The Mech Touch novel Chapter 32

When the presenter finally announced the end of the design phase of the competition, a lot of young men and woman groaned. While Ves was able to finish his mech with a bit of time to spare, other designers lacked the skill to jury rig disparate components together without spending a lot of time making the connection work.

"You gave us too little time!" A young woman complained as tears fell from her stressful face. The mech she worked on only appeared half finished. "Give us more time!"

"Twelve hours is too little!"

"This is unfair!"

"Silence!" The presenter ordered with a bloody air, instantly causing the meek the designers to quail. "The terms of the qualifiers are published beforehand so you should have prepared for this round. Last year’s qualifiers also took twelve hours. We’re on a tight time table here, and the main round happens tomorrow. We won’t postpone the event just so you can put the finishing touches on your work."

When Ves looked around to see the progress of his fellow contestants, he judged about a third of them hadn’t finished their designs. Many people tripped up because they spent too much time forcing components designed for different mechs to work together. Such failures proved they didn’t possess much knowledge beyond the basics in mech design. It was interesting to see that the organizers place a lot of emphasis on this when holding the qualifiers.

Some other designers lost too much time due to faulty judgement. One heavy mech featured highly advanced engines and power reactor. That was all fine and dandy, but the designer spent way too much time adding a lot of toys to make full use of that capacity. If he kept the twelve-hour limit in mind and kept his choices modest, he could have made it through with his level of skill.

In general, the contestants who left unfinished designs at the end of the period chewed more than they could handle. If they picked simpler, less mechanically complex components out of the pile of junk, then they’d at least leave a functioning mech at the end, showcasing their competence in working under pressure.

"Although I can’t say I blame them for being ambitious."

Ves might have been one of these losers if his father hadn’t left him the System. If he was participating in the contest and wanted to have a shot at getting past the qualifiers, then he couldn’t settle for average among 150 other contestants. The mech had to perform better than almost anyone else’s work, so taking risks was unavoidable.

As he looked at the dejected contestants who were forced to give up on the qualifiers due to their incomplete designs, Ves felt a little guilty he cheated his way out of this circumstance. Before the System’s arrival, Ves was like any other novice mech designer who graduated from a local university. He possessed basic knowledge but never excelled at anything other than mechanics, and even that impressed no one because he learned outdated techniques that would be laughed at in more advanced states.

His father gave him the System to circumvent years of dedicated study and experience. Why did he deserve to benefit from this miracle when many other of his former classmates were left to wallow in their mediocrity? He wasn’t a saint, he never donated to charity, he wasn’t even nearly as good in his studies as some of the others.

"There’s no point dwelling on these feelings. I’m different from the others. They all made their choices in life when they chose to go down the path of mech designing."

The mech design career path was one that led to fame, riches and prestige. However, it was also a cutthroat business that couldn’t fit too many competitors. For every designer that clawed its way to the top, at least hundreds or thousands of others were resigned to lesser jobs like full-time fabrication or maintenance of other people’s mechs.

After sending off the losers, the presenter gestured to those who were still in contention. "Please clear the main stage and stand to the side. Our pilot Hans will soon test the bold designs our young talents have whipped up."

A very fancy simulation pod was brought at the very rear of the stage. Hans, fitted out in a skin-tight piloting suit, waved at the audience before entering the pod. The venue darkened and the stage began to light up in a fully realistic projection of a slim but elegant light mech wielding a polearm twice as long. The rest of the environment lighted up after that, showing hints of the urban landscape ahead that represented the testing grounds for all of the mechs.

"First up is a creation by Natalie Montag. Hans will put mech the Lance Star to the test after five minutes of acclimatization. This preparation period applies to all other mechs tested today."

Carlos walked over to Ves and whistled at the polished design in the projection. "Natalie sure worked her magic. She’s always been a light mech fanatic."

"She spent too much time polishing the exterior. I’m not sure the internals underneath the armor can withstand heavy duty." Ves judged with a critical eye.

Twelve hours left designers with too little time to create a good mech. Give them a week, and most of the contestants here could roll out designs that performed at least 50-100% better than what they rushed out. Eliminating errors and weak points in the design offered the biggest bump in performance and could be done in two to four days, while constant optimizations allowed the mech to perform a little better over the remainder of the time.

When Hans finished familiarizing himself with the Lance Star, he entered the testing stage.

The presenter offered spectators an overview of the gauntlet. "As everyone knows, testing a mech as fair as possible can be difficult. Many smart people have wracked their overstuffed brains to find a solution before coming up with the gauntlet. They come in different lengths, duration and difficulties, and randomize in configuration with each separate run. That means that Hans will face similar challenges with each mech he pilots without being able to use his last run’s experience to help him overcome his current challenges."

Technically, since no run was the same, their difficulties actually diverged in many different ways. If Hans faced smooth sailing up to the end where he get whacked by an overwhelming ambush, he’d be able to score higher than in many other situations.

For example, if he faced constant harassment right at the start, leading to his mech’s destruction midway due to his inability to find time to recover. In both gauntlet runs, the amount of mechs and their strength remained the same, but the way they exerted pressure different drastically, leading to different results.

There was no point complaining about it though. Ves knew that the gauntlet was a long-held custom in the mech world, and that its inventors had plenty of time to curb much of its faults.

The Lance Star moved. Its thin and lightweight design spoke of a great retention in motive power. Natalie Montag evidently possessed real skill for getting a mech traverse so smoothly. The machine flitted through the debris-filled streets of the gauntlet like a dancer.

When the Lance Star encountered enemies, Hans piloted the mech as a high speed scout. It dodged aside the attacks sent in its way and avoided traps and entanglement whenever possible. If a mech was able to come up to its front and present an obstacle, the Lance Star only dealt enough damage with its lance and auxiliary pistol to squeeze its way through.