Dark Forest

The law of survival in the universe.

Never reveal your coordinates. What came for you would not be friendly visitors, but endless slaughter and bloodshed.

Mind Star was an unremarkable planet in the Milky Way under Odin's rule.

A race called The Mind-Linked lived there.

They had human bodies and rhinoceros heads, stood around two meters tall, and possessed great physical strength. Unfortunately, they were not particularly intelligent.

After more than three thousand years, they were still in the Bronze Age, living in a slave society.

So to The Mind-Linked, the Asgardians who could fly through the sky were naturally like gods.

And today was the day of their annual offering to those gods.

Every year at this time, every city of The Mind-Linked had to provide whatever the gods demanded as tribute.

The tribute might be ore, a certain food, or something else entirely.

As long as they met the gods' demands, they could pass the year in peace.

If they failed, a group of their people would be taken away.

And those taken away had never returned.

Even The Mind-Linked, for all their dull wits, knew what that meant.

It was not that The Mind-Linked had never thought of resisting, but every attempt brought an even more brutal massacre.

Over time, every Mind-Linked with a backbone had died. Only the submissive remained.

At that moment, a vast crowd of The Mind-Linked knelt in a city called Chita City.

Before them stood six Asgardians in gleaming gold armor, carrying spears and shields.

At the front of the kneeling crowd was Chita City's elderly lord. Terror filled his eyes as he pleaded, "Honored gods, please give us a few more days. You raised the amount so suddenly. We had no time to prepare.

"The weather has been poor lately, too, and the Titimi Fruit harvest has fallen sharply. Just give us a few days. Once the fruit in the other orchard ripens, we'll pick it and deliver it to you at once."

Titimi Fruit was sweet and fragrant, and it was the tribute demanded from this city.

To meet the required quota, they had cleared vast stretches of farmland and planted Titimi Fruit trees instead.

No one knew how many of their people had starved as a result.

Nor how many had fallen beneath those trees.

In Chita City, there was even a saying that ten Mind-Linked corpses lay beneath every Titimi Fruit tree.

They had prepared what was originally enough Titimi Fruit, but this year the gods had suddenly doubled the quota. They simply could not produce that much at once.

The Asgardians, however, had plainly run out of patience with their pleas.

A cold glint flashed in the leader's eyes. "Today is tribute day," he snarled. "If you haven't prepared the offerings, then prepare to face the consequences!"

Still kneeling, the old city lord begged, "My lord, we had enough for the original quota. But you suddenly doubled it, and we truly can't produce that much at once. Please give us a few more days."

Impatience flashed in the Asgardian's eyes, and his spear struck.

With a wet thud, the spear pierced the old city lord's body. The Asgardian lifted him one-handed and snarled, "I don't want excuses. Get me the Titimi Fruit now, or you'll all die!"

Then he threw the body to the ground.

To the Asgardians, it would not matter if they slaughtered every last member of such an inferior race.

They were like rats in the dirt. Kill one batch, and another would appear.

All the Asgardians wanted were rats that could meet their demands.

That was the reality of the universe.

The strong devoured the weak. The Dark Forest Law.

The Mind-Linked below saw the old city lord killed, and anger surged through them.

They had respected and admired him deeply.

He had given everything to Chita City's development.

It was thanks to his efforts that they had gone from starving because they had planted Titimi Fruit trees to having enough food for everyone.

Everyone in Chita City had received his help and owed him a debt of gratitude.

But everyone feared death. Though they burned with anger, they still did not dare resist the enraged gods.

The Asgardian warriors watched with even greater contempt. At the same time, a desire to kill stirred within their leader.

It had been too long since these inferior races had witnessed the Asgardians' wrath. They couldn't even prepare a little tribute. How was he supposed to explain that when he returned?

After all, God King Odin was preparing a ball and had specifically asked for this fruit.

That was why he had doubled the quota.

If he failed to collect it now and delayed God King Odin's ball, he would likely be punished.

And if he was punished, those natives would suffer for it.

With that thought, he even considered slaughtering the entire city.

Just then, a young Mind-Linked raised the iron saber in his hand and roared in grief and fury, "Avenge the old city lord! Overthrow the gods' cruel oppression!"

The Asgardian warrior gave a cold smile and raised his spear. A blue blast of energy shot out.

His spear was clearly a melee weapon in appearance only. It was actually an energy weapon.

The next instant, there was a wet pop.

A gaping hole appeared in the chest of the charging Mind-Linked.

Disbelief spread across his face as the light slowly faded from his eyes.

A moment later—

Thud. His body hit the ground.

"Young city lord!"

The Mind-Linked around him cried out in grief and fury.

Their cries revealed that he was the old city lord's son.

Soon, other voices rose.

"The gods won't let us live! Fight them!"

"Avenge the old city lord!"

"Better to die standing than live on our knees!"

The six Asgardians saw The Mind-Linked rise up. Excitement lit their eyes, and they licked their lips.

The next instant, an Energy Shield rose around the six of them.

Soon, a battle erupted between high technology and primitive people.

Though slaughter was a better word for it than battle.

Armed with melee weapons, The Mind-Linked could not so much as scratch the Asgardian warriors behind the Energy Shield.

The Asgardians, on the other hand, killed great swathes of The Mind-Linked with every energy blast.

What the Asgardians did not know was that a Spaceship overhead was transmitting footage of the slaughter to Thanos.

Seated aboard Sanctuary II, Thanos watched the slaughter on the planet with a cold expression.

Several massacres like this one were happening across the planet at the same time.

After watching for a while, he began to understand.

No wonder Thor was always putting down rebellions in the Thor Series films.

It seemed like every hour of his day was spent either suppressing a rebellion or on his way to suppress one.

With Asgard behaving like this, it would be a miracle if no one rebelled.

But then, the real universe was hardly as beautiful as the movies made it look.

People of the same race massacred one another. Why would those of different races be any different?

Having seen enough, Thanos ordered his forces to attack.