The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1534

Chapter 1534 A Wild Be

The wildly optimistic projections for the Holy Soldier already came as a shock to Ves. This was the first time one of his mech models would surpass 10,000 sales in the second month!

As for the Desolate Soldier model, the circumstances were different and more complex.

His assistant dutifully explained the situation.

"Unlike the Holy Soldier, the demand of the Desolate Soldier is much more modest. The good news is that the LMC's reputation for quality and reliability along with the positive attitudes of our existing customers has generated a lot of initial interest. The shenanigans of the Ylvainans have been particularly helpful in publicizing our latest product and putting a positive spin on its effects."

"How has the warning issued by the MTA and the efforts of our critics affected the initial reception of my Desolate Soldier model?"

"Pretty bad, at least at the start. The Bright Republic's mech market is a lot more sober when it comes to our mechs. Most interested customers outside of our existing fans have adopted a wait-and-see approach."

"Has that changed?"

Gavin grinned. "Well, opinions are quickly beginning to turn around as soon as we adopted your plan to place the first batch of Desolate Soldiers across Bentheim. The duty they inspire from bystanders is so remarkable that the Bentheim Planetary Guard is actually the first major client to place a major order on our new product!"

"The Planetary Guard?!" Ves sat up straight. "Don't they normally operate on the surface of Bentheim?!"

"It's a nightmare to fight the sandmen on land. The Planetary Guard would much rather dispatch a bunch of mech pilots to space in order to help resist the sandmen that will be flooding the Bentheim System soon. As a port system, it's a certainty that it will become a magnet to these accursed aliens!"

It would be an absolute catastrophe if even a single sandman vessel reached the surface of Beintheim. Due to the planet's high population density, a sandman vessel could quickly spread out and harvest hundreds of thousands lives within minutes!

His cousin Melinda happened to be a mech captain in the Bentheim Planetary Guard. Perhaps he should get in touch with her in order to find out if she would be the ones deployed to space. Her Larkinson training meant she likely possessed a basic proficiency in spaceborn mech combat, so she might very well be assigned to pilot one of his mechs!

The thought of Melinda facing a flood of sandmen while piloting a mech that was only worth 20 million bright credits almost gave Ves a heart attack!

If possible, he wanted her to pilot a much better mech!

"How many Desolate Soldiers do you think we'll sell?"

"Our current estimate is 3,000 sales. We're actually partnering up with more third-party manufacturers to produce more mechs in anticipation of meeting future demand. We're betting that once the mech market recognizes that our Desolate Soldiers are good value, people will no longer hesitate and flood our company with orders."

"What's our projection for the second month."

"50,000 mechs."

"WHAT?!" Ves practically jumped out of his seat!

His shock was so drastic that even Lucky and Nitaa became alarmed.

"The first sandmen fleets will almost certainly hit the third line of defense by this time." Gavin spoke as if he hadn't dropped a bombshell. "Once the Desolate Soldiers perform as well as we think they will, demand will skyrocket. The widespread use of the Holy Soldiers in the Ylvaine Protectorate will also prove that our mechs can give defenders an edge."

Even so, Ves still thought that selling 50,000 Desolate Soldiers in the second month of the model's release was rather exaggerated!

"Don't forget that this accounts for sales in every state we maintain an active presence." Gavin added. "While much of our sales will still come from the Bright Republic, we expect to do very well in mech markets like the Reinald Republic that have most to gain from a mech that inspires duty."

"Ah. I see."

While Ves mainly designed the Desolate Soldier for the Bright Republic, a state with much less internal stability would likely value his new mech model much more than usual! If his Desolate Soldiers succeeded in affecting the moods of the citizens of the Reinald Republic and similarly unstable states, then selling 50,000 mechs was not out of the question!

"This is why we think it might be possible for us to reach 100,000 in the third month."

The shock of this immense sum had lessened after Ves digested the sales projections for the second month. After all, unlike the competition, his Desolate Soldier was the only mech that possessed the additional function of inspiring duty in everyone! The duel-purpose nature of his mech would probably come as a godsend to many faltering states!

Of course, with such an insane level of popularity, copycats and counterfeits would quickly begin to flood the market as well. While Ves knew that many of them would come with defective or absent auras, many consumers who weren't familiar with authentic LMC mechs probably didn't know the difference.

"This problem will mainly impact distant mech markets where we don't have a presence." Ves determined. "In the short term, it doesn't matter if unscrupulous mech manufacturers flood those distant markets with our products."

Gavin nodded. "The Bright Republic's mech market is well aware that only authentic mechs will deliver the best results. Foreign mech markets will quickly follow suit once we become more known there. Since our margins are already so low, there isn't much of a difference in the price of a counterfeit and an authentic copy. Mech buyers will definitely opt for the genuine products so long as they are available."

After the third month of release, the LMC could no longer make any confident predictions of the sales projections for the Desolate Soldier. It depended heavily on how the Desolate Soldier actually fared against the sandmen and how much their customers appreciated its aura.

Unless the Desolate Soldier performed disastrously in combat, the LMC did not expect its sales figures to subside! Selling more than 100,000 copies a month was a very realistic prospect so long as no other competing mech model was able to steal its thunder!

The insane numbers sounded rather surreal to Ves.

Of course, the mech markets became saturated, sales would quickly fall to saner levels. Even if that didn't happen, once humanity repelled the sandman invasion, the Desolate Soldier no longer had a purpose.

"Let's see how it goes." He spoke, forcing himself to calm down. "Keep track of the market reception of our Desolate Soldiers and inform me as soon as sales begin to spike. Also, make sure to allocate some funds on resuming construction of our second manufacturing complex on Bentheim. We're going to need it if we want to produce more silver label mechs."

After a long and extensive discussion with Gavin, Ves finally ended the call. He took a couple of deep breaths to calm down his wildly-beating heart.

"All of this hinges on whether the market values my Desolate Soldier highly. If the LMC overestimated its market reception, then we can forget about reaching 100,000 sales per month!"

Ves had already compared his Desolate Soldier to the works of other mech designers. Its performance was good enough to surpass most rifleman mechs designed by Journeymen. However, its performance in some aspects was noticeably worse when compared to mechs designed by Seniors.

Seniors whose design philosophies excelled in raising the performance of specific aspects of their mechs possessed the greatest advantage in this area. Their products always captured significant chunks of market share and Ves expected no different this time.

"At least we don't have to worry about competition from mainstream mechs this time."

It was impossible for the huge, trans-galactic enterprises to take notice of a tiny incident taking place in the Komodo Star Sector. All of their Master and Senior Mech Designers had better things to do than spend all of their valuable time and effort into designing a ludicrously-optimized mech that fit the current circumstances of a single region!

This was also one of the major reasons why the LMC and every other mech company revised their sales projections upwards. Mainstream mech models ordinarily took up a lot of space in open mech markets. Now that they had become irrelevant, local mech companies eagerly filled in the void!