Inside a small asteroid in the midst of many other such asteroids, a little metal sphere with teeny antennae lay huddled in a deep crater. Inside the sphere was a Black Crystal, containing the fractured consciousness of our main character. Currently, that Consciousness was trapped in a cycle of panic and fear that only ended when a chunk of ruined metal flew past the opening.

  Is that, part of that first ship? The one that looked like….

  The core tried to remember what it was thinking of, but the memory of ships flying through the void on a screen quickly faded. Mentally shaking itself, the Core managed to gather its scattered thoughts and focused on the situation at hand.

  “Right, we need to get Materials like the God Guy said, I should probably see what we are currently at right now. Status”

  “Alright, so I have to wait for 15 hours for… wait… there’s a Name slot… but… I don’t know whats supposed to be there”

  The Core tried to remember what it’s name was, and all it got for its trouble was a Headache as a confusing blur of Memory and Emotions flashed through its consciousness. It tried to dive deeper into the Memories, but seemed to run into a Mental wall that it couldn’t find a way around.

  “WhAt is GoInG oN?”

  The Core tried to fight through the Pain of its splitting Headache, until a screen popped up in its view again and it froze.

  Right, don’t mind me I’m just going to wipe the last few minutes of Memory. And…. Done.

  Another Force pushed the Cores Memories of the last few minutes past the Block, and once it was done the Core unfroze.

  “Right, we need to get Materials… And now I’m feeling Déjà vu. Well, no matter Status”

  “Nice, only a few hours until I have enough for that Mana Harvester. I suppose I could take a look at that piece of wreckage that just flew by. It can’t have gone far, Right?”

  With a puff of Air the Core started moving out of its Asteroid Cover. Looking around carefully for the Pirate Ship, just in case it was still hanging around it glided to where the Wreckage should have been.

  “Well, that’s weird, that wreckage should have been here, but… oh I see it”

  The Core moved deeper into the Asteroid Field, where the Wreckage had slowly drifted while it had been having its existential Crisis. Taking a closer look, the Wreckage seemed to be a part of the Thruster Package, with parts of a Point Defense Turret barely attached to it. The Thruster itself was your Typical Chemical Thruster, with a Bell Cone and interior director for the Exhaust. The Core noticed all of this, though how it knew what a rocket engine looked like it didn’t know.

  “Well, I guess this might be useful salvage, maybe. How long until I get that Mana Harvester? Status”

  The Core took the remaining time, and gently Nudged the wreckage into a nearby Asteroid. Wedging it into a hole on the massive Rock, it felt as the last bit of Mana filled in.

  “Nice, lets see what this Mana Harvester gets us.”

  “So I tripled my Production, Nice. I bet something new will have been unlocked by that. Additions”

  “Nothing new here, Modules”

  The Core boggled, Mentally at least, at the array of choices available to it. Then it started reading what each Module did for it.

  The List went on, and on, until the Core Mentally Closed it and selected the next one on the List.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The Core didn’t bother looking at the Locked Modules much, only to find out why they were locked.

  “Okay, how do I increase my Level? Do I have to kill people to do that?”

  The Core bought its next Level, and tried to evolve its Frame, only to be stopped when yet another Screen Popped up.

  “Fine, I guess the hole in the asteroid I was in before should work for now.” The Core began maneuvering himself back towards the asteroid he was in before. Dodging through the Asteroid Field, it approached the Asteroid that had sheltered it until then, the one that it, subconsciously at least, had been calling home. While it flew, it looked at the other options available in its Upgrade Menu.

  “Alright, might aswell start from the Top. Structural”

  “What, why is this a thing? They should have just not shown it to me instead of letting me down like that.”

  “Oh, your back, how did talking to the other space cores go?”

  “How so?”

  The Shock of hearing the fates of its fellow cores stunned the Core, breaking its overall fa?ade of Calm Efficiency.

  “A WHAT NOW? A FREAKIN DRAGON ATE SOMEONE!?”

  “Wait, you talked to him? I thought he was dead?”

  “Okay then, sure. Upgrades.” The Core was getting rather annoyed at that God or whatever kept hijacking his screens just to chat pointless things with him.

  “Why does this give me ‘Pay to Win’ vibes? And why is it upgrading Strength and Stamina? A machine doesn’t have either of those, right? At least I found the Actual Level Upgrade Button. Though, In most Dungeon Cores I remember they didn’t buy levels with Mana.”

  The Core dallied for a second, losing itself in the various menu’s that presented themselves to it. At least until it felt something getting closer, Closing all the screens, it saw the approaching asteroid, or rather, that he was approaching the asteroid, at very high Speeds.

  “Oooohhhh SHiiiiiitittttt”

  The Core frantically tried to slow down, air venting from its ports creating a cloud of frozen crystals around it. It barely managed to slow down in time, only avoiding a possibly fatal impact by turning around and bending some of the Metal Antenna as they absorbed the Kinetic force of the small Probe. This hurt, feeling like someone breaking your arm, and slicing it off at the same time. Through the pain the Core whimpered “Upgrade Frame” and ungracefully fell unconscious… at least it would have if it could sleep.

  The Core fell unconscious then, as the change forced its consciousness to stop. Its central sphere grew a little bigger, where it had once been barely a foot across, now it was a solid meter and barely fit inside of the hole it was hiding in. The Antenna fused together and then split, forming a small satellite dish in the “Rear” of the Probe. It changed from a sphere then, to a more cylindrical shape, and the “Top” developed a series of Solar Panels. Finally, a series of hatches formed on the “Bottom” of the cylinder before the front fused into a single large camera dome.