The Mech Touch (Web Novel)-Chapter 6917 The Essence of Duty

6917 The Essence of Duty

Ves became incredibly motivated to work on the Defiled Light Project!

He loved the concept of a weapon that was uniquely suited for his use. The D-arm combined a number of strengths that could empower the energy gun with multiple sources of power, similar to the Instrument of Vengeance.

While Ves was not able to rely on the power of key resonating materials and such, he could still apply other design applications to maximize the damage output of a single shot.

After coming up with this experimental weapon, his combat system became increasingly more clear.

If Ves was forced to enter the battlefield as a phase lord, then the Premier Fleet was probably in big trouble.

If the combination of a handful of warships, 1000 first-class multipurpose mechs, the Superdimensional First Sword Mark III, the Minerva Mark II and support from multiple teams of qi cultivators was not enough, then Ves would most definitely be outmatched one way or another.

He needed to avoid direct combat as much as possible. He already knew from past incidents that his combat skills and fighting consciousness were way below the standard of an average third-class mech pilot.

There was no way he could hold his own against enemies who may have honed their combat skills and instincts for centuries if not millenia.

Ves needed to be smart about this and avoid the enemy's strengths as much as possible. The best way to do that was by adopting a hit-and-run approach.

He constantly reminded himself that he was a mech designer. He was not a mech pilot. He felt no obligation to abide by the rules of honor like most soldiers. If a non-combatant such as himself was forced to take to the field, then he was not going to pretend that he possessed a warrior's heart!

Larkinson or not, Ves intended to fight his battles according to his own ideas.

If that meant skulking about on the battlefield while using his subordinates as cannon fodder, then that was fine as far as he was concerned.

His troops were supposed to be his protectors, not the other way around!

Ves fully intended to act like a scumbag and make it as inconvenient for the enemy to target him as possible. His mobility should be superior enough to make it difficult for enemies to land a strike on his person.

His azure energy shield, his spatial barrier and his superdimensional raiment should make it abundantly clear that a few occasional lucky hits did nothing but waste the enemy's firepower.

He intended to fight like an opportunist. He would avoid contact when there was no advantage to be gained, but ruthlessly rush forward and hit an opponent that had been pushed on the backfoot.

Cooperation with allies was essential. Ves disdained the identity of a duelist. That was a privilege for the strong and the honorable. Since Ves lacked these martial qualities, there was no need for him to artificially constrain his behavior with rules.

Ves was a contrarian at heart. He never blindly followed other people's rules.

He followed his own code.

If the two happened to conflict with each other, then he would try to follow his own rules if he thought he could get away with it. This was what he relied upon to survive and thrive in an increasingly more dangerous cosmos.

Ves purposefully extended this attitude to the development of his gear. No matter whether it was the Superdimensional Regalia, his temporary raiment and the Defiled Light Project, he all designed them with survival in mind.

As a mech designer, this was a relatively novel experience. He was used to being a service provider to mech pilots. He understood how they thought and how they engaged in combat. His previous Mastery experiences directly exposed him to the courage and honor that these noble soldiers valiantly displayed on and off the battlefield.

Perhaps a part of Ves felt unworthy to be counted among their ranks. This was why he deliberately set out to differentiate himself and his combat gear. He did not want anyone to form any misunderstandings about his positioning.

Honor and chivalry should be reserved for noble idiots like Saint Jannzi and Saint Dise.

A survivor and an opportunist like Ves had his own way of solving problems.

Of course, Ves was well aware that he was not trying to become a complete coward.

He would never bother with developing weapons for himself if that was the case. The determination to arm himself with a luminar crystal blaster and a superdimensional spear meant that he still had a desire to be proactive and actively engage his enemies.

This was because Ves recognized that if he wanted to get a job done, he may not have any other choice but to do it in person.

Not everything had to be categorized in absolutes. Even a non-combatant like Ves could become a valiant warrior in the right situations. There were also times where mech pilots lost their courage and degenerated into cowards.

There was nothing special about that. They were just being human.

Only high-ranking mech pilots held themselves to a higher standard.

When it came down to it, the basis of their willpower cultivation centered around believing that they were capable of performing superhuman feats by themselves.

As long as they believed in this fantasy hard enough, falsehood would eventually transform into reality.

The very human sentiments of doubt and hesitation only hindered them from believing in themselves.

Expert pilots and ace pilots therefore had to undergo a long journey of struggle to defy their mortal shortcomings and steadily evolve into a more flawless and invincible ideal.

Ves recognized that he was completely unsuitable for this path because he could never brainwash himself with such obvious lies and falsehoods.

He found it rather ironic that if mech pilots wanted to traverse the path of godhood, they needed to rely on the power of their own lie to cross the extraordinary threshold.

Yet mech pilots simultaneously had to abide by the impossible standard of being truthful from their perspective!

There was an inherent contradiction in their progression.

On the one hand, a high-ranking mech pilot that easily believed in his own delusions tended to grow their resonance strength faster.

On the other hand, the more lies and falsehoods a high-ranking mech pilot became entangled with, the harder it became for them to overcome their bottlenecks!

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On the other hand, the more lies and falsehoods a high-ranking mech pilot became entangled with, the harder it became for them to overcome their bottlenecks!

Trying to reconcile the two was nearly impossible.

It likely explained why so few expert pilots could complete transition into ace pilots, and why so few peak ace pilots survived the road to no return.

Truth and lies.

Reality and fantasy.

Courage and doubt.

Self-sufficiency and reliance on mech designers.

Willpower was rightfully regarded as one of the most difficult but rewarding forms of cultivation.

Anyone who was exceptional enough to reconcile these contradictions and come up with acceptable solutions for all of them deserved to become the strongest True Gods at their levels!

A god pilot relied predominantly on the power of one's own mind and will to produce an outcome that surpassed anything comparable!

Now that Ves was preparing himself for the possibility of entering the battlefield himself, he gained more insights on the difficulties that true soldiers had to endure.

He did not envy them at all for being forced to handle all of this pressure on a frequent basis.

He respected them more for it. Even if these soldiers did not always believe that they were strong enough to complete their missions, they still stepped up and prepared themselves to fight against some of the most powerful alien opponents of the Red Ocean.

This was the essence of duty.

Ves respected them all the more for it. Even though none of the side projects had any direct relations to any of his mech designs, the act of putting himself in the shoes of his customers, if only briefly, significantly improved his understanding of their plight and struggles.

He knew he would be able to design slightly better mechs for them going forward.

This was because he was one of the few mech designers that possessed enough bravery — or foolishness — to join them on the battlefield!

Mech designers who never thought about doing this in the first place simply wouldn't be able to gain these insights.

He pitied people like Gloriana who still maintained a high degree of separation towards the mech pilots she served.

As much as she liked to think of herself as a service provider who understood the needs of her individual clients the most, she was only able to understand the rigors of combat in abstraction.

She had never fought in the trenches or proactively risked her life for a cause that was greater than herself.

"That's fine."

Not every mech designer had to be the same. Gloriana established her own unique advantages that had little to do with Ves.

Their long-term collaboration remained stable because they each took advantage of each other's strengths while covering for each other's weaknesses.

One of the reasons why he willingly prepared for the possibility of entering the battlefield himself was to protect his wife and children from danger.

It would be counter-productive to encourage Gloriana to form a Blood Pact with a Carmine mech and enter the battlefield in person!

If even she had to fight the enemy, then that would constitute a complete failure!

Ves was determined to prevent this scenario from unfolding!

He would just have to do his best to develop the strongest gear for himself and complete his own initial combat system.

In order to make sure that his luminar crystal weapon became as strong as possible, he worked extensively with Harry Kaikkonon to push the Defiled Light Project to a greater height.

"To be honest, I would have preferred to start this project a few years later." The Journeyman Mech Designer said. "I have been preoccupied with trying to figure out how to make luminar crystals out of superdimensional matter. While they share a few traits in common with transphasic materials, there are so many differences that my research has hardly made any progress. I can already tell that this will be a long and difficult research project."

The development of superdimensional luminar crystals was a high priority for the Larkinson Clan.

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Many of its ranged mechs relied heavily on luminar crystal weapons for attacks, so any breakthroughs in this field would comprehensively strengthen all of their firepower!

"I understand." Ves said. "We can't afford to wait that long. Just consider the Defiled Light Project to be a precursor of a stopgap solution. Once we have successfully mastered the method to produce superdimensional luminar crystals, we can update all of our fourth and earlier generation luminar crystal weapons to the fifth generation. For now, we stick with what works, which is fourth gen."

Harry tensely nodded. He was not pleased with this decision, but there was nothing he could do about it. Superdimensional luminar crystals could not be invented in a matter of days or weeks.

When Ves explained his concept and initial design choices for the Defiled Light Project, the other mech designer furrowed his brows.

He did not entirely understand the significance of turning the luminar crystal blaster into a D-arm, but he was able to understand the rest of the description well enough.

"You are aiming to make a weapon with very narrow applications." He said. "Your goal is to design a short-ranged version of the Instrument of Vengeance that can be wielded by a phase lord such as yourself. I can understand the choice you make because you do not possess the marksmanship or resonance strength of Saint Davia Stark. However, your insistence on being able to release the most powerful discharge of energy as possible will entail many sacrifices."

"Such as…?"

"You will not be able to make good use of the weapon outside of its optimal use pattern of a giant-killing ambush weapon. You will not be able to use it to take down enemies from afar or eliminate large swarms of weaker opponents."

Ves grimly nodded. "That is fine. Enemies that are further away do not pose much of a threat to me. I don't need to take action in person to deal with swarms of weaker enemy units. The only enemies that I am forced to take seriously are phase leaders. This is why I insist on this giant-killing configuration. It needs to be so good at fulfilling its primary objective that I am willing to forgo other goals."

"I see. This is your prerogative. I just hope that you will not get caught flat-footed if you are confronting your most ideal enemies, sir."

"Let me worry about that problem."