Ves cut so many corners that Gloriana would probably faint and collapse if she saw his work.

He did not put quality in mind at all! His only priority was to put as many components back in working condition as possible. In order to accomplish this ambitious goal, Ves relied extensively on his jury-rigging ability to improvise faster but inferior solutions.

An ugly mech was still a mech. Even if its performance had dropped to 30 percent of its peak, it was still a serviceable war machine in most circumstances!

While Ves had to employ plenty of creative solutions to shave off minutes and even hours of his time, he reveled in the challenge.

The pressure of facing biomechs that were able to heal much of their minor damage by themselves constantly loomed behind his back. He knew his opponent would show up with more extensively healed mechs, and that drove him to employ as much haste as possible.

He didn't just fix up his mechs though. He did not forget about the warning he received. Biomechs were more malleable by nature. Dr. Navarro's design philosophy was highly geared towards transforming his products into a different configuration.

As long as he had a few hours, he could turn a melee biomech into a ranged biomech, a heavy biomech into a light biomech and so on. Of course, not all transformations worked out, and it was very difficult to ensure a biomech retained enough battle effectiveness after going through an extensive transformation.

This was why Ves didn't expect Dr. Navarro to pull any unexpected rabbits out of his hat. With all of the constraints he faced, it was much more reasonable to assume he would only make targeted transformations.

This was already difficult enough to deal with, though. The uncertainty of the situation daunted him the most. The fact that Ves wasn't able to predict what surprises his opponent might add to his damaged biomechs meant that he had to take thousands of possibilities into account.

What if he prepared his mech to face a melee mech only to encounter a ranged mech that employed kiting tactics?

What if Dr. Navarro transformed his Swarm Monarch mech from a heavy artillery mech to a melee mech?

Although it sounded absurd, biomechs offered enough versatility to enable such a transformation!

Even if the resulting melee biomech wasn't comparable in performance to a proper melee mech, it could still thrash the Transcendent Punisher if it survived long enough to get close!

"It would be great if I got a sneak peak of his work." He idly muttered.

A few seconds later, he froze.

Was it possible for him to obtain advanced notice of the modifications that Dr. Navarro applied to his biomechs?

If Ves was able to obtain even a single image of the biomechs as they were being worked on, he could derive a lot of useful information out of what was visible!

In fact, it would be even better if he could obtain detailed scanning data and Dr. Navarro's own documentation. The more information, the better!

Normally, Ves would treat this desire as an idle daydream. Dr. Navarro was fixing up his mechs somewhere else and it wasn't as if they could pay a visit to each other's workshops.

Yet what if he could circumvent these restrictions? What if he could obtain the information he needed?

He actually thought of at least three different methods to gain the intelligence he desired.

James may be dead, but Ylvaine was still alive. The religious design spirit actually fared a bit better these days as the Ylvainan contingent of the clan had managed to recruit several hundred new worshippers.

This was not bad considering the background of the new recruits. It was much harder to persuade second-raters to abandon their old convictions and embrace new ones.

Even so, Ylvaine was still a pauper. Ves didn't think it was a good idea for him to tax the design spirit's energy unless it was a life-and-death situation.

The other option he thought about was trying to utilize his Spirituality to take a peek.

He had already developed several ways to extend his perception beyond his visual sight by forming specialized spiritual projections and constructs.

The problem was that he was never good at extending them beyond a modest range. The underground complex below Ruuzon Arena covered a lot of distance. Dr. Navarro's workshop might be situated at least a kilometer away from his current position!

That only left one viable solution…

Ves stretched his arms and pretended to need a break from his work. He slowly sauntered over to the table where Lucky was blissfully dozing off. The lazy gem cat treated this period like a nice vacation.

Yet before he came close enough to put his cat to work, Ves stopped in his tracks.

Was this the right course of action?

That was an important question.

Using Lucky to sneak into Dr. Navarro's workshop in order to gather very pertinent intelligence was not within the scope of the design duel.

It was cheating.

Ves wasn't supposed to gain advance notice of what his mechs would have to deal with in the second phase. The same applied to Dr. Navarro. Both of them were supposed to be working blind and depend on their own judgement to prepare their mechs for the subsequent matches.

If Ves managed to gain a peek at Dr. Navarro's biomechs while denying his opponent the same opportunity, then the sanctity of the design duel came into question!

No matter how Ves rationalized it, it was undeniable that he cheated. His ability to spy and gather information was not related to his capacity as a mech designer.

While Ves didn't mind cheating and taking advantage of a situation in order to advance his cause, the problem right now was that this would have the opposite effect.

"I can lie to others, but I can't lie to myself." He reminded himself.

Even if Ves pulled it off without getting caught, he would always know in his heart that he had acted improperly. While he was currently under a lot of pressure, his design philosophy thrived off the situation. Abiding by the rules put a lot of restrictions on him which forced him to utilize his mech design abilities to the utmost.

Cheating would put an end to this process! If he wouldn't feel as pressured anymore, then he wouldn't be able to make as much progress as he expected.

In fact, his design philosophy might stagnate and regress because of his actions!

By betraying the core principles of a mech designer and acting against the competitive spirit of his profession, Ves feared that he might consider himself unworthy to go further.

This was a complicated matter that Ves could not adequately put into words. He just knew in the depth of his heart that there were some lines that he should never cross if he wanted to become a great mech designer.

Yet just before his professionalism asserted itself, he briefly recalled what was at stake.

Leaving aside intangible gains such as advancing his reputation and generating lots of publicity for the LMC, Ves could also look forward to receiving 5 million MTA merits.

This was a very attractive reward in itself. It was almost worth cheating for this alone!

Yet… it wasn't enough in the end. If gaining 5 million MTA merits came at the cost of ruining his future prospects as a mech designer, then Ves could not bring himself to accept this solution!

A contrarian thought emerged from his heart.

"There is no need for me to resort to this option! If I am confident in my own abilities, then I should depend on myself in order to prevail in this design duel!"

This was how a true competitor behaved! Ves was not weak when it came to designing mechs, so he definitely had a chance of winning if he just played by the rules.

"I will grasp victory with my own hands." He gripped his fist in front of his face.

His drive and competitive spirit became more stoked than ever before! While he already wanted to win in order to earn a lot of extra merits, this time he wanted to win in order to prove to himself that he was stronger than his peers!

Ves began to apply various different modifications to his dueling mechs. All five of them received some special attention that tweaked and altered them to varying degrees.

This was necessary because he knew that his opponent would definitely learn from the first phase and configure his biomechs to counter what he had seen.

Unlike Dr. Navarro, Ves was much more limited in this regard. His mech was made out of lots of metal and composite materials. Changing large swathes of them was clearly out of the question!

"Some mechs can't be changed at all." He sighed.

His Transcendent Punisher was a good example of that. It couldn't be employed as anything other than a heavy artillery mech. At most, he might be able to tweak its armor system or its weapon settings.

He had a bit more flexibility with his other mechs. He could outfit them with different weapons or alter their flight characteristics.

In the end, Ves only applied a modest amount of changes. He didn't change the fundamental nature of his mechs because he believed their designs should have already been adequate enough to handle various different challenges.

He only applied a couple of specific solutions such as allowing his Swarm Monarch to wipe out parasites and providing his Valkyrie Redeemer with a specific solution against biomechs that suddenly grew out a lot of hair.

"I don't have the time to implement more changes anyway." He let out an exhausted breath at the end of his preparation time.

Three days had passed by the time he put down his last tool. His dueling mechs looked a lot more formidable now that he had patched them up to an extent. Even though they still looked shabby in some ways, Ves did not doubt their fighting ability!

Once Ves transmitted a signal that indicated that he was done, Ves decided he needed a good rest.

Arena personnel soon arrived to take stock of his mechs. Since they probably observed his actions throughout the entire period, they did not have any doubts that Ves had perverted his work or slipped something in that was against the rules.

Gloriana hadn't come. She knew better than that. She detested design duels because the mechs that generally tended to come on stage were all abominations in her eyes.

Even Ves felt a little ashamed when he looked at how many compromises he made in order to save time!

Someone else greeted him instead.

Captain Reina Ember, formerly of the Xona Stalker, walked up to him with a grim expression.

"A lot has changed while you remained in isolation for the past three days."

"Oh? Where's Calabast?"

"She is taking care of another matter. She assigned me to fill you in on what has changed."

"Tell me." Ves tried to shake off his exhaustion. "What did I miss?"

The recently-joined member of the Black Cats handed over a secure data chip. Ves pressed his thumb against its surface, allowing him to interface with it through his cranial implant.

Hundreds of images, documents and recordings poured into his implant. It was too much for him to process in a short amount of time, but Ves was still able to skim the material.

His eyes widened as he learned that the Prosperous Hill System had become a lot more turbulent!

"While the outcome of your design duel is still in the air, a lot of Lifers have become concerned." Captain Ember summarized the findings. "Protests have broken out. Incidents have become more frequent. The locals are angry. While they can't do much, who knows what they will stir up if Dr. Navarro loses."

"Are there any acute threats?"

"No. Our security situation is still good, but we are still suffering from other consequences. Recruitment has stalled due to all of the controversy surrounding our clan. We risk failing our targets at this rate."

"Damn!"

These Lifers had too much time on their hands!