The Mech Touch

Chapter 4067 Phased Contributions

The MTA research team became so excited by what happened that they suspended the rest of the experiments planned for the day.

Ves and the others spent their time on analyzing the data of the previous experiments. The case where the latest test subject broke through provided a wealth of data that could help them understand the capabilities of the MSTS and possibly increase the chances of generating other breakthroughs.

The prototype Tutor Project had become a lot more interesting than before. Newly empowered after receiving a heap of spiritual feedback, the living mech had come a lot closer to becoming a third order living mech.

”Itʼs a pity that it is just a prototype.”

As valuable as the mech may be, it would always remain flawed and incomplete in his eyes. While third order living mechs were valuable, Ves felt it was against his principles to make serious use of a product that was only built for testing purposes.

Fortunately, the MTA was eager to take his prototype mech off his hands. Ves spoke for a while with a few of the MTA researchers aboard the Alacritous Stork about using the current prototype to induce other breakthroughs.

The discussion came to a halt as soon as Stimmons teleported back into the control room.

”Mr. Larkinson, I have news for you. Let us move to a private chamber so that I can convey our Masterʼs new instructions.”

They moved to a private office where they both sat down next to a desk. The MTA Journeyman was still brimming with excitement, which meant that the news he was about to share shouldnʼt be too bad.

”First, let me make it clear that Master Dervidian is highly pleased with your progress. While your decision to branch out into mech training simulation systems sounds rather random, the results you have achieved so far are impressive, especially since you have built your MSTS from scratch by yourself. We see great potential in your innovation and wish to see how far you can take it. We would like to obtain a batch of your new training mechs so that we can study its properties and see how viable it is to reproduce what has happened under many different circumstances.”

Ves already expected that the Transhumanists would show this kind of reaction. It was hard for a faction that has always sought to further human evolution to remain unmoved in the face of an invention that could produce breakthroughs under more controlled circumstances!

”What do I need to do and what do you expect from me?” Ves asked as he wanted to know whether his latest accomplishments added any additional burdens to his plate.

”We do not wish to move too quickly with regards to your MSTS.” Stimmons reassured him. ”This is a new form of simulation program and we know far too little about it compared to conventional simulation programs. We are also aware that it is relatively early in development and that it may take many years for it to be complete enough to promote its use across human space. For now, we approve of your intention to hide its full potential and capabilities and cautiously extend its use for its initial purpose in providing mech cadets with a different and potentially more effective form of training.”

That was good news to Ves. The MTA already understood his situation and did not force him to change his original plans.

The initial reason he came up with the MSTS was because he wanted to give his new line of training mechs additional value that could not be matched by the competition. He more than met this goal this time! Visit ꜰʀᴇᴇᴡᴇʙ)ɴ(oᴠᴇʟ. ᴄᴏᴍ, for the best no_vel_read_ing experience.

As such, Ves was not that eager to flesh out his MSTS as it would take a long time before he could achieve any drastic progress.

He wanted to proceed with his original goal of completing his Tutor Project and publish his promising new training mech model!

Once the completed Tutor Project went on sale, many different mech cadets would begin to make use of the MSTS.

All of these connections and all of the spiritual simulation sessions would provide Ves and Vulcan with a wealth of data. They could monitor the use of the MSTS, observe whether there were any problems that they did not notice beforehand.

For example, there may be extremely rare glitches that could only happen at a frequency of 1 per billion training sessions. It was practically impossible to catch these bugs before Ves chose to release his training mech model!

While Ves was still committed to testing his spiritual training program with the test subjects provided by the MTA, it took way too much time and effort to completely verify the safety and proper functioning of the MSTS.

If Ves wanted to complete this ambitious project in a timely manner and move on to newer and more interesting pursuits, he had to release his Tutor Project once he gained a reasonable amount of confidence.

He just hoped that the early adopters of his completed Tutor Project model did not mind serving as his beta testers!

Ves already understood that this was what the Transhumanists wanted to see as well. They could perform as many tests as they wanted with their own test subjects, but it was much easier to obtain a vast quantity of real usage data by distributing his training mech to the public.

”Are there any limits to how I can proceed with the utilization and subsequent development of my MSTS?” He asked. ”My new training program is an independent invention. Once I release the Tutor Project and see that its users are doing fine, I plan to add the ability to engage the MSTS to my other training mech designs.”

In fact, Ves also planned to add this valuable new feature to all of his Larkinson-exclusive mech designs going forward, but he did not see the need to mention that at this junction.

Stimmons transmitted a document to Ves. ”We do have a list of rules and restrictions that we expect you to abide by. As we have seen in previous test cases, your Tutor Project and your MSTS can produce damaging and even fatal outcomes to mech pilots when improperly handled. The circumstances that happened today should not be repeated elsewhere unless we give our explicit authorization. Do you understand?”

”I do.”

Much of the reason why the Tutor Project and the MSTS produced extreme positive and negative results during this session was because of the unbound neural interface.

If they attempted to perform the same tests with a safe and legal neural interface inside the cockpit of the Tutor Project, then nothing drastic would happen in all likelihood.

There was no way that Ves would be able to gain a foothold in the market for training mechs if his products frequently caused accidents!

Stimmons explained a few additional rules. None of them bothered Ves that much since they were mainly established to prevent him from screwing around with his mechs in order to produce additional breakthroughs under highly dangerous circumstances.

The MTA was not looking for another solution that promised to help mech pilots advance in rank at great risk of their lives!

The true holy grail was accomplishing this feat with zero danger to the mech pilots in question!

Since it would probably take a lot more research and development to reach this point, the Transhumanists were willing to be patient and let Ves improve his MSTS at his own pace.

In any case, Ves was just as eager as the MTA to turn his revolutionary new spiritual training program into a tool that could make any mech pilot break through on demand!

After providing Ves with an entire lecture on prohibitions and safety instructions, Stimmons finally revealed how much this contribution was worth.

”Given the promising but highly rudimentary state of your MSTS, Master Dervidian has seen fit to award you with 35,000,000 MTA merits.” Stimmons officially announced.

That… was quite a big reward for a product that Vulcan had made over the course of a single design round!

However, when Ves thought of the amazing potential of his invention, it did not sound nearly as much as it was actually worth!

After all, who else could claim to invent a simulation system that could not only induce breakthroughs at much higher ease, but also give expert pilots and expert mechs an opportunity to shine in a safe environment?

”This is only the first phase of your reward.” Stimmons said as if the MTA already anticipated his reaction. ”Master Dervidian will continue to monitor the progress that you have made with the MSTS. Whenever you have achieved major progress, he will review your work and grant you additional MTA merits when he sees fit.”

”I understand.”

This was a clear signal that the Transhumanists wanted Ves to continue his work on the MSTS. Both sides knew that it would probably be difficult to achieve a lot of progress in a short amount of time, so the offer was quite open-ended in that regard.

Now that they got all of the official stuff out of the way, Ves and the MTA research team resumed their experiments and continued to explore the limits and the dangers of the MSTS.

Ves had to fabricate a new prototype of the Tutor Project since the previous one had changed too much after receiving a lot of spiritual feedback.

Once they resumed testing on a fresh mech, the subsequent results werenʼt as astonishing.

A lot of test subjects broke down and suffered varying degrees of brain damage as they endured great pressure in the spiritual simulation battles.

Not many of them possessed spiritual potential and even fewer of them were anywhere close to advancing to expert candidate!

Any attempt to force a breakthrough on them was as foolish as trying to empty an ocean with a single bucket. It just wasnʼt possible!

One of the more notable negative outcomes was whenever Helena went overboard and scared the test subjects a bit too much!

The mech pilots all came out traumatized after getting the biggest fright of their lives. It would probably take considerable effort for them to recover and realize that they were never at risk of dying in the first place!

”Damn, sister.”

After the fiftieth mech pilot screamed as the injury feedback from the Tutor Project fried the nerves in his brain to the point where he could never interface with a mech again, Stimmons finally ended this sadistic run.

”Let us see whether it is possible to induce breakthroughs when the Tutor Project and the MSTS are restored to their safe parameters.”

The MTA Journeyman tinkered with the neural interface of the Tutor Project and reinstated all of its standard safety settings. The man also instructed Ves not to make the simulated battle scenarios too outrageous.

Just as expected, the subsequent testing sessions did not yield any exciting results. No matter how close the test subjects were to breaking through, none of them ever received enough of a push to tip them over.

The safe version of the Tutor Project put hard limits on the degree of immersion, so the mech pilots were unable to go too deep with their man-machine connections.

In addition, the battle scenarios were a bit tamer as well. While a lot of enemies still tried their best to destroy the simulation mech, Ves had commanded Helena to tone down her influence to avoid scaring people senseless.

While none of the test subjects suffered any significant mental or physical damage during the subsequent experimental sessions, the benefits were only marginal this time.

Ves was not unhappy with these results. Both the Tutor Project and the MSTS had reached an adequate level of safety and effectiveness. It was too difficult to improve the latter without compromising the former, so it was best not to mess around any further.

In the end, Ves received the verdict that he was aiming for when they finally wrapped up their experiments.

”Master Dervidian is satisfied with the safety of your new inventions.” Stimmons said. ”You can proceed with selling your products to the public and allow them to experience the benefits of your new training mech and training system.”

”Great! I have been waiting to hear this answer.”

Ves could finally proceed with opening up another promising income stream for his clan!