The Mech Touch

Ves found that it was much harder to deepen the application of hyper technology than he initially expected.

Certainly, there were a lot of different ideas that he could apply to energy shield generators and armor systems, but it was not as simple for Ves to figure out anything worthwhile.

His standards were high. The problem was not that his ideas were bad, but he was almost certain that other mech designers could do a better job than himself.

"I am not the only person who is working on deepening the application of hyper technology." He frowned.

Anyone who took a look at it would notice that the five classical elements occupied a very prominent position on the list.

This was because everyone could see that they had the potential to form a cycle!

Of course, trying to make it happen was way easier said than done. It turned out that Ves was hardly the only mech designer who dared to design a mech that attempted to form a complete cycle of the five elements.

Unlike the initially successful creation of the Elemental Lord, all of the other attempts to fabricate comparable machines had failed before they could even be completed!

No matter whether they were conventionally fabricated or materialized into existence, they almost certainly broke down due to the violent and uncontrolled interactions between opposing elements!

Ves couldn't help but smirk when he found this out. "It is not so easy to build a five element mech that can stably control all of these forces."

After a lot of mech designers had learned their lesson, they reined in their ambitions and fell back to designing mono-elemental or duo-elemental mechs.

Only the more daring ones attempted to tackle triple-elemental mechs, but they usually relied on special advantages to moderate the inevitable conflict that could arise.

When Ves read through the articles that highlighted the few triple-elemental mech designs revealed to the public, his expression shifted for a time.

Reading between the lines, he could easily tell that these mech designers either learned a thing or two about cultivation science or had access to a consultant with the respective expertise.

They all treated their mechs as artifacts that sought to leverage the power of heaven to amplify their performance.

The triple-elemental mechs even showed more obvious traces of mysticism that alluded to a deeper understanding of a special interpretation of the five elements.

After the Hyper Generation kicked off, the common consensus in the mech industry was that E energy came in many different variations. They were akin to different flavors that were wholly separate and discrete from each other.

However, according to a particularly dominant interpretation in ancient times, the five elements were a lot more interconnected to each other. They described different phases of a universal cycle. They were like the seasons of an axial tilted planet that repeated endlessly.

According to this mystical interpretation of the five elements, qi or E energy was naturally able to undergo transformations like the cycling between yin and yang.

One interpretation of the transformation between the phases sounded a bit interesting to him because it was tied into the concept of life and growth.

Water represented the formation of new plant life under the cover of winter snow.

Wood stood for the growth of new shoots of plants at the onset of spring.

Fire stood for the warming and feeding of solar radiation in the heat of summer.

Earth represented the ripening of grains and other plants that took place next.

Metal was associated with the harvesting of the ripened crops and the storage of seeds to prepare for the following cycles during autumn.

All of it sounded nice, but Ves personally thought it was a hamfisted way to tie the five elements to the seasons.

Ves did not put too much stock in the superstitions of old. He was a man of science and preferred to use a combination between his own observations as well as knowledge based on modern empirical research to build his own theoretical frameworks.

His mother taught him that anything related to spirituality was psychoactive and psychoreactive.

That essentially meant that superstitions and subjective beliefs actually had the power to change the behavior of spiritual phenomena.

"This must be why the five phases of transformation theory must have been so popular in ancient times." Ves speculated. "It is a convenient self-hypnotizing tool that enables many cultivators to easily combine and transform these classical elements."

It explained why mech designers who did not get exposed to this theory found it a lot harder to design multi-elemental mechs that produced greater synergies. Their own mental models lacked sufficient explanations that could help them tame the E energy attributes they sought to combine.

Though the existence of this harmonious cycle suggested that the five phases of transformation described a fundamental and objective truth about this reality, Ves did not put as much stock to this interpretation.

One of the objections he had was that the cultivators of ancient times dressed up the mysticism and used the five elements to make all kinds of nonsensical excuses and beliefs about stuff.

For example, people associated the five elements with five different tastes, five different sounds and so on. Ves really couldn't take this seriously because he was a modern scientist and engineer who possessed critical thinking.

In his mind, the five phases of transformation were not even that absolute.

For example, wood could clearly turn into fire, but Ves believed he could also find a way to turn fire into wood if he worked hard enough!

Sure, it was probably a lot harder to recreate this counterintuitive transformation, but Ves was convinced he could do it if he desired!

However, it was a thankless and highly inefficient approach to utilizing E energy. Ves might not like the mysticism surrounding the five elements, but he could not deny that it provided mech designers with an easy mental model to incorporate ready-made transformations in their work.

As much as he wanted to design multi-elemental mechs like all of these adventurous mech designers, Ves forcibly had to hold himself back from following suit.

"Many of these mech designers are too impatient." He shook his head in disapproval.

The vast majority of applications of hyper technology so far were relatively shallow. At most, mech designers utilized their design philosophies to apply E energy in slightly more inventive fashions.

For example, Ves had already learned that there were plenty of mech designers who specialized in energy defenses had already applied the idea he thought about before.

Energy shields that utilized the water elements to form whirlpools or currents that could better spread or divert incoming attacks had already emerged.

The same went for other relatively simple applications.

"It is a waste of time for me to develop mech systems like these." Ves concluded. "I'm not even a defensive specialist. If I want to design a more interesting space knight, then I should try and form a connection between hyper technology and my specialty."

He became stuck at this junction. There weren't any obvious ways for him to apply hyper technology to a space knight in a way that tied into living mechs.

Even though his head was full of ideas, none of them were relevant to the matter at hand.

"Oh well." He shrugged. "I am not in a hurry to start another design project. I can take my time and wait for further inspiration."

He was still determined to design a new defensive mech in the future, but it had to make enough sense. There was no point in starting up a new project when he hadn't even figured out a solid direction.

Ves put this potential new mech design project aside and returned to handling all of the affairs that had come up since he concluded his most recent fabrication run.

"Many new groups of people want to cooperate with us." Gavin Neumann reported when Ves had returned to his main office in Diandi Base. "Many of them are first-raters such as Terrans. This has made it a lot more difficult to greet them and handle our communications with them. Our Premier Branch is too short-handed to manage these relationships, and our needs in the upper zones are not too great at the moment."

That did not surprise Ves that much. "You don't sound too worried."

"That is because your assistant Alexa has stepped in on our behalf. She was a lifesaver. She possesses the right training, background and status to respond to all of these powerful parties. She has even taken action that has drastically reduced the amount of unsolicited inquiries that we are receiving."

Ves looked impressed. "She is really too useful. I am really glad that I recruited her into my clan."

Although it was not fair to make this comparison, he thought that Alexa was much more useful to him than Ketis at this point.

It was the separation that was making it difficult for Ves to remain connected to Ketis. He knew that the ambitious swordmaster and Journeyman had chosen to stick with the Swordmaidens in order to design more effective swordsman mechs that could pose a greater threat to alien warships.

Ves thought back on all of the other mech legions of the clan and found it hard to relate to them after he started to spend time among the Terrans.

He missed all of the familiar clansmen.

Ves couldn't wait until the first batch of Larkinson mech pilots graduated from EdNet training and joined the Premier Branch.

A few more minutes passed before Gavin addressed the most important item on the agenda.

"By the way, we have already finalized the planning of the upcoming product reveal." Gavin said. "If there are no unexpected delays or complications, we can hold the event a month from today. We have already rented a large enough venue in the Bortele System, and we can guarantee that a large amount of press and invited guests will come and listen to your presentation."

"A month is doable." Ves had no objections to this schedule. "The Bluejay Fleet is so damn fast that the travel time should not be an issue. Will the Warborn or the expeditionary fleet be present?"

"Probably not. Both forces are already on their way to the conflict regions. General Ark Larkinson and Master Benedict Cortez are adamant about looking for fights and gain more opportunities to earn war merits. It may take months for them to turn away from the front."

"I see. Well, it is not necessary for us to rely on their assistance. We can rely on the Bluejay Fleet for high-level protection and private sector forces for other services. The Fey Project is partially commercial, so it should not be a problem to hire a bunch of excellent mercenaries to pilot them in our public exhibitions. Using them can better highlight how easy it is to get started with the Fey Project as opposed to other drone mechs."

Gavin nodded in agreement. "An abundance of security companies and mercenary organizations has descended onto Bortele. We will not be lacking in manpower. There are two issues that you need to address. First, given that your previous attempt to make a mech has ended up in disaster, are you in the mood to fabricate another mech? If you are able to present a masterwork mech during the product reveal, you can win over a lot more customers. Second, have you decided on a proper name for the Fey Project?"

"Hmm..."