The Mech Touch novel Chapter 579

"We’re being followed." Nolsen said as the group made it to the end of one of the mech avenues. "Don’t look back, you idiots! It’s nothing serious yet if our watcher isn’t good enough to hide his presence from me."

Ves tried really hard not to turn around. He never had a clue that someone followed their group around.

Trian Earls, one of their mech pilots, spat on the pavement. "Why aren’t we doing anything? Let’s go beat the fellow up!"

"Making a move in the middle of Black Belle City’s shopping district will only land us in trouble. Look at how many patrolmen of the Planetary Guard are patrolling the streets. We’ll be sludged and put into custody the second we throw a punch."

Everyone glanced at the uniformed law enforcement officers. They patrolled in teams of two, and wore enough gear to repel a small riot. In addition to their personal capabilities, they were also followed by a hovering bot armed with non-lethal weaponry.

The bot alone was programmed to instantly stun someone from a distance the moment they pulled out a weapon.

"Who’s following us?" Ves asked. "Can you tell?"

The lieutenant furrowed his brows as they pretended to look through the windows of another upscale mech store. "He doesn’t look like a pro. Likely a local gang member. Or someone who never intended to hide his presence in the first place. Right now, the fact that someone is tailing us does not mean that we’re in danger. For now, we can rely on the Planetary Guards and the Honored Ones to forestall any trouble."

Half an hour passed by without a single change. The group members calmed down and resumed their window shopping. The mech avenues truly formed a snapshot of all the mech models sold in the Komodo Star Sector.

Studying the mechs the shops had to offer gave Ves a good idea of the state of the mech industry in the Reinald Republic.

Different from larger states such as the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom, the Reinald Republic was too small to foster a strong and relatively independent mech industry. Apart from supporting a couple of crown jewels, the bulk of the businesses operating in their territory consisted of foreign entities.

While the Frozen Leaf Alliance that the Reinald Republic was apart of gave them the strength to contend against the Vesians in a military fashion, it did not do too much beyond that. Each of the three member states still ran their territories as a separate entity. They refused to operate as a single market with shared borders and a unified economy.

This left the Reinald Republic without the strength to punch above its weight. Its own domestic market couldn’t possibly satisfy a fully mature domestic mech industry.

It was a good thing that the Reinald Republic attracted a lot of foreign visitors. Plenty of mercenaries, gang members, treasure hunters and worse visited the small state to do business. Because each of their outfits based themselves in different states, the Reinald Republic attracted foreign mech manufacturers to set up shop in their trading systems.

After walking past numerous shops, Ves finally found a legitimate vendor for the mechs of the LMC. The group entered a store called The Brightest Mech. Both the Blackbeak and the Crystal Lord occupied a prominent place in the store that obviously catered to Brighters and fans of Brighter mechs.

"Wow. Is that your work as well? This knight mech looks so light!"

"Damn! 135 million marks for a Blackbeak? And it’s only a bronze label? What a ripoff!"

Ves awkwardly laughed. "These mech models are aimed at the premium market. If you look at the spec sheet, you’ll know why they cost so much."

The Brightest Mech featured tasteful decoration themed around torches and stars. It played out as an exaggerated caricature of Brighter culture, and every Vandal couldn’t help but be amused. Whoever operated this shop probably knew nothing about the Bright Republic.

The shop only possessed enough room to showcase half-a-dozen physical mechs that sold the most. The rest only appeared as scaled-down projections. This also applied to the mechs of the LMC. Their high price tag threw off most potential customers.

"What a shame."

If The Brightest Mech devoted some of its limited physical space to showcasing a silver label mech of the LMC, a lot of customers would likely be swayed into buying them. The charm of the X-Factor couldn’t be perceived from a projection, and even a simulation wasn’t able to bring out its full strength.

Ves figured that the LMC might be better off operating their own stores. This allowed the company to exert full control over how to present and sell their offerings. The only issue right now was that his company didn’t have enough original models to justify such a plan.

There was another issue as well. The LMC faced various hurdles each time it tried to enter a new foreign market. Sometimes, the only way they could enter the market was if they partnered up with a native company. The mechs would then be sold through the native company’s own sales channels.

If the LMC wanted to keep their cooperation with the locals going, they had to refrain from snatching meat from their partner’s mouths.

"How complicated." He shook his head. Ves left the matter for later.

Once the group of ten had their fill of seeing familiar mechs, they exited the store and wandered around aimlessly for a while. They eventually ate some lunch before deciding to stroll through a non-mech shopping district.

This time they looked at numerous wondrous products, from luxury comm models to mechanical pets that bore a vague resemblance to Lucky. The AIs that operated the tiny puppies and kittens was very sophisticated, enabling them to speak and interact with children.

Larger pets existed as well with some forms of self-defense. Mechanical dogs proved to be the all-time popular, occupying a full third of the entire store. Customers bought many of the dogs in order to enhance the security of their households or provide some protection against random thugs.

Naturally, truly important figures wouldn’t resort to mass-market mechanical pets. Any determined hacker would be able to intrude their operating systems, so these pets mostly catered to the lower-middle class.