<h4>Chapter 5509 Symbol of Second-ss Humanity</h4>
The day before the product reveal was scheduled to begin, the Bortele System became busier than ever.
Traffic in the strategic port system had always been high, but it received a small but noticeably uptick of inbound visits.
This was not remarkable in itself. Large coalition fleets asionally returned from the hunt with a lot of valuable plunder in their cargo holds.
asionally, the fleets that originally set off from Bortele returned with less than a quarter of their warships and mechs intact. This did not happen as frequently because the forces who lost their battles often failed to escape the pursuit of enemy warships that were universally equipped with warp drives!
In any case, Bortele served as an excellent pitstop to many kinds of forces. It was a ce to efficiently dump a lot of scrap, hire new personnel and repair a lot of damaged assets.
Many people who yearned to be New Elites could often find a way to mix intorger fleets by epting the right opportunities in Bortele!
The humans in the Red Ocean generally weren''t stupid. Those who transferred to the new frontier at an early stage of colonization tended to be more qualified, more ambitious and more desperate than the general poption in the old gxy.
At the very least, there was no shortage of pioneers with guts among red humanity!
While the dangers of fielding mechs against dangerous alien warships were considerable, everyone gradually realized that the New Elites Program would gradually reshape the hierarchy of red humanity.
The aristocrats and the magnates who currently held the reins of power might not be in charge anymore.
Anyone could overtake these old powers so long as they fought hard enough in the Red War!
Even though it was incredibly difficult to earn enough victories and preserve the fighting condition of a fighting force in the long run, that did not stop pioneers and other ambitious fortune seekers from betting everything in the fight!
In any case, once they encountered a catastrophe that wiped out all of their forces, these losers likely wouldn''t live long enough to suffer from their mistakes!
What was different in Bortele was that it received a lot of inbound traffic that did not hang out in the Torald Middle Zone in the past.
They came from other regions such as the Magair and Krakatoa Middle Zone. An oddly high proportion of Hexer and Davutan groups had flocked to Bortele all of a sudden.
Not only that, but there was also a noticeable uptick in visitors that came from more distant zones!
It became clear pretty soon that these groups traveled to Bortele for a singlemon purpose.
They wanted to see Professor Ves Larkinson.
His name became incredibly famous over thest year. He was one of the models of a pioneer in the new frontier. Yet it was only after the start of the Age of Dawn that he had be one of the most famous second-raters in the Red Ocean!
Though much of the general public did not have clear knowledge of what took ce during the infamous Survivalist conference, they all learned that Ves had yed an outsized role during this political crisis.
The rumors that circted among manymunities even imed that his influence exceeded the sway of a Star Designer!
The fact that those in the know never refuted these wild ims lent a lot of credence to this belief!
Regardless of the truth, the fact that a young and talented second-ss Senior Mech Designer suddenly became a third-ss gctic citizen in a single leap could not be denied!
Not only that, but this famous rising star also happened to possess mysterious connections with the first-rate colonial superstates.
There were strong ims that Ves had managed to gain the backing of the Destroyer of Worlds for whatever reason. Perhaps it was their shared love of cats or themonality of their panion spirits'' that brought them together.
The Rubarthans certainly did not know how to respond to these rumors, which implicitly served as an admission that the two seemingly unrted individuals definitely managed to hook up with each other!
The new star''s connection with the Terrans was much less ambiguous. Not only did he openly relocate to one of the strongholds of the Devos Ancient n, he also took on the granddaughter of General Axr Streon as his personal disciple!
This was practically unheard of! How could a highborn first-ss mech designer ever deign to ept a second-ss mech designer as her teacher?
Though a lot of clever people determined that there was a connection between the legendary Ouroboros and living mechs, the fundamental reason had to be that Ves was way more valuable than a typical first-ss Master Mech Designer!
In fact, his gctic citizenship already served as concrete proof of this assertion. Ves'' sudden promotion caused him to overtake almost every other Master Mech Designer of red humanity.
This also included all of the centuries-old stalwarts who worked for the behemoths such as SKL Mech Industries!
Due to all of these clues, the people of the middle zones came to a consensus on this subject.
Ves was the hero of all second-raters!
In fact, even third-raters held him up as a hero who shared the same roots as them, but no one important enough really cared for their opinions.
A lot of people outright denied that Ves had originally started out as a poor citizen from the Bright Republic!
What mattered in public perception was that Ves entered the Red Ocean as a forgettable and indistinguishable second-ss pioneer, but had now shot himself into the leadership ss of red humanity as a whole!
Many second-raters dreamed of promoting to first-raters and rising up in their ranks to be a new generation leader, but the difficulty of aplishing all of this was so high that hardly anyone had managed to seed over the centuries.
Ves had managed to do it. Not only that, he did it in the fastest and most dramatic fashion possible!
Even if he enjoyed a lot of advantages and circumstances that ordinary second-raters could never dream of, at least he showed with his deeds that rising to the top from a second-ss background could still be done!
In truth, one of the reasons why the Bortele System had be so busy over thest year was because Ves single-handedly inspired many second-raters to follow his example!
If he did not rise to power in such an impressive fashion, a lot of second-ss humans would never have embraced the New Elites Program to this extent.
This was because second-raters inherently suffered from an inferiorityplex. Theirck of belief in their ability to cross the gap between sses meant that they often lost before they even thought about making the attempt.
Yet now that Ves had already set an extremely sessful example for every second-rater, he had be the idol among the people of the middle zones!
Perhaps only one among thousands of opportunists would seed in bing first-ss humans, but that was already a good resultpared to the old status quo!
In any case, as the most valiant and sessful envoy of second-ss society, Ves held such a special position among the people that they ced a lot of importance on his product reveal.
The fact that he intended to introduce a new second-ss mech line showed that his recent rise to power did not cause him to forget about his old people!
More and more ships had poured into Bortele in thest weeks.
In fact, the amount of visitors could have doubled if the Larkinsons announced the product reveal more than a month in advance!
"So this is Bortele, huh? I can smell the scent of war in the air." A mercenarymander spoke as he exited his shuttle.
Many more shuttles descended from the air andnded on the designated pads.
The spaceports of Bortele had be busier than ever. Many queues had formed in order to inspect and process all of the new arrivals.
The security protocols became a lot stricter all of sudden. Everyone going in and out of the main city of Bortele III had to register their itinerary and go through multiple security checks.
A lot of forces that were previously allowed to field mechs in the city temporarily had to surrender that right.
Therge venue where the product reveal was scheduled to be held gained a lot of fortifications as well.
So much had been done to prepare for one of the most prominent public events in Bortele since the start of the Age of Dawn!
The local economy was doing better than ever. Hotels became filled. Mech stores epted more orders than ever. Fleets that werecking in specialized personnel easily managed to make up for their shortfall.
Bortele earned so much profit from the uing product reveal that it didn''t matter anymore if Ves made aplete fool out of himself!
Though Ves upied his time with other matters, he did not miss the changes taking ce outside the branch headquarters of the Larkinson n.
He looked out of a shielded window that granted him a view of a busy metropolis. All of the shuttles and the humans moving around made the entire urbanndscapee to life.
"You are responsible for much of it." Gavin noted as he stood at the side. "This is a visual indicator of how powerful and influential that you have be. It wasn''t as obvious in the past, but now that you are making your first public debut since your most recent ascension, this is the influence that you wield. As long as you continue to maintain your rtionship with second-raters, you can continue to reap the benefits of their adoration."
Ves grimaced as he folded his hands behind his back. "You make it sound as if I am an idol."
"That is because you are. You are more than a mech designer or an innovator. You have be a symbol of the people. The public will ascribe values to you that will make yourger than life. This is an advantage to you as it will let you get away with a lot of stuff that ordinary people cannot do. However, it is also a danger, because as soon as you do anything that breaks the illusion, these fans may turn against you for letting them down."
That was a huge burden that only grew heavier over time. Part of the reason why Ves always felt reluctant to follow a high-profile development strategy was because he did not want to deal with theseplications.
s, it was toote now. There was no use crying over spilt milk. Ves had little choice but to ept his current reality.
"Does my celebrity afford me a greater advantage in selling my mechs?"
"Yes, but it is not as big as you want, boss. The LMC''s brand recognition has be higher than ever. There are few second-raters that do not know of your products. What fame cannot do is to persuade rational and cautious buyers from recing their old machines with LMC mechs. There are way too many factors that customers have to take into ount. People''s lives and finances are at stake. The wrong decision can easily kill a lot of people and bring entire organizations to ruin. Ultimately, the best way to increase the market share of our products is to make them stronger than thepetition."
Ves smirked at that. "I don''t have any cause for concern if that is the case. Even if I can only release one Hyper Generation product for the time being, it should definitely be strong enough to overshadow many other second-ss mechs! I dare say that it may spark a turning point in the second-ss mech market."
Gavin did not want to celebrate too early.
"I hope your optimism is not misced. Anything can happen tomorrow. There is a chance that otherpetitors intend to exploit your fame by presenting challengers to the Fey Fianna. It is a cheap way for them to promote theirtest products."
"Hahaha! Good! I hope they wille, but I do not think that is too likely. Once I introduce my new mech, I am afraid that most of these would-be challengers will lose their courage."