[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 131: Pre Production

Ves woke up with a slight headache the next morning. He started suffering from pain at the end of the project. He never spent so much time holding on to an inspiration, not to mention three at a time. He still suffered from the aftereffects of his exertion.

"It's worth it if I can obtain a C+ rating for my design." He muttered as he popped a pill inside his mouth to clear his head.

The medicine actually didn't help much, as if the pain originated from something other than a purely physical reaction. Nonetheless, Ves expected the strain to fade now that he had no need to concentrate for hours on end.

After finishing his morning ritual, he entered the workroom to see Carlos up at work. Yesterday, Ves checked in with Carlos and became satisfied with his progress. He mastered all of his 1-star and 2-star virtual designs. Only the Young Blood gave him a bit of trouble, but a success rate of 90% proved that he hadn't slacked off.

"How's your progress with the Marc Antony Mark II?"

"It's a lot better than the Mark I, that's for sure!" His employee responded with a chipper tone. "The internals are still a lot harder to assemble, but at least I don't have to be a plumber to untangle all of the messes!"

"That's good. I'll be relying on you to fabricate my silver label mechs. You should be able to thoroughly master the fabrication process by the end of the month."

"I don't have the confidence to achieve a success rate of 95%, but I should be able to get close to 90% in a month." Carlos honestly informed Ves. "There's only a couple of really tough spots that haven't been simplified. I think I'll need at least three months of practice to get over these bumps."

"That's fine. The Marc Antony Mark II is still a difficult design and you're still settling in your job. I'm making a lot of allowances for you, so you better shape up."

When Ves occasionally inspected the logs, he found out that Carlos religiously spent his evenings playing around with the designer software. As his boss, Ves naturally at his ambitious employee's work.

They were awful.

Despite having access to all of the licenses procured by Ves, Carlos treated them like a toddler playing with building blocks. All of his resulting designs looked like something out of a mad scientist's lab.

"Work hard, Carlos."

He left his minion alone and entered his own cubicle. He turned on his terminal and loaded up his finished design. The variant's pronounced shape and its intimidating black and red colors radiated an eagerness for battle. The golden frills and the dynamic vapor crest both gave the mech an aura of leadership.

In short, the Marc Antony Mark II aimed squarely at the middle segment of the mech market. Hopefully he already generated enough buzz to attract a couple of orders upon releasing the design.

Ves called Marcella now that his design was ready for sale. Her tired face popped up from the projection. "I haven't heard from you in a long time. Have you finally completed your work?"

"I finished my design."

For a moment, his mech broker thought she heard wrong. "Are you referring to your update to the Marc Antony?"

"I haven't been fooling around with any virtual designs. It's true. The Marc Antony Mark II is officially done."

"I've been dying to hear that! I already put the word out, you see. Once you release the specs, I'm sure I can make them bite."

When Ves sent over his design along with a detailed spec sheet, Marcella eagerly skimmed the documents. "Good! You've improved upon your mech's performance without raising costs. That's just what I needed!"