The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1341

With the fleet’s arrival to the Chuko Republic imminent, Ves decided to devote the remainder of his time on his current design project.

Ever since his recent enlightenment, his perspective on mech design and in particular his design philosophy had changed.

He developed the inkling of a theoretical framework to place his work into a more understandable context.

"Each mech I’ve designed up until now sits squarely between the path of determinism and the path of life." He observed while steepling his fingers above his desk.

Like any other mech designer, he started walking the path of determinism. Yet as soon as he developed his design philosophy, he started shuffling away from the path of determinism and approached the path of life.

This shift in direction happened very gradually when Ves mostly worked with his self-created images.

That changed one day when his mother showed him a new facet of spirituality.

By gifting him with the spiritual fragment of the long-dead crystal builder leader, Ves veered sharply towards the path of life.

Ever since then, he had been moving further away from the path of determinism in order to refine his usage of spiritual fragments.

Right now, Ves believed there was much more he could gain by exploring this direction further. He just had to make sure he didn’t commit too much and lose sight of his vocation.

"Whatever I do, I should always remember that I’m a mech designer. Everything I do is meant to improve my mech designs."

He wanted to utilize his new insights and put them to the test. He wanted to explore what the path of life had to offer.

He theorized that it may be possible to utilize the design spirits of his mechs in another fashion.

While their presence enhances and breathes into mechs through the X-Factor, what if they affected a mech more directly?

What if Ves followed the logical train of thought that was central to the path of life? What if he gave his design spirits more direct control over the mech?

"Not completely. Just a portion."

He had just the idea.

Recently, he hadn’t made a lot of progress in designing his smart metal tiger mech. He still lacked a good vision based on a viable mech concept.

Now, he was starting to have ideas. Radical ideas. Good ideas. Bad ideas.

With the path of life illuminated before him, he wanted to unearth more of its potential.

What better way to make mechs more alive than actually allowing them to express themselves?

His existing methods wouldn’t change. He still intended to work with design spirits to empower the X-Factor of his mechs.

Yet that wasn’t enough for him. Not anymore.

"One of the biggest weaknesses of my methods is that too many mech pilots are clueless on how to maximize their use."

By necessity, Ves always obscured his usage of the X-Factor. He resorted to euphemisms, misdirections and outright lies in order to hide the fact that he was making use of a facet that many mech designers could only dream of using.

Yet.. was it still necessary for him to be so circumspect now?

Ves smirked. "Not anymore. My situation is completely different now."

In the early days, Ves always imagined that he needed to hide his secrets to the death. He imagined he could only be more open about his secrets when he gained more strength and fame.

When he was still a Novice or an Apprentice, he was deeply afraid that the MTA or some unscrupulous mech designers would kidnap him and lock him up in their dungeons to extract his golden secrets.

Now that he became a Journeyman and became more exposed of the thinking within the MTA and the high-ranking mech design community, he realized that his concerns had been overblown.

"It’s not that they’re interested, but it is not worth making a move."

The Mech Trade Association may have turned into a pushy galaxy-spanning behemoth that imposed a lot of rules, but at its core it was still a trade and industry association. Its main purpose was to govern and regulate the mech industry and the mech market.

Every mech designer barring those on the run or gone pirate fell within their governance. Whether a mech designer became an internal or external member, they frequently submitted their mechs and designs to the MTA for certification or validation.

"This essentially means that they can track every mech designer’s progress." He muttered.

All of the data they collected was probably being used to constantly evaluate a mech designer’s worth. Perhaps they also tasked others to figure out the mechanisms behind their design philosophy in order to broaden the knowledge pool of the entire mech industry.

In essence, many mech designers already donated much of their data to the MTA! Rather than hoarding their design schematics and such, they freely submitted it to the MTA in order to receive their seals of approval!

"There’s nothing inherently wrong with this scheme. It’s a voluntary and mutually beneficial transaction!"

Ves admired the insidious ingenuity of the MTA. If mech designers had their way, they would have hoarded all of their secrets to their deaths. But by offering various attractive incentives, they managed to entice every legitimate mech designer into offering the Association some very close looks at their works.

No one got worse off. Ves had submitted a handful of mech designs to the MTA for validation and never felt very indignant about it. The practice was so normalized that every mech designers simply began to see it as something akin to submitting their homework for grading.

He scoffed. "The MTA just puts on a friendly teacher’s coat and manages to deceive trillions of mech designers that they’re just here to help."

As mech designers began to progress their design philosophies and become more formidable, the MTA keenly understood their development. How could they not when they could observe every change and improvement in the mech designs they submitted for validation?!