IPC's star regions and a few mineral planets got accidentally blown up? What a pity that would be."
"A brilliant view, Mister Caelus."
"I hear that nearly half the Galaxy's markets were developed by you."
"No, no, no! I'm just an errand-runner for the IPC—and only one of its legs at that."
Oswaldo raised a single finger.
"So then, exactly how many legs does the IPC have?"
Caelus folded his arms, his expression puzzled.
"No matter how many legs, yours is a thick one—a real thigh."
Caelus draped his arm familiarly over Oswaldo's shoulder, his fingers even playfully flicking the man's pricey necktie, grinning:
"Aiyo~ With such a thick golden thigh as yours, how come you still owe my little, sparsely-populated Belobog this bit of maintenance fee?"
As he spoke, Caelus produced the 700-year debt contract for Belobog drawn up by the IPC, along with the maintenance-cost contract.
"More than seven hundred interstellar standard years! The little children of our nation count the days on their fingers every single day~"
"Welching on the debt, huh? Can you bear to watch them unable to even afford a 790-credit eyebrow pencil?"
Caelus actually felt rather regretful—why didn't this fellow have that sort of cursed-as-if-by-a-hex stubbornness, fighting him to the death heedless of profit, just for a sliver of face?
Then he could have extorted even more out of the IPC!
"...Heh heh, of course not."
Oswaldo really wanted to slam a fist into that grinning face, but he glanced at the Emanator of Erudition conversing with Screwllum and Ruan Mei in the distance.
Three Geniuses!
"The IPC will provide the maintenance fee for Belobog's wall—however, is this annual maintenance cost perhaps a bit... I think the two of us could discuss it a little further."
This time, he'd been done in!
Oswaldo was certain that if he reported the situation to the upper echelons, the IPC's leadership would rather pay up than offend three Geniuses.
That figure was an astronomical number to Jarilo-VI, but to the IPC it didn't reach the point of damaging bone or sinew—and besides, it could still be negotiated.
At the root of it, it was the IPC that had first produced an unreasonable treaty to covet the planet of Jarilo-VI; had the IPC not brought up that debt, the other party would have had no way to seize upon the pretext.
Hunting wild geese all day long, only to have a goose peck out your eye.
Interstellar commerce was, in the end, supported by the fist.
It was only that, in the face of the uncanny, miraculous means Caelus had displayed, Oswaldo found it hard to ignore.
Gazing at the smirking gray-haired youth before him, Oswaldo smiled on the surface, his thoughts heavy.
Just who—who on earth was he?
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