Chapter 7064: Free Trial After Ves concluded his deal with the Web Mistress, a guard led him away from the center of the compound and brought him back to the shuttle. The vehicle then brought him back to the luxury accommodations located in a highly protected location on one of the planets of Yernstall. He remained seated while petting a disconcerted Goldie on his lap. He repeatedly went over his deal with the Web Mistress and tried to think of the implications. One of the consequences of the agreement with the Red Association was that Ves had renewed and reasserted his commitment to partner with the mechers. This was an important gesture and vote of confidence during a sensitive period where the Red Association suffered repeated setbacks. The Red Split and the emergence of a shiny new rival in the form of the Cybernetic Empire had sparked a massive confidence crisis over whether the mechers were still developing in the right direction. Change was already inevitable, but there were multiple different sides that each proposed a different future for their superorganization. On one extreme, there were mechers that wanted to return to the previous status quo as much as possible. They not only advocated for sticking to the old rules that defined the Age of Mechs, but also sought to undermine the Terrans and the Rubarthans as much as possible in order to subjugate them again! On the other extreme, there were extreme reformists and ideologies that argued that the mechers and the fleeters had completed their historic assignments of letting humans recover from the end of the Age of Conquest. Now that the states had become stable and populous enough, they no longer needed to abide by so many patronizing rules anymore. It was best if the Red Two withdrew from direct governance and turned into pure supervisory organizations. Both sides cared a lot about their viewpoints, so their arguments frequently became heated. Although the mechers stationed in Yernstall were professional enough to keep their arguing behind closed doors, Ves could still feel the underlying tension and repressed emotions across the entire planet and central star node. It made him feel as if Yernstall had turned into a powder keg. Ironically, it was the continued presence of Terran and Rubarthan visitors that restrained the mechers from engaging in open warfare. They did not want to embarass themselves by airing out their internal disputes in front of their rivals. The Web Mistress was probably the most sensitive towards all of the discord raging through the ranks. Perhaps she sought to secure exclusivity rights for the first Polymetal mech as a means to give the mechers a distraction. If his ambitious project worked out as expected, then the release of genuine Polymetal mechs would make a lot of mech designers ecstatic! For the first time, they finally gained access to a Carmine mech that was especially tailored to their needs and capabilities. Unlike the Yellow Jacket models that were specifically geared towards the lower end of the mech market, the Polymetal mechs were bound to turn into expensive luxury products no matter the edition. Smart metal was already much more expensive than regular metal alloys, and the various features that Ves hoped to include could drive up the costs even further. Despite that, most mech designers should be able to afford a Polymetal mech as long as they were successful enough. They only needed to set aside a portion of their savings or go deeper into debt in order to obtain a Polymetal mech quickly. The difficulty of learning how to pilot a Carmine mech and how to take full advantage of the smart metal aspects should consume a lot of time and energy! Perhaps playing around with Polymetal mechs may cause the productivity of mech designers to drop, but it would be worth it as first-hand experience in piloting ‘real’ mechs would translate into much more fitting mech design work. In any case, if the Web Mistress was willing to guarantee the Polymetal mech in her own name, then she definitely concluded that its benefits outweighed the costs. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞 This was not a casual move. Once it became known that a Star Designer personally invested in a mech design project started by an associate, it would inevitably attract a huge amount of attention! Fortunately, Ves was already accustomed to the spotlight. He was not afraid of all of the attention. The support of the Web Mistress meant that he did not have to restrain himself in order to appease narrow-minded idiots who questioned every potential innovation. Either the project would succeed or end up producing a failed product. Either way, Ves remained in control, and that was just the way he liked it. His partnership with the mechers should not drown out his voice in his own project. At least he hoped that would be the case. “What do you think, Goldie?” Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m". “Nya?” “Do you think that cooperating with the Web Mistress is the right decision? She has taught me a number of tricks to make your Larkinson Network more robust and harder to exploit.” “Nya nya nya.” “I guess you’re right.” Although the Web Mistress had given him concrete tips and instructions on how to strengthen the Larkinson Network in the short term, they did not go far enough to turn it into a fortress. If Ves wanted to attain this result, then he needed to look for new variables or unusual phenomena that he could leverage for this purpose. That was not a condition he could satisfy in the short term, and that disappointed him. It may take years or decades for him to upgrade the Larkinson Network to a more satisfactory standard. Even then, it may ultimately not be enough. Ves was mainly worried about True God-level enemies for the time being. From the ancient phase whales of the Red Cabal to the mysterious hive queen of the mutated voribugs, each of them had the potential to tamper or ruin the Larkinson Network. However, in about 5 decades, a God King would arrive in their small dwarf galaxy. This was a crisis of epic proportions. Such an enemy would be able to dominate trillions of humans with his immense spiritual presence alone. The gap between ordinary humans and an alien cultivator of the fourth major cultivation rank was so huge that the former could not think of doing else but offer their absolute surrender. This must not happen. The only way that Ves could think of that could make his Larkinsons and potentially all humans maintain their wits in front of this supremely powerful enemy was to transform kinship networks into another variation of support link technology. Just as shield link technology allowed individual mechs to withstand punishing amounts of damage by borrowing the shield energies of other machines, kinship networks had the potential to function in a similar manner. However, there was so much complex engineering behind support link technology that it was not easy to translate all of those design principles in a completely different medium. “At least we can make a start.” Ves was able to recognize that the specific instructions conveyed by the Web Mistress shared many parallels with shield link technology that his clan had recently acquired. Although Ves was not a specialist in energy shield technology, he made sure to study the theory behind shield link technology and energy link technology in preparation for designing first-class multipurpose mechs for the Larkinson Clan. He had always been envious about support link technology that he never thought about reverse engineering its principles and applying them to kinship networks until the Web Mistress directly showed him how it could be done! The knowledge she bestowed to him earlier was so specific and helpful that he definitely believed she had already applied similar solutions to the Red Association’s own kinship network. There was still much to go before a kinship network could truly function in the same manner as shield link technology. Ves recognized that the Web Mistress only gave him a freebie with regards to this major endeavor. She gave him enough to plug the biggest gaps and complete the first step in the transformation. As for the subsequent steps? Ves and the Larkinsons either needed to figure out everything by themselves, or approach the Web Mistress and negotiate for ‘step 2’, ‘step 3’ and subsequent instructions to finalize the transformation of the Larkinson Network into a more helpful and resilient form. The female Star Designer could milk the Larkinson Clan for all of its spare superdimensional matter by stretching out this exchange! That obviously did not sit well with Ves. He preferred to solve the problem in-house. That would not only spare the clan a lot of strategic resources, but also prevent the mechers from embedding secret backdoors into the Larkinson Network. When Ves returned to his temporary accommodations, he began to contact the T Institute and quickly brought its director up to speed on the latest developments. Director Pesca Aduc, formerly of the Aduc Family, looked pensive as Ves issued his latest demands and specifications. “Our cultivation scientists shall do their best to implement the instructions given by the honored Star Designer. From what you have described, the instructions are straightforward enough that we do not need to apply too much critical thinking. It is what comes next that is problematic. You are asking us to engage in a cross-disciplinary research project that will not only demand a large research team, but also research leaders who are highly competent and brilliant. There are not that many of the latter in our institute. Hiring them is also challenging as they are already committed to existing employers.” “So you can’t do it?” Ves asked directly. The director of one of the most important research institutions of the Larkinson Clan did not dare to misdirect the former patriarch. “I did not say that, but it will be a long-term commitment, sir.” She said. “The new matriarch will have to approve a new initiative where we will establish a new research division that is solely dedicated to maintaining, repairing and upgrading the Larkinson Network. We will only be able to assign regular cultivation scientists and research-minded practitioners to it. Without a highly competent leader that can provide clear direction to the scientists, progress will be slow and incremental.” “How do you intend to solve the talent problem, then?” “It is unlikely we will be able to hire the right experts from the Red Association or other groups.” Director Pesca said. “Our only viable choice is to identify promising talents while they are still in school or graduated recently and put them through focused training. Many will fail to live up to our most optimistic expectations, but the handful that do will be fast-tracked so that they can pioneer a new vision for the research division. Their roles should be similar to what you have done for your Design Department.” “I see. That is a reasonable setup, but it will take many years for this scheme to yield solid improvements and results. That is way too long in my opinion. I am not telling you to give up on this, but I think you should still try and see if you can hire a talented and highly capable outsider to kickstart the process of transforming the Larkinson Network.” Both of them understood how vital it was for the Larkinson Network to exist and to become stronger than its current state. “I will draft a proposal and present it to the Saint Commander.” Director Pesca Aduc promised while also reminding Ves that he did not have the final word on this matter. “From my previous talks with her, the new matriarch cares greatly for her Larkinsons. I am confident I can gain her approval and also secure a higher budget if I frame this proposal as a means to make our clansmen safe against the more esoteric enemies we might encounter in the future.” Ves also did not believe that Casella would block such an important initiative, but it was best to do this properly. “Do what you must, director.”