The man proceeded to lay out several sub-categories within material products. Many of them didn't even necessarily have anything to do with Martial Art, earning Rui's apathy due to that. He wasn't interested in products that didn't aid his Martial Path and Martial journey.
"That is a general overview of the material product categories," He explained. "You can go through the digital library available on your accounter to gain more information regarding specific details."
Rui nodded. "Will do."
"The next broad category is information and intelligence," The man explained. "This includes Martial Art oriented information such as techniques and research centered around Martial Art that you may be interested in for developing a new technique, for example."
Rui nodded. He had already expected this. The Martial Union invested a tremendous amount of its revenue into the budget for research and development of Martial Art techniques and training techniques, training regimes, and other training resources.
Unfortunately, just like the research and development in another field, not all avenues and projects of research and development were successful. In fact, many of them were not. Rather than allowing all of the research to be in vain, the Martial Union documented and stored the data and sold it to third parties that were interested in purchasing that data, particularly Martial Artists who may be able to successfully make breakthroughs in that particular field thanks to unique circumstances surrounding them and their Martial Art.
This was the most productive way to squeeze value out of failed research. Not only did it fetch them revenue, but it also increased the probability that Martial Artists would succeed in their endeavors of creating and developing new techniques that would ultimately funnel back to benefit the Martial Union even more.
"We offer a wealth of knowledge in our attempts to learn more and strengthen Martial Art much more readily and easily than we would to third parties that are not connected to the Martial Union in any way. This is the advantage of being a contributor to the Martial Union." The man smiled. "In addition to information related to Martial Art, the Martial Union also possess a library of information outside Martial Art, on all worldly matters, both general and specific knowledge within reason. Our extensive intelligence department and network have allowed us to grasp highly valuable and confidential information that would otherwise be very difficult to obtain. Of course, you do not possess the sheer required number of Martial credits to get your hands on the particularly juice stuff such as national secrets, confidential observations on the Beast Domain, etc."
Of course, Rui didn't care about this in the slightest. He was not going to waste money on something irrelevant to his goals and objectives.
"Now now, don't be too quick to dismiss this category of information," The man smiled, noticing Rui's lack of enthusiasm. "You can even commission a covert investigation and intelligence-gathering operation around a matter or a person, or to obtain information that you're looking for. For example, and forgive me if this is personal, but I read that your mother died when you were born, and your father is a complete unknown. Our intelligence department can dig up the truth about their identities, your heritage, and your roots if you want."
Rui raised an eyebrow.
It wasn't as though he had never thought about who his biological parents were. He wouldn't be human if he wasn't curious. He still had a memory of his mother before she died, though he never knew her name, as she had been taken in in an emergency. As for his father, he hadn't the faintest clue who he was.
Still, it wasn't enough for him to care too much. He had a family that he was more than happy with.
Rui shook his head. "Next,"
"Alright," Senior Ceeran immediately acquiesced, wisely not pressing further. "That pretty much sums up the information and intelligence category, it possesses only two sub-categories, but they are both immensely deep and wide with more information than you can fathom. This brings us to the next category; authority and power."
Rui raised an eyebrow.
"In order to explain this category of services, I need to explain the structure of the Martial Union and its relationship with its associated and constituent Martial Artists." The man explained. "Martial Artists like yourself are considered to be external members; Martial Artists who have only signed a partnership contract with the Martial Union where you complete missions and receive half the pay while the Martial Union receives the other half for all the services and systems in place that allowed for the transaction between client and Martial Artist to smoothly take place."
Rui nodded, following his words. He even understood where this was going, but he kept silent, allowing Senior Ceeran to finish his point.
"Whereas Martial Artists like myself, are internal members of the Martial Union. We do not merely sign a partnership contract with the martial Union, but also a conditional employment contract where we undertake few responsibilities and duties while also gaining more authority and power within the Martial Union, in the form of security clearance to access information that external members simply cannot purchase regardless of how many Martial credits one possesses. As well as commissioning authority; the authority to commission the Martial Artists of the Martial Union using the Martial Union's treasury to fund the commission instead of my own. Of course, this cannot be abused, but it still does give us internal members a lot of power."
"So..." Rui pieced together his implicit offer. "Are you saying I can purchase my way into the Martial Union's inner circle to obtain greater power and authority?"
The man eagerly nodded. "That's right. There definitely are some constraints and burdens, but it's not bad. There are several more benefits such as an even greater degree of impunity from the law and the penal code, as well as easier access to more powerful Martial Artists, you can leverage your position to-"
"Thank you, sir, but I have no intention of becoming an employee, I value my freedom and autonomy too much."
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