Aside from designing chs, Ves could strengthen the Larkinson Clan in other ways.
While his recent priorities left him too busy to spend his ti on other priorities, his ch design projects had finally reached an advanced stage.
Ves, Gloriana and Juliet had already settled all of the difficult design choices. All six ch designs currently under developnt beca functionally complete to the point where it beca viable to fabricate so prototypes.
At this stage, the role of Journeyn was not as crucial anymore. Ves could simply assign so design teams to borrow a production line to fabricate a prototype before testing it whenever the fleet transitioned out of FTL travel.
Ves only needed to return to the design lab once the prototype testing sessions yielded the necessary hard data. That was when he needed to comb through all of the solid proof in order to derive solutions to the problems the simulations had overlooked.
If his assistants beca more competent, then Ves didn't even need to spend much ti on optimizing a ch design through this thod. He could simply set an overall direction and let the design teams perform lots of calculations and simulate a lot of different outcos to obtain a solution.
They weren't here yet, though, but Ves was hopeful his assistant ch designers would catch up once they obtained so augnts.
The Braves who took part in the Nyxian Gap Campaign could technically redeem a set of free second-class augnts straight away, but each of them chose to keep this option in reserve.
Not a single ch designer was stupid. They knew that the opportunity to upgrade their genes and to integrate their brains with cranial implants was an irreversible choice. While the gene mod templates and implant models offered by the Larkinson Biotech Institute were pretty decent, they were not considered high-end.
Those who upgraded earlier gained an imdiate boost in capabilities. This would allow them to upgrade their productivity by several tis, thereby allowing them to earn much more Larkinson rits.
However, in the future, their rash choice to settle for diocre augnts would likely bite them in the butt! Any colleague who waited patiently and obtained better augnts would eventually overtake the early birds!
Of course, ch designers shouldn't delay their augntation too long. Once they turned middle age or older, they already passed through the ti where they could have developed rapidly. They also had less ti to make use of their augnted capabilities.
What was even more important was that the Design Departnt wouldn't be able to squeeze as much work out of these slowpokes!
Therefore, every ch designer working for the Design Departnt had to make their own judgent about the right ti to augnt themselves.
Every assistant currently knew that the Golden Skull Alliance was heading for the Life Research Association to recruit so augntation specialists. Therefore, choosing to augnt themselves now was too premature.
"We should wait a couple of years until the new augntation experts have settled down."
"A couple of years? We should wait at least a decade! Our clan will be much richer at that ti. We'll also be in the Red Ocean where we have access to much better tech!"
"A decade is too long. We'll be in our forties and still be stuck as assistants."
"It's not as if extra genes and a brain chip can turn you into a Journeyman. There is much more to it than that."
The design team vigorously discussed this issue. More and more assistants beca convinced they needed to wait until the Larkinson Clan found its footing in the Red Ocean before they chose to augnt themselves. So were even willing to wait 15 or 20 years in order to ensure they obtained the very best the clan had to offer at that ti!
Suffice to say, this was a huge delay, not just to the ch designers in question, but also to the Design Departnt.
Ves did not want to see his assistants remain stuck at their baseline human levels for two whole decades!
He discussed the problem with Gloriana when they returned to their grand stateroom in the evening.
"ow.."
Lucky, who had finished another shift as Calabast's sniffer, plopped tiredly on Gloriana's lap.
"Miaow!"
Clixie, who wanted to settle on Gloriana's lap as well, angrily pushed Lucky's body away before claiming the prized spot herself!
"ow?"
Before Lucky could push Clixie out of the perch he claid, a different cat squashed onto his back.
Nyaaaaa!
Goldie knew that it wasn't proper for her to materialize in the view of others, but she had less qualms about showing up in Ves and Gloriana's personal ho. The monitoring system here was completely closed and the bodyguards such as Nitaa and the rest were all trustworthy.
In fact, Ves didn't have to obfuscate Goldie's existence anymore. It was easy to mistake her as a personal avatar.
Seeing that their cats were having fun, Ves summoned Bygul through his comm.
The electronic cat instantly appeared into existence.
[w.]
The other three cats instantly froze and stared.
"Miaow."
Nyaaaa?
"ow!"
Before a jealous Lucky could swipe his claws at the latest cat, Ves issued a warning.
"Stop that! Bygul is here to stay. Get along with him, or else!"
Now that Lucky, Clixie and Goldie beca preoccupied with Bygul, Ves turned back to his wife and continued to explain his concerns.
"The majority of our Braves and Erudites lack aningful augntations. Their productivity is too low as a result. I want to encourage them to augnt themselves as soon as possible. Each year that passes while they remain pure is another year that passes where they can only perform a tenth of the work they can accomplish if they are brought up to a better standard."
Gloriana frowned a bit. "You can't force our assistants to make this choice sooner. To us, it's not a big deal if they settle for cheaper and lower-performing genes and implants. In a couple of decades, we can recruit another batch of assistants and foist higher-performing augnts on them. Yet the obvious disparity in performance will upset many of our older ch designers. They aren't objects, Ves. They're people. If they have a choice, they don't want to ruin their future prospects for an imdiate boost."
"We're not ruining their future." Ves retorted. "Newer gene mod templates and implants are released every day. Technology is constantly advancing forward. My Archides Rubal implant is in fact several centuries out of date compared to the implant models the CFA currently have access to. While I am upset about the fact that I missed out on those fancy toys, I simply don't have the qualifications to obtain them. I chose the lesser of two evils and improved my productivity to such a degree that I can design more chs and progress my design philosophy much faster than before. This is a worthwhile result."
His words did not manage to convince his wife.
"That's easy for you to say. You don't need to put yourself down. Even I envy your Archides Rubal sotis. The amount of data you can store in your mind is ridiculous! While my Erestal-015 is much more geared towards ch design, it's already out of date. The Erestal-016 implant model has already co out a few months ago. Do you know how that makes feel?"
Technology was inherently in flux. People always wanted more. Better and better products ca out all the ti. Ves was not surprised to hear about the release of the Erestal-016.
If not for the fact that Tito Biosystems's current product catalog did not feature anything directly comparable to their ancient Archides Rubal model, even Ves would feel frustrated about the fact that a portion of him was becoming obsolete!
They turned back to the issue regarding their assistants.
After a bit of thinking, Gloriana ca up with a suggestion.
"It's in our best interest if our assistants augnt themselves quickly. While our Design Departnt will benefit if they obtain better augnts, it's more important that they obtain them quickly."
This had to do with the law of diminishing returns. When the performance of an implant was already good, a model that was only 20 percent better might cost at least 10 tis as much!
The ludicrous aspect about this phenonon was that this pattern continued all the way to the top segnt of the implant market. The implants utilized by the Big Two and the first-rate states were unimaginably huge, but their effective performance was not insanely better than second-class implants.
Therefore, from the perspective of a state or organization, it was much more worthwhile to buy affordable products in bulk.
Yet Gloriana recognized that individuals didn't see it that way.
"Our assistants don't care too much about achieving the best price-to-performance ratio. A good set of genes and implants directly affects their future accomplishnts. To them, it is very much worth it to pay 100 tis the price of a normal offering in order to obtain an augnt that performs twice as good. As far as they are concerned, the benefits they receive as a result of their choice will definitely pay off in the later stages."
"That sounds good, but they can't afford it." Ves noted. "They'll have to work at least a couple of decades before they can obtain these high-end augnts, and that brings us back to our problem."
"Isn't the solution obvious, then? If our assistants can't afford better augnts, why don't we subsidize them? It will be expensive for us, but it will pay off in the end considering the assistants will pass on the benefits back to us. It's no different from investing in better hardware."
"Thiss…"
"If you are concerned about getting taken advantage of, then offer them a deal." She continued. "Back in the Hegemony, this is not an unusual practice among so of the ch companies and design studios that I have gotten in touch with. Regular Hexer ch designers can't afford an implant like my Erestal-015, but they can obtain sothing that is almost just as good by signing a contract with their employers."
That sounded interesting to Ves. "What do these contracts stipulate?"
"Oh, the usual. The employer promises to invest in the ch designer. In return, the ch designer gives up so rights and agrees to work for the employer on a long-term basis. The ch designer herself may not be valuable when they sign a contract, but once she has improved, she can continually deliver a lot of benefits to her employer. In the end, the latter will earn a lot of profit from this transaction, but it's okay, because the ch designer has benefited as well."
This was a win-win arrangent. While the employer was definitely taking advantage of the ch designer, it was not to the point where the weaker party would feel upset. After all, gaining a fantastic implant upfront simply wasn't possible without forking a lot of capital.
Ves developed a new augntation contract as a result of this discussion.
The deal was simple. The Larkinson Clan would invest in so expensive genetic treatnts and implants to improve the capabilities of a ch designer.
In exchange, the ch designer promised to work for the LMC for at least 50 years or longer depending on the prices of the augnts.
The ch designer also gave up a bunch of rights and privileges. This ant that they gave up a proportion of their future earnings and could not refuse certain jobs or assignnts.
What Ves cared about the most was that the contract also stipulated that any ch designer who advanced to Journeyman or higher would not be entitled to any shares in the LMC!
Fortunately for them, Ves hadn't made any changes to the Exemplar Plan. Regardless of whether they signed an augntation contract, anyone who perford well enough would still have enough incentives to push themselves.
Once Ves unveiled this plan to the Design Departnt, it was if a bomb had detonated.
Pretty much every assistant ch designer, from Ketis to Dukan French, signed the contract shortly after they understood the terms!
Ves knew that as long as his clan reached the Red Ocean, his ch designers should quickly be able to augnt themselves. At that ti, the the design capabilities of the Design Departnt would skyrocket!
In fact, Major Verle and a number of other leaders took inspiration from the augntation contract. They were already coming up with their own versions of it in order to upgrade their other personnel!
The biggest downside to this developnt was that the Larkinson Clan might not be able to afford all of these expensive augnts!
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