Mark was woken by the sound of a call on his comm-pad. Grabbing the device, he looked at the caller ID; it was Steve.
"Hey Steve, what's up?" Mark answered his comm-pad in a drowsy voice.
On the other side of the call, Steve sounded worried. "Hey Mark, can you come to the workshop? Alex is freaking out."
Mark, getting a bit worried himself decided to log onto the shop. "I'll be there in a few minutes."
Mark ends the call and grabs the hover box that was by the corner of the bed. With haste, he grabbed the V.R. headset. He tore through the wrapping, opened the case, took out the device, and the charger. Mark placed the charger on the nightstand by his bed and connected it to the wall plug. Putting the helmet-like device over his head, he wasted no time on calibrating the headset and logged on.
Mark appears in the white room. Almost in an automated manner, he launched the A.M.S. Game. Arriving at the hangar, he climbed the stairs in no time. As he got to the hallway, Mark started to hear the machines on the factory floor working on something. For the moment, he ignored the sound and went to the design room to check on Steve and Alex.
"Good, you are here." Steve moved to greet him.
Mark saw Alex sitting on the floor by the corner of the room, grabbing her suited knees. He greeted Steve and moved towards Alex. As he got close, Mark noticed nearly a dozen text bubbles. All of them read I'm sorry. Mark lowered his body on one knee in front of her.
"Hello Alex, can you tell me what happened? I promise I'm not mad." He placed his hand on the blue helmet.
Alex calmed down a bit and pointed towards the design library.
Mark used the interface of the library. He noticed that there are now two entries, one for the original McCain and one for the McCain Reaper. Suddenly, a number underneath the variant changed.
The amount of units produced is 289, then the number changed again to 290. Mark understood somewhat what had happened and called Steve.
"I think Alex registered the variant by accident. It was not finished, but it was still operational. Can you check the store?" Mark asked Steve, pointing at the catalog.
After the explanation, the teen was a bit worried. With a straight face, Steve went to check on the store page. With the loud teen looking into other matters, he went back to Alex.
"It's not so bad, Alex, even if there are bad reviews, we can improve the design. In fact, the bad reviews will actually help us." The young man tried to reassure his friend.
Alex looked up a text bubble appearing beside her head, "Do you hate me?"
He looked back at her. "Alex, if a friendship falls apart for something stupid like this, it's not worth much."
In a sincere tone, he said to the blue-clad teen, "To me, your friendship is worth more than a million stores."
"HEY! Marksman, take a look at this." Steve had his usual energy back.
Mark helped Alex up, and they both went over to Steve. The somber mood over Alex had completely vanished. Mark, look at the store page comments. There were hundreds of positive reviews; in fact, the only bad reviews were about the simple-looking store and the long waiting period to get the machine.
"Why are there so many?" Mark wondered while looking at Steve.
"Mark, have you seen the grading! The mech was given a B-grade for the first pilot level, a C-grade for the second level, and a D-grade for the third level." Steve relayed the information to his friend.
Mark could not believe what he just heard. "Well, Alex, it appears that this was a good mistake after all. "The man tapped the blue helmet of his friend.
"Wait, how many units have we sold, and how much are we making per unit?" Mark wondered, after all, their production capacity was abysmally low.
For his part, Steve looked pensive, "Well, we've sold 852 units, but the profit, ... it's not much. We are making 200 vouchers per unit. The mech is being sold for 1200 vouchers. Do you want to change the price?"
Mark thought for a moment, "The cheaper my mechs, the more I can sell. More points for me." Mark tells Steve his decision. "I think is best to leave it as is, at least for now. Steve, I want you to find the worst comments and review them. We need to fix the things people don't like."
Mark looks at Alex. "Alex, can you design a good store page?" Alex nods, and without thinking twice, the teen clad in blue starts designing a page on the spot.
With his cat butler avatar, he decides to go see the factory floor. Once there, Mark marvels at the production speed of the machine. It was almost comical, as if watching a movie on fast forward. A few moments later, He ponders improving his production capacity and other aspects of the shop.
Deciding to go for a few upgrades, Mark walks to the factory operations room. Inside, he moves to the upgrades store and looks at the catalog. Taking notes of what he wanted to buy and start compiling a list.
Remembering that the workshop had a repair function, the cat butler avatar moves to the hangar. Admiring Alex's skillful decoration for a moment, Mark moves to the other end of the hangar, where a lonely door stood stoically on the wall.
He paused for a minute or two. After admiring the mascot for a few moments. Mark opens the door and walks in. The repair control room was smaller than the other facilities present at the workshop. As Mark enters, his gaze is met by a rack holding 3 offline repair droids.
They were folded to conserve space. Once the droids were activated, they unfolded into a humanoid form and moved to perform the task assigned. Repairs can be done by human hands, but the droids are part of the automated service options.
Mark made a beeline for the upgrades console. Reading down the list, he saw a few interesting choices, like adding a 3D printer to create spare parts or improving the speed and quality of the repair equipment. But the option that caught his eye was the one to add custom repair droids. With this option, he could add his own droid designs. That way, every time a new person came to repair or paint a mech, Mark would gain more TP.
Realization suddenly hit him when he thought about Techno-Points. The system repairs should be done by now. Mark calls out in a low voice. "System, are you online?"
The pale blue screen appears in front of him, with the usual yellow letters. "System is online, special request has been completed. Rewards are ready to be claimed. Reward: 1 System Ability, Scan. Reward: 1 Feat, User's Choice. Would the user like to claim the rewards?"
Mark smiles in anticipation. "Yes, system, I want to claim my rewards."
A secondary screen displayed the feats tab. He had a choice in mind already, scrolling with his finger, he finds the feat and taps on it.
A small screen with the description appears. "Eyes of Perfection: This feat improves the perception of the user. Small imperfections and deviations become evident in the user's sight." With a second tap, Mark confirmed his selection.
He noticed the difference instantly. A slight misalignment at the corners of the droid rack. A barely imperceptible flicker on one of the ceiling lamps. One of the monitors of the Repair control terminal was leaning slightly.
Mark realized that there was a pattern to these imperfections. The simulation systems were using these tiny imperfections to generate a feeling of reality. After understanding this, he had a newfound respect for the VR technology.
"System, can you explain the Scan function?" Mark asked in the usual low voice he used whenever he was talking to the system.
The usual screen appeared again. "System ability Scan: If used on biological entities scan will approximate their status using the standard of the Techno-Lord system. When used this way, this function has a 99.5% accuracy."
"If used on mechanical devices, a functional blueprint of the set device will be generated with a 99.8% accuracy."
The system's ability: Scan. It can be configured to activate by voice or a physical gesture. Does the user wish to configure System Ability Scan activation now, or later?"
"I want to set up the ability now. The ability will activate whenever I blink two times with my right eye in succession."
The blue screen fades. After a few seconds, a new screen appears. "System ability: Scan. Configuration Complete."
Mark looks at a droid on the wall and blinks twice with his right eye. In Mark's vision, the outline of the droid is highlighted in blue. A screen appears giving the details:
Device Name: Repair Droid (Simulated).
Technology level: Level 4.
Use: Repair/Utility.
Creator: A.M.S. Technology Branch.
Device blueprints acquired.
The device blueprints appear on a second screen. Mark decided to keep them achieved. But before leaving, he receives another screen.
"New design detected, design: McCain Reaper is being submitted for review by Techno-Lord system standards. The screen is replaced by another one with a new message:
Design Name: McCain Reaper (Variant Design) (Simulated).
Technology Type: Mech (Bellicose Technology).
Neuronal Load[1]: D+.
Original Component: 0%. TP. Awarded: 0 TP.
Modified Component: 37%. TP. Awarded: 370 TP.
Technology Impact: C. First Use bonus: 4 TP/ Bonus will be added daily.
Special Note: The technology you have created has produced a new trend. The user will receive 5,000 TP as a reward.
The system prompted a message with the new balance. "Your new balance is 76,029 TP. Your bank balance is 0 TP."
Mark smiles while reading the new screen. He had finally started to generate TP. His cat butler avatar excited the room. Pondering what to do next, Mark decides to further improve the McCain Reaper's design one more time. This time, however, the young man planned to take his time.
Once again in the factory room, he started his shopping spree. Setting up a budget of 10 million L-Credits as his limit. The first purchase he made was 4 more production lines. These lines were of better quality than the first one.
He also purchased more specialized machines like an alloy treatment machine, alloy compressor, and several other machines needed to fabricate better quality Mechs. If this were the real world, Mark would have spent hundreds of millions of L-Credits in these machines alone, but in A.M.S., costs were dialed down by a factor of 1,000.
Mark upgraded almost all facilities with the exception of the repair droids. By the end of his upgrade bonanza, the cat butler avatar had succeeded in staying within budget, but only by a small margin. The man walked back to the design studio.
Back in the hallway, Steve meets with him. "Hey, Marksman, this is a list of petitions so far. Most of them want us to sell them the rifle you made. Apparently, people were more impressed by the rifle than the mech. Some level 2 guys have even bought the entire mech just for the rifle."
Mark thinks for a few moments. "Well, Steve, that will be a bit hard at the moment. Even after improving the factory floor, we still have a production capacity issue."
Mark places his hand on Steve's shoulder. "We are going to post the rifle's modding guide and specs on our workshop. It's going to be available for everyone at no charge."
Steve looked confused. "Dude, are you sure you can make a lot of vouchers for that?"
Mark taps Steve's shoulder, moving towards the design lab, and he gestures for Steve to follow him. "Well, Steve, advertising has always been expensive. Besides, we are going to build better weapons."
The two of them walked into the lab. A tired Alex was yawning while working on the store page. Mark walks up to the blue-suited teen and taps her helmet. "Alex, you can finish that later. Go to sleep."
The tired teen tried to protest, but all that came out was another yawn. With that, Alex decided to comply.
"Hey, Marksman," Steve called on Mark. As Alex was flashing out. On her way to her bed. "Say I have a few friends who want to paint their mechs. Do you mind if we use your shop? They can pay in vouchers."
Mark felt it was a good Idea. "Well, if you can operate the repair terminal, there is no problem."
Mark thinks for a few seconds. "Steve, why don't you use the workshop as a paint shop? At the moment, we don't have any repair rights for mechs, and it's wasting away. You can give me 10% of the vouchers plus the cost of paint. If they pay you in L-credits, you can keep them."
Steve's face lights with joy and excitement. "Don't mind if I do, Marksman!" The teen left running towards the repair control room.
With Alex sleeping and Steve learning how to use the paint function of the repair shop, Mark was left alone in the design lab. The cat butler sat on the components design terminal, and within minutes, he created a modding guide. This was commonly known as a mod kit.
He added the mod kit design and instructions to the store. Alongside a statement to his customers: "We at the Grease Monkey workshop are grateful for the patronage we have received from our customers. The good words you have conveyed in your reviews encourage us to continue our labor.
Please note that while we have taken steps to improve the production capacity, demand for our product is still great. As a form of apology, we have decided to add a mod kit for the I.M.S. Reaper custom free of charge."
At the bottom of the statement, Mark added a small animation. The mascot of the shop is bowing while holding on to its wrench.
Mark used the in-game menu to check the time in the real world. It was nearly 4:00 am. The young man decided to work until 6 am, so that he could have breakfast with his mother and afterward return to work. The cat butler sets a system alarm.
Operating the interface of the design suite, he loaded the McCain Reaper's blueprint once more.
Mark sat in front of the projected blueprints with his arms crossed. The limitations in movement he was facing came down to two things.
The first was the actuators; to further improve on that area, he had to create a new component from scratch. The second issue he had was with the engine itself. That was a bit more complex.
"System, open the skills panel." The system projected a screen showing his available skills and skill points. He took a look at the skill he had at the moment, 8 root skills, 13 field skills, and 6 sub-skills showed in the record. Mark decided to improve some with the recent TP he had earned. But since he had a total of 76,029 TP, he had to prioritize.
His first choice was mechanical engineering. The skill was increased from level 3 to level 4. That had a cost of 8,000TP. He then improved his field skills for mechs and engines from level 3 to level 4. Upgrading the two had a cost of another 8,000 TP. Finally, his Movement Optimization for humanoid mechs was raised from level 3 to level 4 with a cost of 2,000 TP. With these skills improved, he was ready to begin his new project.
The system projected his new balance. "Your purchase has been confirmed, your new balance is 58,029 TP. Your bank balance is 0 TP."
With his skills in level 4, Mark had very little new knowledge flow through his mind. Instead, he understood the matter and its application in a different manner.
At level 3, his knowledge base was equivalent to a master's degree on the subject. Level 4 landed him in the area between a master's degree and a doctorate. However, his application of set knowledge went beyond this level.
He went back to the projected design of the McCain Reaper. Using the gestures of his hands, the man stripped down one component after another until he was left with nothing but the actuators. The function of these components was to convert electrical power into motion.
The original McCain was a 400-year-old machine; its actuators were archaic at best. Because of this, Mark decided to design entirely new ones.
Some actuators, like the ones in the legs, were more focused on speed and power. Others, like the ones in the hands, were focused on precision. One hand had around 24 actuators for grip power and fine movement. This looked to be a daunting task, but to Mark, nothing in his past life came easy. Resolve filled his eyes, with no other thought, the man got started on the new actuators.
Using his Mathematics skill, he designs mathematical models for the actuators. The Simulation sub-skill gave him the tools needed to estimate points of failure and stress fatigue. Mechanical Engineering and Motion Optimization skills were crucial in tweaking the models until they reached the desired results. Metallurgy and Alloy Composition allowed him to identify materials with more durability and flexibility.
After nearly 10 in-game hours, Mark had finished with the actuators for the hands. While more actuators needed his attention, he decided to take a much-deserved break.
Before logging off, the man saved his work and cleared the design suite. "Well, everything is secure, we don't need any more good mistakes." After a small chuckle to himself, he went down to check on Steve before he logged out.
Steve had lost all notion of time. After nearly ten hours in the repair control room, he was still reading the manual for the paint shop. Getting close to the teen mark puts his hand on his shoulder. "Steve, remember to take a break and stretch your real legs."
Steve, startled, jumped in surprise. "Whoa!"
Recovering from his frightened state, the teen looks at Mark. "A little warning next time, I think my heart skipped, and not in a good way."
After a few more chuckles, the Cat butler apologized. "Sorry, Steve, but as I said, remember to take a break."
"Yes, mom!" The startled teen replied.
After checking on Steve, Mark goes back to the design lab. With a flash of light, the young man logs off.
[1] Neuronal load refers to the neuronal capacity requirements of a set device. All equipment that uses neuronal interfaces produces a neuronal load. The more complex the equipment or device is, the larger neuronal load it produces. The amount displayed on the system status is the minimum capacity recommended to use the device.