After the New Misurugi Kingdom and Orb publicly announced their nuclear fusion furnace transaction, the various foreign diplomatic ambassadors and scientific researchers who had gathered in Star Palace City all rushed over to Orb.
After all, in their eyes, Orb was much easier to deal with than the New Misurugi Kingdom.
The leaders of the Earth's nations saw Orb's new chief representative, Cagalli Yula Athha, as a complete rookie. They figured they could threaten and cajole her into granting them joint research rights for the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor.
Of course, not all countries were thinking of developing the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor on their own. Moreover, for the major powers, it was wise not to put all their eggs in one basket; they needed to prepare on two fronts.
For example, the Scandinavian Kingdom, the Equatorial Union, the African Community, the South African Unification Organization, and the recently re-established South American Union saw that Orb could obtain the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor through a trade.
Thus, ignoring the fact that the New Misurugi Kingdom's move was partly to look after its little brother, they all secretly expressed sentiments like, "We have drifted for half a century, regretting only that we have not met a wise lord. If you would not cast us aside, we are willing to acknowledge you as our suzerain," and then submitted applications to trade for the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor.
However, the public information from the New Misurugi Kingdom and Orb did not specify what price Orb had paid for the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor, so these countries were all waiting for the New Misurugi Kingdom to name its price.
Reid knew that not a single one of them was sincere. Even if he set an exorbitant price, as long as it could be paid with money or ordinary materials, they would still find the funds to buy the reactors.
This was because, according to Une's intelligence, the Equatorial Union had been in close contact with the East Asian Republic recently; the Scandinavian Kingdom had secret ties with the Atlantic Federation; and the two African nations had long been under the influence of the Eurasian Federation.
As for the South American Union, it was clearly in cahoots with PLANT. PLANT's second base was being built in the Amazon Rainforest region of South America, named Jaburo Base.
When Reid heard this name, he nearly spat out the water he was drinking. What a reversal of roles! Was PLANT planning to establish an Earth Federation to oppose the Earth Alliance?
Fortunately, the selection and establishment of this new base were genuinely a coincidence. It wasn't that someone in PLANT had suddenly received some otherworldly revelation and felt that the name suited the Amazon Rainforest, believing it could become a place of auspicious beginnings, and thus decided to build a base there.
Therefore, Reid rejected all of these countries' applications to purchase Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactors. He was so direct that he didn't even bother to make up a reason, simply stating that it involved state secrets and that the sale to Orb was based on his good personal relationship with its leader.
In any country other than the New Misurugi Kingdom, such a reason would get him flamed to death by the public.
This was a classic case of mixing public and private affairs. How could matters of state be decided by personal relationships?
However, in the New Misurugi Kingdom, this was not a problem. The populace had long known that the country was, in fact, run by Queen Angelise's family. As long as their current way of life could be maintained, they would support any decision Reid made with both hands raised.
When these other countries saw this, they thought, a good personal relationship with Orb's leader?
Could it be because Rondo Mina Sahaku, who came from Orb, was whispering sweet nothings in Reid Isaac's ear as his lover? (At this moment, Mina, in western Australia, sneezed a dozen times in a row, making her think she had caught a cold from her recent work stress.)
Or had Cagalli Yula Athha already offered herself up in private? (Cagalli also started sneezing uncontrollably. Athrun, who was organizing intelligence, was utterly speechless and prepared to teach these gossip-mongers a small lesson.)
And so, not long after, a "princess delegation" composed of princesses from various countries arrived in the New Misurugi Kingdom for a tour. Each princess expressed her great admiration for Reid and hoped to have a private chat with him.
These countries might as well have said it outright: "We have princesses of all types here, Mr. Reid. Feel free to pick one if you like."
Faced with this blatant "honey trap" princess delegation, Reid knew that if he made contact, his home life would be upended. Murrue was pregnant, and her emotions were already quite sensitive.
Thus, he decisively announced that he had to start a lab project and would be going into seclusion. In reality, he stayed in the Star Palace 24/7, with the Xia sisters accompanying him at all times.
As for these princesses, they were naturally received with the highest honors by our Queen Angelise.
Seeing that Reid had gone into hiding, the world's nations also knew that Queen Angelise was not to be trifled with. This was a woman who could literally punch out a crybaby with a single blow.
So they had no choice but to abandon the seduction plan and let the princesses genuinely tour the New Misurugi Kingdom, while also trying to see if any of them could build a good relationship with Queen Angelise.
Later, all these countries would come to regret this. What kind of person was Ange? In the world of web novels, her story would be that of a quintessential strong female protagonist, one who was passively charismatic to both men and women.
From certain angles, Ange's ability to charm young girls was even more effective than Lacus's "allure."
So, after spending a few days with Ange, this group of princesses all became her little fangirls, calling her "big sister" more affectionately than anyone else. They spilled all the beans about the instructions they had received from their home countries.
At this point, the princesses' home countries were still unaware that their precious little darlings had been turned. They just thought the honey trap had failed and directed all their resentment toward the Orb government, forcing Cagalli into meetings every day to discuss the secret research of Minovsky Particles.
Cagalli was at her wit's end now. In the past week, she had met more leaders from various countries than she had in the previous ten-plus years combined. If the door to the Orb Chief Representative's office had a threshold, it would have been worn completely flat by now.
Moreover, Cagalli had no one to help her at the moment.
Ever since singing at the Earth Sphere Peace Accord ceremony, Lacus had returned to the pinnacle of the music world.
Although the Diva Gundam was a social death sentence, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and fans will automatically apply a filter. Now, "manly Barbie pink" had surprisingly become a popular color scheme for MS paint jobs. Some female MS pilots even genuinely painted pink bows on their mobile suits.
In addition, Lacus was busy forming her international rescue organization and had followed Miriallia to Africa to document the post-war reconstruction efforts of Cagalli's old acquaintances, the "Desert Dawn" organization.
This directly led to Athrun taking the MS he had named "Hong Long" to Africa to provide protection in secret. Now, Cagalli didn't even have anyone to vent to during her breaks.
And what about Kira, you ask? That guy was at the Dawn Company, helping to design his new mobile suit.
It was a rare burst of proactivity from Kira. His experience in South America made him realize that with the Freedom Gundam not being readily available for use, a new, high-performance mobile suit was truly important.
Of course, Erika Simmons also had Kira study Minovsky Particles on the side, reasoning that replacing existing beam weapons with them would require modifying many weapon structures.
However, although Cagalli had no one to help her and was still a political novice, she had clear strengths: she was fiercely loyal and played by the rules.
The agreement between the New Misurugi Kingdom and Orb regarding the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor was crucial to restoring the nation's financial health. It also explicitly stipulated that Orb could not jointly research the two qualified reactors it was given with other countries.
So, while Cagalli insisted that Orb was a neutral nation, she also knew that the New Misurugi Kingdom would not stand by and watch Orb be attacked by other countries and lose the reactors.
Thus, Cagalli was not the least bit afraid of war threats. If anyone dared to threaten Orb with war, Cagalli would dare to fire back, stating that Orb would fight to the last soldier and was not afraid.
However, the New Misurugi Kingdom would not concern itself with minor provocations and troubles Orb faced.
For instance, the security pressure on Orb's Dawn Company had recently skyrocketed, with people constantly infiltrating in an attempt to find data related to the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor.
If it weren't for the fact that the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactors themselves were guarded by the New Misurugi Kingdom's garrison, given how Orb's middle and lower echelons had been infiltrated like a sieve, the reactors would probably have been lost already.
So, it was inevitable that Cagalli would be overwhelmed, as this was the pressure and responsibility she had to bear in her position.
However, with things having reached this point, matters concerning the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor were actually becoming clearer.
The other countries had also realized that the New Misurugi Kingdom was impervious to persuasion, and obtaining information on the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor would not be easy.
But the New Misurugi Kingdom clearly hadn't completely shut the door, leaving the two Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactors in Orb as a bone for the whole world to contend over.
If you couldn't even handle the Orb government, that was your own country's problem. You deserved to fall behind in Minovsky Particle research.
Therefore, the number of people coming to the New Misurugi Kingdom to see Reid gradually decreased, and Reid's life became relaxed once again.
The main reason Reid was taking it easy was to let the bullet fly a little longer.
It would be too fake if Orb's Dawn Company produced a low-quality copy of the Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactor just a few days after getting it. It would be more appropriate for a copied, inferior reactor to appear after a month or two. At that time, the whole world would be shaken again, and they would be fleeced by the joint efforts of the New Misurugi Kingdom and Orb.
On another front, Tem Ray's research on the practical application of the GN Drive was still not finished. According to the reports sent back, the miniature nuclear fusion reactor from the AC Universe had completed its safety verification. Due to its satisfactory sealing, the two could operate independently without reacting with each other.
However, if the casing of the AC Universe's miniature nuclear fusion reactor were to be breached, it would trigger a large-scale nuclear explosion.
Yes, tests had shown that GN Particles could, to a certain extent, increase the power of a nuclear explosion or directly detonate a nuclear device.
It was important to note that the AC Universe's miniature nuclear fusion reactor had undergone multiple self-destruct tests in its original world and could not cause a nuclear-level explosion. The principle was the same as how shooting a nuclear bomb with a pistol bullet wouldn't cause a nuclear detonation.
But when mixed with GN Particles, it would directly ignite the miniature nuclear fusion reactor, producing a fusion explosion similar to a hydrogen bomb. Moreover, the blast radius would increase significantly depending on the spread of the GN Particles.
This was a situation that had not occurred in a high-concentration Minovsky Particle environment. It seemed that GN Particles were overly sensitive to other nuclear-related phenomena. (In fact, Minovsky Particles can also amplify nuclear explosions, but it requires a specific ratio, as exemplified by the super nuclear warhead of the Gundam GP02A.)
However, this could be considered a divine self-destruct technique, a "heaven and earth perish together" move. Especially on the future AD Universe battlefields, by the time of the second season, the battlefield would be filled with GN Particles. If an AC Universe miniature nuclear fusion reactor were to detonate in there, it might really be able to take out both friend and foe in one go.
It's just that a mobile suit equipped with this unorthodox dual-reactor system of an AC Universe miniature nuclear fusion reactor and a GN Drive couldn't hope to use self-destruction to buy time. Because if you self-destructed like Athrun or Heero, you absolutely wouldn't even leave ash behind.
Although using nuclear weapons was taboo in any Gundam universe, Reid had no intention of banning the related research.
Because if you don't play with nukes, you can totally apply this technology to high-powered beam weapons, such as improving the Satellite Cannon next to the Star Palace Colony Satellite, which was still disguised as an abandoned colony project.
Therefore, Tem Ray's research team and the security personnel assigned to him had not yet returned. It seemed this research would have to continue for some time.
And so, Reid, who had been resting for nearly two months, wanted to transmigrate again.
However, the next stage of the system's assessment mission was the civil unrest in the Kingdom of Azadistan.
(I forgot to mention the next mission stage in chapter 235 on my return, so I'm clarifying it here.)
Since the Black Tri-Stars, Salya, and Hilda were not suitable to return at this time, the system assessment mission was not suitable to be done now.
After all, Reid remembered that during the Azadistan civil unrest, Alejandro Corner and Ribbons Almark were both visiting the Kingdom of Azadistan as representatives of the Union.
He would definitely have to meet these two then, so he couldn't be short-handed.
Moreover, the strength of the otherworldly invaders was always an unknown, so Reid had to bring his full strength to every mission.
Since the assessment mission was not suitable due to a lack of personnel, Reid naturally turned his attention to the remaining two G Invasion Campaigns.
The UC 0088 AEUG and Neo Zeon Earth Sphere Infiltration Operation was out of the question. It required entering with a single ship, and he definitely couldn't do it with insufficient manpower.
And it would be impossible to say Reid wasn't afraid of Ange and Haman meeting. In fact, Reid had been thinking that maybe it would be best to just pretend this G Invasion mission didn't exist.
That left only one option: the PD Year 323 Tekkadan Mars Breakout Campaign.
This campaign only allowed a single mobile suit to enter.
But this was reasonable, as Tekkadan's combat strength at this time was just one Barbatos (2nd Form) and one Graze Custom with an exceptionally clumsy pilot (it would be more reasonable to call it a Graze Repair).
With that little strength, Reid felt that as long as he built a targeted mobile suit, he could go in and dominate single-handedly. Bringing in a second mobile suit would be looking down on himself.
Moreover, Reid really wanted to get his hands on a standard Ahab Reactor to test whether the so-called "physically indestructible" claim was reliable. Anyway, Gjallarhorn had a whole bunch of mobile suits with single Ahab Reactors.
With this in mind, Reid decided to go to PD Year 323, for the Tekkadan Mars Breakout Campaign.
Although even if he brought back an Ahab Reactor and a Gundam Frame now, there would be no one to research them.
But you can never have too much technology in reserve. Not knowing the principles didn't stop him from directly using the Gundam Frames from the PD universe as parts.
This was a tough frame that wouldn't even rust a bit after being buried for 300 years. In terms of corrosion resistance alone, it seemed even stronger than the Gundarium Alloy from the AC Universe.
Although its various performance metrics were strongly linked to being equipped with two Ahab Reactors and not achieved by the material itself, the Gundam Frames of the PD universe could perform movements as flexible as a human's. Their research value from a design perspective was still very high.
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