The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5914 Paradox of Choice

By helping the Dominion of Man overcome a nigh-impossible tribulation, the mastermind and the most pivotal contributor to her success received a rare bit exceedingly precious privilege.

The heavens saw fit to give him a choice.

Ironically, Ves actually preferred it if the storm just made this decision on his behalf and upgraded him straight away.

Even if one of the previous outcomes randomly turned him into a phase lord, he would always make it work somehow. He was not a rigid mech designer by nature. ty excited him, and he constantly craved new experiences.

Yet that did not happen this time. Ves obtained the initiative without even asking to. Now that he was put in this position, he had an obligation to make the most out of this rare and possibly unique opportunity.

Ves recognized that he had become afflicted by a classic case of decision paralysis.

The paradox of choice described a circumstance where a multitude of choices left the decider with much less certainty on how to proceed.

This effect was especially pronounced on people who wanted to weigh every decision. The sheer amount of viable choices resulted in an overload of calculations and considerations.

Just the mental load of having to calculate and compare the opportunity costs for skipping the option of transforming the Blinkyverse into a material space or adding another elemental mastery to his domain was maddening!

Ves could think up at least a hundred different design applications for every kind of boon that upgraded his productive capabilities.

As he continued to explore his options with the shadow of the Subjugation King, his problem did not abate in the slightest.

The opposite happened!

His decision paralysis became worse by the minute! There were just so many juicy rewards to choose from that he truly couldn't make up his mind!

It was as if Ves had won a radiant lottery ticket, yet instead of letting random chance exert a large influence over his eventual prize, he could pick out of tens of millions of possible choices.

Not all of them were equal in value.

Ves needed to put a lot of thought in determining the worth of every possible choice.

Perhaps that may be the reason why the heavenly authority of Messier 87 had pulled the Subjugation King in this odd space. It 'helpfully' invited the most qualified expert within reach to consult on this important matter.

It did not even seem to matter that the Subjugation King was officially an enemy of red humanity and that Ves did not like the enslaving bastard in the slightest.

Perhaps the fact that Ves had been soul marked by Subjugation King had been enough of a reason to bring along the opposing God King!

So long as this annoying mark remained rooted in his Spirituality, Ves may as well be regarded as the Subjugation King's property!

Thinking about the mark suddenly caused Ves to gain a fantastic idea on how he could make use of this opportunity!

"Is it possible for me to request a boon that can erase the soul mark that you have planted on me?!" He excitedly asked.

A clear sense of amusement radiated from the expressionless alien bastard.

"#$&#&$&@$@."

"THAT IS A WASTEFUL CHOICE. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE MY CHAINS. YOU WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO DELAY YOUR INEVITABLE INCLUSION INTO MY COLLECTION. EVEN IF YOU PERSIST IN YOUR DECISION, THE HEAVENS WILL NOT LISTEN TO YOU. THE PRICE OF ERASING MY SOUL MARK FAR EXCEEDS THE ALLOWANCE GRANTED TO YOU. THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE MADE THIS REQUEST IN THE FIRST PLACE BETRAYS YOUR UTTER IGNORANCE."

Ves had a feeling that this was the case. The soul mark technically devoured all of the energies devoted to the 9th round of the multi-modal lightning tribulation.

He was not arrogant enough to think that he was entitled to a reward that surpassed this energy budget.

Of course, he did not take the Subjugation King at his word.

"I choose a boon that will allow me to erase the Subjugation King's soul mark! Come on! Get rid of it already!"

Alas, the golden radiance from above remained completely unmoved.

Was it because the Subjugation King was right about exceeding his energy budget, or was it because Messier 87's heavenly authority deliberately played favorites and bent the rules for one of its own dependents?

Now that Ves found out that he wouldn't be able to get rid of the alien God King's mark that easily, he came back to his decision paralysis.

What should he choose?

What would he be missing out on if he rejected all of the other possible choices?

Would he ever have a chance to replicate this situation in the future and select the most promising options that he previously set aside?

All of these questions and more worsened the pressure on his mind. He felt as if he was on the verge of blowing up his brains just like what he had done to many of his dwarven test subjects!

"NO!"

Ves forcibly cleared up all of the messy thoughts in his mind. The sudden mental reset instantly cleared up the pressure and restored his mood.

While he had yet to solve his problem, now that he had taken a step back, was finally able to approach his current circumstances from a more sober and analytical mindset.

"Let me start at the root of the problem. The reason why I am afflicted by decision paralysis is because I do not have a clear idea on what I want from this opportunity. Since I never thought that an occurrence like this would happen, I was psychologically caught off-guard. It may be fun for me to explore the possible rewards that I can choose from, but that only helps me understand what I can choose from. I need to employ a different process in order to systematically filter out less suitable options and dial in the reward that best serves my current or future needs."

Now that Ves approached this situation like a mech designer, he chose to employ a basic and familiar heuristic process.

There were many times where mech designers like himself had endless choices available. From choosing between an endless amount of materials to selecting one of many available component designs, Ves had to limit his options and quickly settle on the choices that best suited his vision for a given mech design project.

"Vision. That is what I am missing."

If Ves approached this situation like he was upgrading a mech, then the first step he should make was to define his goals.

"My goal is to become a more effective mech designer."

That was his overarching objective. Ves had many different competences, but he had never lost sight of his fundamental role and identity.

Becoming a stronger phase lord or whatever did not contribute enough to this goal. Ves thereby ruled out rewards such as increasing his phasewater concentration or trying to see if he could obtain his own phasewater production system.

Ves had yet to inquire whether ordering his own PPS fit within his energy budget, and he was too afraid to ask.

He might actually feel tempted to redeem this reward!

While it would be nice to obtain the crucial organ required to advance to a greater phase lord, Ves really did not think it would help out his mech design projects all that much.

Of course, he was more than willing to surgically implant a PPS if he ever managed to obtain one, but he was not all that desperate to amplify the size of his true body any further.

His previous 'duel' against the clone of the Subjugation King had already taught him that size was not everything!

Ves had watched enough footage of phase whales and phase lords in action to understand that he seriously fell behind compared to the aboriginals.

Not only did the aliens spend a lot more years on honing their fighting skills and their spatial abilities, they also developed their phasewater organs.

A typical phase lord like the Trampler of Stars could easily smack Ves around because the powerful nunser had added specialized phasewater organs to his body while upgrading his existing organs as well.

Ves really needed to follow suit if he wanted to increase the utilization of his own phasewater concentration.

Until he managed to get this done, Ves felt it was best to reject any further ideas about advancing his phase lord cultivation any further.

Ves went back to his original goal. He had already settled on improving his design capabilities.

Since there were still far too many choices available to him, he urgently needed to narrow his scope.

"Do I want a boon that will help me in the short term, the long term or both?"

Ves preferably wanted to obtain a reward that would help him in the coming years, but also remain relevant in the years to come.

Trying to have it both ways was a greedy choice that vastly limited his options, but Ves did not mind that this time.

It was better for him to pursue a more difficult goal if that helped to filter out 90 percent of his available choices!

"Upgrading the Blinkyverse is no longer in consideration." He decided.

Blinky never really played a useful role during the design phase of a project. He was able to contribute a lot more during a fabrication run, but it was not as if his assistance was mandatory.

His companion spirit was a bit of a generalist in that he possessed a range of different abilities. This turned him into a versatile all-rounder that could help out in many different situations, many of which had nothing to do with mech design.

The only other reason to upgrade the Blinkyverse was to begin the process of converting it into a material space.

Though Ves felt tempted to acquire his own portable pocket space that constantly expanded its capacity over time, it did not provide as much help to his design activities as he wished.

That was reason enough to rule out this option.

"Let's see what is left. Expanding my domain with another core element is an attractive consideration."

His current domain centered around life and mechs. There was nothing wrong with that, and he was sure he could achieve greatness by relying on them for a long time.

However, he could think of many reasons why it would be a good idea to increase his elemental proficiency.

Gaining a specialty in the fire attribute would help make all of his mechs more powerful. It would allow him to create Bloodfire Pacts with greater ease and may also allow him to produce Carmine starships in his newly acquired shipyards. He could also power up his luminar crystal weapons along with every other hyper energy weapon that he chose to integrate to his products.

"In short, acquiring a specialization in the fire attribute will satisfy both my short term and long term needs."

However, Ves could make similar arguments for many other possible elements.

The water element had a powerful amplifying effect on phasewater. Ves even theorized based on a lot of academic guesswork that it might even be possible to synthesize phasewater so long as he developed a high enough mastery in both the water and the space attributes!

Aside from that, water was the element that aligned the closest to organic tissue. Ves would have a much greater justification to design biomechs or cyborg mechs as he could more easily amplify the effectiveness of any machine with organic parts.

The decision on whether he should choose to specialize in the water element hinged on how much he valued phasewater technology and biotechnology.

If he was willing to incorporate both of these fields into his core design philosophy, then gaining a specialization in the water element was a justifiable choice!

"There are also other elements that I have yet to consider…"

Aside from that, he could also choose a boon that did not relate to his domain. He needed to narrow his scope even further before he was ready to make his final selection.

"I'm getting closer, though."

Ves was determined to make the most of this life-changing decision!