Normally I would buy as many augments as possible, but the shop had given me a bonus for a solo clear. I knew it’s possible, but the Hegemony government restricted any real available recordings of trial runs. While guides and run methods are given, no direct accounts ever made it to the neural net.

I suspected military families do so, so that they could monopolise certain rewards. It would explain how certain families always pull the same kind of symbiont ship. I wondered what we each would have gotten if we entered a room solo.

I browsed the supreme rarity technologies on offer in the thirty-two thousand price range with a discount of thirty-one percent. At my rank, supreme rarity items aren't universe changing items. They are practical and complete. Still, my jaw dropped, and I salivated a river's worth of greed. Happy with glee. There were several full ship modules that would let me add functions to my ship. These bundled modules can deliver powerful returns and levels when paired with the correct profession.

The Mauler was of particular interest. The fully functional asteroid miner with high-capacity sluice is a cash cow, but it doesn't have storage or a smelting and refining process. Of further interest to me was seeing that all modules followed a Hegemony Corporate template. Each bundle had five modules that together delivered a single refined function.

This allowed for multiple modules to be bought that operate in the same vein. Modular planning was a Hegemony children's game, and this tickled me until I remembered why I was here.

I quenched my inner greed for anything that would only help one aspect of my build. This shortened my list to three things that I could afford. Which would help me and my ship right now and for the foreseeable future. I don't want to get conscripted by Hegemony law if I don't raise a whole rank by the end of the year. I will be forced to join the Federal Flotilla.

I boiled it down to these three choices. First was a weapon that looked similar to my rifle, but it was much stronger. The Chemical Gauss rifle had a shorter range, and it shot irradiated bullets. They could melt armour and flesh. The radiation is self-consuming, so it doesn't spread.

The next is the thing that shocked me the most, ten bio-droids. I would need to get them kitted out, and find a proper artificial system for them, but they could be a force multiplier for me. Bio-droids, as far as I knew, were unhackable and totally loyal. They could serve as my eyes and ears on my ship, my guards on mission, and so much more.

The last item is a Moori Dynamics vacuum combat suit. On the human side of designers, there are billions of successful companies, but Earth-born designers are expensive in the Hegemony. As the distance is immense, being four sectors away in the Eta Aldebaran sector. Moori Dynamics is a family-owned business started by Mātanga Lomu, the Koroua of Supreme Whina who united all the Commanders under one all-encompassing Iwi. This ended the human civil war that devastated the greatest human society for over thirty thousand years.

The suit is a masterpiece of function distilled into the perfect human suit. It has incredible upgradability that could let it perform almost any additional functions such as being an assault trooper combat suit. Moori Dynamics was renowned for its combat assistance and near-endless operating time. The only place the suit suffers is the high cost of maintenance and evolution requirements.

I rushed through the options in my mind. A new Gauss rifle is the most immediate, self-serving, and short-term power-up in my mind. It gave me back my ability to do high damage. My problem is the ammunition, or rather lack thereof. And the standard weapons don't come with a method to bypass innate traits. The kinetic power of a Gauss is powerful enough to rip through most shields.

As the time runs down, I can help but remove the Gauss Rifle. In truth, I loved it because it was my first weapon. It helped me clear the room's guardian, but it didn’t fit all my requirements, but I had to. It's much harder to let go than I thought. I knew I could buy another or even better, but it's like a sexier version of what I already have and that is something I knew well. Going through basic training with my rifle has bonded us.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The vacuum combat suit also failed on one key issue I set out. And that was it did nothing for my ship. It's just an awesome piece of tech that any seeker would kill to have. I rubbed at the chrome suit for way too long than comfortable. The wait time on these is ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I could have sold it to some son of a landed commander and they would sell their planet to me.

However, at current my rank and the various colonial taxes. I would be bankrupted by the end of the month. As a piece of tech brought through the symbiont system. it is recognized and thus wouldn't be removed like my other suit. Now that I think about what kind of hidden augmentation Batz and Refilwe must have. As children of prominent commanders, maybe the reason they didn't clear this is that their parents have better stuff for them waiting at home no matter their symbiont ship type. It would make sense Batz was bragging about his older brother, who commands a combat auxiliary.

I'm not fully clued up on the differences between, Cyborgs, Bio-droids, Androids, Simulants, Synths, and Robots but each one serves what I knew was that the main competition at the high end is between Bio-mechanised droids and the fully mechanical synthetics. I am on the side of Bio-droids because they are in front of me. These droids met and surpassed all my requirements. They could work with me right now and I could use them on my ship indefinitely. Bio-droids used experienced-based algorithms to improve, so getting them early only makes sense. All Bio-droids come with self-defence protocols and basic medical expertise. This meant they were perfect for combat, which is something I needed right now.

[Opening store]

For a solo clear, a discount of thirty-one percent has been applied.

[Special offer - Bronze Rarity - Supreme Technology -Selected]

Name: B1M0-Bio-droid

Rank: Cadet [Matched to Potent rank]

Rarity: Bronze

Information: The B1M0 Bio-droid is the best-in-class, multi-purpose artificial life form assistant. These can be housed in the bio-module attached to this tech card. The bio-droids can operate as individuals or as part of a Gestalt concurrency. At each rank, they will gain three additional slots from the base three.

The world around me froze, this was different from a virtual one. As it's like not breathing yet, it didn’t matter. There were millions of options from humans to a species that looked like a weighted-limed dinosaur thirty metres tall and everything. I felt small, but not in an inconsequential way. It lit a fire under me and I wondered, 'How many of these species are still out there?'

I selected bog-standard humans like me and changed them to be five males and five females. I could at the cost of a monthly fee use aliens races from tv shows like Wormhole X-treme, my favourite show growing up. However, the costs are all astronomical. It seemed the Founders knew how to milk us Seekers out of every experience points we could earn. The process took much longer than I thought it would. as I spent an inordinate amount of time changing the bio-droids. They looked like a motley crew of blue-collar workers from a late 30s sitcom called Spaces. Sometimes it is hard to wrap my mind around the fact we have shows from eighty thousand years ago. I think only a few Earthen Supremes are that old.

Then came the real rub. I could splurge on a few weapons for each of the bio-droids. The weapons are practical and strong. Plus, I'm tired of browsing. While it was more fun to create the looks of the bio-droid, the purchasing of parts doesn't excite me, because I'm actually thinking about the item the Guardian dropped. It must be a standard ship production token.

However, I didn't rush, given the infinite time. I needed to select carefully. It took a heartbreaking three hours to find the tech I was looking for. I knew the symbiont system was crafty, but this is as good as saying, “Here this is definitely for you.” All I had to do was pull out my eyeballs and drag them through each item, figuratively speaking. Still, finding the sympathetic node made me happy it was perfect. Nothing else could compare. The node, when linked with a controller, adapts itself, allowing for the controller to use mental commands to control an artificial lifeform. Coupled with my already impressive neural node, it would let me control the bio-droids at a rudimentary level.

I just happened to have the perfect controller and this time no amount of backtracking is going to make me not install it. I know the risks but the ability to control ten bio-droids from my mind is well worth any risk. With an ear-popping thump, I deposited back at the door of the Room with a purple box in my hand.

[Analysing...]

[1%...]

[33%...]

[74%...]

[99%....]

This must be some kind of joke. Why the hell was it taking so long? The worst part is that it stopped at ninety-nine percent for twelve seconds. Twelve seconds! I stood there holding my breath waiting for this thing and nothing. The entire system felt frozen. I let out a childish stomp that turned to glee and then to back-wetting surprise.

ῥ 22 000 [31.25% discount applied - ῥ 32 000]