Chapter 4: A journey of two months in only three days.

Leon logged back in and saw he gained a bit of EXP but not enough for a level. He had waited for the time to run down outside the game, so it was time for him to collect his ship. He took a shuttle to the spaceport and quickly found his dock. The ship was loaded and ready to go, only needing him to pay his fees and to board for them to get going. Soon enough, and 500 credits poorer, he was off-planet.

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Attention Eternal Universe.

Starlight is the first Player to make their Maiden flight.

Congratulations Starlight on owning a Starship.

May you find Fortune Among the Stars.

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For being the first Player to own a Starship and make a Maiden flight you have been rewarded 5 Skill points.

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"Nice!" Leon was happy to get some skill points out of the deal.

He threw 1 in each of Broker and Marksman and specialized in Material Broker and Pistol Marksman, then threw the remaining 3 into Management and gained the Company Management specialization. He would want Station Management before he started recruiting Players into his company, but he could start it and get a fleet started sooner rather than later.

He was asked to Name his Company, so he named it the Starlight Imperium. Soon enough, they had cleared the last planet and Yuko followed the planned route. They jumped. It would be a jump to the edge of the Volan space, and their next jump would lead to Uncharted space. The jump itself would take a day in-game to complete so Leon called his crew to meet them.

They all seemed friendly enough, Lin was a Catgirl with black fur and the tips of her ears had small bits of white, the rest of her was human enough, it was just her ears and tail that made her not 'human'. Yuko was also a Catgirl, just older and had soft white hair, though not grey, and she looked much like an older Lin. June was a standard human with black hair and green eyes, he looked at the other people in the group, trying to make sure none were prejudiced against Yuko and Lin. Sherry had a lizard tail but otherwise looked human. She hugged John close while looking cautiously at Lin.

"Welcome to the crew. I am Starlight, I chose to hire all of you because I felt that you would do a good job, and you also mostly wanted the standard for a crew hired. I started a company just a few minutes ago and will register it while we refuel before leaving to Uncharted space. If you like, I could accept all of you as members of the company, which I named after my dream for the future. It is up to you; we have three years together so there isn't any rush."

June raised his hand and then spoke when he was called upon.

"This company, is there pay, and what positions would we be hired on as?"

Starlight nodded, "First, your position would be just what you are doing, for now, so the pay would still be settled by the contract we currently have, but once the company starts making money, other positions may open up. I will make this clear, I value trustworthy people who do good work, not what you look like or how I can exploit you. If you prove yourself, then I am willing to pay you what you're truly worth not what the…ahem… 'market value' of your worth is."

June seemed pleased by my assertion that I wouldn't pay nonstandard humans less.

"My family will discuss later if we would be willing to join you, your company is just starting, so it could be a success or a failure depending on your actions. We need to decide if we want to join at the ground floor or if we should join after you prove yourself."

Starlight nodded once again. He understood. Joining a fresh new company was a risk, as if it failed, other companies might see it as a failure of the employees. That would limit their future if they wanted to join another company after he failed. John and Sherry also asked for time to decide.

After the meet and greet, everyone went back to their duties. Leon checked in with the Leaders of the pioneers, then went back to just hang out. A day felt like nothing to the experienced Leon, and they came out of the jump at a border system. He registered his company, then they refueled before jumping again to a distant system. The system they were currently in was considered a month and a half from the Vidu system, but that was based on the slowest jump drive, and the ship he had could jump much further.

They moved the ship close to a gas giant and refueled, then refined the fuel. Didn't want any accidents after all and unrefined fuel could cause accidents. Luckily, the refiner and extractor he had installed were fairly high-end, so it only took a couple of hours to refine and refuel. They then made the last jump to the Kono System, at least that is what it is currently registered as, but once there is a station, and a settlement Leon would be able to rename it.

They flew to the second planet in the system and landed after doing a scan to verify a livable environment. Then the pioneers unloaded and set up their settlement. Many of the supplies that were sent were auto-building defensive structures and tools for harvesting natural resources, so soon after arriving there were trees being fell and a mine was discovered a little ways away. The crew stayed on the ship and out of the way. Starlight came down from the ship when the pioneers had built the settlement office and he registered the settlement claim as his.

He just named it the Kono Settlement, just for ease of naming. A few days went by, and the settlement had developed enough to have a profit of resources. The planet had iron, copper, gold, and Tortum mines, along with trees that could be considered rare and valuable due to their wood look after processing. Some of the animals turned out to be delicious when cooked as well.

After another nine days, some of the excesses were loaded onto the Last Hope, and the cargo hold was full. Leon then had the ship take off and refuel, before making the return trip to Vidu. It was time to see how much money he could make. In another day or so, he could turn credits to dollars and maybe get a pod if he is lucky.