https://steamcommunity.com/app/551770/discussions/0/1496741765127042142/#c1760230157500065177The Galaxy the story takes place in is one where humanity had a technologcally-enabled expansionist boom, then had a sort of galactic-post apacalyptic fall, and is now on the recovery upswing. Ruins and old tech much more advanced than what's current to the story still linger in various corners of the galaxy.
"Resourcefulls" is the name of a cult lead/started by Ein's "grandfather". The cult believes in a pseudo-darwinist philosophy where only the fittest will be able to enter their idea of heaven, which is conceptualized as a giant eternal palace.
To that end, Ein's "grandfather" has been genetically engineering children, then raising them by subjecting them to extreme physical, mental, and competative trials in an effort to create humans who are "fit" enough to enter this heaven. He also had a piece of old pre-collapse tech wich he claimed could digitize a person's soul and thus act as a doorway to heaven. Whenever an acolyte became "fit" enough by his estimation, he would digitize them with this, turning them into a cube, and tell everyone they had gone on to their final challenge to enter heaven.
He may or may not be Ein's biological grandfather, as it's implied she was recruited as a child rather than born into the cult, but those lines could also be interpreted as him probing his genetically engineered children for the fervence/willingness to start their training, rather than recruitment. Similarly, we don't know if the genetic engineering happend before or after birth, but it is mentioned that Ein was genetically modified by the cult as a child.
Ein turned out to be the "fittest" of the children raised by the cult this way, and thus her "grandfather's" star pupil and greatest prize. But at some point she became disallusioned: she never really cared about the whole heaven thing, but played along because if she didn't she'd be killed, and besides she WAS really proud of seeing herself as "fitter" than the rest of humanity, regardless of the reason.
So, when she had the opportunity at some point, she ran away from the cult to find her own way. Turned out she was a bit lazy ouside of the cult's constant pressure though, and kinda selfish/sociopathic as result of the whole darwinan philosophy thing, so she just ended up as a gambling hustler 'cause it was a low-effort way to live well off her skills.
But Grandad wanted his star back, so he hired the mercenary pirates/thieves Foster and London to kidnap her and bring her back. They did so, but Ein used her "resourceful" social skills to manipulate the normally sociopathic Foster into sympathizing with her, and they tried to bust out of Grandad's commune from the inside. It didn't go well, what with the commune being packed with dangerous superhumans and all. Foster got mortally injured in some kind of self-sacrifice ploy because Ein had told him she could resurrect him if she could use grandad's machine to digitize him. Throughout all this, she began to have serious second thoughts about her life direction and self-centered outlook.
Ein took Foster's cube and scarpered with London, who was mad at her because Foster was killed saving her. He didn't believe her version of the story, but did believe that Foster legit wanted him to help her. Together they flew off to some dark corner of the galaxy where Grandad's cult lore had implied the physical gate to the eternal palace might be, so Ein could try to resurrect Foster like she promised.
Ein finds what she thinks is the eternal palace, but London thinks is a relic of some pre-collapse high-tech playboy mansion (at first he thinks it's a pre-collapse bootleg robot mining facilty, until they get inside and see the furnishings).
Ein gets partway in, and finds a table that matches Grandad's device, so thinks this'll be where she can reconstruct Foster from the cube. Instead it throws her into the whole echo's/blackouts thing.
Much speculation ensues about the blackouts being a big system malfunction, with the echoes being antibodies created by a security system to keep intruders out. Underneath which, Ein still holds out hope that this is really the "final challenge" that Grandad talked about.
In the end, IMO she was digitized, either on completing her challenge, or back when she first put Foster's cube on the table. Foster wakes up in digital heaven, and Ein is now a cube on the table where Foster's cube was, waiting for the next explorer to move her along down the line by sacrificing him/herself in turn.
How much of that system is intentionally designed, or just an intersection of post-collapse myth and a buggy ancient high-tech rich people's toy is left up to the viewer/player.