The Mech Touch

Chapter 5713 Upcoming Events

Though Alexa had become an extremely useful Journeyman Mech Designer, Ves could not activate her right away.

Not only did she have to go through a lot of tutoring sessions in order to serve as an adequate substitute for Ves, she also had to depart to the regional headquarters of the Red Association.

Fortunately, the trip should only take two weeks at most. She was able to secure passage on a fast superdrive-equipped courier vessel by asking nicely.

She may have renounced her ties to the Streon Ancient Clan, but that did not mean she became a nobody all of a sudden.

The fact that she had not only become the protege of the most successful mech designer of his fairly young generation, but also managed to inherit his design philosophy had already started to circulate among high society!

Not everyone paid attention to this news, but those that knew keenly understood the significance behind this incredibly impactful development.

"There are two of them now! If anything ever happens to Professor Larkinson, then his student will be able to carry on his torch. His successful product lines no longer suffer from having a single point of failure anymore. If the Devil Tongue has any sense, then he will make sure that his student is prepared to inherit his mantle."

"If the LMC has any publicly traded stock, then I am absolutely convinced that their value has risen by at least 20 percent from this news alone! Continuity has always been on the mind of every market analyst looking at this amazing mech company. For all of its successes, the Living Mech Corporation has always been regarded as a one-man show. Now that Professor Larkinson has finally raised a successor with excellent qualifications, the long-term prospects of his mech company has improved by an enormous margin."

"It appears that human mechs as we know it will change forever. If he can pass on his design philosophy to a single student, then he can do so to another one. It is becoming increasingly obvious that living mechs are here to stay. Professor Larkinson does not have to realize his design philosophy to transform the entire mech industry."

"The Terrans are making too much progress! We need to do more to drag Professor Larkinson away from their clutches! What is the Impresario Prince doing? Why has he failed to persuade Professor Larkinson to visit the Rubarthan Pact? Doesn't he have a good relationship with the Destroyer of Worlds? Why haven't any of them sent any of their mech designers to study his craft?! The fact that this has not happened yet indicates that we have vastly underutilized our relationship with the famous mech designer! Even those filthy dwarves have managed to send a batch of their young talents to his design lab!"

As the ripple effects of Alexa's successful breakthrough continued to reverberate across important circles, Ves started to prepare for multiple important events that were scheduled to take place in the near future.

Ves and Gloriana sat on the couch while they watched a news broadcast from a mech-oriented news portal. As they watched yet another feature centered around the battles won with the help of the awesome firepower of the Ultimatum model, they held their sleeping daughters in their arms.

"Miaow~"

"Meow~"

Lucky and Clixie watched over the sleeping girls as they settled in the laps of their parents.

Ves looked down and felt as if he was holding one of the precious treasures of his life. Aurelia had grown a little taller, but he could still recall the times where she was just a little baby.

Gloriana meanwhile stroked Andraste's lovely red hair. The little girl had been bouncing around a lot earlier, but she looked so calm and peaceful now that she had chosen to take a nap.

"The living fey design contest that you started almost half a year ago is almost coming to an end." Gloriana softly said. "Where will the ceremony take place where the winners will be announced?"

"Keynar." Ves responded.

That name sounded familiar to his wife. "Keynar… I believe my ship stopped by this port system on the way to the Vulit Central Star Node and back to New Constantinople. It is situated much further away from the frontlines than Bortele and Davute."

"That is correct. Bortele may be an exciting destination, but I already visited it almost half a year ago. As for Davute, I never want to return to that stupid place again. My staff looked into many other possible star systems where we could invite the leading contenders and announce the winner of the contest, but we had to exclude star systems belonging to the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact right away. We chose Keynar because it has a very active mech sector and it is a place where I have never visited before. We can not only recruit a lot of talented second-class personnel over there, but we can also strengthen the presence of the local branch of the Larkinson Clan."

His wife did not care about that sort of stuff. "This will distract you from your design work. Are you not able to dispatch another mech designer instead?"

"No. It has to be me. I am the man responsible for designing the Fey Fianna. The least I can do is to meet with the earnest mech designers who have worked hard to supply my drone mech with creative new living fey models."

The LMC had made a commitment when it organized this contest, Ves had to see it through to the end. It would be an enormous disappointment for all of the contest participants if Ves just greeted them over the galactic net. That was a lazy solution that conveyed a clear lack of respect towards their efforts.

"What are the safety concerns?"

"Nothing will happen." Ves confidently said. "The mechers won't get fooled a second time. They have revised and upgraded their security protocols a long time ago. Besides, Keynar is not as haphazard or exposed to threats as Bortele. The former is a lot more stable and civilized than the latter due to how they developed. Keynar is virtually indistinguishable from a long-

established trade hub situated in the old galaxy."

"I see. Should I accompany you on this journey?"

"No. It is better if you do not. One of us needs to stay here and hold down the fort. Alexa can do this on my behalf once she has properly settled in as a Journeyman Mech Designer. She can even take over my teaching obligations at the Eden Institute of Business & Technology for a time. However, it is not necessary for you to accompany me, and you should also stay in order to keep our kids company."

Ves hugged Aurelia tighter in his arms. He did not like the fact that he would only be able to talk to his children by remote whenever he went on a business trip, but this was necessary in order to keep his mech company thriving.

"Will you return straight away once the contest has ended?" Gloriana asked.

"Not yet. I need to make a few other stops in order to take care of other matters. Do you remember the public inquiry that a coalition of 'concerned parties' has announced as of late?"

His wife immediately looked upset. "I do. The rise of third order living mechs among our customers has led to rising alarm among parties concerned with the growing influence of what appears to be mechs that have come under the control of AIs. Have you told them that your living mechs are not strictly AIs that have been the cause of many problems in the past?"

"I did, but not everyone understands or accepts the difference. To some people, the distinctions are meaningless because what really frightens them is the act of surrendering too much control over vital technology to intelligent entities that are not human in nature. The growing autonomy and ability to defy their human masters has caused my third order living mechs to violate a taboo. This is a fact that cannot be denied. If not for the fact that every mech pilot loves them and their obvious increase in effective performance, they probably would have generated a lot more controversy."

No one who actually relied upon third order living mechs objected to them in any way. The Red Association had also conspicuously issued numerous statements that essentially indicated that they investigated living mechs on a constant basis and saw no reason to take any disciplinary action.

Yet that did not stop a growing gathering of political adversaries and business rivals from joining forces in order to place more restrictions on the proliferation of living mechs.

If Ves did not handle this so-called public inquiry in a deft manner, then his products would become a lot harder to sell going forward!

"It is unlikely that my opponents will be able to prohibit the use of living mechs outright, but that is not the only way they can hinder my work. The greatest danger is that my opposition successfully whips up such a frenzy against living mechs that many more potential customers will develop paranoia against my living mechs. You should understand as well as I do that a lot of people have grown up with constant warnings about the dangers and perils of relying on AIs. This is a powerful bias that I need to defeat once and for all if I want to make the public embrace my products. Third order living mechs will only continue to emerge at a growing rate. Before you know it, millions of mechs that can think, talk and even act on their own accord. Once the scale has reached this level, the public will truly become alarmed unless we nip this problem in the bud."

Ves had unleashed a monster on red humanity. Now he needed to account for his actions. He had made the deliberate choice to give the public access to third order living mechs on a large scale with the belief that they would benefit human civilization.

However, every radical innovation inevitably provoked a backlash, especially one that clearly broke several of the unspoken rules of human society.

There was no way that Ves could get away with supplying so many powerful 'AIs' without getting confronted sooner or later.

Since that was the case, Ves might as well act boldly so that he could defend his actions without feeling guilty.

It was all about projecting confidence and certainty. The more he sounded evasive about this subject, the more people would begin to doubt the reliability of his work.

"What else do you have on your agenda?"

"I think you will like what you will hear next, honey. After a lot of thinking, I decided to accept your proposal. I am prepared to auction 25 percent of the outstanding shares of the LMC that are currently in my possession."

"What? You have already made a decision?!"

Gloriana grew so excited that she had to put a lot of effort into suppressing her excitement for fear of waking up her napping children.

Ves smiled and nodded back. "I agree with you that there is not much benefit to hoarding so many shares. Our clan may be growing quickly, but we are still deficient in too many areas for me to feel secure about our short and medium-term prospects. I am really tired about the fact that we have to rely so much on external partners to acquire our own first-class starships. It is high time we took matters in our own hands and acquired our own fully functional first-class shipyard. This is the only way I think we can secure such a strategically valuable asset."

"I… I am so pleased! You have made the right choice! This will definitely make our clan more secure in the following years!"