The Mech Touch

Chapter 7057 The Delicate Touch of the Web Mistress

What did the Web Mistress mean by that?

Faith?

Did she equate kinship networks to faith collection mechanisms?

Ves immediately frowned. If her advice to him was to turn the Larkinson Clan into a religious organization, then he did not know what he would do in response.

"Can you clarify, Your Excellency?"

The Web Mistress maintained a serene expression as she continued to remain seated at the other side of the table.

"Nyaaa~"

The Golden Cat somehow lost all of her vigilance and completely relaxed against the Star Designer's body. She even felt comfortable enough to purr!

Ves wished that he could be like Goldie and completely drop his guard. It would be much easier on him if he no longer entertained so many complicated thoughts and did whatever the Web Mistress told him without question.

Yet that was not who he was. He was Ves Larkinson, defier of God Kings and breaker of taboos.

As much as a Star Designer held the greatest competence and the highest authority within the mech industry, their words were not absolute.

Star Designers were fallible as well, and as long as that was the case, they could still be wrong.

They did not know everything. They may understand their field of expertise to an unprecedented deep level, but they clearly did not possess anywhere close to the level of insight on subjects outside of their core specializations.

Therefore, whether the Web Mistress was right about the value of faith in kinship networks remained to be seen.

Despite making it clear that he was not ready to accept her words as gospel, the Web Mistress took no offense at his obvious skepticism. She even gave him an approving nod.

Mech designers were similar to mech pilots in that they needed to hold onto their own truths and convictions.

If all mech designers did was to copy and imitate their betters, then how could they possibly work their way up the ranks?

Those who aspired to become Masters and Star Designers themselves needed to possess the courage to defy existing Star Designers.

Only by believing they could do a better job in an aspect of mech design would they have the courage and the conviction necessary to exceed their limitations!

While the Web Mistress looked pleased that Ves did not surrender to her so easily, she still pressed on with her argument.

"You possess a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of a network and where it gains its strength." She said as she scratched Goldie's head behind the ears. "You fixate too much on the nexus, the 'server' that centralizes and administers the network. You believe that only the Golden Cat is responsible for protecting the many bonds it maintains with your clansmen. You are not wrong to believe so, but it is only one side of the coin. What is the other side of the coin?"

He understood what she wanted to convey. He frowned as he thought about his kinship network from an angle he never considered in the past.

"Are you saying… that the people that she has connected to can also contribute materially to the defense of the network?"

"A kinship network that is only actively being defended by its nexus alone is akin to a bird with only a single wing. It is a crippled existence that easily unravels as long as an enemy understands how to exploit the obvious openings. That is how I have been able to gain complete control over your totemic animal spirit."

"Nyaa." Goldie helpfully added.

Ves never thought about it in this way, but now that the Web Mistress pointed it out, it seemed so obvious. How could he miss such an obvious shortcoming? She was completely right. His mental model of networks had always been centered around a strong center, which came with the implicit assumption that the elements at the periphery were too weak to matter.

That was clearly a waste of potential now that he became aware of his neglect. If the clansmen became more active in defending the network, then the Web Mistress might not have easily hijacked the Larkinson Network earlier!

Wait, was that actually true?

Ves had a feeling that he had been underestimating the Web Mistress too many times. Who knew what other tricks she had in store.

"Your Excellency, if I address this shortcoming, will you be able to subvert the Larkinson Network as easily as before?"

Her answer was simple and direct.

"Yes."

"How?"

What other holes did he need to plug? What other vulnerabilities did his kinship networks possess that made them so laughably easy for the Web Mistress to unravel?

Unfortunately, the Star Designer did not have a satisfactory answer for him this time.

She smiled as she continued to pet and caress the Golden Cat. It was as if the ancestral spirit of the Larkinson Clan had always been her personal pet!

"You do not comprehend the true nature of Star Designers. That is excusable. We do not advertise our own capabilities. Let me explain it to you more directly. I am the Mistress of Webs. I am the administrator of administrators. I am the starting point and end points of all networks under my purview. Your precious Larkinson Network cannot defend itself against me because its own nature will always make it subordinate to my touch."

Ves widened his eyes!

He struggled to accept her outrageous claim, but he did not think she was lying when she stated that she was able to control all networks.

Was this one of the special superpowers that Star Designers gained after becoming a True God?

"So no matter what I do, the Larkinson Network will always be full of loopholes in your eyes?"

"What do you think the mech touch represents, Ves?"

He blinked. What did this legend have to do with the current subject at hand? He paused for a moment in order to think it through.

"I thought that the mech touch is the ability to raise your hand and produce a complete mech design in an instant." He steadily answered. "It represents that a mech designer has become so competent at his job that he can instantly meet the demands of any client, or at least most of them anyhow. I take it that… this is not a complete explanation."

The Web Mistress elegantly inclined her head.

"The mech touch holds many meanings. One of them is… a metaphor for the authority we have gained once we have broken past our limitations as mech designers and become… greater. To ascend to a level of existence that you describe as a True God is to gain authority over a fundamental rule or concept. To put it in terms that you can understand, we gain limited administration rights to the source code of the universe. In my case, I have gained unique access and understanding of all networks, webs and even bilateral connections, no matter whether they are electronic, spiritual, physical or otherwise. So long as they fall within those definitions, I know more and can do more than others."

Ves reacted with shock at her outrageous description!

To be able to control all forms of networks and webs sounded straight up impossible!

No single individual should be powerful enough to hold so much power and authority over every single network within her reach. There had to be limits that she had neglected to mention!

Yet even if those limits existed, Ves seriously doubted it was within his capacity to harden his one kinship networks against a genuine Star Designer and one who specialized in networks no less.

"So it is useless to try and guard my Larkinson Network against your control? You can just swoop in and take control at any time?"

She smiled. "Can a gazelle prevent herself from getting devoured by a lion? To a certain extent, it is possible. She can move out of the lion's territory. She can make sure that she is not the slowest and weakest member of a herd. She can even train herself to run faster and increase her endurance to the limits of her species. Yet a gazelle is still a gazelle in the end. If the lion is willing to expend the energy needed to hunt a more difficult prey, then the fate of the gazelle is sealed."

According to her description, she was the lion, while every network was a gazelle.

There was a natural hierarchy that could not be defied through ordinary means.

The only way for the Larkinson Network to truly escape the scope of her scary authority was to change until it no longer fell into the category of a network.

This was not possible!

Ves could not morph the Larkinson Network into a different construct just like he could never turn himself from a mech designer into a mech pilot!

The cold hard reality was that it was hopeless for him to protect the Larkinson Network against the Web Mistress in his current capacity.

Perhaps it might be different in the future, but for now he had to accept that this Star Designer could always rip out the heart and soul of the Larkinson Clan whenever she wanted.

Ves tried not to think too much about stuff that was clearly beyond his control. If he could not protect his kinship network against the Web Mistress, then he would settle for hardening it against potential attacks from other parties.

"You told me earlier that strengthening the Larkinson Network demands faith. Could you explain that to me, Your Excellency?"

The Web Mistress was happy to oblige. She raised one of her hands and conjured up a stylized image of a spider's web.

It looked perfectly symmetrical and was divided into 8 even 'pie slices'.

"Webs are remarkably strong and resilient structures in reality." She explained to him. "This differs from your flawed model of a network that is a web that only holds a single anchor in the form of a nexus. If I sever the center of this construction, will the remaining webs fall apart?"

"No." Ves answered without hesitation. "A literal spider web is not that vulnerable. It contains a lot of redundancies. There are dozens of points where two lines of webbing intersect with each other. These serve as weaker anchor points that may not necessarily be strong in isolation, but are able to add a lot of resilience when working in unison."

His description pleased the Star Designer.

"Exactly. Goldie over here does not have to bear all of the burden of defending and maintaining the integrity of the network alone. Your clansmen and particularly those with notable strength of their own can share this burden and contribute to a stronger and healthier outcome. If they take the place of the intersection points of this web, then they can not only keep your precious Larkinson Network alive if anything happens to the Golden Cat, but can also accelerate its growth and evolution."

"What… do I need to do in order to make that possible?"

"In truth, your clansmen are already strengthening the Larkinson Network through this phenomenon." Zemana Ilcef revealed. "Belief and loyalty to the Larkinson Clan passively contributes to its strengthening. The attitudes that stronger Larkinsons such as your expert pilots and ace pilots hold towards your own clan contributes much more to the hardening of your network. However, there is a difference between passive behavior and active behavior. If your clansmen are more explicit in contributing their strength to the network and its major junctions, then that will make it much harder for outside parties to disrupt its functioning."

"And to do that, the Larkinsons need to pray to the Golden Cat as well as our high-ranking mech pilot?" Ves dubiously asked.

"It does not have to be your expert pilots and ace pilots alone. Anyone with sufficient strength can contribute. This includes Senior Mech Designers such as you and your spouse. It also includes the 'design spirits' that you have accrued over the years. It is not enough for them to be present. That only turns them into stronger junctions of your web. A network is defined by its connections, not its anchor points. Only when your Larkinsons interact with each other will your Larkinson Network become stronger and more resilient on a holistic basis. Love is the strongest means to strengthen a connection. Faith is a close second. This is why the latter must serve as the basis for your Golden Cat's continued survival."

That was… a lot of information.

Ves struggled to identify loopholes or inaccuracies in her statement, but he couldn't find any. Her logic was simple and clear. There was not much he could even begin to question.

Was introducing more faith into the Larkinson Clan truly the only way to make the Larkinson Network stronger?

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