Brand Identity (2)

Jason heaved a sigh of relief as he gazed at his custom made brand through blurry eyes. He had spent the entire night working on it, tweaking it until he was satisfied. In the end, he ended up with a symbol that he was thrilled with. It had a mechanical gear as the background with a star laid over the top of it. The points of the star cut through the gear as they extended beyond it slightly.

The star itself was divided in half diagonally by a lightning bolt, fully incorporating the three symbols into one cohesive whole. 'Well, it's certainly unique.' Jason smiled as he thought about some of the symbols used by those in Highrise. Take Al's symbol, for example. It was nothing more than a hammer and long nail in an x shape.

Jason lifted his own hammer along with the custom stamp. Placing the symbol end on the Riot's shaft that he created yesterday, he struck a heavy blow with his hammer. As he removed his emblem from the weapon with trembling hands, he discovered that his mark was now left behind. Its edges were pleasant and clean. Nothing seemed to have gone wrong.

Admittedly he was mainly worried that the stamp might fall apart when he struck it, leaving behind an ugly and misshapen imprint. Still, everything had gone smoothly, and Jason did not hesitate to quickly stamp his HCR as well. Just to be on the safe side. Looking at the two pieces of equipment made Jason realise that he actually had so little that he could use to promote his work.

Especially since he had no plans to sell either of these two items. 'I need to come up with some other things that can be bought cheaply. Something useful. It doesn't matter if they only end up as F rank items since they're only going to be used to promote my work. I should also create a few more Primal's with my mark.'

Humming silently to himself, Jason began to make a shopping list as he considered what components might work well with each other to create useful tools. In the end, he became a little bit selfish in the things that he wanted to make. He decided to make a few tools that would be useful for those in the scavenger profession.

With Syssie in tow, Jason quickly headed out to the market to buy what he needed. His heart basically bled to part with his hard-earned credits, but sometimes you had to spend money to make money! Just as he was about to leave the stalls with his purchases, a familiar voice called out to him.

"Yo! Jason!" Al's voice carried like thunder through the crowd as he made his way over with a smile. His calculating gaze swept over the components that were still on the stall, waiting for him to bag them up. "Oh, ho! Looks like I can expect some more of those Primals of yours to hit my store."

Jason thought about how to answer Al's quiet statement for a while. 'Did he figure out how to make them? No. That shouldn't be the case. If he had, then he would just do it himself instead of being happy that I'm making more.' Jason looked at his purchased components for a moment before it dawned on him.

'He's probably happy to see what is actually used to make them! The sly fucker!' Jason grinned at this thought. What Al did not know was that Jason had enough of some crucial components back in his bedroom. So not everything that was needed was currently present. On top of that, things were mixed in for his new creations, which would further throw Al off if he tried to replicate the weapon based on these parts.

"Yeah, that's right. I'll only be able to make about two with these parts, though." Jason sighed to put on a small show. He smiled awkwardly at the look of disbelief upon Al's face.

"How is that possible! It shouldn't be so expensive to make the Primal! You pretty much said so yourself when we first negotiated!" Al cast a critical gaze over the mix of components and quickly registered that they worth far more than the production cost of two lone Primals.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. Some of these are for something new I'm working on." Jason shrugged his shoulders as he casually replied. This just threw more confusion into Al's attempt to steal the workings of his design. Now he would have to work out what was and was not used to recreate the weapon.

However, Al's eyes practically lit up at the hint of another possible business venture. Jason grinned to himself while maintaining a straight face. Al had successfully taken his bait! Now it was time to drive home the ugly truth to this guy!

"So what kind of weapon will it be? Is it an upgrade on the Primal?" Al sounded slightly anxious and excited as he posed his question.

"Ah, about that. I'll be adding a very minor modification to the primal. It's nothing to be excited over at all as for my new creations. Well, they're not going to be weapons at all. Just a few tools I came up with." Jason replied apologetically as Al began to frown.

"Hm. Well, that's bad news for me. I don't sell tools at all." Al seemed to be lost in thought for a bit before a slight smile escaped his mask of disappointment which Jason managed to notice. "Well, I'll still happily buy the modified Primal. How much do you think it will add to its cost?"

"Only a single credit. As I said, it's really nothing much." Jason was, in fact, referring to the fact that he planned to add the grip to the old design while leaving out the Riot's electrical functions. This was so that anyone who came across the Primal with a grip would not expect the Riot to be hiding any further modifications. It would leave Dani with a chance to surprise her opponents during the competition!

"Really? Is that all?" Al began to frown again. Initially, he had thought that Jason was just downplaying the new mod, judging by all the components he had bought. But at that extra cost, it was evident that he was not bluffing. "Very well. I'll add a single credit to my purchasing price. Be sure to bring them to my store soon."

With those words, their seemingly pleasant conversation came to an end. Al left in a bittersweet mood. He had gained some insights into the inner workings of the Primal. However, it did not seem that Jason would bring anything meaningful to his store again in the near future. This would be detrimental to his deal with Sam, who had purchased every copy of the Primal so far. She was sure to buy these two that Jason promised as well.

On the other hand, Jason was elated. He had succeeded in muddying the waters of Al's attempted espionage to steal his design. It was sure to take the more experienced crafter to recreate the Primal now. Unless, of course, he was willing to forego the income from selling one of the Primals just so that he could take it apart. To make things even better, Jason would succeed in tricking anyone who had bought his Primals into believing that they did not have to look out for a superior version!

'He's going to get a nasty surprise when he discovers my brand on both of these new Primals! He won't be able to steal the credit for them now. Personally, I hope he does take one apart!' Jason lightly chuckled to himself as he gathered his components into a carrier bag made from the hide of some wildlife. 'He has no idea that the internal components only hold together properly as they are inserted into each other! If he tries to take it apart, well, everything will fall apart without giving him a chance to see how it all fits together!'

In truth, Jason had deliberately designed it this way to slow down the process of any imitations making their way onto the market too soon. However, he could not do the same with the Riot. This was due to the fact it was designed to hold up better than its original counterpart. There was also no way for him to make the battery holder and wires that transferred the electricity to the weapon break apart.

This was another reason he had no intention of selling the Riot to anyone until he created something even better. Failing that, as long as he made armour or something that could counter the Riot, then he could consider selling it as well. Although, this would definitely reveal that he was capable of more. At the same time, the Riot should not be enough for people to really look into him too much. They would probably just think he had gotten lucky!

Jason eagerly walked back to his apartment in a spirited mood. Now, all that he had left to do was make his new creations and sell them! Then he would just have to wait until he made a name for himself! 'That reminds me. I need to corner Gramps and find out what he's been up to. He hasn't forced me to go scavenging since we returned from across the river. Maybe I'll ask him what he thinks of opening a store to sell my creations…'