The Mech Touch

Lucky.
I was just joking! You ’re still the only cat in my household. ”

Cat ears were too impractical for him anyway.
He envisioned that he would have a lot of problems with his gear.

Trying to fit a standard human helmet onto his head while he had cat ears would be very difficult!

If he decided for some insane reason to go through such a needless transformation, then he ’d likely be denied due to his already highly modified genes.

”I ’m pretty far away from a baseline human. ” He muttered.
”There ’s too much risk of negative side effects if I add cat ear genes to my already-crowded genome. ”

He discarded this option in quick order.
If Ves wanted to indulge in his cat fancy, he could readily cuddle with Lucky.
There was no need to turn himself into a partial cat!

”Meow. ”

”I agree.
Furries are missing the point.
Humans should stay human! There are enough cats in the galaxy! ”

Overall, all of these cat-oriented services turned Felixia into a cat lover ’s paradise.
The planet became so known in the region that it had been dubbed the unofficial cat capital of the star sector!

Among the many cute and attractive cats that populated the planet, Ves dismissed all but the largest ones.

His Devil Tiger required a powerful design spirit! To do that, Ves had to obtain a spiritual fragment derived from a powerful felinid exobeast.

The stronger the spiritual fragment, the stronger the resulting design spirit.

The stronger the design spirit, the more remarkable his Devil Tiger design!

He focused on the biggest, deadliest and most persistent huge cats.
Ves hungered to harvest a spiritual fragment if possible!

As Ves browsed through footage of some of these specimens, he wondered whether some of them possessed a significant degree of spirituality.
Developing special powers might be the reason why they eluded so many mech hunting teams.

”It ’s worth a try to see if they have what I need.
The only problem is that I need to get in range in order for me to inspect their spiritual qualities. ”

The most cunning, deadly and unpredictable huge cats acquired so much renown in the mech hunting community that they fell into a separate category.

The Crown Cats!

The mech hunting community considered any huge cat that fell under this prestigious category as a veritable king or queen of their own species, hence the crown!

The Crown Cats officially listed the top twenty most challenging cats to hunt! Despite being hunted non-stop by various mech hunting teams, they always managed to elude or turn the tables against their pursuers!

Ves petted Lucky ’s back as he flitted through the top twenty.
”Those Crown Cats are amazing! They all look great as well! ”

Most of the Crown Cats consisted of hybrid alien monstrosities that had been cooked up as experiments in the research institutions of Felixia.

Most genetic experiments turned out to be disappointments.
They either suffered from severe genetic defects or didn ’t turn out to be remarkable enough to justify their cost.

However, a small proportion of experiments resulted in a fantastic exception that outperformed almost every comparable huge cat!

The huge artificial exobeasts that became Crown Cats possessed valuable genetics that the research institutions sold to other interested parties.
This alone signified the great value of these aberrant creatures!

Ves frowned.
”However, each Crown Cat is essentially one-of-a-kind on Felixia.
The authorities only make one unique specimen of each species available for hunting. ”

This made hunting them all the more valuable and exclusive.
Even if some corporation bought the rights to the genes of a Crown Cat, the creatures they grew simply did not hold the same value as a Crown Cat who fought and resisted a mech hunting team under strict conditions!

Felixia deliberately pursued a strategy of maintaining artificial scarcity while hyping up the uniqueness of their remarkable Crown Cats.
Only the wild ones who have killed or eluded dozens of mech hunting teams were genuine apex predators! Those grown in a lab environment and killed under heavily skewed circumstances simply didn ’t give the killers any prestige.

”The hunt must be respected! Only in Felixia do they count! ”

One of the biggest reasons why the hunting community respected the hunts on Felixia was their reputation for fairness.
No one, not even a wealthy Hexer who offered an enormous bribe to Felixia, could circumvent their rules for their hunts!

While some parties did manage to bribe the authorities in the past, the disgraceful hunts would always be exposed by savvy hunters who were very zealous about the integrity of the hunting challenges.

Those who got exposed not only lost all of the prestige of hunting down a Crown Cat, but their reputation tanked as well as every hunter hated their guts!

A proper hunt had to be a test of skill and intuition.
Bringing an overwhelming number of expensive and heavily-armed mechs defeated the purpose of the hunt!

”Hunters can ’t bring too many mechs. ” He muttered.

Mech hunting teams could only consist of a single full mech squad at most, along with a limited number of transport or auxiliary vehicles!

The planet also imposed restrictions on the mechs that could be brought to the hunt.
No aerial mechs and no heavy mechs were allowed to participate in the hunt, and ranged mechs couldn ’t bring too much firepower.

The quality of the mechs also couldn ’t be too excessive.

”With all of these handicaps, it ’s no wonder the Crown Cats foiled so many hunts. ”

His face scrunched into a frown as he considered this problem.
Certainly, if he could make a deal with the authorities to send an entire mech company into a hunting zone, he wouldn ’t have any problem with accessing one of these majestic creatures.

Yet because the hunts were bound by so many rules, Ves could very well die if he accompanied a hunting team!

”This is really dangerous! ”

Nonetheless, the danger only added to the allure of hunting down the impressive cats!

”Well, what do you say, Lucky? Are you up for hunting down one of your up-sized cousins? ”

”Meow! ”

”Hahahaha! ”

The more he read about Felixia, the more Ves became attracted to the planet.
Perhaps he was a bit of a cat lover after all! Cuddly cats, big cats and huge cats all livened up the tourist planet, turning it into a one-of-a-kind destination that he simply had to visit!

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