Woosh!
The Ti Gate swirled until Ves and Blinky finally returned to the System Space!
The mysterious construct that had enabled them to go all the way back to 197 AOM in the old galaxy slowly started to wind down and return to dormancy.
Even though Ves had returned to the ti of his present, he still felt a lingering attachnt to that earlier and more hopeful ti period.
The chs at the ti were a bit simpler. The Red Ocean was just one of many dwarf galaxies that orbited the Milky Way at an unimaginable distance.
The Larkinsons in the Bright Republic struggled to grow their family in vain as the founding families deliberately prevented other groups from rising above their stations.
The Polymath wasn't even alive in this early ti period!
Alas, Ves did not belong to this ti period. If he truly had to make a choice, then he would definitely embrace his present ti.
The opening of the Red Ocean played a massive role in his rise and success. The opportunities of the new frontier had allowed him to compete on a more level playing field and harvest many benefits that would normally be robbed by other people after too much ti had passed!
As Ves regained his original ntality and recalled all of the issues that were on his mind before he passed through the Ti Gate, he slowly got rid of his montary disassociation.
He turned around and swept his gaze across the dreamy and idyllic mountain landscape. He spent ti on this little 'vacation'. It was ti for him to get back to work.
Before he exited the System Space, he briefly called out Blinky. The companion spirit dove out of his head.
The Star Cat did not look as if he was about to explode due to swallowing a food that was too strong to be contained!
Mrow mrow mrow.
"I can sense that as well. It appears that the System Space is quite isolated from our main reality."
This was good news. The last thing Ves wanted to do was expose an extension of a god pilot to the current environnt!
"Mrow~"
As Blinky carefully coughed up the spiritual fragnted that he harvested from Emma, the crystallized energy glowed like an explosion that was frozen in ti.
The power and potency of this fragnt was nothing impressive to be honest. The only remarkable aspect about it was that the infusion of Venerable Irene Mox's willpower had imbued it with a greater capacity to affect reality than normal.
Ves did not dare to bring it out into reality, at least not in its current form.
He had no idea what would happen if he took Irene's spiritual fragnt in the sa reality where the Destroyer of Worlds currently resided.
The most destructive god pilot was still stationed at the border between human space and nurous threatening alien empires sowhere in the galactic center.
Her power and deterrence factor was the greatest out of all of the existing god pilots, so it was logical for her to be stationed in this region.
Divine Irene Mox had also beco a guardian of the New Rubarthan Empire at this point, so it was also more convenient for her to reside within the borders of her current state.
Despite being physically separated from the god pilot by several hundred-thousand light-years, Ves had no confidence that he would be able to avoid attracting her attention if he took out the long-lost piece of Emma!
He could not guarantee that Divine Irene Mox would 'reconnect' with the spiritual fragnt and cause it to transform to the point where it beca a direct dium for her to extend her will and consciousness!
Ves did not want to reconnect with her for the ti being!
Not only was he afraid of exposing truths that he would rather wish to remain confidential, he also did not want to lose too much control.
The power difference between the two was too great. Ves was a complete nobody in front of a sacred and all-powerful god pilot.
Even if Ves had great potential, he was still a Journeyman ch Designer that had a long way to go before he could beco a galaxy-shaking figure.
In contrast, the Destroyer of Worlds commanded the respect of the entire New Rubarth Empire!
She also wielded a huge amount of influence within the highest offices of the ch Trade Association.
Even if her direct authority was rather limited, she most definitely befriended dozens of god pilots and Star Designers. She could do almost anything as long as she took advantage of her amazing network of contacts!
As for Ves, he might enjoy a little special attention from the Polymath, but that was far from receiving her direct protection. His backing was still too weak in the face of a god pilot.
There was no way that Ves wanted to give up all of the initiative and hand over complete control to his 'friend'. It was best if he pretended that he did not know her at all. As for Blinky, he could keep using his companion spirit to assist in his design work like before.
"Let's not be too hasty with this spiritual fragnt." Ves decided. "I need to form a proper plan before I can properly make use of this valuable ingredient."
There was no question about the exceedingly high value of this spiritual ingredient. It was practically begging to be turned into a design spirit!
Now that he settled his thoughts on the matter, he descended down the steps and deposited the spiritual fragnt in the Vault of Eternity.
He hadn't been certain whether it could do more than store material objects. Fortunately, it accepted the spiritual fragnt without any rejection.
"That's convenient."
Now that he thought about it, Ves would be better off if he stored all of his spiritual ingredients in the Vault of Eternity. It was completely secure and attached to him at all tis.
The only downside was that Ves needed to pay the annual rent in Ascension Points in order to make use of this useful function.
Ves could think about earning Ascension Points later. He still retained a hefty reserve due to his prior efforts.
"Let's return."
It only took a blink of an eye for him to return to his bathroom in his Royal Mansion.
He raised himself from his toilet seat and looked around to see if there was a god pilot hiding in the corner or sothing.
"Phew. She's not here. I'm in the clear."
Practically no ti passed since he went in and out of the System Space. After he carefully inspected the bathroom to make sure that it still remained free of bugs and hidden observation devices, he forced himself to relax and went to his bedroom.
He ntally wrote down all of his observations and insights now that his mories were still fresh. He carefully stored his latest virtual docunts in the depths of his cranial implant. He planned to revisit them later once he was ready to work on his first ch design commission for Davute.
"All in good ti."
Ves returned to his old routine more or less. He continued to devote most of his ti to bringing the Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project to completion.
At the sa ti, he occasionally relaxed by continuing to study the ins and outs of heavy artillery chs.
His latest Mastery experience helped him enormously in this regard. Not only was he able to understand and digest all of the relevant theories to an impressive degree, but he was also able to discuss his views with Master Decimus Horst on a more equal level!
The man's expression looked impressed in the projected image. "You are a better ch designer than any student that I have taught in the past. You have made great strides in understanding the essence and purpose of heavy artillery chs. You only need to improve your artistic vision of this ch type before you are ready to start our collaborative design project."
That was high praise from a Master who previously treated Ves like a kid.
His latest Mastery experience not only helped him set up his next ch design commission, but also provided him with ideas on how to tweak and improve the designs of his next two expert chs.
Even if Venerable Irene Mox piloted a completely different machine from the Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project, there were still many common elents to piloting any expert ch!
The first-hand experiences he gained from his latest ti jaunt had directly increased his overall understanding of expert chs and their interactions with their powerful pilots.
In the past, Ves always found it difficult to fully envision what it would be like to pilot the expert chs he contributed to. He had to rely a lot on dubious assumptions to fill up the gaps of the Amaranto and the Everchanger while he was working on their designs.
That was no longer the case. Ves possessed a much higher understanding of what pilots such as Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Zimro went through once they interfaced with their respective expert chs.
The suggestions and improvents he made over the course of the following weeks were so much better that his wife imdiately noticed the difference!
"How co you understand expert chs so much better all of a sudden?" She expressed her confusion. "I spent years studying expert chs. I patiently endured the eccentric personalities of many different expert pilots so that I could thoroughly interview and analyze them over a long period of ti. It is ridiculous for you to catch up to to this extent in a matter of days! You even obtained insights that I have yet to touch!"
What could Ves say to this? He could only shrug and reply with a perfunctory answer.
"I just had an epiphany, that's all. Don't feel jealous of , honey. These epiphanies are helpful, but they are no substitute to systematic learning. You will always be better in that regard."
Gloriana quickly lost her irritation. She smiled with satisfaction after her husband stroked her ego. "It is good that you acknowledge my superiority in this area. You could help beco even better if you help pay for a first-class cranial implant."
"Didn't we already talk about this? Let's wait until we complete our current batch of projects!"
Several months went by as the much-anticipated expert chs ca closer and closer to completion.
Though nurous ch designers such as Gloriana and Master Benedict tried their best to elevate these two critical designs by implenting fresh improvents, no one worked as hard on them as Ves!
His passion, enthusiasm and innovative vision caused him to beco the most productive participant of the two expert ch design projects!
The Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project undeniably carried his stamp as a ch designer!
Once the Design Departnt completed the first iterations of the expert chs, Ves and the others knew that they had essentially completed the bulk of the work.
It was always difficult to optimize the designs of expert chs. The material costs were so insanely high that it was impractical to perform live tests with the help of physical prototypes.
In order to guarantee that the two upcoming Larkinson expert chs started off on the best possible footing, Ves began to think of a way to leverage the ch Simulation Training System to test the crucial designs in a much better simulation environnt.
"Since it is possible to realistically reproduce the performance of existing chs and expert ch within the MSTS, why should that hinder it from reproducing the performance of virtual chs?"
Though the idea sounded great, the results were anything but satisfactory!
It turned out that it was impossible for him to realistically simulate the expert chs in the absence of concrete data.
All he had was estimations, projections, guesswork and feelings. That was far from enough for him to be able to use the MSTS as a substitute simulation program for his design work!
Since this little idea didn't work out, he had no choice but to fall back to more traditional testing thods.
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