Over the course of designing the Larkinson mech, Ves pushed every possible distraction from his mind. He continued to invest his heart and soul into his work, trying his best to make the modular mech platform and its four configurations viable against as many threats as possible!

Though difficult, Ves and Gloriana both rose to the challenge. They did not let a setback stop them for long. They frequently exchanged with each other and came up with ideas that neither of them were able to conceive on their own. Their synergy reached a higher level as they became more in tune with the design and their fellow partner.

The cooperation between the pair had already been built up over the course of previous projects. Ves felt as if all of those prior collaborations were practice runs for the current project.

Every possible issue had been explored and all of the problems resulting from lack of familiarity and mistaken assumptions had been dealt with! Both of them became intimately familiar with each other's strengths and weaknesses and automatically divided work to the mech designer who was best suited to tackle the specific issue.

In general, Gloriana did better with detail work and complicated technical puzzles. Her design philosophy lent herself well to spotting faults as they showed up. She also excelled in optimizing a rough implementation so that they did not cause any further issues down the line.

That did not mean that Ves was completely useless on this front. His breadth and wealth of theoretical and practical knowledge exceeded that of his girlfriend. The only downside of accumulating all of his System-granted knowledge was that his utilization couldn't keep up. For every problem, he could come up with dozens of solutions, but he wasn't able to make the most out of them in the more difficult cases.

Mech design was both an art and a science.

Ever since he embarked on his career, Ves always thought he would lean towards the latter. Science and engineering was the foundation of his craft. How could a mech designer ever design something complicated with up to millions of different parts all working in unison?

Yet it was only when Ves started working with Gloriana that he became aware of his true passion and strength.

Ves preferred to see himself as an artist.

He was an artist of mechs and spirits!

He was a sketcher of mechs and a weaver of life. A mech design served as the canvas of his creative energies, both figuratively and literally!

Technology was just a means to an end to Ves. He never developed the insane passion that other mech designers possessed with regards to technology.

Whereas most mech designers devoted their passion towards flight systems, light mechs, laser rifles, energy efficiency and so on, Ves chose a completely different direction!

There was a reason why the MTA threw his so-called 'metaphysical man-machine symbiosis' specialization in the Class IX design philosophy bucket.

His focus towards mechs was completely out of the conventional norms of his profession. Neither the MTA nor his colleagues were able to wrap their heads around his logic and his approach.

Mechs were alive? Nonsense! They were simply machines! Everyone who wasn't steeped with superstition could tell you that! There is not a single aspect about mechs that proved that they were alive!

Even though Ves increasingly proved the validity of his odd framework by developing his characteristic glows, most high-ranking mech designers simply passed it off as an unknown psionic phenomenon. Like a blind cat bumping into a mouse, they believed that Ves was just flailing around randomly and just managed to hit the jackpot by discovering a strange psionic interaction!

To make a mech designer truly believe that mechs had the potential to come alive was incredibly hard. Ves tried over and over to convince his subordinates that it was best to treat mechs as if they were alive and needed to be treated as such.

Few people actually became convinced. Even if they paid lip service to him because he was the owner of the LMC and the clan patriarch, in their hearts they were still bound to their limited view on reality.

Still, there were some people who got it. Joshua King was a fantastic example of a mech pilot who truly understood the essence of his mechs.

Yet people like Joshua were very rare, especially among the highly secularist Brighters and Larkinsons who made up the core of his enterprise.

To his frustration, the people who were actually prone to accepting his eccentric views on mechs were always those who he considered to be deficient in critical thinking.

This description was a common euphemism in the Bright Republic. It was a polite way of describing people enthralled by superstition.

In other words, religious nuts!

Gloriana believed in all of his claims without ever questioning whether he was spouting nonsense. She simply believed in him at such a whole-hearted degree that Ves felt kind of guilty for treating her as a gullible idiot.

The same went for the Ylvainans in the second design team. Ves noted that the work submitted by Oscar DiMartin, Renee Zelin, Erica Sprint and Pascal Curin all carried a sense of harmony that allowed them to mesh well with the ongoing design.

From a spiritual level, their sincere respect and worshipful attitude towards the incomplete mech design was much more beneficial than a neutral attitude!

This meant that the other assistant mech designers such as the Tovars left much bigger spiritual messes behind.

The difference was so stark and obvious that Ves felt somewhat conflicted over Gloriana and the Ylvainans.

He always seemed to do better with people of faith and belief. Whether he collaborated with them on a mech design or tried to get his mechs accepted by them, religious people always seemed to resonate with him more.

The irony of this situation was that he didn't consider his own views to be superstition at all! In his eyes, he was simply exploring an obscure and controversial field of science.

For some reason, the MTA limited its research on psionic power and kept it buried in their vaults. As for the CFA, their fetish for big guns, big ships and superior technology somehow led them to pretend that psionic power didn't exist!

"Is it really so difficult to believe in both science and something that sounds a little odd like the premise of my design philosophy?"

Having been raised as a Brighter, Ves simply solved the dilemma by keeping an open mind.

He did not keep his mind closed to unnatural phenomena like most secularists, but neither did he blindly take outlandish assumptions and claims for granted like the Ylvainans.

"Why can't other people take this approach towards the unknowable?" He puzzled.

He felt as if he was the only sane person in a galaxy filled with mad people. Everyone was biased except him as far as he was concerned!

The sad reality of his situation was that he would encounter much less hindrance if he continued to interact with people who were 'deficient in critical thinking'.

The Ylvainans basically treated all of his words like gospel, while Gloriana was so devoted to him that she didn't hesitate to alter her design philosophy to incorporate his views on spirituality!

What Gloriana had done was very exceptional and very rare. The main reason why Ves had so much difficulty in getting other mech designers to accept his viewpoints was because they already formed their own framework on mechs.

The more a mech designer developed their own framework, the more guarded they became against other influences.

Novices and Apprentices learned that it was often a bad idea to get too enamoured in someone else's design philosophy.

Journeymen and higher solidified their perspectives on mech design by forming their design seeds.

Once this occurred, it took superhuman effort to accept something drastic that conflicted with their existing views!

"What are you thinking about?" Gloriana asked as she glanced at Ves sitting besides her. "You've been staring at the same projection for over ten minutes."

Ves sighed and swiped the projection away. "I need a break."

"Oh. Is that all?"

"To be honest, no. I have a lot of thoughts on my mind. Some of them aren't very helpful to the project."

"Do you want to talk about it, Ves?"

He looked in her affectionate eyes. "Forget it. I'm just being melodramatic."

"Okay. Do you want to eat lunch or something?"

"Alright."

It was during their lunch break that they received an important message. Dr. Lupo Guernica called Ves directly.

"Good news, Mr. Larkinson!" He said with an enthused grin. "Dr. Ranya and I have finally completed our preparations for your implant surgery! We have thoroughly inspected and updated your bioimplant from top to bottom. We have modernized its bioprogramming and we have added several more security precautions as per your request. We have also prepared the surgery procedure to account for your abnormal physical and brain structure. The chances of complications should be minimal!"

That sounded like very good news to Ves! If it was any other time, he would immediately drop all of his work and head to the treatment center as soon as possible!

As it was.. he was almost halfway through his current design project. With all of the momentum he accumulated, Ves couldn't afford to stop or pause midway!

The passion he built up and the mentality he shaped over the weeks since he started working on the modular mech platform were exceedingly precious. It was difficult to describe the concrete benefits of these intangible moods.

All Ves knew was that as long as he stopped providing them with fuel, they would eventually deflate and disappear!

Once lost, it was practically impossible to regain these moods!

Ves would have to scrap the entire project and start anew if he wanted to experience the unique build-up that led to the formation of those distinctive moods. That was a massive waste of time!

Of course, an ordinary mech designer wouldn't fuss about this issue all that much. To them, a mech design was simply a technical schematic. They didn't put much stock in the role of meaning and emotions of their work.

A conflicting expression appeared in his face. "Tell me your projections on how much time the surgery and recovery process will take. How much time will I be under, and how long will I be able to go back to work?"

"The surgery won't take long, sir. The actual procedure is not that time-consuming as long as complications don't arise. It is the recovery period that is a bit more complex. Cranial implants are different from other implants in that they need to integrate with the brain of the recipient. I believe you are well aware of how sensitive such a process can be. Inserting a foreign object in the brain is easy. Making that foreign object blend in with someone's mind is vastly more intricate."

"How long, Lupo?"

"It varies, sir. For baseline humans, it typically takes a week to a month. Outliers can take years to adjust, and if any incompatibility occurs, we may need to pull out your implant lest your entire head burns up. This is substantially more likely to occur with humans who have augmented and altered their genes and body extensively."

In other words, the chance that something could go wrong was vastly higher due to his freakish physical state! There was a good reason why it took several months for the pair of exobiologists to prepare for the upcoming operation! Ordinary humans didn't require so much attention and effort!

Being delayed by a week was intolerable. Being delayed by more than a month was unacceptable!

"Right now is not a good time to perform the implantation procedure." He ordered. "Please postpone it by a month or two. I need to finish my current design project first before I can afford to go under the knife."

It pained him to delay something he was looking forward to for years, but the timing was too inconvenient.

Dr. Lupo looked disappointed as well. "Very well. I shall inform Dr. Ranya of the change in plans. She won't be happy."

"Look on the bright side. I've granted you a lot more time to tweak and optimize the bioimplant even further. Try and see if you can add some advanced functionality to the Archimedes Rubal, particularly on the security front."

"We will try our best, though we have already done as much as we could."

The call eventually ended. Ves soon decided to put this issue off his mind and turn his attention back to his project. He needed to complete the Larkinson mech design as soon as possible if he wanted to boost his memory and upgrade his cognitive functions! Hearing Gloriana espouse some of the features of her Erestal-015 implant made him jealous!