Butter My Toast

"Get up and go get your name registered! Move it!" A man who seemed to be wearing a uniform of ancient design pushed him along after dragging him off the ground. Little Long's confused eyes gained some clarity as the light within then were enhanced.

Little Long didn't know why, but somehow he could 'feel' that his body was undergoing some sort of internal transformation. However, that wasn't the important thing to worry about right now. What he should be worrying about is where he was being taken to…

His gradually sharpening senses allowed him to see that he was being dragged into a line by a strange individual who he had never met before. He was only able to vaguely make out where he was once the uniformed man casually made him stand in line at a counter.

The surroundings seemed to be a poorly developed village where the houses were mostly mud huts. Yet these huts stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Within the distance was a large stadium like structure, the kind of which Little Long had only seen in history books.

There was no order to anything. People, dressied in ragged clothing were waking up in a manner that suggested that they just slept where they had stopped walking.

The discomfort from sleeping on a ground with stones was echoing throughout his body.

'This definitely isn't a dream.' He sighed inwardly after realising that all five of his senses were still usable.

'Is this some sort of simulation?' Little Long thought as he looked around with curiosity. After a while he realized that he was lined up for some sort of registration as he could hear some armored men asking questions from the slaves at the front then noting the information down on a scroll.

His gaze landed on the burly men who were being given weapons and armour by other strict 'guards'.

From what he could see, he was now in an ancient world and had the position of a slave. There was even a brand on his hand that seemed to add weight all over his body to stop him from escaping or doing anything suspicious.

'Ancient Language... Guards... Slave Status... Other than the last part, this looks similar to 'Journey of the Ancients'...' Little Long thought in a daze as he recognised the game he was in.

As someone who absolutely loved ancient history that had anything to do with the legend of Sadio Long, he was well-versed in every game that had something to do with ancient history.

Journey of the Ancients was a realistic virtual reality game that he had only played due to poverty. Who would have thought that after coming home from the library one day, he would suddenly be forced into a game by unknown assailants? What was the point in this?

Not to mention that the body he was given was far from proper. He was shorter than most. With weak arms and visible signs of malnourishment all over his body. After mumbling a bit, Little Long began touching his face. Little Long deduced that this was the body of a teenager, at around 15 years or so.

'Menu.' Little Long thought in his head in order to try and command the virtual reality's system but to no avail. He was trapped and wasn't able to access even the most basic functions of this game.

'Who would do this to me? I have no enemies, right? Who would go out their way to trap me in a game?' His mind raced as countless questions arose in his mind. His body was instinctively going with the flow while he was dazed.

This game was too odd. He couldn't understand why the sensations of pain and hunger were still present in his body. It should be illegal for game avatar in Journey of the Ancients to be created with such realistic functions. As he was still in his own world, Little Long failed to notice that he was now at the front of the line…

"Name?"

"Long." He replied reflexively after hearing such a familiar question.

"Your first name is Long?" The man at the registration counter once again inquired with doubt in his eyes.

"My last name is Long." He replied calmly to the NPC who seemed to be part of the process of naming his character. There were a lot of immersive virtual reality games these days with similar beginnings created in order to give their stories more realism.

Little Long was far too embarrassing of a name, thus he always gave his last name first. Only giving his first name when forced to.

"Sadio, don't take too long." One of the burly men, one with sharp eyes, who had been armed with second-hand weapons and armour laughed as he made his way to another line. He seemed to be somewhat familiar with the character Little Long believed he was playing, judging from his body language and words.

The second line was more packed and seemed to make its way out into the massive stadium way into the distance. It came with a somewhat complex design that did not fit the simple village.

The murmurs of the crowd could be heard as Little Long partially saw that to the another side of the stadium was another entrance with what he believed to be the luxuriously clothed spectators who were looking to see a good show. The question is what is the show?

'Wait...Sadio...?' Little Long looked at the burly man in confusion as he watched him walk into the unbelievably large stadium with face full of vigour.

This kind of expression was a first for him. Little Long had never seen someone with such a bloodthirsty air surrounding his body. The man may be wearing second-hand gear, but the way he carried himself alone was enough to express the kind of mindset he had.

'What a battle maniac! Is he an NPC as well? What a realistic game!' He was now actually getting more excited despite how odd his circumstances were. He had already discarded the idea that this was some sort of ploy against him because no one would waste so much money if they wanted him dead. There was so many easier ways kill someone besides trapping them into an excellently crafted game.

'This is probably a prank.' He theorised inwardly after finding no other explanation that could explain why someone would put a virtual reality headgear on him while he was asleep.

Not to mention that Sadio was not a common name. On the contrary is was considered sacrilege to give someone such a name, due to it having been The Human Emperor Sadio Long's first name. People with the surname Long were just too plentiful, so that could not be changed. But first names could easily be changed and banned.

Thus further making Little Long believe that this was indeed Journey into the Ancients. A game where one plays The Human Emperor himself from his meteoric rise to power till his last battle.

Little Long believed that his knowledge on the subject matter was second to none. He knew that during Sadio's time it was common for the races which held humanity in bondage to have wars using slaves instead of their own people.

This prevented the death of their own kind and also served as some form of entertainment. Little Long had observed the stadium and it did indeed fit the descriptions he had studied regarding this topic.

The burly man who had walked past was unaware of how his actions had actually had an effect on the people who were in-charge of the slaves that were sent to fight in the great colosseum. His action of shouting the name 'Sadio' was relaxed and simplistic in nature. But in set in motion a tide of destruction and bloodshed the world had never seen before. That however is a story for another time.

The registration man watched Little Long as he was distracted by the weaponed man with sharp eyes had said. He had seen how Little Long had been mistreated by his peers before and was stunned to find out the person he looked down on before actually had two names! Two names! Even he only had one name, showing his low status.

He looked at the mark on Little Long's hand and found that it didn't notify him of any form of deceit. There was no way to lie to someone who had activated the Lie Detection function of the slave marks carved into all of humanity.

The man registering new slaves participating in the current 'War Gambit' between two respectable clans started to sweat as he signalled the guard who dragged Little Long over with his eyes. The lean guard noticed the gaze of his colleague and came over, his footsteps were clumsy and hurried as he looked like he had seen a ghost.

"My apologies, Sadio Long. We will be getting your equipment and assigning you to your rightful position as a Slave Commander in today's War Gambit." The registration man spoke with more respect in his tone as he stamped Little Long's hand before he could react. A searing pain ran through Little Long's veins as he saw that a row of letters had been burned into his mark and felt the weight on his body vanish.

He was about to retort and say that Sadio wasn't his actual name, but those words were swallowed down his throat after seeing the mark on his hand. He actually smiled slyly and nodded his head after realising the name was coincidentally the same as the legendary man he admired.

In a mere game, why would it matter what his name was? Some people would even go around pridefully showing off the name 'buttermytoast354' in games as long as they had great achievements.

It was at this moment that realization once more struck Little Long. Back in ancient times hierarchy was extremely strict, even among slaves. Slaves were divided under three banners.

First were unnamed slaves. These were slaves that had no names whatsoever and were bred like livestock. They were simply referred to as 'you' or by numbers, not to mention few to none could even count. They had no form of education and had no proper skills to make a living with.

These were the type of slaves that only know how to live like a slave and cannot even fathom how to survive as a free being. Half of the human population at this time was such slaves, and it is actually these slaves, and not their masters, who were Sadio Long's most difficult enemies.

Indeed they were enemies, they had no concept of self, and blindly worshipped their masters as if they were deities. It was so bad that even when freed they would beg for someone else to take them as slaves as they had no idea how to live otherwise.

The majority of the beings Sadio had slaughtered were such slaves, who were against freedom. Although they were weak and had no skills, their numbers were frightening, becoming an important military force.