Chapter 7289: Artificial Champions

Ves' mind was racing.

The implications of the Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs were massive.

When Jovy told him that the alchemists deliberately created a formula that allowed them to mass produce the Standard Version Elixirs, Ves knew that these products were solely meant to be sold to third-class mech pilots.

The extreme price restrictions massively limited the quality and efficacy of the Standard Version Elixirs. It was impossible to expect these cheap vials to produce good results on a consistent basis.

Although Jovy did not share any specifics to Ves, it was not that difficult to imagine the Standard Version Elixirs to be vials filled with pure poison.

The only reason why mech pilots wanted to ingest them anyway was that they occasionally produced 'accidental' breakthroughs.

As the space peasant equivalent of the mech community, third-class mech pilots could not afford anything better. Their contribution to the war effort also did not entitle them to receiving more expensive elixirs.

Everything had to be fair. If third-class mech pilots could redeem superior elixirs at discounted prices, then where did that leave first-class mech pilots and second-class mech pilots?

War was an extremely expensive business. Ves had heard enough about the Alchemy Department to know that it had turned into a money burning division of the Red Collective.

The upfront costs of establishing R&D institutions, reagent cultivation farms and production facilities were extremely high.

Although the Red Collective had already gotten over the most difficult hurdles, the Alchemy Department would still run at a massive deficit for a number of years.

The development of the Pilot Breakthrough Elixir would help with increasing the department's revenue, but it was not enough to balance its books entirely.

The alchemists needed to develop a lot more product lines in order to make up for the huge investments! Ves actually expected for the Alchemy Department to take a few more years to come up with a product as strategically important as the Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs.

It appeared that the reports and rumors passed on by his chief of staff and the secret keepers were not quite accurate on this front. He would have remained fooled if he had not managed to promote to a tier 2 galactic citizen so soon.

As Ves continued to think about the implications of what he learned, Jovy continued to expand upon the details of this new product line.

"According to our ongoing clinical trials, the T19-AEW26 Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs yield imperfect results regardless of the outcome. Even when successful, the resulting mech pilots appear to be weaker and less in control of their newfound powers. According to many different testing methods, their willpower remains flawed and exhibits more loopholes than the willpower of mech pilots who experienced conventional breakthroughs. This is an expected outcome. Even if the differences in qualifications are small, the very fact that the latter group relied on Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs is regarded as a source of weakness."

This was not that difficult to understand. Natural breakthroughs were still considered the most honest and authentic way for champions to emerge among the masses. Pilots who relied on external means undeniably cheated the process.

Even if they felt as if they deserved their breakthroughs, they could not lie to themselves. They had to confront the truth the hard way. If they failed to resolve this vulnerability, then they could forget about making further progress in their careers.

"Does this mean that mech pilots who have used an elixir once will experience slower progression?"

"It is worse than that, Ves. If the mentality of these mech pilots are not properly managed, then they can fall into a form of depression where they lose confidence in their own capabilities. Even if they can reach the peak of their current ranks, their bottlenecks become so strong that they are nearly unbreakable if they continue to rely on their flawed mindsets. The difficulty of resolving these flaws is much higher as these pilots will inherently lack the confidence of their more traditional peers. We anticipate that the use of a Pilot Breakthrough Elixir may be the only way for them to trigger another apotheosis. However, the success rates will be much lower due to the greater flaws."

In other words, mech pilots who made use of a Pilot Breakthrough Elixir even once would have a miserable time.

These artificial champions would always suffer from an inferiority complex due to the existence of natural champions.

Expert pilots and ace pilots who earned their strength by relying on pure grit and conviction most definitely possessed better willpower than the new generation of champions who relied on elixirs to skip the game of chance.

Yet it was precisely because breakthroughs were so rare and subjected to random chance that natural champions received greater tempering on average. They were much more prepared to endure the unfairness of the battlefield.

Ves could foresee a future where the mech community always looked down on artificial champions.

This new class of high-ranking mech pilots would have to work multiple times harder in order to overcome the stigma of their unnatural breakthroughs!

"How numerous of these new elixirs will become available?" Ves asked. "Will there be a point in the future where Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs become as mid-grade as grass?"

"Absolutely not." Jovy shook his head. "According to what I know, the production of the cheapest Low Concentration Standard Edition Elixirs will still be relatively coveted goods, especially among third-class mech pilots. Territory has become extremely important in this regard. There are only a small quantity of planets that are suitable for the cultivation of specific reagents. Since humans only occupy a corner of the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy, there is a low ceiling on the output of most reagents. It is only through downgrading and diluting the Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs to the greatest possible extent that we can reluctantly meet the demand of most third-class mech pilots."

The alchemists worked hard to cut as many corners as possible. They continually compromised the success rate solely for the purpose of making the cheapest variant of the Pilot Breakthrough Elixir as affordable and abundant as possible.

Ves mentally applauded this effort. He could only imagine how difficult it was for them to produce the lowest grade of elixirs. Even if the failure rate had skyrocketed, so long as it was able to produce at least a handful of successes, then that was enough to tempt many third-class mech pilots to gamble with their lives!

If Ves was in their place, he may have felt tempted to ingest this elixir himself.

He had no doubt that the introduction of Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs introduced a lot of convenience. Yet the new products also represented shortcuts that might not benefit certain mech pilots in the end.

From Jovy's description, he developed the impression that the Standard Version of elixirs were reserved for space peasants.

As for second-raters and first-raters who could make much greater contributions to the war effort, they may be able to afford the Premium Version Elixirs if they fought hard enough.

The Survivalist liaison confirmed this impression.

"The Premium Version Elixirs are much better in every regard. Your Larkinsons do not have to bother with the Standard Version Elixirs. Supply will remain limited in the first five years or so, but the inflated prices will not be a problem for linefighters who have remained frugal and participated in enough defensive battles. Any second-class or third-class mech pilot who has actively fought in the Red War for at least two years and survived up to this point has likely received enough tempering to achieve at least a decent success rate when ingesting a Pilot Breakthrough Elixir."

"I see." Ves hummed. "So there is another purpose to setting higher prices. If mech pilots can redeem the Premium Version Elixirs too easily, they may be stupid enough to ingest them too soon. That will just lead to a lot of failed breakthroughs and avoidable deaths."

Jovy nodded. "Correct, though the Red Association will not allow anyone to redeem the Premium Version Elixirs. I am not afraid to admit that there are mechers who believe that we can revive our authority and strengthen our institution if we are in charge of controlling the elixirs. Even if we developed the Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs in cooperation with the Red Collective, the Terrans, Rubarthans and Cybers will still have little choice but to cooperate with us if they want to gain access to higher-quality elixirs."

It sounded as if the Red Association already regarded the Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs as a new trump card. If the mechers maintained effective control over the cultivation and production of the good stuff, then they could gain valuable leverage in a time where they had sustained continuous losses!

This would definitely enable the RA to regain its prestige among mech pilots and maintain an indispensable role in society!

Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the mechers were in a hurry to roll it out. Ves already found it rather strange that the RA sought to rush the development process when the failure rate of all of iterations of the elixirs remained so high.

If the mechers adhered to their original safety standards, then they would never release such a dangerous line of products! They would continue to iterate on the Pilot Breakthrough Elixirs for a few decades or centuries until they finally created a mature set of formulas that promised at least a 90 percent success rate under the right conditions!

The Red Association had obviously grown impatient. The Age of Dawn was a time of rapid change and miracles. Any organization that tried to remain slow and cautious would eventually get overtaken by its

competitors.

The Red Fleet had already initiated a lot of reforms. The Red Association of course couldn't fall behind. "How much more troublesome is it to produce Premium Version Elixirs?" Ves asked.

"Very troublesome." Jovy said with a frown. "While I am not privy to the full details, I have learned that the formula not only requires greater quantities of lower-end reagents, but also requires small quantities of very rare higher-end reagents. These reagents mainly come from special exoplants that can only be grown on specific terrestrial planets, ideally ones that have not been terraformed."

That was an important detail.

"There are not that numerous untamed planets in human-occupied space." Ves instantly realized the problem. "Ever since humans began to colonize the Red Ocean, they started a terraforming frenzy. Many of the most mineral-rich planets have undergone rapid terraforming that forcibly changed the ecosystem in a hurry. I guess these kinds of environments are not conducive to the growth of sensitive exoplants." Jovy nodded with a grimace. "That is correct. We never realized the importance of maintaining a natural environment before the Great Severing. Now it is too late. There are only two ways for us to expand the production of high-end reagents. We can either go on the offensive and conquer more alien territories, or we can try to improve our terraforming technology. Neither of these solutions will yield quick results, so you can expect the production of Premium Version Elixirs to remain limited for the time being."

That was not good news for many mech pilots who wanted to get their hands on a better solution than the terrible Standard Version Elixirs.

Ves thought for a moment. He found it relatively strange that the Red Association only prepared two versions of the elixirs. Why was the Premium Version Elixir targeted to both second-class and first-class mech pilots? Why hadn't the Red Association developed an even better variant to cater to wealthier

clients including their own internal personnel?

He suddenly widened his eyes in realization. "Wait. Has the Red Association developed a third version of the Pilot Breakthrough Elixir?"

Jovy looked surprised. "What an astute guess. In fact, we did. The existence of the Excellent Version is meant to be an even greater secret. This is the absolute best version of the Pilot Breakthrough Elixir. The failure rate is the lowest. The side effects are also reduced." (More chapters in Buyers club for TMT)

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.