It was followed by another status message.

You have surveyed your first Ore deposit.

Survey skill increased.

Current Skill Level: 1 / 100

Find deposits of higher density will increase your mining laser yield.

I closed the messages. Let’s test my assumption that brighter colors mean better deposits. I shifted focus to another asteroid that featured a lighter blue spot near its center. I slowly shifted forward, circling the deposit until I had good understanding of the dimensions. Bit by bit I worked my way around it. It was hard to keep my focus for so long. I nearly gave up until my interface finally blinked with a message.

Endrite Deposit. Density 9.8 %.

I closed the message and switched the survey module off.

When I had played for extended periods of time in the past I would feel mentally drained when I logged out. I needed rest and relaxation to recover from that. The way I felt right now was way worse than any 24 hour gaming session in the past. I was so drained that i could not think straight anymore. I decided to close my eyes for a moment.

The feeling of severe hunger woke me up again. Wow, I must have been out. I slept for nearly four hours after only being awake for about two. Mind-controlling machines really took it out of you. I had breakfast - or whatever meal because I had no clue anymore what time it was back on earth. My rhythm was completely messed up but honestly I didn’t care.

A quick check on my contract showed me that my auto mining operation had delivered another 1100 units of ore against my contract which left me owing 5400 and my mining skill was up to 13. Neat!

I left everything as running as it was and went back to messing with the survey module. When I opened it in my interface it showed that the sync was 62%. Considering how noticeable the increase to 10% was in my last session I looked forward to testing the new level.

Login, zoomout, change vision. Zoom back to ship. Spin the view angle 360 degree around it. Yeah, so much simpler. And even slight twitches in concentration didn’t affect the result nearly as much as before. It felt like the module understood much better what I wanted it to do.

Instead of focusing on the bright spots inside of the rocks I scanned the surfaces of the asteroids surrounding us. Was there one that would allow me to be more productive? After some searching I found a promising candidate. I scanned the deposit in detail until I saw the red frame around it.

Endrite Deposit. Density 11%.

Nearly 4% better than what I am mining now. Awesome!

“Let’s see if we can’t do even better!”

I zoomed and panned and skipped around the asteroid field and surveyed the crap out of it. Over the next 4 hours I found 5 deposits that were better than the one I was mining right now, the highest one with 15%. That was twice as good as what I was messing with now.

While I was scanning around, I noticed something at the edge of my vision. It looked like a giant hollow in an asteroid but I couldn’t make out details with my blue light / x-ray vision. I focused on it with all I had, willing my brain to understand what it was seeing. To no avail. I saw some sharp edges and some curves illuminated in blue but that was it. I was about to get frustrated with my results when my interface simultaneously warned me of the food debuff and informed me about the facts that I had reached 100% synchronization, Survey level 3 and Basic Mining 14.

I had not noticed how long I had been busy but then again. It seems that time really flies when you’re having fun. I grabbed food and while I was munching on it I programmed the 15% deposit location into the computer and then activated the autopilot who would get it there without flying into any rocks.

Three hours later I was stationary again and set my autominer up. The field was only big enough for about 6 squares but I wouldn’t finish them because I was only 4320 ore away from ending my contract. I had broken the halfway mark.

With that thought I went to my bunk and dreamt of myself in a universe full of endless opportunities.