The Mech Touch

As Ves recently designed the Doom Guard, he knew quite a lot about striker mechs.

Even after he temporarily lost access to his cranial implant, the memories were still fresh in his mind. He possessed a good understanding of the design choices he needed to make.

Of course, the Doom Guard was a spaceborn mech while his competition mech would be a landbound mech, so there were plenty of differences.

Still, the overall framework remained the same. Striker mechs were slow but tough machines that served a defensive function. Their armament always consisted of ranged weapons with a wide area of effect but also limited range and punch.

This was because they were mainly designed to take out fast, lightly-armored mechs. These light skirmishers and the like often proved to be the bane of traditional ranged mechs such as rifleman mechs or artillery mechs.

Striker mechs were the exception to this rule. Their weapons didn't require pinpoint accuracy to hit an elusive light mech. They just had to point their weapon in the general direction of an agile machine and pull the trigger. Even if their aim was off, the billowing flames or expanding shotgun pellets would more than likely not hit the target anyway!

Obviously, this paradigm did not apply to this design duel.

Both would be fielding defensive mechs that wouldn't be zipping around the arena as if they were mice.

Instead, they would face each other off in the most brutal and direct fashion possible!

"This will come down to a battle of attrition." Ves murmured. "With such a low budget, both Jovy and I can forget about designing a mobile striker mech. We will both have clad our mechs with lots of cheap armor plating and arm them with weapons that are expressly designed to chew through armor!"

No matter how strange Jovy's design philosophy sounded, Ves doubted that the MTA mech designer could overcome the hard limitations of the striker mech type.

He began to envision all kinds of mechs and battle scenarios.

With two viable weapon types, Ves had to take four basic scenarios into account.

If Ves and Jovy both opted for flamethrowers, then the resulting battle basically amounted to which mech could endure the heat the longest!

If both of their mechs were armed with shotguns, then the battle would turn into a slugging match.

If Ves and Jovy opted for different weapons, then the results would become a lot more interesting.

In reality, Ves had to take way more scenarios into account than just these four. This was because there was a considerable amount of leeway in the design of their mechs.

As long as either of them were creative enough, they could definitely come up with something unconventional that stretched the limits of the tools at their disposal!

This was what made design duels exciting and unpredictable.

Ves did not have much time to make a choice. Time was running out and the design phase would soon commence.

With minutes to go, Ves wanted to come up with a viable vision right away.

"I think I'll go with flamethrowers." He said. "I've never worked with shotguns and while I'm confident that I can handle this simple weapon system, it's best to stick to familiar territory."

His knowledge base was also very suited to design mechs that handled heat and energy. He recently acquired relevant Sub-Skills such as Heat-Resistant Materials I, which would come in very handy in managing the heat levels of his design!

Ves figured that flamethrowers were also ultimately more suited to take down an armored mech.

The issue with shotguns was that they inflicted dispersed damage. With the dueling rules prohibiting the use of slugs or other armor-piercing projectiles, Ves could only make do with a tight spread of small-sized pellets.

Certainly, as long as the shotgun weapon system was strong enough, it could still chew through armor plating.

The problem was that the shotgun wielder needed to attack the same section continuously. Even if the opponent was a sluggish striker mech, it would never stand around and make it easy to pile up the damage on a specific part!

With a flamethrower, a striker mech could beat another striker mech by cooking it. Even if the flames weren't potent enough to melt the armor plating, the heat transferred to the metal had to go somewhere!

Usually, the heat applied to the armor plating bled through the internals of the mech. Unlike solid alloy, delicate internal components were much less capable of resisting excessive thermal energy!

Therefore, a duel between two flamethrower-wielding mechs usually ended when one of them spontaneously shut down because too many of its internals simply worked no more.

The biggest question Ves faced right now was whether Jovy chose to arm his striker mech with a flamethrower as well.

This wasn't a transparent design duel. Jovy had already been moved to another part of the workshop that was closed off from his current location. This meant that Ves had to make a very difficult design choice.

Should he design his striker mech to withstand thermal attacks, ballistic attacks or both?

The conventional answer should be to design his mech to cope with both possibilities. This was the standard answer and one that applied to most conventional striker mech designs.

His Doom Guard for example incorporated a premium armor system that offered a lot of resistance against laser beams, ballistic shells, kinetic rounds, melee impacts and so on. No matter what kind of weapon it faced, his Doom Guard easily endured the punishment!

Sadly, the same did not apply to the current design duel. The budget of the Doom Guard was around 2.5 times greater than the budget of his competition mech!

With the Doom Guard, Ves had the luxury of incorporating a decent, all-round armor system that provided adequate protection against any damage type.

With the paltry budget he was currently working with, his competition mech could never offer adequate protection against both physical damage and thermal damage.

Perhaps the only relief was that Jovy faced the exact same situation.

"You should opt for a balanced armor system." Gloriana suggested. "It's the most likely choice and one that minimizes risk. Sure, you won't win out, but you won't lose out either. Your opponent will likely make the same choice as well."

Ves shook his head. "I disagree. Since I've decided to arm my mech with a flamethrower, my mech won't gain an inherent advantage against Jovy's mech if both of us pursue this strategy. However, I'm in big trouble if he fields a mech that is specifically designed to resist heat."

"These are what ifs, Ves. You'll keep going around in circles if you obsess over these possibilities."

She was right, but Ves had a different view on the matter.

"Jovy's specialization is probability manipulation." He said. "While I'm not sure what he can do, I can make a few guesses. One of them is that he's probably pretty lucky!"

His girlfriend frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"Let's say he flips a coin. Mathematically, there is a 50 percent chance of winning. But what if that isn't the case with Jovy? What if.. he can manipulate his luck so that he has a 60 percent chance of winning? What if he can manipulate my luck so that I have a 40 percent of winning?"

This was a dreadful power if that was the case!

"That's ridiculous, Ves! Math is math! Probability is probability! Sure, some improbable flukes might happen if you flip the coin several times. However, the longer it goes on, the more the outcomes will even out and match the theoretical probabilities."

That was the law of large numbers in a nutshell. You could get lucky once, twice or thrice, but it was impossible for someone to get lucky 1,000 times in a row!

"The issue here is that Jovy doesn't have to flip the coin so many times. Two is enough!" Ves retorted. "He needs one flip to determine the correct weapon type and another flip to choose the right armor system! If he gets lucky twice, he will win the duel before our mechs have even entered the arena!"

Jovy truly vexed his opponents with his vague and mysterious design philosophy.

Ves began to feel what it was like to stand in the shoes of his competitors when they became confused what metaphysical man-machine symbiosis actually meant.

"It's finally time for you to get a taste of your own medicine." She quipped.

When it came to luck, Ves wasn't sure how he fared. In fact, he didn't really believe this concept even existed. It might be that he had completely mischaracterized Jovy's design philosophy.

However, he didn't dare to rule out this option. Even if Jovy's specialty applied to mechs in a much more mundane fashion, manipulating luck might be one of his 'superpowers'!

Every mech designer seemed to develop some sort of ability related to their specialization. Ves was able to communicate with all forms of life. Gloriana possessed a very keen eye for flaws. Ketis could make her blades sharper.

As for Jovy… who knew.

With so many difficult choices to take into account, Ves felt as if he was stuck at a crossroads!

Which of the roads led to glory and which of them led to his doom?

"Maybe I should take advantage of my own design philosophy." He muttered. "If Jovy can abuse his superpower to his advantage, then so should I!"

Knowing that Master Willix likely kept a very close eye on him, Ves had never shed his crazy hat. He still wore it, and right now it induced him to kneel onto the floor and clasp his hands.

He concentrated his mind.

"Prophet Ylvaine, please enlighten me. What design choices should I make?"

Though he made contact with Ylvaine's spiritual fragment, it didn't really answer his prayer. The fragment merely replied with a muddled impression before cutting off the contact!

Though vague, Ves understood the answer. Ylvaine basically told him that predictions couldn't be made on demand! It was pointless to come to Ylvaine in order to ask the winning numbers of a lottery!

Ves felt the urge to vomit. Was this the best that the Great Prophet could do? Where was its vaunted prediction ability? For all of the hype surrounding Prophet Ylvaine, it turned out that his spiritual fragment could only catch uncontrolled glimpses!

Why the hell couldn't this design spirit tell him what Jovy had in mind?!

He sighed. It was just a fragment after all.

His expression hardened. "I can go round and round in circles, or I can just make a choice."

Ves decided to turn to his heart. What kind of striker mech did he wish to design?

He already knew the answer. Ves wanted to design a mech that practically embodied heat! He wanted to design a mech that not only spewed out copious amounts of heat, but also bathed in it! This was the competition mech that his heart yearned to design!

"I've made my choice." He stated.

His intuition wasn't very helpful in these circumstances. He had no choice but to go in blind and hope that Jovy did not come up with a shotgun-wielding mech clad with heat-resistant armor.

Now that he had passed this hurdle, it was time for him to formulate a vision.

"I already have something in mind." He grinned.

He wanted to design a mech that revelled in heat! No matter what kind of probability shenanigans that Jovy's mech employed, as long as the battle devolved into a contest of heat, Ves did not think his mech would lose out!

That said, Ves needed to add some extra oomph to his competition mech. His strength had always been his glows.

He needed to add the right one to his mech!

The next question he faced was whether he should incorporate a design spirit or hold himself back by employing a weaker image.

Ves had no illusions that this design duel presented an opportunity for Master Willix to see him in action in a serious setting. He might expose something he didn't want to if he made too much use of his specialty!