The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1357

Vindar VII offered a lot more sights to visitors, but none of them interested Ves anymore. He already exchanged with the few Journeymen that remained and picked up some bargains from an underground market.

While Ves could spend his time on visiting the other black markets, his timetable was too tight for him to indulge in continuous bargain hunting.

He decided to move on from the Vindar System.

Ves and his entourage returned to Wilxyr’s spaceport and left Vindar VII with some new company. The Vindar Dustravens continued to accompany Ves during his stay in the Redwell Province.

While they were based in the Vindar System, their contacts stretched throughout the entire province. They were part of a vast, informal network of other outfits and organizations. It wasn’t a stretch to regard this network as an alliance of convenience.

A few weeks went by as Ves visited a number of specific star systems. He visited mech designer after mech designer, many of which yielded very little of note to Ves.

It couldn’t be helped. Many mech designers were too selfish and narrow-minded to share their valuable insights.

They valued their own insights highly. Even if they failed to progress their design philosophy after advancing to Journeyman, they still stuck up their noses in front of Ves!

What could a weird mech designer with a Class IX design philosophy offer to them? The only reason they hadn’t declined the exchange visitations was out of consideration for his powerful Hexer girlfriend!

For these reasons, Ves encountered many situations where his counterparts only cooperated in a superficial manner. Their lack of sincerity continually disappointed Ves and dampened his impression of Chuko mech designers.

Even if they all suffered under the economic malaise, they still clung to their pride as Journeymen! All of them believed that they were already good enough to live through this trouble period and bounce back to success in due time!

What was worse for Ves was that many older mech designers maintained similar sentiments. He deliberately adjusted his agenda to meet with older mech designers, only to be subjected to long-winded rants about how everything was better in the ’good old days’ and endless boasts of how they won various design competitions forgotten by everyone else!

Ves failed to stumble across a second old mech designer who wanted to impart some life lessons to the younger generation.

It turned out that even among his generation, Old Man Terrence was still the exception rather than the rule!

The biggest reason was because Old Man Terrence was a famous recluse. He never married and never mentored any younger mech designers due to the restrictive nature of his design philosophy.

It was too hard to obtain a mech designer who specialized in neural interfaces!

Many other mech designers with more conventional specialties did not suffer this problem. With so many Novices and Apprentices on the streets, they could easily collect dozens of them and nurture the most promising ones into their heirs.

Even that wasn’t entirely necessary as many mech designers opted to nurture their own children.

Nonetheless, even as Ves dejectedly returned from his exchanges with little to show for his efforts, he did manage to receive some useful tidbits here and there. Nonetheless, it became increasingly more difficult to find someone willing to hold a sincere exchange.

"Secrets have become too important to a mech designer’s continued survival." Ves dreadily observed after his fleet left yet another star system without any gains. "When times are plenty, mech designers are much more eager to expand their horizons and focus on their progression."

That wasn’t the case right now. When times were bad, the mech designers who remained no longer thought about growing their capabilities. They simply wished to hold on to their existing accomplishments!

The lack of forward-thinking made many mech designers far too reticent to open their mouths to Ves. Holding onto their existing competitive advantages and preventing them from disseminating might mean the difference between staying in business and declaring bankruptcy!

Fortunately, Ves finally caught a lucky break when he met an unusual mech designer.

At a company headquarters located on a typical industrial planet in decline, Ves shook hands with a middle-aged female mech designer.

"Mr. Larkinson, welcome to Paisley I." The motherly woman greeted with a weary smile. "I hope you don’t take our lack of hospitality to heart."

Ves returned a friendly smile. "I wouldn’t be visiting the Chuko Republic otherwise, Mrs. Linzif."

As they seated themselves at her desk, they began to chat. Felicity Linzif had been a rather odd choice for him to visit. She specialised in multifrequency laser weapons and enjoyed enough success to gain a nickname from it. Within the local mech community, she started to become known as the ’Prismatic Light’, which was very flattering.

Ves felt a little jealous that Mrs. Linzif received a nickname that drew attention to her capabilities while he got stuck with a moniker that made light of his tongue!

Fortunately, not everyone took nicknames seriously. Mech designers paid a lot more attention to a fellow mech designer’s specialty and mech designs than their personal inclinations.

Many mech designers, particularly high-ranking ones, tended to be eccentric. If mech designers continually took offense at a fellow colleague’s quirks, then how could they expand their network?

Of course, Class IX design philosophies still attracted a lot of scorn, so Ves still had to deal with a lot of prejudice regardless.

Mrs. Linzif didn’t appear to be the same as other mech designers, though.

If only her design philosophy was more relevant to him. While her specialty interested Ves a lot, her area of expertise possessed little relation with his design philosophy.

"Mrs. Linzif, thank you for hosting me." He began. "I appreciate your willingness to accept my request for an exchange."