Chapter 1136. Second Upgrade (1/2)
Ves spent another week on Bentheim in order to capitalize on the publicity that resulted from the Aurora Titan's product reveal.
The twin breakthroughs of Ves and Jannzi dominated the news cycle for a short period of time.
Unquestionably, the Larkinson Family came under much greater prominence. Aside from Ghanso Larkinson advancement to expert pilot, both Porellia Larkinson and Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson now gained another equal in the form of Jannzi Larkinson.
Yet that wasn't all. When Ves managed to advance to become a de facto Journeyman, the family took on an entirely different status! Now that the Larkinsons boasted their first Journeyman Mech Designer, their influence had grown beyond the traditional military circles!
It was a great time to be a Larkinson this time!
Aside from the rising fortunes of the Larkinson Family, the LMC gained greater prominence as well. A company led by a Journeyman was a major force in the Republic! Not only that, but the Aurora Titan's involvement in the advancement of both Ves and Jannzi showered the mech model with an immense amount of attention!
This was why Ves found it important to capitalize on the publicity! He subjected himself to back-to-back interviews with both local, domestic and sector-wide news publications.
While it was tiring for him to answer the same boring questions over and over again, he knew that the more he showed up in the news, the more he could shape the narrative around the Aurora Titan.
The Ansel mech designers hadn't remained silent all this time. They attempted to use the pull they possessed in the major domestic mech publications to point out the many glaring weaknesses of the Aurora Titan design.
If not for the twin breakthroughs overshadowing every other news related to the Aurora Titan, then these negative articles might have actually hampered its popularity.
As it was, the Aurora Titan continued to be ordered in generous amounts each day! The LMC and NORA Consolidated registered over six-hundred orders, which was an exceptionally high amount considering the stupendously high price levels of the different editions of the Aurora Titan!
The only downside to this success was that Ves wouldn't be able to capture the bulk of the profits from its sales. The profit-sharing agreement that Ves had made with Professor Ventag entitled him to only twenty-five percent of the profits.
The professor was definitely raking in a huge amount of money, not that he needed it in the first place!
Ves had to be content with earning a more paltry sum while doing little else other than to fabricate a number of gold label mechs.
”I have to fabricate twenty of them in order to fulfill all the orders the LMC has taken.” He muttered.
This would take valuable time away from designing his fifth original design. Ves once again found himself in a spot of trouble where he needed to balance his time. Now that the LMC had taken the orders, the company could hardly renege on their word and cancel them! That would do a lot of damage to their credibility!
”Promises are promises. That said, any promise can be renegotiated.”
He decided to fulfill the critical orders first while asking as many clients as possible if they would accept a small delay. Ves even considered throwing in a bonus by allowing for minor customizations to be made to their individual products. The offer to customize a mech should be very attractive, especially when it came from a Journeyman instead of an Apprentice!
Ves passed on his instructions to Gavin between his interviews.
His assistant nodded. ”I'll make the arrangements. I think it's a good solution. The people who pay 150 million credits for a gold label Aurora Titan aren't buying it for its functions. Instead, they're buying it to satisfy their vanity. Customizing a mech by adding a few bits here and there will instantly increase its collector's value.”
”Try not to go overboard. Make sure at least a few gold label mechs will fall into the hands of our customers. The more my gold label Aurora Titans are out in the wild, the more attention they'll attract!”
The undeniably strong X-Factor of the gold label Aurora Titans turned the mechs into public attractions. Ves wanted to make use of this effect to encourage even more sales for his notable mech model. What better way to inspire potential buyers than shoving a gold label mech in front of their faces?
Ves, Jannzi, the Larkinson Family, the LMC and the Aurora Titan all enjoyed an unprecedented amount of attention in the Bright Republic! While the other states in the Komodo Star Sector didn't pay much attention to the proceedings, sales from foreign markets ticked up as well.
Achieving a thousand sales in the first year of the mech model's introduction did not sound so ludicrous anymore!
During this hectic period where Ves engaged in public relations, he hadn't forgotten about the System either. The System never cared about the MTA, so he figured it would probably acknowledge his advancement regardless of the lack of official judgement.
Therefore, during a quiet evening after his last interview, Ves locked himself up in the bathroom of his luxurious accommodation and activated both Lucky's ECM field and his personal comm's Privacy Shield before activating the System.
As expected, the System underwent a major change!
[Congratulations for upgrading your status to Journeyman Mech Designer. You are now able to design mechs that are worthy of notice. The Mech Designer System will now initiate an upgrade. Please stand by.]
Ves waited patiently as his comm's projection fizzled out. Shortly after that, his comm turned into a fluid mass of smart metal while wrapping around his hand like a glove.
He felt as if he put his hand in the mouth of an exobeast. Even though his instincts told him that he should get rid of this eerie metallic mass, he tried his best to endure the uncomfortable sensation.
Five minutes later, his comm finally stopped doing whatever it was doing. It changed back into its old metal band-like shape around his wrist and resumed projecting an interface as if nothing weird had happened earlier!
[Your access to the Store has expanded. You are now able to exchange more advanced items with Design Points.]
That didn't hold much meaning to Ves because he knew that most of the items would still be unaffordable. The Store was pretty much filled with traps in that regard.
[You are now able to purchase bronze lottery tickets for the preferential price of 20,000 Design Points.]
While the bronze ones sounded like a step up from copper lottery tickets which cost only 500 DP, Ves did not consider them to be a good deal at all. ”20,000 DP is way too much for only bronze lottery tickets.”
Spending his precious DP on lottery tickets was another trap from the profiteering system. He could not put it past the System to rig the prizes massively in its favor!
After these perfunctory messages, the System finally came to the message that Ves anticipated the most. It finally unlocked a new ability for Ves!