The Mech Touch novel Chapter 659

Despite his appearance as some pirate princeling in dark and menacing armor, Ves acted like an eager pupil in front of the Skull Architect’s sage advice. The man who pulled off the pirate look much better than many other mech designers had dropped his belligerent tone. For now.

"Boy, it is clear to me that you are unaccustomed to collaborate projects. Have you ever jointly designed a mech?"

"No, sir, not if you count out competition mechs designed in a matter of days or hours."

The Skull Architect scoffed on the other side of the low-quality comm channel. "Working together with other mech designers to design the best mechs your abilities can produce is a complicated song and dance. It takes trust and sincerity to design a mech that expresses multiple design philosophies without clashing against each other. Done well, and the end product can be the most rewarding mech design that has ever graced from your hands. Done poorly, and the design not only wasted your time, but might lead to a schism with your fellow designer."

"I shall take note of your warnings." Ves dutifully nodded, and he did mentally record the man’s lessons. "I have not had the privilege of collaborating with another mech designer, but it is inevitably on my agenda."

"About that topic." The Skull Architect’s face abruptly grinned. The man peered closer into the projector, magnifying his face and crowding out the skulls piled in the background. "We are kindred mech designers."

The statement along with the change in expression came out of the blue. Ves became floored for a few seconds. What did the Skull Architect mean by that?

Ves stayed silent, allowing for the other mech designer to explain.

"Our ethos, our willingness to pursue the mysteries of reality, our insatiable curiosity for the unknown, are we not alike?!" The Skull Architect listed out with a cackle. "Haha! Every mech designer that approached me did so with ulterior motives. FIne! I like ambitious mech designers! Yet when they finally demonstrate their designs to me, they are utterly consumed by petty thoughts and personal gains. It is the same for you!"

"I.. ahh.."

"Do not deny it, you whelp!" The man growled at him, before abruptly switching back to a grin."However, compared to those useless pieces of trash, you are from a cut above. Your design for the Leiner Grey has revealed much to me. I can read you like an open book. I must say that the motives I’ve sensed from your design is close to the ideal that mech designers your age should strive for. I can sense your hunger to transform the entire mech industry! You yearn to prove yourself at the highest level, is that right?"

"That is true." Ves nodded modestly. Even though he already knew that the Skull Architect could read a lot from his work, he felt awfully exposed right now. "The design philosophy that I’ve been forming goes contrary to many established conventions."

The Skull Architect smirked at Ves. "Your design philosophy.. very interesting. I have sensed an unfathomable depth underneath the surface that even I can’t understand. A mech designer at your stage shouldn’t be thinking so ambitiously. Yet you do not appear to be someone who adheres to the rules if they become inconvenient. Dangerous. Very dangerous."

A chill ran through his spine as Ves noted the underlying warning. The importance of a mech designer’s design philosophy could not be overstated. It was literally the core of their beliefs on how mechs should look like. A critical flaw in someone’s design philosophy might irreparably ruin their design careers because the flaws doomed all of their designs.

"Collaborate projects are an essential part of a mech designer’s development." The Senior continued, having switched back to teaching mode. "They reveal shortcomings through contrast. They polish the strength of our design philosophies through collisions. They can result in a mech design that is greater than what we are able to design on our own. Let us consider the work you have submitted to me. Compare your Leiner Grey to mine as it was originally envisioned. Which design is better?"

Ves thought a lot on this topic himself, both as a way to judge his disparity with the Senior Mech Designer and also as a way to process the puzzles in his mind that had cropped up. The question of which design won over the other was actually a comparison between visions.

Senior Jimenez envisioned a landbound light skirmisher that stood head and shoulders above similar mech models in terms of performance. It had been designed to function as a high-powered killing machine that almost rivalled the power of custom mechs in the package of a standard product.

Right out of the box, the Leiner Grey had been designed to awe and overcome expectations. The ruinous demands put on the mech pilots be damned, this mech demanded the utmost in order to display its full potential!

"Your vision for your mech is.. extreme." He finally spoke when he saw that the Skull Architect was getting impatient. "It is not a direction which I’m inclined to take. While I like to pursue performance like any other mech designer, I believe the best mechs are those designed from a holistic perspective. A mech is not a closed system in itself. It is an ecosystem which includes the bare mech frame as well as the mech pilot and the support structure that services and repairs the mech. I design an ecosystem, not just a mech."

It was a convoluted way of saying that Ves looked beyond the technical and took note of demands outside this sphere.