Sales of the Desolate Soldiers shot higher and higher. As did the sales for the Holy Soldier.

The introduction of the Prideful Soldier opened up a third meteoric sales run. Many outfits and organizations who found the Desolate Soldiers to be uncomfortable finally received a viable alternative.

The lower price point along with the aggressive, prideful aura became an instant hit among gangs and underground organizations!

The Soldier product line was on track to become the defining mechs of the Sand War. Due to the product line's cost efficiency, auras, proliferation in the media and the Stripes of Humanity, the LMC heavily overperformed to the point that the industry started to compare them to companies run by Seniors!

The LMC contracted an unprecedented number of third-party manufacturers to meet the astronomic demand of the local mech markets. Pretty much every state under threat and even the states not under threat began to harken for the Desolate Soldier model or its variants.

With the Militant Soldier and the Peaceful Soldier halfway to completion, Ves anticipated an even greater boost of sales!

In the second month of the Desolate Soldier's release, the LMC and its partners already shipped almost 200,000 mechs!

200,000 mechs! That was an immense figure that completely blew the sales figures of the LMC's older mech models out of the water!

Though there were already signs that the sales for the Desolate Soldier had reached a high point, it stood to reason that the LMC earned an immense amount of money!

"Sadly, inflation keeps getting worse." He muttered.

In the first month since the Desolate Soldier's release, inflation averaged at around 10 percent.

In the second month, inflation had already approached 20 percent, which meant that everyone's savings and cash accumulations were worth that much less!

The consequences of inflation reached far and wide, disrupting nearly every aspect of the regional economy. Both mech manufacturers such as the LMC and average people felt the pain of rising prices and decreasing discretionary incomes.

When the Desolate Soldier model first went on sale, a bronze label edition could be bought for 20 million bright credits.

Now, the same mech sold for 26.4 million credits. Inflation grew so significantly each day that the LMC was forced to correct its list prices every day!

Even though the LMC's monthly earnings surpassed 100 billion credits due to high sales volumes and rich license fees, the actual value of these piles as cash was not as immense as everyone hoped!

"The rate of inflation tracks the growth of prices from a huge and diverse basket of goods and services." Ves reminded himself. "Some products have outpaced the rate of inflation, and they just happen to be the ones that we need the most!"

He could outright forget about buying a starship unless he promised to fork over ten times the price. Even a second-hand rust bucket built in the time when his grandfather was born suddenly became as expensive as a light carrier!

If not for the immense scale of the mech industry, the prices of mechs would have outpaced the rate of inflation as well!

While inflation brought plenty of bad news, Ves recognized an unanticipated benefit from this recent development.

Didn't the rise in prices mean that the System awarded him with even more DP than before?

His eyes widened! He shot out from his bed in his mansion, grabbed Lucky who was staring at him creepily and raced towards his bathroom!

Once he sat down at his toilet and activated the necessary security precautions, he activated the System.

"Come on, come on, gimme more DP!" He hollered excitingly.

The System took an unusually long time to boot up. It was as if it was prolonging its user's anticipation!

After a minute, the System finally booted up. A notification instantly popped up but Ves swiped it aside.

"Status!"

All he cared about right now was ascertaining how much DP he earned in the last few months!

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Journeyman Mech Designer

Specializations: Spiritual Man-Machine Symbiosis

Design Points: 1,183,622

Attributes

Strength: 1.6

Dexterity: 1.6

Endurance: 2.0

Intelligence: 2.2

Creativity: 2.1

Concentration: 2.1

Spirituality: 1.8

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly]: Journeyman - [3D Printer Proficiency IV] - [Assembler Proficiency IV] - [Masterwork Mech Assembly I]

[Battle Mechatronics]: Apprentice - [Knight Mech Mastery I] - [Rifleman Mech Mastery I] - [Space Knight Mastery I] - [Hero Mech Mastery I] - [Custom Mech Design II]

[Business]: Apprentice

[Computer Science]: Journeyman - [Mech Hacking II]

[Electrical Engineering]: Journeyman - [Structural Pathway Configuration IV] - [Energy Storage IV] - [Conductors III] - [Ultracompact Energy Storage I]

[Materials Science]: Journeyman - [Crystallography III] - [Crystal Laser Propagation II] - [Lithic Materials I]

[Mathematics]: Journeyman - [Simulations IV]

[Mechanics]: Senior - [Jury Rigging IV] - [Speed Tuning IV] - [Mechanical Fault Detection I] - [Fine Motion Control I]

[Metallurgy]: Senior - [Alloy Compression III] - [Fixed Armor Specialization III] - [Flexible Armor Specialization I] - [Smart Metal IV] - [ASMAS III] - [Internal Structure Specialization I]

[Metaphysics]: Apprentice - [X-Factor IV] - [Spiritual Senses II] - [Spiritual Exploration I] - [Spiritual Manipulation II] - [Spiritual Engineering II]

[Interfacing]: Novice

[Physics]: Senior - [Directed Energy Weapon Optimization III] - [Gamma Laser Weapons I] [Lightweight Armor Optimization II] - [Mediumweight Armor Optimization IV] - [Melee Weapon Optimization IV] - [Polarizing Shielding II] - [Rapid-Fire Laser Weapon Operation II] - [Optics III] - [Ballistic Weapon Optimization IV]

[Propulsion]: Journeyman - [Flight Systems IV]

[Salvaging]: Apprentice - [Field Repairs III]

[Signals and Communications]: Journeyman - [Anti-Stealth Detection II]

[Stealth and Cloaking]: Novice

Abilities

[Superpublish]: Available. Can be activated once a year.

[Inventorize]: Unavailable.

Evaluation: A qualified Journeyman Mech Designer with developing spiritual abilities.

"Over 1 million DP! Hahahaha! I'm rich!"

Ves practically went into an ecstasy when he saw how much his DP he earned since he lasted activated the System!

"Meow?" Lucky titled his head as he lay in the washbowl of the bathroom.

"Hahahahaha—wait a minute! Shouldn't it be more?"

The LMC sold well over 200,000 units of mechs these past two months. Even though much of the mechs had been produced by third-party manufacturers, they still adhered to his design, which meant the System still recognized them as his own.

The System used the full sales price of the mech to determine how much DP Ves was entitled to receive. Even if the mech sold at a loss, Ves would still gain in DP because the System did not take expenses into account.

According to the formula the System used to calculate his DP earnings, 1 million bright credits corresponded to 1 Design Point.

Ves did not need to draw upon his Journeyman-level Mathematics Skill to know that 200,000 mechs that sold for at least 20 million bright credits each corresponded to more than 4,000,000 DP!

In fact, it should have been even greater due to the consequences of inflation!

"Where is my missing 3 million DP! Answer me System!" Ves roared at the System comm.

As usual, the System didn't respond at all, but Ves wasn't satisfied with the lack of answers!

He removed the comm from his System and slammed it against his toilet bowl!

Fortunately, Ketis designed his toilet to be extraordinarily resilient. Made with expensive exotics, it took a mech to inflict actual damage to the toilet bowl!

Loud impact noises echoed loudly in the bathroom as Ves attempted to force an answer from the System!

After the twentieth strike, Ves subsided a bit. There was no point tormenting the System like this. With how exceptional his System comm looked, it was probably tougher than his toilet bowl at this point!

"Wasn't there a notification at the start?" He suddenly recalled.

Ves manipulated the System's interface until he came back to the message he initially brushed off in his haste to view his Status.

[Congratulations for earning 1,000,000 Design Points from a single mech design! Reaching this pivotal achievement marks the end of your introductory period.

The Mech Designer System has observed your growth and improvement throughout your usage of the various services made available to you. Your progress during your introductory period has been deemed adequate.

As a reward for passing the introductory period, the Mech Designer System now deems you an approved user.

Becoming an approved user means that your usage rights have been expanded. The following changes will be enacted as a result of your change in status:

An approved user can extend or revoke access to the Mech Designer System to other mech designers.

An approved user must exchange 1,000,000 Design Points to extend access of the Mech Designer System to other users.

The Mech Designer System will not refund the Design Points when access is revoked. The full amount must be exchanged again to extend access to the same guest user again.

Guest users who have been granted access to the Mech Designer System cannot earn Design Points.

Guest users can only spend Design Points from the account of the approved user that has given them access.

An approved user will no longer be eligible to earn Design Points under the subsidized awarding scheme.

From this point onwards, an approved user can only earn Design Points upon designing a mech and making notable achievements such as creation masterwork mechs. The Mech Designer System has adjusted the awarding formulas as a result.

Skills from the Skill Tree and items from the Shop will no longer be offered at subsidized terms.

Please endeavor to complete the Supply Missions issued to you to improve the current terms of exchange.]

Ves practically puked blood at this incredibly shocking announcement!

What introductory period?

What subsidized awarding scheme?

"Are you messing with me, System?! At least give me back my 3 million Design Points!"

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

This time, Ves slammed the System comm against his toilet bowl for three straight minutes! Abusing it for one minute for every million DP he missed out on did nothing to relieve his heartache!

"Meow!"

Lucky was so alarmed as Ves' insane behavior that he floated all the way up to the ceiling of the bathroom!

After some time, Ves finally grew tired of tantrums. He wearily inspected the System's interface in order to see what kind of benefits he received as an approved user.

[Mech Designer System Menu]

Status

Designer

Missions

Skill Tree

Shop

Lottery

Inventory

Access Management

He ran down the menus one by one and tried to see what changed.

The Designer suite had expanded. The System offered him a lot more tools while empowering the existing ones to offer him more assistance.

Ves hardly cared about this benefit because it wasn't wise to use the Designer in the company of others.

Missions remained unchanged, and so did Inventory.

Shop and Skill Tree experienced major changes. Ves could only obtain some of the items and goods on offer if he met certain prerequisites.

The amount of DP he needed to exchange for a Skill had also been increased! In fact, the prices would increase even further as Ves accumulated more and more Skills and Sub-Skills, as if the System discouraged him from overloading his mind with too much irrelevant knowledge!

What alarmed Ves quite a bit was that while he could continue to upgrade his existing Skills and Sub-Skills, he already reached the limit of what he could learn!

In fact, according to the System, he overdrafted his current limitations, which meant that at this moment, he couldn't buy anything else!

His nagging suspicion from before that he couldn't accumulate an endless amount of knowledge had been proven right!

"How can I expand the amount of Skills I can learn?!"

[Please complete your Supply Missions or increase your Intelligence to raise this limit.]

"Is this your revenge on me for neglecting your Supply Missions?!" Ves shouted. "How am I supposed to learn anything new?! Is my mind full?!"

[This limit does not apply to self-learned knowledge.]

Ves relaxed a bit. He was not without options. The limit on accumulating Skills only applied to knowledge exchanged from the System, so he could still expand his knowledge base if he hit the books.

He continued to inspect the System by checking out Lottery. He noticed that all the lower-tier lottery tickets had been removed. The only offering available to him at the moment was a golden lottery ticket, and the System charged him a whopping 500,000 DP to exchange a single ticket!

"What a ripoff! How am I supposed to earn so much DP now that you are no longer awarding me any points for selling my mechs?!"

[An approved user and mech designer must rely on their own achievements to achieve success. The Mech Designer System has generously eased your growth by lowering many requirements and offering various subsidies. As a result, a substantial deficit in energy has arisen which must be addressed to ensure the continued functioning of the Mech Designer System.]

"Does that mean this whole 'approved user' nonsense is nothing more than an excuse meant to cut back on what I can exchange from you, System!?"

[Please contact customer support if you require any assistance.]

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!