The Mech Touch

Of course, the C-Man was not the most powerful or effective mech in dealing with hordes of weaker opponents.

The C-Man was limited in its ability to inflict mass destruction by its lack of ranged weapons and other potent weapon systems.

Venerable Vincent also did not possess refined empowered fighting moves and fighting styles that could enable him to exert his true resonance in more exquisite ways.

If Venerable Dise and the First Sword had ended up in this situation, they would have doubtedly utilized powerful and advanced sword techniques that could obliterate dozens of mechs at once by unleashing a series of propagating sword energy attacks!

Still, even though Venerable Vincent did not follow the path of traditional swordsmanship, he and his expert mech still possessed other solutions to increase their killing efficiency.

After Vincent had his fill of punching his opponents by relying on the C-Man's physical strength alone, he began to resonate with his machine in order to elevate its parameters beyond the power of technology.

Empowered by Vincent's soaring force of will, the C-Man under his direction turned into a golden terror that was able to produce explosions with every punch!

These unnatural concussive blows not only obliterated the opponent in front of them, but also blasted out into a cone that damaged the machines behind the immediate target!

Vincent and the C-Man became more and more creative with the way in which they expressed their power. More and more mechs emerged from hidden openings beneath the ground, thereby providing them with plenty of opportunities to explore and experiment with their newfound abilities!

"Expert mechs are so much better than ordinary mechs!" Vincent exclaimed! "I'm no longer limited by the design of my machine. With true resonance, I can make everything better!"

The more he harnessed the power of true resonance, the more he understood its essence and its possibilities.

Although he already learned quite a lot about true resonance by receiving lessons from the Larkinson Clan's older and more experienced expert pilots, there was no better way to learn about what high-ranking mechs and mech pilots were capable of by harnessing this power in person!

Venerable Vincent's mood surged even further as the heat of combat drove him to perform even more flamboyantly than before!

"Punching isn't the only way I can beat you all up! I can do much more!"

The C-Man began to resort to other methods to dismantle the opposition. It opened up its hands and began to grapple, squeeze and throw the battle bots that were still in the fight!

Though its pace had slowed as a result, it was a lot harder for opposing machines to avoid and escape the C-Man's attacks.

After grabbing and tearing apart a dozen battle bots in quick succession, Vincent began to employ more creativity and utilized the advantages of his expert mechs in flashier and more extravagant moves!

For example, it grabbed onto the frames of two machines and actually lifted them up at once!

Like a barbarian who had just lifted up two large tree trunks, the C-Man showed its absolute dominance over the opposing mechs by clubbing them with its improvised weapons!

What the C-Man lacked in sophistication and finesse, it more than made up for it with its extravagant moves and raw displays of might.

The expert mech wasn't finished with finding new ways to demolish the opposition. It raced forward and bent low in order to grab two more battle bots by their legs.

The C-Man then lifted up and hovered over the ground, lifting its two captives above the ground.

"What is he doing?"

Venerable Vincent soon made clear why he made these moves as the C-Man slowly began to spin on its axis.

Numerous people spurted out whatever they were drinking as the C-Man turned into a whirlwind of metal and golden power!

Like a spinning top that had gone out of control, the spinning C-Man collided into a formation of surviving battle bots and completely bashed them aside or apart!

Of course, the machines used to inflict this damage did not last that long, but that didn't bother the C-Man at all as it grabbed hold of replacement bots in order to prolong its violent outburst!

A field of debris and half-recognizable wrecks was all that was left of the force of battle bots that had been programmed to fight the expert mech.

The C-Man did not look affected in the slightest even after it had gone through an entire army of automated opponents.

Even though the battle bots were not as threatening as actual mechs, they still presented viewers with a clear and evocative demonstration of the C-Man's battle power!

"There aren't many expert mechs that are as powerful as this new Larkinson mech from the onset, and there are even fewer that can look so good while doing so. This expert mech has made me gain a whole new appreciation of brawler mechs!"

"I thought the Larkinsons were clowning around by transforming this mech into a parody of a self-aggrandizing statue, but now I feel it looks exactly right for the job. A mech that can lift other machines and swing them around like clubs deserves to look this awesome!"

"No wonder this mech's codpiece is so big. With this much strength, the mech has so many balls that it takes a lot more room to project those jewels!"

As the Larkinsons monitored the viewership numbers and the reactions from the audience, they noticed a distinct swing in both parameters.

"Thirty million people have tuned into the broadcast! Most of the new viewers come from outside Davute!"

"Word of mouth is spreading to Magair and several other middle zones. We have even managed to attract a growing number of viewers from the old galaxy."

"The negative reactions from the C-Man's physical transformation have subsided. They have been crowded out by the positive reactions from our expert mech's performance!"

What was even more poignant was that the public responded even better to the live broadcast when the C-Man began to perform more flamboyantly than before!

No serious expert mech and dignified expert pilot would have pulled out some of the stunts that the C-Man went out of its way to perform. The instance where it picked up different bots and utilized them as improvised weapons generated a particularly strong response!

"Whatever Venerable Vincent is doing is working!" Gavin Neumann exclaimed as he studied the incoming data. "While not everyone is impressed by the C-Man, it has provoked a remarkable amount of enthusiasm from several demographic groups! Young and middle-aged men have especially become fans of the C-Man!"

"What did you say, Benny?" Ves looked confused. "People are actually falling in love with the C-Man?"

"It's like a real life action drama star." His assistant explained. "It might not be obvious to you, but Venerable Vincent is playing to the crowd. The C-Man's actions in the field are similar to the performances of mechs that star in action dramas. In essence, Venerable Vincent turned himself into the action hero of his own show! He's a born showman!"

That caused Ves to take a second look at Vincent's conduct.

Though the expert pilot was definitely taking the opportunity to indulge in all of his childish and juvenile impulses, it was only now that it became clear that Vincent was pursuing a deliberate strategy!

"Let Vincent do what he wants." Gloriana spoke up. "Don't forget that the primary goal of this broadcast is to activate the god body. Whatever ridicule we invite from certain people is not as important as attracting the admiration and worship of millions more people. The more Vincent turns this demonstration into a spectacle, the more attention he draws to his expert mech. The viewership numbers are already multiple times greater than we initially anticipated."

Both of them expected the numbers to grow even further. This was because the most exciting phase of the testing session was about to commence!

The C-Man leisurely flew above the debris field of its own making. The remains of broken machines served as a testament of its raw destructive prowess.

The mech arrived at an empty field soon afterwards. As the C-Man cooled down from its previous exertion, Venerable Vincent became more pumped than ever when he realized that his most difficult fight yet was about to start.

A new mech appeared on the field.

The Everchanger had once again been tasked with testing the combat effectiveness of a newly-completed expert mech.

As if in response to the naked power exuded by the C-Man, Venerable Joshua proactively resonated with his expert mech, causing the Everchanger to generate a powerful green corona!

Two different expert pilots and two different domains collided against each other.

The momentum of the two Larkinson expert mechs rose steadily as neither of their mech pilots thought of themselves as inferior!

"No offense, Vincent, but there is no way you can beat me." Joshua transmitted to his colleague. "I'm years ahead of you and I'm piloting a masterwork mech."

Vincent arrogantly snorted. "Your antique is already outdated. My C-Man is brand-new and based completely on heartland-level tech and parts. It doesn't really matter how flawless your Everchanger is when even a sloppy version of my expert mech is already three times stronger!"

"My mech is largely made out of Unending armor. You can't even create a single dent in my Everchanger's armor!"

"Hah, it's even more impossible for you to damage my C-Man!" Vincent spat back. "My TESMAS is boosted by 5 kilograms of phasewater!"

Old and new confronted each other on different levels. Even the Larkinsons grew curious to what extent the C-Man could compete against the Everchanger.

Both mechs were strong! Both mechs were piloted by remarkable warriors! Both mechs possessed their own trump cards that they relied upon to exert great might!

As the tension between the two expert pilots reached a certain threshold, Venerable Joshua finally made the first move!

Naturally, it wouldn't do something as stupid as trying to get into a fistfight with a machine that specialized in close-ranged brawls.

Instead, the expert hero mech engaged its flight system but angled itself backwards so that it distanced itself from the C-Man!

At the same time, the Everchanger snapped up its Vitalus luminar crystal rifle and fired a barrage of resonance-empowered laser beams.

A trio of bright green laser beams struck the golden resonance shield of the C-Man. The new expert mech was not affected by the attack as it began to sprint and fly forwards.

Both mechs were not weak in terms of mobility. They traversed a lot of ground as the C-Man attempted to close the distance.

While the Everchanger kept firing back at its pursuer, it wasn't able to maintain its distance.

The difference in tech level was too noticeable!

While Ves had invested a lot in the components of the Everchanger when he designed his favorite expert mech, he didn't have access to anything better at the time.

It was different now that the Larkinsons had managed to gain a foothold in the Red Ocean!

Their vastly greater wealth along with access to better product catalogs meant that Gloriana and the other mech designers were able to outfit the C-Man with comprehensively more powerful parts and systems!

Whether it was running speed or flight speed in aerial conditions, the C-Man showed that it was at least thirty percent faster than the Everchanger despite weighing more!

Ves already had a suspicion that the Everchanger would fall behind in this aspect, but to see that the gulf had grown so wide did not put him in a good mood.

"We need to get around with upgrading our older expert mechs. I'm sure that Venerable Tusa will be happy if his Dark Zephyr can catch up to the performance of the later expert mechs."