"I recruited a group of starship crew. They said they'd deliver them within a day," Zhao Chen said.
"Starship crew? What kind of crew?"
"Slave crew. You said they were the cheapest."
"How much did you spend? Didn't you already use up all your Academy Points?"
"It wasn't expensive, just three thousand Star Coins."
"If I remember correctly, you only have a little over three thousand Star Coins left in your living expenses account."
"That's right."
"..."
Black lines were practically forming on Zhao Wan'er's face. How had she never noticed before that her older brother was so unreliable?
"Look, here's the list." Zhao Chen even showed Zhao Wan'er the list of slaves he had purchased, complete with pictures.
When Zhao Wan'er saw the pictures, it only made things worse.
Because they were all beastmen, and... they were all female beastmen at that.
Zhao Wan'er glared at her older brother with a dark expression. "Zhao Chen!"
...…
In the end, Zhao Wan'er scolded Zhao Chen fiercely before turning and leaving in a huff.
In her view, her older brother had lost his mind and was stubbornly refusing to see reason.
She had to prepare for the worst-case scenario—cleaning up Zhao Chen's mess.
After Zhao Wan'er left, Zhao Chen first freshened up, got a good night's sleep, and changed into clean clothes.
By then, the 'slave crew' he had ordered had arrived.
"Hello, are you Mr. Zhao Chen? Here are the one hundred slaves you ordered. Please show your ID card," a man with a professional smile appeared at the entrance of Zhao Chen's workshop.
Behind the man were mechanical carts covered with black cloth—ten of them, each about three meters high, four to five meters long, and two meters wide.
Apart from that, no other personnel were in sight.
Zhao Chen showed his ID card and asked doubtfully, "Then where are the people I ordered?"
"They're inside here." The man pulled back the black cloth from one of the mechanical carts, revealing rows of iron cages inside.
The cages were roughly cubic, about one meter high. Inside each one sat a beastman, huddled with their knees to their chest. Their clothes were tattered, and they wore electronic shackles around their necks and ankles. They all looked haggard and fearful...
"This is the software that can control the electronic shackles on their necks. The shackles have electric shock and self-destruct functions. Unless you enter the password to unlock them, any external tampering will trigger the self-destruct," the man explained.
"I see. Are these cages included as well?" Zhao Chen pointed at the equipment.
"Of course," the man smiled.
These beastmen had been sitting in their inventory for a long time. Now that someone was finally willing to buy them, throwing in a few mechanical carts and cages was nothing.
"Then I'll just push them in myself." Zhao Chen pushed the dozen or so mechanical carts into the workshop himself.
He removed all the black cloth.
The beastmen were fully revealed before Zhao Chen's eyes.
There were many types of beastmen. Some were covered in fur like wild beasts, while others looked more human but had beast-like ears or tails.
Among them, beastmen with dog, pig, and sheep features were the most common.
But one stood out the most.
It was a female beastman with white fur. Her eyes were blue, filled with hostility, anger, and resentment. On her head were a pair of white, broken ears.
Her rear also had a stub of a white, broken tail.
Her face and body were marred by many unsightly scars. Without these scars, even as a beastman, she would likely align quite well with human aesthetic standards.
Zhao Chen was very "familiar" with this beastwoman. When he had made the purchase, the primary reason for selecting this particular group of beastmen was precisely this beastwoman.
"Hello, General Charlotte."
The white-haired beastwoman was somewhat surprised that the person before her actually uttered her name, especially with that form of address.
"General Charlotte, born in the Black Fang Star Sector of the Warhammer Interstellar Tribal Federation, of the White Tiger Tribe lineage. Dissatisfied with the local lord regime's oppression of the beastman tribes within the star sector, she raised a banner of rebellion and formed an Interstellar Rebellion Army.
Over three years, she experienced no fewer than fifty interstellar battles, both large and small.
She once commanded a rebel interstellar fleet of three hundred ships, engaging in fierce combat against a lord's fleet of five hundred vessels. Ultimately achieving a hard-fought victory, she even managed to destroy one of the enemy's T3 Starships.
However, three months ago, due to betrayal by a traitor, their operations were exposed. Ambushed by an enemy fleet several times their size, her interstellar fleet was completely destroyed, and she subsequently vanished without a trace.
Never expected she would end up as a slave, even sold to the Stellar Glory Empire." Zhao Chen recounted the deeds of this beastwoman general before him in detail.
Hearing the man recount this past, Charlotte's expression grew distant.
Zhao Chen opened Charlotte's cage and sat down on the floor in front of her.
"So, would you like to talk with me?"
Charlotte laughed mockingly. "Talk? I'm just a prisoner now. What is there to talk about?"
"For example, we could talk about your freedom, and the freedom of those beastman soldiers who have fallen to the same fate as you."
Zhao Chen's words caught Charlotte's attention, and she stared at him warily.
"What do you mean?"
Zhao Chen said with a smile, "To put it directly, I have a starship, but I have no starship crew. So, I hope you and your people can serve as my crew."
"Hahaha... So you just want free labor. Isn't that why you bought us slaves?" Charlotte sneered.
"No, no, no. What I want are crew members, not slaves. Interstellar warriors willing to fight for me sincerely!" Zhao Chen corrected.
"Beastmen never fight for others." A glint of their inherent pride flashed in Charlotte's eyes.
"Even if you don't consider yourself, you should think about those beastman warriors who once fought alongside you.
As far as I know, because of your defeat, nearly thirty thousand beastman slaves were sold to our Stellar Glory Empire.
I only bought a hundred of them. The others are now in unknown circumstances, their fates uncertain.
Don't you want to save them?" Zhao Chen stared at Charlotte.
Hesitation appeared on Charlotte's face.
Zhao Chen knew he was more than halfway to success.
He stood up. "You fight for me, and I promise you that, when I have the capability, I will buy back all those beastman warriors scattered across the Stellar Glory Empire who were once your subordinates.
Moreover, as long as you lead them to fight and work for me for three years, once those three years are up, you and they will be free!
So, are you willing to fight for me? Or, to put it another way, are you willing to fight for your freedom?"
Zhao Chen extended his hand toward Charlotte inside the cage.
Charlotte's expression was complex, her eyes flickering with various emotions.
In the end, she still extended her hand and shook Zhao Chen's.
But she stubbornly insisted, "I'm doing this for my people!"