The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1731

Chapter 1731 Tenant Farming

According to Patricia, it was a lot harder to follow the path of a rational mech designer!

Those like Ves who gave in to their emotions never needed to hold themselves back!

If they wanted to pursue something, they did it wholeheartedly without being deterred by the low odds of success!

"In the higher levels of mech design, you will eventually get in touch with rational mech designers." She spoke. "The ability to control yourself is one of the hidden conditions to join the Design Department of the Mech Trade Association. This is the reason why the MTA rejects the vast majority of applicants. They don't exhibit enough control!"

"What? I never heard about that! Why does the MTA value control so much? Are they better than passionate mech designers?"

"Not exactly. In fact, we're worse in many areas. Because we have to temper their emotions, we aren't particularly adventurous or innovative. The hurdle to advancing to Journeyman is much harder for us because we often treat mech design as a chore. There are even rational mech designers who actually hate designing mechs, but nonetheless advanced to Master they have worked hard to become good at it! This is the ideal of a rational mech designer!"

Ves became stunned yet again! He had never heard of such a thing! He couldn't imagine a mech designer who hated his profession yet reached a height that most passionate mech designers would kill to achieve!

Her words prompted him to recall the time when he and Gloriana entered into low periods after expending a considerable amount of their spiritual energy.

To an energetic, passionate and creative mech designer, these low periods felt like pure torture to them! While they eventually managed to get used to this condition, they never felt comfortable remaining in this state.

It was like living with constant hunger gnawing in their bellies!

"What is the point of going through all of this torture? Is self-control even necessary?"

Patricia turned around and activated a projection of the Milky Way Galaxy. The map delineated all of the territories occupied by humanity.

"Look at this map. Human civilization spans a lot of star sectors. Each of those star sectors are filled with states that often war against each other. These conflicts generate demand for mechs, particularly mechs with powerful advantages over the competition. Put yourself in the shoes of the MTA that governs all of these activities. What do you think they see?"

He paused and thought for a moment. He recalled his earlier speculation and combined them with the hints given by Patricia.

"The MTA.. regards human space as an incubation chamber! As long as humans keep quarrelling with each other, they'll constantly develop new toys to beat their opponents!"

"Exactly. Most of the innovation that the MTA values comes from passionate mech designers who have somehow been able to overcome every hurdle and realize their design philosophy. With how large and diverse this incubation chamber has grown, the MTA never has to worry about running out of new inventions."

"I guess that there will be a lot less innovation if every passionate mech designer tries to become rational." Ves discovered.

She nodded. "Mech designers like you play a vital role in the mech design ecosystem. While your mech designs often feature very distinct flaws, their strengths are always very pronounced as well. The MTA needs these kinds of innovations to elevate the overall level of mech design."

"Why doesn't the MTA take part in this then? What is the use of rational mech designers?"

"Rational mech designers like us may not be as good in pushing the boundaries, but we are much more capable of assimilating different specialties. We train ourselves to keep an open and objective mind. Our design philosophies aren't as exclusive as others. We evaluate ourselves by a different standard for your kind. Passionate mech designers are graded by the usefulness of their specialty. Rational mech designers are graded by their ability to imitate, assimilate and combine other design philosophies!"

This was the first time Ves heard something like this! If Patricia didn't appear so credible, Ves would have thought that she was spewing nonsense!

A very ugly image started to form in his mind.

"I see now." He spoke morosely. "It's like tenant farming. Passionate mech designers are the poor serfs who toil in the fields and occasionally harvest some crops in the form of innovations. The rational mech designers of the MTA are the landholders or farm managers who effortlessly claim all of the crops while doing almost none of the backbreaking work!"

"That's the reality of the mech industry in the era of the MTA." Patricia confirmed, not mincing any words this time. "To the MTA, a good mech designer is not necessarily someone who can design a very unique or innovative mech. A good mech designer is someone who can consistently design good mechs that meets demand. Do you comprehend the difference?"

He nodded after a few seconds of thought. "Passionate mech designers are more focused on the journey. They have to expend all their time on navigating the paths and making sure they chose the correct ones. Rational mech designers are more about the end result. Their mech designs have to meet the requirements. Nothing more. It doesn't matter if they steal or borrow from someone else's specialty."

"It's a fair trade, Ves. It is not as if passionate mech designers are forced to give up their trade secrets to the MTA."

That was true. Ves already found out that mech designers who pass on their trade secrets to the MTA could obtain a lot of merits in return. With that, they could exchange their merits for all kinds of rewards, the most important of which was life-prolonging treatment!

Still, Ves felt a little sour about being regarded as a poor and dirt-crusted peasant. The snobby noble mech designers from the MTA didn't have to go into the fields at all!

Patricia noticed the direction of his thoughts. "I already told you that you aren't necessarily worse than mech designers like us. We have our own challenges. We can only make full use of someone else's design philosophy if it has been realized. Even then, we have to adapt ourselves to assimilate these specialties, which is quite challenging. At the same time, we can't neglect our own design philosophies either. All of this is very hard to do while actively suppressing our strongest emotions and impulses."