The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3047

Chapter 3047 - Treatment Editions

"So we’re actually doing this?" Gavin Neumann skeptically asked.

"Yes, we’re actually doing this." Ves affirmed with a grin as he looked up at the results of his latest completed side project. "While most of our clan has been investing its energy on growing and expanding its combat capabilities, I have not forgotten about our commercial activities. The sales of my mechs continue to support our growing ambitions, but with the way our expansion is progressing, our income is gradually unable to keep up with our expenditures."

There were many mech pilots waiting to receive their own mechs. While Ves intended to limit this expansion because he did not want to add more useless sub-capital ships to the already-bloated expeditionary fleet, there were plenty of combat carriers that had yet to fill up their capacity.

The mech models that the Larkinson Clan adopted were all premium second-class mechs.

Suffice to say, they weren’t cheap!

For example, the two main mech models that the Larkinsons intended to deploy on Trieden II were the Bright Warrior IB, which cost around 500 million hex credits per copy, and the Ferocious Piranha IB, which cost around 400 million hex credits per copy.

.

The Living Mech Corporation had to sell several hundred if not a thousand third-class mechs to fund the production of those expensive second-class mechs!

With over 20,000 mech pilots and counting, the Larkinson Clan had to spend an enormous sum of money in order to equip them all. This did not even take into account the more expensive specialized models such as the Eternal Redemption which cost a whopping 800 million hex credits per copy!

This was not the only major economic pressure that the clan had to cope with. Maintaining and supplying hundreds of ships, including several enormous capital ships the size of cities had become even more burdensome now that the Larkinsons had to feed the hungry Graveyard and the Dragon’s Den.

Of course, with several empty capital ship slots, the Larkinsons were obliged to invest trillions of credits in acquiring new capital ships! Whether the Larkinsons ordered the construction of brand-new vessels or spent their money in the second-hand market, ships this size that were still space worthy were never cheap!

The surprisingly huge influx of personnel and assets from the Life Research Association and the Heavensword Association didn’t help either. While Ves was very glad to see the clan double in size and strength in one go, such an explosive expansion also entailed and explosive growth in expenditures!

Even if Ves rarely checked up on the business side of the clan these days, he was well aware that the growth of the LMC had reached a plateau.

Aside from saturating the market with living mechs, the main cause of this was that the company had set up too many branches in too many star sectors as of late. Not enough time had passed for the LMC’s local branches to develop a strong identity and sense of loyalty to the parent company. A lot more time had to pass before the dust settled down.

"I can’t deny these mechs are effective, Ves, but..." Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson looked dubiously at the two latest products that the LMC was supposed to bring to market. "These are very different products from the ones we sold before." _{freeweɓnovel.cøm}

Ves and a small group of influential Larkinsons had all gathered at one of the large storage compartments of the Spirit of Bentheim. They did so in order to view the two new mech models that were supposed to insert some vitality in the stagnant LMC and direct a lot of much-needed cash back into the clan coffers!

"It’s strange to look at a mech designed by you that isn’t designed to fight." Gavin commented. "This is a deviation from your usual style, do you know that? Previously, you were all serious and principled about sticking to the primary intent of mechs, which is to make war machines that are explicitly designed to fight."

What could Ves say to that? He merely shrugged. "Times have changed, Benny. Our circumstances have changed as well. Our clan has grown too quickly and we need more funding immediately. Rather than waiting for at least two entire design cycles to come up with a commercial mech design with high earning potential, it’s easier and more convenient to design some variants of one of my existing designs."

"About that, boss, I still think you could have settled with publishing the original Sanctuary design. Our various departments have already prepared for an eventual launch and mass production of the new Sanctuary. While you initially designed it to counter glows, it performs the same functions as one of the variants here."

"You’re not looking at this the right way. My original Sanctuary design is purely designed for combat. Whatever non-combat purpose it might be able to fulfill is secondary. That is not suitable for our current situation since the latter has become a lot more important than the former to the mech market."

As a mech designer, Ves couldn’t stand his products being used outside of his original intention. A specific need should always be fulfilled by a product meant to address it whenever possible!

"I think the patriarch has made the right choices with regards to these new variants." Raymond waved his hand at the pure and holy white-coated variant and the warm and welcoming green-coated variant. "These Sanctuary variants are more long-lasting and more marketable to non-combat organizations. The latter is quite important as many hospitals and medical groups won’t even consider the possibility of purchasing a war machine."

Repackaging the war-purposed Sanctuary into two ’peaceful’ variants was mainly meant to encourage the market to treat them differently.

The ultimate goal of going through this trouble was quite ambitious.

Gavin finally couldn’t hold it any longer. "Boss."

"Yes, Benny?" Ves curiously turned to his assistant.

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