The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5952 Low Profile vs High Profile

After a lot of thinking, Ves did not manage to come closer to a decision.

He evaluated the three remaining choices from many different angles.

He could always come up with a compelling reason to pick one over the other.

He also identified a lot of serious limitations and shortcomings with all three choices.

When he weighed all of the pros and cons, Ves could not bring himself to rule out any of the three options.

Ves felt paralyzed yet again.

This was one of the most life-changing decisions that he could make. The benefits of each upgrade track was so massive that it would completely upend his existing development strategy!

Honestly speaking, Ves believed that if he chose any of the three options, he would not be suffering a loss. The options were roughly equal in value. He may as well flip two coins in succession to settle on his final choice.

It was a pity that he was stuck in a strange space without his body. He had no way of flipping a coin at this time.

Ves thought about what else he could do to make a decision that he wouldn't regret.

"What about trying to determine how well the options fit with my domain?"

Life. Mechs. Darkness.

These were the elements that currently defined his nascent domain.

As soon as he advanced to the rank of Master Mech Designer, he would not only gain the ability to wield the three aforementioned elements to a greater degree, but also incorporate them into his domain on a more fundamental level!

Once he took another step and advanced to the rank of Star Designer, Ves knew that a large part of himself would evolve into an energy-based life form.

If he possessed a weak human body, then it became so unimportant that Ves might be able to discard it entirely!

However, Ves was not sure how becoming a Star Designer affected his phase lord cultivation.

There was no way that he would give up such a powerful body, so he hoped that there was still a way to achieve success in both creation cultivation and body cultivation.

Ves mentally shook his head. "It's way too soon for me to think about these profound problems. I need to get back on track."

The question now was which of the three choices synergized the most with his core elements.

Random Being Acquisition obviously aligned the most with his life element. It could also complement his darkness domain if he just happened to snatch a creature that was strong in this element.

In fact, mutated beasts with an affinity for the darkness element were rare and difficult to obtain.

They were usually pretty sneaky and usually knew better than to provoke human hunting teams.

It would be a lot more convenient if he could acquire entities with a strong affinity for darkness by himself with the help of the System.

Portal Exploration could help any cultivator no matter their domains. It all depended on where he was able to open a portal to. He could commence a portal expedition on an untamed planet or an alien factory world. The spoils he could gain from raiding these planets were completely different!

Ves had little idea if Dimension Breach Creation matched particularly well with any of his core elements.

"It's probably unlikely that I will find any living beings in those strange dimensions. I am not sure if I can stumble upon a lot of metals either. I think that darkness will be a lot more prevalent in many dimensions."

It was unfortunate that Ves did not invest a lot of time on studying the properties of different dimensions. He would have been able to figure out a lot more answers if he took this matter a lot more seriously.

How could he possibly know that the System would suddenly offer him a way to open dimensional tears?!

Ves mentally sighed. The lack of information posed a major hindrance. In moments like these, it was essential for him to build up the confidence necessary to make the most logical decision.

He failed.

Logic only worked when Ves had access to enough reliable data.

Since the rational approach was only effective up to this point, Ves knew he needed to resort to a different approach to make his final selection.

"I need to set facts and logic aside for a moment. I need to listen to my gut feeling instead. Which upgrade track resonates with me the most? Which choice gives me the greatest reassurance? Which one is more effective at stoking my passion?"

Ves found it easy to switch to a more natural mindset. It was a form of thinking where he deliberately suppressed his rational thoughts and gave full play to his emotional impulses.

"Portal Exploration is out." He quickly decided. "It's okay, but it is too… structured. Too boring. Too… predictable. It is difficult to jump outside the box and create truly unique works by relying on resources that are already available in the Red Ocean. It will be more interesting if I can reach as far as Messier 87, but how long will that take?"

This upgrade track most definitely had its good points, but it did not offer anything unique. Ves could simply wait a few years for completion of the conversion of the greater beyonder gate.

By then, he would be able to sign up his forces for deep strike expeditions that pretty much did the same thing, all without requiring any help from the System!

At most, Portal Exploration had the potential to be safer as long as Ves gained the ability to form two-way portals.

"It doesn't matter. I need to reject one more option before I am done."

Ves became much more comfortable with trying to decide between two remaining upgrade tracks. He could make direct comparisons and let his heart swing back and forth.

"Dimension Breach Creation is the riskiest option. Random Being Acquisition is also inconsistent, but poses the least amount of danger."

Whenever Ves had to make a decision between a low-risk option and a high-risk option, he usually defaulted to the latter.

Of course, he was not completely crazy. He made sure that the high-risk option was viable enough for him to adopt with confidence.

The reason why Ves recalled this was because he felt awfully tempted to choose Dimension Breach Creation for this very reason alone.

He hesitated because tearing the walls between dimensions was an extremely ostentatious display of power.

Most people would probably assume that Ves was able to do this due to leveraging the power of a phase lord, but the smarter folk who understood how phase leaders worked would definitely attribute this ability to another source!

"I don't think that any phase whale or phase leader is able to create permanent dimensional tears. At most, they can do so on a temporary basis."

In contrast, Random Being Acquisition matched his inclinations a lot better. Ves did not necessarily want to attract more attention. It would be better if he could let the heat die down and blend into the background.

The best way to escape people's attention was by refraining from pulling off high-profile stunts.

Compared to creating dimensional tears that no one could ignore, Random Being Acquisition was a kidnapping service that offered total secrecy.

No one would be able to tie the random abductions to a simple mech designer like Ves!

How could he possibly be involved when he and his clansmen had never come anywhere near the star system where the kidnapping took place?

"The only way to tie all of the missing alien cases back to me is if my works clearly inherited the traits of the missing aliens!"

At first, it should be easy to hide this secret, but as long as more and more of his products exhibited the distinctive traits of powerful aliens, the secret would become known!

So what? At most, it would prove that Ves bought valuable goods from unscrupulous businessmen.

There was no way he did the deed himself when he and his clansmen were clearly nowhere to be found!

In fact, many of these kidnapping cases would probably happen in regions where there were no hostile humans anywhere in and around a star system!

The lack of hard evidence that could prove that he was the chief culprit would keep his involvement a secret for a long time!

Once people eventually deduced the truth based on the sheer amount of works that utilized ingredients harvested from all of the missing beings, Ves would hopefully be powerful enough at that time to cope with all of the heat

"Might makes right!"

This was one of the fundamental truths of the universe. The more powerful he became, the more he could get away with. The premise was that he did not violate the interests of his allies and enemies he could not handle.

"The Red Cabal has already put an extravagant bounty on my head, so it is not as if my relations with the aliens could get any worse."

Ves liked the fact that he could remain hidden and avoid notice for a long time if he opted to go for Random Being Acquisition.

This was not because darkness had become an intrinsic part of his domain. He just wanted to avoid drawing too much attention too soon. The more his enemies focused on flashy mech pilots, the less they spent time on targeting mech designers like himself!

"Dimension Breach Creation is a lot more open."

There was no way to hide his involvement. Everyone in human space as well as alien space would know he gained the power to tear the walls between dimensions.

If his ability to do so improved, then people would become even more dazzled!

Ves might be able to explain the origin of this ability by talking nonsense about combining the power of a phase lord with human science, but that would only fool others for so long.

Sooner or later, people would figure out the truth. The fragment of the Metal Scroll gifted him with this amazing power!

What would happen then? There was no way for Ves to resist the combined pressure from all of the major powers of red humanity, especially when they were united in their interests!

For all of his efforts to befriend and lock the major players in a web of mutual interests, when it became more profitable to extort him, the Red Two and the first-rate superstates would definitely force him to cough up the System one way or another!

After all, no matter what, Ves could not refuse cooperation when the likes of the First Flame came to his doorstep!

He hated his inability to resist coercion. His lack of hard power and his increasing reliance on external protection forced him to restrain his behavior and seek compromises just to prevent these sorts of scenarios from occurring.

"I can still avoid the worst outcome if I go for Dimension Breach Creation."

How?

By surrendering to the powers that be in advance!

If he proactively admitted his new capabilities and offered to create a bunch of dimensional tears for the major powers, he would be able to maintain the current status quo more or less.

In fact, there was a more sophisticated way to placate the Red Two and the first-rate colonial superstates.

"I can use this as a binding mechanism for the Red Collective!"

It would require a lot of deft diplomacy, but as long as he utilized the upcoming organization as the central administrator for all of the dimensional tears, then the Red Collective's inherent division would ensure that all of the players would end up spending most of their energy competing against each other!

Still, this potential solution did not remove the fundamental danger.

Perhaps the only other way he could divert attention from himself was to find another user of the System to take up the responsibility of breaching dimensions.

So long as Ves himself never exposed this power, he would be able to fade in the background as he originally wished!

"I only need to find someone trustworthy enough to wield this power."

Ves already had a very suitable candidate in mind.

"Ketis!"