The Mech Touch



The ceremonial hall was completely quiet as Master Vayro Goldstein prepared to teach history to a brand-new Senior Mech Designer.

Every individual who attained this rank would get to hear a version of this story sooner or later. This was because they had worked mechs long enough to deduce a few secret matters by themselves.

Rather than allow all of these Seniors to develop all kinds of wildly inaccurate misconceptions by themselves, it was better for the MTA to call them in and present its own narrative.

Every mech designer who had attained this rank had entered into the later stage of their professional track. They were often older, wiser and more responsible after living and working for so long.

Although Seniors still weren't as powerful as Master Mech Designers, the difference between the two was that the former were much easier to persuade.

If the MTA waited until mech designers realized their design philosophies, they became so full of themselves that it was ten times harder to correct any biases and misunderstandings!

Ves happened to be an outlier in this regard. His importance to the Survivalists and the Transhumanists already exceeded that of a regular Master while he was just a Journeyman!

Now that he had taken a powerful step forward at a fairly young age, his ability to contribute to humanity had most definitely advanced even further!

It became a lot more critical to ensure that the attitudes and opinions of this talented mech designer remained within acceptable boundaries. This was one of the reasons why Master Vayro Goldstein quickly received permission to travel to the Davute System straight away!

As the MTA Master stared at the unusual mech designer that had presented one surprise after another, the older man wondered if he should share additional truths than he had been authorized to tell today.

"Do you believe that gods exist?" Master Golstein began.

"Huh?"

"This is not a trick question, Mr. Larkinson. You have witnessed many unusual phenomena that cannot be explained through mundane science alone. Do you believe that gods exist that are responsible for many powerful instances that cannot be replicated through man or technology alone?"

This sounded like a serious question, so Ves took the time to compose his answer based on his assumptions.

"I do not believe that gods exist." He replied. "There are many people and aliens who believe in many different gods, but most of them are either figments of imagination or psionically powerful beings who are mistaken for deities. Here in the Red Ocean, all indigenous aliens are convinced that infusing lots of phasewater into their bodies will turn them into gods of a different kind. No matter what, what they pursue are different power acquisition systems that can only make them more powerful at best. Whether to call them gods after they have reached the top is a question of semantics. I refuse to consider them this way because even ascended beings are still fallible."

This extensive answer clearly pleased Master Goldstein. The Survivalist mech designer nodded approvingly as he turned his gaze back to the statues.

"The Mech Trade Association shares the same stance. The cosmos may be far more convoluted than what is known to our scientists, but that does not change the fact that humans such as ourselves must make our own destiny. There are many cases in the past where so-called gods and the belief of them has caused progress to stagnate and humans to become less critical of the truth. This is detrimental to the progress of our civilization, so the fleeters and us have united together to form a new regime where science and rationality prevails."

Though Ves did not entirely approve of the Big Two's hegemony over human civilization in modern times, he supported their common stance on this matter.

"What does this have to do with your earlier question, Master Goldstein?" Ves carefully asked. "Is my answer… wrong?"

The MTA Master smiled and waved his arm at the statues in front of them both. "Who do you think they represent, Mr. Larkinson?"

Ves turned around and studied the statues once again. Their lack of coloring made it difficult to discern too many details. Their outfits looked outdated but not ancient. They wouldn't look too out-of-place from the people who lived during the Age of Conquest.

His eyes minutely widened. Everything he heard so far caused him to form a bold guess about the identities of these seemingly average-looking people the statues portrayed!

"Wait… are you suggesting that they are gods?!"

"We never describe them as gods." Master Goldstein said. "Yet that is what they call themselves. We have a recounting of events where they have repeatedly claimed that they are human gods. Whether their words are accurate enough goes beyond the scope of this meeting. Our consensus is that they are powerful ascended humans. What matters to us more is what they have done as opposed to what they have said."

Ves tried to discern the identities of the men and women portrayed by the statues. Try as he might, he could not feel any scrap of power from these exquisite artworks.

"What do they have to do with mechs?" He asked. "Since you mechers placed them in this prominent position, they probably have strong relations to our work."

"That is so. The thirteen men and women before you not only developed the first mech for Mack Liu, but also birthed the systematic framework that enabled the rise of extraordinary mechs, mech pilots and mech designers. While we refuse to call them gods and worship them in the same manner, we collectively call them the Progenitors of Mechs. We still honor and respect the great contributions and sacrifices that they have made for the good of humankind."

What?!

These bunch of people created mechs as everyone knew it in the first place?!

Ves regarded the thirteen individuals in a completely different light after this revelation!

Now that he thought about it, there was so much weirdness around mechs and much stuff around them that it did not seem as if this came about through gradual technological advancement.

The real story behind mechs was definitely complicated, and Ves doubted that he would be able to hear the full story this time.

However, just a glimpse of the greater truth was enough to change his cognition!

Ves began to wonder if the Progenitors of Mechs were originally high-ranking members of the Five Scrolls Compact when this cult organization was at the height of its power.

That would explain why they called themselves gods. Perhaps they may have founded the Mech Trade Association in secret in order to arm humanity with war weapons that could effectively resist the weird and unconventional weapons of the Compact!

As Ves continued to form all kinds of guesses based on different sources of information, Master Goldstein continued to present the MTA's narrative on this subject.

"Whether they are gods or not, the Progenitors have done more for humanity than any other mech designer that has come ever since. This is because mech designers such as you and I have only been able to grow to such an extent due to their efforts. If they did not set aside their selfishness, we would still be relying on destructive warships to fight all of our wars."

This caused Ves to narrow his eyes. What Master Goldstein had just said ruled out a lot of possible options.

"What did they do, exactly?"

"They invented the first mech." Goldstein stated. "Perhaps a single machine is not that significant by itself, but it is what happened next that is of great significance. Creating the first mech enabled the Progenitors to set a pattern. We do not have a full understanding of what they have done, but based on their claims as well as what has happened, they have apparently conducted a ritual where they fused and concentrated all of their formidable psionic power to… permanently alter the rules that govern reality. They gave up their own lives and god-like powers in order to give us all an opportunity to resist similarly powerful beings through human effort."

Ves looked both impressed and shocked. "That is… not what I expected to hear. This sounds similar to the process of realizing a design philosophy."

Master Goldstein nodded. "That is not a coincidence. The Progenitors of Mechs have created the framework that enables mech designers to evolve from Novice Mech Designer to Star Designer in the first place. You can even say that the process of realizing a design philosophy is a small-scale derivation of the Creation of Modern Mechs. Every Senior who advances to Master must exert an immense amount of effort to add their greatest contributions to the 'Kingdom of Mechs', as we have taken to calling it. Different people may refer to it in other ways, but we prefer the imagery that this phrase evokes."

"The… Kingdom of Mechs?"

"That is what we call the invisible but ever-present systematic framework of mechs, Mr. Larkinson. Without it, mechs would never be as strong as they are now. The Kingdom of Mechs regulates psionic power so that everything related to mechs works according to the original intentions of the Progenitors of Mechs."

This explained so much. Ves had never heard about this before. He never came into contact with this so-called Kingdom of Mechs directly, but he worked with the consequences of its existence every day!

Ves looked at Master Goldstein with an enlightened expression. "Is this what makes Master Mech Designers so special? The act of realizing their design philosophies is effectively a ritual that causes them to 'donate' their best design applications to the Kingdom of Mechs, thereby allowing their life's work to become universal and common to all humans. This also ensures that if a mech designer ever perishes, the benefit he has brought to the mech community will not be erased."

"That is a clever deduction, Mr. Larkinson. It appears that you have collected enough clues beforehand. The Kingdom of Mechs is one of our industry and profession's most essential pillars. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Mech Trade Association's founding mission is to protect and develop this collective gift to humanity. For hundreds of years, we have performed our duties with great diligence."

That caused Ves to frown. "It sounds like the Kingdom of Mechs requires a lot of care and attention."

"It is much easier to destroy than to create." Goldstein said. "This adage holds true to creations of this nature as well. The Kingdom of Mechs used to be much weaker and more rudimentary in the past. Our Association has worked hard to strengthen it. The method to do so is to make mechs and everything directly related to it more powerful and ubiquitous."

For some odd reason, Ves immediately felt a strong urge to take part in the collective responsibility to protect and further develop the Kingdom of Mechs!

"What does it take to make it stronger?" He asked.

"Produce more mechs. Train and educate more mech pilots and mech designers. Help mech pilots and mech designers advance along the promotion framework prepared by the Progenitors. To mech designers such as ourselves, there is no greater method to increase its power and utility than to realize our design philosophies. In short, increasing the quantity and quality of everything related to mechs will feed the Kingdom of Mechs and allow it to benefit us all in term. This is a positive feedback loop that has been cycling across many generations."

That sounded similar to his own spiritual products!

From what it sounded like, this Kingdom of Mechs was an extremely advanced living product of spiritual engineering!

If this was the case, then that strengthened his suspicion that the so-called Progenitors of Mechs had strong relations to the Five Scrolls Compact!

As Ves thought about how the Kingdom of Mechs emerged and how that related to mech designers, he formed another question.

"If Master Mech Designers play such an important role in expanding the Kingdom of Mechs, How do Star Designers relate to this, exactly?"

Vayro Goldstein threw a knowing look at Ves. He already anticipated this question and had been waiting to issue his reply.

"Star Designers… have 'jumped' out of the Kingdom of Mechs, to put it in simple terms. They have ascended to the point where they have escaped the framework and are no longer confined by its artificial rules and constraints. They… have become comparable existences to the Progenitors of Mechs themselves. They are the closest individuals to gods that exist in our industry."

"!!!"