The Mech Touch



Ves could not describe what he was going through at this moment.

In the middle isolation chamber underneath the surface of Cat Nest, Ves initiated one of the most important breakthroughs of his life.

He did not expect this to happen!

He initially thought he would have triggered his breakthrough immediately after completing the Dullahan Project if he was ready.

Since that did not happen, Ves restrained his disappointment and assumed that he would have a better chance once he fabricated the Ghost Project.

After all, he was just as passionate about this design if not more!

The fact that he broke through after hearing just a single point of feedback from his latest client was out of his expectations!

As such, no one aside from an expert pilot he had a mixed relationship with was able to witness his current transformation.

He would have found it to be ironic that Jannzi of all people triggered his breakthrough if he wasn't already preoccupied at this time!

Ves raised his palm in order to convey to Jannzi to stay calm and not do anything rash.

This was all he could do before his mind became completely immersed in the immense changes that took place within the confines of his powerful mind!

No matter how much he evolved and how many changes he went through, Ves never let go of his identity as a mech designer.

His various incarnations had all become powerful in their own right. Not only that, but their potential was much greater as well. It was quite conceivable to assume that they could eventually transcend into True Gods or comparable existences in the far future!

Yet even if his incarnations were able to attain godhood, Ves knew quite well that they would not become omnipotent.

Gods weren't as impressive as they appeared.

Ves much rather aspired to become a Star Designer, because his ability to create powerful new innovations would become unmatched!

Now that he gained the determination to not only make mech piloting accessible to the common man, but also allow each of them to uplift themselves through mutual growth, Ves understood the truth of what it took to become a Senior Mech Designer.

Journeymen Mech Designers were like teenagers who were just discovering what they could do. They found an initial direction but still needed to figure out how they wanted to apply their capabilities.

Developing design applications was not enough, though. They needed to look beyond their own selfish desires and start to think how they wished to serve the greater community.

What was the point of becoming a mech designer?

While the exact motivations of every professional was different, each of them desired to become a productive member of society!

Seniors needed to hold themselves to a much higher standard than Journeymen.

The latter could get away with focusing on their own selfish needs, but they could go no further if their perspectives remained limited.

Only mech designers who made the resolve to serve a cause that was greater than themselves deserved to attain greater power.

Ves had no idea how or why this rule came to be, but he had clearly become one of its beneficiaries.

As a mech designer who wanted to fulfill one of humanity's greatest demands since the start of the Age of Mechs, it would be a horribly travesty if reality denied his immediate breakthrough!

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario did not happen.

Ves could feel that every part of his mind and his Spirituality underwent a profound transformation.

His mentality expanded to the point where he could feel he could perform a lot more calculations and deductions than before. It was like getting a free upgrade for his cranial implant, but applied to his entire brain.

In other words, his basic ability to design mechs improved by another margin. The only letdown was that the difference was not that great to him due to all of his prior improvements. This particular change was just icing on the cake as far as he was concerned.

What truly mattered was that his design seed finally went through the transformation he had long been waiting for. This solidified spiritual core swelled with so much power after Ves had advanced his design philosophy to this extent that the internal pressure finally forced it to find a release!

Short of breaking its solid exterior entirely, it instead formed numerous different cracks on its surface.

The growing pressure from within the seed cracked its exterior to the point where numerous different holes had formed!

This was a crucial step in the breakthrough process!

Only by making enough progress in his design philosophy and setting a firm goal to serve a worthy cause did he manage to ignite the flame inside his seed!

Now, the powerful flame releases a surprising amount of energy from the cracks in the exterior of the shell.

Multiple different streams of energy began to spread out and escape from his mind and body.

His design philosophy had begun to impose itself onto reality to a significantly greater extent than before!

Through the ignition of his design seed, the traces of his work, his theories and his ambitions spread across unimaginable distances in space.

His design seed… turned into a design flame.

Perhaps there may be better ways to describe the new state of the encapsulation of his design philosophy. Maybe the Mech Trade Association already developed its own fancy terminology of this particular state.

It didn't matter. All Ves cared about was that his design philosophy completed a qualitative transformation that turned it from a well of possibilities to a fire that could change reality!

As the cracks of his design seed continued to release continuous streams of ignited energy, Ves could feel that there would be no end to them so long as he sincerely endeavored to continue his career as a mech designer.

So long as he engaged in his work, he would never have to worry about running out of the kindling that continued to spread his design philosophy throughout space!

"How… amazing…"

The most crucial part of his breakthrough had settled down. The formation of his design flame proceeded smoothly and without any obvious issue. Ves did not experience any pain or discomfort.

Despite the worrisome appearance of his cracked design seed, nothing about it felt wrong.

In fact, it was the opposite.

Ves felt more whole and complete than ever before!

He had already felt awfully uncomfortable as a highly accomplished Journeyman Mech Designer as of late. He had created too many innovations and affected the lives of more people than practically any other Journeyman at his level.

His qualifications to become a Senior was stronger than any other Journeyman he knew of. It frustrated him quite a bit that he could not make any further progress unless he overcame his bottleneck.

Though he probably would have broken through sooner or later, he was incredibly happy that it ended up being the former!

In the end, he finally found his key to break his bottleneck and smoothly enter an entirely new phase in his career as a mech designer.

As the design flame settled into his mind, Ves took several deep breaths as he fully tried to understand all of the changes and improvements it introduced.

He could instinctively feel that the changes were far from simple. More had taken place than was obvious on the surface.

In general, he was able to deduce that the strength and activity of his design flame not only allowed his design philosophy to affect reality across much vaster distances, but that it also strengthened his ability to change the rules in close proximity!

Ves immediately made use of his strengthened cognition to deduce what this meant.

His ability to imprint mech designs with his design philosophy became noticeably stronger!

Although his capacity to do so still did not come close to that of an actual Master Mech Designer, it became undeniable that he would be able to exceed his fellow Journeymen in the Design Department in this aspect!

This was good news as his unique design applications became stronger and produced a higher impact due to the ignition of his design flame.

His living mechs could start off stronger and grow even faster than before. His design spirits could connect to his works at a deeper level.

Above all else, Ves saw a possibility to use his strengthened design philosophy as a bridge to close the gap between the material realm and the imaginary realm even more!

If this was truly the case, then he would no longer have to rely so much on exceptional means such as expert pilots and the Geist System to turn metaphysical power into a force that could break mechs and sunder starships!

Of course, Ves did not expect to be able to realize all of this right away. His design flame shouldn't be that amazing as of yet. He might have to strengthen it further or wait until he advanced to Master Mech Designer or Star Designer to exert his power to this extent.

He was already happy with what he gained. He no longer felt any confusion about his future direction and knew exactly what he needed to do to realize his design philosophy.

Perhaps other mech designers might think that Ves had gone absolutely mad for tackling an ambition of this magnitude, but he was different!

His eyes burned with the fires of his design flame as he formulated an initial roadmap to his ultimate goal.

So long as he had a viable plan in mind, he possessed full confidence in his ability to overcome all of the challenges one by one until he fulfilled the final requirement!

It might take decades. It might even take a century or two. It all depended on his research ability, his problem-solving skills, his creativity, his inspiration and plain old luck.

Aside from that, he could always affect his chances of advancing to Master by adjusting his own goal posts.

He already knew that this was possible through his prior talks with other Master Mech Designers, but now that he had taken an important step forward, he could instinctively feel what it took to break the shell of his design seed.

If he wanted to break this design seed and transform his relatively weak flame into a blazingly hot star, then he had to turn the impossible into the possible!

He could choose from a wide variety of goals as long as they were significant enough and relevant to his design philosophy.

An easier goal would allow him to ignite his flame into a weaker sun, while a stronger one would probably result in a much stronger sun.

Ves did not know whether Master Mech Designers who chose the former could make up for their deficiency.

He also didn't know how strong his 'design sun' would become if he fulfilled an ambition as great as enabling every other individual in human civilization to effectively pilot a mech!

Perhaps his flame would transform into such a powerful design sun that it could light up the entire cosmos!

He shook his head.

This was all too far away from him. He probably needed to have a good talk with the MTA in order to obtain the answers to all of his new questions.

For now, he was more than happy to celebrate his long-awaited breakthrough!

The Larkinson Clan had taken another step towards dominance now that its patriarch became a Senior Mech Designer.

The speed in which he accomplished this breakthrough was sure to increase his value to other parties!

Advancing to Senior Mech Designer when he was around 40 years old was a definite sign of talent and excellence!

All of the bigshots who appreciated his potential and chose to make an early investment in him would definitely feel that their decision had paid off! It would become a lot easier for him to have a greater say in his interactions with the Survivalist Faction and the Transhumanist Faction of the MTA!

His expression froze when he thought about the enormous storm he might unleash if he conveyed his latest discovery to the Association.

If he told the mechers that he could develop a solution that would enable any human to pilot a mech, how would they react?

If even mech designers could overcome the limitations of their genetic aptitude and gain the ability to control mechs of their own creation, how grateful would they be to Ves for making it all possible?

If he introduced an innovation that broke the monopoly that mech pilots held over their own profession, how many of these favored sons and daughters would feel devalued by this enormous change? What if these elitist mech pilots felt that Ves infringed on their rights by depriving them of their sole advantage?

The huge interests centered around mech piloting were so vast and powerful that a simple Senior Mech Designer could never withstand a storm of this magnitude!

His attitude immediately sharpened.

Before he was ready to announce this game-changing innovation to the public, he needed to be discreet and prevent his work from burning down the entirety of human civilization!