Chapter 3946 Slowing Momentum
"I never knew you were such a big deal, Jovy. Are there many Journeyman of your age who are tier 6 galactic citizens?"
Jovy responded with a modest smile as he gestured for Ves to sit at a nearby couch. "I'm a valuable prospect in the MTA due to my design philosophy. People like us are rare, but the scope of human civilization is huge. There are a lot of mech designers who have succeeded in breaking new ground. Starting out is already difficult, but making further progress is the true challenge for pioneers in their respective fields. The rights and privileges afforded to tier 6 galactic citizens are meant to help us go further with our innovations."
It did not escape Ves' attention that Jovy treated him as an equal.
As Ves took his seat, he gained a better idea how much the Association valued mech designers with high potential design philosophies. The relative ease in which he was promoted to tier 6 galactic citizenship did not diminish its value at all. From the public articles he read about this topic, the amount of humans who managed to make it to the middle tiers was tiny in proportion to the total population of galactic citizens!
While he felt it was unfair for first-raters to be born as tier 10 galactic citizens right from the start, they still needed to rely on their talent and ability to make meaningful contributions to human civilization in order to climb higher.
Wealth or powerful parentage alone could not help anyone move up the tiers. If this was the case, then the entire system of galactic citizenship would become rotten to the core.
Only those who were genuinely valuable to human civilization could climb higher through their own efforts!
From what Ves had read from a particular article, the tiers that people could reach was strongly correlated with the ability to earn MTA merits or CFA merits.
Those who were able to earn thousands of MTA merits were most likely lower-tiered than those who were capable of earning millions of MTA merits!
This was no surprise as both concepts centered around the principle that those who worked and fought for the betterment of humankind deserved to be rewarded.
The Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance did not often see eye to eye these days, but they never wavered in supporting the galactic citizenship system.
This reflected how much the Big Two valued meritocracy over the alternatives. Each high-ranking member must be a capable individual without doubt. The mechers and fleeters did not wish to replicate the severe corruption that had plagued many human states and organizations in the latter half of the Age of Conquest.
The Big Two stood in direct contrast to the first-rate superstates in this regard.
While it was true that the New Rubarth Empire offered plenty of opportunities for commoners to rise to the top, inheritance was still a powerful force to those that already controlled most of the levers of society.
The upper echelon naturally wanted to protect their advantage!
In a situation where there was not much room for expansion, the rise of upstarts inevitably led to the downfall of established powers!
While the Rubarthans recognized that competition was a necessary force to maintain the vitality of the state, the major groups that always held tight to power never made way for others.
The most dominant example of this in Rubarth was its Imperial Household!
The Star Emperor and his menagerie of offspring held a firm grip of every conceivable part of Rubarthan society. Whether intentional or not, the bloodline of the Imperial Household directly controlled many levers of the New Rubarth Empire, making it extremely unlikely for any external actors to shake the first family of this powerful state!
A phenomenon like this was long taken for granted in the first-rate superstates, but such open nepotism and appropriation of power was unimaginable within the MTA.
This was what Ves liked about the mechers. Even though they were still snobbish and stuck-up in their own way, they also held great respect for ability and accomplishments.
Ves happened to possess both of them in spades. This made him feel more at ease when interacting with the Association.
Although he still needed to exhibit basic vigilance towards a great power that could squash him flat at any time, he took comfort in the fact that the mechers were more likely to protect him than to seek his end.
As Ves settled in one of the Simile Halifax's luxurious lounges, he started to chat about trivial topics with Jovy.
However, this only lasted a minute or two before they decided to move on to more important business.
"By the way, ever since I left the Garimel System, I don't know what is going on over there anymore. Can you tell me a bit about what you mechers have done since my fleet's departure?"
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