Chapter 88: Chapter 86: Skylark Dove

‘Maybe I should start the permanent live stream ahead of time? If I time it right… No one will even suspect that my dreamy life as a young genius is only in preparation for the Canopy cleansing campaign… And I certainly won't say no to people to interact with at all times~’

Lost in thought on a certain subject, Aven momentarily stopped refining the FMC line, then quickly shut down his idea as soon as he had it by looking at the same 90% finished FMC line.

“Ah… Freak,” he cursed and shook his head in exasperation at his own stupidity, “But it can certainly be a good distraction and misinformation move… I just need to be careful not to show anything too sensitive or that could give the Canopy any hint.”

His phone rang at that time, interrupting his musing on how to properly set up this pre-launch misinformation move.

[Alain: I don’t think I’ll be able to learn everything I need to know to correctly manufacture even only the outermost external alloy layers of a FMC on time. Maybe I would be able to do the first two external alloy layers if I had a few months to understand and make the IUM replicate until the 13th iteration where I would reach a ratio of 2.5.]

“Sigh… We don't have the time for that,” shutting down the possibility, Aven decided what to do with his new temporary looped tech-production manager, “If he doesn’t understand everything involved in the making of an IUM, his looped tech-production of it will be so inefficient…”

Arriving at a conclusion, he sent it without hesitating or feeling any remorse.

[Aven: Forget about it then. It’s just the expected result. You discovered a rare phenomenon, and I’ll be the one to bring it to the world. Nothing to be frustrated about~ Your human brain needs time to learn about what I create after all!]

Immediately after sending this message, he received one in reply.

[Alain: Reward?]

“Ho, interesting,” trying to spontaneously answer by quantifying the value of the piece of knowledge he had contributed, Aven found it a bit hard, “Should I use the forbidden negotiator widely-cursed question? Hehe~”

[Aven: How much do you think your revolutionary intel is worth?]

[Alain: An Equalizing Crystal Shard worth 3 410 000 FCP.]

[Aven: Deal! Get dominated by my amazing negotiation skill! That’s nothing to me! I’ll also transmit this evenmential exchange of information against contribution to Arthuria for her to glorify me. I hope you don’t mind becoming a bit famous~]

[Alain: If by “a bit famous”, you mean nearly all of Eland and the world getting to know about me as the first to have done such an exchange, then please make sure my background is easily accessible.]

[Aven: I’ll just send this whole conversation queue to Arthuria and she’ll deal with it on her own~ No big deal.]

[Alain: Okay…]

Throwing his phone to the side where it softly landed on the desk where his designer overseer chair was located after finishing up with something that could have been an enormous advantage if it had actually happened, Aven brought up the monstrous schematic of the IUM.

“Yeah…” He nearly sighed at being reminded of his real situation, “I guess I’ll need to forward the knowledge transmission project if I want him to be able to understand how this monster works. It’ll also allow me to clear my debt to Commander and Rival.”

Coming to terms with how far he had pushed his interdisciplinary genius path, he stopped entertaining ideas about having others helping him in any way other than pushing their own fields through novel pioneer experiments.

Then suddenly it dawned on him, “Ho? Hehe~ Isn’t that the best project to do when I start the permanent live stream project?”

Forming yet another connection that refined his future schedule, he kept the inspiration in a corner of his head where it would be pushed even further and connected to even more things before refocusing on finishing the FMC line.

“I hope Skylark answers my message soon, it would really make my life easier if he does…”

…

Dynamic Faction Contribution Quests: Nation of Eland

…

Dynamic Contribution: 41 857 920 FCP

 

“With that…” He started as he opened his shop and claimed one of the most important keys to reaching grade 4 as fast as possible.

 

Faction Contribution Shop: Nation of Eland

Faction Authority: Purple Fairy

Faction Contribution Points: 80 531 699

…

Exotic-Warped Liquid Fairy Energy (69 489 000 FCP): Energy maintained in an extraordinarily unstable liquid state by virtue of a special container made of extremely rare exotic materials warping reality around them. Can be absorbed to temporarily drastically increase one’s talent in energy cultivation. Repeated consumption over an extended period of time brings a permanent increase in one’s energy cultivation talent.

 

Exotic-Warped Liquid Fairy Energy (Claim?)

 

“I’m officially 43 days, or a bit more than 1 000 hours, away from grade 4…” With the help of a cocktail he randomly picked on a floating plate that drifted over the pink hot spring that tasted averagely good, Aven silently rejoiced.

‘The diffusion of the all-sensors moving battery episode is planned for in 52 days… It’ll give me exactly 9 days to prepare. An ample amount of time to prepare the necessary updated arsenal to deal with anything.’

“Ha~” Resting his head on a conveniently placed waterproof cushion, he exhaled in comfort, not giving any signs of what was passing through his mind.

Ultimately though, he was unable to completely hide his reaction and repeated a quote he had used when he recorded the anti-Canopy episode, “It’s a bit thrilling, to be honest~ They’ve always been hiding in the dark, and what better way to end that than to plot against them in the dark?”

“Who said that?” A husky voice sounded from behind him.

“A guy who’ll go down in history as something of an icon~” Bending his neck even further back to see behind him as he answered smoothly, Aven raised his brows at the familiarity of the fairy hovering behind him, “You’re paradoxically both very unique looking and familiar…”

“And you’re a perfectly average fairy,” the devilish-looking white-haired and red-eyed fairy countered.

“And I’m confident I never forget about any fairy I meet,” arguing back within a second, Aven turned around, splashing some water around as he did so, “Skylark Dove?”

Second guessing himself, he appraised him, thus getting the confirmation he wanted.

 

Skylark Dove

Faction: Star Trail

 

“I heard from Storm you wanted to meet me?” Regally looking at him from above, the infinite confidence of a grade 5 fairy emanated from him. In drove. Big drove.

“I also sent Arbelle, Lavinia, Novus, and lots of others to try and contact you if you weren’t aware. It was easy to convince them to do so with my culinary skill. Though in hindsight, I think I got scammed. Why don't you have a phone? Here~”

Bypassing the grade 5 fairy regal aura that emanated from this tech super legend that had once assumed the same role as his current one, Aven opened his electronics box and made an already prepared phone float before him.

“You can throw it away if you don’t want it, I don’t care! You missed one hell of a party 2 cycles ago, it was the first bloodline elevation party in history! 2 cycles are about 1 week for me. You already consumed a Tireless Apple, right? If you didn’t I can offer you one right now as a first-meeting gift~”

Using his gift of the gab at full power naturally upon meeting one of the few people he truly respected like they were idols, his target weathered through the storm of words easily.

“I see that you want to show your appreciation for my mere presence, then why not give me that thing right there?” Skylark took over the phone gifted to him and pointed at the still materializing Exotic-Warped Liquid Fairy Energy.

“Nope, you can’t have that. If you really want one then you need to contribute!” Aven shut him down instantly, “If you want to contribute, then I have the perfect job for you. That’s why I contacted you by the way. It would have been my pleasure to meet you just to have a discussion, but unfortunately, I’m too occupied for that. Or am I?”

Tilting his head cutely to the side while maintaining his smile was a recent quirk he had developed to mess with people, and this time also it seemed to make its impact.

“Let me hear you then, I came here to relax anyway,” the regal-looking Skylark finally relaxed and let down his perpetual overbearing aura, “You’re Aven Amias, right? I think I heard some people mention you in my Star Trail center.”

“How cut off from the world are you for you to not know who I am?!” Aven was rendered agape at this completely unexpected turn.

“My research takes all my time, nothing I can do about it, I love it,” he shrugged, not commenting on how egocentric his conversation partner had been.

“Sigh… Teaching the elderly is a side-project of mine anyhow, so that’s perfect?” Relativizing quickly and seeing the good side of this total absence of possibly wrong knowledge, Aven pulled himself out of the water and downed the remaining liquid in the cocktail he had picked.

“Well~” He rubbed his hands, “Let’s go! I’ll cook for you while telling you everything about the marvelous revolution I gloriously started at the darkest dusk of the human era…”

…

You are reading story The Faction Contributor [Sci-Fi LitRPG] at novel35.com

Aven’s discussion with the historical leader of the tech fairies, Skylark Dove, ended beautifully after 5 hours of carefully tiptoeing on the line of exposing the massive Canopy-related undercurrent that was taking place in Eland.

This resulted, 6 hours after the duo split, in the two of them meeting again in the same open-air restaurant, with Aven having properly rested and Skylark having properly socialized, which could easily be seen by the dozens of fairy surrounding him when Aven came back.

Aven being Aven, he acted in the exact opposite way a shy person would have and happily took back his prior-sleep position as a chef, “Did you all eat your vegetables? I’m feeling like having a veggie breakfast personally~”

“Ho, Aven,” Skylark noticed him, “I was catching up with some old friends, I’m sure some food wouldn’t go unnoticed.”

His husky voice, which once one became used to it transformed into one of the most masculine voices one could ever have, helped his words gain a certain authority that wouldn’t be there otherwise.

“Go on, go on, it’s part of my normal morning routine,” not making himself appear too eager, he naturally turned on the huge electrical induction plates and opened the huge cold room to search for what made his foodie’s heart beat.

‘Avocado, beetroot, cucumber, onion, tomato, yellow bell pepper… With some hot vinaigrette… Do I go for spicy food? Apocalypse spicy level? Hehe~’

Designing on the fly a dish that made his morning papilla flutter, he took a pretty large quantity of everything he wanted before exiting and starting to cook.

“The Aspera supercomputer project is still on hold, but with the advent of a new tech-exclusive data flow sorter there’s some hope it can be launched for another attempt soon.”

“I would favor the high-power microwave weapons project to be reinspected for its potential value, I’m sure if we can make it work it can prove itself as a safe bet against the abominations or the abandoned beasts.”

“I would bet more on the more general directed energy weapons project if I was asked, the plating of the more problematic abominations can totally block the less intense microwaves, and the hide of the forbidden beats is just too thick and metalized.”

“The advanced laser weaponry project is advancing steadily, but on the most defensive grade 4 abominations it's less useful than ever expected… I was there for the last live test 3 weeks ago and the mood at the end really was funny~”

“In the end, it all comes back to kinetic-transmission weaponry. A shame that the railgun project is at a total dead end, dropped until new materials are found to make it usable…”

The conversation, as it turned out, completely revolved around different Star Trail’s research projects, and they all seemed so lost in the subject that no one noticed how a certain fairy kept adding more and more strange spices to the large quantity of vegetables having been directly poured onto the induction plates.

The loud sound of sizzling that came from the large quantity of oil added to the pile and the continuous mix done through energy telekinesis gave a peculiar “summer-in-winter'' sort of mood to the place.

The fairies making up the group weren’t all foreign to Aven who had spent more than just a few months frolicking around the Rainbow Mountain, but it would be a lie if he said they ever seriously exchanged even a single word.

That was how things worked here after all, being serious was nothing short of a crime.

When the food was eventually served, the inevitable occurred.

“Hot! Hot! Hot!”

“Water!”

“My mouth is burning!”

“Ah!”

“Cough! Cough!”

It took only a few seconds for the firsts to have tried the food to regret having been so focused on the conversation and ignore the evil chef who Skylark had personally praised and greeted.

“The result was predetermined, just enjoy it~” Smiling brightly at the scene, Aven himself took a big bite of what he had cooked and joined the group while heaving labored breaths with a red face, “It's no joke!”

Taking a bite too, Skylark’s eyes nearly gouged out a few seconds later, but he still successfully maintained his elder posture and preserved his honor.

“Cough…” Though not perfectly.

An hour passed before Aven and Skylark finally departed the social quagmire that was the Rainbow Mountain summit area and reached the Rainbow IRC a few minutes later.

“Where do you want to start? The design room? Free exploration?” Aven asked his flight companion as they approached the roof opening.

“Free exploration of a new place is a behavior that few fairies can control, and despite my seniority… I’m certainly not Lavinia,” giving a completely understandable reason to justify his decision, the two split again the moment they entered.

‘Well, good luck dealing with him ERA…’

Sending a prayer in the direction of the ERA-exclusive area that consisted of a production hall and a control hall, Aven headed for the design area.

It was time to finish the fairy mechanical suit integrated production line, a monster of complexity at the limit of the feasibly manufacturable.

There was no price high enough to pay when it came to one’s life after all.

…

“This is a mess…” Saying something confusing as he looked at the too detailed mechanical suit model designed by Aven, Skylark was deep in thought regarding everything he had learned over the last few hours.

He didn’t need to turn his head to look at the main culprit behind this whole mess as his energy sense was advanced enough to allow him to feel through his energy, which had long taken the form of a passive low-intensity energy domain surrounding him at all times.

“Will it work? Stupid question. How did you design it? Stupid question. Where are your assistants? Stupid question. Why didn’t Star Trail reach out to you? Stupid question. Why did you ask for me? Stupid question,” dozens of his considerations about the situation found a shaky ground welcoming them.

“I hear your heart beat! To the beat of the drums! Oh what a shame! That you came here with someone~”

Hearing the absurdly skilled singing voice of the culprit as he totally ignored his presence and continued working on what his knowledge was telling him was an integrated production line at a speed that shouldn’t be fairyly possible really brought home the fact that he was in completely foreign territory.

‘Compared to what I’m seeing right now… All the golden children born out of the golden stability period really aren’t that golden anymore… Or is he just an exception?’

Lost in thought for the next 20 minutes, Skylark took all the time he needed and carefully accounted for what he should do now that he had been introduced into one of Eland’s biggest moves in recent history.

“Any suggestions?” The voice that had been softly singing to accompany the background music until now stopped at some point, replaced by an open pending question obviously directed at the only other being in the same room.

“I haven't learned enough yet…” The white-haired and red-eyed fairy humbly refused to comment on the FMC model, though he still had some things to say, “But I see that you didn’t step into the truly hazardous experimental domain, am I right?”

“Hehe~ Maybe?” The pair of playful blue eyes belonging to the fairy sitting on a comfy-looking chair atop a modern desk told him more than the reply itself.

“You pushed what was already there, thoroughly controlled and mastered, to their absolute limit. A brilliant move not even I could do if given years,” Skylark admitted, before finally shifting gears, “However, I could come up with some theoretical ways to equal some of the material properties of the alloys and composites you used…”

Keeping his smile, Aven welcomed this transformation from a totally unnatural humble fairy into someone known to be at the forefront of pioneer innovation.

“The first thing I thought about when analyzing your armor frame is the absence of carbon fiber reinforced polymers…”

“With the latest innovations, their qualification as experimental technology has been removed, and I’m sure they hold very interesting defensive properties against forces that can potentially successfully make it to your last rampart layer…”

“For the emergency heat overload, I think you could look into using carbon fiber reinforced carbon composite materials. Compared to your ceramic alloy, you would gain in both defense and lightness…”

Typing noise followed all his comments as a side-instance’s keyboard was being used to record all the key points Skylark raised based on his knowledge base that surely included major projects from Star Trail.

“Nothing to say about my weaponry arsenal?” Aven cut in, “I’m pretty confident in my lethal ammunition, but my neutralization ammunition unsurprisingly enjoyed fewer innovations than I would have liked.”

“I don’t know if I should disclose that…” Skylark hesitated a bit, again really unlike how a fairy should act, “But Star Trail had some recent successes in 3-ways concussive wave impact bullet type. It’s still not ready for mass-production or mass-use considering its price, but maybe I can arrange for…”

A few more minutes passed where Skylark became the well-connected teacher and Aven the shy student before a ping echoed through the room.

“Some liquids have also shown pronounced energy absorption properties you would find fascinating, and their use in porous alloys is a flagship project of-”

“That would be marvelous!” Aven cut in again, this time stopping him directly, “I just finished the FMC line, so I need to visit the IUM to queue up this bad boy~ Want to follow along?”

“-the main laboratory,” Skylark finished unhurriedly, then looked at the back of the departing young fairy that was supposedly idolizing him but didn’t care about interrupting him.

He even dared not wait for his reply before departing the design room, taking his 4 boxes along.

All that was left was the unfamiliar background music to accompany the symbolic tech fairies leader at that moment.

“How come… He has not even been awakened for more than a year, right?” He seriously asked himself in confusion.

In his mind, the picture of one of the most instinct-driven fairies in existence, Arbelle Aerora, a blue fairy with more than a century of growth and origin-lifestyle adaptation, slowly superimposed over that of the fairy who just left the room.

“I should inquire about him when I have the chance… There’s no way ERA would miss such a behavioral anomaly, it’s their job after all…”

Musing to himself about this weird encounter with another fairy, his wings vibrated for an instant as gravity released its hold on him.

He had decided to follow along for a bit more before going his own way.

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