After a lot of discussion, Ves and the others hadn't managed to come up with a solid plan to evacuate from the planet.

They knew too little to commit to any ambitious plans. The entire planet had just descended into chaos and nothing was right anymore.

For now, the stranded people focused on more immediate goals. Everyone recognized that they urgently needed to expand their strength. Acquiring more mechs and resources sat at the forefront of their minds.

The Infinity Guards were already in the process of establishing contact with their local contacts and business partners. The mercenaries had visited this planet plenty of times in the past, and according to the usual methods of large mercenary companies, built up relationships with reliable service providers in order to fulfill routine demands.

Ves didn't have much hope that the Infinity Guards would succeed. While the Star Strider Security Group was a massive organization, much of that was irrelevant right now!

Much of the strength of the 14th Fleet of the Star Striders was located elsewhere. Right now, the Infinity Guards on the surface only had eight mechs at their disposal. This was hardly enough to earn the respect of serious partners!

This was why Ves banked much more on gathering the power of a collective. There were many different individual forces on the planet that were having difficulty keeping their heads on their shoulders with all of the fighting going on. Having a handful of mechs allowed these groups to lord it over regular citizens, but they were unable to resist any of the serious players rampaging across the surface!

Not everyone believed that this was a viable plan. The difficulty of organizing so many different groups increased drastically as their numbers increased.

Ves didn't pay too much mind about everyone's doubts. He had confidence in his clan's ability to absorb so many newcomers.

Of course, that did not mean that it was easy to expand his clan with lots of new members. Ves and the Larkinson Clan were very controversial among the locals.

He knew that in order to succeed, he had to pass a very difficult test.

"The refugees outside our doorstep must become a part of my clan!"

This was not going to be easy. While some groups already pledged to join, there were plenty more who expressed misgivings about upending their entire lives. People like Oliver Vlambeer were so attached to their states that they had no intentions to leave!

Right now, Ves hadn't figured out the right approach yet. This was why he left this issue to Captain Reina Ember and Captain Cecil Rivington. Both of them were originally Lifers who knew their own people a lot better than any other Larkinson.

After the meeting, Captain Ember approached him in order to discuss potential solutions.

"I've gone through the descriptions of who the refugees are and where they hail from. I've noticed that all of  them are city folk."

"What do you mean by that?"

"They're quite picky." The Black Cat officer emphasized. "Compared to people who live in more remote areas, the refugees you've picked up may be in a sorry state, but they still have the pride and arrogance of a Lifer who live in one of the greatest cities of their state. Veoline is not only a major population center, but also an iconic cultural center as well. It's a city where many local dramas take place. The people here are quite proud of their city, their planet and their star system."

"Oh."

Ves encountered people like that before. A lot of Bentheimers used to obsess about how they were better than other Brighters and how the central government was stealing their wealth.

The strong feelings of some citizens of Bentheim sometimes became so extreme that they even rebelled against the Bright Republic!

Now that he thought about it, Vincent Ricklin used to be a part of the Bentheim Liberation Front. He might know more about how to deal with these kinds of people than anyone else in the Larkinson Clan!

Still… resorting to Vincent of all people left a bad taste in his mouth. Ves found it hard to take the leg-less expert candidate seriously. Yet he also remembered that Vincent was good at befriending people. He was already known for this in the Larkinson Clan.

In the end, he decided to refer Vincent to Captain Ember and Captain Rivington. If Vincent was able to help in any way, then that was great. If the results were less than ideal, then the two former Lifers could always kick the idiot aside.

After discussing their initial handling of the refugees, Ves parted with the two and left the building.

After a long day of trying to fight his way out of the city, Ves was exhausted. He had just finished a design duel beforehand so he had already gone through a lot of drastic events.

While much of his mind was occupied with how to solve his current problems, he did not forget about the gains he made when he was declared the winner of the design duel.

His Spirituality had grown stronger. He knew this even if he didn't bring up the System's Status. His mind had grown a little more vigorous and he felt he could do a little more with the spiritual energy at his disposal.

Aside from that, his design philosophy and his thoughts surrounding it had taken another step forward as well. This was even more important to him. His design philosophy defined the mechs he developed. Any change, no matter how small, would have a profound impact on how his products would look!

"My mechs are more alive than mechs that are made of flesh and blood."

He spoke these words with the strength and confidence of a mech designer who put this premise to the test and succeeded in proving that he was right!

From this recent victory, Ves seemed to have gained a crucial insight on what it took for a Journeyman to advance to Senior.

Avoiding competition and trying to evade challenges might give mech designers more peace of mind, but these were ultimately signs of weakness.

A strong and confident mech designer did not shy away from a confrontation!

In fact, it was only when a mech designer collided against another peer that various truths and insights about their chosen specialty would truly appear!

For example, the recent design duel put a very high focus on how the concept of life defined his mechs.

Ves always considered his mechs to be alive, but his definition for this word had always been rather abstract.

This was no fault of his own. He simply never encountered anyone who challenged him on this aspect.

Sure, there were plenty of people who denied that his mechs were alive, but he dealt with these doubters easily enough.

What he truly needed was someone coming up with a competing idea of what a living mech should be. Despite all of the accidents that took place on this trip, Ves felt it was still worth it considering the crucial insights he harvested!

After witnessing and confronting a biomech designer who adhered to an entirely different perspective of living mechs, Ves knew he did not have to be careful anymore about calling his mechs alive.

An unknown shackle had broken off from his mentality. Before, he always felt that biomechs may have had a more legitimate claim to the term of living mech, but now he learned first-hand that biomechs weren't all that magical. While they were exotic in many ways, their actual effectiveness was much less exciting than he initially thought!

"Biomechs are just another form of mechs." He muttered to himself. "They are not game changers, nor do they pose a threat to my own products."

Even if there were fantastic biomech designers who could design much better products such as Master Cline, Ves did not feel inferior. He bet that he could design something considerably stronger than any powerful biomech designer once he reached their level of strength!

Of course, he had a long road ahead before he reached this point. It would take many decades before he could play with the big boys.

After navigating to another structure, Ves reached his bedroom and sat on his bed.

He was still wearing his Unending Regalia, so he did not feel any additional comfort at the moment. Even though he was in the center of his own base, Ves still insisted on wearing protection.

The thought of wearing his combat armor continuously for several weeks on end did not make him happy, but he had little choice. There were too many threats on this planet that could kill him up close and from afar.

"Meow."

Ves turned his gaze to the side and saw that Lucky had already left his shoulder. The gem cat jumped onto a pillow and settled on it. He needed a long rest after exhausting his phasing ability.

"I hope you get well soon. I have a lot of work in store for you. Your infiltration ability is vital in scouting our potential allies and enemies."

"Meow..!"

"Hey, don't complain. I still haven't forgotten about the gem, you know. You promised several times to deliver something to me, but I haven't seen you working your butt at all in the past month. Where the hell are you putting all of the exotics you eat?!"

Lucky didn't want to talk to Ves about this. The indignant cat turned his slender body around and deliberately closed his eyes.

"Well, whatever."

A gem wouldn't help Ves much right now. He still had a handful of them left, but it was too wasteful to implant them in any of the mechs at his disposal. The performance boosts wouldn't make a difference in any large-scale combat involving hundreds of mechs.

Before Ves planned to take a brief nap in order to reset his mind, someone requested to enter his room.

"Come in." He said while gesturing Nitaa to unlock the entrance.

Venerable Tusa stepped forward. Ordinarily, Ves would have been surprised at his entry, but he already sensed the expert pilot's force of will approaching beforehand.

"What's the matter, Tusa?"

"I'd like to make a request. I already discussed this before with Commander Casella, but she did not have good words to say about my idea."

This sounded serious. Ves sat back up on his bed. "So you thought of going over her head?"

"Yup." Tusa shamelessly smiled. "Here's the thing, Ves. I feel a bit.. constricted in this base. Sure, I know how my presence helps with stabilizing the people and all, but staying in a single place is not my preference. Jannzi is much more suited to hold the fort."

"Are you asking permission to take the Piranha Prime and go on a patrol or something?"

"Not.. exactly. I do want to take my mech out for a spin, but I don't want to fly circles around this base. I want to go further. There's an entire city in the distance that is engulfed in war. I want to reach it and see what I can do to help us, whether it is finding new allies, scouting possible enemies or finding valuable loot! I know it sounds risky and all, but I can take care of myself. No one is able to mess with me when I'm piloting my Piranha Prime, especially if there aren't any expert mechs in the field!"

This was a radical proposal! Ves was taken aback by how willing Venerable Tusa embraced the unknown.

Ves and Jannzi had just struggled to distance themselves from Veoline. It was absurd for anyone to do the opposite, especially alone!

"The risks are too great, Tusa. While the Ferocious Piranha and its prime variant is capable of going solo, Veoline is way too dangerous! A metallic mech like yours is way too conspicuous on this planet. Its glow will also attract a lot of unneeded attention. Do you truly think you can handle yourself in the chaos?"

Venerable Tusa's gaze remained steady. "Yes."