Every Star Designer was not right in the head.
Just like god pilots, Star Designers always seed to lose at least so of the restraints they still held when they lived as mortals.
Yet compared to his peers, the Resonance Smith took this a lot further!
Ves had never imagined that a Star Designer would not only question the ch designer's creed, but consciously choose to set it aside!
It sounded as ludicrous as a god pilot stating a lie.
Such a fundantal contradiction in responsibility exceeded anything that Ves could have imagined from such a noble and selfless profession.
Since the Age of chs, all ch designers had been taught to serve ch pilots in a devoted manner.
Though their classes taught them that ch designers should never denigrate themselves or let them be ordered around as minions, the ch community definitely prioritized the needs of ch pilots over others.
This pattern had been the established truth for over 4 centuries and counting. Nobody sought to question this hierarchy because it seed as natural as anything.
ch pilots earned greater privileges because they were scarce and limited in number.
ch pilots bore the brunt of the danger whenever war erupted.
ch pilots had the potential to beco the most powerful gods in human form.
All of these reasons and more caused all of human society to put them up a pedestal.
ch designers, who possessed incredible capabilities of their own, could only take a backseat and adopt a more subservient position.
This was why the Resonance Smith's statent broke Ves' cognition.
The extre contrast between the eccentric Star Designer's stance and human society's established norms was too great!
It took a few monts for Ves to regain his composure and speak again.
"How… how could you assu such a crazy stance? Why… would you express so much contempt towards the ch designer's creed? Even if you have beco a Star Designer, shouldn't you continue to serve god pilots with the sa devotion as before?"
The Resonance Smith scowled at those words. It was as if the very notion offended his sensibilities!
"That is why I despise the old regi so much. You have beco so accustod to rules such as the ch designer's creed that you have never properly questioned whether they are still appropriate for the current conditions. Let give you a lesson, Professor Larkinson. The relationships between god pilots and Star Designers are not even close to their mortal counterparts. We are all gods. One god cannot command another god. We negotiate with each other. We exert pressure on each other. We trade individual favors with each other. We never serve freely, because our services have grown too valuable to be obtained without cost."
That sort of made sense. Star Designers existed in a different league compared to Master ch Designers.
Combined with the scarcity of the forr, it was well within their rights to ask for more remuneration.
However, that did not automatically an that Star Designers had a right to screw over ch pilots!
"What you say makes a certain amount of sense, but what gives you the right to toy around with the lives of mortal ch pilots?"
"It is true that I do not dare to 'play gas' with god pilots, but that is because they are strong and sharp enough to detect impropriety." The Resonance Smith readily admitted. "Yet I feel no guilt by using ch pilots for my own ends. They feel honored to receive the attention of a Star Designer such as myself. I have never withheld any benefits from them. It is rely their biases and inattention that prevents them from acknowledging the greater price they must pay in order to use my works. I never forced Saint Conrad Morgenstern to make use of the ace ch that I have devised for him. I have explained its settings and features in exhausting detail."
"Yet you deliberately misled him by downplaying its more manipulative traits, am I correct?" Ves looked up at the Star Designer in suspicion. "As long as you flood your audience's ears with enough technobabble, you can get away with practically anything."
The Resonance Smith's smile beca a lot more obvious. "Caveat emptor. Buyer beware. Not every seller has the custor's best intentions at heart. It is unfortunate that ch pilots throughout the generations have lost their vigilance towards the ch designers that they have relied upon for centuries due to the existence of the ch designer's creed. Its existence has distorted the relationships between ch pilots and ch designers and caused artificial stupidity to beco ubiquitous. ch pilots are becoming more stupid by the generation while ch designers have lost so much of their egos that they have beco slaves in all but na!"
It was very clear that the Unbounder felt very strongly about the negative consequences of institutionalizing the ch designer's creed!
While Ves could sort of understand the Star Designer's perspective, he felt that the Resonance Smith mainly obsessed over the negative effects and hardly appreciated the positive effects.
That was not a fair evaluation.
Ves doubted it would do him any good if he pointed out this hypocrisy. There was no way a little Senior like himself could argue against a Star Designer on equal grounds.
He sighed. "So what am I supposed to draw from your 'lesson'? Should ch designers gain the freedom to scam ch pilots."
"Yes." The Resonance Smith directly responded. "Normal market dynamics must be restored. The ch Trade Association and the Red Association have stunted the ch market for too long. They are treating everyone as children when they are actually full-grown adults. Let ch pilots be scamd! Let them be more vigilant of what they are buying and using! Force them to question whether a ch designer or ch company cares too much about profits to do their jobs properly. There will be wrongdoing. There will be victims. There will be dissatisfaction. However, once ch pilots develop the necessary degree of skepticism and vigilance, the ch market will automatically grow healthy and stable again. A more natural equilibrium will erge that doesn't rely on the iron fist of the chers."
His stance actually sounded quite reasonable.
The chers would never agree, though.
They had guarded the reputation and integrity of chs for centuries with success.
Even if their many taboos and restrictions had led to huge distortions in the ch market, they ensured that people throughout human society possessed absolute trust in chs.
More importantly, people also trusted the individuals who designed the very sa chs.
Ves benefited a lot from the institutional trust in the ch designer profession. It would have been a lot more difficult for him to run a successful business and expand his sales if he constantly had to prove the reliability of his own products!
That was why Ves felt very mixed about the Resonance Smith's stance. His belief that most of the rules had to be torn down might led to a great wave of liberalization, but it would also ignite a lot of chaos!
There was already a lot of chaos in society at the mont. Ves hardly believed that red humanity could endure more disruptions during this dangerous period of ti.
"I am sorry, Your Excellency, but I cannot bring myself to agree with your viewpoint." Ves calmly responded as he placed his confidence in the rules that he relied upon for much of his life. "Rules give structure. They are necessary to maintain stability. Perhaps a decade ago would have been the right ti to enact reforms, but now… it will only make things worse. Much worse."
Ves only had to shift his perspective to Veronica and witness the absolute breakdown of order to witness what would happen if a great authority like the ch Trade Association lost power!
Fortunately, the Resonance Smith did not press further. "That is your prerogative. Keep my words in mind. Once you have beco my peer, you shall see for yourself that I am correct. This is because so truths always remain in force. ch pilots are destroyers. Even if they possess the power to create, their ability to spread death and ruination far surpasses anything else. They are a disrupting existence to society. Sotis a little destruction is necessary to create room for more useful alternatives, but too much destruction will only lead to our end."
The Star Designer consistently expressed a contemptuous opinion towards the ch piloting profession.
This was very arrogant behavior on his part. Ves seriously doubted the wisdom of treating ch pilots with contempt!
Sure, Ves had t plenty of ch pilots with questionable judgnt and intelligence, but that did not an they should be treated as idiots!
For the most part, ch pilots were honorable soldiers who freely stepped up and fought the good fight.
Many of them resigned themselves to fighting and dying to protect masses of people that they never personally t in their lives.
That alone deserved respect.
"If you think that way about ch pilots, what about ch designers like myself?" Ves curiously asked.
The Resonance Smith smiled a little brighter in response. "We are the brains that truly keep our society together. If ch pilots are sources of disruption, then ch designers are sources of nding. We are problem solvers. We are service providers. We are engines of innovation. You of all ch designers should understand who we are. We study mundane phenona and extrapolate them into the extraordinary. That is true power. Do you think the might to destroy a planet is impressive? Nonsense! You have redefined the definition of life and broke the rules that have kept the ch piloting profession atrophied since they first utilized the neural interface! You have engineered the collapse of an entire pillar of the ch community! This is true destruction!"
Ves did not feel honored by this accomplishnt, especially when put in this way. It was never his intention to damage the prestige of ch pilots!
"Please do not twist my work into the Carmine System. I did not set out to damage the interests of ch pilots. I simply wanted to serve our society, and what better way to do so than to allow any norm to pilot a machine that was previously closed to them? While I may have damaged the exclusivity enjoyed by ch pilots in the process, none of it was deliberate. Besides, they still enjoy an inherent advantage because they can use two different control systems at the sa ti. I think that my invention has made everyone happy in the end."
"How naive." The Star Designer smiled and shook his head. "You put too much faith in the cooperative relationship between ch pilots and ch designers. The forr are not worth so much of your respect. You only need to study my plan for Conrad Morgenstern to understand why this is the case. Only a short amount of ti has passed since his planned sacrifice, and already the numbers have changed for the better. Compared to previous ti intervals, the short period after his demise has led to significantly increased breakthrough rates."
"Really?" Ves looked surprised.
"The statistics do not lie. 105 percent more expert candidates have erged. 62 percent more expert pilots have co into power. 23 percent more saints have announced themselves. These are all excess quantities that asurably exceed the previous pattern. This has already vindicated the death of a single senior ace pilot. If even one new god pilot cos into being due to this catalyst, then the yield of my plan is near infinite!"
Ves almost felt sick after hearing that. The Resonance Smith was essentially justifying his deliberate decision to drive a senior ace pilot to his death by emphasizing all of the 'profit' that ensued!
This attitude of treating lives as numbers on a balance sheet seed very anti-humanist.
It was no wonder that the Pilot Humanist Society felt it was necessary to advocate for the rights of ch pilots!
It was because of leaders like the Resonance Smith that the PHS had beco a necessary existence!
"By the way, less than 30 minutes ago, a familiar friend and relative of yours is also included among those statistics."
"What?!"
The Resonance Smith activated a projection that showed a busy and fairly destructive battlefield.
Amidst all of the damaged ships and destroyed strike craft, a single heavy ch holding a radiant shield glowed with the power of a singularity!
"THE VOICE OF LIBERTY IS RIGHT! SINCE HIS FALL, THE WEAK AND THE UNDERSERVED LACK PROTECTION. SINCE THAT IS THE CASE, I SHALL PICK UP HIS MANTLE AND ASSU HIS MISSION. I SHALL BECO THEIR SHIELD AGAINST THE ENEMIES FROM WITHOUT! I SHALL ALSO BECO THEIR SWORD AGAINST THE ENEMIES FROM WITHIN! LET MY VOICE RING TRUE AND LET THE UNIVERSE BEAR WITNESS TO MY PROMISE!"
Much of the surrounding debris circled around the machine as if it had turned into a new star!
Ves imdiately recognized his old work!
"The Bastion! That's Jannzi!"
Venerable Jannzi actually managed to break past her stubborn bottleneck and broke through, thereby becoming the latest ace pilot to grace the Larkinson Clan!
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