The MTA was an immensely huge organization. It regularly interacted with countless mech designers, some of whom possessed very interesting design philosophies. The Association encountered so many strange phenomena that they had the luxury to sit back and wait for some of them to be realized.
Until that happened, every Journeyman and Senior had very little to fear that the MTA would cast greedy eyes on their unfinished design philosophies.
The same applied to Ves, especially since he left a distorted impression of himself when he paid a visit to the sector headquarters.
Ves did not regret pretending to be a nutcase in front of Professor Oodiv of the MTA.
It was true that his ill-thought decision led to a host of unexpected outcomes. He never intended to acquire an obsessive girlfriend or encourage Master Olson to kick him out of the Friday Coalition.
Nonetheless, these changes weren't entirely bad. They also led to a host of advantages, so Ves did not feel the need to lament over the changes forced upon his life.
"The key is that I successfully achieved my primary goal."
The entire reason he painted his design philosophy in an awful light was to give the MTA a mistaken impression of his beliefs.
Now that he pulled it off, the MTA would probably dismiss most of his unique accomplishments as extensions of an insane and irrational design philosophy.
"If it works for the MTA, I can make it work for everyone else."
If Ves amped up his eccentricity, he would be able to make other mech designers discount him as well.
Even if he started incorporating weird applications of spirituality in his mech designs, it was still fine.
As long as they associated it with the negative stereotype of Class IX design philosophies, they would subconsciously dismiss the value of his accomplishments.
If by some chance a mech designer started to cast greedy eyes on his design philosophy, what could they do? It wasn't as if a Journeyman or Senior could abandon their life's work at the drop of the hat and replace it with another. Their design seeds wouldn't allow them to trash their original design philosophies!
Novices and Apprentices were still capable of adopting different design philosophies, but it was all moot as long as they hadn't advanced to Journeyman yet. For a low-ranking mech designer to steal a radical and unorthodox design philosophy and expect to advance was close to impossible!
In summary, whether it was the MTA or other mech designers, Ves did not have to be so afraid of them anymore. As long as he wore the coat of a stereotypical Class IX mech designer, he could get away with a lot more than he previously thought possible!
"Maybe this act isn't even necessary in the first place!"
Whatever. He had already chosen his course, and he figured that adding some extra insurance on top of the general apathy of rival mech designers couldn't hurt. With at least two layers of insurance protecting him, his chances of attracting trouble by showing off a radical expression of his design philosophy decreased immensely.
To a paranoid mech designer like Ves, this meant a lot!
"This will help me a lot in exploring the path of life."
Much of the potential of the path of life lay in its emphasis on making mechs more closely resemble living entities. While Ves did not outright desire turning mechs into a new living species, he nonetheless expressed some interest into dipping his toes onto this fascinating path.
His next design would incorporate his first new innovation since he first made use of spiritual fragments.
His mind cast into his mental design space where he spontaneously envisioned his mech concept.
He began with imagining a standard-looking tiger mech. Once he fixated its overall shape and dimensions, he began to seek instances where he could cleverly incorporate smart metal.
"Although the overall structure has to be resilient enough to absorb the strong forces the bestial mech is subjected to, there is still a role for smart metal."
Smart metal was already used in many mechs, particularly more advanced ones, to act as shock absorbing cushions.
A simplified way of describing it was that mech designers used smart metal as very advanced springs. Unlike regular springs, they couldn't absorb as much overwhelming force in a single instance.
However, these smart metal shock absorbers possessed an advantage that regular shock absorbers lacked.
They could regenerate and self-repair. Once they absorbed so much shock that they broke, much of the force had already been absorbed. It had already performed its purpose in that instance.
Once the crisis had passed, the broken shock absorbers could easily piece themselves back together. Depending on the type of smart metal being used, this might happen in seconds, which was very crucial in intensive battles!
A tiger mech with constantly-regenerating shock absorbers could withstand a lot more chronic abuse than regular mechs! It would be a treasure on high-gravity planets where every mech had to endure a continuous degree of heavy shocks!
"And that's not all!"
He hadn't even gotten to the fun part of his tiger mech, the part that showcased his new understanding of the path of life!