I saved up enough resources to buy my first mod, flew up to a space station and bought the Advanced Mining mod. I went to install it, and realized it was actually an Advanced Mining Mod Blueprint. Hey, even better, now I can craft as many of these things as I want. I had all the components, except a technology chip. But I know where to find those.
So I flew down to a nearby planet and dug up a pair of Technology Chips...only to realize that these are Ancient Technology Chips. Apparently ancient technology is not compatible with modern technology.
Fortunately, I soon stumbled upon a small planetary outpost with a vendor who was selling Technology Chips! I bought 2 and crafted my mod and shoved it into the last available slot of my newbie multi-tool.
I was on my out to do some advanced mining, when I noticed a small outlet near the door. Upon inspection, I realized this outlet was selling a new multi-tool! The new tool had 19 slots, a massive upgrade over the 3 slots in my newbie tool! I had to have it. But it costed 18,000,000 units, and I only had 12,000,000 units. I immediately pawned all the artifacts wasting space in my space-backpack, but that only got me up to 14,000,000 units.
Determined to claim my prize, I headed out the door to scavenge whatever I could find in the immediate vicinity and somehow turn an impossible profit from it. I quickly learned that some raw elements changed value when refined...most elements did not gain in value significantly, but there was one exception; processed cobalt became 10x more valuable compared to the unprocessed form! Sadly this planet had no natural sources of cobalt, and I only had a bit of the stuff in my bags...but I soon found some strange floating crystals, and a few of them had nuggets of cobalt inside! The local robo-jerks perked up and scanned me after I cracked open one of the crystals, but fortunately they decided to let me continue working unharassed.
With the floating crystals gone and all the cobalt processed and sold, I was up to 16,000,000 units...a bold step towards my goal, but still not quite there. So I checked my list of craftable items, and found that Warp Cells were worth quite a few units, and fairly easy to craft! I just needed some chromatic ore, which I could craft from the copper deposits that were everywhere on this planet. So I spent some time mining and crafting until I had a small pile of warp cells, then headed back to the settlement to unload my wares. Sadly, these merchants seemed uninterested in purchasing warp cells. All that time wasted, and still that new multi-tool mocked me from the outlet by the doorway, just slightly too expensive for me...
I set out again, this time delving into the nearby caves in search of elusive artifacts. Deep in the caves I found some humming eggs. I was more than a bit wary, as I had encountered similar eggs on another planet and found that touching them summoned a large swarm of very angry abominations. But I was desperate for units, so I poked the eggs, and was relieved to find that they opened harmlessly to reveal large pearls inside. The pearls were only worth 40,000 each, but there were a lot of them. So I filled my bags.
Emerging from the caves, I thought that night had fallen while I was spelunking...but then I looked up, and realized that a massive freighter was blocking out the sun. A smaller ship came down, shuttling some rando named Brandon, who landed near me and danced around for a few minutes while I refined some basic elements to free up inventory space. Eventually Brandon got back in his shuttle and flew around shooting down some of the local birds and smaller ships, then he went back into his freighter and left. How nice of him to come flaunt his amazing wealth while I'm scrounging units to buy a simple multi-tool.
Selling off the pearls got me up to 17,000,000 units, still 1m short of my goal. Running out of local resources and already well past my bedtime, I got desperate and sold some of my ancient technology modules. I needed those modules to unlock new recipes...but I can always scavenge more modules, and I don't know when I'll find another multi-tool like this. These sales got me just enough units to purchase my prize!
Fancy new multi-tool in hand and grinning ear-to-ear, I walked out the door and aimed it at the nearest rock. This rock required an advanced mining module, which my new multi-tool did not have. Well that's okay, I bought the blueprint so I can craft as many modules as I need; they just require a pair Technology Chips, which I can buy right here...except I'm flat broke. *sigh*. Back to scavenging for units...