The Mech Touch

Galactic citizenship represented a human's status in human society.

It was divided into 12 tiers, of which the vast majority ranked in the bottom 3 tiers.

Every individual who advanced to the rank of Journeyman or expert pilot automatically became a tier 12 galactic citizen. This also contributed a lot to the devaluation of the galactic citizenship system.

In contrast, any average citizen of a first-rate state automatically became a tier 10 galactic citizen at birth.

The implication of this was that before this day, the galactic community thought that Ves was just as important as a worthless bum who just happened to have the luck of being born in a rich and powerful state!

This was absurd!

Another major fault of the galactic citizenship system was that it did not even have any room for the vast majority of ordinary people living in human space!

The snobby mechers and fleeters called this massive group 'indigeneous humans' when they were being polite, but otherwise used the more derogatory term 'space peasants' when they were voicing their true thoughts!

Naturally, Ves had a lot of objections to this biased and inaccurate system of dividing people into different tiers. It was a pity that the people with all of the decision-making power exclusively originated from the top of human society!

These circumstances resulted in a reality where no one took tier 10 galactic citizens and lower seriously anymore.

This also caused him to ignore his own galactic citizenship. Aside from a few rare official interactions, he truly saw no difference!

Master Dervidian was observant enough to notice that Ves harbored a lot of contempt towards the galactic citizenship system. He therefore took the initiative to explain it further.

"Becoming a tier 9, tier 8 or tier 7 galactic citizen is not as trivial as you may think. Although it may sound unfair for every first-rater to start off at tier 10, the overwhelming majority of Terrans and Rubarthans will never be able to reach the higher tiers in their lifetimes. Birthright and origin is of no use at all. It takes genuine contributions for people to gain more recognition in this system. This is why a prodigy as young as Jovy Armalon has attained tier 6 even as an accomplished mech designer such as Master Carmin Olson has only reached tier 8 up to this point."

This sounded rather absurd at first, but Ves understood why this was the case.

From the perspective of the Mech Trade Association, Master Olson's contributions were not that exceptional. She specialized in locomotion systems and while she could develop a lot of useful and powerful applications because of her rank, most of her innovations hardly improved the current state of mechs.

A Journeyman like Jovy Armalon was different. Despite his youth and early stage, he already achieved a rare success by successfully forming a design philosophy centered around a difficult but powerful specialty!

It took an extreme and highly specific mindset for mech designers to turn a specialization as weird as probability manipulation into a real design philosophy.

Many others would probably get stuck at the Apprentice stage for the rest of their lives if they tried to do the same!

Once Jovy started on this unique and unprecedented path, every step he made was incredibly significant. Since he was pioneering a brand-new field, each of his discoveries and innovations provided the MTA with plenty of new knowledge!

Even if Jovy eventually failed to realize his design philosophy, he could still teach and pass on his accumulated research to his disciples, thereby allowing future generations of mech designers to complete his unfinished work!

In the long run, the MTA gained mastery of a new and innovative new technological branch, one centered around the highly elusive and abstract concept of manipulating probability!

Of course, that didn't mean that Jovy Armalon could stay ahead of Master Carmin Olson forever.

Jovy had to work extremely hard and rely on himself to pioneer a new field.

In contrast, Master Olson pursued a more common specialty that made it a lot easier for her to exchange and collaborate with others in her field.

If the latter managed to advance to Star Designer, she would instantly turn into a tier 1 galactic citizen regardless of who she was before!

"The top tiers of galactic citizenship represent the ultimate group of individuals in our great society." Master Dervidian said with an admiring expression. "They include Star Designers and god pilots not because these distinguished heroes need additional titles or official recognition, but because we already afford them the treatment of our top citizens."

In other words, folk would still show incomparable respect towards a Star Designer or a god pilot even if they were still space peasants!

Galactic citizenship was practically redundant for people at this level.

"Forget about tier 1 galactic citizens. Reaching tier 2 is a dream that only a miniscule proportion of humanity can ever reach in their lives." Master Dervidian continued. "The majority of people at this tier are current or former galactic mech councilors and grand admirals. Even if they retire from their high positions one day, their tier 2 galactic citizenship still ensures that they receive incomparable welfare and protection."

This made a lot of sense. Unlike Star Designers and god pilots who retained their strength and value for the rest of their long and extensive lives, those who reached tier 2 galactic citizenship may have only reached this height due to more temporal circumstances.

If a galactic mech councilor retired one day, it would be pretty bad if their status plunged all of sudden!

In that sense, tier 2 galactic citizenship was basically a retirement package to them. Even if they relinquished all of their power and responsibilities, they still received life-long protection that protected them against the enemies they made in the past.

At least, that was what Ves thought was the case. Who knew what went on at the top of humanity's power structure.

After a bit more explanation, Ves gained a much more comprehensive understanding of the galactic citizenship system.

All of the good stuff was concentrated at the top, but that did not mean that a tier 6 galactic citizen was a trivial status!

Ves would finally get rid of his status as an up-jumped space peasant if he broke into the middle tiers!

"There are numerous reasons why we are pushing to grant you this tier." Dervidian stated. "The most crucial factor is that it is much easier for our Association to work together with you. As you are undoubtedly aware of, we are all obliged to maintain our neutrality, which means we cannot interfere with the lives of indigenous humans such as yourself. However, people who have already climbed up the tiers are usually figures of greater importance. It is much more reasonable for our Association to have more frequent interactions with people such as Master Mech Designers and ace pilots."

Did that mean that Patriarch Reginald Cross would interact with the MTA a lot more often as well if he ever succeeded in breaking through?

"Aside from this reason, a tier 6 galactic citizen also receives greater protection. I cannot detail them in full today, but in short there will be far greater penalties for killing you. If you feel you are under a justifiable threat of life, you can even request us to escort you for a time and offer limited and restricted protection, much as the Simile Halifax has been accompanying your fleet for the last months. At this tier, you are not limited to paying MTA merits for this service. If you are truly desperate, you may also pay MTA credits for our protection, though the price will likely be prohibitive to you for a long time."

Ves' eyes lit up. This was actually quite a valuable benefit!

He was already operating under the MTA's protection for a time, so he fully appreciated the value of having the Association's cover.

The mechers didn't even need to act overtly while they were performing their escort duties. Their presence was already a huge deterrent!

Though Ves really wanted to put more distance between himself and the MTA, if a powerful group of people really wanted him dead, he would not hesitate to take advantage of his service!

"Furthermore, we will also be able to manage your record and public information. We can classify large parts of what we have registered and prevent others from learning more than they should about your work. This will prevent you from catching the wrong sort of attention."

This was another essential benefit! Ves truly did not want to become too notorious too quickly. He and his clan were still in a period of rapid growth. He needed to wait at least a few decades before he was ready to embark on grander initiatives.

"What else do I get as a tier 6 galactic citizen?"

"The remaining benefits are rather standard, but all beneficial to you. For example, we can grant you expanded access to our restricted technologies and our exclusive products. You will also gain access to exclusive marketplaces and other facilities. For example, you can stay at a Central Star Node such as the Vulit System for an extended time."

Ves grew hopeful. "Do I get any discounts for exchanging the exclusive goods and services you've mentioned?"

"No. Ordinarily, higher-tiered galactic citizens are fully capable of earning more MTA merits and MTA credits by themselves. They have no need for discounts."

That might be the case for impressive Masters, but Ves was still a small and destitute Journeyman! A discount of 50 percent could make a massive difference in his growth plans for the next 5 years!

Perhaps Ves should seek out and join another club like the Rim Guardians. Even though he mainly hooked up with this organization in order to buy a fleet beyond ticket at a discount, he still appreciated the many benefits they provided.

Now that he recalled, the Rim Guardians were actually expanding their presence in the Red Ocean, but Ves wasn't sure whether he should continue to associate with them. Their center of power as well as their priorities centered around the weakest and most impoverished group of humans.

He shook his head. He could think about this later.

"I think I understand what tier 6 galactic citizenships provide. Can we go over the other terms of the agreement?"

"Certainly. What do you wish to talk about?"

Ves tapped his finger at a certain clause of the projected document. "I don't understand what this means. It says here that you wish to turn me into an 'unofficial associate' of your Transhumanist Faction. Is this even a real thing?"

"As you expect, an unofficial associate is not a formal title. It is more of an implicit statement that you are related to us. We cannot turn you into an official associate because the Survivalist Faction has already preceded our attempts, but we can still make an informal statement that essentially declares that we are friends."

Ves wanted to scratch his head when he heard this. An unofficial association sounded way too vague for his liking.

"Won't it be harder to hide what we are working on if we openly declare our friendship?" He asked. "I mean, it becomes a lot harder for me to keep my transcendence technology a secret if I am openly working with people who have made it their life mission to increase the rate of breakthroughs."

"We have already prepared a measure that can camouflage the truth. If you scroll further down the document, you will see that we are upgrading your status as a contributor of restricted technology. You will now be known as a senior contributor of restricted technology. This is also a way for us to explain why we are promoting you to a tier 6 galactic citizen."

When Ves read the relevant term, he became surprised!

"You… are trying to claim that I am an incomparable authority on luminar crystal technology? I am merely dabbling in this field. I don't even specialize in energy weapon systems!"

Master Dervidian chuckled. "That may be the case, but that will not be the story that we will sell to others. You can downplay your research results all you want, but your advancements in luminar crystal technology are real. We only have to exaggerate your innovations to give others the impression that we are cooperating with you because we see the greater potential in luminar crystal weapons."

This… was a workable solution.

"I don't object to this per se, but it's a bit of a stretch for me to become a tier 6 galactic citizen on the basis of messing around with alien technology." Ves replied. "How can we maintain this deception when my application of luminar crystal technology still remains unimpressive?"

"We have already accounted for that. In order to make our story as convincing as possible, we will grant you immediate access to first-class luminar crystal technology. I believe a mech designer as hard-working and ambitious as you will seek to master this knowledge and produce brand-new innovations by leveraging your unique specialty to this field."

Ves grew shocked! The MTA actually granted him the right to study and make use of first-class alien technology for free?

This was quite a gift!

He could make a head-start into mastering first-class mech design if he was able to digest all of this restricted knowledge in advance!