After concluding his diplomatic meeting with the East Asian Republic, Reid immediately sought out Angie, and together they rushed to Une's house to discuss the matter.
However, when Reid arrived at Une's place, he was clutching his abdomen with one hand, occasionally wincing in pain.
This wasn't because someone had stolen his kidney on the way—it was the inevitable consequence of some thoughtless behavior on Reid's part.
The logic was simple: sneaking to Angie's doorstep in the dead of night and ringing her doorbell was highly suspicious behavior.
After all, Angie was still a woman. From the first day that mysterious god sent her to Reid's side, she had mentally prepared herself for the possibility that Reid might make advances on her someday. That's why she had been carefully evaluating him.
To Angie now, Reid had barely passed the minimum standard. The two hadn't officially progressed in that direction yet, mainly because Reid hadn't made any active romantic moves—he was either obsessing over his Gundam or out on missions.
Of course, Angie understood Reid was doing all this to prepare for their collective future, so she never complained. She just focused on helping however she could.
So when Reid showed up at midnight this time, Angie thought he'd finally gotten a clue. Though this "clue" seemed rather... leapfrogging in nature. Were they really skipping straight to a night raid?
Being cautious, Angie asked through the intercom before opening the door, just in case she'd misunderstood:
"Reid, is something urgent? What brings you here so late?"
At that moment, Reid was still weighing the pros and cons of cooperating with the East Asian Republic, pondering how exactly such cooperation might work if they proceeded. So his response came without thinking:
"Not exactly urgent, but pretty important for us. I sneaked over here. Angie, just open the door already."
Hearing this, Angie's face flushed several shades redder. This was moving way too fast! But upon reflection, leaving Reid outside seemed even more inappropriate. Better to let him in first—after all, Reid was no match for her in a fight. If he really dared try anything, she could teach him a lesson then.
After considerable mental preparation, Angie slowly opened the door in her pajamas.
Reid, acting like he owned the place, walked right in without ceremony. Then came his opening line:
"Angie, go change. We're heading to Une's place."
Angie saw red. You come to my place in the middle of the night just to say "Let's go to another girl's house"? Reid, you're asking for death!
Thus Reid found himself sprawled on the couch, clutching his kidney after taking a punch.
But Angie knew if Reid wanted to bring her to Une's, it must be for serious business. After venting her frustration with that one punch, she coldly stated:
"Wait here. I'm going upstairs to change. Try peeking, and... well."
Reid wasn't about to peek anywhere—Angie's punch had been precisely measured to inflict maximum pain without permanent damage. He'd need at least a minute or two before the pain subsided.
Without waiting for his response, Angie went upstairs to change.
As the pain gradually faded, Reid finally reflected on why he'd been punched and realized what he'd done. Then came life's three great illusions: Did Angie think I came here to assault her? And she opened the door anyway, so does that mean...?
Reid didn't dare continue that line of thought, as the pain in his abdomen served as a warning—he was attempting to meddle with something far beyond his current standing. Acting recklessly without maxing out affection levels would be suicidal.
Soon enough, Angie came downstairs after changing. She'd switched into nighttime running attire, which would let her claim she was just jogging if anyone spotted them.
The outfit happened to accentuate her figure, and Reid, who had just been indulging in some fantasies, found it hard to look away.
Angie was quite pleased with his reaction—this was the normal response she expected. She walked over slowly, stopping right in front of him before speaking with a haughty tone.
"Still staring? Weren't you saying we should go to Une's place? Let's hurry up."
Her voice snapped Reid back to reality. Ignoring the dull ache in his stomach, he quickly followed Angie to the neighboring villa where Une lived.
Yes, Une's home was right next to Angie's—in fact, Noin's place was nearby too. Reid had planned out an entire residential zone for female members, consisting of over thirty standalone villas, each with its own yard.
As for Reid, he lived in the male dormitory area, along with Miguel Gaia, Ortega, and Mash. The male quarters were row houses, totaling more than fifty units.
This arrangement was based on Reid's assumption that his future team would have more men than women. To avoid complications in management later, he simply separated the living areas by gender. The distance wasn't far—about the same as two residential complexes facing each other in a major city.
Fortunately, Une was still awake at this hour. Since Angie was the one ringing the doorbell this time, no misunderstandings arose.
Of course, when Une learned why Reid had gotten beaten up, her expression clearly said, "You deserved it." After more than two months, Une had grown familiar with Reid and the others, and her loyalty had already surpassed 70.
However, after Reid shared details of his meeting with the East Asian Republic and asked for their opinions,
Une gave her thoughts after careful consideration.
"Reid, what the East Asian Republic is saying is simple: you help them improve their MS manufacturing technology, and they offer us some degree of protection—at least enough to keep the Earth Alliance and Orb from openly obstructing us.
I think we can engage in limited cooperation. The problem is the vast difference in scale between us—any collaboration will inevitably leave us at a disadvantage. Or rather, in a 'win-win' scenario, our gains would always be smaller than the East Asian Republic's.
So, the extent of our cooperation is what we need to consider. If we commit too deeply and become tightly bound to them, breaking free later would be difficult."
Reid fully agreed with Une's assessment. He knew that region far too well—he was certain that, even after a mere century, its fundamental nature hadn't changed much. Deep cooperation might allow him to rise quickly, but the cost would be infiltration of his faction the moment he stepped outside the Star Palace Colony Satellite.
Even with his system, if the East Asian Republic ever deemed him disobedient, they could reduce him to nothing overnight.
Just as Reid was wrestling with this dilemma, Angie—uncharacteristically—voiced her opinion outright.
"Honestly, what's there to overthink? It's just a tech collaboration. Reid, why not just ask the East Asian Republic for the specific technologies and resources we need?"
Reid, you've said before that the Earth Alliance's three major powers could produce MS like the GINN if they wanted to, with the real issue lying in the Operating System. Do you really think this can hold back the Earth Alliance for long? Their electronic technology might not match PLANT's, but the generational gap isn't that huge.
"So why not just give them a slightly inferior machine paired with a moderately difficult OS to trick them?"
Angie's words struck Reid like a bolt of clarity. After careful consideration, he realized—why was he hiding the OS so tightly? According to historical progression, by March next year, Kira Yamato would develop a Natural-compatible OS in Orb.
Even without Kira, given the Earth Alliance's technological level, they could use the Union Flag Operating System he provided as a baseline and spend a year fine-tuning it to eventually create a usable OS for Naturals.
Instead of holding back, he might as well release a high-difficulty Natural-compatible OS first to secure the advantage, then adapt to future challenges.
This was the so-called "collaborative development"—no; "technology exchange"—yes.
(End of Chapter)