The Mech Touch

up to capacity and refused the entry of those who came too late, causing many of them to be bummed out.
It didn ’t help that the arena was part of the underground, therefore no footage of the battle would emerge on the galactic net.

”This isn ’t fair! If I came one minute earlier, I would have gotten in! ”

”Those stingy Boseys deserve to be hanged! Why can ’t they upgrade that tiny mech arena of theirs!? ”

”Let me in! I ’m the Hellvoice ’s number one fan! I can ’t possibly miss the death match involving my idol! ”

The streets around the mech arena became unruly due to the poor arrangements of the space station.
Though the Mancroft Independent Harbor profiled itself as a fourth-rate state, in truth its size and capacity barely matched one of the larger space stations of Bentheim!

The space station had been built long ago, and while many modules enhanced its size and structure over time, it had always been done in the cheapest way possible.
The best description of its growth was that it occurred somewhat organically, without any of the long-term planning that characterized most cities these days.

The Frontier Bank of Mancroft was conveniently located next to the mech arena complex.
The reason for this was evident, as gambling addicts poured in constantly to draw out their money reserves and exchange their illiquid valuables for cold hard K-coins.

Of course, the wealthier among them declined to carry around sacks or crates of K-coins and K-bars around them.
That would just provoke a savage feast from the surrounding pirates.

The bank provided a convenient vault for them to stow away their processed Kavenit.
Naturally, this service came with all kinds of fees and conditions.

The subject of banking for pirates was a rather complex one.
In general, many pirates didn ’t trust banks with their money, and instead buried them under plots of land at some obscure frontier star system.

Even if they stashed some of their wealth at a bank, they could be notoriously violent when it came to fees and such! It wasn ’t unheard of for them to go mad and raze an entire bank branch because they had to pay a two percent transaction fee whenever they wanted to withdraw their money or something!

For a frontier bank to prosper, they needed to be more circumspect in their profit-generating methods.
One of the major revenue sources of the bank was actually their right to confiscate the belongings of clients who turned up missing or deceased without an heir to take over their spoils.

And even if the deceased selected someone else to inherit their wealth, the bank assuredly received their own cut!

Considering how prevalent pirates died in battles or random accidents in space, Ves could see how Mancroft ’s bank prospered to the point of becoming one of the main revenue sources of the Bosey Clan.
It wasn ’t as if most pirates cared where their riches went after they died!

”Do you have a bank account here, Ketis? ”

”No.
The higher ups manage all the money.
We ’ve never received a salary or anything like that.
Serving as a Swordmaiden is enough of a reward. ”

Ves silently shook his head.
The Swordmaidens indoctrinated their sisters well.
All of them had been brainwashed into becoming their slaves without their notice!

”Wait in the foyer while I get my money. ”

Ves approached one of the humanoid bots that served as one of the receptionists of the bank and proceeded to undergo the complicated dance of accessing his locked bank account.
Because his money was stashed at several different banks, it took a lot of procedures as well as the assistance of an actual human manager to complete it all.

Half an hour later, Ves walked away from the bank manager ’s office 2,500 K-bars richer! This was the equivalent of a billion bright credits! Of course, he wasn ’t stupid to bring all of that exotic metal out, so he stashed them in the Frontier Bank of Mancroft ’s vault.

”Stupid exchange rate.
I think I lost ten percent of my wealth from that alone. ”

Even in the future, banks still prospered!

There had been plenty of calls to establish a unified human currency, possibly based around especially valuable exotics or units of energy, but it never caught on.
Much like how humanity resisted unification into a single nation, they also wanted to maintain control over their own petty currencies.
This led to the current smorgasboard of currencies.

”How many currencies are used in the Faris Star Region? ” He asked his now-regular frontier guide.

”Independents like us mostly get by with K-coins.
Each of the pirate alliances use their own currencies instead, but no outsider accepts them, so they mostly spend K-coins as well whenever they come out of their space stations. ”

This made K-coins the dominant currency of this region of space, which was convenient for Ves because he didn ’t have to waste money converting them into other currencies.

Still, there was one more issue puzzling him.
”The purchasing power of a K-coin is very high.
How are you able to buy something as simple as a glass of beer with a coin that ’s worth at least a keg of beer? ”

”A few pirates stash the K-coins in a bank and let them handle the payments.
Most of us simply break up the coins into fragments and pay them by their mass.
Every store on this station has a machine that can take a standard K-coin and shave off enough fragments to cover the payment.
Still, most pirates are fools if they trust the shops to calibrate their machines correctly.
They mostly break up their coins into fragments beforehand and stuff them into their pockets. ”

It sounded incredibly primitive.
Ves felt as if he had travelled back in time to the point where gold coins became the dominant currency of the land.

The repercussions of this backwards currency handling was very clear to Ves.
Every pirate was hoarding their wealth, and they didn ’t easily trust others to take care of it.
Liquidity flowed very slowly in the frontier, thereby indirectly depressing the already anemic mech market.

It truly wasn ’t easy to do business in the lawless frontier!