Before Ves could make a selection, he first needed to define his goal. Only then would he be able to create a list of priorities that would help him rank the available options.
What was his goal?
Right now, his greatest shortcoming was lack of time. He could accomplish a lot more if he had more time to study cutting-edge science, design more mechs, raise his children, lead his clan and engage in diplomacy.
Alas, the System upgrade this time centered around space rather than time, so he could forget about any easy solutions.
What else did he require?
"I'm already doing pretty well." He concluded. "If I set aside my lack of time, I am not short on anything. My clan is growing, my subordinates are growing stronger, my mech company is selling more products than ever and I have become one of the most influential leaders of the younger generation. I'm also making good progress on advancing my design philosophy with the help of all of the insights I have harvested as of late."
There were still a few issues that bothered him a lot. The shortcomings of human civilization in the Red Ocean constrained him increasingly further.
Original humanity was extremely powerful due to having access to all of the population and resources of a large galaxy.
As much as humans liked to regard themselves as superior and better than all of the other sapient races, the cold hard truth was that if the Seven Apex Races hadn't been so complacent and afflicted by inertia, they could have easily crushed human civilization in its inception!
Red humanity was in a much worse position because the native aliens of the Red Ocean fully understood the threat posed by the extragalactic invaders.
The fact that the Red Cabal quickly triggered their most dire emergency plan and transport their entire dwarf galaxy over 50 million light-years away was an overwhelming indication that they were frightened by the threat posed by humans!
It made a lot of sense for the native aliens to unite their forces and go all-out in destroying every human trace in their own home galaxy.
Ves mentally scowled.
"I'm doing pretty well on a personal basis, but the human society that shelters me is in dire need of help."
In the short to medium term, the native aliens were about to launch major offensives.
By transferring and concentrating many of the existing warships that were previously dispersed throughout the Red Ocean, the Red Cabal was in an excellent position to win a grueling war of attrition!
In the long term, the arrival of the Subjugation King and his powerful armada threatened to topple everyone, regardless of whether they were human or alien!
Ves felt burdened by all of these expectations. He needed to tailor his choice to satisfy both short term and long term needs.
Neglecting any of these priorities might cause red humanity to suffer devastating losses that it could not recover from! Without the protection of a powerful enough civilization, Ves would lose the shelter that it offered!
"That is unless I go for the Violet Refuge."
Out of all of the upgrade tracks, the first one clearly required the least amount of investment. So long as the shielded pocket space was large enough to accommodate all of the members of the Larkinson Clan along with a lot of friends and allies, it should be safe enough to serve as one of the few effective boltholes for the human race in the Red Ocean.
However, Ves did not like this solution at all. It was way too cowardly and reactive for his liking.
It also became impossible to gain access to resources needed to sustain and progress a remnant society.
Unless he gained the ability to open portals to distant destinations, there was practically no way for humans to leave the Violet Refuge and regain their old splendor!
Ves couldn't help but compare the Violet Refuge to the pocket space that was previously hidden on Davute.
The pescans that previously lived and thrived on Davute VII got wiped out by the humans who came and swept away the weak and underdeveloped alien residents.
Yet what the human colonizers failed to discover for years was that a small group of pescan refugees successfully managed to enter the secret phase whale enclave and escape the attention of the human invaders!
The pescans could have lived in the abandoned prison for a long time.
However, their preparations were far too poor, and the evacuation proceeded with too much haste. The former rulers of Davute VII were not equipped to live in the pocket space over many generations.
Perhaps that was why they eventually went crazy and chose to launch a brazen attack on the leading figures of Davutan society!
Ves wondered what it would be like if he and his clan evacuated to the Violet Refuge. Would he and his fellow Larkinsons become so frustrated by the prospect of living in a violet cage that they would irrationally leave their protected habitat and launch poorly conceived revenge attacks?
There was a very large chance that this might happen!
Even if the most logical solution was to settle in the Violet Refuge for hundreds if not thousands of years, Ves had no faith that people would be willing to live and die in this isolated space.
Humans yearned to be free!
Therefore, Ves already ruled out the Violet Refuge as a choice. He wanted to be more proactive even if that meant putting himself at greater risk.
In terms of short term value, Ves believed that Phasewater Generation provided the most straightforward benefits. Phasewater was a scarce resource that humans coveted a lot. Ves could never spare enough of it himself. Since phasewater technology had already reached a stage of maturity, there was no need to put in any extra effort to convert phasewater into useful applications.
In terms of long term value, pretty much all of the upgrade paths offered a lot of promise in a few decades and centuries.
If he managed to live long enough, then the upgrade tracks would be able to deliver benefits that easily exceeded that of the original Metal Scroll!
It was rather ridiculous that a fragment of the Metal Scroll had the potential to surpass the power of its original source!
"The System shouldn't be lying." Ves judged.
He had a lot of confidence in the System's credibility. If it claimed that Ves would be able to move to the other side of the cosmos or breach the wall between different universes, then he did not have much reason to doubt these boastful claims.
The key was recognizing that it took an astronomical amount of energy and resources to reach this end state.
As much as Ves yearned to gain access to these high-end perks, he knew that it would take so long for him to unlock them that they were practically irrelevant to his current problems.
"I shouldn't let the promise of distant benefits sway my decision." He concluded. "My long-term window only extends up to a century at most. I need to worry about surviving the coming of the Subjugation King first before I have the luxury of dreaming about obtaining supreme power. In any case, as long as I grow strong enough, I don't need the help of the System to travel to other galaxies."
Everything would become a lot easier for him once he became a Star Designer or the rank that came after that. The difficulty was getting to this point. That was the period where he needed the help of the System to tide him over.
"The Universe Gate Network is not really a suitable choice compared to the other ones." He frowned. "The need to build actual portals in different locations is too resource intensive. Each gate is at constant risk of getting sabotaged or destroyed, and it is highly doubtful that my clan will be able to retain possession over them. The only reason to choose it over the others is the promise of being able to reopen passage back to the Milky Way."
That was not a sufficient reason for him to select the Universal Gate Network over the other fantastic choices.
Running back to the old galaxy was barely better than hiding in the Violet Refuge in his opinion. Both of these options were far too cowardly and reactive for his liking.
"The other ones are much better in this regard."
Options such as Phasewater Generation and Random Being Acquisition were useful all of the time. Both provided strong benefits at the beginning, but could steadily be upgraded so that they not only remained relevant as Ves grew stronger, but might also turn into his ultimate trump cards!