The Mech Touch

The Dustweaver contained so much advanced tech that it was far outside of the scope of a commercial mech model.

Ves strongly suspected that it was either a tech demo or an experimental work. Master Quan clearly developed it in order to figure out how he could augment his mechs with hyper technology.

The old Master definitely succeeded to a large extent because the Dustweaver exuded a clear sense of threat.

Just looking at it made his Jutland organ throb, which meant that it could pose a real threat against his true body!

Though Ves was not entirely sure what made the Dustweaver so strong, he could make a guess based on the fact that it integrated a notable quantity of high-grade hyper materials.

Many of the hyper mechs that Ves had witnessed in the past relied on the classical elements to augment their performance. A clear majority of the hyper mech models released in the past few months had a clear connection with the 5 elements.

This was definitely not a coincidence. Hyper materials of the five elements could be found practically anywhere. They were also major components of E energy radiation, so hyper mechs could always attract large amounts of metal, water, fire, earth or wood energy from the environment.

Aside from the wood element that was mainly applied to biomechs, the other 4 classical elements had become so ubiquitous among currentgen mechs that a self-sustain ecosystem had formed around their usage.

The more mech designers worked with the 5 elements, the more research and knowhow they produced over the course of their work.

Much of this progress was bound to spread across human society. The Red Association also aggregated a lot of results and helped to disseminate them to the mech industry in order to speed up the collective development of hyper technology.

In the half year or so since the start of the Hyper Generation, many mech designers had already pushed the research and application of the 5 elements to a much higher level than the other E energy attributes!

This encouraged more mech designers to develop hyper mechs based around the same elements, causing the infrastructure around these products to grow even more.

It was a positive feedback loop that showed no signs of slowing down. Ves loosely estimated that at least 70 percent of all hyper products would be based around at least one of the classical elements!

The prevalence of hyper products based on water and so on made hyper mechs based on other E energy attributes stand out more.

They might not be as refined or efficient as ordinary machines, but the more exotic hyper mechs inevitably acquired abilities that significantly transformed their combat approach!

Ves had a strong suspicion that he was looking at one of these cases. He discreetly utilized Blinky's senses to determine what sort of E energy attributes that Master Quan applied to his mech design.

He sensed at least two relatively familiar attributes.

One of them reminded Ves of rot and decay. It was a force that was tied to the universal rule that nothing lasts forever and that everything eventually crumbled into dust.

The other attribute felt a lot more threatening to Ves. It was the primal force of destruction, the ability to completely break whatever it struck.

This was a powerful combination of attributes!

Though Ves had never worked with these attributes himself, he possessed enough expertise to know that it was far more difficult to control E energy attributes that were inherently more dangerous and abstract.

The destruction attribute was especially difficult to handle as it could easily destroy the mech that attempted to use this powerful energy!

However, Master Xieliq Quan just happened to possess an abundant amount of experience with dangerous and volatile tech. He was probably among the more qualified mech designers to make use of this powerful E energy attribute.

Just as its name suggested, the Dustweaver predominantly leaned towards the decay attribute, and only made minor use of the destruction attribute.

As Ves continued to discern the secrets of the Dustweaver, his behavior did not go unnoticed.

"How much have you guessed, Professor Larkinson? Are you able to simulate the Dustweaver's combat approach?"

"I think I have a decent idea of the concept behind this hero mech." Ves said with growing confidence. "At first glance, the Dustweaver looks as if it is a machine with high peak performance but low endurance. It is designed to go on the offensive and hammer its target with unrelenting aggression. Once it is able to break down the opposing energy shield, it can finish off the exposed mech by firing its molecular disintegrator. No matter how well-armored the opposing mech may be, just a few shots should be enough to break down all of the fancy armor and crumble enough internal components."

Master Quan nodded as he slipped his hands into the pockets of his metallic coat. "Your logic is sound, but the Dustweaver is not as simple as it appears on the surface. What else can my hero mech do that enables it to overcome enemies in a different manner?"

Ves narrowed his eyes as he thought about the elements that were not congruous to his earlier description.

He had a hunch that there was a deliberate reason why Master Quan chose to turn the Dustweaver into a hero mech as opposed to a hybrid mech or whatever.

Ves thought back on the hero mechs he designed in the past. The Ouroboros and the Everchanger had always been more about the guns and swords in their hands.

When Ves studied the Dustweaver from a different angle, he suddenly came up with a premise that matched all of the clues that he had gathered!

"The Dustweaver doesn't appear to be a hero mech at first because its primary armaments are primarily effective at close range." Ves spoke. "The shoulder-mounted positron guns allow it to attack at longer ranges, but they are too small and weak to defeat powerful mechs by themselves. That contradicts the inherent meaning of a hero mech, which is that it should always have an effective means to defeat enemies up close and from afar."

Master Quan looked impressed. "Spoken like a true hero mech designer. You are getting close to the truth, but there is still more to the story."

"I was getting to that, Master. What is strange about the Dustweaver is that if it wishes to overcome the defenses of its opponents as quickly as possible, it should be saturated with E energy attributes that align with this approach. Instead of doing so, you have integrated your design with a large proportion of decay-attributed hyper materials. This only makes sense if your mech is designed to wear down its adversaries over a longer stretch of time. I believe that the positron cannons or maybe even the medium-range molecular disintegrator may have a way to efficiently wear down the defenses of a mech like my Elite Fey Fianna from a comfortable distance."

This made so much more sense. The medium-range molecular disintegrator was a large tell. Master Quan could have easily equipped a more effective version of his alien-derived weapon system in his mech design if it only needed to be used at close range.

Master Quan responded with an amused expression. "Impressive! Your understanding of mechs is much deeper than the other Senior Mech Designers that I have met over my long career. To be able to decipher my Dustweaver to this extent is a testament to your love of our craft. As expected of a mech designer that had already produced a multitude of masterwork mechs at an early age."

It always felt good to be complimented, but Ves did not think he had figured everything out about the Dustweaver. He still felt that it possessed a bit more depth that added another dimension to the hero mech.

However, the match was about to start. The round of inspections took much longer due to the far greater complexity of the mechs, but once the mechers had done their jobs, the Dustweaver and the Elite Fey Fianna moved to the opposite ends of the mech arena.

As the countdown started, Master Quan approached and made an odd request.

"I have learned that you are far more physically gifted than you appear on the surface. May I have your permission to touch you? I would like to feel your skin."

That was an exceedingly weird request, but Ves did not think it was inappropriate in this situation.

A Master like Xieliq Quan possessed many connections, so it wasn't a surprise that he knew that Ves was a human phase lord.

Many people held a lot of curiosity towards phase lords among humans. What were they like? How did all of the space folding keep their true bodies in working condition? All of these questions fascinated many researchers who had developed a strong interest in this powerful native custom.

Ves simply answered by pulling up the sleeve of his outfit and offering up his arm.

They had already shook hands before, but now that Master Quan traced the length of Ves' arm with his aging fingers, the man drew a lot of conclusions from this impromptu study.

The Master Mech Designer did not even pay attention to the challenge match anymore!

As the countdown reached 30 seconds, Master Quan suddenly gripped Ves' arm with his clawed hand and actually started to communicate with Ves through a spiritual connection!

"I would appreciate it if you do not show any obvious reactions to our conversation. I have been waiting to speak to you for many months."

Ves found it difficult to maintain a cool expression.

While it was not actually difficult to communicate through spiritual means, it was definitely not a common method during the Age of Mechs!

There had to be a very deliberate reason why Master Quan chose to communicate with Ves through this fashion.

Compared to talking with their voice or transmitting signals with their cranial implants, communicating directly through a small and direct spiritual connection was a lot more secure!

Given the emphasis on forming a secure communication channel, Ves immediately suspected that Master Quan did not want the mechers or anyone else to listen to what he had to say.

"Let me reintroduce myself to you, Professor. I am not only a Master Mech Designer, but also a member of the Cosmopolitan Movement."

What?!

Ves found it incredibly difficult to suppress his shock at this revelation!

A part of him immediately wanted to call security so that they could take this human traitor into custody, but he immediately got rid of that foolish plan.

There was no way that Master Quan went through all of this effort to meet with him and reveal one of his dirtiest secrets just to offer himself up to the mechers.

Ves tried his best to control his emotions, though it was clear that the gem cat resting on his shoulder had become alerted.

"Meow." Lucky did not shift his gaze away from Master Quan.

"Explain." Ves hissed through the spiritual connection. "I am no friend of the cosmopolitans, and I do not think your group thinks favorably of me either."

The Master with a murky background released a mental sigh. "The Cosmopolitan Movement is not as monolithic as you think. It is similar to the Red Association in that it is split up into multiple cells, each of which have developed their own schools of thought. Centralization is impossible in an umbrella organization like ours as that could easily allow the mechers and the fleeters to roll every cosmopolitan up at once."

"And that matters because...?"

"Let me assure you that I am not a part of the more radical cells that are hostile to you. It may be difficult for you to believe, but there are moderate and reasonable members within our movement. Many of them are indistinguishable from the people who are part of normal society."

Ves had heard so many bad stories about the cosmopolitans that he found it difficult to imagine that these terrorists and extremists could match this description.

No one aligned with a forbidden organization like the Cosmopolitan Movement unless that person had become crazy!