The Mech Touch novel Chapter 414

After a successful day of presenting the Crystal Lord, Ves patiently slept and waited until the next day to find out the public’s response.

As he ate breakfast in his hotel room, Gavin came up to him and provided him with a brief report.

"Almost every publication who attended the press conference wrote glowing praise about the Crystal Lord! We succeeded in wowing them and transfer their enthusiasm in their reporting!"

Ves accepted the data pad and skimmed through the articles they published in the morning. Some delivered unfiltered words of admiration, while others looked more restrained, as if the editors of the publications forcefully leashed their over-enthusiastic reporters.

Nonetheless, getting that much was more than sufficient for the LMC. Interest in the Crystal Lord obviously spiked upwards and millions of people started looking up the mech on the galactic net after just a few hours of exposure.

"What about the negative articles?"

"There are a lot of other publications who are trying to throw shade on the Crystal Lord. Some of them are excessively negative while others express some doubts at its value proposition. I don’t believe that all of these news portals are following someone’s orders. They just don’t buy into the hype."

"Hm, that’s to be expected." Ves nodded gravely as he sipped a cup of coffee. "Even though the Crystal Lord looks impressive when you see it in person, it’s hard to convey its value onto a spec sheet. It’s unusual for an Apprentice Mech Designer like me to publish such an expensive design."

"The main point the skeptics are raising is if it is a product looking for a market. Most rifleman mech models in this price range are designed by Journeyman, and all of their products are a notch above your own in terms of value for money. The only wildcard is the amount of value your gimmick can bring to the table."

Ves smirked. "That’s exactly why I kept working on this feature that all of you thought was a big waste of time. I never intended it to be a game-changer in a battle. As long as people think it’s useful enough to justify its price, it’s accomplishing its mission."

The virtual models of the design appeared onto the different simulation games as well, allowing the public to explore their strengths at their own pace. The first reviews already reached glowing levels as many of them became affected the X-Factor of the virtual mechs they piloted.

As Ves read through the reports, he got a sense that this effect became a lot stronger than compared with the Blackbeak. Anyone who piloted the virtual version of the offensive knight design came away with much less enthusiasm.

Perhaps that was one of the main differences between B and C-grade X-Factors. The responses of the early adopters sounded no different than those who piloted any of his mechs in person. _{freewebnovel.cσ๓}

This happened to have formed a powerful boost for the newly published Crystal Lord. The overwhelmingly positive feedback elevated the virtual models to a whole new level. As they gained in popularity, they also became more prominent in the virtual marketspace, leading to more curious players trying them out.

"It’s too bad that it’s a fairly demanding mech to pilot." Gavin noted sullenly. "It’s classified as a 5-star virtual mech in Iron Spirit, so not a lot of people are qualified to purchase and pilot it in the first place."

Right now, the higher-leagued player base of online games like Iron Spirit had plummeted due to the war. These working men and women needed to focus their full attention on surviving the war. They had no time to waste on games in simulations that didn’t cut it as a professional training tool.

Ves still smiled. "The more exposure, the better. Great things start from small steps. Building up some grassroots popularity for our new design is never a bad thing. The more the laymen talk about it, the more the professionals take note. Word will spread, and eventually interest will blow over to the people in charge of procuring mechs."

"Actual sales are still very modest. We may have received a lot of orders for the silver label Crystal Lord, but we aren’t getting any further orders except from those who attended the conference."

They both knew that the Crystal Lord might be off to a rough start. Ves already thought about it extensively and believed that the situation might change once people start to convey their experiences with piloting the mechs in circulation. "These things take time. It’s normal for potential buyers to hold back on purchasing an expensive mech. They want to avoid being scammed, so they’ll only start to move once we receive some positive feedback from the first wave of customers."

"Yeah, about that, we’re kind of in a tight spot with regards to production. I don’t need to tell you this, but the Mech Nursery is bottlenecked by the fact that it only runs three production lines. That was already insufficient with the silver label Blackbeak and now with the silver label Crystal Lord on top, their waiting lists have reached an insane proportion."

This was one problem that the LMC couldn’t easily solve. "We already went into debt in order to finance the acquisition of two additional Benson production lines. Do we have to dig a deeper hole?"

"You can always have the company issue more stock. The LMC is obviously on the rise, so its stock is really hot right now."

"No. Absolutely not." Ves quickly shook his head. "I haven’t changed my mind on this stance. The other shareholders don’t want to dilute their ownership. Personally, I don’t feel desperate enough to sell my own shares either."

The LMC currently faced a paper loss resulting from missed opportunities. That was an entirely different to sustaining real losses by spending much more money than they earned from their revenue streams.

Basically, the company was already in a pretty good spot, but everyone wanted to move over to a better position. They just had to pay a price in order to do so.

Ves already relayed his opinion on the matter to Calsie, and tasked her to coordinate with the board and the Finance Department to find out a solution that made everyone happy. With the LMC’s financial growth prospects, taking out another loan shouldn’t be difficult, but the sticking point was the amount of investment they wanted to make.