The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5228

Chapter 5228 Process of Elimination

Few people gathered in the assembly hall were stupid.

They could roughly come up with the reasons that 89 delegates had chosen to pass on their voting power to the youngest among their elite gathering.

Jovy Armalon, who was sitting right in the rear, knew exactly how much trouble his friend was in at the moment.

"No one this young and unprepared deserves to bear so much responsibility."

The mecher hated the cowardice of those older delegates at this time. Jovy never felt more disappointed at his fellow Survivalists for passing the buck at someone who least deserved to bear this heavy burden.

Jovy knew what was truly going on in the minds of most of the 90 people who had been invested with the power to decide on this matter.

They were all cowards.

Perhaps that was a bit harsh.

The indecisive delegates worked closely with many mechers and did not want to let any of their actions sour their possibility of cooperating with others in the future.

The Xenotechnician, the Fist of Defiance and the Polymath were not only the most desirable people to work with, but the people that had joined their respective camps were all powerful and knowledgeable in their own right!

In order to preserve their ability to cooperate with a wide variety of colleagues in the future, the cowardly delegates had passed their right to vote to Ves without much hesitation.

Perhaps they might not particularly care about Ves in particular, but as a mech designer who had only recently been elevated to their ranks, he was the least tainted and involved in the Red Association.

That meant that he represented the voice of the common folk where he originally came from. Passing on their votes to a man who had only been a space peasant not too long ago was a good excuse to abscond themselves of any further responsibility.

Unfortunately, Jovy knew that no one had ever bothered to ask Ves whether he was okay with this arrangement!

This situation would have been a lot better if Ves had received word of this development in hand. If he was able to provide his input and have a real choice on whether he was willing to carry so many proxy votes, then he wouldn't have been forced to formulate a decision on the spot in the worst possible time!

At least the Xenotechnician had been clever enough to spin this new development in a more favorable direction. Jovy relaxed as he saw that the dynamic in the assembly hall became less charged.

Ves meanwhile continued to fall into thought as he calmly considered his choices.

He had diverted all of his thinking resources from their previous assignments so that he could consider this situation from multiple angles.

Even then, Ves allowed the seconds to go past without any interruption as he needed to put way more thought in decision than normal!

According to the rules, any proposal that accrued 137 votes or more would get passed.

Ves had the power to do that to any of the current plans in consideration.

He did not want to do this. Not only would he attract so much heat that roughly two-thirds of all red humans would resent him for making the 'wrong choice', he just didn't think it was right for someone as young and ill-prepared as him to make such a momentous decision!

The alternative offered by the Xenotechnician sounded a lot more reasonable in comparison.

There shouldn't be any rule that stated that Ves had to cast all of his accumulated proxy votes on the same plan.

The entire reason why proxy votes existed in the first place was because people who were unable to attend a voting session in person or by remote needed to make their voice heard in another way.

These indisposed individuals therefore called up their buddies and entrusted the latter with the right to vote.

The intention was that the proxy voter would faithfully represent the will of the missing individual.

Although rare, situations where a guy received multiple proxy votes did occur. This was usually the case when respected leaders or mentors had received a bunch of them from their subordinates or students.

Instances where a delegate like Ves received 89 proxy votes were rare, but not unheard of throughout the history of the Red Association and humanity as a whole!

Ves just needed to keep in mind that he held 90 discreet voting opportunities in total.

While he had the option to cast 90 votes on the same plan and be done with it, he could split them up if he wished.

If he made the most politically correct decision and divided his votes in even proportions, then the Diplomacy Plan, the Deep Strike Plan and the Unity Plan would receive 30 votes each.

This sounded safe and fair, right?

Not really.

Ves had reached a stage in the voting session where he already knew where the other committed votes had fallen.

If he spread his votes evenly, he would effectively eliminate the Deep Strike Plan from further consideration.

Although there was an argument to be made that the Fist of Defiance's mule-headed plan deserved to be torpedoed since it had already fallen behind to this extent, Ves would still abdicate this unique opportunity to look out for his own interests.

His eyes minutely narrowed.

It would be a dereliction of his duty as a mech designer and a clan leader if he did not consider the positive and negative impacts of each plan to his own personal situation!

Ves knew that it was not proper to think about himself in a matter of great importance to the entirety of red humanity.

If he was a model mecher or Survivalist, then he was supposed to think about the good of the collective. Personal interests were irrelevant when red humanity's very survival came into question.

Yet Ves couldn't get rid of this bad habit.

Even when two Star Designers and a lot of other important people were paying close attention to Ves at the moment, Ves did not feel any shame in adopting this mentality!

He was only human. If the proxy voters did not want Ves to make such an impactful decision on behalf of their entire race by considering his own selfish needs, then they shouldn't have passed on their voting rights in the first place!

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