You need citizenship

Avni knew that Aric must have done something to make his cheeks red, but she didn't ask. Aric, after coming back from school, went straight to his room and bolted it. Then, he went to Echorysia. It had been many months since he had uploaded songs, which had given him enough credits to make a living on his own.

He had thought about it a lot and had decided to up his game. After extensive research and help from Apis, he realized that there were other literary works in this universe that could help him gain a giant foothold.

And that was comics. There were great comic strips and companies with multiple fan followings across all species, not just humanity alone. Of course, there were novels too, but his choice of novels couldn't be large.

It was because most of the great novels were based on societies of the past and present, and whatever representation of the future was in books like the Dune series or the Warhammer series was inaccurate and didn't hold ground in the interstellar world.

Even when it came to comics like Marvel and DC, they wouldn't be well received because the interstellar world didn't put humans at the forefront. And Earth wasn't even advanced to begin with in the comics. So there was little chance of their success. After much contemplation, he had decided to field two comic strips.

Or rather, manga series.

Getting the downloaded manga was quite easy from the internet, though it took some time with the slow speed. But after some days of waiting and with the help of Mira, he was able to download the manga and also ask Mira to color the manga pages according to the color panels drawn by the mangaka (manga authors) [A/N: Manga is the Japanese name for drawn comics, usually in black and white].

The first manga he chose to serialize was Fullmetal Alchemist. He wanted to go for Death Note, but it was based on the Earth world, and though it was a thrilling story, it might not be very acceptable to the society of the interstellar world. But Fullmetal Alchemist had promise. It had the potential to be famous because it was a world that had just started its journey in science and had an extra gimmick called alchemy.

The story was touching, and hopefully, it would touch the heartstrings of people around the universe. After coming back to Echorysia, he asked for Apis's help to publish it.

"Apis, how many credits are required to publish this whole manga series?" Aric asked while waiting in the storage unit.

"Since you are a newcomer, you will need a publishing company, a deposit of 10,000 Sora credits, and at least 50 pages of content."

"Find me a publishing company of comics and transfer the amount and half of the content from here," Aric said.

"Gladly," Apis replied.

"They will need your picture for authentication and would like to know if you wish to feature your face as the author of the comic series."

"Hmm... Yes, they can put my face. I will not hide myself anymore. They can also use my actual name here too," Aric replied. When releasing songs, he had been careful and saw what response one received when his songs became a hit.

Melodious Muse Publishing, after seeing that all his songs would get at least a billion hits, asked for an exclusive contract with him for the next 10 Earth years. Monthly, he would receive 1 million Sora credits and also royalty payment of 35% on each of his songs. This was huge for Aric, and he had just recently signed the contract.

A few months ago, an amount of 10,000 Sora credits would have been huge for him, but now it was like a small drop in the ocean.

[

Account No.: 4213190626000701

Name: Aric More

Species: Human (male)

Parents/Guardian: Not specified

Balance: 6,000,000 Sora credits

]

"It is advisable to leave this planet and take citizenship in an empire. It is for your safety and security," Apis chimed in.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. The credits I receive now might be banned since I have no citizenship," Aric sighed. Another reason he had decided to be anonymous for the AI songs was because the money for AI songs was already taxed.

But once a real person was involved, it becomes a different ball game. One would need to be taxed properly. There were very few services in the universe like this, and this was also why empire citizenship was important.

Even if he had decided to be anonymous for the manga uploads, he would still not receive the money because these drawings could never be AI-based as no publishing company would accept a fully AI-written story. Their computers could easily proofread and detect what was man-made and what was original.

Thus, for his comics (manga), he would have to leave Echorysia soon.

"Apis, release the chapters once a week after it starts publishing. We will be moving to a new place soon," Aric said.

"Finally, someone gave you some sense, it seems." Apis didn't forget to mock her master. She had been begging him to move to an empire so that Aric would be safe, but Aric would refuse because he was comfortable here.

"Book a ticket to the capital of Vallin," Aric said.

"You want to be a citizen of Vallin? Wise choice. They are more stable than the Sora, but if you want to convert your credits to Vallin, they will depreciate a bit," Apis said as she calculated.

"I haven't decided on that part yet. But I do have someone to thank in Vallin," Aric said as he remembered how he was saved that day by someone in Vallin and also had his number to boot. Maybe after that, he would leave for a human empire.

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