Prakash opened his eyes and admired the tail-end motion of the reflective glass panel swivelling upward. Taking a moment to digest what happened and the edges of his mouth slowly curved upwards. The game did not disappoint. Thinking over what happened in the past few hours, he was content with what happened. Prakash got up and slowly made his way to his computer, eager to know if others shared the same opinion as he do.

The top post of the forum that greeted him was unsurprisingly about the highly immersive combat experienced in the tutorial quests. His friend's opinion that each starting planet had similar types of quests that teaches players how 'basic' combat functioned.

Curious about the opinions of those that chose to help the rebels, Prakash navigated to his starting planet’s subthread labelled “Palladium”. He found out that the majority of players who joined the rebel factions were instead directed to participate the raid on a planetside depot while he was busy fighting for the space station. The reverse were true for the ones fighting with the Hunters.

"Wow, they actually took part in aerial dogfights" thought Prakash bitterly. He lamented that his friends and him only had an opportunity to shadow what the NPCs were doing. He then recalled the harrowing experience and changed his opinion. 'Maybe not flying in first day isn't that bad' he thought to himself.

"Time for dinner'' he murmured after taking a glimpse at the time. Prakash made his way down to the lively discussion of his siblings regarding their similar experiences in AO. He quickly forgotten his ordeal and joined the discussion.

*** A Week Later ***

"That will cost you 5,000 SC'' the port bellied man said as he went through the list Tilly handed him.

''4,500 since I'm clearing this junk from your store. Nobody wants this outdated scrap.'' a red haired lady retorted.

Staring into the eyes of the black market merchant, "I can get better gear if I head 2 streets down and pay 1,000 more. You've got to give me a better price''

Sighing, ''Alright fine. I'll do you a favour, 4,700 and i'll even throw in Tier 2.5 fabricator''

"Deal!''

Tilly transferred what's left of her meagre Solarium Credit, SC and asked for the items to be delivered to a small workshop she rented in the old industrial district. As she head back towards the workshop, Tilly's heart ached when she looked at her remaining Solarium Credits in her account balance. Her hard work running errands for the materials workshops in Palladium netted her 7,000 SC over the past week. With only a little less than 2,000 SC left, it was barely enough to rent the small workshop she now had in the old industrial area.

To her surprise, Tilly found the bots waiting for her outside her workshop. It was surprising as she never expected such fast delivery for such a realistic game. The delivery service were extremely helpful and it helped her set up the machines. Not only were the bots fast and helpful, they were efficient. Fixing up the various machinery were much easier than she expected. The bots seemed to understand where and how she wanted each of the machines set despite her minimal instructions.

The whole setup was completed in less than an hour. Looking around the space where she will be spending the most of her time in game, she was extremely pleased with what she had achieved. 'Time to start exploring the secrets of AO' she told herself. Tilly was intrigued with what the tech tree can offer when she watched the small reveal by the chief engineer, Elizabeth Sparks. The first thing she did after logging in was to look up the in-game galactic net - or commonly known as gNet - regarding the major products and industries of the Sao Empire.

The Sao Empire is abundant in Pallanium and Techatron. Pallanium is known for its unique energy absorbing property. Its energy absorption capacity is one of the highest in the galaxy, coming only after Krandium. One of its many applications are energy storage and it is popular as an alternative armour to energy weapons. Planet Palladium derives its name from the mineral Pallanium. The planet and its system accounts for 10% of the galaxy's Pallanium production.

Techatron is a product that is most widely found in processing units. The few megacorporations in the empire who produce Techatron guarded jealously their unique Techatron recipes. Techatron is a compound when used, enable computers to perform at minimum five times faster when juxtaposed against silica based machines.

As she expanded her research on to the information regarding the empire's industry, Tilly gave herself two goals. She was intrigued with Pallanium and wanted to see if she could explore, improve and apply some properties of Pallanium. She had a few ideas on where to start and set it as her first immediate goal. That would net her a steady income to keep her research in other fields going and continue paying the rent for her workshop.

Next, Tilly wanted to develop her own Techatron formula. She wanted to know how fast a Techatron computer can run but getting one would cost too much. Hence, she resorted to making one herself.

A few websites speculated with a high degree of certainty on some core elements of Techatron. However, those materials weren't cheap and were not guaranteed to be the exact formula.

'That'll be my second goal' she decided. 'After I can maintain the workshop, I can start exploring Techatron recipes.'

***

It had been two weeks of learning and performing the various missions offered in the Hunters' Hall since AO started.

"This isn't fun. The patrol missions are boring!'' Helix complained. Prakash was also feeling tired from the monotonous grind for contribution points and SC.

After a week of training from the various hunters, performing repeatable missions, and a few minor story quests that required them to team up with other players, their grasp of the game mechanics were much better compared to before.

The game had no levels or player stats. Instead, everything, including players, were rated in tiers. With tier 0 being the lowest and 5 being the current highest. However, the tier ceiling wasn't capped. Tier 5 isn't the end game tier that everyone strived towards. Instead, the tech tree progression mimics the real world where its development is in a perpetual state of improvement. As the technology in the game develops, the tier improves. The galaxy's core powers had been stuck with tier 5 tech level for almost three centuries unable to progress.

The hunter who taught them about the tier system said that there were rumours that tier 6 equipments were secretly tested at the fringes of the galaxy. However, those were only rumours and many investigations revealed nothing to support such claims.

When Phoenix asked the instructor when he thought the galaxy would make a breakthrough, he laughed and said, "I'll bet all my booze on at least another few centuries, if not a millennium. The last tier up from four to five took the core powers two millenias followed by a century of war and power struggle.

"That's how far away we are. You should be thankful and focus on learning the basics even before you think about upgrading to Tier 1." advised the instructor.

Player tiers were just the average ratings of items equipped. Personal powers can be obtained from weapons, armours, and implants. Each granting their own unique boosts.

Over the week of exploration around Palladium, Helix found work with a munitions factory to manufacture and design new explosives. It provided him with a steady stream of SC which he reinvested into improving his craft.

Other than running patrol missions, Gulliver approached Tessa to learn more about ship systems and maintenance. It wasn't an activity he particularly liked, but he took it up for the team after giving it much thought.

Horn instead found that cooking in the game was fun with all the new ingredients available to explore. He spent most of his time as an apprentice chef to one of the local restaurant. The place was a fairly decent establishment serving a multitude array of local and off-planet cuisine. It eventually turned into the team's defacto location to meet and discuss their plans moving forward.

"We've been doing hunter missions and saving contribution points and SC for the past week. How close are we to affording our ship?'' asked Phoenix.

She has been taking flying classes from the Hunters' Hall and couldn't wait to be flying for the team.

"We have the funds for the upgraded light frigate we mentioned, but there is still so much to explore on Palladium'' Horn replied.

"I strongly recommend we should save up a bit more, we need bigger guns. The players who made it to space were already complaining about the high number of pirates'' countered Helix.

"As much as I hate to encourage Horn's new found love for explosives, I do agree with him.

"I've been running missions for the Hunters, they are stretched really thin and because of that, the pirates are having a field day.

''They've put out missions for players to hunt the pirates, but most players don't have ships that can go toe to toe with them yet'' Gulliver added.,

"Some of them have bought star fighters to fight the pirates. We could do the same.” Phoenix added.

"Yes, that is if you can survive the encounter, let alone beat them. If not you'll just waste credits by getting the fighter destroyed'' Horn replied.

"I've run the sims, I can do it. Even the instructors were impressed by my flight skills'' she added not giving up.

“If I'm successful, the star fighter can be deployed together with our light frigate as well. It is only 2,000 contribution points and I’m prepared to use my points for it”

“Alright. It’s a risk but it might be worth it if it is successful. I’ll chip in an additional 500 points for you to upgrade the fighter” Gulliver conceded.

“If it's a team decision, I'll add another 500 as well,” Horn said.

The team looked towards Helix, waiting for his decision.

“I’ll also chip if you promise to bring back the salvaged missiles” Helix added at the end.

“Absolutely! Thank you so much guys! I won’t let you guys down.” Phoenix was brimming with excitement.

Giving out a sigh, Gulliver asked the team if this pushes their timetable back a few weeks.

“I don’t mind. There is always more to learn here, and more money means we can splurge more on our ship.” Horn said.

“Alright then. I’ll follow you to pick up the star fighter after this. Might as well put those lessons to good use” Gulliver said to Phoenix.

They left for the Hunters' Hall hanger to pick out a star fighter. With the extra budget, Phoenix managed to pick up a fairly decent starfighter.

It wasn't anything fancy. Measuring just over 5 metres in length and rather short in height, its thin profile causes the fighter to be kitted with less armour. But it made up for it with good speed and firepower. When Gulliver asked her why she went for higher flight speed than shield and armour, she replied,

"Better speed and manoeuvrability is better suited if I have confidence in my piloting skills. It is also cheaper to maintain if you don't get shot at so often''

Rubbing her hands in glee,

"Time to start some space missions''

***

The sound of the door banging open disrupted Tilly from her latest attempt at understanding the problems with her current battery design.

A woman who looked to be in her early 20s came rushing past the door. Her face flushed from her quick rush to the workshop was barely noticeable from her dark undertone skin colour. She came running and shouted,

"Tilly! Tilly! Have you read the news? Food industry giant, Ramsey Dining is taking a plunge into AO! We'll get to try Michelin star meals here even if we can't afford in the real world!''

"No Sonia, I'm too busy trying to figure what's wrong with this god forsaken design'' Tilly replied with a frustrated tone.

"It's a wonder the theory from this stupid paper hasn't been shot down yet'' she grumbled. Research papers can be found online in the gNet. It serves as a form of ''blueprint'' for lifestyle players to start from.

Taking a deep breath and a moment to calm herself, she replied in a calmer voice,

"But if that's true, that's great news. I always wanted to try the famous beef wellington. Do they have beef here in the game? Hm, maybe next time when their professions.

"Though we're also strapped for cash at the moment. Buying those raw materials isn't cheap you know'' her annoyed voice returned when she remembered bloewing about her financial situation .

''I thought I told you to call me Jupiter here in the game'' Sonia pouted.

"Anyways, here are some Kaoting skewers that I picked up. I'll deposit the other materials at the storage''

Jupiter was Tilly's roommate from university. Although they majored in different fields, the two took to each other quickly after discovering they both shared a passion for playing lifestyle professions in games.

Jupiter went to her console after storing the metals that she picked up for Tilly. She is in the process of improving the firewall of their dilapidated workshop.

The game has a unique system to speed up players' comprehension of the necessary foundation knowledge called Uplink. Players still need to learn the subject, but due to some weird nerve connection with the VR system, learning new subjects were greatly enhanced. It was another one of Future Tech's new proprietary inventions that they were pushing for its adoption in schools and universities.

Jupiter's qualification as a software engineer allowed her to skip most of the basic theoretical and practical uplink, saving her an incredible amount of time and credits.

This allowed her to go directly to the more complex materials, which led her to the current situation.

Jupiter and Tilly both found that most of what they learned here was somewhat applicable to the real world. They were trying to learn what they can, and use AO as a platform to practice their skills.

Thanks to the class 5 AI, Astrum Online was in a sense, an extremely accurate simulation of the real world if you exclude the fictional elements such as metals, electrical components, and some other ingredients.

This was what made AO so compelling. The physics in AO is near identical to the real world giving an unprecedented level of immersion. There are just enough fictional elements that differentiate it from the world the players are familiar with. The similarity to real world physics without the need to learn complex game mechanics was the main selling point in attracting non-gamers to give it a go.

Jupiter was worried about the rising activities of the rebel movement. Words on the street were painting a grim picture with rebel attacks having become more and more brazen. It was only a matter of time before they attacked the non-combatant areas such as industrial areas where the workshop is located.

She remembered Tilly mentioned in passing that she was close to a breakthrough. Her work would give her a prototype that produced an 8% improvement in energy storage capacity.

While not a lot, Tilly believes with proper optimisation, she could expand the battery capacity by at least 15%.

Patent it and they would find themselves a nice consistent income to pursue other projects. If they decided to manufacture it on their own, it would net them an even bigger income. Provided if they were able to scale up the production.

Knowing that if Tilly's work were to be known, the workshop would be a target for corporate espionage. Given the realism in the game, she wespionageas not surprised when corporate is a thing. Jupiter was also worried about the rebels. Hence, she doubled her effort to improve the workshop's security.

She was more than capable of dealing with security in cyberspace. She was only worried about physical security.

"The rebels shouldn't give any problems at the moment. Security in the area is still relatively safe with the constant patrols'' Jupiter thought to herself as she dived into upgrading the security of the various systems in place.