Edward tapped his finger on his desk, removing the Anti-Magic or Sealing Domain he released. The variants sighed in relief, but their eyes conveyed that they wanted nothing more than to kill him. He ignored them and continued:
"What is the most valuable aspect of the Council?" asked Edward, but he did not give anyone time to answer. "Is it sharing our knowledge or information? Or the exchange of resources? No, it's our individual mind."
His voice could reach everyone in the assembly despite speaking softly.
"As long as we can work together, there is absolutely nothing in this universe we cannot achieve."
He paused and gave them a few seconds to marinate his words.
"Unfortunately, our ego, pride, arrogance, and mistrust will never allow for complete cooperation without reservation. Knowing this problem, I have come up with a solution."
Edward waved his hand to materialize six helmets. One had a white stripe on the head, while the remaining five had blue stripes.
"You," said Edward, pointing at a random person in the audience. A halo appeared above the person he chose, bringing all the attention to that person.
"Y…Yes?"
"Do you have a super important project you've been working on? However, the project is extremely difficult even for you and requires a long time to accomplish?" asked Edward.
"There is," replied U-765.
Edward waved the white helmet to him. "I need five more volunteers."
No one volunteered, plunging the meeting into an awkward quiet.
"Common guys, I need you to meet me halfway. Otherwise, this council will be useless. I have signed the contract and cannot hurt any of you."
The variants rolled their eyes. They would never trust the person who created the contract, believing they must have left a backhand.
"I will trust you," said A-001, who raised his hand, and one of the red helmets floated before him. Without hesitation, he placed it in his head. The quiet lasted for a moment before a few adventurous variants who were curious chose to test things out to find the truth.
Edward secretly smiled. He chose the helmet on purpose, despite knowing one of his variants' taboo was anything related to their brain and soul. Once it is proven that nothing was wrong with the helmet, even though it involved the soul, he can garner more trust and make his time as president easier.
'I'm glad I did not have to force that puppet C-137 to come forward,' thought Edward.
With all the volunteers present, the experiment began. U-765 and the other five closed their eyes. The stadium became quiet to the point someone could hear a pin drop. These people did not need to breathe, so even this sound was gone as they focused on the six of them.
Ten minutes later, U-765 was the first to open his eyes. His facial expression displayed joy, longing, and regret; it was obvious he wanted more of whatever he experienced.
"Why don't you tell everyone what you experienced?" said Edward with a smile.
"I was in a white room with the other five," said U-765. "I presented them with my project, and in the next ten minutes, we discussed, planned, and theorized how to accomplish my project. Everybody had unique insights and ideas, accelerating the project completion rate to an astonishing level," explained U-765 with a look of longing.
"How much time do you think you saved?" continued Edward.
"More than a hundred years, at the minimum."
"Ten minutes to save a hundred years, not a bad trade off," said Edward with a smile. "What about the other five?"
"I was in a white room, alone, seeming to be in a meditative state," replied B-890.
"It was the same for me."
"Same experience," nodded A-001.
"In other words, you guys help U-765 while also keeping his secrets?" said Edward with a smile, and everyone's eyes dilated. Then, everyone looked at him with intense focus.
"It's as you guessed. The machine will create a projection of you with similar memories and experiences. Then, the person with the main headset can ask his fellow variants to help them with their magical theories and technology while also keeping their biggest secrets. The others helping will have no memories of the experience since they are only helpers.
"In the future, if you want help with something and don't want anyone to know what you are working on, you only need to ask the right people to volunteer after coming to an agreement on the reward and use this machine to accelerate your research."
A normal exchange between their variants is fine. After discussing the appropriate price, they can easily exchange knowledge, information, and technology. However, there are certain projects these variants refuse to allow others to know, so they cannot ask for help.
However, with this technology, they can use the knowledge, unique experience, and out-of-box thinking of their variants to help them. Just like the president said, their greatest asset is each other. However, total cooperation is impossible because of their personality.
"Pre…President, your idea is good and all, but how do we guarantee you cannot peek at our secrets? After all, this technology is yours and yours alone."
This variant did not ask to inspect the technology as he already had an inkling it was beyond his capability. Although it hurt to admit, it was a fact their president, G-003, was miles ahead of them for some reason. Many people wanted to know the reason, but now was not the time to search for an answer.
"I know someone will say these words," replied Edward. "To gain your trust, you guys can work together to create the most restrictive contract or oath to prevent me from peeping at your secrets, and I will sign it."
"Are you serious?"
"I am," replied with a smile while secretly sneering. He did not care what contract these people came up with since it was useless. If it restrained his soul, he would be fine if he prevented it from affecting his Soul Flame.
If it affects his bloodline, he can modify his Life Code and render it useless. If it involves his mana, he can still abandon this body and swiftly return to Tier 8 in another body. If the contract involves the Plane Will, he has a good relationship with Cronai and could find a loophole with her aid.
The only problem that could arise from this contract was if these people used a higher being as the witness to this contract. However, even then, it won't be much of a problem.
His variants do not trust higher beings, especially the ones they do not understand or are more powerful than them. Furthermore, unless that higher being is Tier 11 or above, it won't have an effect on Edward, as he could still hunt them down.
And even if they were Tier 11, he could still leave the universe where the being could not influence him.
Everyone discussed the contract to restrain the president in the next few hours. Edward only intervened when someone demanded he release the technology behind the headsets. He humiliated the guy by saying he couldn't even understand it, so what would be the point of releasing it? Furthermore, it was his property.
The final result was a contract restricting his soul and bloodline and a terrifying curse on his body.
"You guys are ruthless," said Edward, shaking his head. He checked the contract over and over, making a face as he hesitated to sign it before gritting his teeth and doing it.
Everyone exhaled in relief; they felt this was the best outcome, especially since they could make this arrogant president suffer a small loss.
'This is hard to wash,' said Morgana.
'Why do you say that?'
'It's like watching an adult bullying children.'
'Anyway, we have now taken another step toward Tier 11,' said Edward with a secret smile. The core technology of this helmet is the [Self Primordial Runes] he studied.
Every time his variants used the helmet, Edward would record their [Self], creating a database of all his variants. Then, when he is trying to become Tier 11, he will use himself as the [Main Self] and assimilate everybody else [Self].
The first step to this plan is to have enough data on his other [Selves] or [Variants].
