"Where is Lucky?" Maikel curiously asked.
"He has a day job now. Don't worry about him." Ves dismissively answered. "Anyway, let's talk about your recent progress. I've studied your test results and looked at your practical performance. First, let say I appreciate your progress. Your coursework is very onerous. Compared to what I had to learn, your workload is at least eight tis higher. According to Gloriana, a typical ch design student at Kelma University has to maintain a similar pace as yours."
"Does this an I'm the best?"
Ves softly knocked his fist against Maikel's head.
"Ouch!"
"Don't be arrogant! Gloriana achieved much better scores and completed many more courses than you did in the sa amount of ti. There's a reason why she has managed to beco a Journeyman so early. If you want to beco just as good as her, you need to motivate yourself to work harder. I can't push you along. Do you understand?"
"Uhm, I'm already studying as hard as I can manage. If I increase my workload any further, I think I'll burn out. The other ch designers I've spoken to have told that it's better for to maintain my current balance."
Ves looked closely at his student. The adolescent Larkinson did appear a bit more frazzled than before.
He inwardly sighed. He was demanding way too much from his underlings. Ves was so used to working harder that it was hard for him to understand the limitations of those who didn't enjoy his advantages.
Ves rembered that he used to be much worse than Maikel at the sa age. Back before he obtained the System, he was nothing more than a baseline human with average intelligence compared to his fellow classmates. He did not even co close to matching Patricia's brilliance.
It was different now. The Attribute Candies obtained from the System along with his Archides Rubal implant had completely transford his learning ability. What took years for other ch designers to absorb only took a couple of weeks for Ves to internalize. This was not rote morization, but true mastery.
If not for the fact that Ves had his hands full with his design projects, he would have reserved so ti to supplent his knowledge base by reading so of Aisling's excellent textbooks.
For a mont, Ves thought about bestowing the sa advantages to his students. While he boosted their Intelligence to 1.6 by feeding them so candies, he didn't want to improve their cognitive abilities too much for fear of distorting their personalities.
Already, Ves was able to ascertain that Maikel and his other student Zanthar experienced so personality changes. Their constant exposure to other ch designers along with all of the knowledge they learned had made them more eccentric. Already, they developed obsessions related to their chosen specializations.
That last part gave Ves a bit of a headache. While Zanthar's interest in maximizing firepower was easily satisfied by allowing him to observe a Transcendent Punisher up close, Maikel was not as easy to develop.
The Larkinson Clan possessed plenty of living chs. Even though the various ch forces had retired all of their third-class chs, they hadn't gotten rid of them all. There was ample space to store so obsolete chs as backups or as future museum exhibits.
Ves even allowed Maikel to examine excellent living chs such as the Quint and the Shield of Samar up close. Both chs were spiritually enhanced to over 150 Ves, which ant that they possessed more life than any other machine that Ves had seen!
Despite exposing Maikel to chs that were brimming with life, his student didn't seem to have gained much insight from these sessions.
Apparently, blindly showing Maikel around was not the right approach. If Ves wanted his protege to make so progress in his formative years, then he needed to find a more effective solution.
"Maikel, how much progress have you made on your personal frawork?"
"Uhmm…"
Ves looked sharper. "I hope you haven't spent all of this ti on your studies and on drooling over my products. No matter how much benefits you derive from the work of others, you are ultimately only copying soone else's work. A true ch designer can never be a true professional as long as he keeps admiring existing work. The whole point about our profession is to generate new work. We are creators, not gawkers."
"I-I-I'm aware of that, teacher, but it's hard to get started on this topic. I know what I want, but I don't have a starting point. I have spent hundreds of hours with your chs, but I still haven't figured out why they are alive. When I compare any LMC ch to a comparable ch designed by a competitor, I haven't identified any components that instill any special qualities to your products."
"The applications of design philosophies transcend material reality. This is especially the case for a design philosophy as abnormal as mine. You are looking in the wrong places if you think that my chs are alive because they possess a unique physical component or sothing."
The young student lowered his head. He looked frustrated. "Then what am I supposed to do? I have tried to study your work from multiple angles. I even borrowed so biology textbooks from Dr. Ranya in order to understand how traditional life is put together. None of it has worked so far. I'm just as clueless as before."
What a thorny issue. Ves had no choice but to take a step back and think about this situation.
Maikel wanted to design the sa kind of living chs as Ves, but that was not practical. Unlike Ves who possessed spiritual perception, Maikel was practically blind to spirituality, which ant he would never be able to manipulate spiritual energy with precision.
The reason why Ves allowed Maikel to grope in the dark was because he wanted his student to find a thod that suited him most.
So far, the results were rather lacking.
While a ch design student did not necessarily have to develop a frawork or a design philosophy before graduation, Ves expected better from his proteges. The earlier they found their own way, the sooner they could work towards becoming a Journeyman.
He began to think how he could accelerate Maikel's snail-like progress. He did not want the kid to waste years of his ti on ineffectual explorations.
It seed he needed to provide more targeted direction. In hindsight, he may have been asking too much from soone who wasn't even a fully-fledged ch designer.
"What do living chs an to you?" Ves asked.
"They're powerful. They have glows. They are responsive to their ch pilots. They are really magical and completely different from any other ch." Maikel instantly answered.
Unlike most ch pilots and ch designers, Maikel's obsession for LMC chs rivaled that of Joshua's. Both of them were aware of the key traits of every ch designed by Ves!
"That's a good answer, but that's not entirely what I'm asking. You are just describing the properties of my work. What my question is truly about is your personal interpretation of what a living ch should be. Forget about what I think about living chs. This is about you now. You can't keep referencing my work all the ti. You are different from , so you should hold so diverging opinions. Tell what a living ch truly needs."
His inquiry caused Maikel to look uncomfortable. Compared to soone who practically invented living chs, whatever Maikel thought about them was doubtlessly embarrassing!
"Are you ashad?" Ves probed.
"Maybe…"
"Don't be. You're an aspiring ch designer. Not only that, you're my student. There is nothing shaful about exposing your own work and revealing your own thoughts to . I can't adequately guide you if I don't know where you stand. As your teacher and ntor, I would never judge you if you say anything wrong."
After a bit more coaxing, Maikel finally voiced one of his views.
"Well, I have looked at a lot of living chs. They're really good and all, but.. there's one area I don't really agree on. I've been reluctant to ntion this to you because it's not an appropriate opinion. I'm afraid that others will think differently of if I voice this view."
"Go on." Ves smiled as he tried to adopt a gentle persona. "You can trust with your thoughts, no matter how controversial they might sound. Even if I don't agree with you, I won't interfere with your choices. ch designers should have the confidence to pursue their own agenda even if everyone tells them they are wrong. It'll be harder to achieve success this way, but once you accomplish sothing, your impact will be as great as mine."
His encouraging words loosened Maikel's guard. After a bit of internal struggle, the younger Larkinson finally relaxed and spilled his view.
"According to you, a ch is alive when it is able to bond and be more responsible to the ch pilot. While I have heard plenty of stories about this, I think this effect is too subtle. In the symbiosis that you establish, the ch pilot acts as the brain while the machine acts as the brawn. The result is that the ch pilot is always in charge while the ch is mainly relegated to an assisting role."
"That is by design." Ves nodded. He appreciated how Maikel succinctly summarized the relationship between man and machine. "chs are products that humans use to fight their enemies and accomplish their goals. The MTA and much of humanity doesn't like it if chs aren't subordinate anymore. Others don't consider chs to be alive, so they are very reluctant to hand over any significant decision-making power to them. Just like AIs, chs can go astray if their programming and design are faulty."
Maikel sat up straighter all of a sudden. "That rule doesn't apply anymore! Ordinary chs may be as untrustworthy as AIs, but living chs are different! Have you ever thought about entrusting them with more power? What if they can act on their own? What if they can cover for the areas that their ch pilots are weak at? With two different living minds controlling the ch instead of one, the results should be much better!"
Of all of the views that Ves expected to hear, he never thought that Maikel would dig up the old autonomy debate.
Ves looked a bit more uncertain now. "I can see why you have been reluctant to voice this view. It goes against what is in your textbooks and what I have taught to you. chs aren't supposed to be autonomous, Maikel. chs aren't human and cannot be trusted to act in our best interests."
"Is that really true?" Maikel asked. Now that he exposed his thoughts, he no longer felt timid. "These rules and paradigms about keeping chs subordinate to their human masters are outdated. While I admit they are still valid when it cos to other chs, I don't think we need to be so careful anymore! Living chs are intrinsically different. Isn't that what you say to all the ti? We can't cling to our old assumptions and blindly follow every rule. We need to rethink everything about living chs in order to unearth their potential. As far as I'm concerned, not making use of their intelligence is a missed opportunity!"
What a controversial view! If Maikel voiced this exact opinion to Master Willix, she would probably smack his face until he lost all of his teeth!
The MTA never liked to allow chs to think for themselves! Whether a ch designer aid to grant partial or complete autonomy to their ch designs, the ch industry always pushed back against these products!
A proper ch must always answer to a ch pilot. That was the rule and custom in the ch industry. Ves really didn't know whether he should approve of Maikel's current train of thought!
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