The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

The confrontation of glows revealed a lot of new facets about the interaction between LMC mechs.

None of the outcomes broke any logic. Though Ves hadn't expected the Aurora Titan to be such a great defender against hostile glows, even that abided by some logic.

"As expected of a female proto-god." Gloriana smugly smirked as she petted her cat. "The Aurora Titan's proto-god is so powerful that she can fend off the two male proto-gods of the Doom Guard with ease! We women are the best and strongest gender, isn't that right, Clixie?"

"Miaow!"

Standing next to her, Ves palmed his face. "Zeigra is a lot younger than Qilanxo! Of course he's weaker! Meanwhile, Nyxie is heavily constrained and partially locked in slumber. If he is in his prime, he can crush us all with a single thought!"

His girlfriend didn't believe him. She threw a contemptuous look at him. "I expect our next mech design project to be stronger than the Doom Guard! As our first mech design for my home state, it has to be our best product to date, understood?! I won't allow you to shame our state by presenting something weak!"

"That… is a tall order. There's not that much we can do to make our knight mech stand out when we have to abide by so many restrictions."

Gloriana imperiously swept her hand towards the mechs on the practice field. "Look at your mechs. Our mechs. They're more powerful than other mechs because of your glows. The domains they exude is the key to their success! I want you to make sure that our first Hexer mech design will not host a weak proto-god. We need to make a statement to the Hexadric Hegemony that we are not useless! Even at our current state, we can already contribute to the war effort! More importantly, we have to teach the Friday Coalition a lesson that their defeat is inevitable!"

"I get it!" Ves raised his hands. "I already planned some elaborate steps to ensure our remaining mech design project will result in something special. It will definitely surpass the Doom Guard in sophistication! Just make sure that you are ready to make a sacrifice."

"For our first collaborative Hexer mech design, I don't care about the price!"

The testing soon wound down. The final interesting interaction that took place was when Ves commanded Jannzi Larkinson to bring forth her Shield of Samar.

There was a qualitative difference between her performance with her customized Aurora Titan and the performance of a regular version of the model.

Her will had already been polished to a standard that was beyond human limits. Her degree of immersion with her own mech had reached an unparalleled standard for non-expert pilots.

The field of protection projected by the Shield of Samar reached must further out, and every individual affected by it enjoyed a considerably greater degree of protection against the Doom Guard's glow!

Ves and Gloriana made a couple of additional conclusions after they finished the tests.

First, the Aurora Titans and more specifically Qilanxo were practically made to shield against harmful glows. Unlike the other mechs, its focus on protecting others extended into the spiritual realm as well, thereby providing valuable protection to the minds of every vulnerable mech pilot within range!

Second, the effectiveness of glows that were able to resist harmful influences somewhat depended on the quality of the mech. However, the source of those glows mattered more. A powerful, protection-oriented spiritual entity like Qilanxo was vastly more suited to perform this role than a weaker offensive design spirit such as Zeigra!

The most the latter could do was to reduce the burden on the mech pilot of the mech. The amount of protection they offered to other friendlies around the mech was rather marginal!

Third, the strength of the mech pilot also mattered. Even if Jannzi Larkinson exited her Shield of Samar and boarded the cockpit of a regular Aurora Titan, she would still be able to achieve more results due to her superior ability and excellent synergy with Qilanxo.

Putting a completely random mech pilot in a very advanced and eccentric mech like the Aurora Titan wouldn't end well!

A lot of new ideas swirled around in their heads. The release of the Doom Guard sparked an entirely new appreciation of the applications of Ves' design philosophy.

It was not enough to consider their effects on a standalone basis. From now on, Ves needed to take into account how they interacted with other existing glows!

"You know, Ves, we could start an arms race." Gloriana suggested with a grin. "When the Doom Guard gets more popular, mech buyers will either have to start fielding our strikers themselves or risk falling behind. At the same time, the demand for mechs that can counter its glow will increase. So far, only the LMC can give them what they need!"

"We already have the Aurora Titan."

"It's a defensive mech that is highly unsuited to confront the Doom Guard. In fact, the other way around applies as well. Both mechs are too sluggish. While you've already mentioned that their owners might solve this problem, this is way too troublesome and requires a lot of extraneous tinkering. The fact of the matter is that the market will gradually demand a mech from the LMC that can offer the same degree of protection as the Aurora Titan but in a much more mobile package."

This was the glow arms race that Gloriana described. Ves ran through the scenarios in his mind and saw an opportunity to milk the mech market by continually releasing mechs that countered each other!

For example, he could design an affordable lancer mech with a protective to counter the Doom Guard.

He could then design an offensive swordsman ranged mech that could shred the lancer mech's glow.

After that, he might design a rifleman mech that neutralized the swordsman mech's offensive glow.

Ves could wait a couple of years between these critical product releases in order to make sure the latest mech models provided maximum value to their customers. The longer they dominated, the more the market accumulated pent-up demand for effective counters!

These kinds of arms races happened throughout the galactic mech market in many different corners. Direct contests between a small number of competitors were fairly rare, though, and they almost always took place at the higher levels.

Ves recognized that he and his products were in an abnormal situation.

First, as far as he was aware of, he was the only mech designer capable of designing mechs with glows. He was also the only mech designer who could design mechs that countered them in battle!

These two conditions meant that any arms race that Ves possibly sparked would only involve a single player, himself!

He would become his own competitor in a market where he held a monopoly!

If his fellow mech designers figured out these conditions, they would probably grow green with envy!

That was because anyone in Ves' position could abuse them in a way that allowed them to constantly rip off their customers!

Right now, the product margin for the Doom Guard was 25 percent. For every 2 million hex credits the LMC received per sale, the company roughly profited by 0.5 million hex credits. This was already decently high in the mech industry for a Journeyman-level offering.

This was just the start.

If Ves designed a cheap, mobile and effective counter against the Doom Guard, then he could make it cost just 1 million credits, but sell it for as much as 2.5 million hex credits!

As long as the LMC made sure the Doom Guards proliferated everywhere, the demand for a lancer mech that was perfectly set up to counter the fearsome striker mechs would be a product that many customers would pay a fortune to obtain!

If Ves and the LMC were shameless enough to take advantage of their monopoly status, then selling such a cheap product at extortionary prices was viable! Even if their customers complained and hurled insults at them, they would still fork over the money to buy the overpriced mechs, because they needed their capabilities!

This product development cycle could go on and on. Any customers who wanted to stay on top of the glow arms race were destined to become the LMC repeat customers so long as Ves maintained his monopoly!

Just thinking about how much his customy could jack up the margins made him wild! Making 60 percent or even 100 percent profit on his products would rapidly build up his fortune as long as he made sure the sales volumes remained high!

However, there was more to it than earning eye-popping profits.

"It's not so simple." Ves soon regained his calm. "Reputation is more important as well. If we truly spark off an unscrupulous glow arms race, the market will come to know us, but hate us as well. There will doubtlessly be a lot of people who will start to resent us. Soon enough, they'll figure out that the most effective way of beating this arms race is by assassinating me! Without my support, there will be no new mechs with glows, thereby saving all of my customers a lot of money!"

"Oh." Gloriana blinked. "I don't know. Assassinations aren't exactly common in the mech industry, and we're already growing stronger every day."

"I don't want to attract too much hatred." Ves shook his head. "In addition, there is morality to consider. I designed the Doom Guard explicitly to counter pirates and other irregular forces. Their penchant for fielding large quantities of cheap mechs is something that a defensive striker mech with a terror glow is perfectly suited to fend off. However, our Doom Guard is not very suited to go on the offensive, which is a deliberate design choice we've made to make sure it will largely be used by legitimate customers."

The point suddenly dawned upon Gloriana. "You don't want to empower the pirates!"

"Yes. There is something special about my design philosophy. The effectiveness of my glows is unrelated to the cost of a mech design. I can attach a glow that counters the Doom Guard to an incredibly affordable mech that costs just 150,000 hex credits. A mech that is ten times cheaper than a mech that a lot of defensive forces will begin to yield is perfect for pirates and all sorts of people who prefer to perform offensive missions! It will be easy to spread such a mech around and achieve a huge sales volume, but…"

"It's not necessarily the right thing to do. If such a product becomes associated with pirates…" Gloriana trailed off. There was no need for her to finish the sentence.

It wasn't as if Ves had any objections to doing business with pirates and scum. If there was a lot of profit to be made, he was very willing to pounce on the opportunities!

The problem was that it only benefited him in the short-term. As long as Ves continued to do business in such an ugly fashion, his reputation would sour to the point where he couldn't resist the inevitable backlash from the market!

Besides, despite the huge potential windfalls that pirates often earned, they were actually pretty poor on the whole. Their lack of market access and their many inefficiencies meant that they truly didn't have much to spend. Even if they wanted something, they were much more inclined to steal what they wanted rather than pay for them honestly!

"The same rationale also applies to the reason why I haven't designed a new version of the Desolate Soldier." Ves reminded his girlfriend. "It was a necessary product for the Sand War, but now that this crisis has passed, I don't want it to spread too much. The potential for abuse by authorities is enormous and it doesn't help that the model is so cheap!"

"Your glows should have a price." She stated.

"Correct. I need to train the market to appreciate the premium bestowed by my glows. Even if I can attach it to cheap and disposable mech design, I will likely not release such a product. The cheaper the mech, the greater it devalues my glows. Such a mech will also easily fall within the budgets of various pirate forces, which are customers we should satisfy as little as possible."

In the end, Ves and Gloriana put away their fantasies. Sparking a glow arms race and exploiting it to its maximum potential sounded great, but neither of them could bear the ultimate cost of implementing it in an unscrupulous fashion.

"Don't get me wrong, a glow arms race still sounds like something we should do." Ves softly spoke. "We just have to be careful and rein ourselves in. We can't allow our greed for immediate profits to harm our long-term development. Money lasts until the moment you spend it. An excellent brand is something that can deliver lasting profits as long as we keep it intact!"

Another reason to rein in the glow arms race was the threat of competition. The greater demand for a counter to his glows, the greater the chance a mech designer might emerge who could shatter his spiritual component monopoly!