The Mech Touch

6920  The Power of Joy

Ves grew satisfied with Harry's progress.

His innovation was not that big, but it not only increased the practicality of his tech, but also opened up a lot of new possibilities.

The possibility of making his own 'happy gun' that became more powerful when he grew more joyful had a lot of potential in his eyes.

As Ves continued to grin while he was anticipating all of the fun he could create with such a weapon, the other mech designer did not entirely look convinced.

"Sir…"

"What is it, Harry?"

"Are you certain you wish to base the Defiled Light Project on my E-ERC luminar crystals? There are other X-ERC that correspond to emotions that have proven to produce stronger effects. You should at least try out each of the prototype weapons for yourself in order to make a proper and informed choice."

In order to make sure he did his due diligence, he projected a list of X-ERC crystals and added a summary of their known strengths, weaknesses and other properties.

[X-ERC luminar crystal types

E-ERC: Excitement / Joy / Happiness - Moderate increase in firepower, low morale inspiration effect.

G-ERC: Gloom / Sadness / Depression - High increase in firepower, high increase in penetration.

C-ERC: Contempt / Disgust / Disdain - High decrease in firepower, mental damage effect, moderate morale undermining effect.

D-ERC: Disgrace / Shame / Embarrassment - Moderate decrease in firepower, moderate physical repulsion effect.

L-ERC: Love / Affection / Devotion - Moderate increase in firepower, strong morale inspiration effect.

S-ERC: Sacrifice / Selflessness / Altruism - Low increase in firepower, moderate E energy negation effect, high rate of self-exhaustion.

P-ERC: Pride / Arrogance / Vanity - Low increase in firepower, moderate persistence effect.

A-ERC: Anger / Fury / Rage - High increase in firepower, low annihilation effect.]

As Ves calmed down a bit, he briefly took the time to study the projected information, but his heart was not in it anymore.

He had already locked in his choice as far as he was concerned. Harry did not really understand him, so it was natural for the Journeyman to question the fast decision-making process.

"Harry." Ves said as he placed down the E-ERC prototype gun and started to pick up the other prototype weapons in sequence. "Every person is different. From my personal experience, many people tend to express one emotion more often than others during combat. Their training, life experiences and relationships all determine which emotion they associate the most with fighting. Saint Davia Stark is driven by her fury. Patriarch Reginald Cross and Saint General Ark Larkinson are poster boys for pride. Saint Dise Larkinson is more difficult to pin down, but I would argue that she channels a combination of contempt and devotion."

"And you claim that yours is excitement?"

"I just know it." Ves grinned wider as he dismissed the other weapons. "Humans such as you and I are always capable of channeling every emotion, but never equally. When you present me with this list of proven effects, you are assuming that soldiers can pick and choose the emotions they want to channel on the battlefield without any major issue. That is a dangerous assumption to make."

"I merely wish to prevent you from making a decision that you will regret."

"That is on me, then. People are not blank dummies who have an actual reaction to every emotion. Their unique lives cause them to associate different emotions to different associations. Forcing them to make use of a specific X-ERC gun because it offers the greater value on theory is presumptive on your part. It is not the role of a mech designer to dictate what arms they should use. We should only offer advice at most. The mech pilot or his superior will be the ones to make the decision."

Ves gestured his arm towards all of the crude X-ERC weapons.

"These guns of yours all tap into the power of emotions. Do you know what that means? Your X-ERC weapons have crossed the barrier of objective reality and have ventured into the territory of subjective imagination. I don't know what you have learned about E energy, but to me it is the fuel that can turn our fantasies to life. It works on fuzzy data and idealism."

He picked up the 'happy gun' again and waved it back and forth.

"According to your data, E-ERC luminar crystals deliver relatively mediocre performance because it only makes energy attacks moderately stronger while also producing a small morale boosting effect. Yet how many people have test-fired your E-ERC prototype arms?"

"Two." Harry admitted. "Just you and me, and I am the only individual that has systematically fired all of the new X-ERC guns in exhaustive detail for data-gathering purposes. This is still an ongoing development. I have yet to test the performance of the prototypes in the hands of other volunteers."

Ves did not look surprised. "While I have no proof of this, I can already guess that certain people will be able to produce much stronger or weaker effects compared to when you wielded the same prototype guns. The difficulty is that how well the wielders channel their emotions also affects the data. You need to find a way to control for this variable and isolate its influence on the collected data."

"That is… a difficult problem to solve, sir. How can you objectively measure a person's anger, happiness, sadness and other emotions on an objective and scientifically verified scale?"

"I am sure you will be able to figure it out somehow. If not you, then another scientist. The more people realize that their emotions has an influence on the outcome of E energy manipulation, the more they have a need for a tool that can measure this kind of stuff. For now, just take my word for it. I am confident that even if my level of joy is exactly the same as yours, I will still be able to get more out of the E-ERC gun than you. This is how E-technology works. Let me demonstrate."

He picked up the happy gun and brought it back to the firing lane.

Ves did not open fire right away. Instead, he first sent Blinky into the hyper weapon in order to establish a much closer connection to the experimental firearm.

He then took the time to gather his thoughts and emotions.

He thought back on his moments of triumph. He had many sources to draw upon. He thought about the birth of his masterwork mechs, his dramatic high-stakes political reversals, the triumphant product reveals and the acknowledgement he received from the masses.

He also thought about the heartfelt joy he experienced whenever he noted that his clan was doing better than ever. He had taken considerable risks in splitting off from the Larkinson Family and starting up his own organization. The safer bet would have been to join another state or organization, yet he staunchly refused every offer and got rewarded for his daring.

Ves also thought about his family. Although Gloriana was a frequent source of strife and disagreement, she was also one of the few women who trusted him on an unconditional basis.

He also thought about his critical battlefield victories. There were so many close battles that ultimately ended up in his favor, either because his soldiers came through or because he managed to reverse the situation by relying on a brilliant — or desperate — gambit.

Above all else, Ves thought back on the moments he gained critical inspiration. There were times where he tied multiple different clues together or gained a critical new insight that enabled him to develop wondrous new inventions!

From the creation of companion spirits to the development of his epoch-changing Carmine mechs, Ves became invigorated by the many sources of joys derived from completing massive contributions to society.

As a mech designer, Ves had many more reasons to feel happy and satisfied than most of his colleagues.

As he thought about all of this and more, he felt a lot more attuned to the E-ERC prototype weapon than before, and that was not only because his companion spirit was doing a good job.

He no longer felt as if he was holding a luminar crystal weapon in his hand anymore.

Instead, he had the illusion that he had squeezed out all of his happiest memories from his mind and stuffed them into his happy gun.

Though Ves may have inadvertently stuffed other emotions such as pride, love, devotion into the weapon, the happy gun disregarded all of that and only responded to the most relevant emotion at hand.

This granted Ves a sense of ownership and kinship with the weapon. It felt as if his happiness had momentarily turned this luminar crystal gun into a living monument of his joy!

Harry could clearly feel this remarkable transformation. His eyes widened as he could feel the power of Ves' happiness even when he was observing from a respectable distance!

Moreover, the E-ERC gun exuded a much stronger golden glow than normal!

Harry Kaikkonen knew for certain that he had never been able to evoke such a strong reaction from the happy gun or any of the other prototype energy guns for that matter!

"Remarkable." He whispered even as he made sure the sensors recorded all of the data.

The lightshow had reached a new peak, and that was with Ves still holding back!

Ves only wanted to empower the E-ERC gun with his emotions alone. He wanted to prove to Harry and to himself the validity of his theory about how the power of emotions could accomplish the impossible.

"WITNESS THE POWER OF JOY!"

Just speaking those words caused his excitement to reach a higher peak!

Ves pulled the trigger right away!

A much brighter and more blinding golden light beam surged from the muzzle of the glowing luminar crystal pistol and struck the target with significantly greater power than any of the previous test shots!

"Amazing!" Harry gasped! "Although the data does not entirely make this clear, you have convinced me that one man's excitement may be qualitatively different from another man's excitement. You are correct that emotions are not one-dimensional phenomena that can be quantified with simple numbers. From what I am able to subjectively perceive from your demonstration, your happiness is much richer, deeper and multi-faceted than mine. You hardly even need the support of hyper materials in order to maximize your expression of this side of yours. It may even be the case that my prototype weapon has absorbed those additional qualities before translating them into additional effects!"

Ves smiled and returned to the table in order to put the happy gun back in its place.

"Your ERC luminar crystal weapons don't create power and special effects out of thin air. The law of conservation of energy still applies in hyper technology and E-technology. I think your new weapon tech does not necessarily unlock a brand-new capability. Instead, you have merely drawn out a handful of the hidden features of luminar crystal technology. This may be another set of proof that the luminar race based their tech on extremely refined applications of hyper technology. The extinct luminars were small in stature, but possessed big hearts and minds. They took advantage of the latter in order to overcome their scale disadvantage and punch above their weight."

Harry clearly agreed with this theory as well. "It may be our destiny that we are using this old alien tech for the same purpose. My U-ERC and X-ERC luminar crystal weapons will enable each of us to use smaller weapons to inflict greater damage onto warships and phase leaders!"

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