The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1353

Ves spent hours trawling through the underground black market. He found a lot of past glories of once-successful mech designers, business magnates, famed artists, entertainment stars and more.

A plethora of historical mementos of Vindar VII’s once glorious high society turned into cheap and disposable souvenirs.

None of these trophies, awards and other aesthetically beautiful but functionally useless objects aroused his interests.

He focused his attention solely on the useful and practical items among the trash.

Unfortunately, he was far from the only buyer who trawled the black markets for hidden gems. Savvy buyers who perused the wares much earlier than Ves already picked up the most obvious treasures with considerable utility or resale value.

The goods that remained failed to impress Ves at all.

So far, he only obtained the nearly-spent shield generator as a bargain, and he couldn’t put it to use immediately. He still had to find a way to cobble up an expensive ultracompact battery to truly revitalize his second-hand gadget.

"It might be your stuff that would be put up for sale one day." Gavin muttered.

"Unlikely." Ves shook his head underneath his hood. "All of the mech designers who got ruined are mostly the low-ranking ones. Seniors are still well-off while Journeymen can also find employment from the government if they don’t have anywhere else to go. It’s just that a couple of mech designers such as Old Man Terrence are too proud to abandon their past accomplishments."

It was not as if mech designers literally starved on the streets. The demand for domestically-produced mechs had simply dried up. Mech buyers were short on money and did not wish to squander their dwindling reserves on mechs made more expensive due to the scarcity of materials.

With so many enterprising mech designers running out of business, they had no choice but to find alternative employment. Working for the government or larger mech companies who still managed to make ends meet had always been reliable refuges for mech designers with at least some level of skill.

These kinds of transitions already took place in better economies such as that of the Bright Republic. The only difference between his home state and the Chuko Republic was that the latter’s bar for success had been raised to a ridiculous height.

In this awful business climate, hardly any Novice or Apprentice could keep their independent businesses aloft!

"Maybe you have a point, boss. Mechs designed by Novices and Apprentices always compete on price. In an economy where the supply of raw materials are constrained, their only advantage of offering cost-effective mechs is gone. Who wants to buy an inferior mech that practically costs the same of a superior mech designed by someone better?"

"The availability and affordability of materials is critical." Ves emphatically noted. "As long as the materials required to produce a mech are unavailable or priced out of proportion, it isn’t viable for a mech manufacturer to produce their mechs."

"I bet when scarcity hit the Chuko Republic, the bigger mech manufacturers probably managed to make a deal with the surviving suppliers. As for the smaller mech companies..."

"They’re too far down the line." Ves noted. "Even the troubled raw material suppliers seek certainty and stability in troubling times. They don’t care about the small fry. Maintaining favorable relations with a Senior or well-performing Journeyman is far more important than keeping thousands of inconsequential Apprentices afloat."

The harder it got, the more ability and competence mattered. Only in a prosperous and bountiful mech market offered enough space for low-ranking mech designers to do business.

Ever since he founded his company, the LMC operated in a relatively good business climate. Even during the height of the recent war, the Bright Republic’s robust infrastructure ensured reasonably stable distribution of vital materials.

This was to the credit of the Bright Republic, whose long history of wars had forced the government to invest in various measures that ensured the continued flow of goods and materials to Bentheim even with the Vesians wreaking havoc on the Brighter supply lines.

Yet what if the supply of materials dried up to a much greater extent? What if prices of the materials that remained for sale multiplied by two? Could the LMC still stay in business in such an unfavorable climate?

No.

Even if the LMC mostly sold premium mechs at generous profits, it was exactly the upper end the mech market that declined the most!

With every outfit and mech buyer facing diminishing reserves of money, they could hardly afford to splurge on expensive, high-performing mechs.

From what Ves had observed of the Chuko Republic’s anemic mech market, the most predominant mechs sold these days fell into the budget category.

Consumers no longer indulged in luxury. Subjective taste made way for pure practicality. Mech models aimed at maximizing the price-to-performance ratio in an inexpensive package dominated Chuko’s mech market.

The sad thing about it was that most mechs sold in the Chuko Republic consisted of imported mechs!

States that didn’t suffer from Chuko’s instability and deteriorating market circumstances still retained their strong economic advantages. Foreign mech manufacturers eagerly swooped into Chuko like hungry vultures and outcompeted the faltering domestic mech companies!

Having observed all of these interactions and seen the consequences of failure through all of the goods put up for sale, Ves fell into an increasingly contemplative mood.

He intended to visit different locales in order to learn. Already, the Chuko Republic taught him many valuable lessons.

The one he grappled with right now was the importance of preparing for adverse economic circumstances.

"My company isn’t set up to survive a disaster that has struck the Chuko Republic." Ves morosely declared.

"To be honest, we’ve only ever experienced growth, boss. There has never been a period where our growth has declined. The worst periods we’ve lived through was when our sales started stalling."

"That’s nothing compared to the calamities that have befallen the Chukan mech companies."

Both Ves and Gavin saw the need to shore up the LMC’s reserves so that it could continue to operate during extremely difficult times.