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TFC Chapter 64: White Fish Meeting
🕑 Added 2022-07-04 05:05:59 +0000 UTCArriving at the skyscraper in which the White Fish main restaurant was located, Aven landed on the roof and said hello to someone he had appraised and who obviously wasn’t there by chance.
Arman Dariux
Faction: Eland Royal Agency
‘Of course ERA would secure the building beforehand, I’m not inviting random people today after all.’
Thoughtfully entering the building, he quickly found an elevator and used it to go to the 46th floor.
When the elevator doors opened, what welcomed him was a giant bay window and more ERA agents, including one who very meaningfully approached him the moment he appeared.
“You’re early, no one else has arrived yet,” the men wearing nearly exclusively pure white clothes said.
“I’m sort of the organizer and host, so evidently I need to be here early, that's a pure formality,” giving a short answer, Aven displayed his honest casual front.
“The restaurant is already preparing some food, if you would please follow,” inviting him to follow behind him, the man took the lead and escorted him to the White Fish main restaurant.
Once they arrived and Aven dropped his 4 essential boxes in a corner, the man who had led him there awaited for more commands but was only welcomed by a fairy who didn’t even know how it should occupy its time.
“Should I refine the different points I’ll bring up? No, they’re all already perfect. Should I help in the kitchen? No, they don’t need me even if they’re factually less knowledgeable about cooking than me. Should I…” Muttering all the actions he could take, he ended up choosing the most logical one: Continue writing video scripts for his public figure secondary plan.
“Is there background music available?” He asked, unsure whether to take out his headset or not.
“There is, what genre would you like?” Instantly replying, the ERA agent charged with assisting him asked for further detailed instructions.
“Hum~ Why not some epic rock? Yeah, sounds good,” telling him what passed through his head, Aven didn’t have anything specific he wanted to listen to, “Just find some huge already-made compilation, it’s background music anyway.”
Nodding without answering, if the man was confused by his request he didn’t show it, and a minute later, as Aven was just turning on his laptop, faint background music started playing.
And after listening to it for a dozen seconds, it was easy to confirm it was epic rock music.
With now a perfect working environment according to his taste, Aven read over a large document where he had compiled everything he wanted to talk about during the imminent meeting before moving on to continue scripting videos.
It really wasn’t hard for him to continue creating new video concepts in the “Teaching” major part of his plan, he just had to adapt what he already intended to do seriously into an entertaining and pedagogic format.
For the first episode of this series he still hadn’t found an appropriate name for, the true first, not the introduction one, he had already found dozens of both funny and technical ways to explain what tech-production was all about.
And with this setting done and explained in detail over the light-hearted subject of designing the most perfect bike in history, the subsequent episode concepts were all about much more advanced products such as laboratory equipment and vehicle designing.
The “Teaching” major part wasn’t intended to last long though, the true core of his plan resided in the “Proving” major part.
Under that part, dozens of rough sub-parts the likes of “Universal Cultivation Resources”, “Exotic Research”, or “Mechanical Suit” had already appeared, all concepts with the potential of flipping the whole board of a large variety of fields, and not just the national board.
Aven was so immersed in his “work” that he didn’t notice the hours pass and the restaurant hall he was in slowly filling with the people he had invited.
Or actually, he did notice, but before everyone arrived, he didn’t feel like starting a discussion that would evidently end up breaching upon the topic of why he had asked for this meeting and why in the 9 colors of the rainbow he had invited board members of the Conglomerate and high clergy members of the Vow Church.
Those people knew why they were here and were independent enough to decide not to wait while doing nothing anyway, so they used the occasion to mingle together. It certainly wasn’t every day that such a physical gathering of high Eland authorities happened.
When the food started getting served, Aven finally decided to stop scripting the future video series that would pretty much define his public image and joined the much more lively and attractive gathering.
Groups had already formed, splitting the hall into different areas that people uninitiated on the political side of the world would have a hard time knowing what was going on or where to go,
However, Aven had personally invited every person present here, so he knew pretty much all the dynamics that could appear, hence he joined a small-sized group of 4 people that didn’t have any surface common interests with each other.
“Hello boys and girls, happy that you arrived at this surprise gathering healthy and full of energy~” Doing a weird greeting, he landed on an occupied side of the table and, as there was no way to create both a fairy and human-sized table, he had to sit directly on the table.
“So our dear host finally deign to join the gathering he created, what a surprising turn of events. Greetings to you, fairy Aven,” taking the greeting positively, a noble-looking very pale-skinned man returned the same politeness.
“Don’t be so soft on him Richard,” a stern-looking bespectacled woman didn’t seem to like this turn of events at all and scowled before looking at Aven with narrowed eyes, “I sure hope you can equal the height of the statements you used to bring us all here.”
“That’s going to be a bit hard unless I start on a world domination plan, but maybe that’s what I’m going to say? Forming a world domination secret society sure sounds fun~” Answering in good humor, he moved to the rhythm of the epic rock background music that was still playing.
“I’m sure Charlene would like it if you created one, but I wouldn’t be happy if it turns out that I moved for such an inappropriate goal,” a black-haired and black-eyed man said.
“Is world domination inappropriate for us? Eland always had expansionist ambitions long before the fairies disappeared and the human era even stabilized. I’m just saying of course,” a slightly old-looking but muscular man added.
“You’re really too young and too hot-blooded, sigh…” The black-haired and black-eyed man looked at him and shook his head, “Don’t say such things aloud when people from the Conglomerate and the Vow Church are just next to you, impressions are fickle but determining.”
“Is he your protegee or something? Let him talk, I certainly want to know about what the young generation of Eland think about their nation,” the stern-looking bespectacled woman removed her scowl and assumed a neutral face as she added.
“It’s the story of a witch from the Conglomerate, a sage from the Vow Church, a serious research and development department head from Eland and a young hot-blooded 67 years old rising officer from the homeland security department similarly from Eland… The introduction is a bit too long for the joke to go on. That’s a fail,” Aven exposed his thought process aloud.
“I’m merely a Cardinal, not a sage, but I’ll take what you said to be the truth. I really like this truth,” the noble-looking man looked at the stern woman as he stated that, not even trying to hide his smile.
“Witches have long since disappeared from the world, and my ancestors have nothing to do with what I am today,” she kept a neutral face as she countered before looking at Aven again, “Unlike the fairies.”
“Are you insinuating that all fairies are mischievous, too honest for their own good, give their trust too easily, and are geniuses in energy manipulation?” The targeted fairy inquired with a smile.
“Maybe,” she replied in one word.
“Well, on my part, I heard that all humans are horny and shady!” Aven spitted out the witty fact he had come up with long ago when he read the investigation reports ERA had made of him but had kept in a corner of his mind until now, “Can you deny that statement? I don’t think so, huhu~ I was a human before so I know it’s true~”
Following this absurd statement, the conversation continued without anyone bringing up heavy subjects and only making light conversations around random subjects.
It was to be expected from this group of people who had nothing to do with each other on the political stage.
A dozen minutes later, Aven had his fill and switched to another group, this one made of 6 people, all related to the biological industry, and brutally intruded into their discussion of the state of the cultivation resources market following the abomination surge.
Another dozen minutes later, he switched to a different group, a big one gathering 9 people, and ended up switching in the middle of the discussion about the planned construction of a tech-turbine site to another group who he heard talking about the background music.
Flying here, and there, he met as many people as he could as more and more food was served.
At some point, he left the gathering area and asked an ERA agent to put up a timer for half an hour later to make sure he didn’t lose his sense of time discussing with the many interesting people present and to send the signal to everyone that the official gathering would begin in that much time.
Returning to being a social butterfly who foraged every social group there was, the half an hour he had set up quickly passed, and to signal he was taking that time seriously, he fetched his laptop and rearranged the table with his energy telekinesis.
Forming a round table with square tables, waiters quickly came to clean the food that had been more or less emptied depending on the appetite of the people the plates were near to during the hour-long gathering.
When people took the cue and started sitting down wherever they wanted, the previous hall mood transformed slightly.
Signaling to an ERA agent to change the background music to a more “professional” one, the change was made a few seconds later and it was totally acceptable.
“I’ll start,” he announced to the restaurant hall that had quieted down, using no voice amplifier or anything, just his natural voice, eliciting no special reaction from the round table occupied by 68 people excluding him.
“I’m sure everyone knows who I am, and if you didn’t know me when you first entered this hall, then I’m sure you know me more than I know myself by now. What I said means I won’t introduce myself,” opening his speech, Aven didn’t waste any time on the useless introduction as he had a lot to say.
“Some of you, I hope everyone, may have thought about why I gathered people from so many different fields, some completely unrelated to the field you belong to, and that’s exactly the first question I’ll answer,” he elaborated, “You are all here today because I intend to bring massive, permanent, and public changes to each and every field you represent.”
Dropping such a bombshell, only a few raised their brows, having enough experience to keep a neutral face in all situations.
“Now, before you all start on me being all talk, know that factually, you’re right,” Aven declared, raising a few more brows, “Factually, I have nothing to show in terms of proof of my capabilities except for the small accomplishments I’ve recently made in the last year.”
Qualifying his achievements as being “small”, he exposed how little he thought of what he had done until now.
“So, in the end, this entire meeting will be made on the premise that everything I’ll be talking about are either the delusions of a deranged mind or the ineluctable future you’ll face in the coming months and years,” turning his sentence in a very precise way, Aven knew everyone would catch on what he was saying, “So with that out of the way, I’ll start with a field that concerns 14 people here.”
Taking a symbolic deep breath, he finally finished the “introduction” and moved on to the core subject of this meeting, “Did you know that theoretically, it’s possible to attune cultivation resources to the 5 energy systems at the same time? Well, I’m not gonna lie, it’s going to ask for an extremely large and expensive installation… But I can do it. And I will. So how do I say that? You either adapt or you die? Sounds about right~”
And thus started the White Fish Meeting, a meeting Aven had set up from scratch with the objective of clearing more than just budgets for him.
He wanted connections, he wanted recognition, and he wanted optimization. In his mind, if people had wanted to stop him, then he had nothing to say apart from that it was already too late to stop him.
He had already reached the peak of knowledge and basic self-defense power.
This meeting was but a single piece of a much larger puzzle that was the development path he had chosen: The path of holding nothing back.
He only had one life, and he wanted to make it count.
…
After tackling all sorts of fields he knew he had the knowledge to revolutionize more than just a little non-stop for more than 2 hours, Aven finally arrived at the conclusion part of the meeting.
“That’s pretty much all the innovations I consider as being important enough to prioritize them above everything I didn’t talk about. Other fields such as agriculture and psychology are of course important, but unlike the digital software field, their returns are much worse for the massive amount of time I’ll have to dedicate to them,” he shared his opinion on the fields he had said nothing about.
“And I think now is a good time to transition to answering your queries about this whole surreal situation you found yourself in without any control, hehe~” He laughed as he suddenly changed the subject, “So, any questions? I’m not in a hurry to leave so take your time to think about them, I see some of you took notes too~ Anyway, ask away!”
“Which fields are the most concerned in the short-term?” A woman from the government of Eland who had taken serious notes from the moment Aven had unveiled what this meeting was about questioned him.
“Concerned by me actualizing them to the state I described?” He countered, received a nod, and continued, “You can expect a month or two of Aven-free period before I start my first serious project which will be the universalization and intensification of the cultivation resources manufacturing industry field. Depending on some variables I can’t control, you can expect an error margin of 1 or 2 months. Only positive of course.”
“Do you really don’t need current martial supers experts in this field to assist you?” A high clergy member of the Vow Church probed.
“I already have as many experts on hand as I would ever want for my practice tests, and helping me will not allow them to create better cultivation resources. If you want to gain an advantage, then have your expert not be specialized in producing cultivation resources for a single energy system,” he succinctly answered.
“Where do you intend to lead your research, experiments, and production?” A spirited, decrepitly old-looking man from the Conglomerate solicited.
“This part is already in discussion and will most certainly lead to the establishment of a new site in Elandia where I’ll lead all of my future activities. I plan to ask for grade 4 elemental supers to help me fast-forward the creation of this future center, so no need to bother with trying to help me,” Aven informed.
“Will you really share all your discoveries and innovations publicly?” A skeptical education department head from Eland asked.
“Two versions of my research will be publicly available,” he didn’t hide his plan and affirmed, “One in an entertaining format for everyone, the other in pure data blocks that will combine schematics, models, all the math, and all the theories I used.”
“What are the most unforeseen consequences of what you intend to do?” An ambiguous question was sent his way by someone that could arguably be called one of the most powerful people in this hall, the head of Eland’s defense department.
“I would assume the most unforeseen consequences to be nothing, as in nothing of importance will happen,” Aven seriously said, “I’ll revolutionize some fields, do so publicly, start research on pioneer fields like the exotic field, do so publicly too, and nothing will go wrong, I can even survive a nuclear bomb if needed.”
“Is it possible to pay for your materialization services?” Going on a tangent the moment an opportunity showed up, a sharp-eyed Conglomerate board member inquired.
“Hu~” Adopting a thoughtful expression at that question, Aven considered all the ins and outs of this subject before giving his answer, “I would say no, but if you have extraordinary reasons, then everything is negotiable. Something along the lines of a once-in-a-century genius I can invest in or the desire to do an all-in bet on my person?”
“What is the priority level of unearthing every branch of the Canopy gone rogue…”
The question and answer conclusion part of the meeting continued for a good hour before all the people present seemed to have their fill.
As for whether they had taken this meeting seriously or not, Aven was sure that was something he would know sooner rather than later.
Once people slowly started trickling out as nothing was holding them back anymore and they had their own job to do, only a few people sought Aven personally after to ask him much more sensitive questions.
Some inquired about extreme specificities of the cultivation resources universalization process, seeking confirmation that he wasn’t a crazy fairy, some others probed him for ways of eventually privatizing his innovations.
Overall, the after-meeting turned out to be just as important as the pre-meeting and the meeting itself, allowing everyone to exchange with each other in person and test the waters on lots of new subjects.
That was how most of the experienced ones acted in all cases, everyone sounding each other out, trying to see if their opinions coincided or not.
In the end, the White Fish Meeting only ended when the White completely set, leaving this side of the world to total darkness that could only be fought by fire and light.
