The Mech Touch

Much of human space became enraptured by the opportunities opened by the invasion of the Red Ocean.

Some dreamt of starting a new empire away from all of the established powers of the Milky Way.

With the presence of the old and entrenched first-rate states constrained in the new galaxy, this was a golden opportunity for any galactic pioneer to found a state that could one day match their might!

Others became obsessed with the limitless potential of phasewater. The myriad of applications it enabled sent many scientists, engineers, shipwrights and mech designers into a rapture!

Using phasewater to build minidrives and beyonder gates only scratched the surface of this high-grade exotic. Many ambitious researchers already plotted taking advantage of phasewater's dimensional properties to invent even more fantastic devices…

Most people weren't as ambitious, though. The advent of FTL-capable mechs and beyonder gates signified that the demand of phasewater would always be high!

To profiteers, high demand always correlated to high prices!

Though phasewater was purportedly more abundant in the Red Ocean, this was only relative to its scarcity in the Milky Way. It was still absolutely rare in the new galaxy.

As long as a pioneer found a deposit of phasewater, they could potentially become richer than first-rate business magnates!

The insane wealth that seemed to be ripe for the picking attracted many ambitious people throughout the galaxy!

Unfortunately, the requirements to obtain a beyonder ticket and become a galactic pioneer was simply too harsh.

Even if up to ten people could pool their merits together to redeem a fleet beyonder ticket, it was hardly possible for anyone to earn more than a million merits in their lifetime, let alone a hundred!

The prohibitive amount of contributions required to earn merits crushed the dreams of many hopeful people.

Those who already enjoyed a comfortable amount of success in the old order saw little appeal in sacrificing so much wealth and resources to embark on a risky venture.

In the end, only a small number of people who already possessed the capital to explore and colonize the Red Ocean redeemed beyonder tickets.

Many of their compatriots refrained from making any moves.

In the Komodo Star Sector, the invasion of the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy hardly affected the existing trends.

The sandmen cared nothing about humanity's movements. States such as the Ylvaine Protectorate, Bright Republic and Vesia Kingdom were far too hard-pressed to care about developments that were far beyond their reach!

In the center of the star sector, the Fridaymen and Hexers still fought as vigorously against each other as ever. Just as Gloriana predicted, the two sides became more determined than ever to overrun the other side!

For these reasons, the hype surrounding phasewater and the Red Ocean quickly faded among the people of the Komodo Star Sector.

They had to deal with the existing problems first before looking ahead to the future!

Ves and Gloriana both knew that trying to accumulate 100 million merits within a decade was not very realistic. They did not give up, though, and became determined to earn as many merits as possible.

As Ves woke up the next day, he petted Lucky who was resting on his chest.

"What am I, your personal throne or something?"

"Meow."

"Why are you here, anyway?"

Lucky pushed out a lustrous pink heart-shaped gem with his paw. Ves curiously picked it up and studied it with his System vision.

[Maiden's Affection]

The desire of an ancient maiden is locked within this gem. Increases the attraction of a mech by 40 percent to females.

"What the hell?!"

Ves wanted to puke out blood when he read its description. What a useless attribute! Even if the Maiden's Affection boosted an aspect by a whopping 40 percent, why did it increase something as useless as attraction to females?!

"You damn cat!" He angrily grabbed Lucky's body and lifted him in front of his face! "What has Gloriana been feeding you these days?! Can't you exert more control over your own crap?!"

"Meow!"

Lucky instantly turned intangible and drilled through the bed and floor!

Though Ves could have stopped his cat, he didn't bother. He only wanted to show his displeasure so that Lucky would work harder in forming useful gems.

As for the Maiden's Affection, he eyed it for a moment before shrugging. "Any gem is useful."

Ever since Gloriana came to live with him, she frequently spoiled his cat.

However, Lucky's improved diet did not seem to increase Lucky's gem production very much! Ves had no idea where all of the exotics went, but his cat only seemed to produce a gem whenever he liked.

"Greedy bastard." Ves grumbled.

He had no choice but to cherish the few gems he received. Ever since he successfully upgraded the only copy of the Devil Tiger into a masterwork mech, Ves regarded them as strategic resources.

Each potent gem represented an opportunity to cheat his way into building another masterwork mech!

"Sadly, it's not that easy to build another masterwork mech." He sighed.

Though he hadn't fabricated a lot of mechs lately, he intuitively felt that fabricating regular mechs didn't cut it. A masterwork not only demanded flawless construction, but also deep meaning.

Ves and Gloriana might be able to control the former, but not the latter.

It was not as simple as inducing strong emotions in themselves. If that were so, they could simply drug themselves with stimulants to push their moods to extremes!

"There are many secrets behind masterwork mechs." Ves muttered as he yawned and rose from his bed.

The silky fresh bedsheets slithered from his augmented body. Gloriana's influence had even spread into the sanctum of his bedroom, causing his bed and the interior to fit a grand and palatial theme.

Waking up with so much luxury in his presence made him feel like a king.

Ves did not care too much about these vain and excessive luxuries. He knew he had to keep a firm and disciplined mind in order for him to push himself into working hard.

No matter what kind of success he enjoyed right now, it was far from enough! He needed to become much more powerful to fulfill all of his goals in life!

"Right now, I'm nowhere close to fulfilling any of my grand ambitions."

In his eyes, becoming a Journeyman was no big deal. He lacked the capital to be arrogant. The less time he wasted on useless luxuries, the better!

Once Ves dressed and freshened himself up, he descended to the dining room where Gloriana was already in the process of feeding Lucky an exotic.

"Hihihi! You're so cute!"

"Meow!"

Lucky blissfully crunched the mineral with his teeth and rubbed his body against his hand.

Ves frowned. "Don't spoil him too much. He's profiting way too much in relation to the benefit we get in return."

"Pets aren't workers, Ves. They're companions! They deserve to be spoiled!"

Lucky swung his tail at Ves. "Meow!"

Ves gave up and sat down at the dining table in order to eat his breakfast.

The combination of excellent ingredients and sublime cooking made every meal a delight to him. Due to his metabolism, the chefs had taken to cooking large and hearty meals.

Croissants, sausages, sandwiches and more disappeared down his throat at a pace that discomfited Gloriana.

As opposed to Ves, Gloriana's diet consisted of fruit parfaits and light toast.

Nonetheless, Gloriana had no choice but to tolerate the disharmony in their meals due to their distinctly different dietary requirements.

Ves possessed a much stronger body due to his Jutland organ and other body augmentations, but it took a lot of energy and nutrition to sustain his health.

While Dr. Lupo hadn't managed to decipher the most important secrets behind Ves' physique, figuring out something as basic as this was not too difficult.

Fortunately, Ves could still survive if he was forced to reduce his calorie intake. One of Lupo's minor discoveries was that Ves would simply draw his energy from other sources if he couldn't get it through digesting food.

The only problem was that the alternate source of energy came from the Jutland organ. Both of them were very apprehensive towards this alien organ, so to be safe, Lupo decided that it was best if Ves became less dependent on this abnormal organ that had enveloped his heart!

Once the pair finished their breakfast, they traveled to the Mech Nursery where they both headed down to the design lab.

Ketis and the Tovar mech designers had already arrived beforehand and greeted the two Journeymen with respect.

Ves clapped his hand. "Alright, now that we have a day to process yesterday's announcements, it's time to get back to work. None of us are able to afford passage to the Red Ocean, so let's just forget about all of that big stuff and get back to the Sand War."

"The latest mech generation is here!" Ketis chirped with excitement. "Are we going to design a new generation mech right away?"

"Very likely, though I'm still awaiting the necessary licences." Ves turned to Miles Tovar. "I made a deal with Professor Ventag and the Tovars a while ago concerning the licenses. Have you been informed of this arrangement?"

He knew that Miles was in regular contact with the Tovars. Though Miles didn't speak with Senator Tovar directly, he regularly reported to Alistair Cordwraith.

Miles nodded. "The MTA has just made the licenses available today. The BV Alliance set up by the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom is still in the process of applying for the group licenses. With how efficient the MTA moves, we believe it won't take long for the BV Alliance to secure the group licenses. Once that happens, the holding company will immediately hand out sublicenses to any eligible Brighter and Vesian mech designer. You are definitely on that list."

That was a relief to Ves. Though the LMC was not short on money these days, it still cost a very hefty amount of money to license the new generation components released by the MTA. The heartless organization always jacked up the license fees because mech designers had no alternative at the start of every mech generation!

Therefore, Ves did not mind making use of the sublicenses provided by the BV Alliance despite putting himself at its mercy. If his relationship with the Bright Republic ever went sour, the BV Alliance could easily revoke his sublicenses, thereby making any mechs he designed using the licensed components illegal!

The only way to resolve such an issue was to license the same components again.

To Ves, that was not a big deal. The new generation component designs offered by the MTA were only relevant for a year or two at most. After that, many component developers would have published their own designs by then at far more affordable price levels!

"The key right now is to make the best use of our time." He spoke. "The only issue is that I have already accepted a commission to design a custom mech beforehand."

Miles frowned at that. "Every new mech generation triggers a soft reset of the mech market. Every mech designed before the transition has turned into a lastgen mech. If I was still an independent, I would pounce on this opportunity to design a mass-market mech in order to capture as much market share as possible! This kind of opportunity happens only once every thirty years!"

"I know that, Miles, but promises are promises. The commission is vitally important and will definitely affect the future of the Bright Republic. We can't afford to neglect it in favor of enriching ourselves. We'll just have to work on the commission alongside our commercial mech design project. While that will inevitably delay the completion of both projects, it's still in an acceptable range."

"What's our time frame?"

"I want to complete both designs within two months."

"Two months?! If that includes the prototype testing phase, that means our time will be very tight! Don't forget that we have to adjust to new and upgraded tech and components!"

"I believe we can do it!" Ves stated with confidence. "No matter how many changes the new mech generation has introduced, a mech engine is still a mech engine and a power reactor is still a power reactor! As long as we know what we are doing, the new changes won't affect our productivity too much!"

In truth, it took quite a lot of time and exploration for mech designers to get used to the new mech generation. Ves hadn't even studied the new generation components in detail.

Whether he and his design team could really complete two new generation mech designs within two months remained to be seen!