The Mech Touch

nipulate the senses of the audience to their liking.

Right now, the lights in the main hall had dimmed down.
Aside from lighting the emergency exits and Ves himself, hardly any details could be seen.
Curtains currently blocked their sight of what lay behind.

Ves ”Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Grand Skyward.
My name is Ves Larkinson, and you may have heard of me.
Over the last couple of months, I have worked together with the esteemed Professor Corus Ventag on a joint design project that incorporates features that are rarely seen in mechs currently on offer.
Today, the LMC and NORA Consolidated is proud to present to you an innovative new mech design! ”

The curtains behind his back slowly drew back, revealing the outlines of five huge objects.
The relative darkness in the chamber prevented the audience from seeing the mechs in their full glory.
However, even the faint backlight that outlined their contours was enough to suggest that they were considerably large mechs!

As soon as the curtains parted, the audience already sensed something remarkable about the mechs! A strong, formless aura emanated from the mechs.
All of the gold label mechs possessed an identical X-Factor, with the mech at the center exerting the strongest effect.

All five of their auras blended together, amplifying their effects on the minds and spirit of the audience members.

Even Professor Pendleton at the front row looked discomfited for a short moment before he wiped the confusion off his face.

Ves smiled as he noticed that the auras accomplished their intended effect.
These machines were the closest things to living mechs that he had ever designed and fabricated! With the Aurora Titan ’s potent A-grade X-Factor, how could its effect on average, spiritually weak humans be negligible?

From the start, Ves intended to take advantage of this property to manipulate the audience to his side.
The threat of Professor Pendleton standing up to badmouth the Aurora Titan only increased the importance of this measure!

Even if Professor Pendleton won the upcoming argument on facts and logic, how could the audience ever be convinced by them when their mood and emotions overwhelmingly became impressed by the mechs?

The upcoming verbal battle was not meant to force either Ves or Professor Pendleton to admit their wrongs.
Mech designers could be rather stubborn people especially if it came to their own work.

No, their actual goal was to get the audience on their side.
As long as Professor Pendleton managed to work the entire crowd against the Aurora Titan, then the live broadcasts and subsequent footage could be used to hammer the Aurora Titan over and over again until practically nobody would dare to buy the mech for fear of inviting ridicule!

Yet even without revealing the full appearances of the five show models, Ves already gained an inestimable advantage.
Tens of thousands of attendees already became mesmerized by the strong compelling aura emanating from the five mechs looming at the rear of the stage!

”What is a mech? ” Ves rhetorically asked while stroking Lucky ’s back.
The cat had garnered some attention as well.
”A mech is a fighting machine.
We all know that.
Yet I believe that they can be something more.
My company and I believe that mechs carry an intrinsic quality that goes beyond their technical performance on the battlefield.
Don ’t believe me? Then what about the mechs you see behind me? Can you really call them lifeless machines that are only meant to be used as tools? ”

The audience went completely still.
Even if someone farted loudly or something, the systems running in the background would make sure to not only suppress that sound, but suck away the awful odor before it went on to disturb the people sitting next to the offending farter!

The silence seemed to magnify the unusual pressure in the air.
To Ves, it appeared that his remarkable mechs responded to his meaning!

The Aurora Titan wanted to become a success as much as Ves! No mech design wanted to remain forgotten and unused!

Ves grinned as the dramatic pauses and the other little tricks continued to sway the crowd to his words.
Even though he was cheating by taking advantage of the strong auras of his best mechs to date, he nonetheless gained a lot of confidence, and it showed.

He leisurely petted his cat while he continued his opening statement.
”As the lead designer of the mech design that I ’m about to reveal to you, I am proud to say that it is an innovative product with no equal in the mech market.
In coming up with the mech concept, I questioned every assumption that many mech designers take for granted and reevaluated them according to their individual merits.
This has led to a radical vision for a new mech that is incredibly suitable in both the current mech generation and the next mech generation! ”

Anticipating music began to play in the massive chamber.
Vibrations emanating from the air and from the seats helped build up everyone ’s expectations!

”Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the LMC and NORA Consolidated ’s latest mech design, the Aurora Titan AT-A-01! ”

A huge glow of bright light washed over the five Aurora Titans from above right at the climax of the music!

As people ’s vision adjusted to the sudden brightness, they beheld the splendor of the Aurora Titans in full!

At least half of the crowd gasped in surprise.
Others showed milder reactions that nevertheless hinted at their amazement of the mechs!

The tantalizing hints that Ves fed the crowd had not prepared them to the full sight of the mechs! The Shield of Samar and its four sibling mechs of the same model finally showed themselves to the crowd, to the Bright Republic and to anyone else who was watching the live broadcast!

After more than seven months of development and design work, the Aurora Titan design finally made its debut to the mech market!

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