In just a single remote conversation, Ves became utterly overwhelmed by the information conveyed by Hugo Fournier. The batch human revealed that the Cybernetic Empire had dedicated massive amounts of manpower, funding, resources and so on to the development of living mechs and other related products! Although Hugo did not go into specifics on how much progress the so-called Living Machine Tower had made, the fact that it not only had the backing of the Polymath but also employed millions of incredibly smart and well-educated Cybers meant that it probably made a huge amount of progress! Ves did not think it was likely that the Cybers had made too many revolutionary innovations that deepened the foundation of living mechs and living products. He refused to think that other people could make so much progress in a field that he painstakingly pioneered. The Cybers may have been able to cheat by spending so many years inside the spacetime bubble, but time alone should not be able to overcome all of the challenges related to surpassing Ves in his own field of specialization! Ves preferred to think that the Cybers had instead made a lot of strides into broadening and diversifying the field of living mechs. To put it in a different way, the Living Machine Tower was probably populated with mech designers that resembled Alexa Streon much more than Ves. These Apprentices and Journeymen all worked hard to gain the ability to design living mechs, but branched out shortly after they became proficient in the basics. It was not feasible for them to learn his original design philosophy, let alone surpass it. Ves had only ever taught Alexa Streon his complete theoretical frameworks thus far, and even she was not yet capable of replicating his more advanced living mechs. That reduced their threat level in his mind. So long as no single mech designer in the Living Machine Tower was closer to realizing Ves' design philosophy, then they could offer a lot of value to him! They could feed him interesting ideas and assist him in his mech design projects, just like what Alexa was doing ever since she became his direct disciple! And what if he was wrong? What if the Living Machine Tower hosted a few mech designers who aspired to substitute him if he suffered a mishap? What if the Polymath had taken this a step further and nurtured a bunch of mech designers who intended to surpass Ves regardless of the fact that he was still alive? He could easily imagine that duplicitous Star Designer concocting such a scheme just to screw him over! The worst part about it was that she could completely justify her actions. After all, there was only one Ves, and he happened to have a penchant for diving into trouble. It was more than reasonable for the Polymath to prepare substitutes who could pick up his legacy for designing living mechs and complete the endeavor of realizing his design philosophy! Originally, it should be Alexa who was meant to succeed him, but the problem was that she had too little time to learn and develop herself as a mech designer! She could not directly compete against the mech designers who might not possess superior qualifications but possessed a head start that was worth at least a couple of decades! How terrible. All of this was speculation for the time being. Ves did not have a clear understanding of the makeup of the Living Machine Tower. The wost case scenario may not be true, but so long as the possibility existed, then Ves always needed to take it into account. So what if the Polymath sought to raise a mech designer whose sole purpose was to usurp his own design philosophy? Ves would just have to do better! He refused to believe that Cyber mech designers who should at most be a few decades older than him had already surpassed him in his own field. This should especially be the case if they remained stuck in a single star system that was effectively deprived of exotic radiation! It did not matter too much if these hypothetical challengers to his throne could now venture out into the new frontier and soak up lots of new experiences. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖 Just as they were making progress, Ves undoubtedly advanced his progression as well! He just needed to ensure he remained productive in order to stay ahead of the competition. With that set, Ves turned to the more optimistic scenarios. When he realized the enormous implications of the Cybers setting up an entire sector with lots of infrastructure that was solely dedicated to living products, he understood the powerful benefits of this institutionalization of specialized knowledge. These Cyber mech designers had the potential to fulfill a lot of unmet demand! They could also design a huge variety of living mechs with features that he had never conceived of in his mind! Ves would not have to wait until he realized his design philosophy for one of his ambitions to come true. If living mechs became ubiquitous across the mech market, then that would bring him great joy! As far as this goal was concerned, Ves did not care too much if he or other mech designers contributed the most to its fulfillment. If the mech market lowered its resistance to the concept of living mechs, then Ves would be able to sell his products to a much wider audience than before! He could even collaborate with the Cyber mech designers to develop products that could address many more needs than what he could manage by himself. Ves suddenly began to view the Living Machine Tower as the most perfect facilitating environment for himself! It was filled with so many assistants who could work on living mech design projects with minimal input from him that he could get a lot more projects done in a short amount of time. He could almost completely negate his bottleneck on output! Instead of having to design a couple of living mechs at a time, he could complete dozens of design projects in a single quarter! Even if most of them suffered a bit from the lack of personal attention from him, so long as the Cyber mech designers were competent enough, the drop in quality should fall within an acceptable range. Ves just knew that he could get a lot more done if he managed to gain the full cooperation of an entire tower filled with living mech design specialists. He momentarily gained a strong desire to enter Bridgehead One! This Living Machine Tower may have become a holy land for living mech design! This extensive and tight-kit network of research institutions and other organizations should have explored many shallow applications of living mechs. Many of them may be incredibly useful to Ves and many of his customers! No other third party organization had invested so much time and effort into growing and expanding the field of living mech design! It was as if an organization dedicated to furthering the research and development of living mechs traveled back in time! As Ves continued to think about the bottomless implications of the existence of a 'tower' dedicated to his original field of specialization, he briefly entertained the idea of traveling to Bridgehead One. He wanted to persuade every member of the Living Machine Tower that it was natural for him to take charge of their powerful organization. Even if he was not a member of the Cybernetic Empire, the fact that he pioneered living mechs and managed to develop numerous profound applications of it should still put him in the lead! The problem was that Ves was unsure whether the Polymath would permit such dissolute actions. He was not one of her many pawns, but instead a complete wildcard that the Star Designer should never be able to predict with a high degree of certainty! He knew that the Polymath disliked variables like that the most! "Hugo." Ves spoke after a few minutes had passed. He was still coming around to the shocking revelations made by the batch human. "I have so many questions that I don't know where to begin." "I am sure you do, Professor Larinson. We predicted that. Take all of the time you need to absorb the new information. One of the many lessons taught by Her Imperial Majesty is that we should never force ourselves to match her capacity in learning and processing information. If you are feeling overwhelmed, it is always correct to pause your information gathering activity and take the time to digest what you have already gained." That sounded exactly like what the Polymath would say to a population of humans that she intended to brainwash into her loyal subjects. "I can take it, Hugo. I have endured worse shocks and revelations in the past. Let me begin by asking a simple question. What do the members of the Living Machine Tower think about me? Do they adore me? Do they think I just got lucky by exploring a field that had remained untouched by other mech designers?" The cybernetic batch human shook his head. "You are the origin and the first pioneer of living mech design. None of us dispute your accomplishments. Each of us respect you for your many contributions in the field of mech design. We are all latecomers who have taken advantage of your hard work. Many of us possess an affinity for the life attribute, but if you had not worked so hard to turn that into a useful advantage in the mech industry, then none of us would have been able to realize our own potential as mech designers. None of us is ignorant of this, so we deeply honor you and your contributions. Even her Imperial Majesty has made comments about how you are one of the few mech designers who successfully expanded upon the fundamental requirements of mechs." Ves did not like the Polymath, but that did not mean he despised her competence. He genuinely felt pleased that a Star Designer spoke highly of his work. "It sounds like the Living Machine Tower is a great place for me to pay a visit." "We may offer you an opportunity to visit Bridgehead One." Hugo said. "Giving you permanent residency is also an option. Our Living Machine Tower would definitely welcome your presence, but the situation is more complicated than that. There are twelve more towers that are dedicated to other important sectors. They can hinder your entry into our core. The Cybernetic Empire is also currently closed to foreign visitors in general. You may have to wait until we are ready to accept visitors from the rest of the Red Ocean." "I see. Well, there is no hurry. I still have a lot of stuff to do in the new frontier." Ves was not ready to visit the Living Machine Tower and come face to face with all of the mech designers that had followed his footsteps. He also felt it was a bit counterproductive to take advantage of all of the potential convenience offered by this tower. He did not forget that he was a mech designer who thrived in adversity! Rather than traveling to the safest human star system in the Red Ocean, he felt he could make much more substantive progress as a mech designer if he traveled to the frontlines of the war between the Rubarthans and the mutated voribugs! Only by tackling the latest challenge head-on would Ves be able to solve the problems that truly matter and reap the rewards for fulfilling so much urgent demand. In addition, as magnanimous as Ves became as of late, he still possessed a selfish and competitive bone in his body. He did not want to share too many benefits to the latecomers who nipped at his heels! In any case, it would not be too late for Ves to visit the Living Machine Tower and potentially take it over after he had advanced to the rank of Master Mech Designer!