[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 32: Gauntlet

When the presenter finally announced the end of the design phase of the competition, a lot of young men and woman groaned. While Ves was able to finish his mech with a bit of time to spare, other designers lacked the skill to jury rig disparate components together without spending a lot of time making the connection work.

"You gave us too little time!" A young woman complained as tears fell from her stressful face. The mech she worked on only appeared half finished. "Give us more time!"

"Twelve hours is too little!"

"This is unfair!"

"Silence!" The presenter ordered with a bloody air, instantly causing the meek the designers to quail. "The terms of the qualifiers are published beforehand so you should have prepared for this round. Last year's qualifiers also took twelve hours. We're on a tight time table here, and the main round happens tomorrow. We won't postpone the event just so you can put the finishing touches on your work."

When Ves looked around to see the progress of his fellow contestants, he judged about a third of them hadn't finished their designs. Many people tripped up because they spent too much time forcing components designed for different mechs to work together. Such failures proved they didn't possess much knowledge beyond the basics in mech design. It was interesting to see that the organizers place a lot of emphasis on this when holding the qualifiers.

Some other designers lost too much time due to faulty judgement. One heavy mech featured highly advanced engines and power reactor. That was all fine and dandy, but the designer spent way too much time adding a lot of toys to make full use of that capacity. If he kept the twelve-hour limit in mind and kept his choices modest, he could have made it through with his level of skill.

In general, the contestants who left unfinished designs at the end of the period chewed more than they could handle. If they picked simpler, less mechanically complex components out of the pile of junk, then they'd at least leave a functioning mech at the end, showcasing their competence in working under pressure.

"Although I can't say I blame them for being ambitious."

Ves might have been one of these losers if his father hadn't left him the System. If he was participating in the contest and wanted to have a shot at getting past the qualifiers, then he couldn't settle for average among 150 other contestants. The mech had to perform better than almost anyone else's work, so taking risks was unavoidable.

As he looked at the dejected contestants who were forced to give up on the qualifiers due to their incomplete designs, Ves felt a little guilty he cheated his way out of this circumstance. Before the System's arrival, Ves was like any other novice mech designer who graduated from a local university. He possessed basic knowledge but never excelled at anything other than mechanics, and even that impressed no one because he learned outdated techniques that would be laughed at in more advanced states.

His father gave him the System to circumvent years of dedicated study and experience. Why did he deserve to benefit from this miracle when many other of his former classmates were left to wallow in their mediocrity? He wasn't a saint, he never donated to charity, he wasn't even nearly as good in his studies as some of the others.

"There's no point dwelling on these feelings. I'm different from the others. They all made their choices in life when they chose to go down the path of mech designing."

The mech design career path was one that led to fame, riches and prestige. However, it was also a cutthroat business that couldn't fit too many competitors. For every designer that clawed its way to the top, at least hundreds or thousands of others were resigned to lesser jobs like full-time fabrication or maintenance of other people's mechs.