Birth Of The Crafts-God

"The fuck is wrong with you, kid. Are you playing with me?" Orvel shouted as he stood up.

"Mr Orvel, please remember that he's a stakeholder elected by the young miss." Helnord tried to intervene.

"I pay my respects to the young miss, but not to some brat like this. Stay out of the way, otherwise I'll take this as the young miss wanting to get rid of me even after all my hard work and efforts for this team." Orvel threatened.

Helnord froze, not knowing what to do at that moment. Orvel's threat was indeed effective.

Although Vienna might have valued Lucas quite well to gift him 40% equity of the team, it didn't mean that he was more important that Orvel. Compared to latter, Lucas couldn't offer even one tenth (or 10%) of what Orvel could do for the team. After all, part of the reason for their impressive performances in the previous and current seasons was due to the racing shuttle designed by Orvel.

Lucas raised an eyebrow, surprised at how Orvel has suddenly instigated a serious problem and driven a wedge between him and Vienna. From a simple battle of words, it had turned into a 'me or him' controversy.

'What a sly fellow.'

At this moment, Lucas realised that Orvel was quite greedy for power. He probably wasn't satisfied with his role as the head of designs and wanted to become a stakeholder, maybe even the majority stakeholder of the team. Despite that, a stranger came out of nowhere and beat him to it. Naturally, he would be pissed.

Orvel probably wanted to use this situation to create a problem between Lucas' relationship with Vienna. By emphasizing his efforts for the team and also revealing his irritation over a stranger appearing to take over, he had also communicated his thoughts in wanting a higher position, specifically, Lucas' role.

If it were an average person that said these words to another average person, none of this would be true. However, the speaker was Orvel and the listener was Vienna's secretary, Helnord. Naturally, there were some underlying meaning in those words and the latter would definitely spot them.

While Helnord was hesitating on what to do, Orvel decided to strike while the hammer was hot. But there was someone much faster than him.

"You're wrong about something, Mr Omal. Your hard work and efforts for the team has been very much appreciated and taken notice of. Mrs Vienna rewarded your diligence by paying you a monthly salary while letting things become as you wanted it to be. Take a look around you, if that wasn't so, we wouldn't be where we are today, now would we?" Lucas finally showed an expression; a smile.

It was now Orvel's turn to hesitate. His next course of action had been blocked and he had crashed right into an iron wall.

Lucas' statement might have seemed simple but he was implying that Vienna let Orvel run the team and expand his influence into other departments despite her being the real boss of the team. If Orvel were to challenge these words or desire more, he would paint himself as someone ungrateful to the others. If such news was to get out, it could affect his public image greatly.

"Hmph." Orvel snorted before returning to his seat.

It became a clear sign to others that in this first round, he had lost to Lucas.

"As I previously mentioned, I went through the documents of the team and although it's looking good, there are certain areas that need a few improvements and I'll be sure to relay my thoughts on them to the necessary departments." Lucas said.

However, he noticed that some of them seemed unconvinced. This was understandable after all the person lecturing them about their errors was a human. Explore more adventures at My Virtual Library Empire

Realising this, Lucas smirked.

"But there's a particular error I just don't understand so I'll have to forward my question here."

Lucas tapped on the table and a 3-d projection of the engine of the racing shuttle, Viper, appeared above the table.

"My Dobal, can you shed some light on why you used a linear drive system for the energy delivery feature of the engine, L2.13o?"

The current Viper was actually a second generation racing shuttle with the first generation appearing in the previous season. After its magnificent performance, department head Orvel decided that they would go with it for the current season, only making some minor changes to the structural design. They had also made changes to the engine to upgrade its performance to a much higher level. The new engine was then called the L2.13o.

The nomenclature of the Versoa team's engine was based on a unique set of rules that functioned like a secret code for the core team.

L2 was the model number of the engine. As it was adapted from the previous generation Viper which was called the L1 engine, the following upgrade was called L2.

The number 13 referred to how many key adjustments and upgrades had been made to it when compared to the L1 model.

The letter 'o' was part of a different set of codes used in the team. The set of codes signified the type of racing shuttle engine, similar to how certain cars back on Earth would have 'AWD', 'RWD', or 'S' associated with them to inform others about the drivetrain system.

Based on the Versoa team's encryption, the 'o' implied a balanced system but with a tilt towards speed. The idea was gotten from the fact that the letter 'o' could be balanced on any side, and the shape together with the opening made it appear almost like an exhaust pipe.

Orvel ignored Lucas, acting as if he wasn't the one being spoken to. Since Lucas refused to say his name right, he saw no point in talking to him.

Seeing this, the department head for the Vehicle manufacturing department —who didn't want the matter to escalate any longer— sighed and answered,

"The Linear drive system is a popular drive system for power transmission. It's used for both light rail trains and starships because of its efficiency and power boost capabilities. So we decided to do the same."

Truthfully, the man was confused as to why Lucas had asked such a simplistic question. He had originally thought Lucas was on to something, but the question was quite disappointing. This was something even a Tier 1 vestige-smith in the hover car industry could answer easily.

Lucas glanced at the man who spoke and recalled his identity. He was named Lerman and was somewhat of a genius, at least by Eretre's current standards. Although he was only a Tier 1 Elite vestige-smith, Lerman would rank at the peak and was a sixth level stellar practitioner, closing in on the seventh level.

Excluding Orvel, all the other department heads were at the Elite level of Tier 1, which was why Orvel was able to have his way in the team. Even if there was a Tier 1 Master vestige-smith, he or she would have to be at the high rank to be able to rival Orvel.

"You're right about that, but the advantage of the linear drive system lies in a straight path, hence why it's called 'linear'. If the vehicle is one that would go through a lot of curves and bends, the efficiency of the drive system drops by at least 30%. Also, linear drive system's requirement is heavy on the material of the engine and the energy pathway." Lucas said.

The Linear drive system was an energy transmission system that worked just like a rocket booster. Rocket boosters were good for going in a straight path, but they weren't efficient for insane manuevers and bends, because they were too powerful. Even the lower version —nitro boosters— used in racing cars, had the same problem. They were very effective for straight line dash but not for curves or drifting.

What's more, a Linear drive system required a solid and durable engine to be able to handle the incredible amount of energy being pumped into it. However, if the material used for the engine was too dense, it would adversely affect the weight of the racing shuttle with a corollary of a drop in speed and even acceleration.

"You're right about that, but we have a materials department to sort out some of those problems."

Lerman pointed at another man in the conference room. The man was the current head of the department of material manufacturing. This department's duty was to acquire and test the materials needed for building the racing shuttle and its engine. They also carried out research and development, mixing various materials and metals to produce new alloys that were not only stronger and better, but suited for a goal in mind.

Seeing Lerman hint his way, the department head, Jovä, spoke up.

"You're right about that, sir. However, we at the materials manufacturing department have created a unique alloy to help with this. Our new alloy was made to cater to the requirements of the linear drive system, while being as light as possible. It also effectively reduces the drop in efficiency of the engine in bends, from 30% to 27%." Jovä proudly said.

The alloy was one of his greatest achievements as a material scientist. Unlike the others, he wasn't even a Tier 1 Elite vestige-smith, but when it came to understanding materials and metals, not even Orvel could compete with him.

"But it still under-performs in the weight category compared to other engines." Lucas struck at Jovä.

The latter twitched his lips and frowned, but he couldn't say anything. Lucas was right. Even after all they had done, the L2.13o engine was still considerably bigger than other engines. Due to this weight, it inhibited the performance of the Viper.

"If all you're going to do is point fingers, then shut the hell up kid." Orvel growled, seemingly having had enough.

"Although I am indeed pointing out the flaws, that's not all I intend to do." Lucas smiled.

"Then what is it you plan on doing?" Lerman stared at Lucas with an inquisitive glare.

"How long did it take to build the Viper?" Lucas asked instead.

This time around, the head of the simulation and testing department answered him.

"It took two months of on-and-off research and upgrades by the department of design and energy. Two weeks ofor us simulation and testing department to do our job concurrently with a month of R&D for the materials by the relevant department. Finally, after everything was fixed, the department of vehicle manufacturing spent one month with the department of designs to create both the engine and the shuttle. That's a total of four months." The department head said.

Raising four fingers up, Lucas made a declaration with a smile on his face.

"Four days. That's how long it will take me to build something much better."