The Mech Touch

No matter how many times Gloriana pleaded for Ves to divulge his plans regarding the Ghost Project, she failed to obtain a solid answer.

Ves refused to share more than a couple of hints on what he was trying to cook with Master Benedict Cortez.

This left Gloriana with little choice but to piece together the clues so that she could make her own guesses.

The skull of the expert pilot played a key role in this potential new design application.

No, that was not quite correct. When the Larkinson Clan originally obtained the plasma saber of the Neo Amadeus, Master Toqueman Huron of the Gauge Dynasty had somehow integrated it with the decapitated head of an aging but still functional expert pilot.

The Fridayman expert pilot was still alive when he was stuffed inside the plasma saber, and he was still alive when he was placed under the tender care of the Larkinson Biotech Institute.

As far as Gloriana knew, the LBI carefully maintained the health of the decapitated head while also making sure the expert pilot remained dormant.

No one could predict what would happen if the pilot woke up and found that his sacrifice had been in vain. Ending up in the hands of the enemies of the Gauge Dynasty might drive poor bastard to suicide!

Gloriana became increasingly more suspicious that Ves might not want to kill the expert pilot at all. A living demigod was a much more powerful resource than a dead one.

Why settle for the bare skull of an expert pilot when the entire intact living head had the potential to bestow much greater power to the Ghost Project?!

Although Gloriana was not completely opposed to an upgrade to their initial plans for the expert stealth mech design, she became upset when her vision for the Ghost Project began to diverge from that of her husband.

It was never a good idea for two mech designers to misalign their visions while working on the same design project!

"Be patient, honey. I can't tell you anything further until I have received further confirmation and corroboration." Ves explained. "To be honest, I don't have a clear idea of the outcome of my efforts. The potential results are so open-ended that it is better for me to wait until I have obtained more solid data."

She would have to be satisfied with that. They completed their discussion on the Ghost Project and moved on to sharing their views on the other ongoing design projects.

The Bloodripper Project, the Greenaxe Project and the Samurai Project were all progressing at a normal rate. They were the least dependent on Ves' input so they did not benefit too much from his latest changes.

The only oddity is the 'brand new' Blood Knight Project that Ves had shoved into the pipeline.

When Gloriana called up the design schematics of this biomech, she could clearly recognize that it was completely aligned to Ves' distinctive design style.

She just found it disturbing that Ves chose to design a biomech of all things. He never showed an interest in biotechnology and biomechs in the past. For him to expose that he had been studying biotechnology and designed a completely viable biomech in his own time was a massive shock, especially to someone who knew him well like Gloriana!

It didn't make any sense. Gloriana had a pretty good idea on how Ves spent his time.

She found it important to keep track of her husband's activities. She wanted to know whether Ves was spending his time productively by contributing to his ongoing design projects or whether he became sidetracked by a radical new research project.

She also wanted to know whether Ves would get caught up in some sort of event that might lead the Golden Skull Alliance into another conflict!

Of course, the main reason why Gloriana insisted on tracking Ves was because she wanted to know if he was meeting with any women!

He periodically met with Director Calabast in person and also communicated increasingly more with Director Ranya Wodin.

Gloriana slightly narrowed her eyes.

Even though both of those women had settled down and hooked up with high-ranking members of the Larkinson Clan, Gloriana still couldn't rid herself of the fear that Ves might be tempted into starting an affair.

From what she knew about Ves, he was way too loyal to betray her, especially when it would harm their little family. He loved her and their children too much to inflict so much suffering in their lives.

That didn't mean that Ves was immune to getting seduced.

Gloriana understood extremely well that assertive women tended to have their way with her husband. As long as they adopted the right attitude and avoided attracting any hostility, they could potentially wrap Ves around their fingers!

She should know, because this was exactly how she managed to snag him in the first place!

Thinking about all of the women that might want to take her husband away from him caused her to release a low growl.

"What's wrong, mama?" Marvaine looked up at her with his adoring eyes.

"There is nothing done, my little teddy bear."

The two cuddled with each other for a time. Gloriana was proud of her son. Even though he was only a few years old, his academic performance was already leagues ahead of all of his peers in the clan!

"Ves?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I have a proposal about Marvaine's schooling."

"Hm?" Ves grew intrigued as he turned his attention away from a flow chart of some sort. "Didn't we agree earlier that we should just put him in one of our schools so that he can socialize with other kids? You also promised to set up a special study program that will allow our son to make full use of his developing learning capabilities."

"That is true. It is in the course of composing that study program that I started to come across an incredibly promising possibility."

This sounded serious. Ves temporarily set aside his distractions and focused fully on his wife.

She had become more active and animated now that she was introducing one of her own initiatives.

The fact that it was related to their first son made it even more important for her to bring up this matter!

Once she saw that Ves was taking her seriously, she began to speak.

"Let me start at the beginning. In order to determine Marvaine's lesson program for the next few years, I first needed to know what he has already mastered and how quickly he can learn subjects of varying difficulty."

"Okay…?"

Gloriana proudly smiled as she began to ruffle Marvaine's cute hair. "In order to obtain the most comprehensive information possible, I put Marvaine through a day-long virtual testing program that Witshaw & Yeneca has specially developed to measure the intellectual accomplishments of its organic products.

It made sense to use a test from the genetics company as its scientists understood the capabilities of their designer babies the best.

The test was mostly used to make comparisons. Even if a designer baby was formulated to be smart, there were always a lot of variations in the actual outcomes.

Designer babies derived from the exact same base designer formula could in performance by as much as 60 percent!

It all had to do with upbringing, nutrition and other growth circumstances.

While Gloriana believed that she and her husband went above and beyond to nurture Marvaine to the best of their abilities, there was no guarantee that their efforts allowed their son to maximize his potential.

She was much more anxious about the results of the test than any other parent in her position!

"So what's the verdict?" Ves questioned. "Our son is definitely not an idiot. He's way smarter than any of the other designer babies of his age, at least when it comes to the ones present in our fleet. He is probably the smartest kid out of everyone. We didn't spend 100,000 MTA credits in vain, and little Denny has increased his mental development on top of everything else."

Given Gloriana's obvious expression of pride, the test results were undoubtedly good.

The only question was to what extent Marvaine outperformed his peers. Witshaw & Seneca once told the Larkinsons that they were not the only ones to make use of Formula U-775128-MMT.

There were an unknown number of other children out in human space who acquired the same talents and dispositions.

How did Marvaine measure up against his genetic 'siblings'? Even if Ves had given his son a companion spirit, he did not believe that other parents who were wealthy enough to pay 100,000 MTA credits had no other way to boost the intelligence of their little geniuses!

"About the test results…"

"Hurry up, Gloriana. Don't keep me in suspense!"

"Fine! Our son came in second."

"Second of what?" Ves frowned. "Wait, there is a kid who was born from the same base designer baby formula that is even smarter than Marvaine? How?!"

"I do not have a clue. I demanded a representative from Witshaw & Seneca to clarify this matter, but the man refused to give in to my request in order to protect the privacy of the company's clients. However, when I read between the lines of my discussion, I am certain that the top performer of the test is a child who has grown up in a first-rate state."

Ves blinked. "A first-rater?"

He felt a lot more mollified after hearing that. The package they bought for Marvaine was priced well outside the spending range of the vast majority of second-raters. Only an exceedingly few successful businessmen or powerful statesmen could afford to invest that much cash into the development of one of their offspring!

Gloriana stared at her husband for a few seconds. "You don't understand what that means."

"Am I supposed to read more in this result?"

"For all of your improved smarts, you still have the same faults as before."

"Can you just tell me what I am supposed to comprehend already?!"

"When I spoke to the company representative, he revealed to me that the top scorer has amply met the standard needed to attend first-class primary schools. Since our son has performed almost just as well, we can enroll him into a first-class primary school as well. So long as he is able to keep up with his classes, he can earn the qualifications to attend a first-class secondary school. If he continues to do well, he will eventually be able to apply to a genuine first-class mech design university!"

Ves finally knew why Gloriana treated this as a big deal. He glanced down at Marvaine who was happily playing with his mother's smooth fingers as if they were toys.

It was hard to imagine that this small and curious child already possessed the qualifications to enter a track that would eventually allow him to become a first-class mech designer!

If Marvaine fully committed to this elite and highly privileged educational trajectory, he might be able to become a first-class mech designer sooner than his parents!

Even though Ves felt an incredible amount of pride at the amazing talent of his son, he soon began to feel concerned.

"Wait, if we want to give him an opportunity to become a first-rater, do we need to send him to a first-class school in an upper zone?"

"I already looked it up." Gloriana said. "It is indeed mandatory for pupils to attend most first-class schools. They possess special high-tech facilities that can help with absorbing knowledge and learning more profound lessons, but they are only effective if the children can access them in person."

Ves immediately frowned. "I am not going to send my son off to a boarding school."

To her credit, Gloriana agreed with him despite the fact that she wanted the best for her child.

"I do not want our child to grow up as a stranger either. I started to look up opportunities where he can attend first-class virtual schools instead. They exist, but their circumstances are much different. Just getting our child accepted into them is a massive hurdle onto itself. We have to decide whether it is worth it to take the risk to put Marvaine through this ordeal or settle for putting him in our own schools."

This was anything but a simple decision!