The Unequal Treaty!

"Xiao Chen, I know you're eager to prove yourself as a newcomer, but you can't falsify an evaluation just because of that! Do you know how irresponsible that is to the countless players out there? Our company hires professional game reviewers, not garbage editors who chase clickbait headlines. The company just went public—we need a good reputation in the industry. What you're doing is damaging the company's reputation, you know?"

Inside the teleportation portal, Xiao Chen lowered his head and smiled apologetically. "Boss, it really isn't like that!"

"Hmph!" The middle-aged man at the head of the group snorted coldly, still unconvinced. A private player could create a game with five-star graphics? Who would believe that? If Xiao Chen had said the game had five-star gameplay, that might have been somewhat plausible. After all, there were hidden talents among the common people, and it wasn't impossible for someone to possess astonishing creativity. But graphics were all about fundamentals. They required a high-end virtual engine and excellent artists. How could someone with access to those things be merely a private developer?

"Welcome to the Star Sea, brave adventurer! Come, quickly sign the contract and become a citizen under the command of the great Lord Xi Ye!"

The NPC still used the same line. This was a rather old-fashioned opening. To professional reviewers, that single sentence was enough to tell them that the planning team's scriptwriting was utterly unimaginative.

However, the three of them had no mood to worry about that at the moment. The middle-aged man who had just berated Xiao Chen stood there with his mouth agape, while Xiao Chen, despite having witnessed it once before, still wore an astonished expression.

"This... this, this..." The middle-aged man stared around him in disbelief. As a veteran who had worked in the industry for more than twenty years, he had seen countless excellent games, but not a single one had visuals capable of giving him such a shocking impact.

Why were there two old men? And both of them were bald?

A trace of displeasure appeared on Xi Ye's face beneath his helmet. As a lord, he naturally wanted to recruit vigorous young laborers. He had little interest in bald elderly men like these.

Unless they were highly skilled talents from special races—for example, the botanists of the Holber People, the blacksmiths of the Bronzebeard Clan, top-tier Hextech Electromechanical System specialists from the Clockwork Clan, or doctors from the Wood Spirit Clan. For people like that, every lord naturally hoped they would be as old as possible. After all, the older technical experts were, the more valuable they tended to be...

But the backward technology of this planet made Xi Ye completely indifferent to its so-called technical talents. What he needed was a group of strong young people—young people who could become useful miners after undergoing his biological modifications!

"Respected Lord, how do we sign the contract?" The two elderly men who had arrived this time did not log off in a hurry like the young man before them. After witnessing the incredible intricacy of the visuals, they also wanted to see how much the developer had done in terms of gameplay.

Hearing this, Xi Ye slightly raised his eyelids and glanced at them. He was somewhat lacking in enthusiasm, but the intelligence promptly transmitted a message to him: "Respected Lord, even the smallest mosquito is still meat. Although they're a little old, they can still be used after biological modification."

"They can be used, but... it would be such a waste of the gene vault," Xi Ye replied through Telepathic Transmission.

Indeed, being somewhat old did not make biological modification impossible. However, their cells had already begun to deteriorate. Whether in absorption or evolutionary ability, they were far inferior to young people. Even if the modification succeeded, the amount of genetic power they could absorb would still be limited...

"What does it matter, Lord? The gene stock you bought is cheap goods anyway, isn't it?"

Xi Ye's lips twitched slightly. What company had produced this lousy intelligence? He would have to remind his juniors in the next class in the group never to buy the same model as him. Otherwise, after drifting through the universe for hundreds of thousands of years, the only thing he could chat with would still be this foul-mouthed piece of junk. Just thinking about it made him exhausted!

But it wasn't wrong. The gene stock he had bought was cheap goods. He had no choice—who told him he was poor?

"Respected Lord?" Seeing that the NPC had not replied for a long time, the two middle-aged men frowned and thought, Could this game really be nothing more than an empty shell? Is there no content at all?

"Ah..." Xi Ye came back to himself and looked down at them from above. "You have made the wisest choice of your lives!"

As he spoke, he waved his hand. A stack of exquisitely designed contracts appeared before the three of them. He continued, "Sign your names. From this moment onward, you will be citizens of me, the great Lord Xi Ye! After you sign the contract, I will perform biological modifications on you and turn you into outstanding cosmic species!"

Contracts? The three of them froze for a moment, then flipped through them with interest.

Clause One: After Party B signs the contract, they shall become the lawful citizens of Party A and fulfill the duties stipulated by the lord, including labor and rest duties, tax obligations, military service, and population production obligations, as detailed below:

Blah blah blah...

Clause Two: The civil rights and benefits Party B receives shall be determined entirely by Party A. As Lord Xi Ye's nation has only just been established, its welfare policies and compensation have yet to be formally standardized. Everyone may look forward to them.

Contract validity: Countless years!

Note: During the contract period, Party B may not defect from, betray, or violently resist Lord Xi Ye for any reason. Otherwise, Party B will be punished by the Great Universe Federation!

What a shameless contract!!

The three people reading the contract were all dumbfounded. Xi Ye pretended to remain calm, but inside, he was incredibly nervous.

He currently lacked the ability to invade Planet D, and without troops, he could not colonize it through enslavement. That left him with no choice but to use contracts. Contracts from the Celestial Group were protected by the laws of the Great Universe Federation. Once signed, they could not be revoked. If these people noticed something was wrong and rebelled later, he could apply to the Great Universe Federation for armed intervention.

It sounded rather underhanded and did not fit the bearing of a great lord, but he had no choice. Although his biological genes were cheap goods, he had still paid for them. If the intelligence's method of tricking humans was exposed later, where would he go to cry if these people fled with the genes he had bought?

Still, the contract drafted by the intelligence was indeed a little too excessive. At a glance, it was practically indistinguishable from slavery. These people weren't fools—how could they possibly sign it?

"Ahem... If you find anything unreasonable, you can bring it up..."

"Lord, what happens after we sign?" the three of them asked excitedly.

"Er..." Seeing how readily the three had signed the unequal treaty, Xi Ye felt a jolt in his heart. They signed just like that? This lousy intelligence's method is actually so effective?

"Ahem, ahem!" Xi Ye coughed, then hurriedly snatched the contracts back. After confirming the three signatures, he discreetly stored the contracts in his private space and said in a low voice, "Follow me."

"Old Yang, look at these instruments around us—the details, tsk tsk, they're so technologically advanced!"

"Indeed!" The middle-aged man called Old Yang nodded. "They're incredibly intricate. Just in these aspects alone, Rainstorm's 'Titan' falls far short!"

"They can't even be compared, can they? This game could be crowned a god-tier title based on its graphics alone. We have to contact the author at the earliest opportunity and secure the agency rights!"

"What is this, great Lord?" Xiao Chen, who was walking at the front, asked.

"This is a biological workstation." Perhaps because he felt a little guilty after deceiving them about their entire lives, Xi Ye answered with unusual patience. "Here, I'll back up your brains, then use cloning technology to back up your original bodies. After that, I'll perform biological modifications on the cloned bodies. Once your cloned bodies die and your brains suffer damage, your consciousness will immediately be transmitted to the backup brains through a special device. Rest assured, this technology was developed by the Clockwork Spirit Clan in the Fourteenth Cosmic Era based on the principles of the Ancient Lich Phylactery. It has become extremely mature by now. There won't be any accidents!"

"Cool!!" Xiao Chen's eyes lit up. Those few words alone contained an enormous world background. It seemed he had underestimated the game's planning abilities earlier!

Hmm... What kind of genes should I use?

Xi Ye opened his gene vault and looked at the pile of cheap goods inside. He pondered in silence, then finally decided that for the first experiment, he should use the cheapest option of all—the Green Titan Gene!