Chapter 1

In a starship’s lower deck, the floor and walls shone with metallic luster, reflecting rays of silvery light. At the front, several laser beams stood above the ground like prison bars, confining a dark-haired teenager who was huddled in a corner of the deck.

The teenager didn’t appear to be very old, rather his face looked a bit childish. With a few strands of his brownish-black hair softly pressed against his cheek, he sat cross-legged on the metal floor, agitatedly squinting at the lines of laser beams in front of him.

It had been a while since he arrived in this interstellar world yet he was still a bit confused about the current situation. This world – which could only be seen in novels, movies, and comics – truly materialized before his eyes, making him feel like he was dreaming.

He was originally just an ordinary student. Normally, it would be the age when a youth’s enthusiasm would soar.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to achieve that flight.

He suffered from a strange case of internal organ failure since he was a child, and he was already fifteen years old that year when the doctors said they could no longer sustain his life.

After hearing the doctor’s verdict, his parents gritted their teeth and decided to freeze him, planning to wait and defrost him after more than several years when medical progress was advanced enough to cure his strange illness.

However, as soon as he fell asleep, mankind had begun Earth Age’s Mars Base construction, and then tens of thousands of years later, starships and space crafts of the Interstellar Era could already be seen anywhere in the universe.

So did the original cryonics operation actually fail, causing him to cross over time after his death? Or did the cryonics mechanism accidentally break, making the time for his defrosting set for 20 years later to change into tens of thousands of years into the future?

…Regardless of the reason, he still ended up in this serious predicament.

When protagonists in those novels, films, and television series traveled from modern to ancient times, they had the advantage of acting cool and showing off their plentiful modern knowledge that could be used anytime anywhere.

As for him…

Hehe, do you know how it feels when primitive people cross into modern society? En, in this Interstellar Era, he certainly is a primitive man.

In fact, compared to the possibility of a mishap occuring while he was frozen, defrosting after tens of thousands of years of sleeping was significantly more preferable.

All because despite having the same physical appearance as before, he was now very healthy. Furthermore, when he first opened his eyes, he met an old, white-haired man who claimed to be his grandfather, saying that his parents had died unexpectedly and now only the two of them were left.

Since he had only woken up, he knew nothing and was confused, compelling him to follow the old man.

Initially, he didn’t understand anything because he was a primitive man—not even common language. But the old man was very patient with his only grandson. He taught him the lingua franca1, how to use those everyday appliances that were extremely high-tech for him, and some of the most basic knowledge of this era.

He lived with his grandfather in a small house for more than a month. He just barely got accustomed to life in this era when not knowing why, the old man abruptly took him away from this planet to hurry to… the Dal galaxy. Noting that expression on the old man’s face as he spoke, it was apparent that something serious had happened.

Naturally, he obediently left with his ‘grandfather’ and was a little excited as he boarded the civilian spacecraft.

After all, in his time, traversing the sea of stars was every teenager’s dream.

However, before he had the chance to enjoy the taste of traveling through the starry sea for the first time, the legendary Star Pirates came over to ruin it.

The passenger spacecraft was then bombed halfway through and together with his grandfather, they were captured. He was treated as merchandise and was locked up here in a daze. He heard that the pirates were meaning to sell him.

Sitting in the cold corner, the dark-haired youth could feel the metallic chill penetrating through his clothes and into his skin. His head rested weakly on his knees, his pale face looking as though it had been drained of blood.

The pirates didn’t give him any food during his captivity. They just gave him a small bowl of water every day, causing him to feel dizzy and weak from starvation.

You guys don’t really have to worry about my resistance.

The youth was so hungry that his consciousness was starting to disorient as he bitterly thought.

Even if you guys give me something like a ray gun or a laser sword, I simply wouldn’t be able to use it since I don’t know how to.

…What about that silly grandfather of his.

He wondered, in a daze.

Although his so-called grandfather was a stranger, the old man stayed with him for over a month and taught him a lot of things after he woke up at a loss and uneasy. He sincerely didn’t want anything bad to happen to that kind old man.

While the teenager was tiding through his hunger pangs and drowsiness, a loud boom suddenly rang out, and the room he was in shook violently. The pirates’ battleship seemed to have been ferociously hit by something.

The tremendous noise and vibrations almost instantly jolted the semi-conscious youth awake.

While the metal floor beneath him was still violently shaking, two more booms echoed, the sounds vaguely similar to that of bombing. The entire floor suddenly tilted to the left, causing the dark-haired youth sitting on the floor to follow the leftward motion until he slammed into the metal wall with a thump.

It hurts!!!

The teenager touched his forehead that now sported a big bump, inwardly crying and glad at the same time. Fortunately, the hull tilted to the left, if it had tilted to the right…

He glanced at the dozens of laser beams on the right that enclosed him like a railing with trepidation, images of being cut into smithereens filling his mind.

Pixelated images… pixelated images of a bloody and gorey scene immediately presented themselves to his imagination.

Various sounds of fighting, gunfire, shouting, and metal crashing continued to come from the outside. The dark-haired youth subconsciously wanted to stand up and go to the laser beam fence to peek at the situation. However, he was currently devoid of strength due to terrible hunger, and he failed to stand up even after several attempts. He could only use his hands and feet to slowly crawl towards the beams. Just before arriving at the laser beam fence, the intense battle outside spontaneously came to an end, seeming to have reached its conclusion.

However, the lower deck’s door was shut, and he couldn’t clearly see what was happening outside, making him anxious.

Just as he was glaring at the closed door as though he wanted to poke a hole in the hard titanium alloy with his eyes, a loud clang suddenly rang out and the sturdy lower deck’s door was opened.

Someone entered.

His eyesight was level with the lower half of the door as he was slumped down on the ground, so the first thing he saw was black pants tightly wrapped around a slender pair of legs that looked as if it was getting increasingly longer. But this kind of slender wasn’t the flimsy type, on the contrary, the compact muscles on those long legs tightly wrapped in black pants appeared closely similar to a work of art with smooth lines and curvatures. Going upwards, a lacquered black belt with a silver pattern was strapped onto a fine and firm waist. The tall figure with broad shoulders wore a silver and black military uniform that fitted as though it was tailor-made.

Click-clack click-clack.

The person walked towards him. The black military boots issued steady and powerful footsteps as they stepped on the metal deck.

It was a young man who seemed to have brought a moment of silence to the world the moment he appeared.

A twine of golden silk thread twisted over the young man’s black collar, fastening a cape on his shoulders. As he strode forward, the white cape unfolded behind his tall body and fluttered endlessly. He was obviously wearing a dark military uniform in the theme of silver and black, but the moment the white cape spread out, it seemed to refract all light, and it appeared as if he was brilliantly shining.

On the other side of the laser beam fence, the dark-haired teenager remained sitting on the floor. His lips opened slightly as he tilted his head upwards, appearing to be stunned. His wide eyes clearly reflected the young man who suddenly appeared in front of him.

The night-like, black hair lay scattered upon the man’s snow-white skin until its ends disappeared into his raised, black collar. His uniform inexplicably brought forth a sense of discipline that was magnified indefinitely. The color of his thin lips was light, like the hue of a cherry blossom that fell on snow. The man’s face was dazzling to the extreme; his fair skin coupled with his starry eyes nearly gave people the impression of a beauty radiant enough to light a room.

His slender eyes which corners were slightly raised, would be a pair of extremely charming phoenix eyes on a woman, but, alas, on this beautiful young man’s face, it inexplicably gave a feeling of fierceness. Perhaps it was because of his gaze but when the man looked over, he induced an intimidating coldness. He stood there, his entire body like a sharp-edged blade drawn out of its sheath. His scarlet phoenix eyes looked down at the youth who was sitting on the other side of the laser beams and staring at him in stupefaction.

“Your name?” The man’s thin lips moved, his voice deep and low and tone indifferent containing no emotion.

“…Ah?”

“…” The young man squinted at the teenager who looked at him with confusion and was appearing a bit silly.

“Miao Te.”

“Ah? …Yes?” The teenager subconsciously nodded when the other man called out his name.

The man then whispered a low ‘hmm’ in response, as if he had confirmed something. Then with a swish, he pulled out a gun from his waist holster.

Seeing the glinting gun in the handsome man’s hand with the muzzle seemingly moving in his direction—

Almost instinctively, the youth bowed his head sharply, clasping his head with both hands.

I’m going to be killed!

His body tensed and his mind went blank. With a bang, the gunshot sounded close to his ear but the shot wasn’t to his body. The youth who was shrinking away while holding his head took a glance. When he looked up, he saw the laser beam fence that had been imprisoning him distort a few times in the air before vanishing soon after. He raised his head completely and discovered that a control panel not far away was destroyed by the shot.

Seeing the youth defensively holding his head, the man’s sword eyebrows rose but ultimately didn’t say anything and just inserted the gun back into his waist holster.

He stood there, ramrod straight, thereupon making the youth who was clasping his head while kneeling on the floor appear more and more awkward.

The man looked down at the youth with a condescending stance.

“In the future, you shall follow me.” He said with a tone that implied neither suggestion nor a consultation with the other party. He was merely informing him.

The teenager sitting on the ground looked up at the man. He blinked, then blinked, and blinked once more. The teenager probably felt too dehydrated so he couldn’t help but lick his dry lips.

Even after he woke up from the fear of imminent death, his fingertips continued to be terribly cold and his brain was in complete shambles. The man’s words left him very confused. He didn’t know what the man was planning and what he wanted to do with him.

Follow him? …What does that mean? …Is he going to be locked up in another place? Become this man’s merchandise? Is this handsome man also a pirate?

But he was wearing a military uniform. He should be a soldier. He shouldn’t be conducting things like human trafficking or slave trading… No, no, the old man who claimed to be his grandfather had warned him that when he sees soldiers like this, he must stay away and not approach. Many influential soldiers of this era were similar to the pirates, sometimes even more brutal…

The further the youth contemplated, the more confused he became. In addition, the man’s sense of oppression was too strong and terrible, sending his mind into a frenzy. Even if he pursed his lips and pondered about it for a long time, he couldn’t come up with an appropriate reply. But he didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of the other party and he certainly didn’t want to show that he was afraid, so he assumed a calm and composed facade and then looked at the man face to face.

Therefore, albeit looking unperturbed on the outside while silently staring at the man, his mind has already descended into chaos. He could think of countless responses he could roll with, but he just didn’t know which reply was the correct one.

Don’t be afraid.

This was the only thought running through his mind as he continued to resolutely hold his stare with the man’s oppressive one. He couldn’t admit defeat, because no matter what this person wanted to do, showing cowardice would only make the other look down on him.

The teenager stared at the man like this for a long time without saying anything until one of the man’s subordinates who was standing behind him became impatient.

“Stinky boy, why are you in a daze?” The red-haired subordinate slapped the wall and shouted at the youth, “Quickly reply!”

The teenager was frightened by the red-haired subordinate’s slap, his chest trembled, and he blurted out without any further thinking:

“I think acting so much like a pretentious prick isn’t nice.”2

The dark-haired teenager strived to create a relaxed atmosphere while looking at the man with sincerity spilling from his eyes. After reconsidering his statement, he quickly added another word.

“…Really.”

The young man: “……………”