Ves did not object to the fact that Jovy stood a better chance of winning because he would be able to field his competition ch with a superior MTA ch pilot.
He had already made Jovy uncomfortable enough with the shalessness of his previous terms.
Perhaps not even Master Willix imagined that Ves would take so much advantage of his opportunity to set the terms!
If he went any further, he might push Jovy's forbearance to the point of snapping!
Fortunately, Ves did not make Jovy's life more difficult from this point. Both of them quickly agreed on the remaining terms.
First, the tech they were allowed to implent in their chs would be limited to publicly-available third-class components. Anything was allowed as long as they stayed within their budgets.
One caveat was that the materials used in the ch design had to be sourced from Cinach VI. This ant that Jovy wasn't allowed to incorporate so obscure, unknown exotic that was only known to the MTA and a select few people!
Second, they had 3 days to design their respective chs. Both of them had to design their chs from standard components, which ant that they were not allowed to save ti by making use of prefab parts that were commonly used in other design duels.
Both of them weren't Apprentices anymore, which ant that neither Ves nor Jovy needed any training wheels to whip up a functional ch design in 72 hours!
Previously, Ves designed competition chs where he had access to a catalog of complete legs, arms and other large systems. This saved a lot of ti, but gave the ch designer much less room to showcase his comprehensive design ability.
Third, when it ca to fabricating their competition chs, Jovy opted to materialize his ch with the help of the Ubiquitous Force in a matter of minutes. He was used to relying on materialization technology to make his chs and disliked resorting to cruder production thods.
This was sothing that Ves vehently disagreed upon. "My design philosophy is based around life! How can there be any life in a ch that is assembled like a clone?"
In the end, Jovy agreed to give Ves two days to fabricate his ch in the workshop they were in right now. While two days was cutting it a bit short, with his formidable Assembly Skills, he was sure he could get it done in ti, especially when it ca to a low-budget ch!
Amusingly enough, Master Willix admonished Jovy yet again.
"I will allow you to stick to your chosen thod this ti, as Mr. Larkinson is evidently the first ch designer you have t who has refused to make use of materialization technology. He has a good reason to do so. It is no surprise that he has beco a masterwork ch designer at such a young age. For your own good, I hope there won't be a next ti."
"I understand." Jovy bowed. "I will endeavor to practice the traditional thods of producing chs after this duel. I will make a masterwork ch too one day!"
Materialization technology was very convenient. As long as a ch designer had access to a materializer with a sufficient supply of materials, they could simply upload their design and press a button. A brand-new ch that conford exactly to the design schematics would soon appear without any further need to intervene!
It seed that Jovy was too spoiled and had beco so dependent on materialization technology that he wasn't confident that he could beat Ves in traditional fabrication.
He was right to think so. Publicly, Ves had created two masterwork chs. Secretly, he actually created three!
Regardless of the exact number, his affinity for chs had definitely risen! It already took a formidable mastery in fabricating chs in order to make masterwork chs possible. As Ves actually succeeded multiple tis, his fluency, intuition and judgent in this area had grown so formidable that even an elite MTA Journeyman like Jovy lost his confidence!
Arguably, materialization was still the superior option in most cases. Yet there were certain ch designers like Ves or Gloriana who lost far more than they could gain by taking the human elent out of the equation!
Aside from these terms, they also chose their ch pilots who would act as their champions beforehand.
The selection was only limited to regular ch pilots, so Ves chose Joshua Larkinson without any hesitation.
As for Jovy, he picked a random MTA ch pilot assigned to the Ubiquitous Force. To make it as fair as possible, the pilot he chose was just as young as Joshua.
A final term that Ves had specifically requested was to deactivate the use of implants. While Ves was very pleased with his implant, it was still an outdated storage model from the CFA.
There was no way that Jovy possessed an inferior implant! Even a modest MTA implant provided an imnse boost to his design abilities!
Ves might as well roll over and give up straight away if both of them were allowed to make use of their implants.
Although the request sounded extre considering that both of them relied a lot on their implants, this was not actually a strange request.
If ch designers were allowed to make full use of their cranial implants in ch duels, then most competitions would essentially be determined by who possessed the better one! The greater the difference, the more the results would be skewed in this fashion!
Jovy assud that Ves possessed a bog-standard second-class cranial implant. If that was the case, then the disparity was simply too big!
"Okay." Jovy nodded in agreent. "The Ubiquitous Force already has implant limiters on hand."
These were all the terms for their design duel. Only at this point were both of them prepared to compete against each other!
They shook hands.
"Good luck, Mr. Larkinson. Even if you fight at a terrain of your choosing, you have already lost. My skills aren't limited to high-class chs."
Ves did not think that Jovy was overestimating his chances. Regardless how uncomfortable he felt, a good ch designer was still a good ch designer no matter the circumstances!
"Be prepared for a good fight."
That was all he said. At this point, Ves still did not have enough confidence to win. However, as long as there was a chance, he might as well do his best!
The competition started in a couple of minutes.
In order to level the playing field, any interfering factors had to be moved away. A group of bots dispatched from the Ubiquitous Force lifted the Statue of the Superior Mother and moved it away. Another group of bots covered the Blessed Squire in an opaque field and moved it away as well.
The subordinates under Master Willix would continue to inspect the masterwork ch inside the MTA frigate and complete the certification process by the end of the duel.
The bots also delivered the so-called implant limiters.
Gloriana approached Ves as he sat on a chair held the thumb-sized gadget and placed it on his head.
"Ack!"
Soon enough, Ves imdiately let out a gasp and felt as if he lost half his mind!
The partial digitization that he had grown familiar with abruptly disappeared. The transition was so sudden that Ves montarily felt his normal thought operations crashing into dead ends.
Familiar routines and commands that relied on the functionality of his Archides Rubal no longer worked!
"So this is why they gave an hour of preparation ti." He muttered as he rubbed the side of his head.
Gloriana sat next to him and pressed up to the side of his body. Her airy scent imdiately filled his nose, which distracted him from his disordered mind.
"This is your first ti wearing an implant limiter, so you must be feeling awful right now."
"I feel as if soone literally scooped half of my brain!"
"It's okay. Just don't think too much and calm yourself. Let guide you. It's easy to return to normal once you develop a specific ntal routine."
She expertly guided him to rebuild his own thought patterns that he used to depend on before he received his implant.
It only took half an hour for Ves to gain a asure of confidence in his cognitive functions.
"This is.. a lot more severe than I thought." He comnted.
"In upper society, we humans have beco so dependent on letting our implants do the heavy lifting that it has beco dangerous. Implant limiters were initially developed to combat this dangerous state and to prepare against occasions where the enemy has hijacked the implants in so way."
"I can see how that is prudent. If my implant suddenly shut down in the middle of a crisis, I would be flailing around while nursing the biggest headache of my life!"
Ves spent over a year with the Archides Rubal and imdiately fell in love with all of its formidable functions. The partial digitization of his mind had increased his productivity so much that he couldn't imagine living without it anymore!
He automatically assud that his new, improved state of mind was a permanent upgrade.
However, this incident reminded him that nothing was foolproof! Even though he voluntarily placed the implant limiter on his head this ti, that might not be the case in the future!
If soone hostile intended to cripple him by latching such a device on his head, then he would definitely be incapacitated for a long ti!
"I have to get so implant limiters on my own and get used to living without my cranial implant."
"You don't have to obtain a limiter for that. Your implant already cos with an off switch."
"Oh. I never realized that. Thanks, Gloriana."
Though Ves lost his biggest tool in ch design, he was still confident he could design a workable third-class striker ch in 3 days!
He had taken part in competitions before, and back then he could only dream of cranial implants!
This design duel should have been familiar territory to him. Though he hadn't dueled anyone for a while, Ves still believed he was capable of designing a ch in haste!
"Have you figured out your strategy yet, Ves?"
"Hmmm. Not really."
"Uhm, the design phase starts in less than twenty minutes. Your opponent must have already ford a detailed sketch of his design in his mind!"
"I can figure that out once I am sitting in front of a design interface." Ves waved away her concern. "Right now, it's more important that I form a strong vision and select the right design concept."
"So.. are you going to retread our old work and try to design a stripped down variant of our Doom Guard design?"
Ves shook his head. "Mr. Armalon will be expecting that. In truth, I expected him to object to my choice of ch type. The fact that he still let my choice through ans that he's either confident he can counter any Doom Guard-derived design, or he is very familiar with striker chs in general. I just don't know!"
Up until now, Ves still didn't know Jovy's design philosophy.
"Master Willix is aware you're not familiar with your opponent. She lent a file that contains so details on his design philosophy and prior works."
Gloriana activated her comm and projected a docunt. Ves read through it and discovered that it was a heavily-truncated record of Jovy Armalon.
He imdiately directed his eyes towards the fellow's design philosophy.
His eyes widened.
"So this is his design philosophy?! I never expected this from the MTA!"
It turned out that Jovy possessed a Class IX design philosophy, the sa as Ves!
One thing was for sure. Jovy was not a rational ch designer! He could never be one with a design philosophy as odd as the one stated in the record.
In order to get an impression on how Jovy applied his design philosophy, Ves manipulated the projection until they displayed so of his ch designs.
Almost all of them consisted of first-class multipurpose ch designs!
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