The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3040

Chapter 3040: Divided Guests

Though the new MTA mech pilots did not really expose any notable information about themselves, the Black Cats keenly observed them as they went through introductions.

Not enough time had passed for the Larkinsons to get a good sense of the traits of every mech pilot that aimed to become more. However, through scans and observation by behavioral experts, the agents answering to Calabast gleaned a lot of clues from the twenty individuals.

"My first impressions of our guests are that they are quite unprepared for this assignment."

"Unprepared?" Ves raised his eyebrow.

"Yes, unprepared." Calabast smirked as she scratched Arnold's funny ears.

"Squeak! Squeak!" Arnold enthusiastically responded.

When Master Willix initially introduced this mission to Ves, he gained the impression that she had only recently begun to build relationships and increase her qualifications… Before the Crown Uprising broke out, she didn't really seem to be in a hurry to gain the appreciation of her superiors.

A sinking feeling overtook Ves. "So these guys are actually a lot less willing to go along with us than we initially expected."

"I wouldn't say that. I am merely stating that they look unprepared or bamboozled. They have been thrust into a very dubious training program that they never asked for. They look as if they are here only because their patrons or commanders told them to and not because they have undying confidence in our ability to transform them into expert pilots. This has resulted in a noticeable enthusiasm gap."

That sounded very troublesome to Ves because turning any of them into expert pilots was not a simple task. They all looked to be around thirty to forty years old. While this was the prime period for mech pilots, it was extremely late for them to develop spiritual potential by themselves.

From what Ves had observed from other people, teenagers and humans in their 20's had the best chance of developing spiritual potential. After that, those who never accomplished this would have to climb uphill.

While Ves did not completely rule out the possibility of success, he felt the chance was too small for any of the twenty mechers to overcome this impossible hurdle.

That meant that they needed help. Ves happened to have a way to place some stairs in front of this hurdle that would make jumping over it a lot easier.

The problem was that the 'stairs' in question were covered in sharp and lethal spikes! If anyone stepped on it without care, they would just impale their own feet and fall down to the ground!

What Ves needed to do was to refine the design of these 'stairs' and reduce the danger to such a degree that a trained athlete could at least place his toes in the areas where there were no lethal spikes.

This metaphor generally described his current challenge. Unless he was able to reduce the lethality of the Aspect of Transcendence, he would probably be unable to make any progress in the mission that Master Willixed dumped onto his lap.

"I must say your strategy to divide them into different training groups is an apt way to handle these privileged mech pilots."

"Hmm?"

Calabast leaned forward a bit. "The MTA's reputation is unassailable in human space. Its members derive a lot of confidence and conceit from that. Even if they have been told to hide their identities, they are not professional spies and thus cannot shake their original mentalities. Arrogance and superiority towards space peasants is rooted in their bones. If they form a united front, it will be extremely hard for you and the rest of the Larkinsons to control them while they remain our guests."

"I see." Ves frowned. "Even I would feel hesitant to push them too far if all twenty of them take issue with my approach."

"This is why dividing them into different groups is such a genius idea!" Calabast grinned. "You not only separated them by their degree of willingness to play along with us, but also set the stage for further division between the groups."

"Explain."

"It's quite simple. From the moment they split up into three groups, a competition has essentially formed between them. You forced each of the mechers to make a difficult choice that has a great impact on their lives. Now, they are motivated to do their best and make as much progress as possible to vindicate their choice. Don't you see? These highly-trained individuals who have always been told that they are the best can't bear the thought of losing!"

This was human psychology. No one was immune to envy, jealousy, regret and other selfish emotions. In this new situation, the MTA mech pilots divided into three new groups would naturally work hard in order to prove that their judgement was right and that the others were wrong!

If Ves had deliberately set out to divide and set the MTA mech pilots against each other, he would have patted himself on the back.

As it was, he completely overlooked this dynamic. If Calabast hadn't pointed out this situation, he would have remained ignorant!

Fortunately, now that he knew about it, he could tailor his future plans with these underlying tensions in mind. Competition was a powerful driver, and the developing rivalry between the three groups would ensure that the guests wouldn't expend all of their energy making trouble for the Larkinsons.

In fact, their eagerness to one-up their rivals might drive them to cooperate even better with the clan!

Ves smiled. "You just made my day a little better. Do you have any advice on how to manage the groups better?"

"Do you have to ask? I don't want those nine dummies who chose to form their own training schedules to get ahead of the rest. It is somewhat more acceptable for the seven mechers who chose to keep an open mind and listen to the advice of our people to succeed. What I really want is for the four fellows who put all of their trust in us to make the most progress. If all four of them advance to the rank of expert pilot within five years, then that would ensure the rest would become convinced of our methods!" _{frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓}

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