The ergence of the Lady Death’s Heel slightly disturbed the Bright Republic’s virtual ch community. The controversial ch gained notoriety as more and more won flocked to the ch.
ch industry insiders with nothing better to do started to investigate Crazy War Criminal’s background. His sole ch alone aroused a fair bit of attention due to its uneven design.
The account’s identity had quickly been traced back to a nobody called Rabant Clearwater. According to the Bright Republic’s own records, the man was a Novice ch Designer that had never joined an influence nor studied at a prestigious institution.
This stumped those who checked his background.
When ch designers studied the Heel’s design, they found that it contained a number of very profound traces that only very experienced Journeyn and newly advanced Seniors understood.
"This isn’t the work of a Novice ch Designer!"
However, interspersed with pieces of profound design elents, most of the design adhered to the standard of a well seasoned Apprentice ch Designer. The dichotomy of profoundness led the researchers to conclude that two different ch designers had worked on the design.
"The lead designer must be a newly advanced Senior ch Designer. He set the frawork of the design and personally worked on detailing a number of key components. After that, his assistant perford most of the grunt work in a brief amount of ti. There are too many traces of sloppiness in the design for it to be a deliberate project."
Due to the lack of evidence, the people who investigated the design ca up with an overly elaborate backstory. Crazy War Criminal was obviously a fake account that didn’t even try too hard in obscuring its dubious status. No Novice ch Designer could design a ch of such a level.
Instead, they considered the Lady Death’s Heel to be the product of a training exercise of so sorts. The Senior laid down the groundwork while the Apprentice had to complete the design as fast as possible.
As for the reason why the pair decided to publish the aerial light ch design onto Iron Spirit, nobody knew. Anyone who tried to dig any further eventually reached a dead end as the people behind the account left very few traces.
This mystery only ford a tiny interlude in the local ch community. Ves had no idea that people completely mistook second account’s identity. Instead, he prepared himself for the upcoming ritual.
Ves first took care of so routine matters. He took care of so overdue paperwork while issuing new instructions to his subordinates in the company.
Ever since the LMC got the new Benson production lines to work, its production capacity almost tripled overnight. The ch Nursery pumped out three silver label Blackbeaks every two days.
Although the increasingly experienced ch technicians could speed up their rate of production, Ves opted to control the pace and increase the level of quality control. The third party manufacturers may be able to play fast and loose with the rules, but the LMC could ill afford a scandal resulting from delivering faulty products.
"My n can do more." Chief Cyril argued when Ves paid a visit to the fabrication floor. "If we slow down too much, the ch technicians will start to lose their edge. They won’t feel challenged anymore."
Ves looked sympathetic at that argunt, but stuck to his course. "Even if the n are willing, the machines won’t be able to keep up. Neither the Dortmund or the Benson machines are optimized for speed. Pushing them harder than now will certainly lead to errors."
They discussed a few other practical matters as well. Ves wanted to add another testing and quality control phase at the end of the fabrication process in order to ensure that each ch truly perford up to spec.
Chief Cyril actually approved of that. "It’s about ti the company implents sothing like that. Almost every dium ch manufacturer tests out their chs before they send it through their channels. It’s going to delay our delivery for at least a day or two, but our products will carry a lot more assurance to our custors."
Setting up this kind of procedure entailed a lot changes in the company’s production cycle. Not only did they have to hire a bunch of test pilots to pilot the freshly fabricated Blackbeaks, they also had to hire the supervisors and support crew.
The LMC also needed to clear out a large area and erect an indoor/outdoor testing ground. Without the right facilities, the test pilots wouldn’t be able to push the Blackbeaks to their limits. The supervisors also needed a lot of equipnt to asure the exact performance of the chs and catch any alarming deviations before they led to disaster.
Ves threw the problem at Chief Cyril and Jake. "Draw 300 million credits to build up a basic testing ground. We don’t need anything too elaborate at the mont."
With that taken care of, Ves wrapped up his work and prepared to go under for a few days. He returned to his private workshop floor and sealed it tight. Lucky followed him up until he reached his bed and laid down.
"I’m going to be experiencing another out-of-body experience for a few days, Lucky. Just keep an eye on my body and don’t let anything co close."
"ow!"
"I’m sorry, you can’t co with . The System is already exerting a lot of its energy to transport my mind across space and ti. I don’t think it can spare the effort to bring you with ."
"ow!" Lucky huffed and turned his tail to Ves and flew through a wall.
Ves sighed and turned his attention to his comm. He already possessed more than enough DP to purchase another Mastery.
Just the first tier alone cost 40,000 DP each. Ves did not even consider purchasing the second tier of Masteries at this point. His DP inco wouldn’t be able to bear the expense.
"Alright, enough stalling. Let’s get this over with."
Ves activated the ch Designer System and entered the Skill Tree. He navigated the all-encompassing trees until he reached the Mastery section.
Each Mastery Sub-Skill offered Ves the precious opportunity to jump in the mind of a ch pilot.
As soone who always prided his secrets, Ves did not feel very comfortable about sharing his mind with another person. When he acquired Knight ch Mastery I last ti, he happened to have clicked with Barley. They worked so well together that Ves looked forward to eting the ch pilot again.
Too bad he went missing about a decade ago.
Ves sotis tried to search for Barley’s whereabouts but encountered nothing. He started to suspect the System about its choice of pilots. Of all the knight pilots across ti and space, why did it pick Barley of all people?
"Can it be that the System deliberately chooses soone who won’t be around in this tiline?"
That sounded exactly what the System might do. It would neatly avoid all the inherent paradoxes that ensued whenever soone traveled back and forth in ti.
Even with his Senior-level Physics, Ves did not wish to touch the subject of ti travel for even a second. The amount of headaches and argunts that ensued from that topic alone could fill an entire galactic library.
For example, what if his mind traveled back in ti to a Vesian ch pilot who faced a Larkinson on the battlefield? And what if that Larkinson turned out to be his grandfather Benjamin when he was young?
If the Vesian ch pilot sohow vanquished over Benjamin and killed him off, what would happen to Ves in the future? Would his father and himself still be born? Would a parallel tiline ensue the mont the System brought him back in ti, or would the main tiline automatically correct itself and wipe Ves who ca from the future out of existence?
Even with all of the wonders of the galaxy, ti travel proved to be one of the most elusive phenona. As far as Ves was aware of, no person, alien or machine successfully traveled back in ti.
That did not an that it couldn’t be done, but if so organization managed to do it, they certainly kept their mouths shut.
So conspiracy theorists spread out rumors that their current tiline had been skewed out of its original trajectory through the constant ddling of ti-traveling agents. A lot of popular dramas revolved around this premise, but everyone dismissed the possibility out of hand.
Ves did not know if he could dismiss the possibility as well. Unlike nearly everyone else, he knew that ti travel was definitely possible. He experienced it himself!
From his experienced with Barley alone, he knew that what he influenced in the past would definitely reverberate back to the future.
Before Ves embarked on his next Mastery, he thought about making use of this circumstance. After all, traveling back in ti was an extrely rare opportunity to influence the past and correct soone’s mistake.
He thought about trying to send a ssage to himself when he was young. The one thing that Ves had always regretted that he fell into a rut once his mother ostensibly died. He turned into a living zombie who wasted his remaining youth and hardly applied himself in school.
If he got so sort of reality check back then, he might have been able to focus on his studies well enough to attend an upscale institution such as the Leemar Institute of Technology.
"Even if it’s possible, should I even do such a thing?"
What would happen to Ves if he induced a major change in his past? Would Ves still be the sa Ves, or would he turn into another ’Ves’? What happened when Ves returned to the present tiline. Would he remain the old Ves, or turn into the new ’Ves’?
"What a headache."
His Senior-level Physics taught him a lot about how to improve the components of a ch, but it taught him nothing about the fields that fell outside of this scope. He still didn’t know how an FTL drive worked, let alone figuring out the secrets to ti travel.
The only way he could beco proficient in those fields was to study them by himself. With his superhuman Intelligence, it wouldn’t even take him very long to gain a shallow proficiency in those fields.
"Much of the galaxy revolves around starships. It’s useful for to understand so of the engineering related to these vessels."
Ves always admired the interstellar craft that brought humanity to the stars. However, it always took an extre amount of learning to beco slightly familiar with their systems.
In general, ch designers stayed out of the way of ship designers, and vica versa. Neither occupations spared enough energy to branch out in the other one.
The ti that Ves spent on studying starships could have been spent on deepening his knowledge on chs. In the end, it wasn’t beneficial for Ves to allocate more than a couple of hours of spare ti to beco familiar with ships.
"I can do sothing about that later. Right now, I have another Mastery to experience."
Ves found the relevant Sub-Skill in the Skill Tree and tapped it with his finger to purchase it. The System instantly deducted 40,000 DP from his account.
[Rifleman ch Mastery I]
Five.
The System counted down the ti. Ves breathed deeply and tried to lay comfortably in his bed. His body would be undergoing stasis while his mind left his body, so Ves did not worry too much about his body’’s health.
Four.
Ves hoped the System would pick an entirely different type of ch pilot this ti. Barley had been a rather stodgy knight pilot who bought into the whole pomp and circumstance about knights. Ves hoped to experience a more daring pilot who thought offensively instead of defensively.
Three.
"Hopefully the System won’t pick a woman this ti."
While he had nothing against won, Ves did not wish to deal with a cranky host and make her feel uncomfortable about hosting a male mind.
Two.
On the other hand, experiencing a female’s perspective on piloting ch would also enrich him in many other ways. Female ch pilots possessed different habits and concerns, and if Ves beca familiar with their gripes, he could make his chs more compatible with won, who made up around thirty percent of all ch pilots.
One.
A suction force pulled his consciousness from his head and carried it along an incomprehensible tunnel that warped through ti and space.
After an indeterminate mont of ti, his consciousness forcefully entered the mind of a ch pilot at a different ti and space.
Thankfully or regretfully, Ves ended up in the mind of another man. The only problem was that the ch pilot currently fought against an overwhelming force of enemy chs.
The entry of a new consciousness montarily disrupted the ch pilot’s concentration, and an explosive shell impacted against his rifleman ch, knocking down while heavily damaging its chest plate.
"Get up!"
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