The Chance Bay Masterwork Gallery charged a lot of money to its visitors.
Ves hadn't been happy about paying 20 MTA credits just to obtain entry for him and his wife. Though the both of them genuinely appreciated the masterwork chs on display, he would have preferred to not to pay the equivalent of more than seven Bright Warrior chs just to get inside!
Sure, he beca happy again when he explored all of the interesting masterwork chs and the stories behind them, but he always felt that the company behind the gallery was ripping off its custors.
In his opinion, the gallery could have easily accommodated more visitors if it set more reasonable rates. The increase in volu would have more than made up for the drop in revenue per custor. There was so much free space in this enormous gallery that Ves could easily imagine it filled with lots paying guests!
"It's probably a prestige thing or sothing." He grumbled.
As a ch designer who mainly focused on the upper end of the ch market, he was no stranger to this marketing approach. Perhaps Masterwork Galleries might indeed be on to sothing here. It could be that selling tickets wasn't actually the point. Since these exclusive venues mainly attracted ch designers and to a lesser degree ch pilots, the true objective might be to form connections with its powerful clientele.
Whatever the case, none of these considerations had anything to do with Ves. What mattered was that he was a victim of the gallery's marketing strategy. He had a feeling that he and his wife weren't supposed to be here at all, and that the ticket prices were set so high just to deter cheapskates from polluting the air of this floating masterwork palace structure.
The sporadic Masters and Seniors floating through the halls completely ignored the two young guests. While there was nothing about their behavior that looked egregious, they showed considerably more respect and acknowledgent towards each other.
This social pattern only increased Ves' notion that Journeyn like himself shouldn't have co to this place.
To be fair, this was not an unusual stance. Normal Journeyn ordinarily didn't co in touch with masterwork chs during this phase of their career. Their lack of understanding and experience translated into a shallow feel for chs. It was much more fruitful for them to build up their knowledge base and develop their toolbox of solutions to serve their imdiate needs.
Chasing after masterworks at this early stage was a distraction at best and a detour that led to a dead end at worst.
If Journeyn managed to get involved in the creation of a masterwork ch anyway, then it was usually due to the heavy lifting of a Master ch Designer.
In these kinds of situations, the contribution of a Master was so deep and profound that assistants simply didn't play a aningful role in elevating the quality of the machine. The benefits they could gain from participating in such a project was therefore limited.
Perhaps the other pompous museum visitors put Ves or his wife in this category. None of them would know that the young couple did in fact make masterwork chs by relying on their own efforts. Others could only know that by diving deep in their profiles, and people generally didn't bother with calling up details of random people.
Ves felt conflicted at the mont.
On one hand, he did not think the gallery and its elite visitors did anything wrong. The upscale venue mainly catered to a different audience and the people here had no reason to go out of their way to accommodate a pair of young Journeyn that looked out of place.
On the other hand, he felt slighted by the gallery. The expensive ticket prices, the incredibly clean and well-lit interior and the lack of respect from other museum visitors all grated on him, causing him to build up an irrational degree of resentnt.
Ves was also annoyed by another matter. Ever since he began to view the first masterwork ch, he constantly felt that these masterwork chs were all out of place.
Their designers and makers worked earnestly to create them and even went as far as to place a piece of themselves inside these machines for good reasons.
In every case, these fine chs were built to be used on the battlefield. They were excellent war machines that were never ant to be treated as works of art.
Sure, ch designers such as Ves could draw a fair amount of inspiration from becoming exposed to these fine machines, but a part of him felt guilty for taking advantage of them in this manner.
When Ves glanced at the other ch designers studying the silent and dormant chs with rapt attention, he had the feeling that this gallery was actually a zoo.
People who didn't know any better paid money in order to stare at the animals behind their cages.
Who asked the zoo animals whether they liked to sit in small, cramped enclosures just so they could bare their entire lives to strangers?
No one bothered to ask for their consent or their willingness to be treated in such a manner because they didn't have the sa rights as humans.
The sa went for these chs. Each of them were alive in a sense, and even if their life orders were low, Ves still felt that they deserved more respect than what they received.
Sure, the normal trajectories of these masterwork chs might not be so great if they were left in the wild.
Barring obvious illegal machines like the Husk Maker, many of the other machines such as the Otossun or the Yellow Harvest still had a lot of use on the battlefield.
Of course, all of their outdated systems needed to be updated to modern standards, but if he could do it, so could many other ch designers.
"These chs are all alive, but they're being treated as if they had already turned into exobeast fossils."
Providing inspiration to other ch designers might be their most beneficial use to many people, but was this really what these chs wanted to do? Ves seriously doubted it. These chs looked pristine on the outside but were atrophying from the inside.
They yearned to be used. Ves could feel it. They didn't necessarily have to experience combat, but they at least wished to be paired with ch pilots who appreciated their capabilities. They were incomplete when left without the human elent.
Though Ves badly wanted to take them all away so that they could be updated and put to their rightful use, he couldn't.
These masterwork chs didn't belong to him and he had no right to claim them from their current owner.
That didn't an he intended to finish his tour of this gallery and leave like a good boy.
He wanted to get his money's worth.
If the Chance Bay Masterwork Gallery had the terity to take 20 MTA credits out of his pockets, then it had no right to complain if Ves returned the favor!
Of course, before he did anything, he needed to be certain that he could pull it off without getting caught.
It was extrely unwise to pull off any spiritual shenanigans when there were Masters and Seniors close at hand. Even if their spiritual perception wasn't as good, he already knew that they were quite sharp in their own way. He could not risk doing anything when they were in the sa gallery hall at the very least.
He wasn't in a hurry, though. As his resentnt continued to churn in his heart, he continued to adopt a curious facade as he and his wife continued to view the different display models.
"Hey look, this masterwork ch is made out of nanomachines." Gloriana gestured towards a nearby heavy knight ch.
"ow."
"Don't ntion that here, Lucky." Ves quickly told his cat.
"What was that?"
"Oh, nothing, haha. I'm just curious how a ch can be turned into a masterwork when its physical construction is mainly determined by pre-programd instructions. Isn't this similar to producing a ch through materialization?"
"Hmm, that's an interesting question. I have a couple of ideas on the topic."
Ves and Gloriana idly discussed the ways in which they could overco nurous challenges in order to turn a nanomachine ch into a masterwork ch.
While Ves was drawing from his personal experiences in making the Devil Tiger to form his argunts, he was also trying to hatch a bold and risky plan.
He wanted to harvest a spiritual fragnt from these masterwork chs.
Initially, he wanted to obtain a harvest from every masterwork ch in sight, but that was way too ostentatious. Though Ves was pretty sure that none of the security systems could detect anything weird if he tampered with the machines, the sa could not be said for all of the impressive ch designers that entered the Masterwork Gallery.
If he wanted to harvest a spiritual fragnt in broad daylight, then he needed to be more subtle. In the interest of self-preservation, he reluctantly pared back his ambitions and decided to grab a couple of spiritual fragnts.
In addition, he figured he shouldn't hollow out the masterwork chs in their entirety. Perhaps taking a little bit of their strength wouldn't attract any attention, but the regular visitors of this gallery would surely notice if a masterwork ch suddenly missed an elent!
Ves soon finalized his plan. He figured that taking 3 different spiritual fragnts from 3 different masterwork chs was enough to pay the gallery back for charging 20 MTA credits for its tickets.
The fragnts wouldn't even be that big! He just wanted to get enough materials to help fuel the creation of his next spiritual products.
He set a few criteria for himself.
First, he needed to do the deed while no other guests were in the vicinity. Fortunately, the Masterwork Gallery was so sparsely visited that there were plenty of tis when he and his wife were alone in a single exhibition hall.
Second, he had to obtain the consent of the living chs. Since many of these machines were first order living chs, they possessed just enough of a consciousness to be able to make this decision.
Third, he must seek out spiritual fragnts from masterwork chs that were relevant to his objectives or his future work. It would do him no good to take sothing from a bestial ch or an aquatic ch.
He had nothing against those types of machines, but he wanted to make the most of this opportunity.
He didn't intend to visit the Masterwork Gallery anyti soon after today. Not only did he need to fork over 10 to 20 MTA credits again, he might also leave behind more clues that could lead to him getting caught.
He had one shot at this. Either he pulled off the heist and returned to his fleet with a fresh and useful batch of spiritual ingredients, or he got caught and received a punishnt.
"No big deal."
After he made up his mind, his eyes grew sharper as he examined the masterwork chs around him with greater interest.
Which ones should he pick?
So far, the Husk Maker made the strongest impression on him. It was different from the other machines because it was designed and made with destruction and retribution in mind. The illegal war machine obviously didn't feel at ho in this place and would likely be happy if a part of it could be used for a more useful purpose again.
Ves and his wife had already left the hall where it was located, though. He needed to co up with an excuse to revisit it again, but that could wait until later.
For now, he should look to picking other useful masterwork chs.
He thought about his plans for his upcoming ch designs… One of his highest priorities for the upcoming design round was to develop a new spaceborn rifleman ch.
User Comments
0 comments from readers