To finish the virtual design, Ves had to fabricate a copy personally. He quickly rushed the fabrication within half a day, which was only made possible due to the outdated technology and the state-of-the-art virtual equipnt provided by the ga.
Ves quickly let the System evaluate his design, but didn’t pay much attention to it besides the extra DP he got from finishing the design. The paraters of Lady Death’s Heel looked quite good, but it wouldn’t astound anyone who ca across this strange-looking aerial ch.
Most of the draw ca from the design’s strange and extre mode of delivering death from above. Ves hoped that players would take a serious look at this design once they ca across its distinctive profile or got wrecked by it in matches.
Unfortunately, Crazy War Criminal’s lack of reputation sent his virtual design at the bottom of the heap as soon as Ves published the design. An uncountable amount of designs flooded Iron Spirit each day, and it would take an extraordinary ch to catch fire from out of nowhere.
Even with his peculiar design, Ves had to compete against even crazier eccentric designs that ch designers cooked up on their own.
Still, Ves already had an answer for this problem. He spent the remaining millions of credits in his second account for a short but intense automated ad campaign.
One of the ways in which Iron Spirit made money was to accept paid advertising for their in-ga market spaces. Although people only barely paid attention to any form of advertising these days, the exposure alone helped increase the odds that soone would stumble upon it and decide to purchase his product on an impulse.
Naturally, he set the prices to the minimum possible. Ves did not seek out a profit at all, nor did he wish to cultivate a reputation for quality and class. The price range of his products indirectly indicated its status, and Ves sotis raised his prices higher than the minimum in order to make a better impression on the crowd.
Not this ti, though. He wanted to lower the purchasing barrier as much as possible in order to harvest a quick sum of DP.
"Well, now that I’ve published the design and spent so money on advertising, my job is done. Now it’s up to the market and the player base to see whether my new design catches on."
It was an unconventional ch for sure, but Ves held a decent amount of confidence in its appeal. Even if his buyers maintained a little bit of doubt, once they hopped into the cockpit, the Impaling Bird’s instincts that suffused the design’s X-Factor should quickly influence their perceptions.
A wicked smile appeared on his face as he thought about the impact that would make. He would have never dared to pull off such a stunt with his physical chs. One of the most dominant traits of humanity was that they utilized their smarts on the battlefield. Patience, guile and strategy ford the mainstays of their martial prowess.
One reason why humanity predominantly preferred humanoid chs was because it afforded them the flexibility to employ different approaches.
Ves basically threw all of those complicated considerations away when he designed the Lady Death’s Heel. It destroyed its opponents through a combination of two one-dinsional attack modes.
The first strike dealt a crippling blow from above, and the second strike delivered the coup-de-grace.
As long as sothing went wrong, the Heel would fall in a precarious situation. The lack of legs ant that if its flight system got crippled, it would lose all forms of mobility.
At least other aerial chs could still use their legs to function as a downgraded landbound ch. Not so for the Heel as its pair of legs had been replaced by a single broad spike that provided the ch with no form of locomotion at all.
"Well, it’s not like people care that much in a virtual setting."
What worked on a physical battlefield might not work in a virtual battlefield, and vica versa. Ves prided himself on his understanding of the ch market. Although he couldn’t match the breadth and wealth of Marcella Bollinger’s market pulse, he always paid attention to these sort of things.
Ves left the Lady Death’s Heel to the whims of the market and went on to prepare for the next design phase. He already possessed quite a lot of knowledge, but he hadn’t bought any licenses yet, nor gathered any specific knowledge on how to design a laser rifleman ch.
He proceeded to spend the next couple of days on borrowing so relevant books from the Clifford Society’s Moon Library. Although he valued his rits very much, the books he borrowed provided extrely valuable first-hand experiences of ch designers trying to design complete rifleman chs from scratch.
The knowledge contained in these books would benefit each and every ranged ch he designed from this point on, so Ves considered the rits to be well-spent.
"If I’m ever short on rits, I can just do another mission."
Even though most of the Clifford Society’s missions ca with danger, as long as he could shore up the Avatars of Myth into a competent personal force, he could handle the risks.
Ves quietly worked for several days without checking his sales figures. He didn’t wish to procrastinate over each and every sale, and decided to take the initial waiting period as a much-needed break.
When he beca bored, he diverted so attention into browsing the MTA’s list of component licenses. After finishing his draft design, he had a pretty good idea on what kind of component licenses he needed to acquire to round up his rifleman ch.
He especially paid a lot of attention to different laser rifle models. The weapon model had to be modular and open to extre adjustnts. He disdained the rifle models that ca with all sorts of gimmicks and bells and whistles. He was content with a basic rifle with a solid design that didn’t cost too much to fabricate.
After four days of placid research, Ves finally couldn’t contain himself any longer. He went back to the terminal and logged in with his second identity. He then visited his Crazy War Criminal’s store page and looked at the amount of sales.
"Nine-thousand sales! What?!"
To many ch designers, achieving nine-thousand virtual sales sounded nothing impressive. They could easily achieve such a feat in their sleep. These days, Ves would also be able to reach such a height with his primary identity.
However, to achieve nine-thousand sales in four days with a completely unknown account was sothing else. Perhaps the handful of millions of credits in advertising money achieved so results, but Ves knew very well that the Lady Death’s Heel only fulfilled a tiny niche.
Ves browsed the comnts of the Heel’s product page and found that most of the players left extrely positive and extrely negative comnts.
Those who evaluated his model positively turned out to be those that bought a virtual copy.
"DEATH TO ALL N!"
"This is my favorite 3-star ch of all ti! It’s so womanly! I feel gorgeous piloting this ch, and it feels great to stab a man’s head from above, before crushing the area between their legs with the nifty hamr! I love it that it has enough reach to do so!"
"Nutcracker! Nutcracker! Nutcracker!"
"In my professional opinion as an amateur ch pundit, this is the ultimate female empowernt ch. Crazy War Criminal is obviously hell-bent on exterminating n, and has co up with this man-hating ch for the sole purpose of putting the brutes in place. I approve!"
The comnts provided Ves with a very colored picture. Evidently, most of his buyers had actually been won. As for the n, they posted extrely negative comnts in order to discourage anyone from buying this controversial ch.
"Don’t buy this ch! It’s ugly! Its legs are too tiny and its butt is too fat! Look at that chest, there’s hardly any weight in them! If you want to look like an ugly pear, be my guest, but if you want to look pretty, go elsewhere!"
"I hate this ch! This is a disgrace of an aerial ch! Where is the balance?! My swordsman ch can’t do anything but wait for death once this ch decides to pick out as its target! It’s opening strike alone is enough to split my ch in half!"
"Any n who pilots this ch is a disgrace to all n! You gender traitors might as well hand over your man cards and undergo a gender change operation, because you’re not welco among us anymore!"
"Ouch! My nuts! This ch is the living embodint of an enemy of man! It’s a flying war cri that seeks to impale n’s behinds and crush their fronts whenever they get the chance to do so! This plague of a ch must be stopped!"
The amount of controversy his latest virtual design had sparked completely overshadowed its initial appeal. Sohow, his ch had turned into a focal point of gender conflict.
Ves scratched his head. He never anticipated such an outco. He underestimated the frustration of the victims and the passion of its pilots.
"Let take a look at so footage."
Ves browsed so public recordings and played them back, focusing only on the highlights. Ti after ti, the Lady Death’s Heel dove into their victims from the air.
In the first day, the early adopters struggled to hit their targets. They often found their chs to be difficult to control during a high-speed dive. Over ti, they got the hang of it though, and when they hit their opponents, they almost always managed to cripple them. The convenient hamr that ca with the chs always ensured their targets died.
It was only from the second day onwards that the gender disparity began to widen. The female pilots turned into screeching banshees as they openly taunted their opponents on the open channel.
They even started to dive on their opponents in a shallower angle. Instead of aiming for the head or shoulders of their targets, they instead attempted to impale the lower waist whenever possible.
Front or back, it didn’t matter, but it was an unprecedented humiliation for any man to allow a woman to jump their chs in that kind of fashion.
The Lady Death’s Heel quickly gained a reputation for being a maneating ch! Won began to flock to the model while the n tried to stay as far away from the ch as they could.
The local players already started keeping a vigilant eye on the skies. As soon as they spotted an aerial ch, they instantly unleashed every bit of firepower they possessed. They could not let the maneating ch co close!
Ves simply laughed when he saw the polarizing responses to the rise of his ch. All the bluster and energy surrounding his ch would quickly disappear once the fad had blown over. Behind all of the shouting and hating, Ves carefully studied the actual battle performance of the Heel.
Besides a number of talented female pilots, the rest of his buyers hadn’t been able to make the most out of their purchases. The Lady Death’s Heel could destroy any ch in an instant, but it was incredibly difficult to line up all of the conditions.
In fact, many of his custors actually dropped in their rankings.
Still, the design did its job. Ves easily harvested a bucket load of DP. He earned 5 DP every ti he sold a 3-star virtual ch. His near-empty DP balance increased by more than 45,000 DP in a matter of days, and would reach the 50,000 DP cap on earnings before tomorrow.
Ves sowhat regretted designing a 3-star ch. 50,000 DP used to be a fortune to him, but the more he progressed, the more he needed to spend to climb even higher.
"I need millions of DP to upgrade my Vulcaneye and my comm augnts."
He relied on his Privacy Shield and the Full Stealth augnt for so long that he wanted to improve their capabilities. Ves only bought the entry-level versions so far, and to extend their durations, he needed to accumulate a lot more DP than he had earned up to this point.
"That’s going to take a while."
In any case, Ves earned more than enough DP to embark on his next task. A shudder ran through his spine as he looked forward at what his next Mastery would bring.
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