Chapter 1276. Reaction (1/2)

While Ves felt enormously put off by his new task, the Rim Guardians didn't take no for an answer. Lieutenant Ferct cared nothing for his objections and was blind to his reluctance.

Her attitude reflected the typical stance of the MTA. Locals not only ought to, but desired to fulfill their whims!

Ves felt enormously put out by this arrogant attitude. Even if the Rim Guardians possessed the strength to back up their assertiveness, they could have shown they actually cared.

At the end of the trials, the Rim Guardians at least gave him something extra before they kicked him out of the Pit. Lieutenant Ferct passed him a data chip before shoving him, Lucky and his previous purchase through a portal.

”A little welcome bonus for passing our trials! I hope you have fun with it! If you want more, I expect you to work for it! We're already sending the mech pilot in question to your ship docked in orbit!”

Ves emerged back onto the surface of Centerpoint V.

”Meow?”

”Yeah. I don't really know what happened either. It seems I've become associated with yet another club.”

He decided to take a break and rest at a hotel for the night. His mood to explore the rest of the Centerpoint system had faded now that he had unknowingly entered an initiation session.

Although he resented that he had no choice, Ves did admit that it wasn't all that bad to build up a relationship with the Rim Guardians.

While Ves preferred to keep his distance from the MTA, the powerful organization might not like it. For now, he was just an insignificant Journeyman that was just entering the prime of his career.

Once he advanced to Senior and made strides towards Master, the MTA's interest in him would certainly multiply, especially if he improved rapidly.

If the MTA paid closer and closer attention to him, he would prefer to enjoy some support from within the organization.

This was especially important when Ves became more prominent in the future. With the way his design philosophy worked, he was already attracting a lot of attention with his recent designs.

If Ves continually proceeded to design mechs with X-Factors as strong as that of the Aurora Titan and Transcendent Messenger, then he would surely attract a huge amount of attention!

No matter how much Ves tried to deflect the MTA's attention, they obsessed over all things mechs and would never miss any novelty. His designs would definitely attract the attention of their internal mech designers who would begin to value his design philosophy even if it was unlikely to be realized at the Master-level.

”This is actually a fortuitous encounter.” Ves muttered to himself while he idly stroked Lucky's back in his hotel room. ”I just wished Charlotte could have told me about what was in store for me if I used her invitation card.”

Ves could hardly explain why Charlotte chose to give him the invitation card without explanation. Did Charlotte genuinely think that she was helping him, or did she just decide to invest in him and expect a future payoff?

If it was the former, then she was a friend, if a misguided one at that. If it was the latter, then Ves needed to treat her in the same way he treated his other business partners such as the Tovars or Calabast.

”Well, what do I expect?” Ves shook his head. ”As a probationary recruit, Charlotte would have certainly known the value of a mech designer who advanced before reaching thirty. If I were in her place, I would have invested in such a promising mech designer as well.”

If Ves truly wanted to avoid attention, then he would have delayed his advancement by at least a decade. A Journeyman who advanced at their forties was incredibly unremarkable.

Although late bloomers existed who rose to greater splendor in the later stages of their lives, there were far too many muddleheaded mech designers who simply weren't diligent enough to reach those heights.

”It's too bad I can't afford to take it slow.”

Ves received numerous hints and warnings from various different sources that larger developments were afoot.

War would definitely break out in the future, that was for certain. If Ves wanted to avoid being treated as a disposable mech designer like in the previous war, then he needed to make as many strides as possible.

”It's probably unrealistic to make it to Senior by the time the next big conflict breaks out. It takes too much time to do all the research that's required to develop my design philosophy.” Ves shook his head in regret.

He would just aim to become a prominent Journeyman instead.

”It depends on how much time I have.”

He already changed his status a bit by becoming a Journeyman, but that was not enough for him. The closer he got to Senior, the more regard he received from the Bright Republic and everyone else. The days of accompanying a task force that went on suicidal missions should be over.

”Let's see what this data chip is all about.”

Ves refrained from accessing the data chip immediately. Now that he was alone with nobody else but a dozing Lucky, he finally felt secure enough to see what it contained.

He slotted in the data chip to his comm and began to explore its files.

”These are… lithic mech research reports?”

He already received a glimpse in the workings of lithic mechs. Obtaining these documents and reports provided him lots of data and analyses to make greater sense of them. It opened the door for him to design a lithic mech by himself.

”Still, who would want to buy a lithic mech?” Ves scratched his head.

The application of mechs based around stone materials rather than metallic materials was rather dubious. Perhaps the only instances that stone-based mechs would be useful was if someone ever needed to employ a mech in an environment that was extremely hostile to metal objects.

In every other case, people were better off using standard mechs. The study in the use of lithic materials in mechs was a very obscure research field. Other than mech designers who specialized in using stone-like materials as substitutes for alloys, no one else wanted to waste their time on developing a material that only three or four people would ever make use of in the entire galaxy.

Therefore, the value of the research files on the data chip was very much of limited value to Ves. Certainly, since he already received it, he might as well spend his time studying what he already got. He just wished that the Rim Guardians were more considerate.