The Proposal

In the sea of the eternal dark and cold void, the white ship was like a lonely adventurer. There was no heavenly body around it that could shed some light on this triumphant returnee.

All of a sudden, this lonely planet hopper came to a sudden halt in the silent void. However, it wasn't peaceful inside.

[Authorized protocol has initiated...]

The cry of the system woke everyone up inside the ship. By the time Aiden had come out of his room with the backpack, all the others had gathered on outside.

[Preparing for the dock…]

The system continued to inform the arrival of a new ship. None of them had any difficulty in understanding the reason for their arrival.

Looking at the image of the ship that was docking with their ship, Aiden was a little surprised. 'They came within seven days. Could it be that they've been close to this place?' He couldn't help wondering when Owen was coming to him.

"Will you be okay?" Owen tried to keep his voice as low as possible. Alas! The ship was too silent.

All of them turned to Aiden. Looking at their reaction, Aiden couldn't help but feel a little jealous of these people. It was he who did most of the works, and now others will enjoy the fame of his effort.

Yet Aiden smiled at him and looked around. As his eyes stopped on Elijah, his smile grew bigger, as he said, "It is only natural that you have to take responsibility for your actions, sooner or later."

Even before Aiden could finish his sentence, Elijah was already looking elsewhere. Aiden just gave a faint smile but did not pursue the matter.

The ship quaked a little before returning to normal again. And the system of the ship explained the reason.

[Docking complete.]

The gate of the ship opened as seven people came in. All of them were wearing the same uniform, from head to toe with a helmet to hide their Face.

"I am Luke, Captain of the 37th special exploration unit of the space exploration army." One of them came forward and saluted.

"I am Lyla, captain of EP00 of the Earth exploration unit." And Lyla returned the salute.

"Captain, I think the Federation has already informed you about the reason for our visit." Luke had no intention of beating around the bush, went straight to the point.

"Yes, Captain." Aiden was the one who responded. "I am Aiden Law."

"Good. There is no need to waste any more time. Please come with us."

It took a very short time to complete the procedure. And soon enough, the ship was on its way back to Planet Will with one less person.

While the ship that had swallowed Aiden didn't move at all. Inside, Aiden was being escorted to his room.

"Please change the uniform." As Luke spoke, he took off his helmet and exposed his hairless head. With a smile on his face, "This is a specially designed suit that reduces the time-derived side-effect on the body."

It didn't surprise Aiden too much when he found that he had been negotiating with this same person for the last two weeks. But what confused him the most was 'Time-derived side-effect?'

Although he was not a master on this subject, he knew the basics. Travelling at warp speed 8 can affect the ageing of the human body. So they designed the ships in a way to neutralize the effect on the body. 'But the spacesuit...'

Luke understood the dilemma of Aiden, and said with a smile on his face, "Just put it on first. This ship moves a lot faster than you can imagine." And he left the room.

'It must be some kind of unknown technology.' Aiden could only think of it as the only explanation of their arrival in seven days. It took a while to put on the old-fashioned one-piece spacesuit.

When he came out of the room, they guided him to another room where Luke was waiting for him, with a person with long white hair.

"So this is the one you are talking about?" The white-haired old man was the one who spoke first.

'Can he be the one behind it all? A councilman!' Aiden took a good look at him. Apart from his face, his body was covered with a suit similar to his.

"He is not what you are thinking about," Luke said, as if he could read Aiden's mind, "he is one of the leading researchers on the subject of the mana induced evolution of the human body."

"Hello, I am Charak." said the old man with a smile.

"I am Aiden." Aiden introduced himself and sat in front of him. "So what do you want to know?"

"Oh! Straight to the point, as Luke had told me." He, himself, was itching to talk about the topic of absorption of beast mana essence in the human body. But, "It is better if Luke does the important task first."

"Important task?" Aiden frowned, not understanding what he was talking about.

"As I have told you, the army of the Exo-04 doesn't have one body of the army. They are formed with the people from three land armies, two air forces, and the space exploration army."

Luke sighed, and added, "It was hard for me to put in the Lucas' regiment. But I put in an excellent team of space exploration units."

"It doesn't matter." Aiden shook his head, adding, "As I have told you, I will do what I have to do. I have no intention of mingling with others, and as long as they have no intention of attacking me, it won't be a problem, but…"

Luke sighed and said, "I can't say for sure that they will not pull some tricks on you, but as long as you don't kill anybody again, there won't be much of a problem." Luke stopped for a moment before adding, "And I have another proposal for you."

"Another?" Aiden groaned. "Didn't we cover the subject already?"

"Of course. But this is special." Luke took another look at Aiden's expression before adding, "As long as you agree to help, there will be extra benefits."

"No, thank you," said Aiden without hesitation.

"Come on, just hear it." Without waiting for Aiden to accept it, he said, "All I want is your help in creating some beast-essence warriors."

"They will die," Aiden was quick to answer.

"How can you be so sure of that?" It was clear that Luke didn't like his response, "Or did you lie to me then? Do those things even work?"

"Didn't you see the video yourself?" It was wrong to say that he wasn't angry. Without giving Luke any chance to refute, he continued.

"The beasts of that place are too strong. If I have to explain it, then humans have a 40-45% chance of absorbing the beast essence of an E-graded beast. For D-graded beast essence, it reduced to less than 10%. And the beasts you have shown me are mostly B-graded or stronger, so…"

Listening to Aiden's words, a smile appeared on his face, "Don't worry about the weakest beasts. We'll sort it out. All you need to do is extract the beast essence with Charak and help him with the absorption process."

Aiden took another look at Luke. Even if he had a little doubt about it first, but now he was sure that he had been aiming for the cultivation technique of the Earth's native all along.

"As long as you keep it secret, you will receive 1 million credit for every trial, whether they live or die."

'Live or die?' Listening to his words, his frown grew deeper. 'None of them is any different. They didn't even care about human life at all.'

Yet Aiden was conflicted. Money did entice him a little, but when he thought about the pain he had to go through, he couldn't force himself to do so.

It is the process that increases the strength of the human, but too many people will die. That was also why Jewel used it on the slave instead of himself. And even if they don't die, a failed absorption process will yield some mutated outcast.

'What is the difference between Elijah and me if I push them to their death?' Aiden shook his head.

But once he thought about it, he became more conflicted. Now that he was thinking about it, he found that the damage had already been done. 'But, I have already given them the method. The more they fail, the more humans will die.'

'What have I done?' With each passing thought, the amount of guilt continued to pile up inside him. While he was thinking about it, Aiden didn't realize that he had been staring at the floor for too long.

"Let's not talk about it now," Luke sighed, realizing that he was too excited, "Think about it for now, and let me know."

Yet the awkward atmosphere didn't disappear. It was then the system announced...

[The ship will enter the WEX-69 wormhole in two minutes. Please take the precautionary measures.]