The process of activating the P.P. was fairly simple.
After Master Willix fiddled with the configuration, she commanded Ves to approach the device and put his arm through a slot that opened up at the base of the pylon.
An energy clamp suddenly held him in place while so sort of force tugged at his mind and spirit!
"AAHHH! WHAT THE HELL?!"
The P.P. generated so kind of energy field that was very disturbing to Ves! Not only that, but so of the neutral spiritual energy stored within the depths of the obelisk flowed out and enveloped his body.
Despite its neutral quality, the foreign spiritual energy was very high quality and therefore quite painful to co in direct contact with. Ves felt as if he was subrging his head in a pot filled with boiling water!
"Endure, Mr. Larkinson. This binding process will fail if you put up too much resistance."
This painful process lasted for up to half a minute. By that point, the neutral spiritual energy receded into the pylon, taking sothing extra in the process!
The process ended quickly after that. The binding that held his arm in place disappeared, allowing him to pull it out. He quickly took a few steps back as he looked fearfully at his P.P.
"What was that?!"
"That is the P.P. extracting so of your psionic power. It hurts because it is damaging to you. While you will recover in ti, I advise you to avoid playing with other P.P.'s until you have recovered from this experience. This may take months or years."
As Ves recalled what took place at the end, he realized that the neutral spiritual energy sohow managed to siphon away so of his spiritual energy!
Ves lost enough to constitute a small spiritual fragnt. If he knew this would happen, he would have carved it out on his own accord and just handed it over to his P.P. without any fuss!
He looked quite sour.
"Are P.P.'s dangerous?" He asked.
"They can be. If you bind just one of them, then there is no concern. It is when weaker ch designers beco greedy and want more that will pose a problem. ch designers who are in need of large amounts of funds think that using P.P.'s is a convenient ans of expanding their market presence. Reaching more custors ans higher sales, which in turn leads to higher revenue. However, binding too many P.P.'s consecutively will permanently damage their psionic power. For you and your partner, one should be enough. There is no need for your ch company to extend its effective market reach beyond the Yeina Star Cluster."
She was right. In the future, his design focus would be oriented around the Red Ocean's ch market. Ves only wanted to maintain a presence in the Komodo Star Sector and the surrounding region because the LMC was already rooted here. He also wanted to make sure that his father and the Larkinson Family would be able to make use of his products at their pri.
Ves cared little about selling his chs to the rest of the galactic rim. While he was sure that his glows were desirable enough to be in high demand in many more star clusters, he doubted that the LMC would be able to control so many regionalized operations at once.
Perhaps he might have a chance if he continued to reside in the galactic rim, but since he and his entire clan would be leaving for the Red Ocean, the distance was too great to do anything more.
In a way, he agreed with Master Willix's underlying ssage. Journeyn such as him shouldn't be too eager to enter into markets he had no business touching in the first place.
Instead, he should develop himself honestly and advance his design philosophy. Once he advanced to Senior or Master, a lot more markets opened up to him without ssing with any P.P.'s.
According to Master Willix, only Masters were truly qualified to compete against the entire ch industry!
While Ves already tasted the benefits of selling his chs to a large number of states, he knew he couldn't be too unbridled in his expansion. Already, the competition in other star sectors was pushing back hard against the encroachnt of LMC chs. His ch company didn't have the energy to fight back against too much organized opposition.
He turned his attention back to his activated P.P. Now that it took so essence from him, Ves perceived so mysterious transformation taking place inside its depths. Soon, the pylon's technological components started to activate.
A powerful wave of spirituality spread from his newly-bound P.P.!
His P.P. spurted several tis as it kicked into gear. Eventually, it achieved equilibrium, causing it to propagate weak but very familiar waves that extended across vast distances.
The pylon copied his design seed's ability to extend its influence across a huge distance!
Another way to look at it was that his P.P. turned into his surrogate. It turned into a serviceable substitute for his physical presence!
Master Willix called up a console and studied the data supplied by the pylon.
"The binding process has succeeded. From now on, you can depart to the Red Ocean without the concern that your business empire in your native star cluster will collapse."
Ves relaxed. He was glad it succeeded in one shot. He didn't want to repeat this experience!
"What happens to my P.P.? Will I need to take care of it myself?"
"That won't be necessary." She shook her head. "We will ship it to our cluster headquarters."
"Not Centerpoint?"
"No. Your P.P. is a cluster-wide model. It is not optimal to store your P.P. in this star sector due to its remote location. The Winged Serenade Star Sector sits in the center of the Yeina Star Cluster. Placing your P.P. here will ensure your design philosophy affects the most territory that matters. You don't need to be concerned. The Komodo Star Sector will still fall under its range."
Now that Ves completed the process, they withdrew from her ch workshop. They entered one of her offices in order to discuss other matters.
"Mr. Larkinson. I have extensively examined your lessons on your design philosophy. I have also analyzed the extensive footage, logs and other data of your latest battle. I've developed nurous questions."
"Ask away."
She proceeded to ask so tricky and insightful questions. Ves had to reach deep into his design philosophy in order to clarify her confusion.
Even though she was still incapable of designing living chs, her theoretical understanding of his design philosophy had caught up very fast!
In so instances, her questions opened so angles to him that he hadn't even considered. This provided so useful avenues for future research!
Once they finished the question-and-answer session, Master Willix moved on to her remaining obligation.
"Now that you have concluded your wedding and surrendered your captured warships to us, my presence isn't needed anymore. I will be returning to Centerpoint soon."
That was both good and bad to Ves.
On one hand, Master Willix was one of the most effective protective talismans that he possessed. She was one of the scariest guard dogs in the galaxy. As long as she was nearby, not a single pirate or enemy dared to launch an attack on him, especially when she showered him with so much favor!
On the other hand, Ves continued to feel uncomfortable about doing anything when the MTA was close enough to look over his shoulders. No matter what deal they struck, their different identities ensured they would never be completely aligned!
"Does that an that you will contribute to our planned expert ch design projects by remote?"
She nodded curtly. "Your Darkbreak module is secure enough to allow us to collaborate without concerns. Let's move onto the projects themselves. Have you developed any ideas on the chs you ideally wish to realize?"
"Well, I don't have any solid draft designs, but I have sounded out the expert pilots who will receive work and take stock of my available resources. Overall, I want to start with designing high-tier expert chs right away."
He elaborated on his expectations while he transferred so of the files and docunts he prepared to Master Willix. It soon beca clear that he intended to incorporate a lot of first-class materials.
"These materials are very remarkable." She raised her eyebrow. "Do you know the value of what you hold?"
Ves smiled at her. "There is little sense in hoarding them. I can think of no better use for them than this. At this ti, my partner and I have to go through a lot of effort to design an expert ch. Since we are able to collaborate with you for a ti, I don't want to waste this opportunity to design so basic models that will only serve their purpose for a couple a years. I want to invest in the developnt of our high-ranking ch pilots as much as possible, and providing them with high-performing expert chs is a necessity!"
She understood his rationale, though she didn't entirely agree with him. "High-performance expert chs are very difficult to utilize effectively when their intended users are still just starting out as expert pilots. While you are correct if you only consider the long-term outcos, in the short and dium term, your expert pilots must constantly struggle to channel the raw power of their extraordinary machines."
The problem appeared to be greater than he initially thought. It was like handing over an extrely expensive musical instrunt to a beginner artist. The individual in question wasn't proficient enough to make full use of such an extravagant device!
Even so, Ves still believed his course was correct. He would rather deal with this problem than face the prospect of having to design a new set of expert chs to replace the simpler machines down the line.
"It's not cost-effective to go for the traditional route. First, I am pretty sure that all of our expert pilots under our care will be able to progress faster and with fewer hindrances than others. Second, since we only employ Journeyn at best, we have to find an external Master to collaborate with, and that will cost millions of MTA rits that I can't afford to spend."
That last reason was the most important one to Ves. He may be swimming in MTA rits right now, but he earned every single rit through blood, sweat and tears. He did not relish going on another dangerous campaign in order to harvest another batch of rits!
She seed to realize this as well, so she no longer attempted to discourage him. She just wanted to ensure that Ves beca aware of the consequences of his decision.
"Let's talk about the process of our collaboration." She moved on. "You told that you wish to maintain as much creative control over your expert ch design as possible, is that correct?"
He nodded. "I want the expert chs of our clan to reflect our unique strengths, not yours."
"The quality of your expert chs will not be on par, then. You will be wasting a considerable amount of potential of the materials you put into your expert chs."
"I am confident that Gloriana and I can continue to iterate on the designs over ti."
"Very well, then. Personally, I approve. While you may have been tempted to rely on my formidable design abilities to maximize the performance of your expert chs as much as possible, you will not be able to gain as much from their developnt. Your choice also minimizes my ti commitnt, which is also a boon."
Of course she would ntion that.
Ves also hadn't forgotten about the original reason why she agreed to collaborate with him. She wanted to witness him apply his design philosophy and proprietary thods to his ch designs up close. He wouldn't have much room to do so if she was doing most of the work!
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