“Welcome Alan.” It was Kara, he hadn’t seen her for a few days, and had wondered where she had gone.

“Good to see you again Kara, what brings you here today?”

She looked at him pensively, before continuing. “I am here to let you know of an update which will be taking place for Cosmos.” She looked at him expecting him to say something. When he didn’t she continued. “When a new planet becomes active in Cosmos there is an unrestricted time where new players can gain the full experience of Cosmos. However, because of the inherent dangers of introducing so many technological and cultural advances, Cosmos has developed, and set in place artificial limiters. Therefore, in order to smooth the transition, the following restrictions will be enabled:

All imports of new technology from Cosmos to Earth will be restricted to those products already brought to earth or those that are solely manufactured by ‘human hands.’ This includes weapons, medicine, energy etc.

Please note that this may be an inconvenience to players. Therefore we are offering the following:

A 1x change of location for any current players to a new planet within 72 hours.

A virtual Terran Marketplace will be established as a convenient place to exchange goods.

Access to pods will be for 24 hours.

A 30% tariff on all human made goods imported to Earth from Cosmos, as a means to encourage local production and buying locally.

A 30% tariff on all human made good at the planetary tech levels and above, sold in Cosmos.

Do you have any questions Alan?” She finished her explanation and waited expectantly.

Alan understood perfectly, but felt he needed to at least show some semblance of surprise. “What does ‘made by human hands’ mean?” He queried.

“To clarify, it means that the production of an item must be done by humans for it to be sold in the Terran Market and/or removed from a Holding Ring and used on Earth.”

“So, I’m planning on going back to Kragga. Would that mean that a salvaged ship would be under embargo?”

Kara's eyes widened slightly at his admission of going back to Kragga.

“Excellent question Alan. Yes and No. If you were to repair the ship to full functionality then No. Fixing an item does not allow it to be brought through. However, dismantling and using the metals, parts and pieces to create something, can be considered extracting and developing an item. This plays in your favor as these are abandoned vessels. But someone who simply purchases a number of parts and puts together an item would not qualify.”

“I see, so by extracting the parts from the salvage lands I am able to use it for new productions”

“That is correct” She said matter of fact.

“What about the batteries which are produced by my ship manufacturing? The manufacturing was operational before the event but not brought to earth.”

She paused. “No. Those batteries are considered manufactured by the species who built the ship, and specifically the manufacturing machines.”

Alan knew the answer before she even spoke it. Rules were rules. But he’d been lucky to find the intact workshop to begin with. He’d already produced a lot of batteries.

"What about my VE generator?"

"Yes, well, that is just fine as it was purchased before the embargo. All energy it can produce is technically from human origin."

"And the Nyamisium?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"That is considered a raw resource, which when turned it VE or other materials, are not restricted by the embargo."

Satisfied by the answers, Alan followed up with a few more questions.

“So what is this market place and when does it open up?”

“The Market place will open in 72 hours. As a purchaser of the first series of Pods you are entitled to free access and a 10% discount to a purchase of market place.”

Alan nodded. “Thank you Kara. I think that is all I need to know.” He was considering his next step when Kara interrupted his train of thought.

“Did you know about the embargo and planet transfer? I have monitored you closely, and except with a brush with a few other humans who likely knew of the embargo, you had no access to it?”

Alan had expected a question, but not so directly. “I guess it was from our other conversation about credit to precious metal exchange. You mentioned that you guys really tried to limit how much we could gain access to things quickly. I figured you’d have some way to make it really hard to do business or trade with Cosmos. After I met with those guys yesterday, I figured the timeline would be really soon.”

“I understand the embargo, but how did you know we would offer a planetary transfer?”

Alan had no real explanation for it, so he didn’t try. “I guess I got lucky. Maybe I’d hire a ship or something to get back to Kragga.” Alan was grateful he hadn’t spent all his credits so to seem somewhat credible.

Kara did not seem satisfied, but only sat there pensively. To break the silence Alan brought up a new subject, just to hide his own nervousness. “Kara, while I was on Mairkness, I was able to buy a few gene serums. Could I possibly use them now?”

Kara snapped back from her reverie and responded quickly. “Yes of course. Let’s begin that now. I will go ahead and automatically extract your serums and apply them. Please wait a moment.”

Moment’s later Alan felt a warm heat pass through his body, the serum beginning its work. Not long after, his mind seemed to focus more on the room.

“Hi Alan.” Kara said sweetly, “You’ve reached the maximum benefits from weak gene serums.” Alan only nodded somewhat groggy from the double dose. “On the bright side you added an additional 8 GMU units to your current ability. Checking his status it read clearly as 34/38. A notification popped up.

NOTICE! VE Generator is no longer over maximum GMU. Subject will no longer experience pain during transfer of energy. Ongoing genetic modification; freely able to transfer energy, is now fully enabled

Alan shifted his body, willing away the uncomfortable feeling he had from the upgrade. He moved energy to refill his ring. It was a relief to finally be able to use and transfer his energy again without the agonizing pain which accompanied it. Alan let himself give a broad smile to Kara, who in return smiled back. He checked on the requirements for the GMU upgrade:

This ability is upgradable when the following have been met:

GMU: 34/52. (VE) Capacity 5. (VE) Production 5. Max VE Storage.

Warning: Additional upgrades may lead to changes in physiology.

“Hmm...that is strange,” Alan thought to himself. “Before I needed to have at least 20 GMU available over the cap for an upgrade. It looks like now, however, I only need 18.” It looked to Alan as if part of his forced mutation had reduced how much he needed to upgrade. Looking at the other requirements his mind went to his stats.

“I guess now would be a good time to also check on my last combat report.” Immediately notifications popped up showing his fight from the previous day.

Combat Review: Scenario. 5 vs 3. Position: Defender, Surprise Attack. 0 Kills, 2 Assists. Moderate Damage Sustained.

Reward: David and Goliath: Stun or Kill a far stronger enemy with bare hands. 1 Stat awarded.

There wasn’t much in the way of combat rewards this time around. He couldn’t blame the system though. It wasn’t like he’d done much anyway, except nearly get shot and beaten. It was pretty unknown at the beginning but you’d likely get a lot of stats at first, only to have them slow down later in the game. It didn’t help you max out a pretty uninteresting stat at the beginning only to regret it later when you obtained a new stat to increase, which was a lot better. He then noticed another notification.

Big Spender LvL 1: Make Transactions of 50,000 Credits. 1 Stat Awarded.

***Bonus Award. You are invited to a special auction held at the Market Today for achieving this award in the first week.

His heart raced as his recent expenses had paid off. In his last life he’d never been able to spend 50,000 credits after years of playing the game. He’d given most of his earnings to his sister and nephew. Yet, he’d managed to do it after 1 week, and as he planned, he’d earned a special exclusive invite.

He shifted his attention to focus back on his stat points, and the additional 2.

There wasn’t much debate on where to put his points. He was going down the path of an energy body, and he didn’t hesitate to put as much into those areas as possible, maxing out both his VE capacity and production. He held onto his remaining stat point. As he wasn’t sure what else might be unlocked. He didn’t need the intelligence boost as that really only helped his ability to download more info. And for his other unlocked stats, strength and speed, he could work on those manually.

He looked at his player sheet.

Personal Modifier

Current

Available: 1

Description

Credit Balance:

49,315

Strength

(3/10)

135 LBS Bench

Items:

Basic Tools

Electronic Tools

Food Ration

4-Wheeler

Energy Pistol

EV Exchange Generator

3x Vials. Content (unknown).

43 F Monster Nyamisium Core

1 F Monster Nyamisium Core

Droid

10 Doses of Nanoheal

….

Speed

(3/10)

8 MPH Jog

Intelligence

(3/10)

100 IQ

(VE) Capacity

(8/8)

800 Unit Cap

102/800 VEU

(VE) Production

(8/8)

8 Units Per Hour

Everything looked good. He was ready to transfer back to Kragga. His stats were updated, genome taken care of, and an awkward conversation with Kara was successfully avoided.

“Kara, I’m ready to transfer to Kragga.”

“Alright Alan. Please prepare for transfer.” She stated calmly.

“Before I go though, when does the terran market open?”

“The market will open this afternoon at 12 pm you local time, and the special auction will happen this evening. You are welcome to access the market via pod at this time.”

Alan nodded, “Thanks Kara, let's get going.”