The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1431

What was real, and what was fake?

To Marcus Pelle, the difference was a matter of perspective.

Perhaps one person found an imitation mech that precisely copied an authentic mech design to be real, while others insisted that it would always remain a fake.

A lot of arguments could be made about what was fake and what was real, but Pelle did not stop at this point. Instead, he took a step further and came up with a surprising principle.

\"If what is real and what is fake is in question, why not play around with this ambiguity?\"

This was where Pelle’s interpretation of surrealism came into play. The mech designer manipulated the sensors of his mechs into blended truths and untruths, thereby causing mech pilots on long deployment to become plagued by strange sensory outputs.

This wasn’t as straightforward as turning every asteroid into a floating dog or something. Instead, Pelle tweaked the sensors and the filters in a way that caused them to transfer more junk data to the minds of the mech pilot.

Garbage that ordinarily got filtered out before they transferred through the neural interface essentially got a free pass, though still within reasonable limits that prevented mech pilots from getting overloaded.

The result was that mech pilots would become subject to strange but fascinating illusions.

Perhaps one minute the environment looked blue-shifted all of a sudden. In the next minute they perceived the smell of rotten eggs from a distant starship. After that they spot something ridiculously funny from a distant glow!

\"What is the point of messing with the perception of mech pilots to this extent?\" Ves frowned as he repeated his question.

\"The goal is to stave off the creeping sense of boredom and isolation without causing mech pilots to lose situational awareness. It may surprise you to hear this, but my solution has actually turned out to be effective. Instead of becoming distracted by watching irrelevant action dramas, they instead place their attention more fully on the environment for many hours at a time!\"

The theories Marcus Pelle developed relied on very strange assumptions. Ves found it difficult to follow the other mech designer’s train of thought.

He understood some of the gist of it, but his perspective on mech design simply diverged too much from that of Pelle’s to accept what he heard.

In the end, his gains from this exchange did not amount to much. Ves did develop some interesting insights about the nature of truth and falsehood and how it could be manipulated to achieve certain goals.

When he thought about it, Ves already engaged in something similar by turning the imaginary into reality.

The images he created into mind became capable of affecting reality when infused with spiritual energy.

The mechs he designed influenced the mentalities of both mech pilots and observers through unusual means.

Ves always had the sense that anything pertaining to spirituality possessed both a real and imaginary quality. It followed fewer rules than more mundane forms of matter and energy. As long as someone grew strong enough, they became capable of breaking more and more rules, allowing them to achieve a myriad of extraordinary feats!

During the meeting, Marcus Pelle successfully managed to claw back some of the initiative he lost, but Ves didn’t mind. Though Pelle probably believed he successfully confused Ves by babbling on about surrealism, the man had no idea what kind of help he’d been!

As Ves finally departed Pelle’s headquarters, he entered in a thoughtful mood. As his armored shuttle took off to his other appointment for the day, he reflected on his understanding of his spiritual techniques.

\"Pelle and I both have something in common.\"

They both manipulated their mech pilots with elements of fantasy. While Pelle resorted to technological means by messing with the sensors of his mechs, Ves utilized spiritual means to manipulate the interaction between mech pilots and their mechs.

The comparison made him feel a little uncomfortable, because how far was he allowed to go before he crossed a line? _{frёeweɓηovel.coɱ}

His recent actions, such as intimidating Marcus Pelle with his overcoat and developing a radical mech like the Devil Tiger, both pushed his manipulation abilities to a new extreme.

In both instances, Ves got caught up with the rush of possibilities that opened up when he utilized his new spiritual techniques.

\"Just because I can, doesn’t mean I should.\" He whispered to himself.

Ves recognized he’d been indulging himself a little too much. The temptations of the path of life lured him into a direction that compelled him to perform increasingly more radical actions!

The unusual and frankly unethical methods that Marcus Pelle developed in order to keep the users of his mechs awake and alert repelled Ves to an extent.

Mech pilots didn’t get the full story and were subjected to strange surreal illusions without their consent or control. It reminded Ves to how neural interface specialists such as Old Man Terrence surreptitiously manipulated the neural interfaces of his mechs.

In all of these cases, the mech designers all treated their customers as test subjects!

\"Maybe this perspective is much more widespread than I initially thought.\" Ves mused.

In most cases, the mech designers harbored good intentions, but that did not necessarily make it right.

His Devil Tiger project especially crossed a lot of lines he really shouldn’t. It was fine though, since it was just a one-off experiment. He would never dare to introduce such enormous dangers to his commercial mechs!

\"Not all mech pilots are my test subjects! Only some of them are!\"

A temptation always existed to push the boundaries with every mech he designed. With how frequently he came up with innovative new techniques, he always had to try his best not to get caught up too much in his excitement.