The Mech Touch

"I suggest you start with putting together a knight mech." Ves said. "It's a tradition to begin with one as this mech type is the simplest, sturdiest and most fault-tolerant of them all. Even if you make a mistake, your toy mech won't fall apart."

He suddenly felt nails poking in his tough skin. It turned out that his wife took offense at this remark!

"Don't listen to your father, Marvaine. Try to take this as seriously as possible. If you want to become the best mech designer in the future, then you cannot settle for substandard results. If your Mekano looks wrong, then keep working at it until you stop feeling bothered. Do not complete any Mekano that you are too ashamed to show off to us. The more you get used to working this way, the better of a mech designer you will become once you become a real mech designer like your mother and father."

It didn't matter too much at the beginning. When Marvaine finally plucked the parts that were attached to the unfolded cabinet, he easily pieced together his first Mekano!

It was as simple as putting together a doll. Marvaine just had to start with plucking out a thick and heavily armored torso before fitting in arms and legs that were robust enough to fit with the frame.

Marvaine easily finished the Mekano by picking out a thick and armored head before placing a tiny sword and shield in its hands.

"That's not so hard, isn't?" Ves smiled as he held the finished Mekano. "Do you want to make more Mekanos like this or are you ready to move on to Level 2?"

His son eagerly nodded.

"Alright, go ahead and disassemble this Mekano back into its individual parts before putting them where they belong. Cleaning up your messes and recycling your unwanted work are also important habits."

It took much faster for Marvaine to unplug the limbs and place them back to their original spots.

Ves proceeded to send a transmission that caused the parts of the Mekano Set to light up and release a sound.

The cabinet soon expanded a bit more in order to create more space. Many parts began to split into multiple pieces as they became a lot less convenient than before.

When Marvaine decided to design a toy rifleman mech, he barely had to struggle to find the right parts. They were all easily recognizable even though it took a bit of time to find the parts with the right sizes and properties.

He soon managed to complete his second Mekano. It was supposed to depict a fairly generic and boring rifleman mech, and didn't have any design traits that interested his parents.

That did not stop Ves and Gloriana from feeling happy. There were many kids at his age who already struggled to make sense of Level 2 Mekano parts!

Gloriana held the finished miniature rifleman mech in her hands and turned it around a few times.

"Marvaine?"

"Yes, mama?"

"Real mech design is not just about finding the first parts that match your requirements and putting them all together without much thought. While a mech like this can definitely work in reality, any decent mech designer can do the same. If you want to become as good as us, then you need to start adopting one of our approaches to mech design."

The little boy looked confused.

"What your mother is trying to tell you is that you should make your mechs a little more special." Ves spoke up. "If we tell you to design a knight mech, don't just make one that looks normal. Normal is boring. Before you pick your parts, you should spend a few minutes visualizing what you want to make in your mind. Try and come up with an image of a mech that looks a little more fun and unique than ordinary machines. Only then should you begin with selecting the parts that correspond the closest to the design in your head."

That was a lot more understandable to Marvaine.

When Ves requested him to make a miniature swordsman mech, his son finally began to show greater initiative.

Ves and Gloriana happily observed as Marvaine did not impulsively reach out to grab new parts, but actually sat still to visualize his next design.

It was a bit difficult, but eventually Marvaine seemed to have settled on a specific look.

When he began to reach out to pull off different parts from the cabinet, he no longer browsed the available selection at random.

Instead, he moved with actual purpose. He specifically chose parts that fit the dimensions that he had in mind for them. His slightly more serious performance already reminded Ves and Gloriana of their younger years!

"I'm finished!"

Both parents stared at the completed Mekano with odd expressions.

It turned out that while Marvaine had diverged from making a generic toy swordsman mech, he had instead opted to make a straightforward imitation of Ketis' Monster Slayer model!

The greatsword that looked slightly oversized to the rather slender and agile mech frame was so incongruous that it would probably perform badly if it entered into a duel against another Mekano.

There was an important reason why Marvaine's greatsword-wielding Mekano was awful compared to Ketis' Monster Slayer.

The former was made out of 'standardized' parts while the latter were mainly custom-designed and fine-tuned to fit the design concept!

Arms and legs that looked nearly the same on the outside were actually radically different on the inside.

The only way for Marvaine to make his poor miniature imitation of the Monster Slayer viable was to tinker with the smaller components. He could only do that at the higher levels.

"Okay, please disassemble this swordsman mech. I think you are ready for the next level."

Once Ves unlocked Level 3, the cabinet changed even further. The existing parts broke up even further. Some of them were so small that they could not be attached onto a Mekano with hands or fingers.

This was why the cabinet slid out a drawer containing a set of basic, childproof tools.

"Ohhh." Marvaine became fascinated by the appearance of the tools. Some of them looked similar to the ones his parents used when they were building together their own products!

"Alright, you can choose what mech you want to make next. Don't worry too much about getting it wrong. Just make something that looks fun and nice."

Gloriana angrily elbowed her husband, only to yelp in pain as she only ended up hurting herself!

Marvaine didn't care. He already began the rudimentary visualization process that his parents had just taught him. He frowned several times as he easily became distracted by fanciful thoughts, but soon managed to form a coherent vision.

He moved his limbs, snatching up various parts, only a few of which were large.

There was no need for children to tinker and modify with key parts such as the power reactor or other internals at Level 3. The main customization options were related to external parts as they were easy to understand with the naked eye.

He had to pick up the right tool in order to snatch up the smallest external modules such as individual fingers and the sensor modules that were supposed to slot into the eye sockets of a mech.

After that, it took a lot more time for Marvaine to assemble his third Mekano. It couldn't be helped as the number of parts a Mekano was made up had increased by several times.

The young boy also had to learn how to use different precision tools to put the smaller parts in the right places.

He managed to complete his work in the end. Once he set down his tools, he presented a miniature... something mech.

"I suppose we can classify this as a hybrid mech." Gloriana generously said as she picked up her son's latest work.

Marvaine had made a bold choice by building an asymmetrical Mekano. It featured a flamethrower arm and held an axe in the other arm.

He placed tiny missile launchers onto the shoulders of the Mekano and also opted to attach small laser weapons onto the ankles of the mech for whatever reason.

If that wasn't enough, it also carried a tower shield on its back. While that massively weighed the mech down, it provided excellent protection against attacks from the rear. The messy hybrid mech could also choose to hold it with its only arm at the cost of dropping its axe.

Though Gloriana had a lot to say about the countless flaws of this design, she did her best to avoid going on a tirade.

Mistakes like these were inexcusable if Marvaine could already do better, but right now he still had a lot more to learn.

"Do you think you are ready for a greater challenge, Marvaine?"

"Can I go to Level 4?!"

Gloriana couldn't withhold her objections this time.

"Ves! Don't go too far! Our son isn't ready yet. If this Mekano represents the standard of his work at Level 3, then he needs to spend more time on polishing his designs. Let us wait until he has learned how to make proper Mekanos at this level first before we unlock the next one. We absolutely cannot afford to ruin his foundation!"

That did not sit well with him. "I know that, but the reason why I decided to give Marvaine his early birthday present was to test his competences. He can go further, Gloriana. Level 3 isn't his limit. Sure, he might not be able to develop any good Mekanos at Level 4, but it is already fine if he can finish one that is at least barely functional."

This was quite important to him, so he proceeded to unlock Level 4 without bothering to listen to his wife's complaints.

"VES!"

Both father and son ignored Gloriana's sounds of frustration and stared at the cabinet as it became even more elaborate and rich with selections.

Not only did all of the parts become smaller and more numerous, the cabinet also presented brand new categories in the form of many different internal components.

A Mekano player could no longer depend on intuition and common sense to put together a functioning toy mech. A rudimentary understanding of science or at least electronics was needed to make the internal components work.

Normally, only children who were older than 12 tended to be ready to make Mekanos at Level 4, and they had to be pretty talented and well-off. Marvaine was way too young to properly handle this degree of complexity, but it was fine if he merely tried it out a single time.

"Don't make anything too fancy this time." Ves suggested. "Just stick to a knight mech. You can try and make it more fun by changing a few details, but don't go overboard."

"Okay, papa."

It took a lot more time for Marvaine to complete his fourth Mekano. It took a lot more time for him to figure out the components and the rudimentary design solutions needed to assemble his machine.

The quantity of parts had also grown so much that Marvaine had to do a lot of manual precision work to fit them in the right places.

While Machine Emporium sold all kinds of advanced miniature production machines that could speed up or automate the assembly process entirely, that took all of the fun out of the game as far as Ves was concerned.

Even Gloriana disapproved of them because it would make her son grow lazy and build up a dependency on automation.

This was why both parents started a new design session so that they could get actual work done during this time.

A strange harmony descended onto the design lab as father, mother and son all directed their concentration on their own mech design projects!

It eventually took five hours for Marvaine to put together a simple knight mech.

"I'm done! What do you think?"

Ves paused his work and picked up the knight mech that his son had painstakingly assembled by hand.

"This... is quite decent."

It was a rather boring and generic knight mech for the most part. The only elements that stood out was Marvaine had equipped the Mekano with a half-moon shield and also attached a mech rifle onto the back.

The premise of the mech was a little more interesting than normal, and it could still work in reality!

"Let me take a closer look." Gloriana demanded.

She snatched the toy from Ves' hands and scrutinized it in great detail.

"This... is a functional Mekano. It is sloppy, but it can actually fight against other Mekanos if put into action."

"You sound surprised."

Gloriana turned to her husband. "This is a Level 4 Mekano! Do you know what it means for a boy this young to build a working toy mech of this complexity?!"

"I guess that test from Witshaw & Yeneca is accurate. Someone who came in second in a whole group of designer babies that were literally engineered to excel in mech design should most definitely be able to handle Level 4."

"OUR SON IS A GENIUS!" Gloriana exclaimed! "Forget about teaching him how to design second-class mechs in our own schools. He has to attend first-class school at all costs!"