The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5599

Chapter 5599 Rhinoceros Beetle

Once Ves had opened his big mouth, he immediately shifted the entire dynamic of this negotiation!

Ves did not want to scare Micky Tarukan away. The Rubarthan CEO displayed a decent amount of sincerity and truly sought to cooperate with the Larkinsons.

However, accepting the initial deal was an insult to Ves. It was only equitable if it applied to Ves in his current form.

What about the future? What if he advanced to the rank of Master Mech Designer? What if his products became even more popular?

Though the deal still remained lucrative to Ves if his mech models gained more popularity, he wasn't satisfied with getting a cut of all of the profits.

Through his years of operating in the frontier,, he had gradually learned that control and ownership was just as important as money.

A profitable venture that Ves did not control in one fashion or another was not a reliable source of income!

So long as every aspect of Isthmus Manufacturing remained under the control of other shareholders, then the company would always work towards satisfying the interests of other parties!

This looked like an exploitative relationship to Ves. He had no objections to such arrangements when he was still a small fry, but his status had changed a lot since his Apprentice and Journeyman days.

As far as he was concerned, Isthmus Manufacturing should feel lucky and honored to get in business with the LMC!

Ves refused to believe that the large and reputable Rubarthan company failed to make a proper calculus on his future value.

It was entirely reasonable for Ves to ask for a handful of shares in this situation.

Yet he did not want to obtain a token amount of shares. Owning 0.01, 0.1 or even 1 percent of the mech manufacturer mostly held a symbolic meaning.

If he wanted to enact any real change, then he had to work hard to persuade the other institutional investors to side with his plan, and that was an exponentially difficult ordeal that he would have to repeat all over again if he wanted to implement another measure.

Everything would change once the Larkinsons started to gain a 10 percent, 15 percent or 20 percent stake in the company.

Though it still fell far short of gaining a voting majority in the company, becoming a top 10 shareholder meant that the board of directors could no longer ignore the interests of the Larkinson Clan!

Ves would definitely face a lot less resistance if he wanted Isthmus to follow a new plan as the other big shareholders could not dismiss him as easily as before.

In short, there were many obvious reasons for Ves to be more assertive, but he had just taken an especially risky step!

He originally did not want to pull out the cat statue and boast about his ties to the Destroyer of Worlds.

While he could certainly see that his display had taken Tarukan aback, powerful leaders rarely responded well to intimidation.

Even if Ves was able to coerce a much more lopsided agreement out of the chief executive, what would other people think?

Micky Tarukan may be in charge of all of the operations of the large mech manufacturer, but he was ultimately just a lackey of the true owners and controllers of the company.

The people that Ves actually needed to win over were all of the parties that stood behind Isthmus Manufacturing.

He did not think that he could make this happen by showing off his totem. It was just a dormant object that only stored a lot of spiritual energy donated by Emma. That was hardly equivalent to a direct endorsement from the Destroyer of Worlds.

Even if the god pilot made a personal appearance and vouched for Ves, that did not necessarily mean that the shareholders would be willing to dilute their shares and reduce their ownership in a highly profitable company!

The New Rubarth Empire did not work like the Garlen Empire. The Rubarthan Pact might transition into a superstate run by warlords one day, but it had a strong tradition of imposing strict limits on god pilots.

It was unthinkable for a Rubarthan god pilot to swoop in and demand a company to issue trillions of MTA credits worth of stock only to pass them over for free!

Even if no one tried to stop such a massive transaction, Ves knew that as long as he resorted to this extreme measure, he would ruin most if not all of his good reputation and credibility in the business sector!

From that point onwards, he would incur losses and opportunity costs that eventually exceeded the relatively small gains he made in an earlier period!

If Ves wanted to make the deal more equitable and easier to stomach, he needed to offer Isthmus and its current shareholders a massive contribution that approximated the value of 20 percent ownership.

He just came up with the right idea.

It looked as if the entire heavy artillery mech was built around an exaggeratingly large and powerful gauss cannon. The machine had to be supported by six heavy legs that extended quite far from the torso in order to produce a stable firing platform.

The 4 heavy artillery cannons that extended from the shell-like back of the Supremo Project looked like afterthoughts in comparison.

It was not because they were weak. They packed quite a punch and would have appeared a lot more dangerous on a more reasonable heavy artillery mech design. Depending on the shells they loaded, the 4 heavy artillery cannons could demolish entire city blocks.

They just did not have any extreme properties that allowed them to catch up to the lethality of the main cannon.

The 4 explosive cannons were the Supremo Project's equivalent of secondary armament!

"Wait." Tarukan began to pick up other clues. "Your heavy artillery mech design is clearly your work. Your design style is too distinctive for me to miss. However, the selection and application of components and modules is much different than your clan's usual approach. It is much cleaner and more standardized. The degree of optimization of this mech design is noticeably greater than what I have observed from your Fey Fianna. You collaborated with a Master Mech Designer on this project. Combined with the information that you have supplied before, Master Decimus Horst of Davute must be the second lead designer of this mech design project."

Ves looked mildly impressed. It was not exactly difficult for other mech designers to figure this out, but the fact that a business executive managed to piece this together so quickly was quite remarkable.

"You are correct. The Supremo Project is originally a commissioned work that I was about ready to submit to the original client. I recently updated it after I had a meeting with the Destroyer of Worlds. I requested and received explicit permission from Her Divinity to apply an aspect of her great power onto any suitable mech designs. The Supremo Project is the first but certainly not the last that will benefit from her generosity."

The chief executive clearly gained a lot more interest in the Supremo Project after hearing this revelation.

"This mech design..."

Ves manipulated the projection to create a better view on its imposing cannons. "I can promise you that whenever the Supremo Project opens fire with its armament, the mech will unleash an attack that is magnified by a minute amount of power bestowed by the Destroyer of Worlds. Do not underestimate this minor contribution. Her involvement can substantially amplify the firepower of any attack, most particularly the explosive shells."

Even though the mech only had four heavy artillery cannons, they should easily be able to inflict as much damage as six cannons or more with the help of Emma!

"For what purpose did you present this mech design to me?" Tarukan asked. "This is a private commission. You are likely breaching your contract by revealing it to an uninvolved party."

Ves smirked as he did not take this warning seriously in the slightest.

"Who says you will remain uninvolved? If I am being honest, the original set of commissions that I have agreed to fulfill with a certain state has become outdated. Too much has changed since I signed the original agreement. I have long been thinking about renegotiating this annoying contract, but now that you are here, I have a better idea. I want you to make a deal with Davute related to my commissions. If you can persuade Davute to transfer them to Isthmus Manufacturing with my permission, you will gain the right to fabricate and sell the Supremo Project to many eager citizens of the Rubarthan Pact. Are you interested, Mr. Tarukan?"