The Martial Unity

The moment a technological solution was brought up, all of them rightly looked at the Esoterist, who averted his gaze as if he didn’t notice.

“Why are you running away from our implicit inquiry, Esoterist?” Emperor Rael asked with a composed tone.

The Esoterist heaved a sigh, turning to the Emperor of Harmony with a sharp glare through his augmented reality visor. “Give me a break! Why am I the only person who gets dumped with all the tech responsibilities! I am designing space stations, MECHAs, space ships, Dyson Spheres, and other space infrastructure already! On top of that, I am improving wormhole technology, and now I need to also find a solution to this problem that affects only you?”

He shrugged exaggeratedly. “I’m immortal, remember? I don’t care if I get assassinated since I cannot die.”

The Emperor of Harmony heaved a sigh. “Are you not concerned about teleported invasions and sieges?”

The man waved his hand. “Mutually assured destruction. Game theory. It’s the same deal as siege weapons. Our long-range siege weapons can launch destructive attacks from across the world into other continents, but we don’t do that because we know we would suffer the same, and we all have contingencies to launch these attacks against other nations if we are ever caught in it.”

It was true that even the warmongering nations avoided launching destructive sieges from across the world simply because of the threat of retaliation. Thus, one didn’t need to gain the ability to defend against the attacks of others as long as one could deter them with retaliation.

“Unfortunately, your reasoning doesn’t work with the Panama Continent, because they have more to gain than we do,” Emperor Rael remarked. “Remember, the Evolutionary Army wants to eventually invade our lands and settle on this continent. This continent is their ultimate goal. They will not be deterred if we invade their continent because this continent is not as important to them as our continent.”

The Emperor of Harmony soundly refuted his argument, leaving him to heave an exasperated sigh.

“There isn’t a perfect solution, but…” he began with a thoughtful tone. “I could design a counter teleportation technological system that instantly teleports away anything that emerges from an unauthorized wormhole within the borders of this continent. It will have to be connected with our satellite surveillance systems to monitor the continent, and it will require an ungodly amount of negatron matter, more than our existing reserves can manage, but we can make something that can minimize the threat.”

The Emperor of Harmony grew serious as he fell into thought. “How long will it take to develop something like that?”

The Esoterist stirred, shrugging. “I can get it done in a year with dedicated time. But the progress on space infrastructure will be slowed down with only the Astromind leading it.”

“That’s fine,” the Emperor of Harmony replied. “The Race to Space and to the distant stars is important, but not as important as our immediate survival and safety. The negatron mines at the bottom of the Great Nam Ocean represent an existential threat to our entire civilization and our entire continent. We need you to develop a solution that, even if imperfect, ensures we don’t get wiped out.”

“Fine, I’ll get to work on the manifold immediately, but do not underestimate how much negatron matter such a system will require. My preliminary estimates are that it will take more than a hundred negative tons of negatron matter for such a system to provide a functional defense of the entire continent, such that no force could possibly enter,” the Esoterist’s voice was thoughtful. “You will have to be exceptionally successful in your mining operations for this to be viable.”

“Negative hundred tons…” Emperor Rael murmured. “That… will require an overwhelmingly dominant and successful mining operation.”

The Panama Continent would have to successfully dominate much of the negatron-laden ocean floor for them to successfully acquire those kinds of reserves without leaving them entirely without negatron matter for other purposes, like the stars.

“Not necessarily.”

The voice of Sage Jinryong Namgung drew attention.

He opened his eyes, shifting his gaze to the Emperor of Harmony. “There are other ways to acquire more negatron matter.”

Emperor Rael’s golden eyes lit up as he understood immediately. “I thought you would never offer.”

“…We of the Namgung Clan are possessive over our pluripotent exotic matter,” he remarked with a knowing tone. “Especially since your son’s insights have helped us unlock its full power. But this affects our survival as well. As long as we get a larger share of the mining yields and other benefits in exchange for our primordial seed contributions, I don’t mind giving you all the negatron matter that you need.”

“Of course, my friend.” Emperor Rael smiled confidently. “Your contributions, like that of King K’uk’ulkan, will net you greater compensation. You will receive negatron matter or other kinds of compensation that you seek. With this, we have a path to successfully protecting our land. However, as our enemies get more and more negatron matter, their ability to invade and teleport into our country will continue rising, which means…”

He gazed at the Esoterist, “…the counter-teleportation system will also need to continue growing stronger, won’t it?”

The Esoterist nodded with a resigned expression. “Otherwise, it will be overwhelmed trying to teleport everything away.”

“Thus we have no choice but to ensure that we are always one step ahead of our enemies when it comes to the mining operations of the negatron mines at the bottom of the Great Void Ocean,” Emperor Rael remarked. “We will have to use everything we have at our disposal to desperately fight this war. That is the path forward. Thankfully…”

His expression grew confident. “Rui has recently achieved a high degree of mastery of aquatic combat. I believe that he will be an extraordinarily powerful asset in allowing us to survive not just in the depths of the ocean, but also here within our continent. Once he wakes up, he will lead us to victory at the bottom of the Great Nam Ocean.”