The day that Earth got conquered wasn't nearly as traumatic as the movies made it out to be. Instead of fire and death raining from the sky, a spaceship just appeared out of nowhere, one moment, people could see clear skies; the next, a massive spaceship blocked the sun.

A calm announcement could be heard in every corner of the Earth just moments after the spaceship's appearance. "As you have colonized another planet in your solar system, you have a choice to make. Either your species joins our great Empire as a vassal species. In doing so, you will get access to our technologies, and you will be allowed to keep ownership of this solar system. Or you can abandon your Mars colony while pledging not to ever leave your planet, and if you decide to ignore your pledges, you will face planetary destruction."

World's leaders immediately called for an emergency meeting. However, even after half an hour, absolutely nothing had been decided. The aliens had grown tired of waiting, so they decided to give humanity another little push to show them where they stood in this 'negotiation' to allow them to make more accurate decisions.

The aliens announced that humanity could fire their most potent weapons at their spaceship, and if they could bypass their shields, they would leave humanity alone. Right after the announcement, they hacked into Earth's defense network and fired five of Earth's most powerful nukes at themselves.

As the nukes made contact with the spaceship, the whole sky turned white, and moments later, all everyone could look at was the hellish fireball that had consumed the spaceship within itself. After long moments, the doomsday infernos finally cleared out from the sky, and everyone could see the spaceship intact, with a light blue sheen around it to nobody's surprise, Earth's leaders decided to join the Empire right after the absolute show of force.

After Earth joined the Empire 'voluntarily.' The aliens informed humanity of what was expected of them as vassals. The aliens did not give a long-winded speech about their responsibilities or how they would be essential parts of the Empire going forward. No, they just listed out clearly what was expected of them in a bored tone. Almost like they were reading a script that had repeated hundreds of times.

* They would have to pay a hundred billion credits in taxes for the whole solar system. If they wanted to lower the taxes, they would have to sell off some of the planets.

* The taxes were due each Empire year, corresponding to roughly three Earth years. And they would have the first two Empires years off to build a stable foundation.

* Large-scale military operations against other Empires' vassals were strictly forbidden. If any grievances arose, they would have to hire an Empire representative to sort it out or settle it in a virtual reality game called Secverse.

Once the Alien mentioned the Secverse, it expanded a bit more on it.

Apparently, this Secverse was the Empire's best tool for training, sharing knowledge, settling disputes, and allowing the worthy grow stronger without actually using up any resources and lessening the Empire's martial strength. Thanks to it, the Empire has managed to raise its strength to new heights.

As the name implies, the Secverse was basically the second universe. The game could simulate all the Empire knows about the universe, and if somebody stumbles upon something new, not only will they be rewarded, but the game has the Empire's most powerful AIs monitoring it, so it can simulate the occurrence based on all the knowledge the Empire had gathered so far. So it will only get more polished with time.

And as an incentive, they announced the person who generated the most credits in five years without selling Earth's raw materials and stunting its potential growth would become the first ambassador of humankind for the next ten years. So the remaining powers would have no choice but to unify under them.

And from that point onwards, humanity would have no more factions. Every ten years, they would have to hold an election to select the next ambassador.

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To nobody's surprise, every single country's, company's, group, and person's goal was to turn their money into credits and to start planning how to earn more as fast as possible.

And as this clearly wasn't the Empire's first time doing something like this. They had checked the stock market's prices for natural resources such as iron and gold and compared them to their prices, and devised a reasonable conversion rate. The price they ended up with was an exchange rate of 50 000 USD for one credit.

But just to rub salt in, they informed that no one could actually exchange their money for credits, and it was only the frame of reference to allow them to adapt their prices into credits.

They gave everybody ten credits to get them started and denounced that all existing loans in old currencies would be invalid. In addition, they also offered companies and nations loans, so they would be able to pay their employees. The loan would come with the stipulation that they couldn't use it for personal use, only for the development of their company, and the size of the loan was tied to the company's potential earnings according to the spaceship's AI's calculations.

So not many companies would be able to get that sizable loan. Most companies that produced Earth-specific novelty products such as tea, coffee, tobacco, and other non-tech related items would have a bit better evaluations. But because there were many alternatives in Empire, they wouldn't be that profitable unless Earth somehow manages to gather some prestige for itself, so that they could start inflating their prices as the demand for their products rose.

Of course, some lucky entrepreneurs got exceptional evaluations, as they produced something with high potential. Still, there was a limit to how much they could get as a loan. The Empire law forbade anyone but humans from owning anything in human space during the six-year integration period to protect them from other vassal species, as they build their foundations and start to generate some credits. So the loans couldn't be that big, even if it was a company with incredible potential if it went bankrupt and its assets were sold, humans wouldn't be able to purchase them for that much, as there just weren't that many credits in circulation on Earth.

That day most of humanity's tech companies went under because there was no way they could compete with Empire's superior tech. So all that their owners had left were the materials and the infrastructure.

A new alien voice started speaking, this time one that commanded respect. "As your technology is quite behind and your resource gathering has been limited to your planet, the conversion rate might seem a bit brutal, but as you start to mine asteroids and get your hands on more advanced technology, you will understand it when you internalize just how far behind you are.

Our race is called Glatian, and we are one of the Empire's core races. I, Commander Chaan, will be acting as humanity's territory's commander until the five years are up. Afterward, I will step down and hand the reins over to the ambassador. My ship will stay here for the integration period to keep up order and protect you from any possible attacks."

Out of the massive ship flew out a spaceship one-tenth of the giant ship's size. It came to a halt in Earth's orbit. After that, six palaces flew out of the smaller ship and landed in the middle of each continent except for Antarctica.

"These buildings will be Empire's main offices on Earth. But you most likely won't have to use them, as almost everything can be done through empire net.

During my rule, no thievery is allowed. Or any attempts to pressure others to sell their credits for your old currencies, as they are worthless now.

Most of your old laws will be kept and must be followed. Our AI will be in charge of upkeeping the law. Trust me when I say that you will not be able to escape its scrutiny anywhere on this planet. So don't try to outsmart it and try doing something stupid, as you will most certainly face only failure.

Don't throw this chance away for illegitimate gains, even if amassing them is also a talent. However, it's not one that our Empire seeks.

There should be merchants coming in a week. You can use your internet to make orders, as I have linked it to the Empire net. This is the end of the announcements for now. Please try to adjust to these changes to the best of your abilities. If you can adapt quickly and take advance of this fresh start, you will surely be rewarded. Most of you will never get another chance this good to make something out of yourself, so don't waste it, as everyone has an almost equal starting point. And to those who lost their higher-class status, remember, you have already once elevated your status, so how hard can it be to do it again?

The Empire appreciates nothing more than good intuition, adaptability, and the ability to understand and master new things quickly. So if you manage to prove yourself in this integration, you will have quite a nice life ahead of you, as the ownership over your solar systems territories will be awarded to those, who can show their worth."

After the speech ended, the giant ship vanished as if it had never been there. Every single person just stared at the sky, dumbfounded. In less than an hour, humanity was conquered, their economy collapsed, most people lost their jobs, and wealth was divided almost equally. Everybody had ten credits. Which was equal to 500 000 USD plus all the land and infrastructure they previously owned.

Some people were devastated, but most were elated. They had gotten more money than they could earn in a lifetime. And on top of that, there was an excellent opportunity to earn even more if you could establish yourself and stand out in this new world.