The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2759

Chapter 2759 - Mutant Ability

Hours after Arnold gleefully filled his stomach before falling asleep, both Ves and Ranya sat side by side as they methodically combed over the sensor readings.

Since a surface-level analysis yielded too few answers, the pair decided to spend precious hours diving into the huge quantity of raw data.

They had to know exactly what the sensors managed to record. They also had to question the reliability of the sensors in question. Ves even spent some of his time performing physical inspections on them in order to make sure they were properly calibrated.

None of the sophisticated lab devices generated any skewed readings. Ranya had only acquired them recently and she had already calibrated and configured them a short time ago. It was extremely unlikely for one of the lab equipment to malfunction, let alone over fifty of them at the same time!

Ves no longer questioned the integrity of the lab equipment. After ruling them out as the reason behind the inconsistent readings, they tried to analyze the data from different angles.

If the sensor readings were accurate, then the original body that had stayed in place simply turned fake without any odd disruptions.

The exact timing of this transition happened at the same time as one of the Arnolds in the corner had turned into a real body!

What drove the exobiologist and mech designer crazy was that there was no indication that such a swap had occurred!

The sensors detected no outburst of signals, no explosion of heat and no displacement of air. It was as if real turned fake and fake turned real at the snap of a finger.

Ves was reminded of one of the exchanges that he held with a mech designer he met in the past.

Truth was relative. What people observed was not necessarily real. People interpreted sensory data differently. Many mistakes did not arise from possessing inadequate or faulty senses, but rather resorting to biases and flawed theories to explain something.

He suspected that he was in such a situation right now. Due to various limitations, Ves was unable to come up with a satisfactory explanation of what happened.

Teleportation seemed to be the most obvious answer, but Ves had a feeling that this was too simplistic.

He would have been able to test this possible answer by performing a third test. It was too bad that Arrnold was asleep now. If he was awake, Ves could have told the exobeast to repeat his trick, but this time Ves would mark the original’s body with a harmless marker.

Would the Arnod that emerged in a different place boast the same marker on his body? If not, then that would have great implications for Arnold’s potential!

"Do you really think that might be the case?" Ranya looked skeptically at Ves. "It sounds far-fetched. While I’m not a physicist or anything, even I know that the ability to call upon alternate reality versions of yourself and eventually importing one of them to our current reality while putting your original self in an alternate reality to balance it out is ludicrous!"

"It’s just a theory, doctor. While it sounds ludicrous, high-ranking mech pilots are known to have pulled off even more exceptional feats."

"I’m very much aware of those examples, sir! I seriously doubt that that a weak and otherwise ordinary exobeast like Arnold is capable of pulling off the same feats as exceptional ace and god pilots who have the support of powerful supermechs!"

She had a point. Even though physical strength was not necessarily correlated to spiritual strength, Ves already made an estimation of Arnold’s spirituality. Almost every design spirit was able to overpower the arganid when it came to this quality.

It was quite difficult for him to imagine that a spiritually-active lifeform like Arnold was capable of breaking the boundaries between alternate realities.

The more Ves thought about it, the more silly he felt. Why did he propose this theory in the first place? He didn’t have any proof. If he had to supply an answer, then he shouldn’t let his imagination go wild. There were several more restrained possibilities that did not delve into something as fantastical as alternate realities.

As Ves tried to find a more realistic explanation, Ranya sighed and pushed herself back from her desk.

"I don’t think we are engaging in productive activity. Does it matter if we know exactly what occurred?"

"Uhmmm...."

"There are too many uncertainties in cutting-edge science." She reminded him. "The strange sample of fluids you once supplied me still puzzle me to this day. I often put them under my scanners in the hopes of gaining some more clues, but I think it will take me years to crack more secrets. I don’t let myself get bothered by that, though. You take what you can and leave the rest for another time. Even if we can decipher Arnold’s odd powers, what can we do with what we’ve learned?"

"Not much, I guess." Ves admitted. He began to view this situation from a more sober perspective. "To be honest, I don’t know how much of the applications of my design philosophy works. I’ve figured out a few mechanics and interactions, but I’ve only scratched the surface of what is possible. One of the reasons why I resorted to borrowing the powers of external sources to begin with was because I needed access to more powers than what I can provide on my own. I’m no Arnold, but as long as I can access his abilities, it doesn’t matter."

He began to let go of his unrealistic expectations. Once he did, he felt as if he removed a weight off his shoulder. He no longer saw Arnold as a source of lots of problems. Instead, he started to view the remarkable little exobeast as a potential addition to his collection of design spirits.

Once Ves began to turn his thoughts in this direction, he began to frown.

He seriously doubted whether Arnold was capable of granting a mech the ability to swap its position with one of its phantom clones.

Even though the term ’swapping’ was not an accurate description of what Arnold did, it was the most convenient term for Ves to use at the moment.

Yet no matter what he called it, he seriously doubted whether his intrinsic ability translated completely to mechs. The energy requirements were likely astronomical!

"Perhaps only expert pilots and higher are able to leverage this ability with a mech." He muttered.

While that sounded incredibly useful in certain situations, Arnold became a lot less practical if this was true.

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