"AAAHH! My future is there! I can't falter now!"

"This is my only chance to escape my debt! I won't settle for anything less than first!"

"How can this be?! You filthy commoners can't possibly surpass my courage! I am the scion of a noble house! I have undergone unimaginable training to get where I am. I refuse to be your lessers!"

The candidates tried their best to reach Ves while fighting back against the Doom Guard's ominous glow.

As far as Ves was aware of, the intensity of the glow of a mech roughly scaled according to the inverse-square law.

Light, gravity, electrical fields and more all operated along the same lines. This effectively meant that as the candidates moved closer, the difficulty of taking the next step rapidly increased!

This meant that all of them quickly slowed down. It was no longer possible for them to jog. They had to take it one step at a time.

The difficulty of the test was unimaginable at this stage. Ves could already tell that practically none of the candidates had entered a battlefield. They were still too soft in his perspective!

Sure, there were those who grew up in military families. Just like the Larkinson Family, these people received at least some form of training that prepared them for these kinds of challenges a lot better than those who had never been exposed to pressure of this nature!

However, even if a couple of the mech designers possessed more discipline than others, it didn't change the fact that they were ultimately pursuing a backline profession in the end!

Without experiencing the kind of fighting that the Bright Republic regularly forced its own younger generations of mech designers to endure, how could they be ready to face true pressure?

While Ves hated to acknowledge it, he approved of the Bright Republic's old measure to toughen up its mech designers. There were way too many useless professionals that would never step up when the situation called for it. The state might as well filter them all out by throwing them to the frontlines of a war!

As the candidates all began to scream and pour their hearts out, Ves casually raised his hand and rubbed his smooth-shaven chin in thought.

Should he take a page out of the book of his former state and enact something similar?

Nah.

While it was easy for someone at the top to appreciate the advantages of this controversial policy, those at the bottom hated it with a vengeance!

Ves himself grew quite resentful at the government of his former home state even as he rose to the occasion and became stronger. Just because he turned into a better mech designer didn't mean he liked risking his life all the time! The amount of dangers he personally endured would have long killed off any other mech designer in his position!

Therefore, Ves needed to find some different way to toughen his mech designers up. Resorting to a prop like the Doom Guard was an excellent way to accomplish this objective without going overboard.

No matter how deeply a Doom Guard frightened them out of their wits, at least they wouldn't actually die! The most they acquired was some unspeakable trauma that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

As the differences between willpower, determination and mental fortitude became more and more stark, Ves noted with keen interest that the people with spiritual potential didn't actually differ in performance.

There were plenty of those with the potential to become Journeymen yet immediately distances themselves from the Doom Guard straight away!

There were also a handful of those with the same potential yet walked at the forefront of the crowd!

Their overall distribution matched that of the rest of the candidates, which suggested to Ves that spiritual potential didn't necessarily convey any advantages in mindset. It was merely a sign of a possible bright future. The individuals in question still needed to work hard to realize their great potential!

"Huh." Gloriana commented through their private comm channel. "I initially opposed this test because I didn't believe it had anything to do with mech design. Why do mech designers need to match the mental fortitude of combat personnel? It's only now that I see the difference. A portion of their true nature is revealed."

How much pain and fear were the candidates able to endure? How much was the opportunity to join the LMC and work under Ves and Gloriana worth? Were the mech designers truly willing to give it all in order to achieve the best result?

All of these questions and more were revealed in the starkest way possible. Unlike his earlier test where Ves inexplicably picked up a couple of mech designers with promising spiritual potential, this time the test was very transparent.

Those who did poorly or lacked the spine to face this challenge were practically shamed in the presence of everybody. The candidates who strode forward despite the mounting pressure all received looks of envy, jealousy and admiration.

Every candidate knew where they stood in relation to their other competitors!

Those trailing behind the frontrunners mustered more and more energy in order to increase their pace.

Those at the front gained confidence in their early success and tried to maintain their advantage as best as possible.

As for the increasingly large collection of mech designers who slowed down, they had to make a difficult choice.

If they gave up early, they would be able to preserve their wits and energy for the challenges to come.

However, if they gave in too early, they might receive a bad impression or gain a low score!

No one knew whether their performance at this point mattered or not. The uncertainty and the high stakes of this selection process gnawed at their minds and increased their doubt.

As Gloriana had already mentioned, a portion of their true nature became evident at this time.

The majority made the rational choice and gave up. They turned around and quickly shuffled backwards. Reaching the top five was a pipedream for them if they already started to falter at this distance.

Only a couple of dozen made the 'stupid' choice to clench their fists and persist. They arduously took some steps forward even if their minds started to succumb at the terror gnawing at their sanity!

Though Ves didn't react to their performance, he nonetheless marked them out with his implant and recorded their valiant performance.

Even if they were fairly average in other regards, at least in this test they had risen to the occasion!

As the leading mech designers neared Ves' position, the ranking slowly became clearer and clearer. Around fifteen or so competitors constantly tried to overtake each other and secure a promised spot in the LMC!

With the Doom Guard becoming an increasingly more mysterious and dreadful presence in their minds, their steps never ceased!

Ves paid attention to the leading two mech designers. Both of them had already distanced themselves even further than the remainder of the group.

Neither of them maintained the lead position for very long. Every time one of them took the lead, the other mustered up some energy from somewhere and caught up shortly afterwards!

According to the implant, the tall, brown-haired woman wearing an expensive suit was actually a local.

Not only that, but she was a descendant of House Evenson!

It made sense for House Evenson to raise some mech designers. As the rulers of a mech industry hub like Cinach VI, the local nobles needed to develop a keen understanding of the sector in order to maintain their current prosperity!

As long as their decisions stopped making sense, Cinach VI would inevitably decline as business moved to competing planets!

What interested Ves even further was that Lady Catherine Evenson also studied at Rawlings University at Cinach VIII. She graduated with honors and started up her own mech business after receiving a generous capital injection from her own house.

In fact, according to the latest record, she was still the founder and lead designer of her own mech company! Why would someone like her give up all of that hard work in order to apply to become an assistant?

"Hmm.." He silently hummed. "Maybe she's similar to the Tovar mech designers. She might have learned that she can't lean on this kind of support to achieve true success."

It had already become evident to Ves that Catherine enjoyed a privileged but rigid upbringing. She was born with a silver spoon, yes, but she also worked hard to excel among her peers!

She was kind of like Gloriana in a sense.

The only difference was that she didn't shine as brightly as his girlfriend. Her grades were good but she did not even rank in the top 10 of her class.

Her talent didn't particularly seem exceptional and her performance in Gloriana's test didn't stand out that much.

Yet the willpower she summoned this time was truly remarkable. Despite her various advantages or lack of advantages, her desire to succeed was stronger than that of anyone! She was the opposite of a pampered noble who never worked hard in her life!

Though the aristocracy of the Sentinel Kingdom raised plenty of useless idiots, they never gained actual power. Only the accomplished inherited the mantle of their houses! This was how the aristocracy managed to retain their power over the centuries.

The noble houses which tolerated incompetence had already died out over the years. Generations of accumulation had all gone to waste when just a single incompetent descendant tore it all down!

Someone as promising as Catherine should have received a lot of attention from House Evenson. That made it even more inexplicable why she was here of all places.

Perhaps the only disappointing factor about her was that she didn't possess spiritual potential. As she was 33 years old, Ves wasn't sure if she had already wasted her chance.

"Ahhh! I won't settle for second place!" The man who overtook her roared. "My future is here! I will shake off my debts no matter the price!"

Her closest competitor on the other hand possessed a much poorer background. He turned out to be a Reinaldan who studied at some average mech design university and managed to start his own mech company as well.

Whereas Catherine Evenson received a lot of capital from her noble house right away, Moltar Ringer had to attract investment the hard way.

Somehow, he managed to persuade some investors to invest in his startup and borrow the remainder of what he needed from a bank.

Though his mech business didn't do all that well, at least it managed to keep its head above the water.

That was until the Sand War broke out. Ves recalled that roughly half of the Reinald Republic succumbed to the sandman incursion before the spread of the Desolate Soldier and some other measures managed to stabilize the defensive line.

Moltar Ringer happened to have founded his mech company at one of the many industrial star systems that had been scoured by sand.

Properly speaking, Moltar and his mech company should have been bankrupted. However, due to shady Reinaldan bankruptcy laws, Moltar wasn't allowed to start a clean slate. He still needed to pay back a portion of the huge debts he accrued!

If Moltar did not get selected today, then Ves could easily imagine that his future would become very dark in the future! Unless he ran off to become a pirate, he would probably face a life-time of exploitation!

What surprised Ves was that Moltar wasn't content with remaining in the top 5. He summoned even more willpower than Catherine in order to achieve first place!

This was highly uncharacteristic. According to Moltar's record, he never applied himself to this extent during his time as an independent mech designer and a mech design student. His grades were average and the mechs he designed after he started his business lacked too much rigor and imagination.

Where did all of this willpower come from? Was Moltar similar to Ves in that he performed at his best when the stakes were raised?

Ves almost couldn't believe he could witness this performance from a Reinaldan of all people!

In the end, Moltar fell short. Just as he maintained the lead, Catherine somehow exploded the remainder of her strength and reached the finish line a half-second earlier!

"No!"

"Yes!"