I'm the boss because I have a harem of anime characters.

Page 38

Section 80: The Free Earth is even worse than an insect.

At the village square, all the locals had gathered. Several soldiers riding steam-powered mechanical horses and wearing full silver plate armor looked at the villagers with arrogance. They belonged to the Holy Kingdom, which the restaurant owner had mentioned, and they were the Holy Knights of the Holy Kingdom.

Holy light, huh? Get rid of it! We hate holy light the most when watching movies (annoying).

"The Holy Kingdom is recruiting soldiers. I wonder who will be the lucky one."

"But I've heard that those who go to the Holy Kingdom to serve in the army never return."

"They must have settled down in the Land of Eternal Light. I'm so envious. I want to go to the Land of Eternal Light too."

The so-called Land of Eternal Light is an area where artificial lighting can still function normally. The lighting there is no different from normal local sunlight, and sunrise and sunset are synchronized with the time zone of the Upper City.

This suggests that the lighting system in the lower district is gradually developing problems. Will the upper district undergo repairs...?

Okay, let's not talk about things that don't exist. The fact that the people in the upper city can lock up the people in the lower city proves that in their minds, the people in the lower city are just livestock, only livestock that can be communicated with. Since they are livestock, there is no need to give them a good environment. Even if they all die, it doesn't matter. It's just a matter of maintaining the lighting system and then assigning a new batch of people from the upper city to the lower city.

Slavery has existed in every era, and the reasons for becoming a slave are varied. There is no need to worry about these insignificant creatures; this is the mentality of rulers towards the common people.

In the eyes of the people in the upper city, these people from the lower city are probably not even as good as the common people. At least the ruling class of the feudal dynasty knew that too many common people should not die, otherwise it would affect their income. But for the people in the lower city, it doesn't matter if they die. Clearing them out is just starting over. Is it that hard to bring in some people from outside?

Yes, the Free Earth regime actually maintains a huge slave population in secret. Looking at the productivity of the interstellar era, the story of Warhammer 40 is too conservative. At least there was a warp factor in that story. It's just as messed up here without a warp.

"Holy City Decree (equivalent to an announcement): The ancient darkness has launched a new invasion. From now on, each village shall send twenty soldiers to report to the Holy City within ten days. This is an unparalleled honor. Warriors who earn merit will own their own property in the Holy City and become revered heroes."

The Holy City Knight who read the imperial decree was high and mighty, his tone extremely disgusting, highlighting the disdain and mockery that knights under the feudal system showed to the common people. Even just a few words made him feel that the air he was breathing had become cheap.

However, none of this mattered to the villagers. They were used to these people's high and mighty attitude. Except when collecting taxes, these people rarely appeared in the villages in the dark zone. So, in a sense, the two sides were at peace, provided that the corvée labor and taxes were not outrageously high.

Before the Industrial Revolution, corvée labor was very common in various countries. Obviously, there were similar ways of getting something for nothing, a common practice of the ruling class. It's just that some people built the Great Wall for the country, while others imposed corvée labor for exploitation.

Forget about France and Britain, I'm talking about you two, the oddities that revived corvée labor in the colonies in the 20th century.

But thinking back to us before liberation... we are grateful for the martyrs' indomitable struggle!

At this time, Xiaozhai had already counted the number of people in the village square, a total of five hundred people. Twenty were conscripted, and these were all young and strong men. For this village, it was equivalent to the instant loss of twenty lightly armed laborers. Although the steam technology here was very advanced, blood crystals were obviously not something that could be picked up everywhere. So this was actually the same reason why, for more than a century after the Industrial Revolution, European countries still experienced people starving to death from time to time, and even famines broke out.

Ireland understands this all too well.

Some things, even if they can be avoided, are deliberately made unavoidable for certain reasons.

After witnessing the unique conscription practices of a feudal dynasty, Qin Shan began to yawn. He wasn't interested in the Holy Kingdom, but he was quite interested in the local ecological changes. After all, there were insectoids here, and it was very interesting to see what kind of population those insects with full vitality had developed. It was also of great scientific value.

"Let's go to the Holy City for a visit, and then we'll go..." Qin Shan hadn't finished speaking when he received a system communication from Bei Zhai, and he immediately answered the call.

"Beizhai, what's wrong?"

"Admiral, we've made a new discovery here. Please come back."

"it is good."

After ending the communication, Qin Shan instructed Lexington to use spatial concealment to cover the entire group, and then the group left the scene unnoticed. They then used a portal to return to the island base.

Banmian was already numb to this incredible space technology, which further confirmed that Qin Shan and the others came from a super civilization. The fact that they could teleport across worlds showed that their technological level was beyond the comprehension of the Resistance Moon and Free Earth. You should know that the two major powers have not even developed artificial wormholes yet, and their spaceships can only travel at sub-light speed at their fastest.

It sounds fast, but considering the cosmic scale that easily spans tens of thousands of light-years, the speed of light is just a small fry.

Back at the island base, Bei Zhai led Qin Shan and his group to the area where the Zerg queen was being held. As soon as they entered, through the thick, transparent walls, Qin Shan knew why Bei Zhai had brought him back.

On the head of the Zerg queen ant, there was a gap, and in the center of the gap was a girl who looked like a human.

However, this girl only has an upper body, and it is deeply connected to the queen ant's head, or rather, the two are connected by flesh and blood. She only has a human-like upper body and head, but no arms, and overall she looks like a half-body statue.

"Can this be used for communication?" Qin Shan looked at Bei Zhai.

Upon seeing a humanoid structure, even if the shape is rather bizarre, as long as the objective environment is safe enough, the first thing people present will think about is whether this creature can be communicated with.

"OK."

As soon as Bei Zhai finished speaking, the half-bust statue of a girl with a humanoid structure spoke up on its own initiative, using the language of the lower city of the neutral teleportation node in World Three.

Are you their king?

The "king" here doesn't mean royalty, but rather someone who is the leader, the person in charge, or the person in charge.

Qin Shan stepped forward and said, "That's right, I'm in charge here. And you are?"

The woman with half-breasted breasts looked Qin Shan up and down and said, "You're different from those people."

"Of course it's different. I'm not a local; I'm an outsider."

"Outsider, are you from the upper city?"

"You know about the Upper District?" Qin Shan was a little surprised.

"Of course, we tried to break through the upper city and completely control the entire planet, but we failed, and then the humans on it became very vigilant."

Qin Shan suddenly realized why the Upper City had to strictly disinfect everything transported from the Lower City and completely isolate the Upper and Lower City; it turned out that the Zerg from the Lower City had once stormed through the Upper City.

"I'm curious, is your current form specifically designed for communicating with humans?"

"No, a long, long time ago, our original mother was a combination of humans and my race, forcibly pieced together by humans using their own technology. These memories have been passed down in our genes from generation to generation."

Qin Shan immediately thought of the insectoid modification experiment that Ban Mian had mentioned. Free Earth was quite unrestrained in this regard. Even if they used living people in the experiment and did things like the one that deserved to be executed by slow slicing, it wouldn't be surprising.

This is what it means to be worse than an animal.

Suddenly, Banmian asked, "You are the product of human-insect experiments, and you actually succeeded!"

Qin Shan looked at Ban Mian and asked him, "What exactly is this 'human-insect experiment' thing?"

This sounds like very much like the R18G content on Pixiv.

Banmian said with a look of disgust, "After the Free Earth regime discovered that the Zerg had tenacious vitality and could mutate into extraordinary individuals, it has always wanted to possess this power. After all, this is the closest natural life form to immortality at the biological level, and it also has great power. If they didn't have their own ideas, they wouldn't be the scum of Free Earth."

"And that's how the human-insect experiments came about?"

"That's right, forced fusion of humans and Zerg, experiments on human-Zerg reproduction, mass production experiments of Zerg offspring after fusion with human genes, and..."

"Okay, okay, that's enough. Any further and it won't be about being curious, it'll be disgusting."

Qin Shan looked at the half-body image on the queen ant's head, his mind filled with images from the Unit 731 Memorial Hall.

Of course, the technology on the free planet is more advanced, so the things they do are definitely more difficult to pass censorship, the kind that can't even be censored. This isn't just evil in human nature, it's a complete annihilation of humanity.

"And then you gained the ability to communicate with humans, is that right?" Qin Shan looked at the queen ant.

“Yes, we have been able to communicate normally with humans for a long time, and we are very willing to try to communicate with them. However, very few humans are willing to communicate with us, and even those few may be rejected and killed by their own kind. I don’t understand, aren’t you all of the same race? Why do you slaughter each other like this?”

"Don't you Zerg, from different races, ever...?"

"Of course not, we prefer to merge with each other and become a more powerful new swarm."

Qin Shan wanted to tell the other party that humans could actually integrate races, but that would mean killing all the men, leaving behind women who could still reproduce, and children who were not as tall as a wheel. Of course, Israel, with its wheels laid flat, was an exception.

Suddenly I feel like even the Zerg are more human-like than humans, damn it!

In retrospect, the Zerg seem more attractive, while humans are universally disliked.

We can't condemn them all; the comrades of the Resistance Month are quite united. It's just that those precious creatures of Free Earth deserve to be punished and should disappear from this world immediately.

However, Qin Shan felt it was worthwhile to arrange something for this Zerg queen who was willing to communicate.

If she's willing to cooperate, then I'll have a continuous supply of blood crystals to collect!

Chapter 81: World Three, Arrival on Earth

"In short, that's my idea. Now I'd like to hear your thoughts."

Qin Shan stated his demands frankly: he needed blood crystals, and the Zerg could provide them. Based on the principle of mutual benefit, he could provide the Queen Ant with a safe new environment, and in return, the Zerg would provide blood crystals to the Shenzhou civilization.

It's essentially a way of benefiting Qin Shan himself, but using the banner of "Chinese Civilization" sounds more imposing.

When you're out and about, your reputation is something you earn yourself. Even if it's just bluffing, it takes skill to successfully fool people.

I thought the queen ant would take some time to consider it, but to my surprise, the other party gave a reply immediately.

"The Zerg are open to establishing mutually beneficial relationships with any race that is willing to cooperate with us."

If the queen ant is willing, things become much simpler. As for contracts, a handshake will suffice. Detailed contracts have no binding force on true power, just like the Soviet Union and Germany's non-aggression pact. Regardless of the outcome, Poland is gone.

On the international stage, weakness is the greatest original sin.

Qin Shan arranged a new island for the ant queen, and Bei Zhai placed some drone base stations there to observe changes in the ant colony. If the ant colony had any malicious intentions, it would be wiped out.

So haven't you considered the problem of this place becoming someone else's backyard after the swarm spreads across the entire planet?

Come, look at this ant queen. She is only at the first level of the extraordinary realm, while the island base usually has at least two ninth-level extraordinary beings. When needed, Qin Shan can lead the main force back to defend at any time. Under such circumstances, if the insectoid race can still proliferate, it would be a miracle that cannot be explained by miracles.

"This is a great place, I love it." The queen ant was very satisfied with the new world.

"If you like it, feel free to do whatever you want here. However, if you want to expand the Zerg's influence, please give us advance notice. This is the basis of our mutual trust. This is the area on the map where you are allowed to move. Please do not cross the boundary."

“No problem, my swarm and I are willing to accept.”

Whether there's really no problem or not is irrelevant; as long as the queen ant dares to lie to him even once, he'll just wipe her out.

Furthermore, the goal is to exterminate all the Zerg here. The island is surrounded by an invisible, extraordinary barrier, a circular structure with no blind spots extending from the ground to the underground. This barrier will not intercept any Zerg units, but it will mark them as soon as they leave. If a unit leaves more than one kilometer away, or if more than a dozen Zerg units leave at the same time, then Qin Shan will come to demand an explanation.

This has nothing to do with trust; it's about basic self-protection. When the People's Liberation Army accepted the surrender of the Nationalist Army, they also required that the Nationalist Army's weapons not be loaded with bullets and that the Nationalist Army lay down their weapons upon arrival in the local area. If you can't even protect yourself, your allies might not be able to resist the urge to scheme against you.

Harmfulness is not allowed, and defensiveness is indispensable.

We should learn from the wisdom of our ancestors.

"By the way, do you have your own name?"

"You mean, a name like you humans use?"

"That's right, we can't keep calling you the Queen Ant."

"Personally, I don't mind, but for convenience, you can just call me Lilith."

Lilith is a transliteration. According to the translation of the place where Lilith previously lived in World Three, it should be called the Female Demon.

To the local humans, the Zerg are indeed almost like demons, but it was clearly the humans who disturbed them first. If they were willing to cooperate, the relationship between the Resistance Moon and the Zerg could be quite harmonious. "I'm very interested in the place you used to live in. Could you tell me about the Zerg swarm there?"

Lilith thought for a moment and said, "Actually, there's not much to say. We are all part of the ecosystem wherever we are, integrated into it, developing together, and living in harmony."

Damn, what kind of environmental commentary is this? I never thought the insect swarm knew more about environmental protection than humans.

Or rather, their civilization structure determined their mode of coexistence with the natural environment, which was relatively more moderate than that of human industrial civilization, since natural macromolecular polymers are more easily decomposed by nature.

Of course, if you can accept the natural cycle of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, then there is nothing in nature that cannot be decomposed, and everything will eventually return to nature. It is just that for humans today, is the natural environment no longer acceptable, which is why environmental protection issues have arisen.

Oh, and the suppression by selfish environmental policies in Europe and America.

As expected, humans only think of themselves (▽)c, except that some animals are even more selfish and ugly.

Stop looking, I'm talking about you, you little rascal who pees everywhere. And don't laugh at me, your nuclear power plant is leaking even more urine. You're truly the ugly face of imperialism.

From the Zerg's perspective, humans, and themselves, are actually part of the natural environment. It's just that humans' methods (referring to the Free Earth government) are too crude and counterproductive. They exploit and oppress others with the mindset that if they can't have it, no one else can either. It's hard to imagine how such a civilization entered the interstellar age. Can humans accept this? Besides, those lower-level humans don't seem like people who are willing to risk themselves.

As a human, Qin Shan was utterly frustrated to be rendered speechless by a Zerg queen who adhered to Taoist principles.

They are truly like water, which is the highest form of goodness. Or perhaps the Zerg from different worlds are different. You can't assume they must disappear just because they don't fit your aesthetic.

In fact, there are quite a few cases of Zerg and humans living in harmony in the lower city of that neutral teleportation node.

Wow w(n)w, that's amazing, how did you do that?

The reason is not complicated. The humans in that area need the Zerg to survive, and there are even many descendants who have incorporated Zerg genes (you can use your imagination to see what happened). And those areas are basically perpetual night regions.

The area where the lighting system was broken was completely plunged into darkness, and even the ecosystem there was dominated by fungi.

The local humans were also affected by the environment, and their skin became somewhat pale. The Zerg would provide the local humans with fungi as food, and the humans and Zerg would build a completely new social system. In some areas, religious kingdoms that worshipped the Zerg even appeared, and the supreme Holy Mother was a Zerg queen.

Regarding this matter, do you think the Zerg have a stronger ability to assimilate, or that humans have a stronger ability to accept change?

The humans who remained in the Light Region regarded their former comrades as enemies, and holy wars frequently broke out between the two sides. The battles were extremely fierce, and sometimes, even when the Zerg were not present, the two groups would still hack each other to pieces.

The behavior of those fanatical humans was completely incomprehensible to the superior Zerg who possessed independent thought.

Do you humans really treat your own kind so cruelly? That's outrageous!

Qin Shan was speechless. It really was true. =('o`*))) Sigh.

In conclusion, there's nothing left for Qin Shan to study about that neutral node; let's head straight for Earth.

After gathering intelligence, Qin Shan and his group once again embarked on their journey to Earth, the third world. The closer they got to Earth, the more fleets and merchant ships belonging to the Resistance Moon they saw, and the number of space pirates also decreased sharply.

Qin Shan had a lot to say about this space pirate, even more than about the bandits before liberation.

However, due to the limitations of sub-light speed travel, true interstellar travel requires the use of wormholes. Therefore, there are only a few trade routes, and interstellar pirates are mostly concentrated in these areas, resulting in a very high density of pirate raids. On their way to the next teleportation node, Qin Shan and his group were robbed a total of twenty-seven times.

Nonsense, everyone else sails in formation, but you guys are speeding ahead all by yourself, in what looks like a very luxurious private car. These hostages are definitely worth taking advantage of.