Chapter 7225: Worse Than Expected Gloriana had accounted for the possibility that she and her husband would encounter difficulties during the assembly phase of the fabrication run. What happened now that they were working on upgrading the Riot exceeded her most pessimistic expectations! The expert mech being overhauled generated a lot of inexplicable accidents. Parts became misaligned. Electrical components randomly turned online and promptly started to produce problems. A few parts even came loose and almost dropped on top of her head! "This is ridiculous!" She complained! "This has to be Jovy’s fault somehow! How is design philosophy so much stronger?!" "Jovy isn’t the only person at ’fault’, honey. A large reason why the Riot is causing all of these problems is due to the hyper materials we are using. They not only come from the best high-grade stockpiles that we can access, but their attributes are also unstable by nature. Jovy’s work has somehow activated them and made them far more effective than normal. Nobody sane would mix together a bunch of volatile exotics and hypers that are specifically chosen for how many problems they produce. Admittedly, they are generating activity way beyond what we have measured in my tests. I think that there are other factors in play that are further amplifying their dangerous traits." His wife frowned. She did not like it when events did not proceed according to plan. The excessive accident rate had already surpassed safe levels. According to standard workshop practice, they should have suspended their work a long time ago. The longer they persisted, the more they subjected themselves and their work to danger! However, neither Ves nor Gloriana had any intentions of stopping their work. Not when they only needed to complete the final steps before they could finish the physical mech frame. "Wait. Ves, you were responsible for testing the safety of the combined materials when it came to generating unstable metaphysical activity. When did you conduct these tests?" "More than a month ago..." "That was when we had yet to obtain superdimensional alloy formulas that are compatible with archetech." Gloriana said. "Now that we have obtained them, we successfully combined both superdimensional technology with archetech, thereby producing a drastically different result. What we may have overlooked is how these high-end techs may have produced a much greater change in the expression of hyper technology and E-technology than we initially thought!" Ves widened his eyes! She was right! "Damn! I should have thought of that! In fact, the proportion of volatile high-grade materials used in this iteration of the Riot Mark III is higher because I only took superdimensional technology into account. Now that we are combining it with archetech, the proportion of volatile materials is higher, thereby generating more unstable physical and metaphysical activity. However, it shoudn’t have been so bad! I’m not stupid, you know. I conducted extensive tests and experimented with constructs with substantially greater proportions of volatile materials. The current ratios should be well below the maximum safe threshold!" Gloriana grimaced. "You are correct, but your results only apply to regular superdimensional mechs. It is clear that the rules are different when it comes to a superdimensional archemech. My current theory is that the high density and very low proximity of the mixed volatile materials is generating a level of harmful activity that surpasses our flawed assumptions." In other words, it was not just about quantity. The Riot Mark III had turned into a serious hazard because all of the dangerous materials were crammed together into smaller places! This was the root cause why the Riot Mark III’s accident rate had gotten out of hand. "This problem will not last." Ves said. "The structure of his machine is so strong and robust that once we have swapped out the remaining delicate parts, everything that is left should be able to withstand this degree of instability. At most, the Riot Mark III will suffer more frequent accidents in the future that necessitate further repairs and more frequent maintenance cycles." "Then it will be good to keep the Riot Mark III close to us in the Bluejay Fleet. It is irresponsible to transfer him to the Premier Fleet when there are no mech designers or mech technicians over there who are qualified to work on the advanced technologies that we have combined within this volatile mech frame." His wife concluded. The pair began to rack their brains on how to complete the final steps without botching the entire process. Ves suddenly came up with an idea. He immediately turned to Venerable Orfan. "Come closer and press your hand against the exterior of your new mech. Try to commune with your living mech and ask him to keep everything under control. Your willpower and your battle partner’s determination should be able to produce a noticeable effect. It may be enough to complete the Riot Mark III without suffering a major accident that could force us to suspend our work." The expert pilot was more than willing to help. She had grown a little tired after staying awake for so many days, but her willpower along with injecting herself with stimulates still kept her sharp. "I won’t be able to form a serious connection with my Riot without piloting him, but I will try my best." She promised. "Good. You only need to keep it up until we have put the final pieces together. We believe that the Riot Mark III does not harbor any hostile intentions... for now at least. He should be eager to suppress his accidents, but he can do a better job if you leverage your willpower. Forget about the interface. A Blood Pact can work without relying on data channels. Maybe you can accomplish a lesser feat that can still make a difference. This will be good practice for your upcoming attempt to form a pact with your transformed D-mech." The expert pilot did as instructed. She touched her reinvented battle partner and tried to commune with him with her willpower. Despite the lacking instructions, the Riot still possessed a connection to his roots and remembered his battle partner’s force of will. "I can feel the difference." Gloriana said as she couldn’t help but sigh in relief. "The Riot... is partially calming down. I have much more confidence that we can complete the mech frame without any major incidents." "Good. Stay on your guard, though. Let us not rely too much on our assumptions." Ves was able to experience the difference more clearly. The monster of a superdimensional archemech still possessed the ferocity of an untamed exobeast, but Venerable Orfan enabled the living mech to remember his original purpose and his dedication to his battle partner. "He’s changed." She said. "Is this even supposed to happen? None of the other mechs that you have upgraded has become any different as far as I know. The Dark Zephyr is still the same speed junky as before, and the Minerva still exudes the same kind of authority as before, but stronger." "That is because those upgrades are less extreme." Ves replied to the expert pilot. "What we have done is a very radical transformation. What is even more important is that we have implemented a much more drastic conceptual change. The Riot Mark III fully embraces his nature as a proliferator of chaos. We couldn’t do this in the past because we lacked the right conditions. This is not the case anymore. It is not just the new technologies that are making a difference. My capabilities as a mech designer have also grown. I fear... that one of the reasons why this mech has become so much more dangerous is due to an unforeseen synergy." "What synergy?" "I seem to have acquired a talent for making mechs based on negative attributes more dangerous." Ves was not quite sure about that. He intended to investigate this further when he had the time to do so. For now, he could only cope with the current situation and complete the current machine. After a brief delay, Ves and Gloriana completed the final steps with Alexa constantly monitoring the entire mech frame for any impending hazards. Meanwhile, Venerable Rosa Orfan exercised her extraordinary willpower outside of the cockpit for the sole purpose of keeping her machine in check. No major incidents occurred. The mech frame finally reached a nominally complete state. As everyone withdrew, they continued to observe the Riot Mark III for a time, as if they were afraid that the machine couldn’t possibly be so quiet. "I still feel that the Riot Mark III is... off." Gloriana mentioned. "I agree." Alexa said. "I feel like I am staring at a dark forest. I do not feel safe if I move any closer." It was remarkable that the Riot Mark III was able to make them feel threatened when he had yet to convert into a D-mech. That meant that the final transformation would produce a much more drastic result than expected. Ves turned to the expert pilot. "Rosa." "What is it, Ves?" "While I am pretty sure I know your answer already, we still have to do our due diligence and inform you of the risks. Due to various known and unknown reasons, the Riot Mark III up to this point has deviated beyond our expectations. You have observed the reformation of the Riot with your own eyes, so you should roughly have an impression of how much more of a threat he has become." Venerable Orfan slowly nodded. "I am not blind." "In light of this unexpected development, we are presenting you with two choices. First, if you are happy with the current state of your expert mech, then we can stop the fabrication run right here. I can assure you that the Riot Mark III in her current state is functionally complete and perfectly usable. He is already much stronger and more effective than the Dark Zephyr Mark III. In fact, my wife and I are pretty sure that he has become the strongest junior ace mech currently in existence, even surpassing the First Sword Mark III in many aspects." While all of this sounded nice, the expert pilot knew that there was still a final step. "The second choice you can make is to let us transform your Riot Mark III into an experimental and completely unprecedented D-mech." Ves continued to explained. "I have explained what this entails to you before, so I won’t repeat all of that basic information. What is different is that the base mech is already several times more dangerous than we assumed. A process that produces a D-mech will always turn anything bad into worse. If you think the Riot Mark III in his current form is already bad, the resulting D-mech will become a nightmare to pilot in your current state." "Piloting the Riot Mark III as an expert pilot will be a matter of life and death." Gloriana voiced her prediction. "Expert pilots have fairly strong willpower, but we fear that you are not able to cope with the Riot Mark III after he has undergone his final transformation according to our original plan. Ves originally thought the expert mech wouldn’t be as bad as he is now, so he has tried to overcompensate and make the last step extra dramatic. Now, I fear that his preparations for the final step are too excessive. The mech will truly kill you if you cannot tame him on your first attempt. This is especially the case considering we are talking about a Carmine System that will most definitely undergo unknown and potentially dangerous mutations." "...Good." "Pardon?" Venerable Orfan grinned and laughed! "Hahahaha! This is perfect! This is exactly what I want! I already told you that you should hold nothing back! I do not want to stay behind anymore. Only the meanest and most difficult mechs can stimulate my breakthrough! If I fail, then I deserve to die. Only by cutting off my retreat route will I be able to dedicate everything I have to smashing through my bottleneck! Do it! Give me a D-mech that leaves me no other choice but to advance to an ace pilot in order to survive! I am confident that I can get my act together this time! My willpower will become strong enough to tame this unruly beast!" Her fighting intent shot through the roof! Now that the decisive moment had come, she did not shirk away from the fatal risks, but embraced them as if they were her lifeline!