The Mech Touch

At the time when the G-Aena League was just starting, another tournament was about to kick off in another part of Chance Bay.

In the morning before Ves competed in his second design tournament, he enjoyed breakfast with his lovely wife and his cute daughter.

The cats were also having a good time during this private family moment.

"Meow~" Lucky blissfully crunched the minerals that Ves had put in his food bowl.

"Miaow." Clixie ate her meal in a more elegant manner.

Maow.

…Miew…

Alexandria insisted on feeding Mana even though Aurelia's companion spirit didn't even need the sustenance.

While all of this went on, Ves began to think about his plan for his next big performance.

His recent third-place finish in the High Tide Tournament put him in a lukewarm mood. Although anyone would become impressed if they learned that he managed to achieve a better result than 91 other Journeyman Mech Designers, Ves just felt as if he missed an opportunity.

The only significant prize he received for all of that effort was one combat carrier!

Though Ves was actually quite happy with the quality and specs of the Solstice Runner, the fact that the best mech designer and the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan only won a single vessel was quite a letdown!

"I need to boost my reputation."

He looked forward to making another attempt at winning a tournament. He was a bit more optimistic about his chances this time.

Though collaborating with other mech designers under pressure was risky, Ves had a lot of faith in his upcoming design partner!

The Wild Brawl Bowl was an excellent stage for Ketis to unveil her design ability in public for the first time. Not only did she possess the right specialization, she was also a fighter herself!

The only downsides were her lack of experience and her incomplete foundation. This would be the first time she participated in a mech design tournament and she might stumble into a pitfall as a result.

"That's where I come in." Ves briefly grinned.

He had a sufficient amount of experience and could fill in most of his former student's gaps. They collaborated with each other enough times on various different mech design projects that they had already established a good system of cooperation.

Sure, a design tournament would test their system and force them to adapt to the insane time constraints, but that was what made them fun and exciting.

It was too bad that his wife didn't plan to go at all, and that also meant his baby Auralia wouldn't be going either.

"What do you plan to do for the next couple of days?" He idly asked as he took another bite out of his croissant.

The hotel had prepared an extremely sumptuous meal for them all. The ingredients were apparently made out of local alien specialty ingredients that had either been tested or modified to ensure they were safe for human consumption.

Regardless, it was quite a mind-bending experience to eat a pastry that tasted like folded meat and drink a cup of juice that briefly made his stomach glow through his belly!

"I've made a few new acquaintances during our short time here." She said. "The Mech Supremacist Faction has been welcoming me into the fold. I plan to befriend and chat with fellow associates later today. After that I intend to go shopping. You can't believe how many galaxy-renowned designer brands have settled on Chance Bay. I can't let this opportunity go to waste. Some of the most exclusive goods simply don't show up in any of the listings on the galactic net. I've heard that the Hoenbach flagship store on this moon has begun to sell a variation of its signature two-toned Giarna handbag collection! The leather is rumored to be made out of puelmer skin!"

Ves looked disgusted. The puelmers were a race of child-sized balls with limbs sticking out of their surface. Perhaps the qualities of their skin might make them attractive in the luxury designer goods market, but there was just something wrong about the whole idea!

Even if the puelmers were aliens, they were still thinking and intelligent beings. Though humanity was set on breaking their civilization and wiping out their whole race, the puelmers at least deserved to be treated with some dignity.

Gloriana showed no conflicting thoughts as all. She only focused on the excellent qualities of the leather made out of the finest puelmer skin. Apparently, it was hard to find other naturally-sourced materials that were as thick, bouncy and durable.

The leather also had a distinct texture and a lot of character due to all of the bumps and scrapes it accumulated when it rolled around in rough terrain.

"How much does this bag cost?"

"I'm not certain, but based on the prices of previous limited edition bags, I think it will probably cost around 120 MTA credits."

"WHAT?!"

"…Guguuhaha?…"

"Keep your voice down, Ves!" His wife hissed as she gently stroked and soothed their baby. "Don't startle our little daughter."

Ves was still focused on the insane price tag that Gloriana mentioned.

120 MTA credits did not sound like a huge sum, but it represented a huge amount of purchasing power!

He already agonized over the price he had to pay to enter the Masterwork Gallery, but this was insane! At least he was able to get a lot of use out of his museum visit!

"Do you think our clan can throw that kind of money around at will? You're talking about buying a bag that costs around 23 billion hex credits! Back in the old galaxy, we could have bought a couple combat carriers with that money! Even if that's not possible in the Red Ocean, there are still countless necessities that we need to buy such as anti-teleportation countermeasures and anti-voribug solutions! We're already piling up a lot of debt in order to get ready for our first proper expedition into the new frontier."

Despite his words, Gloriana looked unconcerned.

"Oh, Ves. You know nothing. I'm not just buying a handbag to satisfy my vanity. If you haven't already noticed, I am trying to enter certain social circles that contain people that might be of use to us. These wealthy and powerful socialites are not easy to get close to, but if I dress and act the part, I might be able to achieve a result in the short time we are in this central star node. Just because I am not engaging in any of the circuses you call tournaments around here doesn't mean I am doing nothing. This is the best way for me to contribute to our clan."

Her argument made Ves a little less upset. He was fine with her actions as long as she could help the clan gain access to a distribution network or gain a favorable relationship with a commercial shipyard company.

He just found it difficult to accept that Gloriana would only be able to succeed if she wore an overpriced handbag!

"Can't you just make your own bag? We're both craftsmen, you know. It's easy enough for us to learn the basic design and handcrafting knowledge needed to make a single bag."

Gloriana looked at Ves as if he was stupid. "I know how to make a bag, Ves, but you are looking down on these galaxy-famed designers. There's a reason why they're in charge of much of the product development at these design houses! Their expertise and style has propelled brands like Hoenbach into a fashion icon across many states in the Milky Way! How dare you think that our homemade efforts can trump their work!? There is no way we can top their product design, their material sources, their traditional craftsmanship and above all else the value of their brand!"

"Not even if we make a masterwork bag?"

"Even then!"

Ves simply couldn't understand his wife's perspective. It still sounded ridiculous to spend so much to purchase a bag when he could make a similar product at a significantly higher quality and a fraction of the cost in his workshop!

He briefly wondered whether there were any vendors in Chance Bay that sold puelmer leather. With all of the apparent hype surrounding this luxury material, he was already thinking about using it to upholster his main office chair.

He was sitting on it so many times that it might be worth it to upgrade to a better model. Though he could act like his wife and buy a new chair from some pretentious furniture store in Chance Bay, he preferred to make his products himself if it wasn't too impractical. He trusted his own work and there was no one else that could make his products alive.

An interesting idea came up. What if he branched out into the luxury goods market as well? What if he designed a bag made out of affordable materials and pretended it was worth a thousand times more? The profit margins would be insane!

"No. That's stupid idea. There's way more to building up a luxury brand than designing a few bags!"

The reason why companies such as Hoenbach managed to become so renowned was because they reinvested most of their earnings into building up their brands.

From sponsoring tournaments to hiring celebrities to advertise their products, the marketing side of this sector vastly exceeded anything that Ves and his clan had ever dealt with! The intense competition and the frequent change in trends already took up a huge amount of energy!

How could he possibly think about entering this cutthroat industry when his clan didn't even possess a foundation in this sector? The Larkinsons should just stick to its core business of designing and selling mechs for the time being.

An hour passed by as the family finished breakfast and spent a bit of time together. Ves just loved to cuddle and play with his daughter.

Though she was still relatively young, Ves found that Aurelia was growing brighter and more playful by the day. Though she was still a long way off from speaking her first word, he was so happy to see her becoming so lively with each passing day!

"Daddy has to go win a few starships now." He gently told his baby. "I'll be gone for a few days. I hope you won't forget about me when I return!"

"Guu…guguw…"

"Clixie here will keep a close eye on you, isn't that right?"

"Miaow!"

After bidding farewell to his child, Ves took Lucky and his honor guard out of the hotel. His group quickly boarded a private transit shuttle that brought them straight to the venue where the Wild Brawl Bowl was about to kick off in a few hours.

Ves could hear the event before he could see it. Loud music blasted through the enormous speakers that had been placed outside the large arena and convention center.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors had already descended upon the site. Many of them tended to be soldiers, warriors or anyone else with a combat background.

[The Wild Brawl Bowl is sponsored by Antarix Mech Armaments — Feel Special, Kill Special. Visit our boutique and get 5 percent off any purchase greater than 5 MTA credits, only for today!]

Antarix Mech Armaments was a relatively medium-sized galactic mech weapon manufacturer. The company mainly sold mid-range mech weapon systems that were attractive due to its good price to performance ratio.

Its products were also famous or rather infamous due to their quirky nature. Antarix frequently engaged in innovation and came up with strange new gimmicks or employed an unconventional combination of materials to stand out from the market.

More often than not, Antarix's more radical products failed to live up to the hype, but its bold and fearless attempts to come up with the next great weapon system attracted a considerable following over the years.

Ves admired the company's approach. The LMC partially followed Antarix's route, though his mech company wasn't nearly as large or prolific.

"Maybe one day the LMC will catch up to the likes of these trans-galactic enterprises."