The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1464

Though Ves hesitated for a time, he eventually accepted the unknown noble’s offer to walk up to his private box.

Ves, Nitaa, the unknown noble and his two bodyguards all moved up the stairs after a cursory inspection. The auction hall workers immediately let the disguised noble pass after they checked his pass.

Evidently, the fellow that invited Ves upstairs was an honored guest of the Circle of Mota.

Such an eminent person’s identity or background must not be weak. What bothered Ves was that such people shouldn’t have a lot of difficulty in convincing a Journeyman to complete a design-related job.

Yet instead of approaching more familiar mech designers, the unknown nobleman instead attempted to solicit him for a private commission.

Considering their current venue and the amount of care the nobleman showed in bringing up the topic, the job should have some issues. Serious and illegal issues. Why else would Journeyman refuse to accept a quick commission that earned them the equivalent of 24 billion bright credits?

There had to be a lot of issues concerning this job! Even if the noblemen of the Sentinel Kingdom were very wealthy, no one slung around 24 billion credits like candy!

It sounded far too good to be true!

Perhaps the only reason why Ves continued to entertain the idea was because his intuition did not signal any insincerity in the offer.

That was enough for Ves to stick around. It was unlikely he would receive a similarly-generous offer from someone else anyway. He still hadn’t accepted any deals so he had the right to walk away anytime he wished.

As they reached the shielded and quiet box, they sat at the adjustable chairs and began to chat.

"It’s tiresome for me to think of you as ’the mech designer’." The nobleman began. "You can call me Finlay. What about you?"

"Call me.. Rho-Sigma." Ves spontaneously blurted out.

He wanted to reveal as little as possible, so stringing along two random letters together sounded as good as anything.

That the letters happened to be ’rho’ and ’sigma’ was purely a coincidence, of course.

"Typical." Finlay shrugged just enough for his shadow attire to jerk. "You people always invent sciency names for yourselves."

"That’s because they are common words in our profession. Every mech designer throughout the galaxy uses them as symbols in their work."

Darkness obscured the main hall beyond the one-way wall. Ves only perceived the outlines of many hundreds of seats stretching out below, with a lot of space in between. Paths led up to an empty auction stage big enough to accommodate several mechs.

With so much space, the auction hall could have hosted tens of thousands of people, though in reality only a few hundred bidders and their entourage would actually enter and take part.

"So where do you come from, ’Rho-Sigma’? While you hide your traits fairly well, it’s obvious that you’re not a commoner or noble from our state. You would have reacted differently to me if that was the case. Either that, or you’re very good at pretending."

"Who knows. Stop fishing for information."

"It was worth a try." Finlay mirthfully said, though the distortion of his helmet did not convey his feelings that well.

Ves did not care too much that ’Finlay’ found out that he was a foreigner. He wasn’t a spy like Calabast who could seamlessly integrate in a completely foreign culture.

As an educational and research planet, Cinach VIII attracted a lot of mech design students as well as mech designers. A significant proportion of teachers and researchers were foreigners. Nonetheless, the amount of foreign mech designers currently on Cinach VIII who also happened to be Journeyman did not amount to a high number.

This meant that Finlay could narrow down the possible identities of Ves to a single list of names.

Of course, Ves could also be a skilled actor who pretended to be a foreigner. Finlay still had to take that possibility into account.

Nitaa already signalled an obscure hand signal towards Ves. It was another predetermined code that stated that Ves should hold himself back.

She even spoke out. "Tell us of the job you have in mind for Rho-Sigma."

"And who might you be, big guy?"

"Big Guy."

Finlay was momentarily rendered speechless. "What an.. inventive moniker."

"Speak up. You have left us in the dark long enough."

"Oh well." Finlay sighed. "Here goes. The job entails two companies worth of mechs. The mechs are rather unusual and not very common around these parts."

"How many mech models are we talking about? The more models there are, the longer it takes for me to modify their designs."

"You don’t have to worry about that. The mechs are all identical. One model."

"Just one?" Ves skeptically asked.

Almost every mech company featured a mixed mech roster. Perhaps some exceptions existed where multiple companies were meant to fight alongside each other. In those cases, using one model for every mech company wasn’t as stupid.

Still, for two mech companies to consist of just a single mech model sounded quite far-fetched!

"Tell me about the model."

"They’re doom crawlers. They’re very expensive, but they’re worth it. The mechs pack a very strong punch and they can take a lot of hits. See for yourself."

Finlay projected a doom crawler model from his comm and also listed out its spec sheet.

Apparently, the model was called the Spyre Helix, and its design was an absolute beast!

Doom crawlers were some of the most notorious heavy mech types in existence. The mech model that Ves currently studied did not put its mech type to shame!

The overall shape of the Spyre Helix resembled that of a six-legged tarantula scaled up to the size of an office building. Its legs looked meaty and thick because of all the heavy armor plating they had been clad with. They were incredibly resilient against damage!

The six legs held aloft a large and heavily-armored torso that had been designed to accommodate an entire arsenal’s worth of weapon hardpoints.