The Mech Touch

ed brats didn ’t have the stomach to expose themselves to greater risks.

Participating in a hunting trip with assessable risks was already prestigious enough to impress those who didn ’t have the guts to do the same.

”Well, at least there are some hunters who are doing it out of the love for the hunt. ”

Ves respected the genuine enthusiasts and professionals in the hunting community.
They weren ’t in it for a season or two, but dedicated their entire lives to the challenges.

”In every hunt, something can always go wrong. ”

No matter how much the hunters planned ahead and calculated the risks, something catastrophic could always happen.

Perhaps a single attempt may not lead to anything unexpected.
However, if hunters continually reentered the hunting zones, then one day they might bite off more than they could chew.

”Of course, the real hunters don ’t go into carefully-managed hunting zones. ”

Within the hunting community, the hunters who earned the most prestige consisted of those who entered newly-discovered untamed planets and hunted exobeasts that had never been hunted before!

The competition of earning a ’galaxy first ’ achievement for bagging a novel exobeast species turned out to be quite intense.
A lot of hunters even joined treasure hunting expeditions to the frontier just so they could encounter and hunt down exotic new alien beasts!

Naturally, these hunts were a lot riskier due to the lack of information.
Hunting a completely new beast often meant going in blind.
At best, they might squeeze in a few days or weeks to observe their prey and assess some of the dangers.

Earning these so-called galaxy first achievements didn ’t interest Ves very much, but he understood its appeal to others.
It was very difficult for space peasants to find meaning in their lives once they became aware of how little they mattered in the galaxy.

Being the first ones to hunt a formidable species of exobeasts was a good way to leave a mark behind.

Ves felt the same way about his works.
Thousands of years from now, he ’d probably be dead.
Much of the details of his life would fade away with the passage of time as human civilization moved on from the past.

The only legacy that he left behind was his work.
As long as he advanced to Star Designer, Ves was assured that his mechs would be remembered and recorded into history for eons!

”Reaching Master is not enough! ”

Although Masters enjoyed an immense amount of prestige in today ’s society, there were too many of them to remember them all.
Only the most exceptional and outstanding Masters might stand a chance of lasting longer in people ’s minds than the more inconsequential ones.

If Ves truly wanted to leave a permanent mark behind in the galaxy, then he had no choice but to reach the pinnacle of mech design!

”Designing the Devil Tiger will help bring me a little closer to that height. ” He smiled.
”Isn ’t that right, Lucky? ”

”Meow. ”

”It ’s a long road, I know, but I think this little step will be a very meaningful one. ”

Ves resumed working on his Devil Tiger design.
Studying the immense Crown Cats of Felixia gave him a lot of inspiration on how to develop a deadly predator in the form of a mech.

His mech became more refined, graceful and threatening.
Mech designers took inspiration from nature all the time, and this was no different.

Ves merely had to be careful that he didn ’t straight up rip off the contours, skeletal structure and musculature of a single Crown Cat.
What worked for exobeasts didn ’t necessarily work for mechs.

He also wanted to maintain ownership of his own design.
If he copied too many elements from exobeasts, then did he truly understand his own design? Ves had to justify every adjustment and avoid changing something just because it would look closer to one of the awesome-looking Crown Cats.

In addition, Ves also had to work with the peculiar properties of ASMAS.
Armor and structural integrity posed significant challenges to him.
One of the fundamental downsides to smart metal was that they weren ’t able to offer the same degree of protection as conventional armor systems.

His Devil Tiger partially compensated for that by utilizing substitute ASMAS that incorporated a lot of possible materials.

If the owners fed the mech something cheap, then the substitute ASMAS being formed would hardly be able to withstand a dent.

If the owners manage to scrounge up something more valuable, then the amount of damage the Devil Tiger withstood rapidly increased.

Ves envisioned a situation where the Devil Tiger may start off modestly but slowly accrued patches of exceptional protective sections.
As long as its mech pilot or owners found a couple of chunks of medium or high-grade exotics, then the quality of substitute ASMAS that functioned as its exterior armor continually crawled upwards.

It might take years or even decades of scavenging, but as long as the Devil Tiger avoided getting trashed entirely, it could become a very formidable mech!

”Sadly, it can ’t completely rely on itself to upgrade all of its systems. ”

The Devil Tiger he envisioned fell short of a mech that could autonomously upgrade and evolve every aspect of itself.
The more crucial and delicate systems such as the neural interface and various other critical functions had to be fixed components that couldn ’t be substituted by any form of smart metal.

This meant that the owners of the mech had to replace old and outdated parts with newer ones over time.

Ves shrugged.
”Even with this shortcoming, it ’s not too big of a deal.
As long as the Devil Tiger itself consents with the upgrade, this can easily be accomplished. ”

At its heart, the Devil Tiger was still a mech that decided its own fate!

Ves wanted to create a mech that held the upper hand over the humans who piloted and sent it into battle.
He took great pleasure in bringing such a machine into being that subverted the rules.

”Normally, the humans are in charge, but this time they are not! ” He grinned.
”Anyone who thinks they can treat my Devil Tiger as a machine they can use and abuse will be in for a very harsh lesson! Hahaha! ”

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