The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1241

Ves materialized his System comm from his Inventory and activated his Privacy Shield before he picked up the cube.

He studied it for a moment before realizing that it was actually an engineering puzzle. Ves retrieved his Vulcaneye multiscanner from his toolbelt and thoroughly scanned the cube.

"I was right! It’s a lock!"

The cube was made out of extremely sensor-resistant materials. The fact that it managed to thwart the scans of the multiscanner he bought from the System spoke volumes about its quality.

"This is very expensive packaging!"

If Ves could melt it down and shape it into something else, then he could repurpose the alloy cube into a more useful object.

"However, it’s not that easy to do so."

If his guess was correct, the cube was rigged to melt or blow up if Ves handled it improperly. If he wanted to open the cube, then he needed to go along with the arrangements of its maker and solve the puzzle.

Although the puzzle would have stumped the vast majority of humans and AIs, it didn’t hinder Ves for long.

"Any decent Journeyman Mech Designer can solve this puzzle."

The mechanisms of the cube essentially presented him with a design challenge. He needed to rearrange its mechanisms into a specific configuration that disarmed the trap and unlocked its contents.

"Easy." He said as he put the final piece into place with the help of a precision tool. _{freewebnøvel.com}

The box began to whirr and transform as the locks slowly disengaged. A few seconds later, the box unfolded into a flat surface.

The contents of the box turned out to be a single secure data chip.

When Ves picked it up and inserted it into a slot in his System comm, he found out that it contained three different sets of files along with a prerecorded message.

Ves played the prerecorded message first. As soon as he selected this option, a projection of one of the most notorious Senior Mech Designers in the frontier appeared into view.

"Mr. Larkinson, congratulations on your advancement to Journeyman." The pirate designer began. "I must admit I am pleasantly surprised by this achievement. As a Journeyman, I’ve already seen some promise in your design philosophy, but it is still a very big question whether you are able to advance to Journeyman with such an unusual ambition. Entering your new rank signifies that your design philosophy is not completely groundless!"

The Skull Architect looked ecstatic in the projection. His exaggerated smile and his savage pirate-style adornments constantly radiated danger to Ves!

"Your growth has surpassed my expectations! However, even if you are a Journeyman, our deal is still in place. I won’t let you off until you design fifteen variants of my mechs! Included in this data chip are the design specifications of three of my recent mech designs. Please develop a variant for each design. Make sure you incorporate your design philosophy in your work. The research value of such works is exceedingly valuable to me, so don’t even think about fudging your work!"

"Damn." Ves quietly cursed.

Due to his recent exploits, Ves already became known for designing mechs with a remarkable impact on people. To paraphrase Ketis, his mechs possessed an undeniably strong charm.

If Ves put his full effort into developing variants of the Skull Architect’s existing mech designs, then they might one day proliferate throughout the frontier!

It would be really bad if the MTA or others found out that Ves collaborated with a pirate designer! Especially one who was crazy enough to kill an expert pilot and incorporate the dead man’s skull into a mech!

The Skull Architect continued with his instruction. "Since you’ve already collaborated with another Senior Mech Designer recently, you should have a good idea on how you can contribute to my work. Our design philosophies do not overlap, so you should not encounter any problems adding your distinctive strengths to my existing designs."

That was true, at least. His joint design project with Professor Ventag taught him a lot of lessons. A collaboration between mech designers always centered around compensating one designer’s weaknesses with another designer’s strength.

Ves already knew that the Skull Architect was obsessed with efficiency and technical performance. His design philosophy was pretty much the polar opposite to that of Ves, who never obsessed that much about maximizing raw performance.

This was also the reason why Reno Jimenez stagnated in his progression. His mechs were too difficult to pilot! While the fugitive Senior was very good at designing high-performing mechs, hardly any mech pilot could make use of their full potential!

Even though the Skull Architect recognized his shortcomings, he was too obsessed with efficiency to change his ways. His design philosophy had already locked him into a certain direction, and there was no way he could bring himself to neuter his designs in order to accommodate the badly-trained mech pilots of the frontier!

This was where Ves came in. His design philosophy perfectly complimented that of the Skull Architect. If the latter wasn’t a notoriously unhinged pirate designer, then Ves was even tempted to form a long-term design partnership!

"I expect you to return this data chip with your variants to me within nine months. Don’t be late, or else!" The recording warned.

The message ended, leaving Ves with mixed feelings.

"Since the Skull Architect is crazy as hell, I should complete my end of agreement as fast as possible." He decided. "The longer this is hanging over my head, the greater the risk he’ll pull me into his vortex!"

Collaboration offered a lot of benefits in the right circumstances. Ves realized that his design philosophy should be extremely valuable to the Skull Architect.

So valuable in fact that the Skull Architect might want to extend their transaction!

"I can’t allow that to happen!" Ves determined.

Even though the Senior threatened him to do his best, Ves did not intend to utilize his full strength!

"It would be over for me if the variants I design for the Skull Architect are as strong and distinctive as my Aurora Titan and Transcendent Messenger designs!"