Much had changed in the years since the Golden Skull Alliance settled in Davute.

Every alliance partner had taken full advantage of the relative peace. The Larkinsons and their allies had reformed their organizations, expanded their fleets, obtained better mech models and built fantastic new mechs.

Though they also spent a lot of time on building up their planetary branches and their business operations if they had any, much of their preparations focused on strengthening the military power of their expeditionary fleet.

For each of them, the fleet that compromised all of their capital ships and the vast majority of their sub-capital ships remained the heart and soul of their organizations.

Despite the large and rapid expansion of the Davute Branch, Ves had no intention of turning it into the main stronghold and base of the Larkinson Clan.

At this point, the clan had done almost everything it could to prepare for the upcoming Trailblazer Expedition.

Though Ves could not predict what would happen once he and his clan embarked on this ambitious endeavor, he was certain that they would fight their fair share of battles!

As such, Ves paid increasingly more attention to strengthening his fleet and forces. This was why he supported the rapid spread of Hempkamp’s deep exchange add-on to all of the Larkinson Clan’s mechs.

With measures like these, Ves steadily crossed the items on his lengthy to-do list. It felt good to be able to finally reduce the number of topics he needed to address.

Yet as the LMC’s mech catalog continued to grow larger and as his children grew from fragile little babies into energetic kids, he always felt as if he was missing something important.

He had been living in the absence of an element that played a large part in his life.

It was only after the Mech Designer System made itself heard once again that Ves fully remembered what set him on this path in the first place.

To be honest, after Ves had overcome his shock, he didn’t quite know what to feel after the System’s return from dormancy.

His initial reaction to this unannounced prompt was trepidation instead of elation.

Ves grew concerned about the Mech Designer System’s reintroduction to his life.

Shortly before the System went into its awfully lengthy upgrade cycle, Ves had already been working on reducing his dependence on its convenient functions.

He did not deny that he had received a huge amount of help from it. He could not have become a second-class mech designer, a masterwork mech designer or even a Journeyman without the essential boosts and other amenities it provided to him in the form of rewards for completing certain tasks!

Yet as much as Ves reveled in the goodies that he was able to earn from it, he never truly trusted it. Someone obviously made it, and he suspected that the purpose behind the Mech Designer System might not have his best interests in mind.

The fact that it was connected to the mythical Metal Scroll was also a problematic factor!

Though Ves had seen how a different fragment of the Metal Scroll managed to propel the Polymath all the way to the top of human civilization, he felt extremely reluctant to follow in the famed Star Designer’s footsteps!

He did not know much about her, but he instinctively guessed that her dependence on that Metal Scroll fragment was still dangerously high!

What if someone robbed this piece from her one day? Would she lose so much power and ability that she was unable to perform at the level of a Star Designer anymore? Would she outright lose her life because she had made so much use of it that her life was literally bound to its existence?

Though some of the guesses sounded a bit too far-fetched to be true, Ves would rather be careful than complacent.

The System’s long hiatus had changed Ves quite a bit, and mostly for the better in his opinion.

His inability to access the System’s many useful functions had forced him to take a more honest and sober approach to his work.

Whenever he encountered a problem in his work that he couldn’t solve with his own ability, he no longer thought about accessing the Skill Tree in order to exchange his Design Points to instantly gain the appropriate Skill or Sub-Skill.

Instead, he did what every other colleague did. He searched the right textbook or academic article and honestly studied the contents the old-fashioned way.

Though there was no doubt that he was losing a lot of time that he could have spent on furthering his research or designing more mechs, he did not mind the loss too much.

There was something honest and relaxing about learning through proper study.

Besides, he found out that his learning efficiency wasn’t low at all. All of his augmentations, both spiritual and physical, had turned him into a frighteningly effective mech designer.

When it came to absorbing scientific knowledge, he had turned into the equivalent of a sponge!

Even if Gloriana was considerably more effective at book learning than himself, Ves made up for his relative shortcomings in other ways.

For example, Vulcan’s exposure to a lot of mech designers and other professionals had granted him an extremely large repository of science and engineering know-how.

Since his incarnation had already mastered a scary amount of knowledge, Ves was able to lean on Vulcan’s comprehension to quickly further his own understanding of a specific field!

It was through tricks like these that Ves rid himself of his habitual dependence on the System’s most useful and helpful functions.

There was only one major feature that Ves still missed.

He felt quite annoyed that he had never been able to use the Superpublish function for several years in a row.

Since his chances to use it did not accumulate if he left it alone, Ves effectively missed several precious opportunities to upgrade a mech beyond his current ability and derive a lot of useful lessons from studying the comprehensive changes the System would have made to his work!

Of course, Ves clearly recognized that this frustration was yet another sign of how much of a dependence he built on an external tool. The sooner he got rid of this remaining impulse, the more he liberated himself from the trappings of the gift that had kickstarted his fantastic career.

“Why now?” Ves whispered in a tone that conveyed both his relief and apprehension. “Why come back after all of this time?”

Naturally, the System did not deign to answer his emotional question. It was busy with running its own operations in the background.

Though Ves had no clue what the System was doing or whether it even needed time to ‘reboot’ itself, he vaguely guessed that it was ramping itself back up after a long time of remaining silent.

Slowly but surely, Ves felt as if a major presence was emerging from a hidden location.

Even Lucky began to feel uncertain.

“Meow…?”

Just as Ves wanted to reassure his pet, his consciousness suddenly moved to a different place!

In one moment, he was leaning back on his chair in his office at the Royal Mansion in the Cat Nest.

In the next moment, his consciousness had been yanked to what appeared to be a different plane of existence, one where he was only present on a mental level!

“What the hell is this?!”

His voice seemed to echo throughout the boundless but empty space.

Soon enough, he felt as if the energy around him became more and more charged.

What was strange was that the energy felt a bit familiar to him. As he tried to extend his senses as best as possible, he realized that he had encountered it before.

“High-level metal energy!”

The reason why he was able to recognize it so quickly was because Vulcan still retained a minute amount of metal energy.

Compared to the speck of metal energy that Vulcan struggled to retain, the quantities that the Mech Designer System wielded was vastly more than Ves had ever encountered from a single source!

Not even Cassandra Breyer wielded as much metal energy than Ves sensed in the background!

This pretty much confirmed that the Mech Designer System was related to the Metal Scroll!

As the energies surging in the background finally stabilized, the darkness around him finally faded a bit as a single light source appeared in front of his ‘position’.

A greyish ball of light took shape.

[Welcome to the System Space. The Mech Designer System has successfully updated to Version 2.0. Many changes have taken place, of which this new form of interaction is one of them. In response to your persistent need for secrecy and information control, the Mech Designer System has created this discreet and secure space in order to allow you to access its functions in complete confidence.]

Ves mentally widened his eyes. “I never expected this level of customer service from you! So you are capable of listening to my demands! What else do you have in store, System?”

He had a feeling that this upgrade did not amount to a simple change in how he accessed its menu.

There was no way the System would have taken years before making itself heard again if this was the extent of its upgrade!

[As part of its upgrade process, the Mech Designer System is also ready to upgrade in a manner of your choosing.]

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

[With the Timpala Steel that you have provided, the Mech Designer System is capable of restoring a limited selection of additional functions. Since there is only a limited pool of resources available for upgrades, you must select the upgrade track to be applied. Once chosen, the Mech Designer System will permanently change in operation, closing out a number of features in order to better operate in its new capacity.]

“What…”

Ves grew confused. Just as he wanted to ask for clarification, the System had already moved on by presenting the possible upgrade tracks that he could select at this junction!

The gray ball stretched into a screen that displayed an event that took place in the past.

Figures such as Eloise Pelican, Axelar Streon and Rion Aaden briefly appeared in view as they piloted mechs during the time when Ves’ consciousness temporarily stayed in their minds.

[Upgrade Track #1: Mental Projection. This upgrade trajectory will expand the Mech Designer System’s ability to allow you to mentally project your consciousness in the minds of different individuals, most notably mech pilots. You will repeatedly be able to cast your presence to the minds of mech pilots in the past and present. When casting your mind back into the past, the passage of time to your present self is frozen, which effectively means that no time shall pass until your consciousness returns to the current time.]

“What?! Are you serious?!”

Though Ves had not immersed himself in any Master experiences recently, he still recalled how many benefits he derived from them. They weren’t just opportunities to learn how mech pilots handled different mechs in different situations, they were also great ways for him to steer what took place in the past!

From what it sounded like, the System had most definitely picked up on his growing appreciation of what Mastery experiences could bring to Ves. There was nothing else in his life that could come close to reproducing this amazing feature!

What was even better for Ves was that the System had also noticed the reason why he had not used it as of late. He was too reluctant to put himself out of commission and completely defenseless for weeks at a time when his consciousness was merrily messing about in the past!

The Mech Designer System then started to project a different set of footage.

It showed Ves interacting with and encouraging different expert pilots. Notable individuals such as Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson, Venerable Davia Stark, Venerable Joshua Larkinson, Commander Casella Ingvar-Larkinson and Patriarch Reginald Cross all flashed by in his view.

[Upgrade Track #2: Mech Pilot Cultivation. This upgrade trajectory will strengthen the Mech Designer System’s ability to facilitate the growth of mech pilots. You will gain multiple new options to improve their strength, repair their ailments and shortcomings and accelerate their individual progression. The Mech Designer System will allow you to physically and mentally improve mech pilots to a great extent while also binding them with unbreakable contracts that guarantees their discretion. Further on, you will be given the option to improve another individual’s genetic aptitude.]

“…!”

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