The Mech Touch

Ves found it interesting to observe the eruption of emotions from the candidates.

Those who made it in the top five largely exhibited a huge amount of exuberance and relief!

They knew that they had gained the chance of a lifetime!

Working under a pair of promising mech designers like Ves and Gloriana was one of the biggest prizes they could win under the circumstances.

Certainly, they wouldn't say no to working for a prestigious Senior and Master, but those opportunities were largely out of reach for them. Only the most exceptional prodigies attracted their attention!

In that sense, applying to work for the LMC was the next-best option. In fact, some clever mech designers even guessed that working for the two was even better than attracting the attention of a Master!

It was no surprise that a lot of mech designers applied to join the LMC. The thousand that managed to take part in this final selection process had come closer than the majority of the competition.

Yet the LMC only had places for fifty of them. Ves had just absorbed thirteen of them, which meant that the odds for the rest dwindled with each passing test!

The top five all realized what a great fortune it was to be rid of all of this pressure!

Aside from Moltar Ringer who was mentally beating himself up for failing to reach first, the remaining four including Catherine Evenson all looked as if they had entered paradise.

They were about to become part of the rising Larkinson Clan!

The Doom Guard immediately switched off its glow after the conclusion of the test. No matter how far the remaining mech designers reached, their chance had come and gone.

"Congratulations. You five can join the rest at the side." Ves spoke to the five winners.

As for the remaining candidates, they returned to the middle of the hall. Everyone looked depressed, regretful or disappointed for failing to win this test.

In fact, the ones who showcased a middling performance didn't look all that bad. As far as they were concerned, they tried their best but failed.

It was the ones who made it in the top 20 and the people who gave up right at the start who had been impacted the most!

The former all recognized that they could have been among the lucky five if they just mustered up some more strength. To realize that they came so close yet brutally failed to reach the cut-off mark was agonizing!

As for the people who decided to run in the opposite direction in order to get out of the range of the Doom Guard's glow, their shame constantly gnawed at their confidence!

It wasn't that big of a deal to make the most logical decision considering their slim chances of winning. Yet to see several mech designers performing to a herculean degree and putting their all into reaching the finish line first was very humbling!

How would they have been able to perform if they attempted this challenge?

A large number of them began to doubt whether they inadvertently failed some invisible test.

They weren't wrong. Both Ves and Gloriana had noted the group of people who gave up early. Neither of them were inclined to favor them when their courage only amounted to this much.

When all of the excitement died down and the remaining mech designers reformed their ranks, Gloriana took the lead again.

"Alright, I'm sure that all of you are rather frayed right now. However, that is no excuse for me to spare you. A mech designer must always be ready to work even if the galaxy collapses around you! Our love for our profession must exceed every other desire!"

Her words only depressed the remaining candidates even further.

She quickly moved on. "For my next test, I would like you to test your perception and ability to discern flaws. Much of your work upon joining our Design Department will consist of a lot of optimization and debugging work. It takes a lot of effort to polish a mech design once its design choices have been set. Your efficiency and effectiveness in this type of work is essential for your future positions! Don't think that you won't need to be so thorough anymore when you are allowed to design your own mechs. Maximizing the potential of your mech designs is an essential requirement to achieve greatness!"

Ves quietly coughed. While he agreed with Gloriana's sentiment, her standards were way too strict! She could spend years on optimizing a single mech design if not for external factors forcing her to cut her ultra-long cycle short!

When Gloriana waved her hand, a handful of LMC mechs strode forward from the side. Mercifully, the Doom Guard remained inactive, saving the mech designers from confronting the source of their recent trauma once again!

"I have personally selected all of these mechs for their distinct flaws and shortcomings. Each of them may look fine to mech pilots and other laymen, but mech designers recognize a flaw no matter how obscure they appear."

The Blackbeak, Crystal Lord, Aurora Titan, Desolate Soldier, Deliverer and Bright Warrior all stopped a short distance away from the crowd. Their glows blended into each other and washed over the mech designers, thereby giving them a lot of reprieve from the depression that had clouded their minds!

"All of you must choose one of these mechs to examine for flaws. Each of them exhibit numerous flaws. Most of them are production flaws arising from sloppy fabrication and assembly work, but every design also contains a decent number of design flaws. Your job is to record every possible flaw you can spot within a single hour. The more obscure the flaw, the higher your points! However, if you happen to record something that isn't a flaw, we will deduct your points depending on the magnitude of your error!"

This caused the mech designers to look troubled. This was a rather unusual test that only someone like Gloriana could come up with! It was clear that she wanted to test their judgement.

Many flaws were obvious, yet a lot of other quirks might not necessarily be wrong! Whether something was actually a flaw or just a well-intentioned but awful-looking implementation was a subjective question.

Nonetheless, Gloriana still went through with this test! To these subjective matters, she decided to abide by a simple standard.

If she thought it was wrong, then it must truly be a flaw!

Ves looked rather sour as the test commenced. "You could have used some other mechs as props, you know."

"Your mech designs, even the ones I have been involved in, are never perfect. You need to get it through your head how unsatisfying they really are to me." Gloriana admonished him. "Besides, every time I see these eyesores being used by the Larkinson Clan, I have to resist the urge to tear my hair out. The LMC's Production Department has slipped! Quality control has declined and more and more mechs are rolling out of the production line with dozens of egregious production flaws!"

Though he hated to admit it, she was right. Ves had noticed the same problem to a lesser degree. "The LMC has undergone a lot of turmoil in the past couple of months. Back when we still had the Mech Nursery back at Cloudy Curtain, we developed a mature and solid production chain in-house. Now, we either have to fabricate our mechs in some of our cramped ships with light production capabilities, or rely on external manufacturers to do the job. Ever since we established the Larkinson Clan, we have recruited a lot of new mech pilots. Each of them require mechs in order to be put to use, and that has forced us to rely a lot on third-party manufacturers."

Gloriana looked displeased. "I won't mention anything about providing mechs of this standard to the market. However, I expect better if the mechs are meant to serve ourselves! You better set the LMC's Production Department straight or I'll come and do it myself!"

"I get it, I get it! I'll fix the situation right away after this is over!"

While the two of them discussed the LMC's shortcomings, the candidates all swarmed around the mechs laid bare to them. They were not only able to examine the mechs up close, but also received access to some limited design schematics that revealed some of their internal makeup!

Any mech designer should be able to spot plenty of flaws of every mech and design. However, once they finished picking all of the low-hanging fruit, they needed to look much closer in order to spot another flaw!

This was where the difference between mech designers became apparent.

What was interesting was that a lot of mech designers tried to be clever and chose to study his older mech designs such as the Blackbeak and the Crystal Lord.

In contrast, hardly anyone chose the Bright Warrior, which was currently in its lancer mech configuration, and the Deliverer!

"It doesn't matter." Gloriana noted. "The scoring already compensates for the difficulty of discerning flaws. In truth, those who have decided to study the newer mechs are rewarded for taking on a tougher challenge!"

This was another hidden aspect behind this test. Gloriana didn't necessarily want to hire mech designers who pursued the lowest difficulty all the time. In her opinion, mech designers should constantly tackle greater problems! How else could they surpass their limits if they didn't challenge themselves?

The test proceeded quietly. The hour quickly ended, whereupon the mechs soon moved back to their places.

"Very good." Gloriana smiled. "Your performance is noted and graded. You will receive your results at the end."

She still needed to grade them all, but she planned to do that quietly in her mind with the help of her implant.

In the meantime, it was her boyfriend's turn to conduct his next test.

"For this round, I have invited a special guest."

Ketis entered the hall. She strode valiantly to Ves with strong, measured steps. She wore a training outfit that was typical to the Swordmaidens, though she also wore her signature poofy beret in order to hide her horns. Nonetheless, her lean but muscular arms were on full display and her scabbarded greatsword obediently trailed her back!

Once she reached her position, she unsheathed her weapon and grinned. "Hello. Ves asked me to test you all. I might not look like it, but I'm a mech designer. I am Ves' first student and I learned a lot from him. If you want to attract his attention, then you need to show some battle spirit! If you can't even get close enough to me, you don't deserve to be my colleague!"

Every single candidate looked confused. Was she truly a mech designer? She resembled a thug more than an intellectual!

She withdrew a smaller but very sharp sword and threw it in front of her. The antigrav module built into it caused it to float in the air with the tip pointed at the ceiling.

"Each of you must wield this sword and stand ten paces away from me." She explained the rules. "On my mark, you must charge at me and do your best to land a blow on me! I will be doing my best to block your attack. I might even push a bit back! You only need to launch a single attack."

A lot of mech designers looked scandalized!

"Are those weapons real? They look sharp!"

"Yup!" Ketis enthusiastically nodded. "What's the fun in conducting this test when we are just swinging some practice weapons at each other? There are no protective measures in place! Only our skill will determine whether we can avoid harming each other!"

A lot of mech designers already started to back off. This test was too insane! If someone made the wrong move, they could easily harm or kill each other!

"By the way, my greatsword happens to be a 'gift' from the CFA. Don't believe me? Then let me demonstrate."

A lifter bot entered the hall and deposited a sheet of thin armor plating in front of her position.

"This plate consists of Breyer alloy." She stated. "It's the same material that clad the Bright Warrior. Even though this plate has been slimmed, it is still strong enough to withstand small-arms fire for several hours! Now watch what I can do!"

Ketis enthusiastically lifted her greatsword and chopped it down in a single, vigorous move!

She made for a magnificent sight as she chopped down her sword with force!

The greatsword, which possessed unparalleled sharpness, activated a couple of inbuilt modules that enhanced its sharpness even further! The blade parted straight through the middle of the plate without any sign of obstruction!

In fact, when the tip of the sword finally reached the floor, it continued to cut through the solid metal material until the blade had sunk a third of the way through the surface!

A lot of mech designers gasped!

"Don't worry." Ketis cheekily smiled. "I will only use the flat of my blade."