The Mech Touch

Chapter 6830  Metaphorical Black Holes

As changes continued to occur at the Premier Branch, Gloriana finally completed the recruitment of 3 new first-class mech designers.

The popularity for the limited number of slots to join the Design Department as special talents was extremely high.

So many mech designers applied to work in the Design Department that it took the recruiters as well as Gloriana a lot of time to sort and examine all of the applicants.

Considering that their current goal was to free Ves up from spending his time on relatively low-level living mech design projects, the recruitment office primarily evaluated former mech design students of the Eden Institute of Business & Technology.

While the recruiters were willing to take a brief look at mech designers who studied at other schools, they mostly did not offer anything compelling enough for the Larkinson Clan to make an exception.

That left the applicants who at least attended the Introduction to Living Mech Design course over at the Eden Institute.

Only the first-class graduates who had earned a passing grade in this rare and highly valued course had the capital to liberate Ves from participating in living mech design projects that were not worth his time anymore.

From updating existing mech lines to designing niche products for specific clients, the Design Department had plenty of work in store for the new recruits who had developed at least a small amount of proficiency in designing living mechs.

If they developed a bit more competence and skill, Ves could even have them assist in his own mech design projects. They could speed up the progress of the Arboreal Project or other important projects involving living mechs.

Once they managed to become Journeyman Mech Designers with design philosophies related to living mechs, that was when the Design Department would easily be able to tackle over a dozen living mech design projects at once!

In order to ensure that this would happen sooner rather than later, the recruiters especially tested the applicants for their intelligence, their ingenuity, their ambition and most importantly their spiritual affinity.

Due to the short amount of time between learning how to design living mechs to applying to join the Larkinson Clan, all 3 talents were still stuck as Apprentices.

That was not necessarily bad. Once they entered the Design Department and gained access to more advanced knowledge related to living mech design, Ves believed that they would quickly be able to realize their potential in this area!

This was why Ves and Alexa Streon took a bit of time off their schedule to meet with the newcomers.

Three fairly young former Terran mech designers stood in a row in front of Gloriana.

Each of them had passed through rigorous examinations and also joined the Larkinson Clan.

This not only proved their excellence, but also confirmed that they truly valued the Larkinson Clan over the Terran Alliance.

Ves happened to recognize all three faces. He had taught them a few years ago, but already marked them out as special talents that attracted his appreciation.

However, that alone was not enough for him to decide to recruit them. He did not mind it if they worked for other companies and gained a bit more seasoning.

If the special talents managed to perform well during their Novice Mech Designer stages, then Ves did not mind poaching them from their old employers.

That hadn't been necessary. The new recruits applied to work for the Design Department on their own accord, and their employers 'happily' tore up the contracts without demanding any compensation.

"Hello Ves. Hello Alexa. Here are the new recruits. Each of them have been looking forward to meeting you for years."

That was not an exaggeration.

The most eager among the three immediately stepped forward and bowed his head.

"Sir! Thank you for letting me join your clan and enter your Design Department! I promise you that I will work hard to design living mechs as well as you! I have been practising living mech design non-stop whenever I have enough spare time!"

Ves did not dislike the Apprentice's enthusiasm.

"Klaus Robar-Fulton, right? Last I remembered, your work was not that exceptional, though your effort was commendable. You overcame the disadvantages of your relatively basic augmentations and kept up with the demands of all of my courses. For you to make it through so many rounds of screening shows that you have not only taken all of my lessons to heart, but managed to develop your own talents."

The Apprentice responded with a modest smile. "To be honest, I tried to applied to your clan after I graduated, but I failed to get through back then. I had no choice but to work for a local Terran mech company and see if I could become good enough to succeed in the future. It wasn't until I began to practice an auxiliary qi cultivation method of the Techno series that my prospects changed for the better. My progress in cultivation was much faster than my colleagues. Many of them who used to possess better augmentations than me got left in the dust when I surpassed them with the help of my cognitive enhancements."

Ves already figured out that this may have been the case. Unlike the other two recruits, the spirituality that belonged to Klaus was much stronger!

Although it couldn't compare to the likes of Alexa Streon, Ves still valued the young man's aptitude in qi cultivation.

"Did the Red Collective come to you and throw you a job offer?" Ves asked.

Klaus nodded. "Yes. I received several offers from multiple departments. The Cultivation Method Department, the Industrial Department and the Enforcement Department all wanted me to work for them. I rejected their offers without hesitation because I only wanted to work for the Larkinson Clan. Now, my dream has finally come true. I did not regret the decision to repeatedly say no to the RC."

This emphasized how much of a fan of Ves and the Larkinson Clan he had become!

While it may be rather annoying to deal with a fanboy on a regular basis, Ves did not mind too much.

At least his loyalty and obedience could be guaranteed.

"Gains in cultivation are not as important as how well you are able to design mechs." Ves warned the overenthusiastic mech designer. "Since you managed to win over my wife, your work should be up to par. Show me your portfolio."

"With pleasure."

Though Klaus looked a bit nervous, he had always anticipated this demand. He did not delay in projecting his personal mech designs.

Although he was only able to present half-a-dozen of them, each showed a gradual improvement in confidence and refinement.

What Ves paid the greatest attention to was how Klaus managed to incorporate the lessons he had learned after studying his courses at the Eden Institute.

The early attempts made by Klaus only showed a small measure of life.

They reminded Ves a lot of his initial mech designs that stood out for their X-Factor.

It was not until his last two attempts that Klaus managed to make more substantial progress.

This may be the time where Klaus rapidly grew his spirituality through systematic cultivation.

Not only did he absorb knowledge faster, he was also able to apply what he learned a lot better due to other cognitive enhancements.

Even without those gains, a stronger spirituality made it much easier for a mech designer to apply his touch to a mech design.

All of this meant that Klaus not only became a much more competent Apprentice Mech Designer, but also became a lot more suited to design living mechs!

In short, Ves saw the shadow of himself in Klaus.

"How good is your craftsmanship and practical skills?"

"Not that good, to be honest." Klaus admitted with a little bit of shame. "My previous employer did not approve of my requests to work in fabrication. Besides, the mech company exclusively made use of materializers for production. I have no access to superfabs on my own. I can only practice in virtual reality, but the realism level is too low."

That was not a surprise. The mechers had access to much more realistic virtual practice, but they paid a lot more money for this privilege.

It was not possible for a common Terran citizen to gain access to superior virtual workshops that mirrored reality a lot closer.

"That's okay." Ves said. "Now that you have entered our Design Department, you will have more opportunities to work with our superfabs. We also give our workers access to much better virtual reality programs. It is your choice whether you want to spend your time on improving your craftsmanship. However, do not neglect your studies in living mech design. This is one of your existing strengths. You can never go wrong with it. By the way, what is the style or philosophy that you are building towards? Your mech designs do not entirely make this clear."

That was not entirely true. Ves was able to extract a lot of information from Klaus' portfolio, but it was better if the Apprentice explained his design approach with his own words.

"I have thought hard on what sort of living mechs I wanted to design." Klaus responded in a measured tone. "I did not want to copy your work entirely. You taught your students to do their best to make an original contribution to the mech community, so I tried my best to figure out a way to cast living mechs in a different light. I did not make that much progress at first, but I think I managed to crack the code in the last half year."

He shifted the projection to his latest and best private mech design. It showcased a relatively basic first-class multipurpose mech that possessed a sense of vibrancy that many other mech designs lacked.

What stood out to Ves was that the relatively fresh design possessed a greater sense of raw power than normal.

"E energy radiation has become our most important resource since it arrived." The Apprentice continued to explain. "It has brought about hyper materials and enabled all of us to practice nifty qi cultivation methods. Since E energy is so powerful and enables so many possibilities, I thought that it would be good if a living mech has access to more of it. So that is what I decided to specialize in. I want to turn my living mechs into ever-expanding reservoirs of E energy. Even if my products cannot effectively make use of it all, they can at least pass it on to living mechs that do need all of that extra power."

That sounded quite useful!

While the ambition expressed by Klaus did not sound too sophisticated or transformational, that was fine.

As long as his living mechs remained useful, then that was enough for him to have a place in the Design Department!

"What is your ambition?" Asked the younger man. "What is the ideal mech that you are striving to make?"

"My ideal mech is… a metaphorical black hole that can absorb an endless amount of E energy. Not only that, I want it to become the nemesis of hyper technology. I want it to be able to strip E energy out of all enemies that make use of hyper technology or E-technology."

That sounded really powerful!

A living mech like this might not sound too useful in a low-energy environment like the Milky Way, but it should be much more useful in a medium-environment like the Red Ocean.

As for a high-energy environment such as Messier 87, such a machine would either explode due to overconsumption or become an absolute nightmare against the alien cultivators!

Ves grinned and patted Klaus on the shoulder. "As long as your ambition remains strong, you will do just fine. I look forward to seeing you develop your ideas further. I am not sure how realistic it is to design these metaphorical black holes, but anything is possible as long as you work hard enough."