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The stall in front of him sold nothing but pieces of ore . None of them shone in the light, but some of them possessed a subtle charm that somehow attracted his attention .
"Welcome, dear customer . " The old man who manned the stall greeted . "Are you interested in my wares? They are genuine treasures of the frontier . Whether they are shaped by aliens hands or the natural forces of the galaxy, I am sure you can find what you seek here . Look at this white arcelyx stone for example!"
The man picked up an off-white piece of mesmerizing rock with a gloved hand . "A treasure hunter claimed to have picked this rock from a beast world . He claimed that the planet was filled with exobeasts, and if not for the fast-growing vegetation that kept the herbivores fed, the planet would have long collapsed its own ecosystem . "
"What does that have to do with this rock?" Ves asked .
"The planet is sprinkled by this stuff! Hehe, the treasure hunter spent a lot of effort to find these anomalous rocks . At first, he didn't know their effects, but once he returned to Mancroft Independent Harbor, the effects of this stone finally came into being . "
"And that is?"
The stall owner grinned at him with a mischievous expression . "The treasure hunter upended an entire entertainment establishment! Mere proximity to this amazing stone will give you the firepower of a water hose and the endurance of a long-range mech!"
Ves and a few other Vandals attracted to the curiosities offered by the stall looked incredulous .
"You don't believe me? Why don't you try it out for yourselves!" The stall owner dropped the hand-sized rock and retrieved some boxes from under the stall . Each of them came with a transparent cover that showed off the slivers of white rock contained within . "A full-sized arcelyx stone can be had for 57,000 marks! If you want to sample its effects, this nail-sized sample can be yours for 500 marks!"
"No thanks . " Ves immediately turned away . When he saw that some of the other men looked tempted, he gently pulled them away . "Don't fall for his story . What exotic treasure, in my eyes the rock is plain ghoshaw ore . It's an uncommon but fairly abundant ore in the Komodo Star Sector . Its market price is around two-thousand bright credits per ton . "
That convinced them all to drop any interest of the supposed 'arcelyx stone' .
"How did you recognize that it was ghoshaw ore?" One Vandal asked .
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"I memorized a lot of ores and materials that are available in the Komodo Star Sector . It's necessary for my work . "
Every mech designer worth a damn studied the full list of publicly available materials in their star sector . It could be said that each star sector invented their own unique brand of mechs . Maybe one star sector possessed a lot of exotics favorable to smaller mechs . This would certainly make the region focus their design efforts into developing lots of light mechs .
The group wandered over towards different stalls, making their way through the crowds as best they could . The underground halls offered as much space as the avenues above, but the Vandals barely had any space to move due to the abundance of tourists .
The difference in interest was obvious . Although the luxury shops on the surface sold a lot of good products, the same could be found on any major planet .
In contrast, the grey market offered goods that couldn't easily be found elsewhere . Many other grey markets restricted their access to known acquaintances .
For example, when Ves wanted something shady, he wouldn't know where to turn . He had to resort to contacting Dietrich to obtain what he wanted from the grey or black markets .
This highlighted the special and open nature of the Harkensen System . Their grey and black markets didn't care about connections at all . Neither the seller or the buyer required trust to perform their transactions .
Due to the popularity of this market, business was booming here . Ves saw many unregistered mechs exchanging hands, though calling them unregistered was a euphemism . They should actually be called counterfeits, because they were nothing different from the fake Crystal Lord . At least the sellers were more honest in the grey market, directly admitting that the mechs had been fabricated by a mech manufacturer that hadn't licensed their designs .
Since most licenses cost a lot of money, the true production cost of a legal mech was significantly higher than a counterfeit mech . Even if they used the exact same production standards, the counterfeit mechs wasn't burdened by a huge amount of overhead costs .
In general, this made counterfeit mechs around ten to fifty percent cheaper to buy . The discount was more extreme for expensive mechs, as the profit margin was the highest there . Cheaper mechs already cut a lot of corners, so the price couldn't get much lower even without considering overhead .
"Are you dissatisfied?" Tiss asked when she saw the glum face on Ves . "These counterfeit mechs are taking away your sales . "
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"Even if I am, what can I do about it?" Ves sighed in a tired manner . "People in need of mechs are always on the lookout for something cheaper . As long as there's demand, there's someone who is willing to meet it . Even if counterfeit mechs stop showing up here, business will only move elsewhere . "
"Some of these mechs don't look very reliable either . Though I'm not a mech designer, even I can see that the workmanship on them is too rough . "
Ves nodded . "Without the full design schematics, the counterfeiters can only use their own judgement to fill the gaps . A fake mech will never surpass the real deal . If any counterfeiters possess the skills to improve the original design, then they are better off becoming a legitimate mech designer . Therefore, it's virtually a rule that all counterfeit designers are failures . "
Many failed mech designers that tried to operate a workshop would be saddled with debt by the time they folded their businesses . Sometimes, a bankruptcy allowed them to begin anew, but other times their creditors insisted on getting back their money .
Fabricating counterfeit mechs was a good way to earn money quickly, especially if they picked a popular mech model . The counterfeiters basically leeched off the achievements of their more successful peers .
It was a dishonest but profitable way to do business .
"If you look at some of the buyers, they don't look like the sort that can make a legal transaction . " Ves gestured at someone with a wild air . The man looked like a pirate commander who was trying his best to restrain his savage urges . "Where do you think pirates get their mechs?"
"Ah . But pirates never pilot any good mechs, right?"
"That's because there's no form of regulation in the underground markets . Anyone could sell a mech that is supposed to last for a decade but breaks down after a single year . Buyers have to judge the seller's reputation . If they can't, they should at least have a good mech appraiser by their side . "
Ves spotted several men and women guiding big spenders around . They waved at the mechs on display and presumably provided a more accurate assessment of their worth .
Still, nothing could beat the MTA in terms of reputation . Their trustworthiness and reliability trumped every other mech appraiser . Their certification process was almost flawless .
Only the most obscure features defeated their comprehensive certification and validation tests . Ves was very certain that they couldn't pick up the X-Factor .
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The grey market offered more than mechs and rocks . Further ahead, they entered some kind of bestiary where a large amount of exobeasts resided inside climate-controlled cages .
Various alien beasts of all shapes and sizes could all be bought with minimal fuss, very much opposite to the strict controls that most governments set on alien creatures . After all, if specimens ever got loose, they might lead to a very troublesome cascade of failures in the local ecosystem . Remedying the problem was possible, but only at great cost .
Ves hadn't spotted anything familiar like the hexapods of Groening IV . After witnessing those majestic beasts up close, the boring and mundane exobeasts in the grey market failed to rouse his interests . Most of them appeared to be bred and tamed by humans in some farm for generations, making them good pets for families .
"This entire grey market feels a little phony somehow . " Ves remarked to Tiss . "The stuff that's on sale here isn't as exciting as I thought . "
"Oh? All of the things that are on sale here is illegal, right?"
"That's a matter for interpretation . " He said . "There's no way that the government doesn't know what's going on here . By turning a very obvious blind eye, they've tacitly consented to the trade that goes on in these markets . "
"So it's sort of legal, then . "
Ves bet that the cartels that operated the underground markets passed some of their profits to the Reinaldan government . Everything that happened here was fully within their range of control . The giant game of pretend didn't fool anyone .
"The thing is, I can't figure out the MTA's stance . On one hand, they can be very tyrannical in enforcing their taboos . On the other hand, they aren't as diligent when it comes to smaller offenses such as selling counterfeits . "
"Maybe they aren't as powerful as you think they are . " Tiss ventured out a guess . "If they're short on manpower or resources for some reason, it makes sense if they don't bother with the small stuff . "
Ves didn't believe this to be true . The MTA was unimaginably powerful and employed trillions of people across the galaxy . Even if they were spread a little thin in the galactic rim, they could always hire more people .
"Well, it's difficult to determine what the MTA wants . Since they left this market alone, it probably won't go away anytime soon . "
After the group of Vandals had their fill of the exobeasts, they exited the bestiary and entered into an entirely different hall .
"Underground arena!"
A massive circular pit formed a single large arena space where two melee mechs went at each other with brutality unbecoming of a proper duelist . Shards of armor plating sheared away while the mechs went on the offensive with little guard for defense .
A large audience cheered and hooted at the spectacle happening in front of them . They all sat on the benches that went lower and lower until they reached the dueling ground .
The group quickly bumped into rough people that looked like cartel members . "We only sell all-day tickets here . Four-hundred marks per ticket . Ten-thousand marks if you want a VIP ticket . If you want to reserve a private theater box, I can take you up to the manager . "
"Regular tickets please . We'll all pay for ourselves . "
Four-hundred marks amounted to two-hundred bright credits, which was barely within the range they could withstand . A regular arena ticket cost only half as much, but the sanctioned duels were never as exciting as the underground ones .
The melee mechs currently in the arena sustained more damage every second, but neither of them gave up . Ves could tell that these mechs cost quite a bit, because their armor amazingly held up for a long time .
When he looked at the size of the crowd and how many seats the arena accommodated, he knew how the arena turned a profit despite the immense damage being dealt to the competing mechs .
"Even an underground arena can host more than a hundred-thousand people!"
While the main arenas in Bentheim could host up to half a million spectators, that was in the light . Despite its dubious legality, this underground arena still managed to draw a consistent crowd of tens of thousands of people!
Ves had never thought that the underground dueling scene was so popular!