As soon as he got home, Ronin called Nagata. The faster he could get himself a proper VR-capsule, the better.

  After a couple of rings, the image of his drug loving uncle popped up on the holoscreen:

  [Ronin, what a pleasant surprise!]

  Nagata had black bags under his eyes, and he looked nervous.

  [I might have to ask you for some help again,] Ronin said, keeping his face hidden.

  [What's going on?] Nagata asked.

  [Uh, before that... why do you look like you haven't slept for days?]

  [What do you think?] His uncle whispered back. [800 million credits, Ronin. 800! What do you think would happen if someone finds out!?]

  [It'll be fine, don't worry about it.] Ronin replied. [Anyways, seeing as I’m kind of indisposed at the moment, can you look for some available spaceship factories for me? Look for the ones that can install virtual reality capsules.]

  Nagata twitched. [What!? Are you planning on spending it, this early?! Thats way too risky!]

  [I need this fast uncle. You know that thing we spoke about earlier, the infection? Yeah, it's getting worse. I need a solution.]

  The bedraggled man let out a resigned breath, then nodded.

  [Alright, I'll help. It'll probably be safer if I'm involved with this anyways. By the way, your face… why are you hiding it?]

  Ronin hung up the call. There was no way he was going to answer that question. The last thing he needed now was for his drug loving uncle to learn of his injuries. Who knows what that man would do if he found out?

  Ronin moved some of the dumbbells out of the way, then began practicing the Kalvrakian embrace. If this technique could help speed up his healing, why bother with anything else? All he needed to do now was to practice and he’d not only get better, he’d get stronger.

  “…”

  Alternating between studying and doing the stances, 2 more days passed by. Ronin's injuries didn’t exactly make the stances easy, but the results spoke for themselves. His neck wound was now gone, and the hole in his stomach had shrunk.

  By the third day, he was climbing back up the district's rooftops, looking for more bandits to hunt. He still had a limp, but his current condition, was more than enough to deal with these guys.

  He’d settled on going out to look for the rooftop bandits due to the lower risk. The planetary guard didn’t bother patrolling that area and the thugs didn’t use guns. Heck, if he was going to do something stupid anyways, he might as well do it safely. At least this way, no more people would die.

  By the fourth day, just as he was returning from another successful hunt, he finally received the long-awaited call:

  [Ahh, Uncle! How's the search coming along?] He asked over the line.

  Nagata adjusted his long bohemian robe, then spoke:

  [Yes, eh, good day. I’ve been looking into the various spaceship factories as you've asked. Here, I’m sending you a list. I've organized the factories according to cost so it shouldn't be hard to find what you're looking for.]

  Before opening the file, Ronin found himself a terrace to sit on. Hanging from a wall halfway down a skyscraper wasn't exactly ideal when making major life decisions.

  [The premium quality ones look good…] Ronin began. [But do you know if any of these factories have access to the quantum net?]

  If he was going to use Virtual Reality games to deal with the alien artifact, he’d not only need a large pool of opponents to fight, but he would also need the right game. If he could get access to the intergalactic pool, it should drastically increase his chances.

  [So far only the two most expensive properties have access to this net, but they are a little too high profile right now I'd say,] Nagata commented. [Given that you're currently trying to hide your wealth... Having the press showing up at your door is probably not a good idea.]

  Ronin looked up the factories, seeing several news articles about them.

  [Alright, I see it now,] he replied. [They’re from formerly famous companies. They caused quite the stir when they shut down.]

  [Indeed, if you look down to entry number 5 however, we have an interesting option. The facility has the capability of setting up this net, but currently doesn’t have it. It also has a square shaped warehouse of around 600 meters both in length and width, which should leave plenty of space for whatever you want to build. The factory itself being 300 meters long and 200 meters wide, is set up for ship construction up to the corvette size.]

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Ronin studied the factory closer. It was located in a good district…

  Hmm, the least I could do is check it out…

  “…”

  A few hours later, after settling on checking out the offer, both Ronin and Nagata found themselves in an expansive hall, being guided around by a salesman.

  “As mentioned earlier, the facility comes with an ongoing security contract providing protection against both robbery and surveillance,” the tour guide explained.

  “But all of this… isn’t this a little much for just a factory?” Ronin questioned.

  “For another company, maybe, but… let’s just say we here at Ainz and co. have been facing quite the fierce competition over the years. It's actually the reason why we decided to sell our assets on this planet and move out.”

  This factory looked more like a defensive installation prepared for war than a building constructing spaceships. The turrets, the number of guards, the barbed wire…There was so much of it, Ronin began wondering if it was even legal to have all of this.

  “Ah, here we have the 3D-printer. It's a second addition Hazamaki-S3, designed specifically for precision work for corvettes and smaller ships.” The tour guide said, changing the subject as they reached a conveyor belt.

  “Precision work?” Asked Ronin. “What do you mean?”

  The tour guide smiled. It was almost as if he'd been waiting for that exact question.

  “This printer focuses more on creating high quality components instead of creating many cheap low-resolution parts. This means you can theoretically use this machine to print out almost anything. For example, it can print out the components needed for an antimatter reactor. No normal printer even gets close to that level of precision. It also has several inbuilt and paid for blueprints for common ship parts used in corvettes and shuttles. Finally, this specific model offers more manual control for the operator, making it a good match for our more precision focused assembler."

  Learning how to 3D-print on a more precise machine might be harder, but it should be more rewarding in the long run.

  Ronin's eyes shone with anticipation. For him to be able to make almost anything…

  “And do these machines come with an instruction manual?” Nagata broke in.

  “Naturally. We also have an existing relationship with every machine's original manufacturer, so, any minor issue you encounter with these things will be solved free of charge.”

  Spotting a large structure at the southern end of the factory, Ronin exclaimed: “Is that an alloy compressor?!”

  “Indeed, unlike most other companies, we here at Ainz and Co. decided to focus on hull integrity. Although it requires more work, it's much cheaper to produce certain reinforced alloys in-house.”

  Limping quickly up to the machine, still injured from the district 101 incident, Ronin's eyes lit up as he saw the acid bath. “You even have a materials purification chamber, and it’s primed with so many different acids!”

  The tour guide smiled. “You missed the cold working and heat treatment addons, but yes, this machine can pretty much get you whatever property you want in your alloys.”

  “But why doesn't the production belt of the 3D-printer lead to the alloy compressor?”

  “Ah, as I’m sure you’ve figured by now, this is not a factory for mass production,” the tour guide began. “Each machine is, for the most part, its own closed system. That is, the different machines spend a different amount of time on each job. That's why, during a production run, we cannot do everything in one go. You would generally print out the parts first, strengthen the relevant alloys, then begin the final assembly.”

  Ronin nodded in understanding. He wasn’t planning on mass producing ships to begin with. He barely knew anything about how to make them, and for now, he’d probably be spending most of his time learning the craft anyways.

  After a little more discussion on how the 3D-printer and alloy compressor worked, they made their way over to the design studio...

  “This is a fairly standard studio.” The tour guide said. “What we have done however, is a comprehensive upgrade to its computational ability, allowing us to perform accurate simulations on how well the designed ship will do before it's assembled. In other words, before even printing out a single part, you can get an accurate model of how good your design actually is.”

  Nagata had been right. Ronin had everything he needed here. With this factory being set up to be a small scale, top of the line crafting studio, he'd get to practice with the best machines.

  And if I actually manage to sell ships, I can just buy another factory anyways.

  There was only one thing left to ask.

  “Your website said something about being able to set up a quantum net here?” Ronin asked.

  Scratching his chin, the tour guide nodded hesitantly. “We do have the infrastructure… If you want it installed though, it will double the price of the property. The quantum net is not exactly common this far away from the galactic heartland.”

  Ronin’s eyes lit up. They actually had it!

  After finishing the tour, he paid a hefty sum of 70 million credits, buying the factory. It was a lot, but with Ronin having over 600 million now, he could afford it. With this, the old owners would also install the new network for him.

  As for his VR capsule, Ronin decided on contacting a VR company called Real-World-Gaming.

  What made these guys special was how their capsules simulated the game experience in the real world. Be it through electrical stimulation, oxygen deprivation, heating or cooling, their equipment could allow your body to feel, in the real world, what you experienced in the game.

  As for why someone would want something like that?

  Well, VR capsules not only increased both the obesity- and mortality rates of humans across the galaxy. It also caused productivity to go down, and it was all in all just a big disaster to human flourishing in general. The technology used by Real-World-Gaming, on the other hand, made you healthier instead. You’d feel like you’d been beaten up every time you left the capsule, but it kept your body active. Not to mention how this also gave the capsule a higher neural resonance affinity.

  Ronin needed all of this. The more real the game felt, the better. Dialing up the company, he arranged for an installation of a capsule at the factory.