With all the upgrades completed, Aston checked his inventory again. Only five hundred units of iron remained, along with twelve hundred units of copper. The storage that had once felt abundant now looked almost empty. There was no room left for hesitation.
He decided to drift and search for another mining belt.
Sleep crossed his mind, but his body refused it. Nearly ten hours had passed since he first awakened, yet his thoughts remained sharp, pulled forward by tension and urgency. The danger scanner was only Level 1. The navigation panel was also Level 1. Neither offered real reassurance. The scanner could only issue warnings when a threat was already within a thousand meters. At that distance, escape would be uncertain at best. It felt less like protection and more like a final warning before disaster.
In his mind, the path was clear. He needed iron. A large amount of it. Upgrading his scanners and navigation systems would push their detection range farther, buying him reaction time. He was not concerned about long-term costs. Most of his installed blueprints were white-tier, capped at Level 3. Once upgraded, they would be stable, efficient, and reliable.
He disengaged standby mode.
Dark Star accelerated smoothly, stabilizing at one hundred kilometers per hour. Resource scanners remained active, sweeping the surrounding space in wide arcs. The darkness beyond the hull remained empty for a long time. One hour passed. Then another.
Nearly two hours later, the monitor flickered.
Multiple dots appeared across the resource display.
Aston's posture stiffened instantly. The danger detector remained silent, but he did not trust it. He reduced speed and adjusted his course manually, approaching the cluster cautiously. The navigation console overlaid trajectories and distances, highlighting a small asteroid belt drifting along the edge of his mapped range.
He slowed further and waited.
No movement. No energy fluctuations. No warning signals.
Only then did he act.
The mining systems came online, both laser units activating in synchronized pulses. The magnetic stabilizer expanded its field, drawing fractured material inward as the lasers carved into the asteroid surfaces. The difference was immediate. Where his earlier mining attempts had been clumsy and wasteful, this was clean and efficient. Fragments that would have scattered into space curved back obediently, funneling into storage.
Mining efficiency nearly tripled.
Iron, copper, and trace materials poured in steadily. The storage counter climbed without pause. Within a single hour, the small asteroid belt was stripped nearly bare, reduced to drifting dust and fractured remnants.
Aston powered down the mining lasers and leaned back slightly.
The belt was exhausted.
...
Hours passed in a steady rhythm of scanning, drifting, and mining. When Aston finally pulled his attention back to the storage interface, the numbers made him pause. Iron had reached the hard limit. The storage blueprint was still only Level 1, capable of holding ten thousand units per resource. The iron counter was completely full. Copper sat at eight thousand five hundred units, and silicon had climbed to two thousand six hundred.
He knew it was time to stop mining.
He closed the resource display and opened the upgrade panel. His focus narrowed to three blueprints that mattered more than anything else right now. The Navigation Console, the Danger Detection Scanner, and the Basic AI System. All three were still at Level 1, and all three determined whether he would survive an unexpected encounter.
The rules were clear. Green-tier blueprints could be upgraded to maximum of Level 6. Each upgrade doubled the material cost of the previous level. From Level 1 to Level 2 alone required 500 units of iron. Pushing further escalated the cost rapidly. with limited resources he had, he could only upgrade the green tier blueprints to level 4. Reaching Level 4 would consume 3500 units of iron per green blueprint.
He did not hesitate.
The iron reserves dropped sharply as the Navigation Console and Danger Detection Scanner were upgraded in succession. The ship vibrated faintly as systems recalibrated, internal frameworks reinforcing themselves to support expanded data processing and sensor load.
Next came the Basic AI System.
White-tier blueprints were simpler, but no less important. The upgrade path was shorter. From Level 1 to Level 2 required 200 units of iron and 100 units of silicon, and from Level 2 to Level 3 the cost doubled. Level 3 was the ceiling. Aston pushed it straight to the maximum.
When the upgrades completed, the interface refreshed.
The effects were modest, but meaningful.
Radar/Danger Scanner Lv.4 (Green)
Monitors surrounding space for threats and energy fluctuations.
Capable of detecting potential threats within range of 8 km
The Danger Detection Scanner showed the clearest improvement. Its detection radius expanded dramatically, from the initial 2km to 8km in all directions. The warning window was no longer a moment of panic. It became time; - Time to maneuver. Time to escape. Time to decide.
Navigation Console lv 4 (Green)
Provides accurate star maps and trajectory plotting, allowing the ship to chart courses through space.
The Navigation Console, despite its upgrade, showed little visible change. Its description remained largely the same. Route plotting was smoother, calculations slightly faster, and positional drift reduced, but nothing that could be felt immediately. It was an invisible improvement, one that would matter over long distances and prolonged travel.
The Basic AI System was where the most noticeable shift occurred.
Basic AI System lv 3 MAX (White)
Automates ship diagnostics, monitoring hull integrity, engine performance, and system efficiency in real time.
Introduces a layered alarm protocol that escalates threats based on proximity and behavior.
At maximum level, it moved beyond simple diagnostics. In addition to automated system monitoring, it introduced an alarm protocol. Threat alerts were now layered, escalating in urgency depending on distance and behavior. Efficiency routines were also added, subtly optimizing energy distribution, thrust control, and system synchronization without his direct input.
Aston leaned back in the captain's chair and exhaled slowly.
With the remaining iron, roughly two thousand five hundred units, Aston turned his attention to the storage blueprint. It was still only Level 1, and the limitation had been clear during mining: ten thousand units per material. That cap had already been reached for iron, copper, and silicon.
He initiated the upgrade. Being white-tier, the storage blueprint had a maximum upgrade of Level 3. The interface consumed the remaining iron, and the ship hummed as the internal compartments expanded. The effect was immediate and unmistakable: the maximum capacity for each individual resource item increased from ten thousand to fifty thousand units.
Storage Expansion Lv.3 MAX(White)
Maximum storage capacity increased.
Current limit: 50,000 units per item.
.......
From what Aston could infer, the upgrades had their limits. White-tier blueprints were functional, but their ceiling was low. Even at maximum level, the Basic AI System now offered only basic automation, monitoring, and a modest alarm protocol. For truly effective protection, he would need higher-tier blueprints—green, blue, or even beyond—that could be developed past Level 10. Those blueprints would unlock more sophisticated capabilities: predictive threat analysis, advanced navigation, energy optimization, and complex defensive strategies.
For now, white-tier modules were sufficient to get started. They provided survival, modest efficiency, and a foundation on which to build. But to transform Dark Star from a small vessel into a truly formidable ship, Aston knew he would have to seek out rarer blueprints, higher-tier designs, and opportunities to push his systems far beyond their current limitations.
The next logical step was upgrading the weapon and mining blueprints. With the Basic AI now at Level 3, Aston could issue small commands directly to the ship. The AI could handle simple sequences: start and stop mining, activate scanners, manage power distribution, and respond to immediate threats within its limited programming. It was nothing spectacular, but it allowed him to delegate basic operations, reducing his constant mental load.
The tension that had gripped him since awakening—the disorientation, the sudden relocation, and the uncertainty of the galaxy—finally began to weigh heavily. His body ached from hours of focus and vigilance. Fatigue was unavoidable.
He decided to issue a simple command to Dark Star: drift slowly, maintaining sensor activity, and when a small asteroid was detected within range, initiate mining automatically. The AI acknowledged the instruction, its systems humming quietly in agreement.
Satisfied that the ship would handle the task without further input, Aston reclined into the captain's chair. The gentle vibration of the engines and the soft hum of the life support created a steady rhythm. His eyes grew heavy, and for the first time in hours, he allowed himself to drift into sleep, trusting that Dark Star would continue to gather resources while he rested.