The Mech Touch

The experience of absorbing Senior-level Electrical Engineering was completely novel to Ves. Operating on strange instructions that definitely shouldn't have been part of its programming, his bioimplant processed the huge dump of data in a unique manner.

After initially storing it into its vast storage space, the Archimedes Rubal then proceeded to feed it to the rest of his mind in a very controlled manner.

No headache emerged. No pressure encumbered his thoughts. Ves only noticed a tiny burden. It wasn't until he actively began to go over the subject matter that he discovered a lot of brand-new knowledge that he didn't learn before!

Just like before, the integration of knowledge throughout his mind also proceeded faster.

The true value of partial digitization became apparent. His brain cells had effectively acquired some traits typical to computer processors. As long as they cooperated with the systems of his implant, he could effectively internalize a lot of knowledge at a greater rate.

The speed was astounding!

"It will probably take less than a week for me to truly be able to make use of all of this knowledge!"

This was amazing! Ves became impressed once again at the capabilities of advanced technology.

In fact, he even suspected that the System might have been designed to work in unison with cranial implants to begin with. The pain and unimaginable strain he experienced before was simply a consequence of not bringing the right tool!

A rueful smile appeared on his face. "Well, whatever the case, I can definitely use my greater understanding of Electrical Engineering to tune up my remaining mech design!"

He would have to delay the completion of the first iteration and wait a little longer before testing the first prototype. However, it would be well worth it. He had invested so much in his Hexer mech design already.

The weird knight mech with energy siphoning capabilities was more than just a support machine in his opinion. As long as Ves managed to hit all of his goals for this mech design, he could easily elevate it into a revolutionary new addition to the ranks of the Hex Army!

"The Fridaymen won't know what's coming!" He grinned.

His upcoming mech would have a profound effect on different people. It was to that effect that Ves had made a lot of additional preparations. He wanted to be sure he could make the mech as special as possible!

Once he got off his excitement, he glanced at his remaining points and noticed that he only had 50,000 DP left.

Ordinarily, Ves would have stopped by now. His reserves hadn't dipped this low in a low time. He also couldn't acquire any other Skills or Sub-Skills in an instant with his implant working at full tilt to convert all of the data related to Electrical Engineering into a usable form.

However, now that he had his implant, Ves suspected that this might not be a problem anymore. The idea sounded interesting enough to perform a small experiment.

Besides, Ves truly felt the need to expand his broad understanding of Electrical Engineering with more specific Sub-Skills. His Hexer mech design incorporated so many energy transmission systems that each needed to be handled in a distinctly different way.

Stuffing them all together in the frame of a cramped knight mech was almost impossible! The amount of mutual interference and other problems associated with squeezing so many high-energy parts together was stressing him out. Even Gloriana showed signs of frustration!

Part of that was his fault. His insistence on adding an energy siphoning system in order to extend the mech's effective operating time added a lot of complexity to the mech while burdening its internal real estate even further.

As long as Ves decided to remove this system, every other problem related to the mech design became a lot easier to deal with. It was so easy to just say the word and give it up in order to make the design more practical.

Though Gloriana hadn't mentioned it last time, the idea definitely lingered in her mind. If Ves didn't agree with bringing in a technical consultant to solve these thorny issues, she probably would have suggested simplifying their mech design next!

This was unacceptable to him! He had spent so much time dreaming up an ambitious vision. What started out as a simple commission for DIVA had slowly morphed into another passion project!

Ves knew he was being irrational again. Why should he spend so much effort and waste so much DP all of a sudden in order to improve a single mech design?

Yet now that he sunk so much emotional investment in this project, he couldn't stop at this point. He would do anything to fulfill the vision he settled upon! After expanding on his vision and concept several times, its scope had grown to a level that he could scarcely imagine.

Whatever he created at the end, he was sure the Hexadric Hegemony would take note! Not even the fact that one of its lead designers was male would hinder its recognition!

"Since I'm already this deep, I should go all the way!"

He browsed the Skill Tree for some useful Sub-Skills. He didn't linger at the cheaper ones but instead sought something more advanced and expensive.

[Dense Energy Transmissions I]: 20,000 DP

He first selected a Sub-Skill that added to his knowledge on energy transmission. It stood out from other types of knowledge on energy transmission by the heightened energy levels it dealt with. It was a Sub-Skill that was geared towards a narrow set of high-performance transmissions systems!

"This is just what I need!"

As expected, as soon as he acquired this Sub-Skill, he was able to instruct his implant to shuffle its order. He temporarily paused the integration of Senior-level Electrical Engineering to absorb the abundant amount of knowledge from his new Sub-Skill first!

After that, his implant quickly went back to Electrical Engineering again.

"That's handy."

Ves next browsed for another Sub-Skill that could improve his handling on his current mech design. He sought something that would provide him with immediate benefits.

[Heat-Resistant Materials I]: 20,000 DP

In the end, he went for something that enhanced his understanding of heat-resistant materials. This was an incredibly useful acquisition. Not only did it enhance his understanding of heat sinks, but it also provided him with a much more systematic understanding of the individual heat capacities of other components.

More importantly, now that he acquired this Sub-Skill, he knew how to improve their heat handling of every energy transmission system through some modest but effective solutions!

This was a great boon! Even a modest reduction in heat load would make a substantial difference on the battlefield!

Ves let out a deep breath. He had spent almost his entire DP reserves. He only retained less than 20,000 DP, which was not enough to purchase a life-saving gadget in the event of a crisis!

"I don't need to worry about that!"

In truth, he was making a gamble. He bet that he wouldn't need all of those points. That gave him the confidence of converting his inert Design Points into something that would be of immediate use!

"Speaking about immediate use, I can also do something about the internalizing of my latest Senior-level Skill."

It sounded strange to Ves that he acquired this huge upgrade without delay. He had been so used to working for these upgrades that he still couldn't believe the System actually cut him some slack!

Of course, in the perspective of the System, it gleefully absorbed a lot of Design Points that he could have used to redeem something wasteful in its perspective!

If Ves hadn't given up that extra DP, he could have acquired the second tier of one of his new Sub-Skills!

"Forget it." He shook his head. "They're pretty high class to begin with. The introductory tier of these Sub-Skills is already a lot for me to absorb!"

Before Ves left Compartment G-13, he continued to sit down and explore the manner in which his implant internalized the data dump.

After exploring a lot of internal diagnostics, he concluded that his implant was currently acting outside the bounds of its current programming!

"I knew it! There's no way my Archimedes Rubal can diffuse knowledge in such a sophisticated manner!"

A thread of fear ran through his mind. The only other explanation was that the System essentially hijacked his implant and inserted some temporary programming in order to establish such a smooth transfer!

However, this fear quickly subsided. The System always had access to his mind. Ves didn't believe he could hide anything from its powerful means.

Was it any surprise that it could directly bypass the various safeguards and protections of his implant?

"There's no point in dwelling on this matter any further."

He turned back to the operation of his implant and finally found a useful setting.

Right now, his Archimedes Rubal was transferring knowledge in a normal order.

That was not good enough. Ves needed knowledge that directly related to energy transmissions systems first! Everything else that wasn't as relevant to his current project could wait for later!

The setting he discovered allowed him to change the order and rearrange what he wanted to learn first. He immediately made use of it and spent an hour to sort through all of the dizzying topics the implant tried to cram into his mind!

"There's so much!" Ves groaned when he finally snapped out of his daze.

His session was done. He no longer possessed any meaningful DP to spend, so he readily stood up and gestured to Nitaa and Lucky.

"We're leaving."

As Ves returned to the design lab the next day, he looked a lot more confident.

His girlfriend already looked impatient. "I've waited patiently for you to come up with a solution. I don't know what you have in store, but if it's not sufficient, I'll force my own solution on this project!"

Ves smiled in an intriguing manner and raised his hand.

A number of design schematics projected into existence.

"What is this, Ves? Wait a minute…"

She instantly became absorbed by what she saw. She completely ignored her boyfriend's existence and began to examine all of the schematics.

Ves had hastily made use of his new knowledge to improve some of the troublesome areas about the internal makeup of their collaborative mech design.

Various problems that dogged the two for weeks had suddenly turned into non-issues after Ves applied a tiny portion of his newly-acquired knowledge!

Seeing Gloriana becoming so absorbed brought a smile on his face.

"This.." She looked up at him with wide eyes. "How did you obtain these improvements. They all bear your style, but that's impossible! You can't possibly be that good?"

Ves grinned and tapped the side of his head. "I just consulted a lot of books, that's all. I can study very hard if I want to! After receiving some sparks of insights, I instantly knew how to resolve these issues!"

"That's amazing!" Gloriana sounded incredibly impressed. "You're also lying."

"Thank you—, wait, what?"

"DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID?!" She pressed her finger against his chest! "We were in a deadlock for weeks! I referenced all kinds of books in order to solve these problems, but I still hadn't managed to deal with them. How can someone like you magically wave your hand and come up with much better solutions in a single day? It's impossible!"

Ves panicked a bit. "I-I-It's true! It's all me! I swear it! I was so afraid that you would insist on simplifying our current mech design that I worked harder than ever before to solve all of these issues!"

Gloriana narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She briefly turned around and picked up Clixie.

"Is he lying, Clixie?"

"Miaow!"

Though Gloriana didn't speak cat, she could still interpret Clixie's hiss!

"I thought so!" She nodded with certainty. "So spill, Ves. Who's the technical consultant that provided all of these solutions?"

"It's all me!"

"You're not that smart!"