The Mech Touch

Chapter 6587 The Productivity of a Proper Master Mech Designer

As the design of the mech templates came closer to completion, Veronica became amazed by many of the design solutions put forward by Master Willix.

She had collaborated with Master Benedict Cortez in the past on a number of high-ranking mech design projects, but there were still vast differences between Master Mech Designer.

Veronica did not look down on Master Cortez. No matter what, he had proven his dedication, competence, diligence and ingenuity by successfully realizing his design philosophy.

The problem was that his background was too poor. He was raised and educated in the Friday Coalition, and spent several decades of his life slumming in the frontier of the old galaxy.

He had only advanced to the rank of Master Mech Designer fairly recently. This meant that he did not have much time to accumulate a lot of high-end knowledge and build up more experience at his current rank.

Master Benedict also had little to no experience working with genuine first-class mech designs, just like Ves.

This meant that a vast gulf existed between Master Benedict Cortez and Master Moira Willix.

The latter was lucky enough to be raised and educated within the Mech Trade Association from the start. Instead of becoming a normal passionate mech designer, she chose to pursue the rarer and much more difficult path of becoming a rational mech designer.

She immediately began to work on first-class multipurpose mech design projects right after she graduated and steadily improved in rank and status.

Though she never really excelled in a notable way compared to her peers, she produced consistent results as a rational mech designer and learned how to simulate a new design philosophy once every couple of months.

"Is there no limit to how many design philosophies you can learn to simulate?" Veronica curiously asked.

"Not that I know of." Master Willix answered during a design session. "It gets easier over time, especially if there are already similarities between the one I am learning and the ones I have already mastered to an extent. The career of a rational mech designer is similar to a snowball. The ones who have lived longer and spent more time on accruing design philosophies are walking libraries. I am no exception to this rule. The selection of design philosophies and the overall direction we have chosen for most of them dictate how useful we may be in certain mech design projects."

Rational mech designers were truly outrageous in this way. As long as Moira Willix learned a new design philosophy every once in a while for over a century, she would literally be able to simulate hundreds of them with great familiarity!

Even if she would never be able to channel the full passion and expertise of the original creators of those design philosophies, just the quantity and ability to switch to many different choices were already huge advantages!

Naturally, it was not easy for rational mech designers to persist in their efforts for so long. They had to endure their own challenges.

"Rational mech designers have to balance their attention between working with other design philosophies and developing their own ethos in mech design." Master Willix explained to Veronica. "No matter how many design philosophies we simulate, we are ultimately retreating existing ground. We are not necessarily inventing anything new. In order to prove our value and advance to a higher rank, we must still design mechs that embody our own original concepts."

"That must be difficult since you don't spend as much time with your own design philosophy as others." Veronica surmised.

Master Willix stoically nodded. "That is true. I have many colleagues who are unable to switch between rational mech design and conventional mech design. The inability to separate between these two modes leads to many problems over time. There are also cases where their passion and dedication towards their own design philosophies may wilt because they have lost their drive and ambition to make their own mark on the mech industry. In short, rational mech designers can design mechs with much greater variety than normal, but they must work harder to meet harsher requirements in order to succeed."

"Was it worth it for you, Master? I mean, would you have become a much better mech designer if you became a passionate mech designer instead?"

That sounded like an intriguing question to Willix.

"I cannot state with a great amount of certainty whether this alternate version of myself would have attained greater success. The work and effort. I put in to become a rational mech designer at my current rank is multiple times greater than that of more conventional mech designers. I would have been able to get much closer to becoming a Star Designer if I did not commit to this approach towards mech design. However, it is exactly because I learned so many design philosophies and spread my knowledge base far and wide that I was able to earn many opportunities, befriend so many knowledgeable colleagues and design the most successful products of my career. I definitely believe it was worth it for me to become a dedicated rational mech designer."

Veronica grew more and more impressed at Master Willix. She was really a Master Mech Designer of a radically different breed than Master Benedict!

The latter could still be regarded as a respectable Master Mech Designer, but it was clear that he was still at the beginning stages of his current rank.

Master Willix was far ahead of him in terms of experience, knowledge accumulation, augmentations, industry knowhow and more.

It was incredibly pleasant to work with such an amazing helper. Despite the many limitations imposed by budget and other practical constraints, Veronica was nonetheless able to ensure the Rule Breaker Project closely aligned with her vision with the well-thought solutions provided by the Master Mech Designer.

In fact, Master Willix's greatest strength was to solve problems before Veronica became aware of them! The Survivalist proactively anticipated and resolved many potential issues that could have caused delays and slowed down their progress. Normally, Master Willix wouldn't have done this because it would be better for Veronica's growth if she tackled these issues herself at first.

Time was of the essence, though. Since the Rule Breaker Project had to be released in a working condition in just two months or so, Master Willix had no choice but to increase her responsibilities and unveil her formidable strength as an RA Master Mech

Designer.

While doing this caused Veronica to miss much of the challenge of designing the Carmine mechs of the Rule Breaker Project, she liked it that she had been reduced to

designing mechs in easy mode.

This was especially important as Veronica could no longer readily borrow the processing power of Ves over in the Red Ocean.

Ever since the idiot of a phase lord accidentally locked himself in a so-called Deep Research Mode, Veronica's synchronization with her principal had been dropping with each passing day.

That was not a big deal in the short term, but she had a growing suspicion that it would lead to increasingly more severe problems if this continued on for too long!

Anyway, the most immediate disadvantage of Ves' unavailable state was that Veronica had to design mechs by relying on her own mind.

This was hardly her best state, so Master Moira Willix perfectly compensated for her lack of conveniences.

The work proceeded so smoothly that they even chatted about topics other than work

once in a while.

Veronica still had many questions about Master Willix. He hardly knew her on a

personal level. This did not matter much when the two went their separate ways, but now that they were reunited once again, it became important to figure out the person

behind the rational mind.

J

Polymath's discipline."

Master Willix gave Veronica a very faint smile. "The timeline does not match up. She is too young to have taken me as a disciple. While I do not care so much about age, others do. It is not likely for a mech designer such as myself to become her disciple. I do admit that she has seen fit to teach me a number of lessons in the past. I am grateful for her tutelage. As for who actually taught me, it is not important. My teacher is not a Star Designer."

"Oh. I thought you would have been seeing how competent you actually are." The

Cyborg Cat responded. "Why did you leave the RA and join our side and agree to design the Rule Breaker Project with me? I mean, you had a pretty good life as a Master Mech Designer. It is hard to imagine anyone else making the same choice in your position. Now you stand to lose all of your status and much of your friends within the Association and become a fugitive. Are you truly okay with sparking an

upheaval?"

Master Willix fell silent for a few seconds. "I have my doubts and misgivings, but... now that I have become an outsider from my own society, I can look at it from a different angle. What I have seen is... disconcerting. My discussions with the members of the Oblivion Gate Consortium have reinforced my initial impressions."

"What have you seen?"

"A society of humans that have become increasingly more stagnant and complacent.

Long-term peace has made the lives of many people more prosperous, but aside from making themselves helpless against a speculative future threat from Messier 87, I am disappointed that people are no longer pursuing progress on a societal level. Humans who live today are almost indistinguishable to those who lived a century ago. With so much industry and prosperity, humanity can do so much more, yet they refuse to do so because the old guard have maintained their stranglehold onto society for too

long." "Things aren't exactly improving quickly, but they aren't deteriorating rapidly either. Most people think that is good enough."

"Humans thrive when they are affected by external pressure." Master Willix said. "The opening of the Red Ocean was a brilliant masterstroke of the Big Two. By starting an invasion in a nearby dwarf galaxy that just happens to be filled with a strategic exotic material that can easily facilitate mass invasions into other galaxies, the MTA and CFA were on the cusp of transforming human society for the better by using conquest as a motivating factor. Yet..."

"The Great Severing ruined it all." Veronica flatly said.

"Correct. This setback has inflicted enormous damage to the Expansionist Faction and others who invested heavily in the Red Ocean. It has lowered the statures of the leading supporters and shifted the balance of power to the old guard who are most concerned with maintaining stability. I knew that our society would regress and become even more insular than before. Overly cautious leaders such as the Chosen Human will contribute to this development due to his lifelong fears about causing greater disruptions than is necessary."

Ah, that was right. While the Red Ocean gained a disproportionate amount of leaders who tended to be more proactive and willing to take radical action, that meant that their political influence had disappeared in the Milky Way! This firmly tilted the balance of power in favor of the old guard.

"The root of the problem is that our leaders have clung to their positions of power for

too long." Master Willix said. "It is bad enough that the same leaders have been in charge for over a century. Many of them make use of exclusive high-grade life prolonging treatment scrums to stay alive long after the Age of Conquest had come to an end. God pilots and Star Designers have lifespans that are on another level compared to mortals such as ourselves. What if they continue to retain their positions of power? What if they refuse to step down from their thrones?"

"They occupy their positions for so long that they might consider it their sacred right. They may also become corrupted by the power they wield for so long." Master Willix gravely nodded. "The power distribution of our society has become more and more skewed in the wrong direction. One of the underlying problems of the current order is that the power of the middle and lower echelons has decreased with each passing year. More and more power is concentrated in the oligarchical club of tier 1 and tier 2 galactic citizens. None of them have any intention of relinquishing the power that they have gained while living for so long. If their lifespans were more finite, then they would have worked harder to establish orderly succession plans. That has not happened, so we are moving into a future where human civilization in the Milky Way will largely be ruled by the same individuals 500 or 1000 years from today. Is that truly what is best for the common good?"

Not everyone thought that there was anything wrong with this premise. Yet Veronica

new without a doubt that he would never want to live in such a boring and stagnant

society!

It sounded as if Master Willix also shared this sentiment.