The Mech Touch

Ves did not object to the fact that Jovy stood a better chance of winning because he would be able to field his competition mech with a superior MTA mech pilot.

He had already made Jovy uncomfortable enough with the shamelessness of his previous terms.

Perhaps not even Master Willix imagined that Ves would take so much advantage of his opportunity to set the terms!

If he went any further, he might push Jovy's forbearance to the point of snapping!

Fortunately, Ves did not make Jovy's life more difficult from this point. Both of them quickly agreed on the remaining terms.

First, the tech they were allowed to implement in their mechs would be limited to publicly-available third-class components. Anything was allowed as long as they stayed within their budgets.

One caveat was that the materials used in the mech design had to be sourced from Cinach VI. This meant that Jovy wasn't allowed to incorporate some obscure, unknown exotic that was only known to the MTA and a select few people!

Second, they had 3 days to design their respective mechs. Both of them had to design their mechs from standard components, which meant that they were not allowed to save time by making use of prefab parts that were commonly used in other design duels.

Both of them weren't Apprentices anymore, which meant that neither Ves nor Jovy needed any training wheels to whip up a functional mech design in 72 hours!

Previously, Ves designed competition mechs where he had access to a catalog of complete legs, arms and other large systems. This saved a lot of time, but gave the mech designer much less room to showcase his comprehensive design ability.

Third, when it came to fabricating their competition mechs, Jovy opted to materialize his mech with the help of the Ubiquitous Force in a matter of minutes. He was used to relying on materialization technology to make his mechs and disliked resorting to cruder production methods.

This was something that Ves vehemently disagreed upon. "My design philosophy is based around life! How can there be any life in a mech that is assembled like a clone?"

In the end, Jovy agreed to give Ves two days to fabricate his mech in the workshop they were in right now. While two days was cutting it a bit short, with his formidable Assembly Skills, he was sure he could get it done in time, especially when it came to a low-budget mech!

Amusingly enough, Master Willix admonished Jovy yet again.

"I will allow you to stick to your chosen method this time, as Mr. Larkinson is evidently the first mech designer you have met who has refused to make use of materialization technology. He has a good reason to do so. It is no surprise that he has become a masterwork mech designer at such a young age. For your own good, I hope there won't be a next time."

"I understand." Jovy bowed. "I will endeavor to practice the traditional methods of producing mechs after this duel. I will make a masterwork mech too one day!"

Materialization technology was very convenient. As long as a mech designer had access to a materializer with a sufficient supply of materials, they could simply upload their design and press a button. A brand-new mech that conformed exactly to the design schematics would soon appear without any further need to intervene!

It seemed that Jovy was too spoiled and had become so dependent on materialization technology that he wasn't confident that he could beat Ves in traditional fabrication.

He was right to think so. Publicly, Ves had created two masterwork mechs. Secretly, he actually created three!

Regardless of the exact number, his affinity for mechs had definitely risen! It already took a formidable mastery in fabricating mechs in order to make masterwork mechs possible. As Ves actually succeeded multiple times, his fluency, intuition and judgement in this area had grown so formidable that even an elite MTA Journeyman like Jovy lost his confidence!

Arguably, materialization was still the superior option in most cases. Yet there were certain mech designers like Ves or Gloriana who lost far more than they could gain by taking the human element out of the equation!

Aside from these terms, they also chose their mech pilots who would act as their champions beforehand.

The selection was only limited to regular mech pilots, so Ves chose Joshua Larkinson without any hesitation.

As for Jovy, he picked a random MTA mech pilot assigned to the Ubiquitous Force. To make it as fair as possible, the pilot he chose was just as young as Joshua.

A final term that Ves had specifically requested was to deactivate the use of implants. While Ves was very pleased with his implant, it was still an outdated storage model from the CFA.

There was no way that Jovy possessed an inferior implant! Even a modest MTA implant provided an immense boost to his design abilities!

Ves might as well roll over and give up straight away if both of them were allowed to make use of their implants.

Although the request sounded extreme considering that both of them relied a lot on their implants, this was not actually a strange request.

If mech designers were allowed to make full use of their cranial implants in mech duels, then most competitions would essentially be determined by who possessed the better one! The greater the difference, the more the results would be skewed in this fashion!

Jovy assumed that Ves possessed a bog-standard second-class cranial implant. If that was the case, then the disparity was simply too big!

"Okay." Jovy nodded in agreement. "The Ubiquitous Force already has implant limiters on hand."

These were all the terms for their design duel. Only at this point were both of them prepared to compete against each other!

They shook hands.

"Good luck, Mr. Larkinson. Even if you fight me at a terrain of your choosing, you have already lost. My skills aren't limited to high-class mechs."

Ves did not think that Jovy was overestimating his chances. Regardless how uncomfortable he felt, a good mech designer was still a good mech designer no matter the circumstances!

"Be prepared for a good fight."

That was all he said. At this point, Ves still did not have enough confidence to win. However, as long as there was a chance, he might as well do his best!

The competition started in a couple of minutes.

In order to level the playing field, any interfering factors had to be moved away. A group of bots dispatched from the Ubiquitous Force lifted the Statue of the Superior Mother and moved it away. Another group of bots covered the Blessed Squire in an opaque field and moved it away as well.

The subordinates under Master Willix would continue to inspect the masterwork mech inside the MTA frigate and complete the certification process by the end of the duel.

The bots also delivered the so-called implant limiters.

Gloriana approached Ves as he sat on a chair held the thumb-sized gadget and placed it on his head.

"Ack!"

Soon enough, Ves immediately let out a gasp and felt as if he lost half his mind!

The partial digitization that he had grown familiar with abruptly disappeared. The transition was so sudden that Ves momentarily felt his normal thought operations crashing into dead ends.

Familiar routines and commands that relied on the functionality of his Archimedes Rubal no longer worked!

"So this is why they gave me an hour of preparation time." He muttered as he rubbed the side of his head.

Gloriana sat next to him and pressed up to the side of his body. Her airy scent immediately filled his nose, which distracted him from his disordered mind.

"This is your first time wearing an implant limiter, so you must be feeling awful right now."

"I feel as if someone literally scooped half of my brain!"

"It's okay. Just don't think too much and calm yourself. Let me guide you. It's easy to return to normal once you develop a specific mental routine."

She expertly guided him to rebuild his own thought patterns that he used to depend on before he received his implant.

It only took half an hour for Ves to gain a measure of confidence in his cognitive functions.

"This is.. a lot more severe than I thought." He commented.

"In upper society, we humans have become so dependent on letting our implants do the heavy lifting that it has become dangerous. Implant limiters were initially developed to combat this dangerous state and to prepare against occasions where the enemy has hijacked the implants in some way."

"I can see how that is prudent. If my implant suddenly shut down in the middle of a crisis, I would be flailing around while nursing the biggest headache of my life!"

Ves spent over a year with the Archimedes Rubal and immediately fell in love with all of its formidable functions. The partial digitization of his mind had increased his productivity so much that he couldn't imagine living without it anymore!

He automatically assumed that his new, improved state of mind was a permanent upgrade.

However, this incident reminded him that nothing was foolproof! Even though he voluntarily placed the implant limiter on his head this time, that might not be the case in the future!

If someone hostile intended to cripple him by latching such a device on his head, then he would definitely be incapacitated for a long time!

"I have to get some implant limiters on my own and get used to living without my cranial implant."

"You don't have to obtain a limiter for that. Your implant already comes with an off switch."

"Oh. I never realized that. Thanks, Gloriana."

Though Ves lost his biggest tool in mech design, he was still confident he could design a workable third-class striker mech in 3 days!

He had taken part in competitions before, and back then he could only dream of cranial implants!

This design duel should have been familiar territory to him. Though he hadn't dueled anyone for a while, Ves still believed he was capable of designing a mech in haste!

"Have you figured out your strategy yet, Ves?"

"Hmmm. Not really."

"Uhm, the design phase starts in less than twenty minutes. Your opponent must have already formed a detai