"Pathetic!" A female voice uttered from the crowd!

A beret-wearing woman followed by a floating greatsword stepped forward. Her straightened back and her strong physique made her very powerful among the gathered mech designers.

"Do you think your new boss subjected you all to the glow of the Doom Guard for no reason? Did you think that facing my blade is just a one-time encounter? You are horribly wrong if you think that your future will be spent in comfort and luxury! While I don't expect much from the softies among you who managed to get into the clan through your smarts, but why aren't any of you who are hired by Ves stepping up?!"

Under her admonishments, some of the mech designers felt ashamed of themselves.

Though Ves only expected a couple of the mech designers to step up, in the end around thirty of them put themselves forward!

All of the newly-hired mech designers selected by Ves were anything but average. All of them had shown considerable courage and determination during the unconventional selection process. Even though they all feared the dangers of the Nyxian Gap, compared to the previous tests, it didn't seem so scary!

Ves felt very gratified by the sheer amount of volunteers. Aside from the people he selected, the Ylvainans stepped forth as well! Oscar DiMartin and the other fanatics completely believed in him. They feared nothing as long as they accompanied the Bright Martyr!

"Okay. This is good." Ves finally nodded and smiled. Ketis did a great job at riling them all up. "There are ten design teams, but I only need half. Oscar, you should stay with Gloriana and continue to develop your individual mech designs. As for the rest of your team, you can assist my partner in other matters."

"Very well, sir." Oscar replied in a disappointed tone.

It wasn't necessary to bring so many mech designers. Ves already trusted the Ylvainans in the Design Department, so there was no need to challenge their limits further.

Instead, he wanted to bring along the people he selected in order to train their mentality and let them get used to facing different kinds of pressure.

While Ves did not expect them to become fully-fledged combat engineers or anything, they should at least be able to keep their heads and remain productive during crisis situations!

He of all people knew how difficult it was to demand courage under fire from a bunch of mech designers. Cowardice and rear-line duty seemed to be ingrained in the bones of most of them. Too many of them were nerds whose only exposure to violence was playing some popular virtual reality games in their youth.

Such entertainment hardly conveyed the true terror of the threat of death!

This was why Ves specifically selected those who were able to resist it from the start. Yet even if he selected a bunch of brave mech designers, he knew he had to make sure to stimulate them further instead of letting them grow soft!

Of course, he did not expect them to take a lot of risks without any corresponding rewards. If his subordinate mech designers became aware that Ves just wanted to exploit them, they would grow very dissatisfied!

Seeing the grim and resigned expressions of the group of brave mech designers, Ves decided to throw his pets some carrots.

"Those who accompany our task force will be rewarded for their contribution. As long as you perform your duty diligently, you will each be rewarded with 50 Larkinson merits!"

A small gasp ran throughout the entire crowd!

Though Ves and Gloriana only spent a brief amount of time in setting up their merit system, the Larkinson Merit Exchange had already become an official institution.

Right now, the remuneration structure was still a little bit crude. A single merit corresponded to one year of low-level work. 10 merits equated to one year of medium-level work. The only people who were entitled to earn 100 merits or more consisted of mech commanders, assembly members and the other people at the upper hierarchy.

Ves already regarded the assistant mech designers as mid-level employees, so if they didn't do anything exceptional, they only stood to gain 10 merits a year.

Unlike merits which were non-transferable to other people, they also earned a regular salary. For now, the Larkinson Clan did not bother with minting its own coin, so everyone was being paid in hex credits for the time being. While their salaries were fairly high, the assistant mech designers all hungered for merits.

This was because some of the goods and services offered by the Larkinson Merit Exchange couldn't be obtained through money!

"We have recently expanded and clarified the items you can spend your Larkinson merits on." Gloriana announced. "With one merit, you can request a personalized tutoring session from myself or my partner, though not too often. For an entire hour, we will devote our full attention to critiquing your mech designs, addressing your difficulties and offer advice on your progression. I advise everyone to take advantage of this service at least once."

Some of the assistant mech designers recognized the value in asking for guidance. Many Apprentices weren't actually able to navigate their way to Journeyman-level! Each individual's circumstances were different and every design philosophy demanded a unique approach, so general advice and lessons weren't very useful in facilitating their progression.

Gloriana mentioned another benefit. "Aside from that, a single merit also allows you to borrow a single advanced textbook from the Larkinson Library. We have adjusted the pricing so that most textbooks that aren't suitable for Apprentices will cost more merits while those that are safe for you to learn will cost much less."

"The reason for that is because we want to allow you to save for other benefits that you can obtain in the Larkinson Merit Exchange." Ves mentioned. "After working together the Larkinson Biotech Institute, we are finally prepared to offer a range of augmentations that can all enhance your design prowess."

He waved his hand, causing the projectors to depict a list.

[50 Larkinson merits: third-class cranial implant

200 Larkinson merits: second-class cranial implant

25 Larkinson merits: third-class gene mod template

150 Larkinson merits: second-class gene mod template

10 Larkinson merits: entry-level gene boost priming agent]

Some of these items were quite expensive in terms of merits! At the very least, an assistant mech designer with only average performance had to work around 40 years in order to obtain a basic set of second-class augmentations!

To many ambitious mech designers, this lengthy span of time would eat up all of their golden years. By the time their intellect and cognitive functions reached a high standard, they were already too old to hold any promise!

The brave mech designers aligned to Ves did not appear very worried. They already suspected that this mission was only the first opportunity to earn a lot of merits.

It was the so-called erudite mech designers favored by Gloriana who appeared concerned! They feared that they wouldn't have as much opportunity to earn merits unless they volunteered for combat duty!

"Don't worry." Gloriana tried to reassure her own group of pets. "We have opened up additional channels to earn merits. Along with offering excellent solutions during serious design sessions, the top contributors to a design project will receive 10 or less merits depending on their performance."

"Leading a design team, tutoring your fellow colleagues in a field you are extensively familiar with, volunteering for shipboard duty, and other useful activities will also reward you with a lot of merits. You can easily earn ten times as many merits a year as the mech designer standing next to you as long as you are willing to engage rather than show up!" Ves added.

He deliberately structured the reward structure to encourage greater participation. He wanted to motivate as many of his subordinates as possible to throw their all into their work.

Those who thought they had won the jackpot by surviving through the selection process should not grow complacent too soon! While Ves was sure that there were some who couldn't be bothered to do more, with all of the carrots he dangled in front of their faces, the most ambitious among them would certainly do their best to earn more merits!

If any of them were smart enough, then they should aim to obtain a full set of second-class augmentations as soon as possible.

In the next couple of years, Ves believed that the differences between the fifty new hires as well as his older assistants would become very obvious!

Those who only did the bare minimum and earned 10 merits a year would be forced to look at the hardest workers with envy as they raked in 100 merits or more in the same amount of time!

That was good. Ves hoped that the constant comparisons and the growing differences in status would motivate at least some of those slackers to get off the couch and invest more time in their work.

Both Ves and Gloriana were pretty much workaholics, just like many other high-ranking mech designers. Those who managed to develop a mature design philosophy and form their design seeds were not only incredibly passionate about their ambitions, but possessed the drive to pursue them no matter how hard they needed to work.

The mech design profession was not for average people! Those who wanted to catch up to the likes of the Miracle Couple could forget about maintaining a healthy work-life balance!

This was a rather depressing truth, not only in the mech industry, but many other sectors as well.

The only consolation was that Ves did not set excessively long mandatory shifts. It was up to the mech designers themselves to decide how to spend their free time.

In case the most enthusiastic assistants worked themselves to death for some reason, at the very least Ves and the Larkinson Clan wouldn't be liable or at fault!

"Do you have any questions?"

A brief pause ensued. Ves found it amusing that the brave mech designers and the erudite mech designers had already formed into distinct camps.

He had no intentions of breaking them up. Fostering a little rivalry would do them all some good. Diving his assistant mech designers into camps, teams and by performance all served to split them all up and weaken their power as a collective.

Even though the sixty young men and women were all individually weak, they might grow into formidable mech designers in the future! A portion of them would doubtlessly advance to Journeyman as well, which meant that they would gain a massive amount of standing within the Larkinson Clan.

Therefore, Ves wanted to make sure that none of them gained the opportunity to stir any major trouble. Dividing them all and encouraging them to pit themselves against each other not only stimulated their drive to improve, but also kept them busy and distracted!

A woman who Ves recognized as the Sentinel noble raised her hand.

"Sir, what will be able to gain if we become Journeymen?" Catherine Evenson asked.

He found it rather ironic that the person who asked this question hadn't developed any spiritual potential up until now. Catherine's chances of advancing to Journeyman were nonexistent as long as that was the case.

"It is too much to expect any of you to become equal partners once you advance to this rank. Gloriana and I practically built the Larkinson Clan and grew the LMC to its current level of success by ourselves. There are many differences between Apprentices, and it's no different at the Journeyman-level."

That popped the bubble of those who dreamt of catching up to the Miracle Couple.

"Unless any new Journeyman in the clan is able to match or surpass our ability, they will still remain subordinate. However, they stand to earn substantially more merits and hex credits and are also entitled to a profit share to any mechs that they are principally responsible for designing. I will release a lot of high-priced goods and services onto the Larkinson Merit Exchange when that happens. Journeymen are valuable throughout human space, and we will make sure that any of you who reach this rank are rewarded for your contributions!"

Ves had already learned from other merit systems that fairness lay at the heart of their success!

The rules were clear to all. As long as the assistants earned the expected amount of merits for their contributions, the system would keep running despite its exploitative nature!