The Mech Touch novel Chapter 275

Ves took a small break after finishing up the latest mech. After that, he stopped by the office to speak with Gavin about the competition.

"How is Dumont doing these days?"

"He’s very aggressive in trying to sell the Havalax." Gavin replied, and called up a projection of the ads that had popped up recently. "If you look closely, most of the ads emphasize the Havalax’s amazing price-performance ratio. The standard price has dropped to 50 million credits, but a number of buyers are taking advantage of discounts that can go as deep as ten percent off."

The aggressive promotion coupled with the heavy discounts and price cuts served to slow the bleeding of Dumont’s company. After losing a whole bunch of orders after losing the duel, the rival mech designer actually gained enough new orders to sell as much mechs as he could produce.

"I guess a month is long enough for memories of the duel to fade. If you leave out its recent history, the Havalax is a pretty decent design, so I shouldn’t be surprised that its starting to sell again." Ves disgruntledly concluded. "Still, its production costs should be higher than the Blackbeak. I’m nearly certain that he’s making a loss if he sells his mechs for 45 million credits."

"It’s not about making a profit at this point. Dumont is trying to make everyone forget about the duel by putting as much copies of his Havalax in circulation as possible. All the stories his buyers spread as a result will slowly push away the past into obscurity."

Clearly, Dumont’s strategy worked. He had essentially overwritten the collective memories of the public with a more positive message about his mechs.

The revitalized competition forced the LMC to up their game and boost their marketing. They already coordinated with Marcella to flood the Bentheim region in all kinds of promotions that raised the profile of the bronze label and silver label Blackbeaks.

The sad thing about it was that the LMC spent far more on these campaigns than what they got back from the EME in licensing fees.

"That’s going to change in a couple of months." Gavin predicted. "The marketing is a bit heavy-handed because the public has only heard about your exclusive gold label mechs, which are very hard to obtain. We still have to let the market know that there are cheaper and more abundant alternatives available."

Ves didn’t argue about the need to invest in marketing. He simply found it disconcerting to be throwing millions of credits away each day. _{freewebnøvel.com}

Still, unlike Dumont’s company, the LMC earned far more money than they spent. Much of it could also be attributed to their new contract with Marcella. She kept her word and devoted a lot of her own money in helping to promote the Blackbeak.

"By the way, Calsie’s been wanting to meet with you. A lot has changed on this planet as well."

Ah. With all of his attention directed to Bentheim, Ves forgot about his backyard. He did hear a few things from his employees on how Cloudy Curtain felt a lot of pride for his recent achievements. Still, he didn’t hear too much beyond that considering he holed himself up in his workshop trying to finish his batch of orders as quickly as possible.

He nodded to Gavin. "Send her to my office. It’s about time I received an update on the situation on the ground."

Ves took care of a couple of other matters, like feeding an increasingly radiant Lucky. He could clearly feel his pet had almost reached the point of saturation before he triggered another evolution.

"Eat well, but not too much, okay? I’d still like to cuddle you in my arms once in a while."

"Meow!"

Lately, there hadn’t been many threats for Lucky to take care of. The security detachment from Sanyal-Ablin easily took care of the occasional fans and crazies trying to sneak into the workshop. They also caught and disabled most of the microscoping spy drones sent in their way.

Fortunately, Lucky possessed keen enough senses to sniff out the remainder that proved to be too advanced for the workshop’s current security suite to detect. Ves held off on upgrading his security package until the company moved to a larger site.

Ves winked at his pet before heading to his office. The cramped office attached to the workshop building became increasingly more crowded lately as the company started to do more than making and selling mechs.

It gladdened him to see he built his company up to the point where it could be called a genuine medium mech manufacturer. If Ves factored in the EME, then the goal of selling more than a thousand mechs in the LMC’s second fiscal year would definitely be met.

"Ves! It’s been some time since I last saw you."

"Haha, my apologies for that. I’ve been busy, as you know. Have you finished your studies yet?"

"Yup. I wasn’t able to rush my courses as fast as Gavin, but I’m all done now!"

"That’s great to hear. Even if Maisie Duval has taken over much of your duties, I still prefer to deal with someone I trust like you. I’ll be depending on you to keep an eye on our home planet."

Ves rarely talked to his managers these days. Jake and Primrose kept everything running smoothly without his input, just as he intended. He didn’t wish to be bothered by trivial minutiae that his underlings could take care of by themselves. He was far more comfortable in the workshop than the conference room.

He only made an exception for Gavin and Calsie. They were around the same age and they had been with him from the start, so Ves didn’t feel the need to watch his words around the two.

"Let me brief you on what’s happening on the streets."

Calsie handed him a data pad that contained a mix of local news articles. They all profiled the the shift in public opinion with regards to Ves and the LMC.

"THE LIVING MECH CORPORATION: A HOMEGROWN SENSATION - PUTTING CLOUDY CURTAIN ON THE MAP."

"TOTAL MECH MANIA AS ENGULFED THE YOUNGER GENERATION! MECH HATERS MUST GET LOST!"

"FRESLIN HAS OVERTAKEN ORINOCO AS CLOUDY CURTAIN’S TRENDIEST CITY - MECH FANATICS FLOCK TO THE HOMETOWN OF VES."

"THE POLITICAL WINDS HAVE TURNED! THE GREENS AND THE WHITE DOVES ARE AT WIT’S END!"