After Felix's body got reconstructed outside of the gate, he massaged his temples with an irked expression, 'I can't stay hidden from that brat lest she tells her father and he ends up joining me.'
Felix knew that ditching Princess Bird for a couple of hours wouldn't cause any issues since the Chief wasn't going to kick him from the event because of it.
However, if he kept pushing his luck like this, it would appear too disrespectful to the Chief who was the sole reason he could attend this auction.
Who knows, he could end up getting kicked out by the Chief if he felt displeased by him.
Felix didn't want to get kicked out on the first day of the event as he knew that after each day, the quality and rarity of items would keep increasing.
At the end of the event, there would be one final Co-Hosted Auction that could be accessed only by guests who spent at least 5 billion in the event.
Felix didn't want to miss it even though he had no idea what items would be auctioned in it.
Hence, he switched back to his previous disguise and showed his Landlord's name above his head.
Then, he walked in direction of a restaurant, wanting to grab a bite since the next auction on his list wouldn't start until two hours.
Well, it had already started and finished selling their first batch of items. Felix was planning to attend the 2nd batch in the day.
This was how every auction was operating in this event to give the guest a chance to visit as many auctions as possible while also not missing out on too many items due to time constraints.
...
In a few minutes...
Felix had reached the entrance of an ancient-looking building that was only two-story high. Felix waited for a couple of seconds for his turn in the queue before going inside.
Just like always, space inside was enlarged immensely, making it possible for thousands of people to eat on tables.
While he could see that the restaurant was packed and bustling, he realized that the noise never went beyond a certain limit.
This made the scene seem lively but at the same time tolerable to sit in and enjoy one's food.
'Queen, please teleport me to an empty tab...For real?'
Felix's request was cut short after his eyes landed on The Chief staring at him speechlessly with Princess Bird pouting by his side.
There were a woman and three men sitting with him at the same table, which was placed near the entrance, making it pretty visible to anyone who entered.
'I will be damned.' Felix's eyelids twitched as he swiftly turned his head left, acting like he didn't see them.
Alas, the moment Princess Bird saw him, it was nigh impossible for him to escape sitting with them.
"There he is!" Princess Bird pointed her finger at Felix and grumbled to her father, "He ditched me at the Belverian Auction House. I even searched hours for hi..."
Before she finished on her rant, she hastily covered her mouth shut with her hands, appearing like she said something she shouldn't have.
The Chief displeased expression as he eyed her made pretty obvious that he didn't like what she just mentioned.
'Didn't you tell me an hour ago that you felt bored and left him in the auction?' The Chief questioned her telepathically with a deep frown, 'Daring to lie to me now?'
'I didn't want you to scold me.' She sent a message with a wronged expression, 'Plus, it's that bastard's fault. We did him honor by inviting him and he took it for granted.'
'Shift the blame all you want.' The Chief gave her a strict gaze, 'You are still not escaping punishment for lying.'
'This is so unfair!' Princess Bird's eyes got watery as she knew that a hellish training awaits her after the event.
'As for Landlord, I will deal with him on my own.' The Chief sent this message while gesturing kindly with his hand for Felix to approach the table.
'God damn it, should have fasted for the day if I knew this would have happened.' Felix complained in his mind while walking towards them with a polite smile.
After reaching the Chief side, he nodded his head respectfully towards him and the seniors on the table with him.
Then, he glanced at aggrieved Princess Bird and asked shamelessly, "Where did you run off? Didn't we agree to meet at the auction's gate?"
Princess Bird's eyes widened in disbelief at the crap he was spewing without a change of expression.
Just as she opened her mouth, wanting to deny his bullshit, The Chief laughed loudly and said, "Do forgive my daughter. She could be a bit clumsy and forgetful."
Felix shook his head and said with a satisfied expression, "I beg to differ, I truly enjoyed her company. And if I didn't lose her, I would have loved to have her around in the previous auction."
"Youuu!!!!" Princess Bird managed to utter only this as her quickened breaths from rage were making it impossible to construct a sentence.
Looking at her reddened cheeks and ears, Felix smiled gently, "I am glad that you feel the same way."
Not wanting to make her cough out blood or faint, Felix turned his vision to the four seniors and requested politely, "May I join you for dinner?"
"Be my guest." A man with a long white mustache that was reaching his chest, gestured for Felix to take the empty seat near the Chief.
"Old Eagle, aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?" Zosia tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as she asked calmly.
Meanwhile, she sent a message to the Chief, 'Should we ask him about his backers here or keep it as planned?'
'Let's wait. It's too public and there are many ghosts around us.' The Chief responded while extending his hand at Felix, "This is Landlord, a mid-tier gold player, owner of three unique titles, and also one of the nominees to the Low-Elo Yearly Best Player Award."
"Amazing."
"So this is the player who created a ruckus 15 days ago? What a remarkable young lad."
The four seniors all acted astonished in their own way, making Felix wave his hands as he replied, "You are giving me too much credit seniors."
'Heh, they are thinking that I don't know about them and their little Alliance.' Felix smirked in his mind as he looked at the otherworldly youthful faces of those fogies.
If it wasn't for Felix's previous life memories, he would simply know about their backgrounds but not their hidden alliance that wasn't out in the open currently.
How could he not know about the Anti-Royalty Alliance that was going to declare war against the Mariana Empire 15 years later if the time-line wasn't messed up by him?
It was the first massive war in the Milky Way Galaxy for hundreds of thousands of years! As the progenitors, he had remembered vividly.
Zosia Everglow, a legendary peak 6th stage bloodliner and the future Queen of The Everglow Kingdom.' Felix started recalling the pieces that he knew. 'Her family was allegedly assassinated by the Royal Family, leaving only her uncle behind, who was sitting on the throne.'
Felix didn't know exactly if the Royal Family truly had any relations to the assassination or not, but he knew that the Everglow Kingdom was the strongest kingdom in the empire.
The king was an Origin Realm Bloodliner while their fleets were over-equipped. They could even give the Royal Family a run for their money if a war had occurred.
This was the reason why everyone assumed that the Royal Family was responsible for the assassination since the Kingdom was clearly started to be considered a threat to the Empire.
This was all that Felix managed to remember after seeing Zosia's face.
Meanwhile, for those three fogies who were appearing even younger than he was, Felix recalled that they were the three leaders of the Sanctum Federation.
This Federation was known for being the 3rd strongest superpower in the empire since it was created by a tight-knotted alliance of three Kingdoms.
Tight-knotted in the sense that their territories were sharing the borders and all big decisions in each kingdom were being voted on.
This was as much as Felix's shitty memory could help him identify those four.
However, knowing that he was being targeted by the entire Anti-Royal Alliance instead of just the Maganda Chief changed Felix's perspective about the entire matter.
At first, he believed that the Chief was aiming for his 'backers' to obtain the method to create those abnormal bloodlines to empower his people, but now? He was 70% certain that they were desperate to obtain his 'method' to empower their bloodliners for the incoming war!
'It seems like I am going to f*ck up the timeline pretty heavily this time.' Felix sighed in his mind while joining in meaningless flattery and conversations with the seniors.
None of them mentioned anything private about him or the bloodlines. They kept the conversation flat to the point Felix started to doubt his judgment.
Alas, his doubts evaporated after he was requested to meet them up in the final Co-Hosted Auction.
"If you don't manage to secure a spot on your own, we will invite you as a ghost to spectate the Greatest Auction in the Galaxy." The Chief informed.
"Thank you for the offer. I will make sure to be there." Felix smiled politely while standing up. "It was truly a pleasure to meet you seniors."
"The pleasure is ours." The seniors smiled back.
"Go with him." The Chief warned the disgruntled Alicia, "Don't create any more troubles for Sir Landlord."
"FATHER! You ar..."
Just as Princess Bird wanted to go on a rant, she was glared at by the Chief and she held her aggrievance in.
"Princess, let's enjoy ourselves." Felix grinned faintly as he walked towards the door.
"Bastard!" Princess Bird's cheeks reddened while floating behind him. "Don't say such a bullshit that could be misunderstood!"
Seeing that he was far from the seniors, Felix dropped his act and ordered, "Brat, if you don't want to get ditched again, you better stop annoying me in the auctions."
"Who do you think you are to order me around?!" Princess Bird scoffed, "Not even my father dare to order me around."
"No wonder you turned into a spoiled brat." Felix murmured while checking on the map.
After setting up his next destination, he set off while being chased by the grumpily Princess Bird.
Six days had gone by quickly...
Felix had ended up purchasing only a couple of useful potions and an expensive body artifact that cost him 5 billion SC!
But it was totally worth it since its defenses were capable of holding against even peak 4th stage bloodliners and had other utilities that were too perfect for him.
Naturally, this artifact was using rechargeable engraved Futhark, making it possible for Felix to continue using them for a long time.
Sadly, he didn't get his hands on the Elemental Potion since its final price had climbed to 9 Billion SC!
Felix felt that it was more worth it to commission it as he did previously than get spend that amount on one.
However, since the concoction wasn't 100%, Felix was risking losing all of his materials when its fails.
So, this method could end up costing him even more if he had an unlucky strike and failed three times in a row.
Still, Felix spent four billion SC to secure an entire batch of materials in the Materials Auction. He preferred holding into his game points whenever he could buy anything with coins.
In those six days, Felix had spent a total of 16 billion SC and was left with another 25.
The reason it got increased by 5 billion was due to his Ancient Ruins Maps getting auctioned at a higher price than the minimum estimate.
He was given 20 billion SC at the start by Sir Hecarim and after they got auctioned, Felix received 25 billion SC.
Obviously, the Aquatic Auction had deducted the 20 billion SC that they owned plus 1% fees for each auctioned map.
If it wasn't for this yearly auction event that was packed with filthy rich lords from all corners of the Galaxy, Felix would have merely gotten 15 billion SC off those five maps.
That's because he didn't have the necessary channels to get it into the hands of those high echelons members.
Thankfully, It all worked well and now he still had enough capital to join the biggest Auction in the galaxy while still having secured all of the marked items and materials that he needed...Well, not all of them since he was missing one last thing.
Currently, Felix was walking with Princess Bird towards that auction.
She seemed quite embarrassed as she kept blushing at what Felix was saying.
"Are you sure about coming with me to this one?" Felix stressed, "They are auctioning slaves from multiple races and they would be all nude. Even humans!"
"You are lying to me." Princess Bird replied while lowering her head, "They are not slaves but servants. So, I doubt that the auction would strip them out of their clothes."
"Hehe, you are too naive for your own good." Felix insisted, "Servent is just a nice term to describe slaves in our modern Era to make it morally justifiable to buy and sell people who signed a slave contract." He chuckled, "Do you think that the Auction would dare sell them without showing their assets?"
"So...so what!" Princess Bird stuttered with her ears turning red, "I am old enough to see people naked and I don't mind doing so!"
"Old enough my ass." Felix scoffed, "You are barely 13 years old."
"I am not 13 years old!" Princess Bird yelled in agitation, "I am 16 years old! In my tribe, I am already an adult!"
"I see." Felix shrugged his shoulders, "I guess it's fine then to see other people's genitals together."
Upon hearing so, Princess Bird's heartbeats started accelerating after imagining that sight.
She might be 16 years old and considered as an adult in her Tribe but she was still a child in her heart due to her father spoiling.
For a child like her who still didn't even grab hands with a man, it was a giant leap to straightaway look at nude people with a man.
She tried to toughen it up to not appear like a child but on second thoughts, she realized that she would die out of embarrassment if attended this auction with Felix.
"Cough, my father is calling me." Princess Bird glanced at her bracelet and swiftly took off. However, she didn't forget to leave behind a snarky remark, "Just to let you know! I would have totally gone with you if it wasn't for him! I am not a child!"
'Heheh, finally I got rid of her.' Felix smirked in his mind while increasing his speed towards that auction.
Felix was always planning on buying two or three servants that were loyal to him and could ease up some of his burdens.
However, he never had the capital or the network to buy strong ones either in the 4th stage of replacement and above. As for below? He never considered them as a worthy investment.
After all, he wanted to help his servants continue their integration and it was better if they were higher, making it possible for him to push them into peak 6th stage of replacement.
Felix even had plans of giving them a primogenitor bloodline at their 6th stage of replacement, making them be the strongest bloodliners below Origin Realm!!!
There were hundreds of elements and this meant there were hundreds of primogenitors!
Felix couldn't use all of their bloodlines and it was going to be extremely foolish to not take advantage of the rest.
He had far-reaching plans of creating a loyal platoon of Primogenitor bloodliners that could accompany him and always be on his service!
Naturally, to avoid awakening the primogenitors' consciousness Felix wasn't going to make them reach even 90% in their integration.
After all, he was 100% certain that none of them would betray him or make a move on him due to the Queen's existence supervising every small disloyal thought they had.
However, if the primogenitor woke up and actually possessed their bodies unlike what the Jörmungandr did, those contract restrains would break since the consciousness would die.
Felix would be left to fend for himself against a primogenitor in his servant's body.
With that being said, Felix was only thinking about those matters for now and it wasn't going to happen until quite a long time.
At least until the servants that he was going to buy reach the 6th stage of replacement.
He chose that stage specifically because it was impossible to replace the primogenitor's bloodline without Asna's presence or the owner of the bloodline.
Even using another primogenitor bloodline wouldn't get the job done but make it even worse since those bloodlines would fight it out when there was oppression on them!
That's without considering the fact that the primogenitor would end up waking up before the bloodliner even reached 99% of integration to replace it.
All in all, the 6th stage of replacement was the best stage for other humans to utilize the primogenitor bloodline, unlike Felix's situation.
...
In a short while, Felix could be seen chilling inside a room that somewhat resembled the one he was previously at.
The only difference would be its size as this one was quite bigger. However, there were still just two chairs in it.
In front of Felix, there was a glass window that was peeking into the holographic image of the Queen.
But unlike before, there was a floating circular white stage that could be seen by every window in this auditorium.
"Let's begin." The Queen said expressionlessly while pointing her finger at the center of the circular stage.
Felix paid close attention to the gathered light particles that were shaping up to a human body but had a weird head and a tail.
After the lights went off, Felix exclaimed in shock, "They actually forced one to sign the contract! How??!"
It wasn't just him who reacted this excessively after seeing a pale white boy with furry grey legs and arms. He had a thick fluffy grey tail as well.
Yet Felix's attention was on the boy's face that resembled a fierce winter wolf with his long ears that were on top of his grey hair. He was wearing only his underwear, hiding his sensitive parts.
He appeared like he was dozing off as he could barely keep his eyes open.
"This is Liliam from The Winter Wolf Race in The Bloodstream Galaxy. The Starting Bid is 800 million SC." She carried on indifferently, "His full details are on your screens. You have 10 minutes to read them properly before we begin bidding."
"They really got one from that race." Felix truly had his eyes opened after seeing a member of the Winter Wolf Race who was widely known in the UVR for being impossible to enslave due to their uncompromising dignity.
They had no issues dying and seeing their closed people dying with them if it meant keeping their dignity intact. This made it impossible to make them willingly sign the slave contract.
Naturally, there were other ways to turn one into a slave but none of them would be as good as using the AP bracelet and the Queen.
After all, chips and such that forcefully manipulate the thoughts of the slave were going to bring down the quality of the slave.
Meanwhile, using other ways to threaten their lives like an electrical collar or such wasn't any different than using the AP bracelet.
Those willing to die before signing the contract would also not hesitate to get themselves killed by betraying their owners. Thus, AP bracelets and the Queen were the best of the best when it comes to those immoral matters.
There was also a good advantage of using the slave contract.
That was secrecy!
No one would know if someone was a slave or not since he would be wearing just an AP bracelet like everyone else!
If he was ordered to lie about his slavery, he was bound by the contract to do so!
This would leave anyone wondering if the person they were speaking to was a man of his own or just a slave.
That's quite sickening actually.
The fact that people could get enslaved to keep their lives but no one would ever know about it or try to help them out of their plight...Besides the Queen who could only send an emergency protocol at the first time.
She couldn't do it anymore when someone signs the contract as it makes them property without rights.
This was quite ironic as everyone assumes that with the advancement of technology those immoral issues would be destroyed once and for all. But in reality, they just got even more prevalent.
In this current Era, slaves or 'Queen's Servants' as they were referred to by anti-slavery activists in the UVR, had been already embraced by the majority whether they liked it or not and became a part of the Universal society.
Just like them, Felix also was forced to embrace it after being in contact with the UVR for more than 20 years in his previous life.
He felt disgusted by it at the start, but year after year of seeing his clanmates taking with them their 'Queen's Servants' to missions and surviving only due to them, Felix stopped going against the stream.
If even the SGAlliance didn't want to stop slavery by simply adding a new rule forbidding slavery contracts, why would Felix keep rejecting it when it was going to stay when he was alive and after his death?
Right now, he was merely spectating indifferently those bidders fight tooth and nail to buy that Winter Wolf boy.
He had no intentions of joining the fun as he wasn't interested in raising that kid.
He wanted useful servants and that kid still needed years of effort and resources to turn him into the killing machine his race was known for.
Plus, it was too high profiled to own him as Felix couldn't just keep him hidden in his basement or something.
Lastly, any race besides humans couldn't really utilize the bloodline system since they had their own paths of cultivation and systems.
Felix wanted humans servants for those two reasons.
Bam!
In the end, the Queen struck the gavel after calling for the 3rd time and no one seemed willing to raise the price.
It was a steep price even for Felix who had 20 billion in his pockets.
'8 Billion for a winter wolf kid.' Felix sweated a little bit, 'Hopefully, peak 4th stage bloodliners would remain under 5 billion just like I read online.'
After the Winter Wolf Boy got auctioned successfully, a couple more servants followed after him.
Most of them were from different races, which weren't really that high up in the SGAlliance Power/Authority Tree.
If they were to be placed, they would utmost have a tiny branch just like the Human Race.
Naturally, those Races in the ruling power would not be sold in any public auction like this since it would offend the race they belonged to.
Those Races at the top like the Witch Race, Dwarf Race...etc, always had fewer numbers but they were more united than ever unlike the Human Race and others.
They couldn't accept that one of their own people was enslaved by a lesser Alliance member.
Hence, each of them had created over the years countermeasures against the slavery contract and those who kidnapped one of their kin.
Just like the Space Worm Race who created the lifelong contract to give their juniors backing whenever they were doing their deliveries or just playing around in space by opening up random wormholes.
Therefore, if one planned on kidnapping a Dwarf or a Witch, they better make it impossible to find them. If they were going to auction them, it would be done in black Market auctions, not this one.
Meanwhile, no one would give a shit if a human got kidnapped unless he was famous or had a noteworthy figure or background backing him up.
Unsurprisingly, most races were just like humans in this case, making it possible to kidnap them and force them into a slave contract just to be sold later on.
Just like what was happening for the past hour since the moment Felix had stepped foot in this auction.
A slave after another kept passing by Felix's numbed expression as he was merely waiting for a good bid to appear.
So far, there were many 3rd stages or 4th stage bloodliners that had been sold. But Felix didn't like their details.
Some of them had high-profiled mutations while others were still resisting the notion of being a slave. Which was totally within their rights but Felix didn't want to buy trouble.
He already had enough troubles and wanted loyal subordinates to help him deal with a few issues like the Gama Organization situation.
He didn't want to lie by comforting them that they would be freed from the contract if they worked hard enough.
Felix had no intentions of releasing anyone exposed to his secrets unless he got strong enough to not give a shit about his secrets being exposed.
Hence, his servants shouldn't be mentally unstable but those who were willing to serve him.
He believed that would take work to really deserve their loyalty instead of being forced upon them...But, Felix was ready to go all out on gearing them up and making them part of his inner circle.
That wasn't the only reason he kept rejecting each auctioned servent but also due to their elements.
Felix hoped to get one with a common element so it wouldn't be expensive as hell to gather the primogenitors' essences.
Thankfully, he wasn't left waiting for long as the next servant that the Queen had brought was to Felix's liking.
He was a well-toned man with two long white feathers attached on top of his smooth bald head. That's as much as Felix managed to see since his face was censored. Naturally, the auction would either use this or give them a random face to hide their identity.
Even the details didn't have their full name or exactly their background so both the auction and the buyer would avoid trouble if there were authoritative figures looking for them.
'Not bad, an epic peak 4th stage bloodliner with the primary element being wind.' Felix was reading off his details while glancing once in a while in his direction. 'His background is clean and he never exhibited any worrisome actions.'
Felix closed off the details hologram and focused on the starting bid that was written in the window...]700 million[
Hopefully, I won't snap a vein in this bid." Felix murmured while cracking his neck.
'But you will definitely bleed our ears.' Asna snorted while snapping her finger. She instantly disconnected their minds and refocused back on the chessboard.
Felix called twice and shrugged his shoulders after not receiving a response.
"Time's up, please start bidding."
Immediately after the Queen said so, she followed it up by calling loudly bid after bid.
Since the number of bids sent to her was too much, she simply chose the biggest one of the bunch in a millisecond and call it.
"1 billion from room 194."
"1,300 billion from room 116."
...
"1.900 billion from room 11."
It didn't take long for the price to cross the 2 billion mark yet it was still climbing fiercely. Felix didn't react much to this result since all the previous bids had crossed at a minimum of 4 billion SC.
Considering that one was buying an epic peak 4th stage bloodliners and such, it was expected that the price would be this high.
After all, just the epic tier 5 bloodline used by the bloodliner to reach his 4th stage was at least 400 million SC.
Not mentioning other bloodlines, resources, and most importantly the efforts needed to reach that strength level.
None of this was cheap and the price should rightfully be above 4 billion for each one.
After a couple of minutes, 4 billion SC was crossed and only now were the bids started slowing down.
Felix straight away jumped into the fun after the numbers of bidders remaining had fallen sharply.
After a bitter back and forth bidding, the Queen voiced the last call, "4.9 billion from room 74...going once, twice...sold."
Applause rained down on the already drenched Felix from sweat. He was clutching his heart tightly, feeling pained about losing billions in each god damn bid he made.
'Don't crumble now Felix, you still need to buy another one.' Felix addressed himself while taking deep breaths, trying to lower his blood pressure.
'Congratulations on winning the bid, Sir Felix.' The Queen asked, 'Do you want me to send your bid to your room now?'
Felix waved his hand dismissively and said, 'Not now.'
The Queen didn't bring the matter anymore and Felix was left to continue listening to the following bids
...
One hour later...
Felix was cleaning himself up by changing into new clothes. He had already successfully won a bid on another epic peak 4th stage bloodliner by paying 5.1 Billion for her.
This brought down his leftover capital to 15 billion SC.
Currently, he was preparing himself to meet them both in his room and see upclose if his bids were worth it or not.
'Queen, please them send in.' He requested.
Immediately after he said so, light particles started to gather in the open space next to his seat.
The room was bigger than usual just for this reason as the Auction had taken into consideration that the bidders would want to check their winning bids.
After a moment, the light had gone away leaving behind him the bald man with two white feathers on top of his head and a woman.
She was quite a sensational woman as her hair was orange like the sun being seen from afar and remarkably long, reaching down to her kneecap. She had a well-proportioned body, appearing like she was taking good care of herself.
Meanwhile, her face would have appeared even more gorgeous if she wasn't staring coldly at Felix with clear hostility, unlike the other dude who was checking the place like he was on a vacation. Both of them were using their real faces and bodies since they were in the presence of Felix.
"Hello." Felix greeted with the warmest smile that he could muster.
After all, no need to be all bossy from the start and create a separating bridge that would never be crossed.
"Hello!"
The man greeted back cooly but the woman didn't even bother to nod her head at Felix. She merely kept staring at him like he killed her parents or something.
Felix didn't mind how she was looking at him as he believed that he would also react like that if he was ever in her situation.
Heck, the dude's carefree manner was actually even weirder than the woman's silence!
"Can you please introduce yourselves?" Felix requested.
He already read their details and knew about their names and such, but he still wanted a proper faceoff introduction.
As expected, the man didn't voice any complaint as he started introducing himself, "I am Erik Boggous, an epic peak 4th stage bloodliner. I have two elements wind and magma but I never bothered to integrate with a magma element beast since the element affinity rating is pretty low...What else?"
Erik paused and started pondering for a couple of seconds before continuing, "Oh, my current bloodline is from the Fierce Atlanta Pheasant." He stopped to ask, "Do you want to know about the rest of the bloodlines that I used and such?"
Felix shook his head and stated with a contentful tone, "No, that was perfect. Let's leave the rest for later."
"Gotchu!" Erik winked at Felix, making him roll his eyes speechlessly.
He started to doubt the validity of the Queen's information as Erik was starting to appear like he was a bit retarded.
'Sigh, at least she appears normal.' Felix thought while looking at the silent woman who didn't seem like she had any intentions to share a single thing about herself.
Felix waited for a while, giving the woman all the time she needed to respond. Alas, she still seemed reclined to speak.
"At least your name?" Felix showed a tight-lipped smile as he looked at her.
The woman traded eye contact with him for a couple of seconds in silence until Felix started to lose faith.
'This will take more time than anticipat...'
Just as Felix wanted to sigh in dejection, the woman said coldly, "Malak Sollorio."
Then, she went quiet again. But, Felix was still satisfied by hearing her voice as that made him feel like she wasn't a helpless cause that might take months just to approach.
'Now, let's get into the sticky question.' Felix thought solemnly, 'Hopefully, they wouldn't react excessively.'
May I know how both of you ended up in this situation?" Felix sugarcoated his question as much as possible.
He understood that anyone signing a slave contract seldom came without a shitty experience that was too hard to recall. By asking them this, he was doing nothing but opening up their wounds.
As expected, Malak expression's turned nasty instantly. She didn't seem like she was targeting Felix with her look.
'Well, she ain't answering that.' Felix shook his head lightly after seeing her reaction.
When he turned to Erik, Felix saw that he was being given a look meant for morons.
Before Felix could feel baffled by that look, Erik said with a casual tone, "Obviously because we signed a recruitment contract."
"..."
"..."
A desolate silence had descended in the room as both Felix and Malak felt like their brain had short-circuited.
They kept staring with a dumbstruck expression at Erik, making him feel a bit weirded out.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Abashed, Erik scratched his nose and said, "I am getting embarrassed."
"This can't be right." Felix shook his head and fired off multiple questions at once, "You are joking right? About the recruitment contract? You do realize that you signed a slave contract? Right?"
"Slave contract? What are you talking about boss?" Baffled, Erik snapped his finger and displayed a holographic contract.
He pointed his finger at the title and said, "See? It says Recruitment Contract."
Neither Felix nor Malak knew how to react after reading the title. It wasn't because it was written Recruitment instead of slave contract, but because of Erik's sincere bewilderment about the situation!
They knew that all slave contracts never actually have a title that said ]Slave Contract[.
It could be recruitment, servant, subordinate, lackey...etc. Anything but the term 'slave' since it would be the same as adding salt to injury.
Yet, this idiot truly appeared like he didn't know about it!!
'Please don't tell me he got cheated to sign it? No one can be that stupid? Don't even mention a 4th stage bloodliner like him!' Felix massaged his temples with his eyes closed shut.
After regaining control of his wits, Felix opened his eyes and asked with a soothing tone. "Can you tell me exactly what happened when you were about to sign the contract? Did anyone force you or something like that?"
"No one has forced me to sign it." Erik continued with an appreciative tone, "During my great escape in the universe, I have run out of food, water, and I didn't know exactly how to get some."
'Oh no.' Felix could already see that his narration would end horribly but he still didn't interrupt him.
"Thankfully, I wasn't left starving for long as I have luckily met with a bunch of gentlemen in space." He praised sincerely, "They treated me like their close friend after I explained my situation to them. They fed me and took great care of me. They were the ones who told me about this easy way to earn coins so I can support myself."
"You mean they made you sign the 'recruitment' contract?" Malak inquired, not able to stay silent at his messed-up narration.
"Nonono!" Erik shook his extended arms and clarified, "They merely told me about it and I requested to sign it since I didn't know any other method to earn coins."
Felix took a deep breath, trying to suppress himself from shouting at this retard.
He had so many questions and the most important one was, "Did you read the terms of the contract carefully? Like really carefully."
"Of course!" Erik replied firmly like it was only natural to do so.
Felix's lips trembled as he asked again, "You have read that betraying, attempting to kill, retaliating, and disobeying the orders of your 'recruiter' would get you either punished or killed based on the wishes of the 'recruiter' and the contract terms?"
"Yes!" Erik quickly nodded his head, appearing quite comical with those two feathers flailing around.
Yet, neither Felix nor Malak found anything funny about his agreement.
They only felt wonderment while gaping at Erik, appearing like they were admiring an exotic creature.
"Why are you looking at me like that again?" Erik tilted his head and said, "Isn't that term normal? After all, I will be recruited and it is only logical that I will be punished or killed if I betrayed my boss."
He added smartly while pointing his finger at highlighted term, "Plus, I know that my boss can't order me to kill myself or do anything that is against my beliefs, morals, dignity...etc." He shrugged his shoulders, "So, as long as I stay loyal to my boss and respect the terms of the contract, I will be paid 2 million SC per month and I will have nothing to worry about."
"So why are you referring to this contract as slave contract?" Erik looked at them in utter confusion, "Those fine gentlemen that saved my life also had signed it with their captain and they looked like they were enjoying their life in their spaceship."
"...."
"...."
After hearing all of this, Both Felix and Malak were left stumped by his logic that seemed correct but it was still flawed big time.
They knew that everything he had said was indeed correct and within the contract terms. After all, 'slave contract' came in many varieties.
There were extreme contracts that rob the signer of every basic right that he had. If the owner ordered him to kill himself, the slave must obey or the Queen would pop his consciousness.
Naturally, only a fraction of people signs this contract that was worse than death itself. As for the majority? They all sign a contract that ensures what Erik had mentioned above.
That's why Felix wanted to create a boss and subordinate relation instead of a master and slave relationship.
He might be slightly narcissistic and proud but he wanted none of that shit of feeling superior to another person.
On the other hand, there were temporary contracts that had a lifespan.
It could be 10 years or even 10,000 years of service before the slave gets released from his 'slavery chains'.
Then, there were permanent contracts that could never be broken unless the owner died or he broke the contract from his side.
Currently, Erik and Malak had signed a permanent contract with a monthly payment of 2 million SC, unlike the temporary contract that didn't offer anything in return.
So in a sense, Erik truly had signed a recruitment contract since he wasn't forced to do it.
He probably got cheated but not forced.
Meanwhile, Malak was most likely threatened with either her life to sign it or by another matter. Whatever it was, she clearly didn't seem to enjoy her situation, unlike Erik.
"You have no problems with being my subordinate for life?" Felix asked.
"As long as we are going to do some fun stuff." Erik said with a foolish grin.
"Have fun?" Malak said, "Excuse me, but how old are you?"
"I am turning 20 this year!" Erik replied casually.
"Then how could you be ignorant about so many matters?" Malak exclaimed in disbelief.
Felix didn't show much of a reaction as he already saw his age in the profile details.
But, just like Malak, he was quite surprised that a 20 years old man was completely out of touch with the UVR and the Universe.
After all, he referred to pirates as gentlemen, not knowing that he got played into signing the contract and sold in this auction or the party who placed him here.
Whatever it was, they had earned 4.8 Billion out of him without his knowledge or probably he knew that he was going to get auctioned after being lied to again.
After all, the pirates could simply fool him into believing that he was being auctioned due to his talents, strength, or some bullshit. Based on Erik's naivety or stupidity, he would most likely believe it.
This what both Felix and Malak concluded after piecing the dots.
However, there were still many inquires that were eating their brain out.
Like Erik's ignorance about making coins in the UVR, obtaining coordination to a populated planet so he could resupply, not knowing that he was actually signing slave contract...etc.
Such basic knowledge was known to even 8 years child. Don't even mention Erik.
"Why do you think I escaped my family?" Erik complained, "My mom kept me locked up in my palace since the moment I was born. Even when I leave it I get accompanied by her and no one dares to talk to me or look at me when they see her."
'Isn't that taking sheltering to the extreme?' Felix's eyelids twitched after understanding the source of Erik's lack of knowledge.
"How about the UVR?" Malak asked, "Weren't you given access to it?"
"I did have it." Erik admitted sadly, "But, I never realized that it was this big with multiple cities and such since my access was limited by mom to only enter my UVR room." He chuckled in nostalgia, "Though, it was quite fun playing in it since it had all the games that I wanted to play."
'Denying even access to the public UVR?' Felix frowned his eyebrows, 'Was that really his mom or he was kidnapped and imprisoned?'
In Felix's eyes, locking someone's up in fear of having him killed or kidnapped was a horrible thing to do but understandable.
However, denying even access to the UVR and making him only enter his UVR room? That's too extreme since it would serve no benefits.
Heck, it would do more harm since the UVR was a safe spot to learn about the Universe and its cruelty to idiots and naive people.
If his mother was anxious about him that much, she could simply teach him about the dos and don'ts in the UVR to avoid having him cheated into signing a disadvantageous contract and scammed.
So Felix was truly bewildered about his backstory. Was that his birth mother or not? What Family does he belong to? Is it a normal one or a behemoth that needed to worry about?
Questions like those coursed in Felix's mind and he wasn't planning to add Erik into his inner circle unless he got a clearer vision!