Pisspuss led Luke towards the Quartermaster's office, introducing him to various crew members as they navigated the massive ship's corridors. Pisspuss provided a brief tour of some of the facilities they passed, giving Luke a sense of the scale of the vessel. They eventually arrived at a seemingly ordinary office door. Pisspuss opened it and stepped inside. "Hey, Duck," he called out. "Are there still mining ships available for requisition?"A voice responded from within, punctuated by the clicking of a keyboard. "Yeah," the voice muttered, the speaker seemingly engrossed in their work. "Why?"Pisspuss gestured towards Luke. "There's a miner here who'd like to apply for a requisition. He's new to VGO. Thought I'd help him out a bit."The person at the desk, presumably "Duck," stopped typing and looked Luke over. "He really does look like a newbie," Duck smirked. "From the gear alone, it looks like you expect a gunfight every time." Duck pointed at Luke's attire. "That gear looks expensive. My advice? Try buying disposable gear. If you respawn at the hospital, all the gear you're wearing is lost. I assume you haven't died yet," Duck added.Luke smiled wryly. "Yeah. After watching some VGO beginner guides on YouTube, I thought I knew better than to buy expensive gear," he admitted.Duck scoffed. "While some YouTube guides are useful, firsthand experience is always the best teacher. I suggest you save up for a base, not ships, not gear. Even if you're in a guild or clan." Duck leaned back in his chair. "Ship insurance is good for when your ship gets blown up. You pay a small percentage to get it back. But a permanent base is your safe haven. You can build your own ships there, refine ores, manufacture equipment. In short, become self-sufficient, and faster."Duck continued, "We here at the Clang Faction aren't working harder; we're working smarter. Our scripted drones and automated assemblers build and work for us, while we focus on design and testing. Resource acquisition is a different matter. Ores in VGO respawn every six months. It's manageable for us under normal circumstances, but with the war against the Empire of Man, it's… demanding. We need a lot of resources. It's inefficient and risky if our mining ships keep respawning at the main systems. They'd have to trek through multiple star systems to get back here, making them easy targets for opportunistic factions. We build a lot of ships and rally them for the war effort. After the war, we either sell the ships that respawn from insurance or grind them down and repurpose their materials.""Anyway," Duck said, glancing back at his work. "Sorry to cut this short, but I really need to finish this." He looked back at Luke. "Can you send me your contact info?"Luke nodded. "Of course." He swiped his wrist datapad towards Duck, initiating a data transfer."Here's the requisition form," Duck said, sending a document file to Luke's datapad. "You can finish filling it out anytime. We've got a lot of mining barges collecting dust anyway." Duck gestured vaguely towards the hangar outside. "You'll be mining within our territory mostly. It makes ore transfers much faster. You can mine in areas near our borders, but don't try to leave Clang space with the assigned ship. They're set to automatically deactivate and engage emergency beacons if they leave our controlled space. Just standard protocols." He added with a slight grin, "You can't hack them either. If the security scripts are ever decrypted, they're programmed to overheat the reactors and kaboom. Don't worry; you'll learn a lot from us. We're known as the 'Armored Space Pirates' in the main systems," Duck said."Anyway, Duck," Pisspuss interjected, "he's got ores to sell. He said he was going to sell them in the OP-1OC star system.""Ooooh," Duck winced, his face twisting into a grimace. "That's bad. Really bad.""That's what I told him," Pisspuss replied."Hopefully, you either saved your ores or sold them to one of the warring factions," Duck said, turning back to Luke. "But that depends on if they have a mass mining industry like the Empire of Man. Either way, we're definitely interested in buying your ores.""Do you also buy ecliptium?" Luke asked."Especially ecliptium," Duck emphasized. "We need a lot of it in these 'fun' times." He quoted the word fun with air quotes. The prices for ecliptium have skyrocketed, up to 2,200 VC at maximum per unit, depending on the quality, of course, with 1,700 VC being the lowest."Luke's eyes widened, and he couldn't suppress a wide smile. Ooooh, I can get at least 8,000 VC with that ecliptium alone, he thought happily.Duck noticed his reaction. "I assume you have some ecliptium?" He chuckled. "You're lucky our prices have increased so much. Whenever there's a war, materials used to build warp drives skyrocket. Especially ecliptium. Ecliptium-based alloys spool up a warp drive 30% faster."Later, Luke successfully sold his mined ores. The transaction totaled 32,725 VC, with the twelve units of ecliptium alone fetching 20,700 VC. He felt a surge of satisfaction. This was by far his biggest haul yet."Seeing as you got your first huge payout," Pisspuss said as they walked back towards Luke's ship, "are you gonna go shopping in the main systems?""Nah," Luke replied. "I'll log out for a bit, exchange some VC for real money, and treat myself.""That's good, that's good," Pisspuss nodded. "Anyway, we'll warp out in a few in-game hours and scout the systems for more ores for at least two in-game weeks. By the time you log back in, we'll be back in our main territory. That's where you can dig up the good stuff.""Okay, okay, I'll remember that," Luke said. "Though, the time conversion still takes some getting used to.""It's simple," Pisspuss explained. "Seven days in VGO is equal to one day in the real world, and vice versa. Just program an automated time converter outside your pod. That way, whenever you log back in, you can see how many hours or days have passed in-game.""Okay, I'll take that advice," Luke said."Make sure to ask me if you need anything," Pisspuss added.Luke reached his ship and climbed inside, heading towards the small bunk. He sat down and said, "Status."The holographic screen shimmered to life, displaying his profile:[ Legacy of the fallen ]
Name: Luke Rennelheart
Age: 24
Level: 9
Legacy Points: 4
Traits: Pickaxe Picasso, Beep Boop Rock Snooper
*Traits Shop*
Strength: 21
Agility: 19
Endurance: 15
Vitality: 21
Intelligence: 10
Skills:
*Skills Tree*
Luke examined his status. He didn't feel physically different. The only noticeable change was the dramatic reduction in his Legacy Points. They had vanished almost as quickly as he'd earned them. The brief surge of wealth had been exhilarating, but now it was gone, invested in his stats and traits. He knew it was a necessary investment, but a small part of him still felt the sting of seeing those hard-earned points disappear. Luke spoke the command: "Log out." He closed his eyes, bracing for the transition back to the real world. A brief sensation of disorientation washed over him, a familiar feeling after extended periods in VGO. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying in his immersion pod. He sat up, the pod's lid retracting with a soft hiss.The view from his apartment window was a stark contrast to the vast emptiness of space. Flying cars zipped between towering, aesthetically designed buildings. Shuttles descended and ascended, navigating the intricate aerial traffic patterns. Looking down, he saw only a handful of ground vehicles; most traffic had moved to the skies. The world had changed dramatically in the twenty-five years since the Xeltheris' arrival and the subsequent integration of VGO into everyday life.Luke reached into his pocket and retrieved his phone. He opened the VGO app and checked his virtual credit balance: 112,300 VC. It's not much, but it's money, he thought. He decided to exchange 300 VC for real-world currency. The app displayed the conversion: $7,000. After deducting the 15% combined transfer and tax fee imposed by the UN VGO Oversight Committee, he would receive $5,950.He did the math in his head. $5,950. In his early days in VGO, he would have been furious about the government taking such a large cut of his earnings. Now, he simply accepted it as the cost of doing business in a world where virtual economies had become deeply intertwined with real-world finances.A knock sounded at his door. "Brother, are you up yet? Breakfast is ready," a feminine voice called out."Yeah, I'm coming down, Maya," Luke replied, swinging his legs out of the pod and standing up.