How Did He Become a Slave Trader?
How Did He Become a Slave Trader?
A cold and empty space.
Upon an endless curtain of darkness, countless stars were scattered.
Like fragments of light casually tossed aside by God.
They burned on their own, dyeing the darkness with their respective colors.
Blue-white, golden, and crimson radiance spread layer upon layer, turning the empty space into a grand holy painting before anyone noticed.
Humanity looked up at that spectacle and dreamed.
Reaching out toward the unreachable, swimming among those stars—a reckless yet brilliant dream.
Perhaps that bewitching beauty was the very first temptation that pushed humanity beyond the sky.
However, desire knows no bounds, and passion does not always lead to positive ends.
-Pyuuuuung!!
As if tearing through the space submerged in silence, a single ray of light pierced the darkness.
It was a signal.
-Pyupyupyupyu!!
-Wiiiiing!! Paaaa!!
-Kuuuuung!!
In the space where only starlight had breathed, thousands and tens of thousands of light rays began to dance wildly.
Giant projectiles hurtling while spewing flames, a ceaseless downpour of light-bullets, and fighters drawing trajectories as if gliding on wings.
The once tranquil space was no longer quiet.
Every direction was filled by destruction not wrought by nature—
-Kwaaaaang!!
An explosion bloomed like a star.
Yet it was not a birth, but the blossoming of death.
A massive fleet numbering tens of thousands of ships collided, pouring their rage into each other.
This spectacle mixed with metal and flames, light and debris, converged into a single name.
War.
The cruelest art created by humans.
Was it a rift between Earth and its colonies,
a clash between an empire and a rebellion,
or a struggle for survival between different entities?
Its beginning was unknown, but...
[S.U.D.A.L 0001]
-Kwaaaaang!!
The end was clear.
At the center of the battlefield, the massive flagship designated 'Sudal' was torn to pieces.
At that moment, the balance collapsed, and the outcome no longer wavered.
The war thus tilted toward a one-sided conclusion.
And what remained was...
-Dung... dung...
-Jureureuk...
Nothing but a landscape where shattered mechanical wreckage and the liquids flowing within them slowly trickled out and floated in zero gravity.
The universe, once full of mystery and awe, had now become a ruin trampled by desire.
Beauty was still there, but it was no longer pure.
War never changes, no matter the time,
and in this galaxy enveloped by cruel, gloomy darkness, there was only one single truth.
There is only war...
"I lost!? I really lost!? The Sudal ship was totally blown to pieces!? What on earth is happening!!"
...did not exist; there was only the annoyed rage of a single person who had lost a video game.
The time was 1,023,453 years into the Human Era, which had begun after the Anno Domini calendar ended at the 10,000th year.
Humanity was enjoying unprecedented prosperity and peace.
And this is the story of me—an average Citizen 1 of the Infinite Human Empire, who lived in the 21st century and died while playing a game, only to be reincarnated into the future(?).
The story of Omega Primus.
◆◆◆
I can't believe it.
I don't want to believe it.
That was the emotion I was feeling intensely right now.
"Uaaaaaaaaagh!! Something like this isn't real!!"
"Hehehe~♥ That's why I told you~ Our cute little noob-noob~♥ old-man youngest can't beat this eonni~"
Why? Because of the woman across the screen of the Cosmic Network interface who was teasing me with an infuriating expression, calling me a rookie.
It was all because of 'Airila Purgia', who was also my childhood friend 1,000 years older than me.
I had lost a 1-on-1 match in [Star Armada Proelium], a space fleet RTS game that I enjoyed playing with her.
You might think it's ridiculous to throw a fit over just losing a game, but the problem was that it wasn't just a regular match—it was a ranked match.
Though it had a small user base due to being considered a bit classic, I was nevertheless the Rank 1 player of this game, and Airila was Rank 2.
And with today's defeat, I dropped to Rank 2.
Naturally, Rank 1 was now Airila.
There was only one way to make up for this...
"Hey!! Rematch!!"
"Bleh~ No way~ You suck so bad!!"
"Uaaah!!! You only won once out of 1.23 million matches!!"
"But I won, didn't I~? Won a ranked match and became Rank 1, didn't I~? If I don't accept a match, our little kid can't do anything until next season~"
"Kieeeeeek!!!"
In the end, after several attempts,
"Ah~ Fine~ Fine~ Since this noona will spe-ci-al-ly give our cute youngest a chance~ I'm gonna step out for a bit, so try coming up with a good strategy~ Though I'll still win anyway~"
"Oh yeah!! Wash your neck and wait for me! The winner this time is me!!"
I managed to get a promise for another match, and to avenge this disgrace, I fully mobilized my cosmic computational brain—whose processing power was beyond comparison to my 21st-century days—while filled with rage to devise a strategy for the next play.
While I was grinding my teeth like that,
"Seobang-nim, getting angry is not good for your health. Please enjoy my breasts and soothe your mood."
-Seueok-seueok
Someone stroked my head with a gentle touch, accompanying a soft voice that felt beautiful and dignified, yet filled with affection.
The soft, cozy texture and warm feeling felt on my head.
And thanks to the sweet, savory, appetite-stimulating scent tickling my nose, my head, which had been filled with anger, quickly calmed down.
"Thank you, Tia. Thanks to you, I've calmed down."
"I am glad to be of help to you, Seobang-nim."
A woman who was supporting my upper body with her own body instead of a chair backrest from behind.
She was Valentia V Primus, affectionately known as Tia, one of my wives and the one who could be called closest to my primary wife.
As you can guess from the term 'wives', I had many married women.
Was humanity around 1 million years in the future so open-minded that polygamy or polyandry was common?
That was both right and wrong.
There was no law forbidding bigamy, but generally monogamy was the norm between 'fellow humans'.
Then what were my wives, including Tia?
'Humanity's creations.'
The wives, including Tia, were not human.
Although present-day humanity had drifted far from the original species, Homo sapiens sapiens, their foundation was still human regardless.
However, even if their outer appearances were similar, they were not human.
They were not naturally occurring organisms, but intelligent beings created with intent by humanity.
Their genetic structures were completely different.
They were also all members of the Infinite Human Empire, but unlike humanity, who were 1st Class Citizens, they were 2nd and 3rd Class Citizens with various restrictions on rights and authority.
You might ask if they had complaints about this.
'In the first place, from the very core and basic unit of their existence, they were designed to joyfully obey and be loyal to humanity.'
According to the Westminster Code enacted 980,000 years ago, all intelligent beings created by humanity were forbidden from possessing 'free will' to rebel against their creators, except for special cases such as research purposes.
You might wonder if they were slaves then, but 2nd and 3rd Class Citizens were strictly citizens, not slaves.
They, too, had human rights and received legal rights and protection, so even if one was a 1st Class Citizen of humanity, mistreating them was illegal and severely punished.
Still, they were fundamentally creations that considered obeying and serving humanity a joy, and legal restrictions regarding marriage were somewhat lax compared to marrying fellow humans, so there were occasionally people like me who married 2nd or 3rd Class Citizens.
However, even if they were fellow citizens, there was a gap in the caliber of existence between present-day humanity and 2nd or 3rd Class Citizens comparable to that between ants and humans, so feeling sexually attracted to them was usually rare.
Therefore, cases like mine where someone set up a harem were almost nonexistent.
'This is due to the influence of having memories of my past life.'
To me, who possessed the consciousness and experiences of Homo sapiens rather than present-day humanity who defined themselves as Homo Cosmicus, the creations were not ants, but sufficiently attractive members of the opposite sex.
In plain words, it just meant they were hot.
Anyway, thanks to that, I was enjoying life pleasantly while receiving lavish and unique services that I would never have enjoyed in my past life.
Transcendentally developed humanity defined the ownership of one galaxy per person as an absolute birthright granted to individuals.
As a result, all resources existing in each galaxy belonged entirely to the individual, allowing anyone to live comfortably without labor.
'Well, even without a privately owned galaxy, for present-day humans who are each transcendent beings, it might be inconvenient, but it wouldn't affect survival.'
Anyway, the place I was currently at was also a planet located at the center of my owned galaxy,
and the entire planetary system, including this planet, was my primary residence.
It was a luxury that humanity 1 million years ago couldn't even dream of.
'Even so, my current financial standing is just slightly above upper-middle class by the standards of the Infinite Human Empire...'
Thanks to memories of my past life, I lived day by day without any complaints—no, rather with joy.
Anyway,
"I'm gonna tryhard so bad this round and definitely win!!"
"Fufu~ If it is you, Seobang-nim, you will surely be able to do it."
Putting aside the thought that randomly popped up for some reason, I operated the game system of Star Armada Proelium, which was directly connected to my mind via the Cosmic Network interface.
What was visible through my mind connected to the game system was a single planet filled densely from the surface to its inner core with desolate wastelands and massive factories regularly built upon them.
This was my main base inside the Star Armada Proelium game, where I could produce fleets to fight other players or conduct siege defense against fleets of other players invading my main base.
-Ooh-ooh-ooh-ung!! Cheok-cheok-cheok-cheok!!
And the factories of that main base began literally pumping out ships by the minute according to my will, consuming resources inside the planet.
Every process, from ship assembly to material processing, entered my vision.
Even parts that didn't need to be implemented in games of my past life were all recreated excessively realistically here, for a simple reason.
'This isn't a virtual reality or virtual world made of data, but actual reality.'
To be exact, it was a game where you manipulated elements in a universe manufactured specifically for gaming purposes.
Humanity's technology had developed so transcendentally that using it to simulate a Big Bang to create a new universe,
and crafting the universe thus created as desired was easily possible.
Of course, ordinary people like me couldn't do such things because it cost a lot of money and resources, but for the company that made the game, it was a different story.
-Oo-ung!!
-Cheok-cheok-cheok-cheok!!
Inside my base, a time acceleration device bought with real money was installed, so before I knew it, the skies above the planet were packed full of ships.
Naturally, this overwhelming number of fleet units was also real, and if I wanted, I could bring them to the universe I was in,
but due to the nature of the game enjoying ancient fleet battles with ancient ships, far from being outdated, it was equipment at the level of a small raft shooting slow cotton balls by 21st-century standards, making it meaningless except for collection.
'Hmm.. This should be enough for mass-production filler units.'
Having finished mass-production ship operations like that, I began producing high-tier battleships, including my former flagship, the Sudal ship.
No, to be exact, I was about to start.
-Ooh-ooh-ooh-ung!!
"Huh?"
I would have done so, if I hadn't suddenly detected a tremor in space within the mini-universe for gaming through my ultra-senses.
'This is.. definitely the precursor symptom of hyper-space jumping used in ancient times, isn't it?'
It was a technology abandoned long ago for being too slow and inefficient, but in this game that used ancient technologies, it was used rarely.
However, the problem was that if this hyper-space jump was another player's attempt to raid my base, a system message should have popped up, but it remained silent.
"What is it really?"
"What is wrong, Seobang-nim?"
While I felt doubtful and Tia also expressed doubt toward me,
-Kung!!
Along with an unusually rough spatial transport shockwave, hundreds of ships revealed themselves in my main base's airspace.
And the moment I saw those ships, a question instantly surfaced in my head.
"???"
'It's a pattern I've never seen before?'
If they were coming to attack me, who was a ranker—specifically a top ranker—the opponent must be at least a ranker as well, yet everything from the ship and weapon design to the engraved markings was something I was seeing for the first time.
'Did some newbie get their coordinates wrong?'
At first, I thought so.
That was because when looking at the ships with transcendent human-vision that could see through not only sight but also the essence of matter, the installed weapons as well as their power sources were far too poor even considering it was a game.
However, that thought was quickly disproven.
"What!?"
Because bio-energy and intelligent-thought energy were detected from inside.
In short, it meant intelligent beings were inside, but in Star Armada Proelium, direct participation by intelligent beings was a rule violation punishable by an immediate account deletion penalty.
Just as the opponent's identity sank further into mystery,
-Cheok-cheok-cheok-cheok
-[Attention unidentified fleet. We are the glorious expeditionary fleet of the great Human Alliance. Immediately discard your weapons and surrender.]
"What? Human Alliance?"
What kind of no-name group is that supposed to be?