[401-600] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 435: The Cage

Ever since Ves entered the clutches of the Mech Corps, he became isolated to the outside galaxy. In an age where spying and leaking sensitive data was trivially easy, the military organization undertook extreme measures in order to keep their rank and file from revealing anything they shouldn't have.

While the Flagrant Vandals might not see eye-to-eye with the upper hierarchy, they happened to be in total agreement with regards to operational security.

As a mech regiment that regularly invaded Vesian space, any incautious leaks might even devastate their numbers. Therefore, access points to the outside galaxy was extremely limited and heavily monitored. The moment Ves revealed a hint of propriety, his entire terminal would shut off.

Thus, over the past couple of months, Ves had no idea how the LMC fared in his absence. In truth, he didn't really worry about their fate. The company was in decent hands and it offered two solid original designs in its catalog.

The Blackbeak medium knight already proved to be an enduring seller. Even if the market for offensive knights started to become somewhat saturated, demand for the LMC's homebuilt silver label editions was projected to remained high for at least a couple more years.

Ves was much less certain about the newly-introduced Crystal Lord design. Though it carried over much of the qualities of the Blackbeak, the different type and the range of improvements he incorporated in the design made it an unquestionably more promising mech.

The Blackbeak was meant to compete in a niche, while the Crystal Lord had been designed to challenge the dominant mainstream mechs that was responsible for the bulk of of the sales for rifleman mechs.

It had a lot of things going for it. The premium licenses and materials allowed it to outperform cheaper models and Ves had Superpublished the design on top of that. Its current performance parameters fit well in a multi-year conflict with the Vesians.

More crucially, the Crystal Lord was the first design that broke into the coveted B-grade for the X-Factor. While Ves did not truly understand what this new height of X-Factor meant, he bet that the mech pilots who got to pilot a Crystal Lord must be feeling very privileged about piloting such a smooth machine.

Lastly, the Crystal Lord also incorporated some gimmicks based off alien crystal technology. Though it was hardly anything groundbreaking compared to the heights that humanity had reached, crystal technology like this was rare in a backwater state like the Bright Republic. It should perform particularly well against mechs that predominantly relied on lasers.

All in all, the Crystal Lord possessed all of the elements to be a breakout success.

Yet even as Ves had high hopes for his second original design, the mech market for rifleman mechs was extremely competitive. Realistically, all three labels of the Crystal Lord should have priced themselves out of consideration for most potential buyers.

Therefore, it came at a surprise to him that Professor Velten indicated otherwise.

"May I know how well my Crystal Lord design is doing?"

Though Ves faced heavy restrictions in terms of how much information he could get in touch with, the Senior Mech Designer faced no such constraints. She easy answered his question.

"The Crystal Lord has been something of an anomaly when you first released it onto the market. They didn't know what to make of it, and sales have stayed modest for the first month. Expert opinions about your design is decidedly mixed, with many of them recommending their audience to stay away."

To an outside pundit who had never seen a Crystal Lord in person, its value proposition seemed like a bad deal. Rather than break the bank by buying a single overpriced rifleman mech, it was much more efficient to buy two affordable rifleman mechs for the same amount of credits.