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 got more money at once 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.

Tom was one of the people who felt hopeful about this change. He saw it as a great opportunity. He had been feeling trapped in his job as an assistant chemist. As he was not allowed to run his own experiments, he was there just to act as a glorified coffee boy, but at least the salary had been decent. He had been able to purchase a small 20 m^2 flat. So he was in quite a lucky situation, as he had sunk most of his cash into it. And the loan he had gotten for it would be meaningless.

So Tom, like many others. After trying to sleep and failing miserably, dived head-first into empire net. Looking for the best way to spend his ten credits, or maybe he should say invest.

There was so much incredible technology available in the empire net. However, the problem was you would have to produce something you could sell in the Empire net as humanity's spending capital wasn't that high. And if he produced something, he would have to be able to sell it for cheaper than what could be already wound in the Empire net. He was sure that almost anything he could come up with would already have a better version available on the Empire net. Because flying cars and FTL (faster-than-lightspeed) spaceships were just the tip of the iceberg of available products.

After Tom spent the whole night researching the Empire net, he came to the conclusion, that only earth-specific novelty products could earn anything. As everything came down to keeping the production cost down, which would demand giant factories. As There were high-tech replicators on almost every planet. They could replicate most things with extreme accuracy. However, it was quite material and energy costly. The accuracy became most apparent with edible consumables. There was also a mention of its accuracy dramatically dropping on anything better than Tier 0 materials. However, when he tried to look up what this Tier 0 material meant. All of the information was behind a paywall.

Of course, something like asteroid mining smelled of money. But starting a business like that would be incredibly costly, and he would need to get permits from the Glatians.

So Tom thought the best course of action would be to start a vineyard or brewery. The problem was that he had absolutely no idea how to do anything with either of those options. On top of that, Tom was sure that the number of microbreweries was about to explode. So he wasn't that enthusiastic to try and compete in the brewing business.

"Think, Tom think. What am I missing? There has to be something else." Tom thought while finally getting away from his computer and stopping his research for now. But then Tom started thinking about what the alien had said, and then it hit him. The alien had specially mentioned the VR game Secverse in its speech, which turned billions of people's lives upside down. So it must be important. Right?

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Tom didn't spend any more time deliberating over the issue and decided on his future plans. He would try to make it in this Secverse. Tom hurriedly took out his phone and started looking at how he could get the necessary gear.

After a quick search, he found the Secverse helmet's cheapest human-compatible model. It was priced at two credits, but he would get it at the fastest in a week. But once Tom sets his mind on a task, he wouldn't give up just after one setback.

Tom had heard stories of players who had been among the first to enter VR games and found some OP weapon that made their climb to fame possible. And after that, they could earn ridiculous amounts of money, just by selling the gear, they didn't need it anymore. Of course, when Tom heard stories like this, he wanted to try his hand at gaming. However, at the time, he was so far behind, that he would have had to quit his job, just to have a chance to catch up with the top players. Still, it would have been quite risky. As he wasn't sure if he would have been able to make a living while playing. So he stuck to just playing for fun.

So Tom spent the next hour researching, how he would be able to get his hands on a Secverse helmet earlier. While he was looking to see if the Empire's offices had anything interesting to offer, he came across a notice, all of the Empire's offices had replicator's in them. The only question left was if they could make a Secverse game helmed for him.

Tom spends the next half an hour walking in circles while thinking if he was brave enough to bother the Earth's new overlords AI, In the hopes of getting a bit of special treatment.

" The aliens seemed like reasonable creatures. Right, and it's not like I would be bothering them. It's just the AI... that hacked our planet's bank and defense systems... "

"I'm going to do it. YES, I'm going to do IT!" Tom hyped himself up and spent 0.01 credits to send his request to the AI.

What followed were Tom's life's longest ten minutes.

He started losing it while thinking, "Why is an AI taking this long to answer? Isn't it supposed to be super fast in processing this kinda stuff?" Then Tom realized what was likely happening. "Oh god, it must have forwarded my request, to a real living and breathing creature!" Tom was on the cusp of a panic attack. When the answer finally came.

" Yes, but you will have to pay 9.9 credits."

"Well, if I buy it now. I will have only 0.09 credits left. But it would be enough for me to buy a year's worth of the cheapest nutrient paste from the empire net... And I could probably get a lot more food locally. So at least I wouldn't starve to death... And now I own this apartment. So I won't have to worry about the rent."

Tom already knew what he wanted to do. But he had to validate his rash choice to his conscious mind, as it did not like this all-in move at all. Merely to be able to get into the game a week earlier. It was a giant gamble, for sure.

" This is once in a lifetime opportunity. There's no way that Earth will get conquered again. At least during my lifetime. And even if it did, there's no way that those conquerors would be this nice. And if this doesn't work out I can always go to work for someone else. Once things calm down a bit." Tom continued to vocalize his reasoning, as he hoped that saying it aloud would make it more believable. Tom was also quite conscious of the fact, that his reasoning might have worked even better against his idea. However, he didn't care.

"So I am going to do this, aren't I?" Tom thought. He had already pressed send, even before he had finished the thought. Just to be able to stop second-guessing himself.

Tom read over the message he had sent to the AI. "Thank you for this great opportunity, to experience your great Empires Secverse ahead of others. So it would be my honor to accept this deal." Even if he was sending the message to an AI, he decided that being polite would be the best policy.

This time the answer was instantaneous "It will arrive at your residence

in 10 hours."

Tom fell onto his bed, and sleep claimed him almost immediately. He now knew what his future would look like, so he could finally relax.