The next day or rather waking period flew by like nothing. After waking up I met Ralgau in the Rambler where he was doing one last shift before walking out. He said that ‘every bit of Ice counts’ when I asked him the night before. At first I tried convincing him that I would need his help getting everything sorted out but in the end I just shrugged. The good thing about that was that I knew where to find him and we was ready to get me breakfast. Which was again the porridge style protein slime and a cup of the weird green coffee replacement drink.

Over my breakfast we went through our list of things that we needed to get together on our end. After which I promptly headed to Upper 15, 21 where the office of Allied Banks was located. I had a brief conversation with the AI, informed myself about terms and conditions, insurance and so on and then put in a credit application.

I was annoyed because I didn’t actually want to take out a credit but I also didn’t want to sit any longer in the belt mining. For one I wanted to get my hands on the ship which meant claim and getting it setup and working. At the same time I was curious about the industrial aspect of Black Space and what I could do and not do here. How the setup worked, etc. And finally I wanted to start making real money while I was at it.

There would be another option once the game went live and that was exchanging Yuan-Credits to ICU. However that option was locked at the moment. At the same time I really didn’t want to go that way. Did I have the feeling that I would probably go that route in the future? Maybe. Because if it turned out that I could put money into the game to create a business with good ROI, I might be able to use Black Space as an investment option. At least for some of my money.

At the same time I hated the idea that people that had a lot of money in real life would have an advantage ingame. Which was something that the communities have been fighting about for decades. Yes, I could see both sides. However, gaming used to be an equalizer. And there were still some old school games that subscribed to this philosophy. Your skills and smarts made the difference. Not the amount of cash you had IRL. In my opinion that was a good idea that I liked but at the same time most major titles did not go that route and while there was a bunch of people whining about it, the business model that most companies went with was: “If you want to give us your money for some ingame advantage, we will not stop you”. And honestly, from a business perspective this also made sense to me.

Anyway, I might use that option down the line but for right now that button was greyed out and there was no way to do that right now. Which meant that quick ICU injections would have to come from banks or investors.

The way that this worked in Black Space was that your ingame assets along with your skill and money making potential would be evaluated which would then lead to an offer of a maximum credit line for one standard year. Yes, there was a whole different structure for corporations but since I had no corp, I could only look at the personal credit line. For me that broke down to:

Assets (liquid, ship + equipment, personal equipment)

43800

Total skill points over 50 (1k per point)

5000

Total skill points over 100 (2k per point)

0

Total skill points over 200 (5k per point)

0

Skill points above 30 (1k per point)

2000

Skill points above 50 (2k per point)

0

Skill points above 80 (5k per point)

0

Total

50800

Credit Line (20% interest per year, one standard year)

101600

This could then be combined with an evaluation about IRL assets and credits which could be used up to 30% for a 5% fee plus 10% interest. Which meant if I had 30k in savings without credits or obligations IRL, I could use 10k as a security against an ingame loan of 9.5 Million ICU (500k as fees plus 950k as interest). Which was a LOT of money that the company was raking in. Especially considering that these loans were only good for 3 months and needed to be paid back by then. After going through the example, I could not really imagine a situation where I would do that anytime soon.

However, I took the full amount of ICU from the bank which was immediately transferred into my account and brought the number up to 116534 ICU. I grinned for a moment about that amount and was about to feel rich and then remembered that any half decent ship would cost me more than that. However, it was way enough for my shopping list. Which I turned my attention to after leaving the bank.

I set aside 2k for the transport to the Asteroid for Ralgau and me. While I would take Rustbucket out there, all the equipment and Ralgau himself would be shipped out there by a contract shipper we had hired.

Then I went by the LoGov office and registered our claim. I didn’t run into any trouble there but the clerk in the office, yes, no AI here, gave me a weird look after I told him that we expect 11% Endrite from the asteroid. So I told him that we expected some Pyzite and possibly some Quintalite but weren’t absolutely sure on the latter yet. I had discussed this with Ralgau beforehand and he told me that claims are normally staked only on 15% and above or where higher tier materials had been discovered in sufficient quantities. So to avoid questions I went with that explanation.

The next thing was that I bought CLON contracts for both him and me. Ralgau had already contacted them and approved me taking out the contract for him. Since they still had his base profile on file it wasn’t an issue. Yes, they were only the 5k super basic option. But to be honest, coming back without skills beat not coming back any day. So that was another 10k gone. I had contemplated to get a basic contract for everyone but right now that was their problem. Yes, I would do my darndest to make sure everybody stayed alive because I think it was the right thing to do.

At the same time it was their responsibility to take precautions. We were not even a corporation. So I decided that I would treat the other people on the claim more like freelancers working on the same project than anything else. At the same time I made a mental note that if I ever established a corporation, having a CLON contract for everybody would become something of a standard operating procedure. And that could even be leveled based on contribution or something.

Then I bought three pulse laser turrets which ran 18k each and were the best option available. They were in my opinion the best option. They did not need ammunition, the energy cells were self-charging or could be hooked up to any type of generator for a faster charge, they were not draining the energy as crazy as the continuous beam lasers and provided a decent damage output (or so I was told). Another 54k gone.

I also stocked up on food and water stores in Rustbucket as a fallback option if necessary. That was another 1900 ICU. Then I got the mining shelters for Ralgau and me at 12k each plus a small fusion reactor with a decent power output for 8k, a vac suit cleaner and nano shower packs for another 4.5k.

With most of my money gone within a day, I grabbed Ralgau once he got off shift and we headed back to the shop I got my pistol from. There we got a pulse rifle plus a few energy cores and a MoFi combat knife for each of us. Yeah, I know, probably overkill but then again, best be prepared. I just hoped our co-co-op-people would show up prepared too. This purchase cost me another 9.3k (ish).

Down to 2654 ICU and with a few hours to go, we checked on the rental equipment. There we ran into Brelic and the Youngs who had already gone over everything and Mrk nodded to us, gave us the thumbs up and returned to his conversation with his wife.

“You won’t believe it.” Brelic started excitedly.

“Mmmhh?” Ralgau gave him a questioning look before I cool respond to his statement.

“Krn is a genius. Not only did she manage to get all equipment in less than good condition replaced. But she also got them to throw in a low gravity generator.”

I looked over to where Krn was busy talking to her husband over some crate of equipment. Yes, no kidding, that was pretty genius. We had discussed the option of adding one of these to the equipment rental contract but that would have easily doubled the cost the rental and honestly we would already have to work quite a bit before we took any money home. So getting them to throw one in for free was huge. I guess her skills in mercantilism and business really were coming in handy.

The benefit that this generator provided was that it would generate a local gravity field of around 0.4g, which would allow us to work a lot easier and more importantly faster. So in my book that was a definite win.

After that we all went to the Rocket-Wrench where we met Ygglog for food and a last-night-on-station celebration. We toasted Krn, discussed the transport and priorities setting up the shelters and equipment. I shared that I had acquired some toys for Brelic.

When I made my way back to Rustbucket that night I was sober (mostly) and excited to get going. There had been a sense of purpose that each of us had felt today and I still did. It was the energy that comes from having made a decision and rolling with it. Being 100% invested into something and making it happen. And while the expenses and the uncertainty if everything would work out were looming over our heads, I felt like we were all committed to something and moving forward.

When I fell asleep in my bunk after setting the alarm for departure, I did so with a smile on my face. A new chapter was about to start.