[401-600] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 412: Heckler

Ves managed to raise the expectations of his potential customers. This was good for him, but not so good for others. This would be the perfect time for someone to spoil the party.

"I have a question!" A thirty-something year old woman with curling blond hair and a stylish beret stood up and asked.

The way she spoke with force and gravitas somehow pulled everyone's attention to her. Ves instantly recognized the training put the manner she modulated her voice. She meticulously trained to achieve this effect.

"Go ahead." Ves replied simply, trying to appear as unruffled as possible even as he recognized he faced a tough customer.

"I do not doubt the craftsmanship of these admittedly impressive copies, but they are from your top-of-the-line label, are they not? How many of them will be made available, and what are the differences between these mechs and your readily available offerings?"

Ves may have been able to dazzle most customers, but the woman spotted the loopholes in his presentation. Against this line of questioning, he had no choice but to tell the truth.

"The Living Mech Corporation's gold label mechs all come with a guarantee that they have been handcrafted by myself. Therefore, they are only available in limited quantities. Of the nine mechs you see before you, five is made available for auction while the other four is reserved for internal use. For the time being, the LMC will not be releasing any gold label mechs, for obvious reasons."

The mech insiders nodded in understanding. Many mech designers already disappeared from Bentheim, making it a much less livelier place. Once the Mech Corps called up the second wave of mech designers, the only ones who remained would be the elderly and the special cases.

With regards to the limited quantity of gold label Crystal Lords, the news benefited the collectors the most. The rarer the model, the more valuable their investment, though they also had to be prepared to bid high in order to get their hands on a copy.

"There are differences between the three labels." Ves continued. "The gold label version is the most complex design in this product line and features the largest chest crystal that has received special treatment that makes it more effective. The silver label Crystal Lords that my company produced in-house is nearly identical to the gold label version, but incorporates very small amounts of simplification in its construction and will also host a smaller chest crystal, but will similarly benefit from special treatment."

"What's the performance difference?!"

"Both the silver and bronze label chest crystals are unable to hold as much energy, so they will reach their saturation at roughly half the amount. Their output will be similarly affected by the same proportion."

This put a slight damper on everyone's enthusiasm. A single beam with twice the power of a laser cannon was very impressive because it outputted a very high amount of thermal energy at once. This helped a lot in terms of penetrating heavily-armored opponents.

With a half-strength beam, this effect would be much less pronounced. Unless the mech pilot possessed supreme control, it would be impossible for two half-powered laser beams to hit the same spot on a moving target. The damage would certainly be spread out over a wider surface area.

Therefore, even if they outputted the same amount of energy, the effective damage differed remarkably. On the battlefield, these differences could become a matter of life and death.

"What's the use of this gimmick then?"

"Do not forget that it offers a remarkable amount of defense against directed energy weapons. The beams unleashed by the bronze and silver label Crystal Lords are still extremely powerful and can deliver a sucker punch to any opponent regardless of the expenditure of their laser rifles."