The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5266

When the lecture finally concluded, the students reluctantly left after Ves made it clear that he did not have the time to talk to them on an individual basis.

He would be happy to speak with the more promising students to see whether he could rope them into his orbit, but he had more pressing matters today.

If not for the fact that he still prized his teaching position at the Eden Institute, he would have been handling more important matters at this time.

"Professor?" The projection of Alexa Striker walked up to him. "Master Laila Rebecca Devos wants to have a word with you. She has been waiting outside for several minutes now. Is it convenient for you to meet with her so that you can discuss matters of import?"

Ves glanced carefully at his teaching assistant. Ever since his return from the conference, he had noticed that the young Apprentice Mech Designer conveyed a significantly different vibe from before.

He used to regard her as a bright and intelligent Terran mech designer who managed to get lucky enough to enter the academic track. She was thoughtful, knowledgeable and sociable enough to be an excellent fit for the job.

There had not been any cause for him to think she was more, until today.

Ves had a lot more experience with interacting with first-raters than before. The week he spent at the conference had deeply immersed him into the world of the top first-raters that held considerable sway over human society.

He not only expanded his horizons and got to know a lot of powerful first-raters, but he also became a lot more familiar with their social engineering practices.

Right now, Alexa Striker exhibited various signals and behavioral traits that reminded Ves of the young elites he met during the conference. She had more in common with highborn scions such as Kelly Herrera and Polak Neziri than a woman with a more ordinary Terran background.

Even though every Terran citizen was technically a first-rater, there were still huge gaps between the top and the bottom. First-class citizens could be divided into many subclasses that all shared many similarities with each other while also finding it difficult to move up and down unless exceptional circumstances had occurred.

Ves grew more and more suspicious at Miss Striker's actual identity. He was afraid that the Terrans had already marked him out as special long before he unveiled most of his astonishing work at the Survivalist conference.

Was the Eden Institute in on this scheme? Ves found that unlikely. Miss Striker may have been sent by a different Terran organization that developed a deeper interest in him at an earlier date.

Why go through this effort? What were these Terrans after that necessitated the allocation of a young first-class mech designer who likely descended from one of the powerful Terran clans?

Perhaps the Terrans had studied all of the notable battle footage of the Larkinson Clan and developed an interest in glows and battle formations.

That did not sound likely, though. The Rubarthans had access to the same information but never reached out as far as he was aware of. His status as a second-class Senior Mech Designer meant that he still had a lot to prove before his design philosophy and his work earned enough credibility to be eligible for widespread adoption.

There was another possible answer. Alexa's interest towards him may be due to shenanigans that occurred during one of his Mastery experiences.

The question now was whether Alexa's covert mission had come about due to a Mastery experience that already occurred or one that he was meant to embark upon in the future.

Ves already started to grow a headache as he thought about the latter possibility. The mental burden was too great!

Perhaps it was best to keep it simple. Occam's Razor. As far as he knew, there had only been one Mastery experience where he had inhabited the mind of a Terran citizen.

"Axelar of the Streon Ancient Clan." He spoke out loud.

His teaching assistant's eyes widened. She did not appear to put up any facade. She exhibited genuine surprise at his outburst, and did nothing to suppress this impulse. She wanted to lay her cards in the open and convey as much sincerity towards him as possible.

Ves turned fully in her direction even as he utilized his cranial implant to look up information on the galactic net.

A partial match. The first name was identical. The last name shared a vague resemblance but was not the same.

Probability of subterfuge substantial. Fake name. The Streon Ancient Clan easily possessed the power to forge a false identity for the young lady.

Visual comparison does not match. Height and built were roughly comparable, but variations in outfits could produce considerably different silhouettes.

The faces shared a closer resemblance. Different applications of makeup as well as subtle facial surgery could easily make a woman indistinguishable from her previous appearance.

Voices did not entirely match either, but specialized training paired with light modifications to vocal chords could easily produce major differences.

Hypothesis. High likelihood that 'Alexa Striker' was related to his only Mastery experience with a Terran mech pilot. Her reaction to the mention of his name strengthened this possibility.

Hypothesis. 'Alexa Striker' was a member of the Streon Ancient Clan. Knowledge, wisdom and understanding of Terran high society exceeds what a civilian mech designer should know. Competence is unusually high. Estimated specifications of augmentations likely exceed the range that is attainable by average Terrans. Only a wealthy and established Terran organization could afford this level of training and augmentation.

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