The trick to staying alive in Sector 9 was simple: be useful, but not too useful.
I kept my deliveries low-key. Five trinket boxes to Mira. Two cloth packs to the Broken Suns. A single oxygen tab gifted to the old tech-hacker in the alley behind the incinerator fields.
All of them had one thing in common: they wanted more.
But wanting and paying were different.
So I created a rotating trade sheet—scribbled by hand on a cracked plastic panel. I listed my "inventory," made up fair prices, and set caps on orders.
Limit 2 units per person.Delivery every 3 days.Pre-pay in credits or goods of matching value.
People respected rules more when they didn't understand where your power came from.
And I needed that distance.
Two days later, Mira introduced me to a new contact—a repairman named Vello who ran one of the slum's only functioning water recyclers.
"Needs light filters," she said. "Said he's willing to barter a drone panel for one."
I considered it.
The panel could be stripped for rare metals. Worth maybe 2–3 credits on the black market.
The light filter cost me 0.8 C.U.
Trade Confirmed.[Drone Panel received][Inventory - Light Filter: -1][Profit: ~2.5 Earth Credits Equivalent]
This was how it grew.
Quiet trades.
No flash.
But enough to feed momentum.
That night, a new message came through the system. No warning ping. No flashy icon. Just a line of light blinking softly.
[Private Relay Incoming – Tier 3 Node Accessing Lower-Tier Trade Line]Sender: [Trader Kerys]Subject: "Let's Talk Value."Message:"You're small. But you're clever.Your trade patterns hit seven distinct resonance flags.That means you've got potential—or you're hiding something.Either way, I like potential."
Attached was a contract file.
Encrypted.
I didn't open it. Not yet.
Instead, I looked into Kerys.
Not much came up.
Just trader rumors. Whispers of a woman who once sold entire climate control systems to dying asteroid colonies in exchange for planetary access permits.
A "fixer," they called her.
Not a friend.
Not an enemy.
Just someone who knew how to profit—and didn't care who got burned.
Still, the message meant something.
I was no longer invisible.
But I wasn't important either. Not yet.
Which was exactly how I needed it.
For now.
Three trades later, I finally unlocked the next EEP perk:
EEP Rank 3 Perk Unlocked: Cross-Trader Visibility (Passive)– You can now view trade posts from select traders in adjacent sectors.– Caution: Once you message a trader, they can see you.
I hesitated only a second before activating it.
A map appeared—blinking nodes, faint and distant. Each one a trader like me. Working. Moving. Hustling.
One, though, was nearby. Not Earth-close, but cosmically closer than most.
[Trader: Rhys-N7]Status: OpenListings: 12Trade Type: Tool Resale / Augment Scraps / Medic Waste SalvageAvailability: Active Now
I clicked open his profile.
Saw the list.
And my eyes locked onto one entry:
Item: Reclaimed Bio-Tissue Gel (Preserved)Cost: 2.5 C.U. / unitMarket Value (Earth-Slum): 4–6 Earth CreditsNotes: Excellent for wound recovery. High local demand.
I bought one.
[2.5 C.U. deducted][Delivery in 10 minutes]
Then I sent my first message.
"Got street buyers. You move volume, I'll move bulk."
A ping came back in seconds.
"Sounds like a start."
As I watched the gel arrive—floating in its sterile pod, glowing faintly—I realized something simple:
I was no longer just trading.
I was connecting.
To people. To systems. To value chains beyond Earth.
And for the first time, I wasn't just surviving.
I was building a future.
Current Status:
Kai now holds 9.7 Cosmic Units (C.U.) and 13.5 Earth Credits after trading off select trinkets, filters, and securing a barter deal with a local recycler. He's completed 17 trades and remains Rank 3, just a few trades shy of his next upgrade. His vendor network is expanding quietly, with two stable partners and four intermittent buyers. A potential partnership with an external trader, Rhys-N7, has begun, marking Kai's first step into the inter-trader supply chain. However, attention from a Tier-3 trader named Kerys suggests his anonymity may not last much longer…
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