The Mech Touch novel Chapter 8

Ves’ face soured as his eyes skimmed through his analytics page in Iron Spirit.

"Really, what am I paying so much crap for? I thought advertisements are supposed to work!"

He only had twenty days left to complete the System’s mission of selling a hundred virtual mechs. So far, Ves only managed to sell his handcrafted Fantasia 2R Seraphim. That meant the other mechs he sold lacked his personal care and attention. Not only did their specs degrade, they also sold for twice its already ludicrous price.

When Ves visited the Seraphim’s store page, he encountered hundreds of disparaging comments.

"8800 gold XD! Do you lack a few brain cells? Are you autistic? Then go ahead and buy this gold-plated piece of turd!"

"Can anyone lend me 8700 gold? I promise to pay you back once I dominate the arena. No one can withstand my secret weapon of crapping rainbows!" _{freewebnøvel.coɱ}

"DON’T BUY THIS MECH! This is an over-engineered piece of shit that simply slaps a lot of extra parts together. Just buy a real flying mech instead!"

With comments like these splattered over his mech, no wonder he couldn’t make an additional sale. Ves had learned a valuable but expensive lesson with this experience.

"I lost sight of my target audience. I thought I could have slapped a lot of components together without consequence. But the Bronze Leaguers are mostly a bunch of kids with little gold and credits to spare."

1-Star Mechs acted as training wheels in the game. As training tools, most potentates didn’t bother to make an emotional connection to the mechs they piloted, considering them to be horribly outdated. The Bronze Leaguers paid more attention to the amount of performance they could squeeze at a given price.

It was a good thing he hadn’t spent the rest of his time in vain. Other than stuffing Lucky with ores, he also extensively reworked the Fantasia 2R into a new variant. It had been his most major project to date, flexing all of his new skills to his limit, especially the Light Armor Optimization sub-skill.

The new Fantasia variant sported complete matte gray armor plating. Ves had painstakingly removed its original armor plating and replaced them with the newer and more efficient Mirin-21 Ultralight Armor Plating. To retain and even improve the mech’s durability, Ves had to recalculate every plate’s profile and thickness, bulking up the mech in many areas. Despite the increase in armor, the mech’s weight still enjoyed a considerable reduction, making it faster and nimbler on the ground.

Ves felt highly satisfied with his work so far. He appreciated the miraculous powers of the System for allowing him to get accustomed to such amazing procedures in a matter of days instead of months.

In a good mood and prompted by his rich creativity, he even added in the Fayette ECM and the Festive Cloud Generator onto the custom mech’s head. In keeping up with a ghost theme, he set the clouds to generate only greyscale colors, nicknaming the mech the Phantasm.

[Design Evaluation: Fantasia 2R Phantasm.]

Variant name: Fantasia 2R Phantasm

Base model: Fantasia 2R

Original Manufacturer: Kezia Armaments

Weight Classification: Light

Recommended Role: Scout/Ambusher

Armor: C-

Carrying Capacity: F+

Aesthetics: B+

Endurance: D+

Energy Efficiency: D

Flexibility: C

Firepower: D-

Integrity: C

Mobility: B+

Spotting: B

X-Factor: None

Deviance: 8%

Performance improvement: 11%

Overall evaluation:

[You have received 50 Design Points for completing an original design with a performance improvement of over 10%.]

[Your have been rewarded with a lottery ticket for achieving superior performance improvement with minimal deviance.]

Ves widened his eyes at the second message. The System evaluated his custom work to the same standards as the industry, which made sense now that he thought about it. He had learned this in college but forgot about it when he grew delusional from possessing the System.

Overenthusiastic designers who pumped in a lot of resources into a mech and only achieved a couple of percent improvement over the stock model were regarded as trash.

On the other hand, designers who changed only a few things here and there and can still achieve an improvement of over a dozen percent were regarded as masters in their field.

Ves had gained the System’s approval with the Phantasm’s economical design. With three cheap components, he partially re-engineered the old Fantasia 2R’s frame into a stealthy predator. The Phantasm could do everything the stock model was capable of, but just a little better.

The real star of the show was Ves’ tedious swapping of its armor. The Mirin-21 might have offered less protection, but it weighed a lot lighter. Padding the Fantasia with additional form-fitting plates offered better protection but still managed to achieve an overall weight reduction. Not every newly graduated mech designer could accomplish the same. Without cutting down redundant and inefficient sections while making sure their spots remained somewhat covered, Ves could never have improved the armor so effectively.

And now he held another lottery ticket. Like an eager kid with candy, Ves quickly switched to the Lottery page and spun the metaphorical wheel.

"Come on, give me something good, like a production license or a bag of credits."

[You have received a Strength Candy.]

[Strength Candy]

Increases Strength by 0.1 upon consumption. Strawberry flavor.

Ves fell on his knees and let out a frustrated scream. "C’mon System! I worked so hard the last few days! Why don’t you throw me a bone or two?"

He felt like a wizard who decided to pump some iron in the gym. Developing his muscles was an unnecessary luxury that provided little help in his predicament.

Well, since he received it, he might as well use it. After popping the gift in his mouth, he checked his status again.

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Novice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 113

Attributes

Strength: 0.7