The news about a ‘special guest’ attending the LMC’s upcoming product reveal soon went public.
Ves passed on what he knew to Gavin while Gloriana probably blabbed about attracting a Master to attend their product reveal to her own circle.
Naturally, the LMC went into another frenzy. They had to make sure that the venue properly accommodated a high dignitary from the MTA. Not only that, the company also had to make sure the agenda didn’t contain any elements that the MTA would disapprove of! It would be fatal for the sales prospects of the Doom Guard if the Master was forced to rebuke the mech design during the event!
During these hasty preparations, the Marketing Department cleverly made some noise and published a statement informing the attendants of the product reveal about some ‘unanticipated changes’.
The statement contained plenty of innocuous sentences that only vaguely hinted that someone from a powerful organization might possibly attend as an observer.
All of the journalists who watched the LMC like a hawk immediately connected the dots. It wasn’t long before they all published the explosive news!
The entire mech community of the Sentinel Kingdom and beyond reacted with surprise! Interest in the LMC’s latest mech design practically doubled! By now, everyone wanted to know what the fuss was all about. What mech design was so great to attract the attention of one of the leaders of her profession?
The publicity surrounding Ves, Gloriana, the LMC and their as-of-yet-unannounced mech design skyrocketed all the way up to space! It had gained a life of its own as hundreds of unfounded rumors fueled the hype until it burned as hot as the sun!
Ves reacted with a lot of concern about the crush of attention that he and his work received. The interest from the public wasn’t constrained to the star sector anymore. Interested parties from the rest of the star cluster all the way up to Winged Serenade were all shifting their views to a single mech designed by a couple of Journeymen!
This statement sounded ridiculous if it concerned anyone else, but Ves and Gloriana earned enough fame with their previous accomplishment to earn some credibility to the greater mech community.
At the very least, the mech industry did not believe that Master Willix was fooling around!
“Great news, boss! We have already made some very huge gains!” Gavin announced. “A lot of bureaucratic obstacles that have prevented us from beginning the production and sale of our Doom Guard model in a lot of foreign states have suddenly been overcome! The various state authorities think that since a Master is indirectly vouching for our product, they don’t want to appear as if they oppose her judgement!”
Ves groaned as he hugged Lucky to his chest. “That’s not my intention!”
“Meow.”
“It’s not so simple, Lucky! Just because we can sell more mechs doesn’t mean I can buy more expensive exotics to fill your stomach! I have lots of other expenses to cover before I can upgrade your diet.”
“Meow!”
Lucky resentfully phased out of his arms and floated out of his reach.
“Why are you not as enthused?” Gavin asked with a perplexed expression. “The support of a highly reputable authority is one of the greatest boons we could have asked for! Just the suggestion that our Doom Guard has gained a Master’s approval is ten times more effective than the most expensive marketing campaign that we could mount!”
“You’re not wrong, Benny. However, have you ever wondered whether too much is not a good thing? The expectation of my new striker mech is probably sky-high! Despite its unique properties, it is just a third-class premium striker mech! Not every spaceborn outfit has room for such a mech! Our Doom Guard is only useful in defensive scenarios where the mech isn’t expected to fly around a lot! The lethality of its primary armament is highly dependent on the quality of its propellant, which can ramp up very quickly!”
Gavin shook his head. “I would take that in a heartbeat. Overhyping our product and building up too many expectations is dangerous, I admit. Normally, it’s best to be a little modest and stick closer to the truth, only to delight our customers with some pleasant surprises later on, but we have gone past this point. Right now, it’s best to ride the starship to her destination even if she has gone out of control! Wherever we crash at the end, at least we made it farther than if we boarded a safer vessel!”
What a lovely analogy. Ves glared at his attention. “This is going to mar our brand! Don’t you realize how much effort I put into developing a reputation for excellence? Once we crash, it is a lot harder to earn back trust!”
“Your mech design isn’t that bad, right? I think you should be more confident in your own product. Sure, a lot of people have begun to make increasingly wilder guesses about our upcoming mech design, but they won’t react as bad as you fear when you finally pop their bubbles. As long as our Doom Guard is still a great product, they can easily be convinced to appreciate its value! We just have to do our best to sell the mech design in the upcoming product reveal.”
In the end, it all came down to the presentation. Ves had to make sure to do his best to turn his scary mech into a desirable addition to his target audience’s mech roster!
The problem to him was that the stakes were raised to such a height that even a risk-taking bastard like Ves wanted to withdraw!
Sadly, he didn’t have a choice this time!
He sighed. “I guess I’ll manage. I better spend the rest of my time practicing my speech.”
“That’s a good idea.”
As Ves despairingly prepared for his presentation as if he was about to attend his own execution, elsewhere in the base, a bunch of mech pilots gathered together.
A handful of them wore the yellow-and-white uniforms of the Avatars. Others wore the less flamboyant grey-and-white uniforms of the Sentinels. There were even some who wore the new brown-and-white uniforms of the Battle Criers and the mostly black uniforms of the Black Cats!
They had all gathered around the most notable new additions to the Larkinson Clan. Initially, they were attracted to the eye-catchingly large mech that stood dormant in the open!
“Is this the Adonis Colossus?” Imon Ingvar raised his eyebrow as he experienced the very masculine glow of the custom mech. “What was the clan patriarch thinking when he designed this mech? Was he trying to impress his Hexer girlfriend or something?”
His sister chuckled. “I would argue that he may have been rebelling against her instead. Hexers probably aren’t used to mechs that are proudly male like this one. Just look at the size and thickness of that ‘belt’! Doesn’t it look like the mech is hiding something dangerous?”
While an increasingly larger crowd of off-duty Larkinsons gathered around one of the clan patriarch’s rare custom mechs, two figures emerged from the cockpit of the mech.
They used an antigrav rappel to float down to the ground. Both of them were clad in red-and-white uniforms, which signified that they were general members of the Larkinson Clan.
This was rather odd. Practically every mech pilot, even the new recruits, had already joined one of the mech forces operating under the clan!
“Good day, fellow Larkinsons!” Vincent Ricklin-Larkinson grinned and spread his arms. “I see that you are having a great time admiring my Adonis Colossus! Before you ask, he’s original! You can practically feel it from this mech!”
While Vincent basked in the looks of envy and admiration from the crowd, Raella Larkinson jabbed her elbow against his side and coughed.
“Vincent and I would like to have your attention. When we initially joined the clan, we wanted to see what mech pilots like us could do. While I am impressed by the amount of fighting forces we can join, I noticed that there was a distinct lack of.. fun. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure you have plenty to do in the Avatars and whatnot, but there are hardly any activities for us to mingle together and enjoy ourselves in a more organized setting.”
“What is it you want to do?” A Sentinel mech pilot asked.
Vincent grinned wider. “Why, that’s a good question, brother! After discussing this deplorable lack of entertainment with my babe, we have decided to introduce a brand-new initiative! We want to establish an internal competition circuit in our clan!”
“What?”
“Competition circuit?”
“Can we even do this?”
Most of the mech pilots among the crowds possessed a military or private sector background. They always treated their profession as a serious duty.
There were scant few people in the clan who possessed a connection with the entertainment side of the mech piloting profession!
“Who are you guys, anyway?! What makes you think you can set this up from scratch?”
“I am Raella Larkinson, a trueblood member of the clan!” She listed out her qualifications. “In the past, I was a former mech athlete and competed in an amateur mech games circuit. After that, I transitioned to the underground dueling circuit at Bentheim, where I earned my chops and became a champion! After that, I was promoted to the rank of captain in my organization where I led an entire mech company of mech duelists and mech athletes. While I can’t say that I have organized a competitive circuit before, I have competed often enough to know how they are run! If anyone disagrees, we can hash it out in a duel!”
Her bearing exuded the confidence of a mech champion! Raella not only dueled hundreds of opponents, but also fought in the Sand War in the Bentheim System! All of this made it clear that she wasn’t a regular member of the clan!
Even so, not many believed she could pull off her plan.
Captain Casella Ingvar strode forward. “I heard about you, Raella. You used to be with the so-called Blood Claws, did you not?”
“That’s true. So what?”
“Our clan isn’t anything like your gang in Bentheim.”
Raella growled. “Well, if you don’t want to help, then piss off!”
Imon quickly strode forward and pulled her sister back by the shoulder. “What do you need to set up this circuit?”
Though his sister looked scandalized, Imon didn’t care! He was getting rather bored with the months of practice. There was only so much he could maintain his interest while whacking his opponents to death in simulated combat!
Recognizing that she managed to hook someone, Raella grinned. “I plan to start with something simple from the start. We’ll organize a simple dueling circuit at first. We’ll accept applications from any able mech pilot of the clan for a time before we draw up a schedule. We’ll start by holding yearly seasons where every participant can earn points by competing against each other in 1 against 1 duels. After that, the best-performing participants will be seeded in the playoff format that will truly determine who will become the champion duelist of the Larkinson Clan!”
Though it sounded rather basic compared to the more elaborate mech games circuits that attracted the most viewership, this was something the Larkinsons could participate in themselves!
At least half of the mech pilots in the gathering crowd already looked interested at signing up! Such a competition sounded incredibly interesting!
Casella noted something problematic, however. “Where will you hold these duels? Will these duels take place in a virtual or a real arena?”
“A real one, of course! We want none of that simulated crap! A fight isn’t real unless there’s the possibility of drawing blood!”
A surprised murmur ran through the crowd! A real mech duel was very different from a simulated one! While it was ten times more exciting, it was countless times more dangerous and expensive!
“Impossible! It costs way too much! We can’t afford to waste so many mechs!”
“Heh, that’s what you think!” Vincent pounded his muscled chest with fist. “Don’t worry about approval, brothers. I’m Ves Larkinson’s best buddy and Raella is his favorite cousin! As long as we have enough clansmen backing up our proposal, he’ll surely agree to this suggestion. Now what do you say? Are you ready to duel?!”
“YEAAAAAH!”
