The Mech Touch



Ves was aware that a lot of people were talking behind his back.

It came with the territory. He had chosen to become a high-profile mech designer. It should not be surprising for lots of people to question his design skills or whether he was cheating.

The power of fame was a double-edged sword. It magnified all of his successes and enabled him to use it as leverage to make other parties agree to requests that they would normally not fulfill.

However, the other side of fame was notoriety, which he also happened to possess in spades. An increasing number of people thought he was an upstart, a disruptor or even a mass murderer!

Ves knew that he could ignore the negative responses as long as he possessed enough strength and backing. He had enough successes along with support from the MTA to ignore low-level concerns that would have bothered him a lot in the past.

Still, he didn't feel entirely comfortable with living a high-profile life. The downside to relying on fame and reputation to shield him from harm was that he needed to maintain his performance. The moment he stumbled was the moment where he lost a lot of protection. The knives would come out at that time.

He inwardly shook his head. There was no point in thinking about these matters. His greatest priority was to design his competition mechs and ensure they possessed the strength and capabilities of making it all the way to the end!

As a mech designer who already participated in numerous different mech design tournaments, he understood quite well what he needed to do in order to increase his chances of making it to the finals.

There were 71 teams in contention. In a single elimination bracket, that meant that his competition mechs had to win 6 matches in a row to win the entire contest.

A pair of well-designed mechs designed for the tournament shouldn't encounter too much challenge in winning a single match. The odds of making it through was quite high as most of the competitors were probably not as good as Ves.

The problem was trying to keep a winning record again and again without failing in between.

If Ves wasn't lucky enough, then his competition mechs would be randomly matched against the other favorites of the Twin Weapons Tournament.

With the added variable of adding obvious weak points to the frontal armor of every mech, it only took one significant mistake for the mechs designed by Ves and Juliet to stumble!

"This damn single elimination bracket is truly brutal." He muttered under his breath.

The lack of second chances meant that prudent mech designers couldn't afford to take too many chances. Every contestant had to make sure to shore up the weaknesses of their works, leaving them with less room to experiment and pursue more radical mech designs than in other circumstances.

Ves did not agree with this mindset. Taking the safe and steady approach was not his style. He willingly made it a lot more difficult for himself because it aligned with his heart and because he knew he needed to go beyond the confines of what was safe in order to make it all the way to the end.

The hybrid mech design that he had begun to shape reflected his stubborn and crazy mindset.

He could feel from the increased stares directly towards his body that his performance dazzled the more knowledgeable members of the crowd once again!

The skills he displayed along with the speed in which he filled up the draft design with concrete details did not match the standard of an ordinary Journeyman!

In fact, even the older and more experienced Journeymen who had been in the business for many decades could not hope to match his speed!

The panel of Seniors who served as the commentators for the Twin Weapons Tournament frequently emphasized how much better Ves performed in this regard.

[I have heard many praises about the design prowess of Patriarch Ves Larkinson. I do admit that he possesses a certain flair in his design style and work ethic when I studied his performance in past competitions. It has been around six years since he last took part in a series of mech design tournaments in Chance Bay. Despite the fact that he was a Journeyman back then as well, the difference between his past self and his present self is enormous! I cannot believe that any other industry expert has predicted that Patriarch Larkinson has progressed to this extent!]

[Oh?] The female host, who happened to know little about technical matters, raised her eyebrow in curiosity. [Six years is a decent amount of time. It is more than long enough for high school graduates to complete an education in biotechnology and mech design. Is it not plausible that a famous mech designer such as Patriarch Larkinson has made a massive leap in progress?]

[It is not… unheard of, but to say it is common is wholly inaccurate. I believe I can speak on behalf of my fellow experts that there is no other Journeyman in the Krakatoa Middle Zone that has made as much progress as him. His knowledge base has grown to a substantial extent, but that is not all. He displays an excellent mastery and deftness in utilizing the advanced knowledge that he has under his command. The only other mech designers in this tournament who can compare to Patriarch Larkinson's performance are the experienced veterans who are more than a century old.]

[Wow! Are you equating Patriarch Larkinson to Journeymen who are twice or thrice his age?]

Another commentator shook his head. [That is an unfair comparison to make, but not in the manner in which you expect. Patriarch Larkinson is in fact better than those veteran mech designers. He is still fairly young in his journey. He is also much more augmented than his peers. The rich rewards he has managed to earn from the MTA may have allowed him to acquire first-class implants and genetic treatments. Look at how much faster he is able to crunch the numbers and resolve complex technical problems.]

[That is impressive!]

[Only in the right hands. Powerful augmentations alone are not enough. A pig with a first-class cranial implant is still a pig. What truly enables Patriarch Larkinson to make effective use of his expanded cognition is his combination of bravery, curiosity and imagination. His younger and more flexible mind allows him to explore changes and variations with considerably greater ease than the older ladies and gentlemen who are largely set in their ways. He is not afraid to try out new and untested ideas even though a mech design tournament is not the best venue for him to engage in experimental mech design. This is the brilliance of youth. He is hundred times a mech designer compared to the older and frankly more decrepit fossils in the hall.]

[T-That is ageist!]

[The mech industry does not discriminate on age. It discriminates on ability, as it rightfully should. There is a difference, young lady. What my fellow colleague is alluding to is a common fault among Journeymen who have failed to advance after they reach their first century. There is no hard bottleneck that prevents Journeymen from becoming Seniors. I shall spare you the details, but it takes more than spending a great amount of time on studying and designing mechs. A Journeyman Mech Designer must expand his horizons, conduct successful research and push the limits of what can be done in the field of mech design. It is this most of all that sets Patriarch Larkinson apart from his much older peers.]

[I am not actually all that surprised that the good patriarch stands out in this aspect. His proclivity for adventure and combat is well-known. While it may seem foolhardy and illogical for him to accompany his soldiers to the frontlines of thrilling battles against all manner of alien warships and phase whales, there is no doubt that he has most certainly expanded his horizons and obtained access to new forms of technology that present new possibilities for mechs. Even a mediocre Journeyman who has graduated from a lesser university can outpace the geniuses who have never traveled outside of their home planets in their lives.]

[That is not to say that we recommend Journeymen to copy the dangerous lifestyle of the Larkinson Patriarch to a fault. The true lesson that other hopeful mech designers can learn from his example is that it is not enough for mech designers to stay within their comfort zones. One of my favorite phrases is that a static mech designer is a stagnant mech designer.]

[Whether you are a Novice who has recently completed your studies or the founder of a large and successful mech company, there is never a time where you have nothing more to learn or discover. It is not a coincidence that the word 'journey' is included in Journeyman. That said, traveling around is not enough. Otherwise, all of us who have taken the drastic step of relocating the Red Ocean would be Seniors and Masters by now. Any mech designer that seeks to progress his design philosophy must not only become exposed to new phenomena, but also take proactive action to master the new possibilities that come to mind.]

The panel of Seniors clearly didn't spend all of this time fawning over Ves Larkinson as if they were fanboys. They clearly aimed to educate and enlighten the other mech designers that were watching the show.

A lot of students of the Davute University of Technology as well as other educational institutions had visited Spencer Hall in person. Many of these future mech designers of Davute became inspired by the incredible skills and mastery displayed by Ves. The viewpoints and advice shared by the panel of Seniors spurred these ambitious students and mech designers to go on their own adventures at the first possible opportunity!

Meanwhile, the subject of all of this discussion remained ignorant of all of this talk.

One of the reasons why the more knowledgeable mech insiders spoke so highly of his work was because the progress he has made was astonishing on multiple levels!

His hybrid mech looked more complete than the other mech designs in progress, yet his work did not exhibit too many obvious signs of rushing.

In fact, Ves had actually slowed down a bit as he couldn't help but spend more time on correcting small and fairly subtle imperfections. Years of working alongside his wife meant that Gloriana's tendencies had rubbed off on him. She had elevated his design style regardless of his own wishes.

Ves wasn't complaining. He already took this factor into account when he made his initial design choices. The result was that what progress he made in the first hours actually looked a lot more refined than it should!

While the incomplete mech design was still sloppy compared to his usual standards, the works of other mech designers including that of Juliet fared considerably worse in comparison!

The only mech designers who managed to come close to the level of quality of his hybrid mech design were the older and more experienced Journeymen who decided to rip off their old mech designs as best as possible.

Their familiarity with the mechs they designed in the past allowed them to skip many design challenges and reduce their uncertainty to a minimum. They only needed to invest their time and effort into adapting their fairly modern designs to weaker and outdated tech and materials.

This was not cheating.

It was a valid strategy to employ in a mech design tournament. The older and more experienced the mech designer, the more they could draw from their prior work to quickly fill in the gaps of their competition mech designs.

For Ves to not only match the pace and refinement of these veteran Journeymen, but also exceed them in these aspects was absolutely astonishing!

Even though the combat phase of the Twin Weapons Tournament was still two days away, a lot of mech insiders already had an inkling that the team with Ves Larkinson would definitely be able to go far!