Chapter 3910 Bargaining Chips In the battle between human machines and a terrible whale monstrosity, the latter never gained an opportunity to gain an advantage! From the beginning, the Paracelsus Optimus and her contingent of top mechs utilized a combination of powerful tech and deep familiarity with the combat methods of phase whales to suppress the revived super whale. No matter whether the whale was the completely transformed Cerebral King or the notorious second coming of the Flesh Conqueror, hardly any titanic being would be able to contend against the might of the MTA! The people of the expeditionary fleet all become profoundly affected by the sight of the MTA's strong and cutting-edge battle methods. Many Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers worked with mechs day in and day out. Every mech pilot, mech technician, mech designer and mech fabricator handled a lot of different mechs over the course of their careers. They were all proud of the second-class mechs they came in touch with. A few models even impressed them. The Larkinson Clan in particular had a lot of excellent mechs that captured their imagination such as the Valkyrie Redeemer or the Everchanger. Yet compared to the MTA mech models such as the Interstellar Harpooner that could inhibit the movement of the largest phase whale to have ever existed in the Red Ocean, the mechs of the Larkinson Clan looked like toys! So what if the Valkyrie line could inspire death? So what if the Everchanger could project a million different glows? All of these gimmicks would not be able to shake an enemy force at the height of the MTA units fighting in the Garimel System at the moment! Ves had always known there was a huge gap in strength and capabilities between his own forces and that of the Big Two. As a mech designer, he could easily imagine the differences in his head or perform more objective comparisons by performing a lot of calculations, but these means were rather abstract, so they did not hit home as much. This was different. Nothing about the ongoing battle was theoretical. Against a huge super whale that could easily smash apart the entirety of the Golden Skull Alliance by relying on brute force alone, the MTA easily contained the threat! "We still have much to go before we can catch up to the best." Ves sighed. He felt both humbled and hopeful. One day, his mechs would be able to reach or even exceed the might of the MTA. He was certain that he would get there sooner or later as long as he continued to work hard and expand his horizons. What was more important was that his efforts in the coming decades and centuries would determine how long it would take for him to close the gap. He didn't want to take too long to become a Master Mech Designer or Star Designer. He was fed up with getting caught up in major events that involved massive interests without having any leverage to stand up for himself! While Ves managed to lower his head to the MTA Survivalist Faction and obtained their backing in exchange for concessions, this was not a long-term solution. "If I want to have the right to speak, I need to be able to design mechs that exceed the ones fighting against the super whale!" This was an extremely ambitious goal. The mechs in the fight were all based on powerful models designed by numerous excellent Masters. They weren't only powerful because the designers utilized the most expensive materials. They also utilized their own design abilities to implement fantastic solutions based on mature and proven design philosophies. The gap was too big! "I need to learn how to design first-class mechs before I can set my sights any higher." Ves no longer thought about achieving his ambitions in a single leap and went back to earnestly observing the MTA's combat methods. "Their linking technology is too strong." The more he looked at how the mechs were able to share resources among themselves and their mothership, the more he recognized it as a great approach for the MTA to compete against the CFA! Compared to large and brutish battleships, mechs were a lot more flexible and versatile. Of course, the downsides of mechs were also serious, but many of these awful shortcomings no longer became a hindrance as long as shield links and energy links came into the picture! "Why hasn't the MTA standardized and propagated this tech as of yet if it's so strong?" Ves wondered. He could understand why the mechers were so reluctant to hand too much power to space peasants, but he hadn't seen the MTA employ this specific tech in many battles. "Perhaps… it's not mature yet. It's too new and it still has several major flaws." Once Ves got over his wonder of linking technology, he understood that there were several major problems. First, these shield links could only be propagated through straight beams. As long as an enemy knew how they worked and had time to prepare, it was not impossible to block or distort the trajectories of these beams! In fact, the inability of these linking beams to reach targets that were outside of the line of sight of their projectors heavily limited their usability. It would be too hard for a starship in orbit to provide linking support to a mech that was fighting indoors or underground! Second, only specific mechs that were built with linking technology in mind were able to receive external boosts. Given that the MTA did not choose to implement the modules that were able to receive or transmit the linking beams, adding this functionality to mechs evidently imposed a major cost. As long as an enemy force specifically targeted these linking mechs first, it became a lot harder to amplify the performance of an entire unit! Third, the biggest source of strength to the mechs in the field was the 7-kilometer long battle carrier that was not too far away from the thick of the battle. The range of the linking beams was evidently limited or else the Paracelsus Optimus wouldn't have moved so close to the fighting. "Despite all of these flaws, the effect is still strong!" As long as it enabled mechs to wield power far behind what their own frames could provide, it was worth it! The tech had already proven its potential. The specialists working on it just had to develop it more in order to make it more mature for widespread adoption. Ves looked thoughtful. "If the rumors about the CFA granting pioneers limited permission to field warships are true, then releasing linking technology might be the MTA's response to that. The last thing the mechers want to see is everyone downsizing their mech forces so they can play with much more powerful warships instead." The MTA was filled with smart people, so it definitely developed numerous answers against the challenges of its archrival! These games were too far away from Ves, and given the high demands of linking technology, it was probably too impractical to apply them to second-class mechs. However, what if he came up with his own spin on linking technology? As the MTA continued to leverage the advantages of different links, Ves became more and more inspired by their effectiveness. Didn't Ves already implement his own form of 'links'? Through the implementation of design spirits, battle formations and spiritual networks, he had already created new forms of linkages that essentially allowed mechs and mech pilots to derive strength outside of what they possessed by themselves! The ubiquitous design spirits that Ves easily added to all of his mech designs already granted each of his mechs a portion of the strength and influence of powerful entities. The Valkyrie Redeemer would never have been so celebrated if it was not linked to the Superior Mother! His other spiritual solutions such as battle formations were more expanded implementations of spiritual linkages. He just called them spiritual connections or spiritual bonds in his mind. No matter how he labeled these spiritual implementations, it did not change the fact that they shared many parallels to the linking technology employed by the MTA! Ves slowly grinned. "The biggest difference between the two is that my own set of solutions are all recent innovations." Combined with the fact that they were purely spiritual in nature, many of his powerful solutions had fallen through the cracks of the MTA's rules! From a strict perspective, a design application as destructive and powerful as battle formations should have been prohibited by the MTA. However, since battle formations were too new, Ves believed that the current rules that never took such possibilities into account did not prohibit them in particular! What made battle formations as well as his other spiritual formations even more difficult to regulate was that they were all immaterial by nature! It was a lot harder to regulate technology when they only existed in a spiritual form that the vast majority of people could not perceive or touch. As long as Ves and his clan did not go overboard when utilizing battle formations and such, he believed that the MTA would be willing to maintain a blind eye to them at the very least. After all, the mechers were probably eager to master these new forms of linking and power sharing as well! He gained a bit more confidence after this realization. He was not a hapless Apprentice anymore who had no chips to bargain with. Although he was only a Journeyman for now, his most successful design solutions already had the potential to change the way that humanity made use of mechs! This granted Ves with at least a bit of leverage! Some bigshot from the MTA would definitely summon Ves for a meeting once this entire incident had passed. He could already guess that whatever happened next would have a profound influence on the trajectory of his life as well as his relationship with the MTA. Given all of the drastic changes that were in store, Ves needed as much leverage as possible to get closer to his desired outcome! "The Mech Trade Association isn't easy to deal with at all." He grimaced. As if emphasizing this point, the MTA force fighting against the super whale suddenly changed their approach. Up until now, the 3000 mechs along with the support from their battlecarrier succeeded in suppressing the super whale. That didn't mean they were able to defeat the super whale, though. The enormous monster seemed to possess an endless amount of energy. After figuring out that the mechs wanted to whittle it down over time, the super whale directed much of its energy to regenerating its wounds! As an organic super monster, how could the creature lack a means to heal its own wounds? By making use of the formidable regeneration power of its highly developed body, the super whale easily healed all of the cuts, burns and missing bits of flesh inflicted by the mechs. This instantly added another dimension to the battle! If the Paracelsus Optimus and her mech contingent weren't able to make their damage stick, then this one-sided engagement would gradually turn into a battle of attrition.𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮 This was not good news for the mechers! "They need to bring out the big guns if they want to defeat the super whale." What will the commanding officers decide? The most obvious answer was to set the mechs aside and allow the Paracelsus Optimus to pound the super whale with her formidable primary armament. There was no way the super whale could endure the full power of those formidable-looking warship turrets! Yet Ves did not think the MTA was prepared to take this course of action. The mechers already put a lot of effort into employing their mechs in a fight that was not entirely in their favor. Resorting to the CFA's favorite means would be a form of ideological defeat that would cast a large shadow in the hearts of many supporters of mechs. No, if the commanding officers wanted to obtain a beautiful win, then they needed to present an answer that fully aligned with the goals and aspirations of the Mech Trade Association! A minute later, that answer finally appeared on the battlefield. One additional mech launched from the Paracelsus Optimus and quickly blasted towards the super whale. As the mech continued to accelerate forward, a distinctive corona took shape around its frame. Then, this corona expanded. So much power radiated from the mech that Ves and many other observers widened their eyes. They recognized this phenomenon! "Ace mech!"