[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 152: Allure of Mechs

She continued her story. "Once I started hearing your name being bandied about by my fellow students, I suddenly had a thought. What kind of era are we living in these days? This is the Age of Mechs!"

Ves scrunched his face. "Huh?"

"You've lived a fairly privileged life, so you've been able to pursue a career with mechs without a problem. What about the rest? Do you know how much the local youths worship mechs? Everyone is a fan of mechs! However, not many people are able to get in touch with one. After the local potentates graduate from the junior academy, they're often forced to move off-planet or abandon their piloting career!"

Cloudy Curtain only hosted a handful of grassroots academies that only offered a limited curriculum. If potentates wish to develop their skills to the point of becoming a qualified mech pilot, they often had travel to a different planet in order to attend a more advanced academy. Not everyone could afford to do so.

Slowly, Ves started to understand her point. "I see what you mean. My sudden entry into Cloudy Curtain is a portent to a livelier mech scene. A single mech manufacturer can function as the central node of a nascent mech community. All the mech fans should be thankful of me for opening this door."

"Do you know which organization is the most popular among the young? It's actually the Whalers! They're the only game in town with lots of mechs. They also recruit heavily among the locals. This is why they've never lost support even if they've made a nuisance of themselves over the years. They're our very own folk heroes!"

In other words, even if the politicians detested them, they would never dare to chase them away. First, they couldn't beat them on the battlefield because the Whalers had way too many mechs, even if their quality left much to be desired.

Second, the Whalers were actually more popular than the Greens, White Doves and the Pioneers put together. Cloudy Curtainers generally never bothered with politics because it was boring as hell. In contrast, Walter's Whalers constantly flaunted their exploits with mechs. Ves had to admit that Mr. Walter acted very shrewdly by being so flamboyant.

"So you think we should adopt the same strategy as the Whalers? That sounds very expensive."

Even if most people knew he existed, that didn't mean anything on its own. Turning this awareness into action required a lot work. A publicity campaign could easily run into the billions of credits.

Still, Calsie kept her confident smile as she passed him a datapad that outlined her plan. Ves quickly skimmed over the documents. It contained two ambitious motions that could turn the tables on the rotten politicians who wanted to drive him away.

"As you can see, my outline calls for applying pressure to the ruling coalition from both the top and bottom. Pressure from any one direction won't affect them too much, but if they have to fight on multiple fronts, they'll be starting to feel the squeeze."

"I see that your first plan calls for partnering up with the gaming centers."

In order to play the best mech sims, potentates had to use an extremely expensive simulator pod. Gaming centers offered a convenient place for potentates to practice their skills without saddling them up with loads of debt. Most of the local gaming centers were actually franchises of established entertainment companies.

"Right." She nodded. "The most popular game at the moment is Iron Spirit. It turns out it offers an extensive set of privileges to game center operators. Every establishment has the right to designate a handful of mechs at each star tier as their trial mechs. Pilots are able to try them out without limit even if they haven't purchased them. This is is a great way for you to become an indispensable figure to the young."