The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4871

Ves often reminded himself of his principle that mechs should be treated with dignity. They should ideally be granted rights similar to those of humans as they could be just as intelligent and lively as the people they served.

While Ves recognized that mechs could never become fully equal to humans, they could still get close enough that the gap became irrelevant as far as everyone was concerned.

The way he treated the Sensia and the Furia at the moment violated his principles.

He took a natural adaptation process and sped it up so that months worth of familiarization took place in a matter of hours!

This was akin to rapidly maturing the body of a human clone. It was already unethical to make a clone in the first place, but to have it rapidly age so that it skipped its entire childhood made it even worse.

As Ves looked at the competition mechs he was working on, he recalled that he only really built them to last for this tournament and not much longer. They were expendable in his eyes, but that might be a fate too cruel to mechs that had just been born and had yet to enjoy the fullness of life.

He sighed. "You're right to point this out. I think a subconscious part of me did not want to confront this discrepancy at all, so I haven't thought about this before. That is not how a smart and principled mech designer should handle a serious problem. Thinking about it now, our Twin Souls truly deserve better. They may be designed with a very narrow purpose in mind, but that doesn't mean they can enjoy a second life after they have fulfilled their jobs. Normally, the tournament organizers take possession of all of the competition mechs. They will either recycle them or preserve them in order to put the successful and most interesting machines on display. I think it should be easy enough to ask them to transfer the Sensia and the Furia to our clan where they can serve other purposes."

The mechs weren't even close to ready to fight on a modern battlefield. Ves would have to redesign them from the ground up, but that took way too much effort. He would rather spend his limited time on more productive activities.

What he could do was hand the living mechs over to Maikel and Zanthar to see what they could make out of the competition mechs. It would be a good test of their design skills for them to reengineer an existing pair of Larkinson mechs.

Ves also thought about making light modifications to them before handing them over to one of his mech academies. The living mechs should be able to have a fruitful time helping mech cadets explore the potential of living mechs and teamwork.

He inwardly shook his head. He could think about the alternative uses of his Twin Souls later. It was enough to promise them that they would be able to have a good time in the Larkinson Clan after this day was over.

"Looks like you resolved at least one of your problems." Juliet said. "What about the accelerated adaptation that you are trying to pull off? Is it okay for you to treat living mechs this way?"

He pressed his lips as he quickly deliberated on this specific matter.

"From a utilitarian standpoint, I feel like I do not necessarily need to rely on this procedure to win the finals. However, I should never underestimate the competition. Team Hendrix almost managed to defeat us. There are other teams that are at least just as strong. I shouldn't let go of this advantage, and while it is not entirely ethical, there is no question that my mechs are made to win this contest. What I am doing will help them fulfill their purpose better. They were always meant to cooperate with Bobbie and Lizzie. I think the best way to look at it is that I am designing customized pets for a pair of clients."

Though Ves knew that this was not an entirely good answer, it was more than acceptable to him. It was at least sufficient enough to ease his troubled mood and soothe his conscience.

After Ves and Juliet fixed up their machines once again, they awaited the start of the fourth round of matches.

Not a lot of teams had managed to make it this far. With only 9 teams left in the competition, the dynamic in the waiting room had changed.

The ones that made it this far regarded their other competitors with respect and wariness. There was a tension between them all that discouraged casual chatting.

After all, who knew whether they would leak out any sensitive information about their works that could be used to target their weaknesses in the next round!

As for the losing teams, half of their mech designers had already exited the venue. They were usually the individuals who made a poor showing in this event. Their mechs got crushed too quickly while the panel of experts did not mince their words when they picked apart a lot of flaws.

The ones that remained at least managed to earn enough respect to preserve their pride and hold their heads high.

[Team Larkinson vs Team Danilov!]

"Go get them, boss." Dulo Voiken said as he clapped his palm on Ves' back. "The mechs developed by Team Danilov aren't pushovers. My mechs would have been able to fight against yours if it wasn't for our defeat in the earlier round. Our javelin mech and our spearman mech did manage to poke a lot of holes in the enemy mechs. I hope that helps."

Ves gazed over at Team Danilov. He wasn't familiar with them but he understood their type. They were yet another pair of older and more experienced Journeymen.

In fact, the ones that managed to make it to the later rounds tended to be over sixty years old!

There were geniuses among the younger generation of Journeymen. Why couldn't there be geniuses among the older generations as well?

Not every Journeyman was able to advance to the rank of Senior when they entered their fifties or sixties.

Everyone progressed at vastly different rates. Their talent, their life experiences, their knowledge accumulation, their mech designs, their work ethic and the complexity of their design philosophies all played a major role in determining whether they were ready to take the next step!

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