Chapter 6752 The Design Philosophy of Master Laila Rebecca Devos

Ves did not meet with Master Laila Rebecca Devos too often, but the few times they came together always sparked an insightful conversation.

Both of them were mech designers who belonged to vastly different generations. Ves was in his forties while Master Laila had already begun her third century of life.

The Master Mech Designer was also born and raised in the Devos Ancient Clan, which was one of the best places for a human to start out in the old galaxy. While she may have spent the vast majority of her life in Terran space, she had witnessed much over the course of her lifetime.

Then there were her professional qualifications. Master Laila Rebecca Devos dedicated herself to a design philosophy that could only exist in a prosperous society.

She possessed a Class I design philosophy in Mechanical Miniaturization.

"What the hell is Mechanical Miniaturization, exactly?" Ves asked in his first professional exchange with Master Laila.

"I am one of the reasons why mechs continue to grow more powerful while maintaining their relatively compact sizes and dimensions." Master Laila responded with a patronizing smile. "The mech industry constantly seeks to develop better parts that make mechs stronger, but that often tends to make them larger, heavier and more expensive. Oftentimes, the detriments outweigh the benefits. This puts a hard limit on how extensively you can improve a mech on a decennial basis. Many mech designers and developers are actually capable of developing many techs that can make their mechs 10 or even 20 percent stronger, but doing so without regard for size limitations will make their machines substantially larger. This is an outcome that they must avoid because larger mechs are not accepted by a market that has built all of its infrastructure around machines that fit within a specific range of dimensions."

It was as if the entire mech community had been working with cubes for centuries.

If a crazy enough mech designer insisted on introducing spheres as a superior replacement for cubes, the attempt would definitely fail even if the new products were truly better than the older ones!

Of course, this was a very simplified analogy that only scratched the surface of the mech industry's rejection of larger mechs.

Ves sort of understood what Master Laila Devos was trying to convey.

"I see. Your focus as a mech designer is completely different. Most mech designers including myself are constantly thinking of making mechs more powerful. You on the other hand are one of the few who think about making them more efficient. Your preferred means of doing so is to take relatively large components and make them

smaller."

"That is a good description, but it is not complete." The Master Mech Designer said. "I specialize in making components smaller with the least amount of tradeoffs, I rely on my vast comprehension of multiple disciplines of science to shrink the size of components as diverse as energy cells, artificial musculature, mech engines, power reactors, energy cells and integrated weapon systems. Over the centuries, I have kept abreast of every development and learned how most forms of tech related to mechs worked. I have amassed more knowledge and experience than you can imagine when working on shrinking one component or another."

"Damn..." Ves genuinely looked impressed at the old woman, though she clearly did not look that old due to her excellent life-prolonging treatments. "Your knowledge base must be a lot closer to that of the Polymath if that is the case."

Master Laila Devos smiled in amusement. She did not outright laugh, but she would have done so if she did not maintain impeccable control over her body.

"My body of knowledge cannot come close to that of the Polymath or any Star Designer for that matter. I do not dare to call myself the Junior Polymath. I am known as the Precision Ruler in the Terran mech community."

"That sounds... pretty lame, to be honest."

"It is not my preferred choice, but I do not care for it too much. I have already grown old enough to become indifferent to fame. This is why I prefer to go by my mortal name rather than the title imposed by others. I am still far from becoming a Star Designer. I think it is pure conceit for other Master Mech Designers to insist on being called by their titles when they have not yet earned their breakthroughs."

Master Laila Devos sounded like an old mech designer who did not care for subjective opinions and purely focused on objective results.

Ves kind of liked that because the Master Mech Designer did not come across as a Terran who relied on scheming, deception and trickery to work her way to the top. He was far more willing to hang around with Master Laila than any of the god pilots and Star Designers of red humanity.

"I don't have a clear understanding of your progress as a mech designer, Master. How far away are you from becoming a Star Designer?"

"Too far." Master Devos shook her head. "Until recently, I was unable to find any research direction that could lead me to become a Star Designer. In my 300 years of working with mechs, that is an abysmal situation. Mech designers who are a century younger than me have succeeded in breaking through, while I am still lingering as a Master Mech Designer, Much of that is due to my own choice, but that does not make me feel better about my lack of vertical progress."

"I don't quite understand."

"My situation resembles that of yours, but at a more advanced stage." The older woman clarified. "Just as you are a mech designer who dabbles in many different fields, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time in broadening my knowledge base so that I can miniaturize every component I come across. I have mastered all of the basic sciences and much of the more standard forms of high technology known to the Terran mech community. I have also delved into dozens of alien and more exotic techs. While I am satisfied with what I have learned, much of this falls under lateral progress."

"What does that mean?" Ves asked.

"It means that I have become a better Master Mech Designer, but have also come no closer to advancing to the rank of Star Designer"

"Ah. That sounds familiar."

"It should. Is it truly the case that all of this lateral progress is of little help to progressing your design philosophy?"

"That is a complicated question to answer, Ves. I have my own answer on this matter, but it is deeply personal to me. You should form your own ideas about this subject."

That was quite thoughtful of Master Laila. Ves realized that it was indeed for the best if he formed his own opinion about this sensitive topic.

"Wait." A thought came to his mind. "Your knowledge base is really broad. You even claimed that you understand a lot of universal and Terran high technologies. Does this mean you possess a mastery of Destroyer Technology?"

"I do possess a decent mastery in Destroyer Technology" Master Laila Devos confirmed. "This used to be classified information, but it is not that relevant anymore since the only source of Destroyer particles is in the old galaxy. The unveiling of the Oblivion Gates has given us hope of reestablishing a channel for Destroyer weapons, but it is impossible for the Terrans in the old galaxy to agree to transferring raw Destroyer particles to us. It is much more profitable for them to use their finished Destroyer arms as bargaining chips."

The Master Mech Designer made a good point. Knowing how to develop a Destroyer weapon wasn't as valuable as before in this dwarf galaxy.

The Terrans of the Red Ocean needed to establish a homegrown supply of Destroyer particles in order to make use of their exclusive expertise, but that did not appear to

be happening anytime soon.

Ves diverted to another topic.

"Earlier, you said you saw no prospect of becoming a mech designer until recently.

What changed? Is it hyper technology?"

"No." The woman shook her head. "Hyper technology opens up many new possibilities, but all it has done for my work is to introduce another source of volatility.

Miniaturization has become considerably less safe when trying to bring different hyper materials into close proximity to each other."

"Then what else has caused you to find an opportunity to make a lot of progress in your design philosophy?"

"It is best to start with my desired end goal. Every good mech designer is working towards an ambitious result that can only be turned into reality when you have gained command over a fundamental rule or law. This is what Star Designers rely upon to design works that are impossible to replicate by lesser individuals. They can aptly be described as human gods who can impart a touch of their divinity into their works. Different from god pilots, the divine touch of Star Designers continues to linger in their products, thereby allowing them to retain their reality-defying properties at greater distances."

Ves already knew most of this information, but Master Laila provided additional context due to how she framed the subject.

"I see." He said with dawning comprehension. "The rule that you are trying to achieve a breakthrough with is miniaturization or something related to it. From your perspective, the ultimate work should be a successful instance of miniaturization that comes with no negative tradeoffs. It is kind of like designing a mech that is as powerful as a juggernaut, but continues to maintain the size of a standard mech." Master Laila nodded. "That is an accurate guess. I have been working for centuries to

realize this sort of outcome. You cannot imagine how many different scientific fields I have studied in order to make concrete steps in designing such an idealized mech. However, much of what I have learned over the years has not brought me much closer. There is moderate overlap and synergies between the fields that I have comprehended, but none of them can produce the result that I truly desire. That is why my progress has remained stagnant for so many years."

When Ves thought about how the Terran Master could possibly realize her dream of designing a mech with 'perfect' miniaturization, he suddenly connected the dots to a very recent event!

"Wait. I think I figured it out! You... the reason why you have found a new pathway towards becoming a Star Designer is because of our introduction to superdimensional matter! Its strange dimensional properties make it so that you can fit a lot more stuff in the same amount of space. A lot of matter is actually pushed into other dimensions, which is what makes them so special."

Master Devos finally began to look enthusiastic. "I have closely followed the publication of research articles on superdimensional matter. Much of the information in these academic articles has made it clear that while it is extremely difficult to shape superdimensional matter in the dimensions outside of the material realm, it is still possible to produce results when you work with transphasic or superdimensional tools. Do you understand the significance of this discovery? It means that it is

theoretically possible to develop a laser pistol that fits in the palm of my hand but can actually fire an energy beam that is as powerful as one that is launched by a mech

rifle!" She was right. Ves had not put too much thought in what people could do with superdimensional matter because he did not specialize in this kind of stuff. However, Master Laila Rebecca Devos happened to possess the right combination of expertise and passion to be able to develop highly advanced and useful applications of superdimensional matter!

The notion that superdimensional matter may be the key to developing her perfectly miniaturized mech meant that she must be extremely desperate to obtain samples!

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