The Mech Touch

5933 A Concrete Roadmap

Ves became shocked when he heard Gloriana's new master plan.

It turned out that she no longer became satisfied with mastering archetech.

As powerful as it may be, the annoying requirement that people needed to possess their own archeshells in order to properly interface with the tech was an insurmountable obstacle towards mass production.

Ves initially thought that all Gloriana wanted to do was to master archetech so that she could get closer to designing the perfect vessels for her individual clients.

She already managed to get her foot in the door by grasping the essence of archetech. She already conquered the most difficult step. All she had to do beyond this point was to continue her studies on archetech and work it into her current and future mech design projects.

If that was all she aspired to accomplish, then Ves had very little hope that she would be able to advance to the rank of Senior Mech Designer anytime soon.

This was because it was a selfish goal. Even if her unique take on archemechs went on to help her clients and customers to achieve great success on the battlefield, only his wife mastered the method of making these distinctive products.

The transition from Journeyman to Senior demanded more than that. Developing new technologies and design solutions alone was not what their profession was about once they reached this level.

High-ranking mech designers were expected to look beyond their own worlds and think about how their work might contribute to the greater society they were a part of. Every Senior Mech Designer had made the essential realization that they had accumulated enough knowledge and experience to repay their debt to the mech industry.

Human society had generously granted a lot of space for mech designers to pursue their passion and enjoy the fruits of their labor. There were so many mech design universities in human space that anyone of decent intelligence could become a mech designer if they wished.

Although the competition in the mech market ultimately prevented many mech designers from earning easy profits, the best among them still received plenty of opportunities to shine and earn appreciation for their innovative works.

It could have been much worse. Without the rules imposed by the MTA or RA and without the widespread acceptance and support for the mech industry, it would have been at least ten times harder for mech designers to make so much progress in their careers.

In short, in order for Gloriana to make significant strides forward, she needed to move beyond the scope of serving her immediate customers, and instead think about contributing to human society as a whole!

From what Ves heard so far, his wife actually managed to make this crucial step!

The only sketchy part about her new realization and goal was that she was primarily thinking about satisfying her ego.

After all, it was clear that the primary reasons why she wanted to attain greater results were to catch up to Ves and to earn greater fame for herself!

However, Gloriana was hardly the only egotistic mech designer out there. Every human possessed desires of their own. Ves believed that her attitude was not unacceptable so long as she delivered material contributions to the mech community and beyond.

Ves himself had learned through enough instances that people mostly cared about the results as opposed to the process. It did not matter whether he had selfish goals or that he broke a few rules during his experimentation. As long as the outcome produced a considerable net benefit to society, his work still contributed to the advancement of human civilization.

This was ultimately the point of the Kingdom of Mechs and later on the Red Kingdom. They introduced additional reward mechanisms for the sole purpose of turning mech designers into productive members of human society.

If this was not the case, then a lot of mech designers would become much more selfish and less considerate of the needs of the greater whole. This was the opposite of what the Progenitors of Mechs wanted from their successors, so they implemented measures that would not lead to the extinction of the human race.

As Gloriana continued to preen in front of Ves as if she had taken great strides to catch up to him, she clearly looked confident that she had found the right track.

The only issue was that much of her recent progress still remained theoretical for the most part. She still needed to apply her latest gains to an actual mech in order to verify that her direction held enough promise to guide her way forward.

Ves asked a few questions. His wife had truly gained a lot of insights on the nature of archetech.

If he wanted to collaborate with her on any archemechs, then he needed to put a lot of effort into catching up. It was not necessary for him to grasp archetech well as Gloriana, but he at least needed to be able to work around her new specialization.

"What does 'Glorianatech' actually mean to you?" Ves inquired even as Clixie walked over and jumped on her lap. He automatically began to pet the purring cat. "I know what archetech can do more or less, but how does that differ from your own adaptation?"

His wife used her Archglove to tap Hekkel's shell. "There are many differences. One of the important ones is the interfacing issue. Archetech is inherently designed as extensions of the archeshells of aliens such as the one belonging to my first Glorious Servant. My plan is to remove this alien element and substitute it with an alternative that is more suitable for humans. Hyper technology and to a lesser extent E-

technology will provide the solutions. My research on this is still in the earliest stage, so I am not yet able to tell you anything specific. The next iteration of the Dark Zephyr will offer greater clarification."

Ves looked skeptical at her answer.

"That is a bit too vague. I don't think your plan is bad, but I am afraid that you will get overtaken by other people. I doubt that you are the only mech designer who is looking to combine archetech with hyper technology. I am pretty sure that Star Designers such as the Xenotechnician have already made huge strides in this research. What if you devote years of research on a goal that ultimately turns into a wasted effort when the Red Association introduces the next mech generation? Do you have enough confidence in your ability to develop a truly new and innovative technological paradigm that is unmatched by other efforts?"

The temperature in the room seemed to drop. His wife no longer smiled at him. She did not appreciate his lack of confidence in her new plan.

"I am disappointed in you, Ves. Do you think so poorly of my judgment and my abilities? My cranial implant is better than ever, and my investment in archetech has turned me into one of the more authoritative experts in this exotic field. You may be correct that I am not able to match the Xenotechnician when it comes to deciphering alien tech, but that is not what I am trying to do. My goal is to create my own technological paradigm, one that not only attains a perfect with human technology, but also integrates my own design philosophy."

"Please elaborate."

"Do you recall my original ambition?"

Ves nodded. "You want to design the perfect vessels for individual mech pilots. You aim to develop mechs that achieve the best possible fit with their intended users that there is no better alternative."

"That is correct. In my plan, one of the signature features of Glorianatech that makes it different from archetech is that my work will be able to grow and adapt to suit its users better! Archetech can already accomplish a part of this through interfacing with the arche. My own Glorianatech will use an alternate form of interfacing to physically evolve and adapt to become more perfect and suitable for their users in their current circumstances. Any mech based on my tech will possess the same features of my god body solution, but better. My work will also become much easier to reproduce so that everyone will eventually be able to enjoy the advantages of my design philosophy!"

Though Gloriana's plan still possessed a lot of shortcomings, her Glorianatech sounded a bit less spurious than before.

Ves recognized a lot of familiar elements in her work. She clearly took inspiration from his own fixation on growth and tried to incorporate this aspect in her own work.

It was much harder to engender growth on tangible objects as opposed to intangible ones, but it was not impossible. Hyper technology granted Gloriana a powerful bridge for her to realize this amazing effect. Her god body solution already served as a successful prototype.

All she needed to do was to expand on it and increase its practicality. Combining it with a stripped down version of archetech was an ambitious way to do this, but success was anything but guaranteed.

Gloriana needed to solve a lot of difficult technical and conceptual problems in order to work towards her new ambition. Ves did not envy her workload, as she needed to devote a lot of time and effort into mastering archetech, hyper technology, material science and many other related fields.

His wife did not shy away from this nearly impossible challenge.

Many of the problems she needed to tackle would test her intelligence and research ability. It just so happened that her Arache 01 Cranial Implant Set was best suited to tackle this kind of work!

The reason why Gloriana's progress stalled as of late was because she lacked a clear direction to go forward.

That was no longer a problem. She roughly understood what she needed to do to promote to the ranks of Senior and Master!

"So let me get this straight. The upcoming Dark Zephyr may help you advance to Senior so long as your early innovations prove some of your theories."

"I believe so." Gloriana responded. "There is no guarantee that I will be able to get it right. This is not a disaster. I can rework my theories and conduct a different experiment on the next expert mech design project. Our clan is not short on outdated expert mechs that need to be upgraded to the Hyper Generation."

That was indeed the case. That made Gloriana's effort to finally get rid of her identity of Journeyman Mech Designer a lot easier. It was only a matter of time before she advanced to Senior, especially if she retained hold of her current motivations and goals.

"What about the next steps? What will you be working towards once you become a Senior?"

"Glorianatech shall be the central work that will help me realize my design philosophy." Gloriana firmly stated. "It will play the same role as the Carmine system in your situation. Glorianatech is not the end, but the means that will allow me to do much better in designing the perfect vessel. I do not anticipate that this will be enough. I must continue to develop Glorianatech and develop other powerful solutions in order to earn the rank of Star Designer."

Though Ves tried his best to identify flaws and shortcomings in her plan, he had to admit that his wife had truly managed to cobble together a viable roadmap for her career.

She was no longer without direction. She had built up enough accumulation to advance to the rank of Senior, and she already had a solid idea on what she needed to do in order to realize her design philosophy.

Of course, Ves did not expect her to become a Master sooner than himself. The technical challenges involved with trying to turn Glorianatech into a revolutionary technological paradigm that was suitable for mass adoption were way too big!

It might take a century if not several centuries before she was able to complete the fundamental framework for Glorianatech!

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