The Mech Touch novel Chapter 987

The thought of handing over three Crystal Lords for free pained Ves a lot, but Raella didn’t lie when she stated that this was how Bentheim worked.

However, while unpleasant, the tribute he instructed the LMC to hand over directly benefited Raella’s position within the Blood Claws.

Ves knew what she was doing by demanding this request. She intended to raise her value within the criminal enterprise by calling attention to her ongoing association with Ves and his multibillion credit mech company.

Even though she renounced her ties to the Larkinson Family, blood was thicker than water! If Raella proved to her superiors that she could ask Ves for favors, then they would surely place more importance to her in their ranks.

"I’ll also benefit as well."

With Raella, Ves had a trustworthy contact inside one of the biggest gangs on Bentheim. His previous request to her was just one example in which he could leverage his connection with Raella to obtain something he needed from the Blood Claws.

The value of this connection was extremely difficult to come by for any other mech company. It wasn’t every day a relative of a business owner outright joined the ranks of one of the three major gangs of Bentheim!

Even so, Raella became a huge black sheep to the Larkinson name for that reason. While it would have been okay to meet with her occasionally, Ves couldn’t associate himself too closely to her. The press probably already had a lot of things to say about his earlier visit to the Rain District, but at least his new status as a war hero allowed him to get away with the act. _{freewebnσvel.cøm}

"I shouldn’t push it too much, though. Next time I’ll meet Raella I should ask her to come to me instead of the other way around."

Since he had some time left, he began to browse the galactic net. Over the past couple of days, his appearances in public already garnered a considerable amount of interest. The only problem that stymied the news portals was that when they looked up his records, all of the details about how he earned his decorations was firmly confidential.

So the various news portals began to speculate a number of wild tales instead.

"Urgh. Don’t they have better things to do?"

Tales about punching aliens in the face, rescuing stranded Brighter women in the frontier and more started to make the rounds. They attributed all sorts of insane feats to him without possessing any shred of evidence.

Fortunately, only the sleazier rags deigned to exercise their imagination. The more respectable journalists merely stopped their stories there. This also meant they stopped reporting on Ves and moved on to other news.

"However, I haven’t disappeared entirely." He grinned.

Small ads that tied Ves’ recent appearance to his LMC could be found on nearly every news portal that reported on him. While these ads weren’t too extravagant and would disappear in a week, right now they served their purpose in converting his raised public profile into increased exposure to his mech company!

He began to search for mention of the LMC in the various publications and found that it garnered abruptly more attention!

THE LIVING MECH CORPORATION: A HIDDEN GEM

THE MECH COMPANY FOUNDED BY A WAR HERO

VETERANS LOVE THE LMC’S TWO MECH MODELS!

Ves especially felt gratified by headlines and features where various veterans showed an increased interest in his products. He knew that fellow servicemen appreciated his awards the most, and therefore felt much more favorably inclined towards him and his products compared to the average civilian.

"Veterans make up an important demographic category in the mech market." Ves remarked with a smile.

A lot of former servicemen discharged from the Mech Corps still piloted mechs in the private sector. The ones that lusted for battle and excitement joined a mercenary corps while those who pursued steadier careers opted to work for a security company.

All of those respectable outfits loved to hire military veterans. Mech pilots who survived the war had proven their chops in battle and injected valuable battle-proven experience into their ranks. In addition, their systematic training left little doubts about their competence.

Ves once heard the Larkinsons talk about how this was a deliberate measure. The Bright Republic invested a lot of money and resources in training their mech pilots, so letting them go after a tour or two sounded wasteful.

However, if these discharged veterans subsequently joined the various private outfits of the Bright Republic, wouldn’t that bring them more in line with the state?

Overall, veteran mech pilots fought better, harder and with more discipline than their non-military colleagues. Most of those outfits in fact tended to be founded by veterans or eventually came into the control of one through proving their ability to fight and light!

Thus, to say that all of the local mercenary corps and security companies was completely separate from the military wasn’t entirely through. The influential and pervasive network of ex-servicemen formed a strong but unobtrusive means for the state to continue to exert control over these ’independent’ outfits.

"That also makes them one of the most coveted demographics to win over." Ves chuckled. With Marcella, who was a veteran of the previous war herself, taking the initiative to blitz the local news portals with a concerted market campaign, Ves expected to become known to every veteran within a week! "And many of these veterans have buying power! The LMC will be sure to receive a lot of orders!"

For now though, his attempts to promote the LMC was ultimately a sideshow compared to his current mission. If he couldn’t give Flashlight the evidence they sought, how should he deal with Leland’s request?

Should he play along and fabricate fictitious evidence, or should he honestly report he found nothing of concern?

"The key is whether Leland speaks for himself, his superior within Flashlight or the entire intelligence agency."

Ves regretted that he missed the opportunity to clarify this particular point. Even so, a snake like Leland would probably lie or provide a nonanswer to this question.

He had very little to go on to determine whose interests he served if he went ahead and fabricated evidence.

"If the Ministry of Economic Development and Spotlight are susceptible to corruption, how can Flashlight remain an exception?"