The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4122

Chapter 4122 The Ultimate Sacrifice

Anton had spoken to the right target.

After making his offer clear, Venerable Stixson immediately nodded.

"Count me in! I love my place in the Blue Cavalry and all, but I have long grown tired of this basic expert mech. It is nowhere near as powerful and exciting as the ones piloted by my more experienced peers. I don't have the patience to wait a decade before I am eligible for an upgrade."

It was easy to reel a new expert pilot into Anton's scheme.

Although expert pilots were treated as heroes and champions by the rank-and-file, the Vermeer Group as a whole did not care too much for them at first.

Those that had recently broken through were too weak and still had a lot to go before they could turn into true powerhouses.

Since the Vermeer Group had limited funding and resources at its disposal, it had to be able to spend them as efficiently as possible. It made a lot of sense not to invest too much in providing brand-new expert pilots with powerful expert mechs because the absolute increase in performance was not that much.

It made much more sense to concentrate all of those resources on a smaller group of proven expert pilots. Their formidable resonance strength allowed them to deliver much greater performance with the same amount of investment!

While all of this made perfect sense, the reality did not make Venerable Stixson happy. THis was why he did not have to think too long at all before agreeing with Professor Anton Mendoza's offer!

The two were already acquainted with each other. In Venerable Stixson's experience, mech designers were always helpful towards him. He did not have any doubts about Professor Anton's sincerity.

Expert pilots were decisive people by nature. They rarely hesitated or procrastinated over their decisions. As long as they wanted to do something, they would go ahead without any second-guessing.

They were also quite sharp about judging other people's character. Venerable Stixson's intuition did not warn him that Professor Anton meant any ill will.

In fact, it was quite the opposite. The Senior Mech Designer was being incredibly earnest about trying to help him obtain a stronger expert mech!

A whirlwind of activity took place after that. Professor Anton did not know how Director Trinsael and his subordinates managed to pull it off, but they successfully arranged a series of events that caused Venerable Stixson to be reassigned from his current posting in the Blue Cavalry to a secret research group that was supposedly set up by an obscure branch of the Vermeer Group.

No one was able to identify the exact research group or government branch that authorized all of this. Most people lacked the authority to read the classified information. Those that did had no reason to pay attention to such a small dossier.

No matter what, the manipulation allowed Venerable Stixson to shake his minders and reach the same rural star system at the edge of the Vermeer Group's territories without incident.

"Professor Anton! It's good to see you again! You did good work with my expert mech even if it did not reach its full potential."

The two men embraced each other for a moment. Although the other people in the secret base were complete strangers to them, that didn't matter because they trusted each other.

Now that Anton managed to obtain the final and most important element he needed in order to proceed, he immediately initiated his research.

Several months passed by as he worked intensely on the problems that lay ahead. Many times, he had to involve Venerable Stixson by scanning his body, taking out tissue samples and performing other examinations.

Many of these procedures were rather tedious, but they were all necessary in order to make essential progress.

Soon, the big day had come. With the help of his research findings, Anton managed to fabricate an expert mech that incorporated numerous tissue samples taken from the expert pilot.

In theory, Venerable Stixson should recognize the new expert mech as his own body, thereby empowering it in a way that was different than before.

Yet when Stixson finally interfaced with the mech for the first time, the initial performance results were hardly any different than before!

Other than a minor performance boost which could be chalked up to Venerable Stixson's greater mood, the expert mech functionally did not become any stronger!

Professor Anton frantically conducted additional experiments where he adjusted the variables and tweaked the design of the new expert mech.

The data did not improve. Though Anton strongly believed he was on the right track, he was still missing an essential element that prevented his work from displaying its true potential.

"What am I missing?!"

Eventually, he had to account for himself in front of Director Trinsael.

"While I am glad to see that your research has not produced any catastrophic consequences, I am not as pleased with the lack of results. We invested in you in order to see whether you can make a difference."

"A negative research result is still a useful piece of information." Anton lamely replied. "At least you know what doesn't work."

"That hardly justifies the resources we put at your disposal and the strings we pulled to bring over Venerable Stixson. Tell me, professor. Do you have any solid ideas on how to remedy your current problem, or do we have to shutter this project of yours?"

To shut down his research project when he was still grasping for an answer was intolerable to Professor Anton!

"No! Do not pull the plug so soon!" He shouted. "I still have a way! The reason why we failed to achieve any results so far is because the measures I took to enhance the expert mech were too tame. I should have realized that it takes more than a couple of blood samples and tissue samples to affect a mech that weighs so many tons. Give me another chance! I am certain I can produce a successful result in my next attempt! I just need your help again."

Director Trinsael looked quite intrigued. "I was of the opinion that what you have attempted is the extent of your idea."

"Not quite. I did not go far enough. You see, I feel I can go much further. The only problem is… that I cannot proceed without satisfying a set of stringent conditions."

"Tell me what you need."

Professor Anton reluctantly did so. While he previously withheld these thoughts for fear of obtaining a negative response, at this point he had nothing to lose.

Surprisingly enough, Director Trinsael did not react negatively to Anton's most extreme proposal yet. The mecher actually looked interested rather than disgusted.

"I can see why you held back this idea. It is quite… something. However, if your theories are truly correct, then this is the best opportunity to achieve a positive result. I approve, but only if you can satisfy the additional requirement."

"Leave it to me, director."

It took several more months to satisfy the additional conditions. It took another couple of weeks for the new guest to arrive at the secret research base.

"Venerable Zoman. You have arrived. It is an honor to meet with you. I cannot thank you enough for the sacrifice that you are prepared to make."

The old and aging expert pilot smiled at the eager-sounding Senior. "The Vermeer Group is my life. I owe everything to it. I have always regretted that I cannot serve it anymore after I failed to achieve a breakthrough before I was forced to retire. I refuse to go out with a whimper. Rather than letting my body rot away in my home, I would rather give myself up entirely and help my fellow comrades one last time."

Both Anton and Stixson became incredibly impressed by the powerful will and conviction that radiated from Venerable Zoman's mind.

The retired expert pilot's body might be in shambles, but the man's willpower was still formidable!

Unfortunately, the Vemeer Group and the Blue Cavalry deemed it uneconomical to extend the life of its experienced expert pilots.

The cost was simply too great. It was much harder to prolong the life of a high-ranking mech pilot in general, so this service was only reserved for ace pilots and those that showed true potential in breaking through.

With Venerable Zoman's full cooperation, Professor Anton was able to move forward again.

Venerable Stixson kept the aging expert pilot company while Anton made the right preparations.

Once everything was ready, the three had gathered in the experimental chamber where the expert mech stood dormant in the middle.

"So this is it, huh?" Venerable Zoman uttered. "It doesn't look as impressive as I thought."

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