The Mech Touch

loriana! At most, I ’m merely omitting some information.
The point is that the special features of my mechs can ’t be hidden.
Since the market will be bound to figure out what is up with my mechs, I might as well make them known so that my customers won ’t be fumbling around. ”

Ves was taking a gamble here.
Seeing as how his glows hadn ’t attracted too much attention, he was ready to reveal another application of his specialty.

While he was sure he would be greeted with a lot of skepticism at the start, so long as the Deliverer met his expectations, he was sure that everyone would embrace his special features!

”Your mech comes with two special features, right? ”

He nodded.
”I ’m sure you ’ve already noticed my latest additions.
I ’ve already explained the first special feature of the Deliverer, which I call Guided Aim.
I ’ve only given it a name and added it to my library of special features. ”

By letting Ylvaine ’s spiritual fragment guide the aim of the Deliverer, Ves hoped it was enough to wipe out the sandman admirals.

”What is the second special feature? ”

”Prescient Movement.
It ’s basically giving my design spirit some control over the limbs and propulsion system of my Deliverer.
Depending on the depth of the connection, the design spirit will be able to force the mech to move in response to an imminent attack! ”

The scariest part about this special feature was that it could make the Deliverer dodge in advance!

Due to its extreme focus on firepower, its mobility was abysmal.
By the time the mech pilot noticed an incoming attack, it was already too late to dodge!

Therefore, granting the Deliverer the power to evade an attack addressed this critical weakness.

Ves had no idea if the sandman admirals would ever learn to focus their firepower on strategically-important targets.
If that ever happened, his Deliverer mechs would certainly turn into death traps!

To prevent this potentially disastrous occurrence, Ves had to raise the self-preservation ability of his mech.

By relying on this cheat-like special feature, Ves could avoid compromising the offensive focus of his mech.

”This is a good special feature as long as it works! ” Gloriana agreed.
”The key is whether it works at all.
From what you ’re telling me, the mech pilot has no control over the activation of this ability.
It ’s solely up to the whims of the proto-god to activate these special features. ”

”That ’s a downside, yes.
While the lack of control is not exactly ideal, I don ’t think it ’s a bad idea.
The only way for mech pilots to benefit from the special features is to increase their bond with their mechs and their design spirits. ”

”Ah.
So that is why you made your signature look so responsive to the connection between the mech and mech pilot! You wanted to give your customers an indication to how close they are to their mechs! ”

Ves had already accounted for all of this.
He wanted to herald a new and improved style of mech design in the new generation.

While he wasn ’t entirely sure how the market would react to his new style, he hoped that at least some customers would embrace his innovations.

”Maybe you can give your customers a choice. ” Gloriana suggested.
”You can design one mech that possesses these special features and develop a minor variant that lacks these additions. ”

That was an interesting suggestion.

”I have a better idea.
Instead of splitting up my products into two different categories, I might as well keep it as one and add a switch to a mech that controls how much control a mech pilot is willing to share. ”

He immediately applied this new idea to the Deliverer.
He tweaked the internal architecture of the mech to add some hardware switches that possessed the ability to cut off the design spirit from direct control.

Naturally, incorporating these switches was always a risk.
As long as the mech sustained severe damage, some of these switches might be forcibly tripped without the mech pilot ’s consent.

Of course, when a mech suffered from internal damage, it was already in bad shape.

As a result of adding these switches to his current and future mech designs, Ves granted his customers the ability to choose how much they trusted in their mechs.

All of this still required a lot of testing, though.
Ves wasn ’t sure if the Guided Aim and Prescient Movement abilities worked as expected.

If the Deliverer failed to channel these special features, he would have wasted all of the time he invested into its design!

”It won ’t fail! ” He furiously whispered.

He had come into frequent contact with Ylvaine ’s spiritual fragment during the design process of the Deliverer.
The certainty and conviction it conveyed constantly kept his hopes alive.

After a week or so of design work, the design team finally managed to complete the first iteration of the Deliverer.

Its design was functionally complete.
While Ves was able to get a good handle on its technical performance by subjecting it to virtual tests, it was impossible to express their special features!

Gloriana did not like this development.

”This is a very significant disadvantage, Ves.
The only way to verify your so-called special features is to perform live tests! ”

”We ’ll just have to reserve more time for prototype testing. ” He shrugged.
”It ’s only a moderate inconvenience.
The glows of my mechs are already incompatible with simulations.
It ’s not really surprising that existing models are unable to work with my specialty. ”

”Is it possible to remedy this problem? Maybe you can create a new model from scratch! ”

Ves always wanted to do this, but his understanding of spirituality and all of the stuff associated with it was still at a rudimentary level.

”It ’s too soon.
I don ’t have a single clue how to virtualize my innovations.
Let ’s just settle with live tests for now. ”

The LMC soon fabricated the first prototype with two special features.

Ves had already invited some Ylvainan mech pilots to test the prototype!

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