Mckenzie "Mac" Edwards grew up the son of Martian farmers but dreamed of traveling the stars. His parents encourage him to chase his dream. After finishing school, Mac is accepted by an academy on Europa. There, he focuses on not only gaining a captain's license, but an engineering degree as well. While at the academy, Mckenzie learns that the galaxy is not kind and that the wealthy elite are all too happy to keep others down. He also discovers the academy is more focused on turning a profit than turning out outstanding graduates. And that includes sticking students with ships built by another division of the academy's parent corporation. Instead of accepting one of those ships, Mac finds an older ship and overhauls it while still going in debt to the academy. After graduating the academy, he tries to make a living among the stars and pay off his debt.
The system in this LITRPG tale is a bit different than most. Instead of Mckenzie and others gaining levels and skills, their ships and AI gain levels and upgrades. Experience is not used to advance levels and skills either. Credits, money in this story, is used to purchase levels along with upgrades for the ship and AI. So, the faster one earns money through trade, hauling freight, pirating, and whatever else they do, the faster they can upgrade their ships.
