The Martial Unity

Miss Mearsheim stared at the email with a stunned expression. Ten days had passed since the company had sold her information about Planet Pinky. And now, they had sent her yet another email regarding an infected world.

"What is it?" Director Seltis asked with a raised eyebrow. "New trouble?"

"…New opportunity." She quickly showed him, causing him great surprise.

"They… found another infected world?" The director's eyes widened. "That… that's impossible!"

To be more precise, it was so improbable for the same company to happen upon two infected worlds in the span of ten days that it may as well have been impossible. That only left one inescapable conclusion.

"They actually have it," Miss Mearsheim realized. "They actually have figured out some way to detect and locate infected worlds."

This realization shook the two of them. If EsoQuest Solutions had found a way to detect and locate infected worlds, and was willing to monetize this ability, then it would completely change the mining industry. No, it would change all of human civilization.

The sheer impacts this would have were so wide and far-stretching that she found it difficult to even comprehend. All she knew was that this company was more of a wrecking-ball on the current state of affairs than anything else.

"Seltis." She turned towards him with a serious expression. "I want you to continue your investigations into EsoQuest Solutions. Find out everything about them, not just who is behind the company. I want you to find out what technology or methodology they are using to find infected worlds."

"You just told me to drop the investigations, Ma'am."

"And that was before I got this email. Now the situation has changed. I want to know everything there is to know. And I want to acquire the power to find and mine my own infected worlds," Miss Mearsheim demanded with an intense tone, turning back to the email. "At this rate, with this company being the sole entity in the world responsible for information relating to infected worlds. It's a monopoly on the most important information in the world. Who knows how much they will lord it over us."

Miss Mearsheim was far-sighted enough to know that if the company could dish out infected worlds at this rate, they would very quickly take over the entirety of the infected world-hunting industry. They would become the sole controllers of who got access to mining worlds.

That was a tremendous amount of power. More power than she was willing to allow anybody to have over her. She would much rather take measures to figure out how this company identified infected worlds.

Given that it was a company and not a party of pathwalkers, it was most likely a technological solution. If that was the case, then it was something that could be replicated. Though she had already deduced prior that the person responsible for the company was likely a Martial Artist, which did give her some pause.

However, it didn't change what she needed to. She needed to acquire the means to find infected worlds.

"In the meantime, I'll have to have Brenda send a notification to all the pathwalkers' parties and companies that we have commissioned to find or verify infected worlds, informing them that we're canceling our contracts with them," she coldly spoke.

"Isn't that a bit rash? What if this email's information turns out to be false?" Director Seltis raised an eyebrow.

"They've attached a virus hash this time, just like last time, it is verifiable. Besides, they didn't go through all that effort just to sell a lie a second time," she insisted. "Using an actual infected world just to run a scam is stupid and something that would get them caught very easily. No, this company is the real deal. Which means we don't need the garbage that we have been relying on to individually go and vet anomalous planetary phenomena to see whether or not it is an infected world."

He nodded with a serious expression. "I'll find out everything that you want to know about this company and more."

He got up, heading out to immediately intensify his investigations into EsoQuest Solutions. Now that the importance of the company had shot up to a whole other level, he needed to dig up every single detail on the company that he could get.

Terrestrike wasn't the only mining company that had been whipped into a frenzy regarding this new revelation. Other mining companies that had received emails from the company also quickly realized the truth. The first infected world had been news enough, but the second infected world from the same company ten days later?

That was shocking on a whole other level. The moment people realized that one company had managed to secure a reliable path to finding infected worlds, it began spreading like wildfire.

*****

"What do you mean you're canceling our contracts?" A Martial Sage widened his eyes with shock. "We just signed a billion-credit contract for the year!"

In a meeting room with some nameless lawyer from Terrestrike, the leader of the Sage-level party Prowl, Sage Neyfid, fumed. His body was gargantuan and towered over the civilian lawyer seated on the opposite side of the table. He possessed so much power that he could have crushed the soulless, formally suited woman opposite him with a single huff, yet he stayed his hand.

The era where Martial Sages lorded over humans and bent them to their will with just a flex was gone, unfortunately. Neural inlays didn't just improve cognition; they made psychological pressure acclimatization much easier to achieve, along with rapid ascent in other forms of supplemental technology.

The woman opposite him barely looked thirty. Her body was so weak he doubted she could even lift her own weight, but she stared him in the eyes with a frosty gaze, essentially telling him to fuck off with the polite and formal language common to corporate lawyers like her.

"As I have already told you, Sage Neyfid, the contract specifically specifies in clause sixteen that either party may cancel the contract at any time without cause, with merely a formal notice to be submitted at the time of cancellation," she spoke with a monotone voice devoid of reverence for the Martial Sage, pushing a sheet of paper on the table towards him with the statement and the signature of the CEO, Miss Mearsheim.

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