Chapter 7354: Relying on Shortcuts

Published Mar 10, 2026, 05:23 PM

Chapter 7354: Relying on Shortcuts Ves and the other Larkinson mech designers debated on whether they should turn their work into a more mystical direction and borrow the power of a design spirit. "For once, I prefer to complete a project without resorting to ’magic’." Alexa Streon quietly voiced. "I believe that our science and ingenuity is in no way inferior to the task at hand. Everything has a solution, we merely have to work hard for it. The setbacks we are enduring right now exist as motivations for us to reach beyond our familiar tools and develop new ones in order to fulfill our ultimate goals. If we rely too much on shortcuts, the integrity of our work will suffer. We will end up creating a device that is not under our full control and do not fully understand. Is that truly what we want?" The former Terran brought up a number of important issues. Her philosophical question demanded a proper answer. "I am inclined to agree with you, Alexa." Ves gently said. "Your arguments are not without merit. It is indeed a rather cheap and lazy move to rely on the power of life and design spirits to circumvent the problems that we are currently unable to resolve. However, the results matter more than the process at this time. We do not have an unlimited amount of time and endless resources at our disposal. Our expertise is not comprehensive enough and we do not have a lot of processing power on hand." His wife reluctantly agreed. "We have entered into an implicit competition right now. The first party to successfully reproduce the phenomenon of stolen resonance will earn both renown and recognition. If we want to raise the reputation of our Larkinson Clan and make all of the major parties take us more seriously, then we need to prove that we can complete this difficult assignment faster than everyone else. We can perfect and refine our design solution over time. We are still in a very early stage of exploring stolen resonance technology. Expecting to design a proper and more perfect solution in the first weeks is unrealistic." That must have been a difficult admission for a woman and a mech designer that constantly demanded perfection in her work. However, she was not as young and naive as before. Having worked on many design projects under many different circumstances had caused her to become more in tune with reality. Every mech designer faced constraints that prevented them from designing the absolute best mechs. Gloriana recognized that it was better to strive for the best that she could manage under the limitations imposed by herself and others. Ves turned to the other mech designers in the meeting room. "What about you guys? Do you have anything to say?" Neither Ariana Roux nor Kelsey Ampatoch wanted to take a stand. "I am sorry, sir, but my contributions are not important enough to matter. I am okay with either proposal." "My opinion is the same as hers. I am not particularly obsessed with trying to succeed, but it would be nice if we manage to be the first to win this ’competition’. I will support whatever decision that you make." Ves ended up exchanging glances with Gloriana. Both of them understood each other well enough to understand their choices without needing to convey them with words. "Alexa, we have listened to your well-intentioned words, but have decided to take advantage of the power of Titania anyway." The director of the Design Department eventually declared. "It is true that we are relying on an external source of power to conveniently make up for our shortcomings, but our clan already has a history of depending on design spirits.`’ Ves concurred. "Design spirits are not detrimental to us. Instead, they are the opposite. They are one of the not-so-secret weapons that our clan has always relied upon to leapfrog over problems that stump other mech designers and publish mechs that give consumers a chance to harness power beyond their usual means. Think of what innovative machines such as the Valkyrie Redeemer, the Ferocious Piranha and the Doom Guard have done with the help of their design spirits and their glows." Alexa did not possess a strong hostility towards design spirits to begin with, so her adversarial position was not that strong. She inclined her head in acceptance. "Very well. I accept your proposal, sir. How exactly will we make use of Titania?" "We will need to redraft our original plan and try our best to design a massive totem of our chosen design spirit. We need to do our best to maintain discipline and avoid adding superfluous features. Speed is of the essence. The other research teams are not lightweights. Even if they are not the best, they can still rely on abundant remote support from numerous research institutions. They are much better qualified to pursue proper solutions than us. The only way we can get ahead of them is to give Titania the best possible stage to exercise her power." Titania was one of the design spirits that Ves had not worked with as often as others. He still lacked a bit of familiarity with her, but that did not mean he was reluctant to tap into her capabilities when the situation called for it. Every design spirit had a purpose. Once the meeting broke up, they all went to work. Ves and Gloriana quickly made changes to the tentative design that required all of them to change their work approach and make a large amount of changes. In order to ensure that their giant totem was able to establish a proper connection to the design spirit, Gloriana deployed her companion spirit and united everyone in a single design network. Alexandra’s red spiritual threads connected to every participating mech designer’s brain and caused them to become a lot more united than before. This effect looked familiar. "Wait." Gloriana said. "Do you think that the Ixith Goliath relies on a version of our design spirit to connect all of the sentient organic components into a single hive mind? Is this the secret to coordinating an entire distributed intelligence?" The idea sounded interesting, but Ves quickly shook his head. "No. The design network is different from the central influence exerted by the Mentalist Crystal. My first-hand observations of the Level 8 Goliath does not support your theory. I cannot easily describe what I felt when my other self fought against the research specimen, but I can tell you that a design network is not the way to go. Your network is a means for free thinkers to share their complicated thoughts and allow others to understand them on a more intuitive basis. The ’network’ used by the Ixith Goliath seeks to synchronize the SOCs as much as possible and crush any form of individuality that they may possess." His wife looked intrigued. "That sounds familiar to the work of a certain Master Mech Designer that you have often drawn inspiration from in the past." Ves responded with a sardonic smile. "Now that you mention it, you are right. We can reference his works if we end up hitting another wall, but I do not think that a design solution applied to mechs can be transplanted to our current project." They continued to work while leaving this possibility in the back of their mind. With the help of the design network, the mech designers worked a lot smoother than before. It did wonders to know what others were doing and what their works relied upon to fulfill their functions. They wasted less time on resolving misunderstandings and more on productive work. Soon enough, they cobbled together a very rudimentary totem out of a messy combination of smart metal, conventional components and a massive central willpower chamber. The latter was so large that its height almost touched the ceiling of the private workshop! "Couldn’t you have made it shorter?" Ves idly complained. "I could have, but I calculated that the results will not be as good as we would like." His wife calmly responded. "The Mentalist Crystal of the original Ixith Goliath closely matched that of a sphere. I think it is important for our artificial version of it to maintain the same dimensions as much as possible. That unfortunately leads to this outcome. I tried to make it as large as possible while still being able to fit within the dimensions of this chamber. If not for this restriction, I could have made it twice or thrice as tall, thereby ensuring a stronger effect." It was a good thing that they were merely trying to produce a proof of concept. Otherwise, a CWC of this magnitude may not be sufficient for their needs. "Let us proceed with doublechecking everything before we commence our initial trial." The mech designers proceeded to do just that. This was an unprecedented construct. It may look and behave completely differently from the captured Ixith Goliath, but it was theoretically a machine that was able to generate stolen resonance, if only reluctantly! Ves and the others had conducted enough studies and spent enough time on figuring out their theoretical model. The work they just completed represented the culmination of their hasty efforts. Due to the luxury of not needing to solve every major problem, they easily managed to outrace every other research team in the escort fleet. While the other researchers did not share every secret about their own works, they still tended to brag and boast about some of the accomplishments they made. This gave him an overall sense on how far they progressed. He believed that even the best research teams had yet to reach 75 percent completion in their own projects! This realization made their experimental attempt all the more significant. Though it radiated a fairly presence of Titania, as long as it worked, anything could be excused! Ves already communicated his intentions with the design spirit. It took a bit of bargaining, but he managed to get Titania to agree to exert a significant amount of power to facilitate the functioning of the device. She needed to do her best to make it work even if she had to expend far more energy on it than she did on a typical living mech! Once everyone withdrew to safety and stood behind their personalized work stations, Ves and Gloriana finally enacted the activation sequence. The totem that had been shaped to resemble Titania back when she roamed the Red Ocean as an astral beast began to emanate weird energies. Ves could feel that the SICs that he had bestowed with life en masse became more agitated now that they were being fed with electrical currents. The central willpower chamber also began to come online. This was a huge and arcane device that Gloriana had somehow puzzled together in record time. Ves had tried his best to understand how it worked, but he didn’t have enough time to conduct an in depth study. He could only hope that Gloriana had done a good enough job. "The central willpower chamber has begun to activate the remnant willpower source." Gloriana said. "It has yet to resonate with anything. It needs to form connections with the SICs." "Then let us do that next." Every element of the massive device started out isolated from each other. In order to activate it, the mech designers needed to form many different connections between every component. This was an area that Titania excelled at. The device started to form both data connections and spiritual connections between the central willpower chamber and the SICs. It all looked overwhelming. Ves was afraid that the CWC or the SICs might not be able to endure the sudden loads, but so far the data readings looked stable. The connections gradually become stronger and more concrete. Despite all of the activity, the design spirit somehow kept everything organized. It was beautiful. Ves felt as if he was witnessing the performance of a symphony instead of a cacophony. The critical moment had come.

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