The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2510

Chapter 2510: Reformed

The Cross Clan gained a new guest designer!

Such a surprising change was quite a coup to the defeated and exiled Garlaners. Ves abruptly had to change his entire approach towards his negotiation with the Crossers due to this development.

A Cross Clan without a high-ranking mech designer was just a homeless and sorry-looking collection of warriors.

A Cross Clan that was presided over by a genuine Senior Mech Designer could easily reverse its declining trajectory!

As long as the Senior began to design some decent commercial mechs, the Crossers would no longer be bleeding money left and right. In a couple of years, the clan might even turn a profit again. Ves would no longer hold much leverage over them when that happened!

However, this was just the case if the Crossers partnered up with a normal Senior.

The problem right now was that the actual identity of the mech designer in question was wanted by the MTA!

The Skull Architect was one of the most notorious mech designers of the Friday Coalition. In a fit of obsession, Professor Jimenez assassinated an expert pilot and attempted to integrate the demigod's bones into one of his mechs in order to achieve a breakthrough in the elusive X-Factor!

Suffice to say, his insane experiment failed to yield the desired result.

Once the authorities traced down the missing expert pilot and uncovered Professor Jimenez's heinous deeds, the so-called Skull Architect had no choice but to flee from civilized space and eke out a new living among the pirates of the frontier.

As a second-class Senior Mech Designer, the Skull Architect's products were in extremely high demand among his new if unsophisticated clientele. The man became even more ruthless and even adopted some pirate traditions such as wearing clothes bearing the trophies of his kills on his person.

When Ves initially met and spoke with the Skull Architect via projection, Professor Jimenez possessed an extremely intimidating demeanor.

The fugitive mech designer was no stranger to violence and death! Even when the Skull Architect lost his entire foundation in the Friday Coalition, he continued his efforts to realize his design philosophy.

Of course, the poor and underdeveloped Faris Star Region was not very conducive towards his progression. The Skull Architect barely made some accomplishments before the sandman race went berserk!

Like unstoppable locusts, the entire sandman race swept towards the Komodo Sector! Any planet, space station or ship in their path soon became drowned in a tsunami of living sand!

The Skull Architect lost everything for the second time. This unlucky Senior had to pack up his bags and flee yet again.

The only consolation was that he was able to sneak back into civilized space by mingling with the trillions of refugees who desperately departed the border states in panic.

Due to the sheer chaos and confusion of this immense exodus, the frontier pirates were easily able to forge new identities for themselves.

Calabast played a pivotal role in crafting a new identity for the Skull Architect. Now he was known as Professor Benedict Cortez, a third-class mech designer from a fallen border state.

That was the extent of what Ves knew. He didn't bother to track the man's exploits. Therefore, it was a complete surprise for him to encounter the Skull Architect once again at this time!

What was worse was that this meeting might not be the last time they met together.

Ves began to sweat a bit. While Ves was not opposed to reuniting with old acquaintances, the Skull Architect was anything but simple.

The fugitive mech designer was incredibly bold to enter the Cinach System where the Ubiquitious Force was still present!

If Master Willix knew that a mech designer who had disgraced their entire profession was within arm's reach, she would definitely act with extreme prejudice!

This was bad, because Ves was not an uninvolved bystander. He secretly exchanged with the Skull Architect. Much of what he knew about stealth technology originally came from the former pirate mech designer's hands!

As long as the MTA captured Jimenez alive and read his memories, Ves might very well get implicated in the process.

All of this meant was that Ves had to ensure that no one ever discovered the older man's actual identity!

"Mr. Larkinson, we have much to catch up to." Professor 'Benedict' amiably smiled and spoke. "Come. Let us sit and discuss our future cooperation."

Though Ves was caught off-guard by the Skull Architect's surprise appearance, he quickly tried to regain his composure.

He couldn't afford to let his shock affect the Larkinson Clan's ongoing negotiations with the Cross Clan.

In the following half hour, Ves held a small back-and-forth with Patriarch Reginald. As the Skull Architect was still a new addition to the Cross Clan, it was not appropriate for him to speak too much.

However, the presence of a Senior evidently emboldened Patriarch Reginald quite a lot. The Cross Patriarch became a lot more firmer in his demands.

"I don't agree with this change." Ves frowned. "You promised thirty percent more strategic materials than before last time."

"We can make much better use of these exotics than you. After all, you are just a Journeyman at most. Our clan has a Senior now!"

The normal reasons that shackled mech designers to a region hardly applied to the fugitive. The man had no reputation or business to uphold. He didn't really have any family holding him back and his loyalty to the Friday Coalition was pretty much zero.

The only fact that made Ves a bit concerned was why the Skull Architect specifically chose to partner up with the Cross Clan of all choices.

As a very competent Senior, many pioneers in the region would have accepted him in their ranks. The Cross Clan was undoubtedly less desirable to more well-organized expeditions.

"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have wasted my time on the Crossers." The Senior sneered for a moment before plastering an eager expression on his face. "While we haven't collaborated on too many mech designs, I have become endlessly fascinated with your work! Together, we can design great mechs! In fact, I envy Miss Wodin. She has managed to gain your permanent allegiance. If I was a woman, I would have moved to secure you right away. Perhaps I should have undergone a gender change procedure years ago…" _{freewebnσvel.cѳm}

As the professor openly rambled about turning himself into a woman for the express purpose of seduction, Ves shuddered.

Despite everything that happened lately, the Skull Architect was still the same!

"Professor…" Ves coughed.

"Call me Benedict. Forget about who I was before." The Skull Architect snapped back to the present. "I have completely left behind my past. There is nothing to go back to. I have made too many mistakes to count."

"With respect, sir, but.. what if you return to your old habits?"

"I keep telling you, Mr. Larkinson. I am a changed man. There is no need for me to play my previous role anymore. I know what you are worried about. Please be reassured that I have substantially shifted my research approach. I was wrong back then. I was dabbling in matters that fell outside of my specialty. In the end, I fell victim to my own greed."

Ves slightly narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Are you truly different?"

The Senior sighed. "Truly. You can't understand how desperate I was back then. It is the greatest dream of someone of my rank to advance to Master. While I have made a lot of progress, I encountered a bottleneck. I have tried many solutions to break past this point, but none succeeded. Knowing that this is the most important obstacle to realizing my design philosophy, I drew on more and more spurious theories."

A normal mech designer did not just randomly come up with the idea to integrate the skull of an expert pilot into mech!

The professor definitely had problems before he performed this grievous crime!

"I'm sorry, sir, but I cannot bring myself to believe it is safe for me to be around you. I don't want to get implicated should you draw any trouble upon yourself."

"Hahaha!" The Skull Architect laughed. "There is no need for you to fear me! You're my best friend, Mr. Larkinson! It was only when you revised my mech designs that I realized what I had been doing wrong all this time. In order to push my mech designs to the next level, I shouldn't have tried to solve the problems I wasn't good at. Instead, I should have collaborated with the likes of you! I am already certain that working with you is the key to progress my design philosophy past the final hurdles. Joining the Cross Clan is a convenient way to remain in your company!"

His underlying message was clear. The former pirate designer was determined to cling onto Ves. He was no different from Gloriana in this aspect!