The Mech Touch

Similar to the legendary Sacred Scrolls, it had probably been engineered this way in order to serve a specific purpose.

The only purpose that made sense to Ves given the available context was to engineer the revival of a Progenitor of Mechs!

Ves had seen enough fantasy dramas in his youth to know how such a story was supposed to unfold. He was supposed to unwittingly use the System to such an extent that it gained enough power and resources to realize its ultimate goal.

At that time, the System should turn against Ves and reveal that it had molded him into the perfect vessel of its true master!

Once the System brought a sliver of the Progenitor of Mechs back to life, possibly with the help of Ves' own design philosophy, the resurrected cultivator would immediately inhabit the nearest available vessel.

Just like how the bones of a primordial human served as an ideal vessel for Cynthia to come back to life stronger than ever, Ves was probably one of the juiciest hijacking targets available for the Progenitor!

Not only did he accrue an escalating debt of karma with the System, but his preoccupation as a mech designer strongly aligned with one of the original developers of mechs!

The System had been a part of his life long enough to mold and nudge aspects of himself to increase his compatibility with the surviving Progenitor.

Though Ves doubted that this compatibility reached 100 percent, it should still be high enough to achieve a high success rate!

Suffice to say, Ves did not like to work so hard, only for an old fossil to swoop in and pluck the fruits of his labor!

"Do you know why I am not afraid to share my speculations with you anymore, System?" He asked what may as well be a rhetorical question. "That is because I have enough reasons to believe that… the original plan to resurrect your maker has become invalidated due to changing circumstances."

He continued to smirk as he gained greater confidence in his theory. "It must be frustrating, right? I don't believe that whoever is responsible for making you has accurately predicted the future. He or she may have prepared a lot of contingency plans, but I seriously doubt that any of them included the Great Severing, the Age of Dawn and my first encounter with the Subjugation King."

Ves raised his hand. A ball of darkness energy coalesced above his palm.

"I have great reason to believe that certain events have caused my compatibility with your maker to drop. First, the heavenly authority of the Red Ocean has turned me into a phase lord. That should at least increase the difficulty of a physical takeover. Second, the Subjugation King has planted his exceedingly powerful soul mark on me. Even if your maker succeeds in his takeover, he will just end up in the clutches of a really angry alien God King! Third, my embrace of the darkness element has mutated my old domain. This has caused me to diverge even further from your maker, assuming that darkness is not part of that Progenitor's strength."

That was highly unlikely to be the case.

In the relatively short time that Ves grew familiar with the darkness element, he realized that it was a broad and subversive element.

It took a truly different sort of mindset to gain mastery over just one of its aspects.

What surprised Ves was that darkness encompassed a large amount of abstract concepts, many of which did not share strong relations with each other.

E energy was both psychoactive and psychoreactive. This meant that there were a huge amount of cultivators in the past and present of the universe that collectively shaped the metaphysical meaning of darkness.

Certain races regarded darkness as the absence of light without any other symbolic messages.

Other races regarded darkness as the favored element of evil and a force of destruction.

Many other alien species or population groups regarded darkness as an element of chaos, a patron of thieves or the personification of the end of the universe.

All of this belief and superstition caused the darkness element to swell up and become an umbrella for many different interpretations.

There was no need for Ves to comprehend and master all of these meanings. He had no aspiration to become a God King that gained supremacy over this immensely broad element.

Ves feared that a top alien powerhouse already laid claim to this powerful domain!

He did not know what his own journey to God King would be like, but he believed it would be okay if he only took bits and pieces of the darkness element that aligned with himself.

Darkness had become his latest ally and tool. He believed that its addition to his life not only expanded his options as a mech designer, but also helped to protect his life and freedom from the System!

The more Ves diverged from the blueprint set by the System, the more he became assured that he wouldn't get hijacked and subverted like what happened to the Polymath!

He had turned himself into a spoiled good!

In any case, he did not become discouraged by the System's lack of response. It was probably the best action that it could take when Ves started to ramble about the motivations of its maker.

"Okay, storytime is over. Let's get back to business."

Ves did not hesitate any further and submitted 2.353 kilograms of EE-343F-00334R to the System.

[Congratulations for completing your second S-Rank Supply Mission. By fulfilling the requirements set by Material Supply 2, you have satisfied the conditions to initiative an upgrade to the Mech Designer System.]

[You have received 1 use of the Inventorize ability.]

[You have received 10 golden lottery tickets.]

The System Space started to shake as a lot of energy began to accumulate.

Ves could already feel that he was being pushed back to reality!

[The Mech Designer System is in the process of undergoing a comprehensive upgrade. It will remain inaccessible and unresponsive to its users for a duration of approximately 15 days. Your patience is appreciated.]

A few seconds later, the System unceremoniously kicked Ves out of the System Space.

15 days was not too bad. It was on the longer side, but it was hardly an unacceptable wait duration compared to before.

He would probably regain access to the upgraded System when he finally returned to New Constantinople VIII.

That should give him enough time to deal with the aftermath of upgrading the Dominion of Man and sort out all of the other messes that had sprung up in the past month.

"Let's hope nothing exciting happens anymore, Lucky."

"Meeeeooooww…"

As the Bluejay Fleet finally moved away from the border regions of human-occupied space, Ves tried his best to keep his head down and handle his duties without causing any further incidents.

The ripple effects of playing a leading role in transforming the Dominion of Man into a 'god ship' were still in the process of spreading!

The Red Fleet remained mum on most details, but it allowed a lot of speculative rumors to proliferate across society.

Nobody seemed to have a clear answer of what exactly happened, but they had a lot of opinions about what the Dominion of Man had turned into and how a mech designer like Ves got involved somehow!

Caramond became a topic of conversation as well. As the True God settled into his new existence, the Red Two were not that eager to set up any form of organized worship for the ancestral spirit.

Instead, the mechers and the fleeters remained content to let the heat die down and any excitement surrounding Caramond to fade as other hot topics started to dominate the conversation.

Ves knew that Caramond wouldn't get starved of faith anytime soon. Human supremacy was a principle that was rooted in the hearts of every modern human.

Furia did not come up at all. The True God still remained an obscure existence as the Red Two were still grappling to figure out a coherent policy on how to handle this unexpected new ancestral spirit. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

As the days passed by, it became clear that the tier 1 galactic citizens continually argued on what they should do with the mess that Ves created.

Ves strongly suspected that the leaders of red humanity still hadn't come to a broad consensus. It would explain why the Red Two refrained from publishing any statements or instituted a coherent policy to reshape the narrative.

Ves was not bothered by the lack of action. People left him alone during the return trip to the New Constantinople System. Nobody asked for his input on future plans or compelled him to account for his previous actions.

That was just the way he liked it. He had made so much progress and harvested so many gains during his long and eventful 'business trip' that he needed to devote a lot of time to digesting all of his gains!

For example, he showed off his brand-new Battlecruiser Token to his newly acquired group of Rubarthan shipbuilders!

The physical projection of Chief Shipwright Keziramous Demodian cautiously stepped forward and held the heavy metal medallion that bestowed the right to field a powerful warship!

He looked like he wished that he was aboard the Tarrasque for real so that he could touch the actual RF Warship Token!

"This… so the rumors are true. You engineered the creation of the first god ship." The 108 year old leader of the E-66 Experimental Yard spoke. "If the Dominion of Man has truly become powerful enough to rival a god mech as people are claiming, then the Red Fleet should have given you a better reward! The fleeters are too stingy and prejudiced against mech designers! You deserve a Battleship Token!"

Ves smiled but shook his head. "Let's not talk about what-ifs. I know you guys are really curious about what I have done, but I am not allowed to share military secrets with you. Please drop whatever questions you may have about the Dominion of Man."

The shipwrights employed by the E-66 Experimental Yard quickly recomposed themselves, though it was impossible for them to truly remain calm when they caught sight of a rare and precious Battlecruiser Token.

Still, all of these shipbuilders had taken part in many different classified R&D projects. They should already know how to keep their curiosity in check. They wouldn't have lasted in this shipyard if they were bad at keeping secrets.

Ves took back the Warship Token and held it aloft.

"As you can already deduce, I showed you this for a reason. With this token, my clan has the right to acquire and make use of its own battlecruiser as part of the RF's famous Warship Quota Program. I don't want to rely on outside help for this. As difficult as it may sound, I want us to construct our battlecruiser completely in-house. I only own 2 shipyards at the moment, and I have chosen yours as the principal yard to develop and construct the Larkinson Clan's first battlecruiser! Once you have proven your abilities by completing the Grave Exemplar Project, I want you to work on our future flagship right away!"

Though the shipwrights were all smart enough to anticipate this order, they still reacted with delight when Ves confirmed that he gave them the right to design the first proper warship in their long careers!

All of the decades and centuries spent on designing unarmed starships had left them with a constant yearning for more.

Now, their greatest dreams were finally coming true!

"Thank you, Patriarch Larkinson!"

"The E-66 Experimental Yard welcomes this challenge!"

Not everyone looked as happy to receive this career-defining opportunity.

Kezi looked a lot more ambivalent at this prospect.

Not everyone looked as happy to receive this career-defining opportunity.

Kezi looked a lot more ambivalent at this prospect.

"Sir, far be it for me to question you, but are you certain about letting our shipyard develop your battlecruiser?"

"Oh?" Ves raised his eyebrow. "Are you having doubts about your ability to deliver a battlecruiser?"

"There are numerous complications and restrictions that you need to be aware of, sir."