The Mech Touch

Negotiating a deal under the brokership of Jessup Organics turned out to be much easier and less costly than Ves thought.

At this moment, his reputation and prestige had reached a new peak. Not even god pilots and Star Designers could match his current level of popularity and adoration.

Sure, the god pilots of red humanity cleaned up the border regions and prevented the aliens from overrunning human-occupied space.

Sure, the Star Designers developed many crucial technologies that were useful in a wide variety of sectors.

Yet for all of the massive contributions they had made as of late, nothing benefited the lives of ordinary humans more than the chance to pilot a real mech!

Everyone wanted a Yellow Jacket.

Everyone wanted a piece of Ves.

When the Yighan-Arghat Consortium heard that the Father of Carmine Mechs wanted to negotiate for a phasewater organ, its president immediately dropped his schedule and connected to Jessup Organics by remote.

There was no need for the consortium to send an envoy to talk business in person. The president sounded eager to conclude a successful transaction with the famous inventor of the Carmine System.

"This is an inestimable honor for our consortium! With your permission, we shall always take pride that an esteemed mech designer such as yourself has sought to do business with our fine trade collective!"

After Ves received another round of flattery, negotiations soon began.

The demands of the president were simple.

"It would please us immensely if you agree to fabricate ten, no five copies of the Yellow Jacket Version A! We would be glad to hand over ownership of the incomplete lesser Collie organ to your name if you take the time to customize the Yellow Jackets into unique creations of art that we can proudly display to the public, with your permission of course. We would also like the Red Association to issue official certificates of authenticity so that there will be no doubt to their providence."

Ves blinked at this outrageous offer. A phasewater organ was a precious treasure for any owner. It not only held a lot of research value, but could also be used to power up a phase lord through direct implantation.

Even if the Collie organ was damaged and not quite operational, its rarity as well as its unusual effects made it far more valuable than the samples of the most common phasewater organs.

Ves expected that he would have to trade another precious phasewater organ or unique treasure in order to get his hands on this Collie organ.

Yet instead of making such demands, the president of the Yighan-Arghat Consortium merely asked Ves to design and fabricate a bunch of custom first-class Yellow Jackets.

The difficulty of procuring the two was like night and day to Ves. A Collie organ was extremely rare, while Ves could produce any Yellow Jacket he wanted as long as he had access to a workshop and enough raw materials.

However, he soon understood that it was a different story for other people.

A Collie organ was still as difficult to procure for them as for Ves, but the difficulty of obtaining a handmade Carmine mech Ves was much higher!

Now that he had become a Senior Mech Designer, Ves had moved past the stage where he had to fabricate commercial mechs by hand in order to improve his sales and increase the profitability of the LMC.

This meant that his handmade mechs had become more and more scarce and precious to a market that had become increasingly more enamored with his living mechs.

Scarcity equated to value. The greater the scarcity, the greater the price that people were willing to pay.

This meant that any handicraft made by Ves could easily fetch millions if not billions of MTA credits at a grand auction!

Ves even had an illusion that he had acquired the Midas Touch!

Anything he made could be sold for a price hundred, a thousand or even a million times the original production cost!

Such a privilege was usually only reserved for the greatest of Master Mech Designers and Star Designers, but Ves had reached this eminent status in advance due to his latest and greatest contribution!

His breathing grew a little heavier when he thought how extensively he could milk this advantage.

However, he did not get lost in this fantasy. He quickly sobered up once he realized a few uncomfortable truths.

Not everything was truly free.

Though Ves did not have to spend too much time and effort to fulfill the demands made by the president of the Yighan-Arghat Consortium, he would still have to waste a week of time or so in order to get the job done.

That was 1 week of time that he could have spent on much more productive pursuits.

Fulfilling this commission effectively meant that he would have to postpone his other works by an entire week.

This mattered a lot in a time where every day was precious!

With the Red Tide Offensive continuing to grind down red humanity's defenses, Ves could not delay or suspend his contributions just because he wanted to earn more personal profit for himself.

This was not only a betrayal of the expectations of the people he served, but also harmed his own core interests in the end.

That said, Ves did not want to miss out on this advantage either. As long as he restrained himself, he should be okay if he occasionally took advantage of the value of his handmade products.

So long as he did not flood the market with his handicrafts, their value should continue to remain exceedingly high, allowing Ves to occasionally trade them for other precious goods and services.

Now that he had made up his mind regarding this issue, he began to negotiate with the president for a deal that both sides could agree upon.

"I do not have time to fabricate 5 Yellow Jackets for you." He told the physical projection of the businessman and leader. "2 Yellow Jackets. That is the extent of what I can make for you. In order to ensure that everyone understands the favor that I have bestowed upon your consortium, I will customize their visual design to reflect the colors and symbols of your organization. Is that to your satisfaction?"

The two sides argued a bit more against each other. Although the president seemed willing to accept the reduced amount, he was the leader of a cutthroat business consortium, after all. Negotiation was in his bones, so he never accepted concessions easily.

The talks dragged on for a longer period than necessary until both sides finally agreed that Ves could obtain the lesser Collie organ in exchange for 3 first-class Yellow Jackets.

The two eventually shook hands after they signed the contract.

"I shall arrange Jessup Organics to transfer ownership of the Collie organ to you immediately." The president generously said with a smile as he clearly conveyed the sense that he obtained the advantage in the end. "I do not dare to urge you to deliver the promised custom mechs in a short time frame. We are all aware that you are a busy mech designer and leader. Can you give our consortium an approximate time frame of when we can expect to receive your goods?"

Ves briefly recalled his schedule. "I can begin to work on your order during my return trip from Yernstall to New Constantinople. I should be finished by the time my fleet arrives at my end destination. From there, a shipping company can transport the completed Yellow Jackets to any destination of your choice."

"That is faster than expected. We would be glad if you can complete your order within the month. Please allow our consortium to handle the shipping ourselves. The custom mechs that you have designed are doubtlessly of inestimable value. We do not dare to entrust their transportation to third parties. We have our own security companies that we can rely upon to safely deliver the Yellow Jackets to our headquarters."

With that out of the way, Ves became the proud owner of a new zzamayal phasewater organ.

Although Ves could already imagine that the Larkinson Biotech Institute gained another headache, the Collie organ promised to grant him an extremely practical benefit. The requirement was that his biotech researchers managed to figure out its mechanisms.

Ves frowned. "I am putting far too many burdens on the shoulders of the LBI. Should I look for an established biotech company to acquire in order to increase our research capacity?"

There were plenty of excellent and renowned biotech institutions in Yernstall. Ves could use the limited time he had left in the central star node to quickly acquire the ones that were willing to become a part of the Larkinson Clan.

He soon shook his head. "No. It is best to preserve the existing culture and structure of the LBI."

Mergers and acquisitions had a way of corrupting his original institutions. In the worst case scenario, the new acquisition may even be able to take over the LBI and transform the latter into its image!

Ves did not need a biotech institution that quickly became a lot more capable, but also started to lose its cohesion and loyalty to himself. The sensitivity of the work done by the scientists of the LBI meant that it was crucial that they remained loyal and committed to the clan and its patriarch.

He was willing to be a little more patient and trust the LBI's management to expand its operations in a sustainable manner.

"Let's see if there is anything else here that catches my interest." Ves said as his mind returned to the present.

Though Ves could appreciate the value of some of the other phasewater organs available for sale or trade, their poor conditions and dubious value lowered his appreciation for them. Given the limited R&D capacity of the LBI in the present and the near future, it simply was not worthwhile to bother with these messy organs.

Ves still lingered at the store for twenty more minutes. Jessup Organics offered far more goods for sale than phasewater organs.

There were also live mutated beasts as well as the body parts of deceased ones for sale. Both product categories aroused his interest as he was always on the lookout for more special beasts that he could potentially convert into design spirits.

The prices for them were relatively expensive, but completely affordable to the Larkinson Clan, especially when so many different mech designers and companies paid the artificially reduced licensing fees for the Yellow Jacket and Jacket Commander models.

Ves simply bought the ones he was interested in and trusted the Larkinson Clan to stow the mutated beasts where they could not do much damage.

After that, he began to browse the other specialty products for sale. From high-end bioimplants to exquisite designer beast pets, Jessup Organics satisfied both practical and luxury desires.

Ves had little interest in them, though. As tempting as it was for him to splurge, he shouldn't get too comfortable with his life.

His most important priorities was to design good mechs and build up a power base that could protect him against both political machinations and more violent threats.

As long as his mentality slipped, he would grow soft and useless. All of those high-and-mighty tier 1 galactic citizens that held high expectations for him would lower their evaluations and no longer give him as much leeway as he enjoyed today.

He sighed. His mood had dropped. He may have accomplished a lot today, but he was always expected to do more.

"Let's go, Jovy. We should head to a different place where I can buy a bunch of gifts for my wife and children. I promised them that I would bring back souvenirs for my family."

"Understood. There is a unique toy store and a luxury fashion store down the boulevard. I believe you will find what you need in both.."

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