The Mech Touch

es immediately adopted an ugly face.
Something awfully serious went wrong.
The programming somehow led to an immediate adverse reaction!

If that had been a mech pilot, then they would have died in the same way most likely!

”Clean up the mess, but don ’t bring out the tenth captive yet.
I ’ll have to make some adjustments to the third variant. ”

Fortunately, while Ves didn ’t hope that something like this might happen, he nonetheless prepared for such an eventuality.
He climbed up to the back of the wild god and approached the testing chair.
He drew out the third variant neural interface and replaced its firmware with another, more conservative version.

Once he returned, he commanded the tests to resume.

The tenth dwarf captive didn ’t die at the start, fortunately.

Instead, two minutes in, his entire upper head exploded for some reason!

It took a lot of time for the technicians to clean up the awful mess and sterilize the neural helmet and testing chair.

Most of the researchers still looked spooked by what happened.
They had never heard of a neural interface inducing someone ’s head to physically explode like that!

Ves laughed awkwardly as he climbed up to replace the firmware with yet another version.
”I think this is a unique reaction due to the deviated physiology of the dwarfs. ”

The eleventh test proceeded soon after that.
The eleventh dwarf captive didn ’t scream, bleed through their nose, or blew up their skulls for no reason.

Instead, he fell unconscious and died quietly seven minutes into the test.
He didn ’t become braindead, but instead died for real as his heart gave up the ghost and stopped pumping out blood.

No one could explain why this happened.
The more squeamish researchers started having second thoughts about this sequence of tests.
Was it truly worth the risk to develop a beast rider neural interface?

What would happen if they switched from a dwarf to a human like Captain Orfan? It was impossible to achieve the exact same results because their genes, physiology and brain structure differed too much.

While neural interfaces ought to work on most variants of human, those subject to more extreme modifications often required their own versions of neural interfaces.
This especially applied to mech pilots with a brain structure substantially different from the baseline human norm.

Nonetheless, short of volunteering their own mech pilots as guinea pigs, Ves had no choice but to resort to dwarves when performing his live tests.
It was akin to using rats or dogs to test medical treatments meant for humans.

They continued on with the twelfth test along with a final firmware change.
Ves held out the most hope for this version because he stripped nearly all of the extra code.

No dice.
The twelfth dwarf captive died even faster than the eleventh! Just like the previous test subject, the twelfth dwarf suffered from the same cause of death!

This pretty much told Ves that his attempts at adding some ’creativity ’ to the programming of the neural interface turned out to be extremely dangerous!Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

No wonder the MTA heavily restricted the development of neural interfaces! It was far too easy to lead mech pilots to their deaths if a mech designer incautiously decided to flex their programming muscles!

”Alright, the third variant is a bust. ” Ves stated lightly.
”Switch it out for the fourth variant and prepare the thirteenth dwarf captive. ”

The fourth variant incorporated some creative elements as well, but not in its programming thankfully.
It was actually the deluxe version of a neural interface as Ves added certain hardware design elements that he ’d seen in the neural interfaces of the Parallax Star and the Pale Dancer.

In theory, the additions should allow for a stronger and more stable connection.
It held a lot of potential, but cost at least a hundred times more to fabricate due to large amount of trace exotics it drew upon!

As the thirteenth dwarf captive started to interface with the fourth variant, the outcome was anything but luxurious.

The dwarf immediately uttered a painful cry.
Through three tortuous minutes, the dwarf managed to hold out until his brains eventually fried.

Ves sighed.
”Well, it seems that money can ’t buy success in this case. ”

He didn ’t change anything about the fourth variant and simply let the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth test subjects undergo the exact same conditions.

He watched with interest as the dwarves each held on for different durations.
The fourteenth dwarf died in just two minutes, while the fifteenth dwarf lasted thirty-seven minutes.
As for the sixteenth test subject, for some miraculous reason he lasted two entire hours without suffering any adverse effects!

”Lucky sixteen! He ’s our first survivor! ”

Only a couple of researchers agreed.
A one-in-four success rate was an abysmal result for a neural interface.
Even if the sixteenth dwarf captive happened to fall in some sort of sweet spot that strangely allowed him to suffer no adverse effects, it became clear that the fourth variant was far too picky to be adopted as their main focus.

Still, they gathered an enormous amount of data from their first successful attempt at interfacing the mind of a dwarf to the mind of a wild god.
Through subsequent tests, they managed to confirm that the dwarf could convey his thoughts to the wild god and vica versa!

No matter if they retired the fourth variant, the successful interfacing attempt at least vindicated all of their hard work.

There was a light at the end of the tunnel!

”Alright, let ’s end the test for now. ” Ves commanded with a smile.
”Pull the sixteenth dwarf captive back and perform a complete checkup of his body.
I want to know everything that has changed since his last checkup.
We might stumble upon some unexpected surprises. ”

Once they brought away Lucky Sixteen, a couple of technicians switched out the fourth variant with the fifth and final variant.

Anticipation grew in Ves as he watched the fifth variant neural interface being slotted in.
Out of all the variants, he placed most of his hopes in the fifth variant!

That was because it was the orthodox neural interface!