It was a disaster!

He got done in by Moira Willix once again!

This Master in the employ of the MTA might present herself as an amiable mentor, but her schemes ran deep.

Installing the Darkbreak module inadvertently invalidated the main reason why Master Willix withheld herself from calling Ves. Since it operated on an exclusive, MTA-managed network, there was nothing stopping her from dropping in and saying hello to Ves whenever she was in the mood.

There was nothing Ves could do about it. What was he supposed to do, tear out the Darkbreak module and throw it inside a container?

He still needed it to maintain a channel to Gloriana who had stayed behind at Cinach.

For now, he could still rely on the Scarlet Rose's conventional quantum entanglement node to talk to his fiancé. He would still be able to connect to her when he crossed into the outer periphery of the Nyxian Gap.

It was only when he reached the inner periphery where the connection became a bit unreliable. The spatial warping fluctuated so strongly in the zones which contained a decent amount of higher-grade exotics that the quantum entanglement functionality became too wonky to transfer signals properly.

It was as if two aquatic ships on an ocean tried to communicate with each other with signal flags in the middle of a furious storm at night. It was almost impossible for one of the ships to pass on a coherent message to the other ship!

The Darkbreak module on the other hand could still pass on data despite these arduous conditions. It functioned like a lighthouse in the dark in a sense.

Ves intended to rely heavily on this capability to maintain constant contact with Gloriana and the Rim Exchange even as he ventured into the more dangerous parts of the inner periphery.

There was no way Ves could afford to give up this advantage!

Yet in order to ensure he could do so, he had to accept all of the consequences that came with the decision. Right now, the physical projection that appeared in the isolated chamber made it clear that Ves had overlooked a very important factor.

Master Willix was still interested in him! Even if she didn't bother to board her Ubiquitous Force and travel to him in person, she could still maintain contact in other ways.

Certainly, Ves could just leave the hall and ignore Master Willix's projection. He could just pretend to be busy, or board another ship, or just find some other excuse to reject her calls.

Yet would he really be able to do so? Even though Master Willix had been nothing but friendly to him so far, she still represented the upper ranks of one of the most domineering organizations of human civilization!

Small figures like Ves simply couldn't afford to offend the MTA!

Therefore, resignation had already spread through his body. He knew that from now on, Ves would have to obediently answer her summons whenever she rang the bell.

The physical projection of Master Willix floated around the chamber and inspected its properties. "This protection is.. adequate. It is better than what I have expected from you. There is still room for improvement, though. I will send you a list of materials and alloy formulas that you can use to enhance the protection of this compartment."

Ves felt like vomiting. Master Willix only showed up for just a minute and she was already starting to boss him around!

"I'll look into it, but please mind my budget."

"I am aware of your circumstances. You have been remarkably quick to spend the 5,000 MTA credits you have won from the design duel."

He shrugged. "I need power, not money. The latter is just a means to obtain the former."

"Well said! You aren't saying that to impress me, but truly understand the necessity that wealth is just a tool."

"It's hard not to think so considering I'm about to dive right into the Nyxian Gap."

"Ah." A coy smile appeared on the imposing woman's face. "I believe you are trying to complete a rescue mission, one that relates to Solok Reyva. It is a pity that he has been deprived from us. He would have become a great mech designer by now if he was still a part of our Association."

It shouldn't come to a surprise that Master Willix found this out. The Rim Guardians was just a faction of the MTA. Even if she wasn't a member of this fraternity, it shouldn't be too difficult for a powerful Master to uncover his movements in the Rim Exchange.

Seeing that she readily brought up the mission, Ves suspected that she might have called in order to lend a hand to him. If that was the case, he might as well take advantage of this opportunity! The mission provided him with far too little insight on Solok Reyva. Any additional information would doubtlessly facilitate his search!

She did not disappoint. The Master Mech Designer adopted a wistful expression as she looked up at the ceiling. "The MTA is often regarded as a paradise for local mech designers such as you. While it is true that we are able to enjoy fantastic treatment, the expectations placed on our shoulders are even heavier. If our rewards are a hundred times better, then we are expected to contribute a hundred times as much. This is very difficult to achieve. You cannot imagine the amount of mech designers within the Association whose careers have permanently stalled."

Even the MTA did not possess unlimited resources. Through its mature and sophisticated merit system, only the best performers enjoyed the greatest rewards. For every Master Willix, there were millions of mech designers who failed to pass enough tests.

"Where does Solok Reyva fall into this spectrum, ma'am?" Ves asked.

"He is.. a bright talent. An ambitious talent. He is a child to two accomplished mech designers within the Association. His parents have groomed him to follow their footsteps from the moment of conception. His genes have been altered and customized to such a degree that he might as well be one of the most artificially-gifted mech designers in this star sector."

The truth was probably much more severe than the Master had just revealed. With all that technology at its disposal, the Association could easily design its own babies to a very sophisticated degree!

Ves began to imagine Solok as someone whose entire life had been planned from birth. For some reason, that made him feel a bit sympathetic towards his target.

Life was supposed to be free. Life was supposed to be unconstrained. By optimizing Solok's genes so that he would make for an excellent mech designer when he matured, his parents basically precluded him from pursuing another occupation.

If he was born a little more naturally, would he have possessed the genetic aptitude to become a mech pilot?

What if he wanted to become an exobiologist?

All of those roads might still be open, but if all of his inclinations and talents leaned towards mech design, there was no way he could pick another career!

"Have all of those measures succeeded?"

"Solok has not disappointed his parents too much." Willix answered. "His intelligence is incredibly high, even without relying on augmentations. He has only grown more formidable as he grew up and enjoyed frequent gene treatments. When he studied at one of our academies, he graduated with honors. This is an incredibly high achievement. Though his advancement to Journeyman came a little slower than expected, the fact that he has managed to climb over this hurdle has already marked him as an individual worthy of great investment. This is especially so when we discovered that his mech affinity is very high! I dare say it is even higher than yours."

What a great talent! No wonder the Rim Guardians never gave up on trying to rescue him. It was too bad that the Nyxian Gap was not safe even for the MTA.

Still, even if Solok was such a great young mech designer 29 years ago, the MTA shouldn't be short of talent either. There should be more behind this story.

"What makes Solok special, ma'am?" Ves asked directly. Since Master Willix was in a talkative mood, he wasn't afraid of voicing doubts. "I understand he was a big deal back when he was with the MTA, but this guy is gone now for almost thirty years. There must have been tons of competitors who have eventually filled the void he left."

Master Willix shook her head. "That is true, but only if you consider Mr. Reyva to be a conventional mech designer within our ranks. The Rim Guardians have good reason to minimize their description of Mr. Reyva. If you are determined to seek him out, then I do not mind revealing what you should know."

Anticipation welled within Ves. It seemed that his target was a much more complicated figure than he expected!

"First, are you aware of the division between rational mech designers and passionate mech designers?"

Ves nodded. He did not need to hide that. "An.. acquaintance called Patricia Cain once explained the existence of rational mech designers to me. I believe you are one as well."

"That is very astute of you, though it is not difficult to make that guess. Many of my colleagues follow this difficult path." She nodded. "What you may or may not be aware of is that there are certain degrees of rationality. A wide spectrum exists between total rationality and total passion. Most successful mech designers tend to fall on the passion side of the spectrum, whereas most of the Association's mech designers occupy the opposite side. I am very much average in comparison. No matter how hard I try to eliminate my emotions, I cannot completely get rid of my feelings."

"Is that.. a bad thing?"

"Oh, it is highly inadvisable to sever all of your emotions on a constant basis." She shook her head. "It is different when it comes to mech design. When rational mech designers are tasked with designing a high-performing mech, we must adopt multiple perspectives at once. You cannot imagine the difficulty of doing so. The only way to make it easier to maintain multiple perspectives is to push even further towards rationality."

"Then.. Solok must be a mech designer who excels in this area?"

"He is even greater. He is one of the rare mech designers in the galaxy that is able to achieve perfect rationality!"

Perfect rationality! From the way that Master Willix emphasized those words, this must truly be something the MTA desired quite a bit!

"Does this mean.. he is able to shed all emotions?"

She nodded in acknowledgement. "Correct. To be honest, this is something our Association has uncovered years after Mr. Reyva went missing. After studying his prior work and the recordings of him at work at our headquarters, we have already ascertained that he has come very close to reaching this point. We did not expect that the few pirate mech designs we have managed to attribute to him actually show signs that he is able to achieve perfect rationality! If we knew this beforehand, we would have never allowed him to depart to the Nyxian Gap."

Ves blinked. This story didn't quite add up to him. "If his ability to achieve perfect rationality is such a great gift, why hasn't the MTA spent more resources to hunt him down?"

The Master looked tired. "We have tried. Suffice to say, we have suffered some losses. While perfect rationality is very valuable, it is not rare to the point where we are willing to risk losing significant assets in order to rescue him. The Nyxian pirates are cunning and know their terrain well. The Krella Alliance's main fleet has often fled deep into the core regions whenever there is any sign of our presence."

Therefore, the MTA could only rely on external associates such as Ves. Someone like him would never cause the Krella Alliance to be alarmed!

Now that Ves understood that Solok was a very unusual talent, he became more grave. He had a feeling that those 5 million MTA merits would be far harder to earn than he thought!