By now, Dark Star contained three rooms in total: the Captain's Cabin, the Storage Space, and the newly unlocked Lifestyle Room. All of them were small, constrained by the ship's modest size, but functional enough to keep him alive. Aston checked the storage interface and studied his iron reserves. He chose to trade part of it for food instead of relying on the Food Synthesizer. The system requirements were clear. Food synthesis required bionic metal in addition to energy, and while energy was no longer an issue for him, bionic metal was something he had never encountered. It was likely not rare, just unknown, a material he had yet to learn how to obtain.
Food and water were not negotiable. He accessed the trade market and exchanged iron for a small supply of bread and water. After eating, the tight pressure in his chest eased, and his thoughts finally slowed enough to think clearly.
That was when his attention returned to the Infinite Energy Blueprint.
Endless power meant nothing if it could not be applied correctly. Almost all of his current blueprints, except for the engine, were still at level one. Upgrading them required iron, and a lot of it. He reviewed the regional chat again and noticed a recurring pattern. Some captains had been extremely fortunate, awakening directly within asteroid zones rich with belts dense enough to mine continuously. Their only concern was caution. Careless mining led to losses, damage, or worse. Those captains were already pulling ahead.
He was not one of them.
For effective exploration, he needed stronger systems. Better navigation. Smarter automation. A sturdier hull. All of it required resources. And continuing to rely on the semi-automatic machine gun was inefficient. Copper ammunition was finite, wasteful, and completely misaligned with the greatest advantage he possessed.
Infinite energy.
Aston came to a quiet conclusion. The path forward was not to compete with others using conventional methods. He needed an energy-dependent weapon blueprint. Something that converted power directly into offense. Laser-based systems. Energy shields. Anything that consumed energy instead of materials.
If he could obtain such a blueprint, he could mine without worrying about ammunition depletion, defend himself more reliably, and push deeper into dangerous zones where resources were richer. With enough materials, he could upgrade the Navigation Console and the Basic AI System, transforming Dark Star into a ship capable of long-range exploration and intelligent decision-making.
...
Without much hesitation, Aston opened the trade channel and filtered the listings to blueprints. It quickly became clear that only a handful of captains had been fortunate enough to obtain them from iron chests. Even then, possession did not equal usability. A ship could not mount every blueprint it owned. The number of external modules was limited by the ship's core structure and, more importantly, by the amount of energy the ship could sustain.
For ships below Level 5, the limitation was strict. Only two external module slots were available. Every mounted module consumed energy continuously, which was why most captains hesitated to equip anything beyond absolute necessity.
Aston gradually realized that what most captains lacked was not weapons, food or courage, but energy. Their ships relied entirely on hydrogen, a volatile fuel that burned away alarmingly fast. A single mining session could consume nearly forty percent of a ship's reserves. Refueling was painfully slow. The beginner ships were equipped with a basic energy converter integrated into their engines, allowing them to replenish hydrogen naturally while in standby mode, but the process took close to two days to recover what was lost in a few hours. It was not a sustainable solution.
His situation was fundamentally different.
With infinite energy flowing through Dark Star, the built-in energy generator blueprint mounted on the engine had become redundant. It was occupying a valuable module slot that could be used for something far more practical. Acting on instinct, Aston dismantled the energy generator blueprint. The ship continued operating without the slightest fluctuation. Power output remained stable. Systems stayed online. Just as he expected.
The dismantled blueprint registered as a green-tier Energy Generator Blueprint. It had come bundled with the green-tier engine and was far more valuable than most early-stage blueprints. Among captains, this blueprint was considered priceless. It effectively meant a backup fuel source, pushing a ship's operational energy capacity to one hundred and fifty or even two hundred percent of normal limits. A captain who possessed it could mine longer, travel farther, and fight more often than others at the same level.
Aston had no intention of selling it for raw materials. Instead, he listed it for trade, specifying his requirements clearly. He would only accept energy-dependent weapon blueprints or other highly practical blueprints.
The reaction was immediate.
The regional chat surged with speculation. To most captains, trading away an energy generator instead of using it personally meant only one thing. Whoever posted the listing must have stumbled upon an energy-rich asteroid belt or a rare fuel zone. No sane captain would give up such a blueprint otherwise.
None of them realized the truth.
He was not standing on energy.
He was the energy.
....
Trade requests flooded in through the trade auction feature.
Most of the blueprints listed were disappointing. White-tier modules with narrow uses, redundant scanners, outdated support tools, and crude weapon designs. Many captains were clearly selling anything they could not use, hoping to extract value before supplies ran out.
After several minutes of searching, one listing finally caught his attention.
The ship name was Space-Alliance.
Aston frowned. The name was strange. A single ship calling itself an alliance made little sense. Yet what truly caught his attention was not the name, but the contents of the listing. Three white-tier blueprints were being offered together. That alone was absurd. Most captains were lucky to obtain even one.
The listed blueprints were:
X-Ray Ion Laser
Magnetic Stabilizer
Mining Laser
Aston's attention locked immediately onto the X-Ray Ion Laser and the Mining Laser. Both aligned perfectly with what he needed. They all were energy-dependent. The third blueprint, the Magnetic Stabilizer, was unfamiliar. He had no idea what it did, but the name alone suggested a solution to his earlier mining losses.
He tried to contact the captain directly. There was no option for private messaging. The interface offered only public listings and direct trades. He assumed it was a limitation of his ship's level.
He opened the regional chat and searched for information on the particular ship. The answer surfaced quickly.
Space-Alliance was not an individual. It was a small alliance that had formed several hours earlier. According to the messages, nearly ten people had awakened in the same area of space. They had known each other before the relocation, recognized one another immediately, and banded together without hesitation. Using proximity and numbers, they pooled their resources, shared their chests, and centralized their blueprints under a single trade ship. They called themselves the Space Alliance.
Understanding dawned on Aston.
Those three blueprints were not the result of luck. They were the result of cooperation.
He returned to the listing and reviewed the trade conditions. The price was steep, but reasonable given the value. Without wasting time, he confirmed the trade. The system processed it instantly.
The three blueprints transferred into his inventory.
Aston leaned back slowly, eyes steady. He had just acquired exactly what he needed.
......
He moved quickly, afraid that hesitation might cost him the momentum he had just gained. The build interface opened, and the first thing he did was dismantle the semi-automatic machine gun from the primary weapon slot.
In its place, he mounted the X-Ray Ion Laser.
The ship reacted immediately. Unlike the old weapon, there was no ammunition counter, no material drain. The laser drew directly from the ship's energy core, converting ether into a thin, pale beam capable of sustained fire. Its damage output was low by conventional standards, but it was continuous, precise, and limitless. As long as Dark Star existed, the weapon could fire. Against small entities, debris, or fragile targets, it was more than sufficient. More importantly, it freed him completely from copper dependence.
Next came the mining systems.
Dark Star already had a laser mining unit integrated into the hull. Installing a second one required an external module slot.
The second laser mining blueprint integrated smoothly.
The effect was immediate and noticeable. Mining output synchronized between both units, their firing patterns overlapping in a stable rhythm. Extraction speed nearly doubled, and the strain on each individual unit decreased. Instead of pushing one laser to its operational limit, the load was distributed evenly. Heat buildup dropped. Structural vibration stabilized. Mining was no longer a crude, wasteful process. It became controlled and efficient.
Finally, he turned to the last blueprint.
The Magnetic Stabilizer.
It was not what he had initially searched for, but now that he understood its function, the timing could not have been better. He mounted it into the final external module slot.
As the system came online, the ship's hull emitted a faint pulse. Invisible magnetic fields expanded outward, forming a controlled capture zone around Dark Star.
The effect was transformative.
When the interface refreshed, Aston sat still for a long moment looking at the effects of the blueprints.
X-Ray Ion Laser Lv.1 (White)
Fires a continuous energy-based laser that consumes ship energy within a range of 1000m. Only Effective on Level one entities.
Laser Mining Unit Lv.1 (White) – Secondary Installation
Operates in parallel with the primary mining unit, doubling raw extraction efficiency.
Magnetic Stabilizer Lv.1 (White)
Generates a localized magnetic field around the ship in range of 500m stabilizing surrounding debris, reducing the risk of hull impact from uncontrolled fragments.