[[ AUTHOR Note: It's the start of a new month, and there are a few tidbits I wanted to mention, so forgive me for this rather lengthy pre-chapter author note.
As always, I would first of all like to thank all of you who have picked up S.P.E.C.T.O.R and are enjoying it. So thank you all very much. I always enjoy reading your comments and reviews, and since I am so new to writing novels, I try to take even the criticism as a learning experience.... I did say try lol.
Regarding reviews, if you ever have a spare few minutes that you're not busy, could I possibly ask that you throw up a review, since that improves the chance of the novel being discovered.... aparently.
Not forgetting the shameless plug section, don't forget there are 40 more chapters to read over on my Patreon or SubscribeStar and a quick shout out to all my Patreon supporters.
I have used some of the money from Patreon to create custom artwork for 7 of the main girls. This means I can have the artist dress them up in specific outfits if needed, since the original concept art for them was just of the net.
I will hopefully be able to show you all in the next few days. If they go down well, I plan to add more as the story progresses.
For those of you here on Webnovel, I will throw up a link to where you can view them once they become available, since Webnovel doesn't offer a place for me to store images unless I'm contracted to them.
Once again, thank you all for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy long into the future.]]
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"Production of what he gave you? I can't possibly imagine what someone from outside the known universe could possibly give you that would be worth more than half of Erkath Fashion."
"Maybe I misspoke when I said worth more than half of Erkath Fashion; I should have said worth more than all of Erkath Fashion."
"Excuse me?" Sinead replied in shock, making Erkath smile.
"What Adam offered me was the entire history of his home planet's fashion industry minus swimwear. Take a look at a few examples." Erkath replied before dozens of holographic screens appeared above Sinead's desk, showcasing different styles of clothing from men's wear to women's wear, from children's wear to baby wear.
Sinead gaped open-mouthed at the dozens of holographic images of different clothing designs and styles that appeared before her.
"This is only a small number of what Adam gave me in exchange for half of Erkath Fashion, the real number of different clothing design numbers in the millions, if not billions, and Erkath Fashion has exclusive rights to them all." Lady Erkath said proudly.
"There are designs and styles here I have never seen before," Sinead remarked.
"I know, it's very impressive how a small unknown planet from well outside the known universe could come up with so many different designs and styles."
"How is that even possible? Unless these styles go back tens of thousands of, even millions of years"
"That's the thing, every image has a date at the bottom left-hand corner showing when that piece of clothing was first produced. I used my console to search for the oldest known outfit to be commercially produced, and do you know what I found?"
"What?" Sinead asked with great interest.
"The oldest outfits I could find were those made only a little over two hundred years ago at something called slop-shops."
"TWO HUNDRED YEARS!" Sinead shouted in surprise.
"SINEAD!" Her chief shouted.
"SORRY CHIEF," Sinead replied before turning back to Lady Erkath and asking, "How is that even possible, all these styles in a little over two hundred years?"
"Not every style is from the past two hundred years and was made commercially available; this, for example, appears to be from a far earlier time," Erkath replied before showing Sinead the image of a dress that seemed to come from ancient times.
"There's no date on this image," Sinead noticed.
"That's correct, most of the images and other reference material provided do include a date; however, those that look far older do not have one. If I had to guess, it's because when this database was made, there was no way to know the exact date those clothing pieces were first produced."
"I see, then, going back to my previous question, why has Adam's home planet been able to produce so many different clothing designs and styles in such a short time?"
"If I had to guess, I would say it's because of the lack of interference from the rest of the universe."
"Excuse me?" Sinead asked in confusion.
"Look at the history of anything a planet designs or creates, both before and after their first interaction with the known universe, whether it's clothing, music or movies or anything, and you will notice a trend.
Before interaction with the known universe, the people of said planet had to rely on their own inspiration and creativity to come up with something, and this allowed that planet to create its own… let's call it brand.
"Now, what happens after that planet joins the known universe? The answer is that they start to be influenced by the other planets and races. It is natural for the weaker and less successful to take inspiration from those stronger and more successful than themselves.
In this way, said planet loses its individuality because it copies more and more of the ideas of the more powerful planets until they ultimately cease to exist.
Of course, I won't deny that occasionally an older planet finds merit in the ideas of younger planets and uses them, as we have heard; in fact, that seems to have been happening more and more frequently, almost as if those planets have had more time to come up with unique ideas compared to the older planets that joined before them."
"What you're saying is that after a planet joins the known universe, it begins to lose its individuality and start copying the ideas of the older planets."
"That's my theory. Every planet is in some way influenced by every other planet, with the older planets and races having more influence over the younger planets and races.
The Solarian race is a prime example of this. Why do you think the Solarian race's military is more powerful and advanced than almost every other race?"
"Isn't it because they have the best scientist? I mean, the Solarian first princess Liluth Solar has just formed her own research and development laboratory, and everyone has high hopes for what she will produce." Sinead answered.
"You're not wrong, but you're also not correct. The Solarian race does indeed have many of the universe's best scientists, such as Princess Liluth Solar, but then what about the Dwarfinian race? They are known to have some of the greatest minds when it comes to creating technology, but why then, is their military might not as great or even greater than the Solarian's?"
"I don't know," Sinead answered with a thoughtful expression.
"I believe it's because…. What was the term used in that movie I watched with Rowena and the others again?" Erkath said as she thought for a moment before seeming to remember and continuing, "I believe it's because they can't 'think outside the box.'"
"Think outside the box?" Sinead asked.
"Yes," Erkath confirmed before explaining. "There is a major fundamental difference between the Solarian and Dwarfinian races when it comes to their production of technology that keeps the Solarian race ahead in terms of how advanced they are.
The Solarian race is one of the oldest races in the universe and, therefore, was not influenced by older races nearly as much as the Dwarfinian race, which is far younger.
So while the Solarian race is constantly inventing new revolutionary forms of technology, the Dwarfinian race instead improves on technology already invented.
So let me ask you, which is more likely to give you an edge, an older form of technology that has been upgraded numerous times until it has reached the limits it can be upgraded, or a brand new form of technology that is specifically designed to replace the old one?"
"I see," Sinead said in understanding, "It's like our unibands and the old fliptype communicators everyone used when I was still a child. Everyone now uses the uniband because it's both more convenient since it fits on your wrist and is also capable of doing far more tasks, such as holocalls, something the flip communicators couldn't do in the past."
"Exactly," Erkath said with a smile before continuing, "I think it's the same philosophy we have here with the fashion from Adam's home planet. While we in the universe, myself included, were trying to improve or upgrade the designs and styles we already had, his home planet was constantly creating new styles and designs."
"So this is also why you believe Adam's planet has so many different designs, because they don't have a stronger planet to copy from, and they have to use their own inspiration to come up with new ideas."
"That's my theory."
"This is incredible," Sinead said as she started to understand the gravity of what Erkath had just told her.
"I know this wasn't originally part of the interview, but do you mind if I write a separate story on this?"
"If you wish, but I ask that you state that this is just my personal opinion."
"Of course, thank you, Lady Erkath", Sinead replied before asking, "So do you happen to know the reason why Diva Lorelie's boyfriend, Adam, gifted half of Erkath Fashion to Diva Rowena?"
"As far as I'm aware, it was a gift."
"A gift? Do you mean that he is trying to win Diva Rowena's affection along with her granddaughters and Diva Lorelie's?"
"No, nothing like that, though I do admit that would make things quite interesting, haha," Erkath replied with a laugh before continuing, "As far as I'm aware, he promised a gift to all four women who are travelling with him, Rowena, Diva Lorelie, Stacey and Tephe. This was simply the present that he gifted to Rowena."
"Half of one of the universe's major fashion companies is no simple gift. If this is what he gave Diva Rowena, I wonder what he gave the other ladies?"
"While I do know the present he gifted them, I'm afraid it is not my place to say so; I would have to suggest you ask them to learn this."
"I see, thank you, so when might we start to see this new line of clothing from Erkath Fashion? Also, you said before that the gift excluded swimwear. Why is that?"