29 029 UNEXPECTED NEWS II

029 UNEXPECTED NEWS II

"Well, it's not like we only chose you, but all other top food companies that tried making something from a space beast failed. Especially since your company is the only one left to try, not to mention how you managed to score 5-stars on the recent food evaluation." Lisa stated

"Hmm, that's weird. If I recall correctly, GFMI managed to make a 5-star food solution a few decades ago, did it not?"

"Oh, that? That was a fake. They had bribed the private company that tested the solution. That's the reason the HFA ordered that in order for a product to be released to the public, it must be tested by the government itself. Of course, the whole incident had a gag order put around it so as not to spread panic. The GFMI also had to pay a hefty fine." Lisa said with a shrug

"Oh, I see. I didn't know that, as I have only read about it online, but what makes you think we can succeed where so many others failed?" Arc answered

"To be honest, even I myself am not entirely sure, but it is a fact that your S-grade solution is so perfect even we couldn't find fault with it." Lisa said admittedly

"So you tried to study it and obviously failed, otherwise we wouldn't be talking right now, would we?" Arc said with a smile

She was a little embarrassed: "Well, to be fair, did you expect anything less?" Lisa says nonchalantly

To be honest with himself, Arc couldn't care less, as he didn't think anybody would be capable of copying any product made by the system factories. Even though he did downgrade the solutions to the lowest rank, they were still made by Rank-5 technology. In other words, the solutions were not something the current technology of Earth could reverse-engineer.

"Well, if I thought it would be so easy to copy, I would have registered it at the patent office, don't you think so? I mean, the fact that I released it to the public without registering for a patent is already stating the obvious, isn't it?" retorted Arc, looking very proud.

"That may be so, but did you really think it would stop people from studying it?

"Well, I guess not," Arc said.

To be honest, he only said that in order to look cool. He really couldn't care less regardless of how many tried since he knew that it was, to be plain and simple, impossible.

"Ahem, we're getting out of topic, so what do you think about our proposal?" asked Lisa.

"You're right, and yeah, we're willing to try, but what do we get out of it if we should succeed?" Arc asked

"Well, that's easy, you'd get exclusive rights to it, of course." Lisa stated

"You're joking, right? If we succeed it becomes a matter of fact that we have the exclusive rights to it, that is not an offer, Lisa," said Arc frowning a little.

"That may be so, but we're the only ones who can supply you with the space beast meat." Lisa answered

"You're forgetting something once again. We don't need a space beast since we're not really planning on making military-grade solutions, why should we waste our time and manpower for nothing?" says Arc

"It's not for nothing per se, we will still buy it from you. We only want it to be a lot cheaper," said Lisa.

"Since you have the monopoly of the materials, you dictate the price after all. Of course, you are not willing to pay good money for it." Arc said mockingly

Lisa knew Arc was right. The HFA was not willing to spend a lot of money on the solutions, since they know that they really did have a monopoly on the space beast meat. She however couldn't do anything about it since she was only asked to negotiate with him.

They tried to negotiate back and forth.

"This is getting nowhere." Said Lisa in her mind. She thought she could easily negotiate with Arc, after all, who doesn't want to work for HFA? Each and every company out there would jump for the opportunity.

"You know war is coming and that the HFA is spending a lot of money on other supplies that have higher priorities. They can't spend too much money on food solutions, and besides, we all need to do our part in it," said Lisa.

"Come on Lisa. You have to give us more than that, otherwise, it's not worth it for us to spend time and resources to create a military-grade solution using space beast meat just for you." Arc answered, losing interest

Lisa was getting frustrated as the conversation didn't seem to move on, but she didn't let it show on her face.

"Please tell me what you want, Arc, and let's not waste our time?"

"Well, if you want it that way, sure. I want HFA to provide us our own place at the LIBERTY and permission to work without supervision."

LIBERTY was a gigantic space city founded by early human space explorers. The early human superpowers and friendly aliens by combining a clump of special asteroids to form a gigantic spaceport. LIBERTY facilitates open trade to all friendly forces, as HFA was not the only human power in space. Sure, they're one of the biggest ones, yes, but not the only ones. Omega Foundation, which was founded by a group of scientists who thought that combining alien and human genes is the way to the future, was one of them. They had already separated themselves from Earth's humanity a long time ago.

During the beginning age of space exploration, many humans didn't want to be under HFA, so they separated themselves and built their own superpowers. Omega Foundation was one of them, the Royal Empire another, and many others...

In other words, LIBERTY has become the biggest trading hub for humans and aliens in space. In simpler terms, it was now a gigantic space market. One in which the Grand Trading Corp. could truly shine in the future. Arc of course knew this because of Eve.

"That's. Don't you think you're asking for too much? We're just asking you for a military-grade solution, not a miracle." Lisa replied.

"Is that so, well, if you think it's not a big deal creating a military-grade solution from space beast meat, you can do it yourself, or better yet find someone besides us to do it for you. It's not like we're really losing anything from not accepting the deal you're offering," said Arc with a shrug

Lisa shook her head, frustrated because she couldn't do anything. "I can't decide on this myself. I'll have to convey your request to the higher-ups and let you know when they decided something." Lisa finally ended the negotiation

"Sure no problem. Take your time, I'm not in a hurry anyway," said Arc with a playful smile.

"You're not, but we are, just how big is your appetite? LIBERTY is the most sought-after land in the Galaxy. So many powers want a piece of it, yet it remains unreachable." Grumbled Lisa in her mind.

"OK, I'll let them know, but don't expect much: You know the value of LIBERTY and I personally don't think the higher-ups will agree," said Lisa

"It's fine, just let them know. Tell them it's either that or they can find someone else to do it for them because that's the only price we will accept," replied Arc to Lisa.

Editors and Proofreaders: NikTitanik866, Firmament, King of Mortals.