The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1263

Having roamed the marketplace for several hours, he witnessed many instances of obsessive mech designers forced to pay an exorbitant amount of money because they insisted on buying a specific exotic!

The more interest they showed, the more the shopkeepers ripped them off!

It actually amazed Ves that so many mech designers made the same mistake. Obviously, these mech designers had never operated their own businesses!

For this reason, Ves did not immediately demand to buy the ugly lump of rock that reacted to his senses. Instead, he leisurely browsed the wars of the neighboring stalls, showing a vague amount of interest for random chunks of ore and radioactive fluids contained in protective containers.

"What’s this?" Ves asked as he picked up a transparent cube that encapsulated honeycombed rock.

"Ah, we call it the ancient larva hive." The bushy-bearded man behind the stall responded with a grin. "Our company found it on an uninhabited planet in the Independent State of Pillis. It immediately caught our notice when some of our sensors went fritzy as we were establishing a mining operation on the surface. Once we’ve recovered the samples, we’ve analyzed them to the best of our abilities and haven’t been able to find a match with existing exotics. This is likely because it consists of fossilized residue of an ancient hive that belonged to an extinct insectoid species."

The merchant blabbed on for a bit before Ves raised a hand.

"How much?"

"For that little sample? Seventy million cols."

Ves would have nothing left if he paid that sum!

"Twenty million cols!"

"Haha!" The merchant laughed. "Seventy million and no less. There’s nothing else like it! We’ve scoured the entire planet for additional samples and only found a handful of remnants! You won’t find anything similar in the star sector!"

Although the stall operators were open to bargaining, they only did so for well-known materials. They always held their ground when it came to selling rare and extremely unusual exotics! Even if their effects weren’t all that strong, their rarity was enough of a reason for them to charge a higher price!

They were not afraid of being unable to sell their merchandise! Eventually, a mech designer desperate to achieve some progress would come and detect something promising in the goods. These unfortunate saps would empty their entire pockets in order to acquire an opportunity to progress their careers!

Naturally, Ves did his best not to appear this desperate. He wasn’t even interested in the alien larva hive in the first place. He put the item back after his failed bargaining attempt and turned his gaze towards other items.

After picking up several other samples and inquiring after them, Ves eventually shook his head. "Sorry uncle, but your goods aren’t worth it to me. Half of the so-called exotics you’re offering is literal space trash!"

The bearded merchant unapologetically shrugged. "One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That’s enough of a reason to price them all accordingly."

Ves simply waved at the man and hovered over to the next stall.

After performing the same routine several times at three more stalls, he finally strolled over to the stall with the rock that reacted to his senses.

Even then, Ves first picked up a couple of other samples while he chatted with the woman who was seated behind the stall.

"Meow." Lucky made a grabbing motion to a fingernail-sized rock with a bloody red exterior.

"What’s this? You want this little exotic?"

"Meow!"

Lucky wasn’t putting on an act. He was definitely interested in the blood-red rock.

Even so, Ves only showed a vague amount of interest in the object, as if he saw it as nothing more than a curiosity. "What is this rock?"

"Personally, I call it the scarlet rock. It’s proper designation is a serial number that is way too long for me to repeat."

"Where does it come from?"

"In the periphery of the Hegemony. That’s all I’m willing to say."

"Any remarkable properties?"

"It can slightly enhance the sensitivity of sensor arrays. I’ve heard that one mech designer managed to increase the effectiveness of the sensors of his mech by two percent using this material."

"That’s not a lot."

"Two percent can make a huge difference. Besides, no one knows what this material is fully capable of. Maybe you can obtain a twenty-percent boost if you manage to crack its secrets."

"That sounds unlikely."

Despite her claims, the merchant didn’t really value it all that much. After a quick round of bargaining, Ves managed to obtain it for the modest price of 800,000 cols, which was way too much for a volatile material that could only boost the sensor performance of a mech by a tiny bump!

Still, for something that Lucky really wanted to it, this price was actually a steal! His gem cat never made a mistake when it came to judging the attraction of different materials.

In fact, Lucky was squirming with his grasp as soon as Ves closed the sale. The cat couldn’t wait to munch on the blood-red rock!

"Quite a frisky mechanical pet you have there, customer." The woman noted. "Why don’t you sell it to me? I can make sure it will make some cute young girl happy! How about a thousand cols?"

Ves smiled at the merchant. "You have a good eye. Sadly, he isn’t for sale."

"Shame."

He browsed a few other goods, showing vague interest but not quite enough to open his wallet. Each time he put back a sample, he came tantalizingly closer to the odd grey rock that kept tingling his senses!

The closer he drifted to it, the calmer he acted. Finally, his fingers reached the rock. It was a little too big and unwieldy for him to pick it up with his hand, but that didn’t prevent him from touching its surface.

"This looks like a random meteorite." He casually commented. "What makes it exotic?"

The woman shrugged. "We’re not quite sure. Aside from a slightly-elevated energy level, the rock also caused a few people to become dizzy when they came into contact with it. It’s not dangerous or anything, but we can’t explain why some people reacted that way."

"How many people suffered this reaction?"

"A dozen or so."

"Out of how many?"

"I can’t say."

"That doesn’t sound like a lot."