Not everyone is an asshole

December 11th

I start the day productively by doing a few more level II mining agent missions, and chatting with a nice stranger by the name of Raines about the hilarious scams I saw the night before.
Raines happens to be a miner himself and offers me bonuses...I have no idea what that means, but he seems friendly and we're in high-sec space, so I accept to join his fleet.
A grandiose view awaits me as I warp to his location: six magnificent mining barges gleam in the sunlight. Holy smokes...my puny Ace Ventura 3 mining frigate seems quite out of place here...but it's all good, the fleet commander is friendly, and we chat away until the asteroid belt is mined out.
As it turns out, this guy a pretty veteran miner, and gives me some good tips on our trade. In passing, I mention being excited about one day flying a "big boy ship" like they have, and leaving my puny venture behind.
He offers to sell me a retriever mining barge "for cheap"...Intrigued, I look at its market price, which has been shooting way up for the past 6 months, and now sells for between 24 and 28 million ISK...hell, I have that much money saved up. I'LL TAKE IT!
After checking its fittings when the day's mining is done, he very generously throws in over 6mil worth of tier II mining lasers and cap boost for free and sells it to me for 10 million.
Hoooly crap, that is one good goodamn deal! Never mind the fact that I won't be able to fly it for at least a week, a good deal is a good deal is a good deal!

Not long thereafter, while doing some more boring mining missions, yet another friendly pilot offers me mining boosts. His aren't as good as Raines', but we merrily mine the day away whilst discussing metal music and the horrors of the GEMA in Germany.
We get attacked my rats, but pffft...not even to my puny venture mining frigate are they a threat. I could just sit immobile while mining whilst repairing my shield and armour, but my new buddy's drones take them out easily.
At the end of the day? A nice 10 000 000 ISK profit, minus those dam taxes...grrrr, minus a few skill books, minus a 10 million ISK mining barge, yeah, I'll call it a win.