[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 66: Novice

An anxious Ves impatiently waited for the news to arrive. After more than a day of biting his fingernails, his comm lighted up with a series of incoming messages.

The first one came from his bank. Marcella passed on the rest of Vincent's payment for his new mech. His eyes almost popped when he saw how much the young Ricklin paid for his customized combat machine.

"Thirty-four million credits. That's at six million more than the regular price."

For just a couple of days work, an extra six million credits in his pocket was an extremely generous payment. Vincent got badly ripped off by Marcella. Out of the thirty-four million credits, Marcella sliced 3.4 million credits as her share, leaving him with a remaining profit of 12.8 million credits, which was still a pretty huge amount. As Ves still enjoyed about one-and-a-half million credits of pocket money, he stashed all of his new gains in his piggy bank.

His savings account now swelled to twenty-four million bright credits. His dream of replacing his second-hand equipment and acquiring some good licenses was one step closer.

"And that's not all. The real reward has yet to come."

He opened the subsequent messages sent by the silent but ever-present System.

[You have received 34 Design Points for selling a physical mech of your design.]

The small amount of credits he received for a single sale failed to sate his appetite. He skipped right to the other message.

[Congratulations for partially completing the mission. As a mech designer, you must learn to accommodate the needs of your clients and do your best to incorporate his wishes in your creation. A lack of ability is no excuse.]

Ves was afraid of this. He only earned a partial completion for the mission due to screwing up the simple lighting design. He should have contracted an artist himself instead of letting Vincent do all of the work.

[For satisfying two out of three of your client's requests, you have received a Deluxe Concentration Candy and 2000 Design Points.]

"Yes! Haha, I still got the candy!" Ves celebrated with glee. He expected his DP reward to be cut, but keeping the candy worth 0.5 attribute points intact was a pleasant surprise. "Only, why is it for Concentration?"

Certainly, Ves did not disregard the Concentration attribute. It allowed him to work long stretches of time while holding on to the same intent. If his attention span was too short, he'd easily be distracted and lose the perfect state to harmonize the X-Factor of a new design. Concentration also affected many other processes in a positive way.

Still, these improvements weren't able to provide concrete results. X-Factor was always nebulous at the best of times, and Ves did not expect his efforts in this area to improve very quickly. The lack of direction plagued him for a long time, though his latest work for Vincent taught him that perhaps it might be wise to reconsider gender for mechs.

"Man, if I had gotten intelligence instead, my learning capacity would have jumped through the roof."

A man could wish. If necessary, he could buy the candy from the Store, though the prices the heartless System charged were sky high. He'd rather invest in his skills than raising his attributes. This spending strategy provided the best results in the short and medium term.

"Bottoms up."

He gulped down the candy in a single toss. The candy tasted sour, and it spread to his entire mouth. Then everything in his mouth started to burn a bit, causing Ves to fall and hold his head. Somehow the sour taste drilled through his flesh and converged on his brain. The pain became excruciating. Lucky even turned alarmed and meowed in panic at the sight.