The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3367

3367 /7079

Chapter 3367: Gloriana's Way

"Miaow!" Clixie proudly thrust up her collar as she stopped in front of Lucky.

Her upturned tail playfully swished from side to side as she showed off her flashy gift. The sizable golden collar resembled an elaborate necklace that was fit to be worn by an aristocrat.

"Meow…?"

Lucky blinked as he spotted the deep blue gem socketed on the front of the collar. He moved closer and sniffed at it before jumping back in surprise.

"Meow!"

Clixie arrogantly lifted her paw and licked at it. "Miaow."

"Meow meow!"

"Miaooow."

While the two cats fussed over the new collar, Ves and his pregnant wife stood a bit further away.

"Have you made a choice, Gloriana?"

The woman slowly nodded. "I've weighed all of the options that you've presented me and thoroughly plotted their pros and cons. After careful consideration, I have decided to go with the networking cat."

Ves raised his eyebrows. He hadn't expected her to pick this particular option.

"That's… quite a surprising answer."

"Why? You gave me this choice because you thought it would be useful to me. What makes you think I would have cast it aside?"

"According to my impression of you, I would have thought you would have gone all crazy over adopting a cat that brings you closer to the Superior Mother."

Gloriana shook her head. "To be honest, I did feel ecstatic about getting closer to your mother, but once I calmed down, I realized that I am not worthy to follow in her footsteps."

"Huh?"

"I think you are misunderstanding something about me, Ves. I worship the Superior Mother. I admire the Superior Mother. I look up to the Superior Mother. That does not mean I want to become the Superior Mother. Your suggestion does exactly that, and while I can't say I am unattracted to obtaining a pet that is a lesser version of your mother, I realize that I am different."

This was an important realization that anyone had to make. It was all well and fine for people to yearn to become their role models, but everyone was different. Imitation had its limits and truly successful people learned how to put their hero worship aside when it began to hinder their growth.

Gloriana bloomed with confidence as she explained her ambition to her husband.

"I want to become a Supreme one day as well, Ves. I want to become a Star Designer and wield similar powers to the Superior Mother, but aligned with my own strengths. The main identity of the Superior Mother is a nurturer of children. My overarching identity is a mech designer. I'm already treading a different path. So no, Ves, I don't want my companion god to embody a Supreme because I will one day be able to stand at the same height as your mother!"

This close, Ves could feel the burning desire and ambition within her. He was happy for her. She had not lost her way as her mech designer in pursuit of power.

"What of the second option I presented to you?" He curiously asked.

"The craftsmanship cat? I rejected it for a similar reason." She answered. "The impact it will have on my own development is not something that I can ignore. You were correct in saying that taking shortcuts will only undercut my own development. Even if my decision will make it harder for me to climb up Senfovon's Ladder of Craftsmanship, at least I will be able to master all of the rungs I've ascended!"

Her rationale made a lot of sense to Ves. Technically speaking, he was the one who had chosen to take a shortcut. While the existence of Vulcan had helped him progress his own insights in craftsmanship by at least two decades, skipping much of the hardships and lessons in between might cause him to develop deficiencies in his later career.

However, this was not an insurmountable problem. While it was true that Ves relied on plenty of external assistance in order to boost and accelerate his career, he still accomplished a lot of work by himself.

He experimented with new and unknown phenomena all the time. While he might not be able to understand their rules and mechanisms at the start, he was always able to figure them out over time.

As a mech designer who was accustomed to innovating his way out of his problems, he long understood that as long as he was clever enough, he didn't always have to pay the full price for his actions. Cheating processes and bypassing the negative consequences of his actions was his bread and butter!

Therefore, the downside that Gloriana was worried about did not concern Ves that much. If Vulcan truly hindered his progression in the future, then he had already thought up at least three possible solutions to mitigate this issue.

"Hm, the craftsmanship cat isn't necessary anyway." Ves spoke and raised his hammer. "We can always consult Vulcan if we need a little help. That's why I made him. Compared to the craftsmanship cat, the networking cat provides us with an undeniable advantage."

"That's why I went with this option. A companion god that is based around connecting people together is the best compliment to my own capabilities and ambitions. At first glance, she doesn't offer any of the exciting new abilities and boosts of the other alternatives. This choice only makes it so that I can spread my vision and perspective to other mech designers and vice versa. Yet that is exactly what I've been missing this whole time. All of those times we've worked with Blinky really opened up my eyes to how little everyone understands each other."

Ves understood exactly what she was complaining about. "Collaborations are never easy. Both of us have worked together long enough to understand the gist of our design philosophies, but that only reduces the friction. We can never remove it entirely unless we become identical to each other."

This was not a unique problem to them. Every mech designer and every working professional who had to work in teams or groups encountered a lot of friction, misunderstandings and misalignment. Managers existed for a reason but even they couldn't put out all of the fires.