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"About that.. do you remember the problem the LMC faces back home?"

"My mechs aren’t brainwashing my customers! They just like my mechs! That’s not a crime!"

"You sound just like the chief culprit of the Farund Affair. You’re repeating the exact same excuse!"

"That’s different! The Farund Affair literally involved rewiring the brains of mech pilots. My mechs do no such thing! The MTA can attest that the neural interfaces of my mechs are completely standard and unmodified!"

"That’s what the company has been telling the public over and over again, but you know how people are. Rumors and conspiracy theories have more sway than facts and expert opinion."

Both of them looked cross at this. No matter how they disliked this tendency, this was the nature of human behavior.

Companies exploited the emotions and biases of their customers all the time in order to milk as much money from them as possible.

The LMC could hardly complain when they were on the receiving end of irrational human behavior!

"I think the proof is in the pudding." Ves eventually spoke. "As long as my mechs continue to perform well in battle, I think much of the market will eventually lose their apprehension towards my products. A portion of the market will always be opposed to the LMC. That’s fine. As long as there are enough customers left who are receptive to our brand, we’ll sell plenty of more mechs."

"You have to make sure your mech finds a receptive audience in other markets as well."

Ves smirked. "I think we can at least count on the Ylvaine Protectorate to buy my new mech in droves."

Though he hadn’t engaged with the religious state since the three leading dynasties kicked him out, that didn’t mean his influence had subsided. The reforms he instigated were still going strong. No one forgot about the Bright Martyr, especially when the six Transcendent Messengers resonated so effectively with their faith.

"Bright Martyr or not, the Ylvaine Protectorate will only really adopt your mech if you adapt it to their tastes."

"Don’t worry. After I complete the base model, it won’t take much effort for me to develop a variant that we can exclusively market towards the Ylvainans."

Ves preferred to outsource this chore to others, but he didn’t have any subordinates he could trust to do a good job. His previous plan to recruit a local Ylvainan mech designer to develop variants of his base model had stalled.

Hiring skilled, competent and obedient mech designers was a lot harder than it sounded!

"If you adhere to your current design style, then I think your work will do just as well as your previous mech designs in most foreign markets." Gavin predicted. "We don’t have a major presence there anyway, so it doesn’t take much effort to surpass our current sales figures."

"Selling my new mechs in foreign markets is nice, but I won’t shed any tears if that isn’t possible. My biggest priority is servicing the Bright Republic’s mech market. Every other market comes second."

Ves knew that most of his mech designs possessed wide appeal. It was a trait he had been developing from the start.

Even so, he did not wish to stray from Brighter design principles in a misguided attempt to make his rifleman mech more universal.

After an extensive discussion, Ves collected a lot of feedback as well as a few tips and suggestions. Talking with Gavin always helped him gain a better perspective on how his mechs might fare on the market.

However, his assistant couldn’t help with every problem. Ves had to handle some of them on his own or with his fellow mech designers.

The initial criticism that Gavin brought up continued to linger after the assistant left the stateroom. Ves leaned back on his chair and tried to figure out how he could turn a generic mech concept into a compelling vision.

"Each of my mech designs is driven by a theme that gives them a unique personality."

The Blackbeak personified aggression and rebirth. The Crystal Lord yearned for power and dominance. The Aurora Titan exemplified defense and protection.

Even without the X-Factor, the overall design aspects of his prior works already reflected their strengths.

"The heart of a mech conforms to the strengths of a mech."

Since Ves hadn’t figured out the heart of his upcoming mech design, he should first look at its strengths to figure out his premise.

So what were the strengths of his upcoming mech?

"Cheap. Easy to pilot. Easy to produce. Easy to maintain. Specialized against fighting sandmen. And uhhh... what else?"

That didn’t really sound like much, but Ves had worked with worse. The Enduring Protector came to mind.

The issue that Ves had with this list of traits was that it all sounded rather weak. It was very difficult to boast about designing a cheap and easy mech that offered an attractive price-to-performance ratio against sandman fleets!

"At least with the Blackbeak I can point out how suited it is for long engagements." He muttered. "As for my upcoming rifleman mech, what am I supposed to say? My mech is the best cannon fodder in the market? That won’t go over well."

Ves had to paint his new mech design in a good light without detracting from its basic qualities. The strengths he listed out were always going to be the fundamental selling points of his upcoming product.

Despite leaning on his overactive imagination, he failed to come up with a compelling idea. Ves figured he had spent enough time on his project and needed a break in order to gain inspiration.

He frowned and rubbed his forehead. "Although I have to design my rifleman mech as fast as possible, I can’t rush the creative process. I have to set a solid vision before I proceed with the next steps. If my starting point is flawed, the rest of my work will go astray. I can’t let that happen!"

Since he temporarily halted his work on his project, Ves looked for other ways to keep himself busy. His thoughts quickly wandered to a latent danger that he’d been neglecting for a couple of days.

"I still haven’t done anything about the Ancient Sarcophagus." He frowned.

It cost the equivalent of 20 billion credits for Finlay to obtain Item #1255 on his behalf. Stalling his investigation of the red crystalline coffin for so long was starting to get ridiculous!

"I can’t outrun my fears forever!"

The apprehension he felt towards the Ancient Sarcophagus continued to build up during the time he spent on his latest design project. Just as he predicted, it became harder and harder for him to think about trying to investigate the weird alien artifact.

"I’m running out of time. If I continue to stall, I’ll reach a point where I’m unable to bring myself to approach this coffin!"

Something weird was taking place! Ves didn’t believe his psychological fear emerged organically. He heavily suspected that the Ancient Sarcophagus deliberately influenced his mentality!

"Is this the reason why its previous owners put it up for auction?" He mused. "Hardly any treasure hunters are willing to let go of such a fantastic find under ordinary circumstances."

Though Ves held fears like any humans, he also valued his courage. Since when did he let an unknown risk hold him back from pursuing greater benefits? His current attitude towards the Ancient Sarcophagus did not match his ordinary mindset!

Ves slammed his desk with his fist. "It’s decided! I’ll start my investigation today! No more stalling!"

He rose from his desk, picked up Lucky and immediately left his stateroom with Nitaa quietly on his heels. He hastily marched towards the vault of the Barracuda and entered it after passing all of the security measures.

Once inside, he turned towards Nitaa. "What I’m about to do might be dangerous. Try to refrain from intervening unless I call for help or if I look really bad, is that clear?"

His bodyguard didn’t look pleased. "If you’re about to investigate the Ancient Sarcophagus, I highly suggest you wait. There is hardly any crew on hand on the Barracuda who can help you if anything goes wrong. We don’t have a doctor, which is what I consider the minimum of what is necessary to guard against accidents."

"I can’t wait that long." Ves dismissively waved his hand and turned away. "Besides, if I ever sustain an injury during this investigation, a doctor won’t be able to treat my wounds."

Ves strongly believed that his investigation amounted to a contest of spirit.

Since that was the case, he needed to rely on spiritual means in order to succeed. Before he drew out the Ancient Sarcophagus, he first drew out his spiritual lockbox.

Contained within sat a P-stone which he recently started dumping his excess spiritual energy every day. After several days of accumulation, it held a decent reserve of backup energy which Ves could draw upon in case he fell up short.

Alongside the P-stone, he also drew out his sole F-stone from his vault. He had been refraining from doing anything to the F-stone because he only possessed a single sample of this spiritually-reactive exotic.

Its ability to augment his spiritual energy with a charge and an extra offensive attribute might come in handy if things went awry.

Lastly, he drew out the Ancient Sarcophagus, though currently it rested inside a container. Ves moved all of the objects he drew out from the vault and brought them to the Barracuda’s lab compartment.

Once there, Ves drew out the Ancient Sarcophagus from its container and placed it in a shielded chamber.

With his P-Stone, B-Stone and F-Stone within reach, Ves believed he prepared enough tools for his upcoming operation.

After exchanging one long look with Nitaa, Ves settled down on his chair with Lucky hovering nearby and began to concentrate his mind.

As soon as he settled in the right mode, he began to observe the Ancient Sarcophagus with his spiritual vision.

It looked as bright, warm and active as ever. While Ves did not perceive any increased activity since last time, his inexplicable fear towards the strange object had abruptly grown more pronounced.

The more he looked at the coffin, the more his intuition starting blaring alarms.

Something incredibly dangerous rested inside the coffin! Ves might regret it if he tried to peek inside!

"Ah, whatever! I’m a Larkinson! I’ve never been afraid to take a little risk! Let’s go!"

Instead of letting his fears and doubts wear down his determination to investigate the Ancient Sarcophagus, he decisively pulled the trigger and sent extended a powerful spiritual projection towards the alien object.

The only way to defeat the fear of the unknown was to shed its veil of secrecy and cast a light on the truth!

As soon as his spiritual projection encountered the red crystal, Ves immediately felt the familiar sensation of becoming mired in a swamp. The exterior material of the crystal coffin reminded him of the murky sensation of trying to pass his spiritual projection through a thin layer of B-stone.

Nonetheless, unlike a genuine B-stone, the red crystal did not block spiritual energy as effectively.

His spiritual projection continued to sink through the red crystal material. The further it reached, the more he began to sense an uncomfortable spiritual sensation.

Though the crystal material substantially dampened his spiritual senses, he nonetheless detected that something deep inside was beginning to stir...