Getting Rich Across the Stars by Becoming a Middleman

As an interstellar trader, Chen Song used to think making money and building a fortune was... actually not as hard as he imagined. “Boss, how did you get started and make your fortune?” a newcomer in the trade asked, full of envy. “Easy. Find wealthy interstellar civilizations full of fools with money. As long as you aren’t afraid of dying, keep raking in the profits,” Chen Song whispered, sharing his secret. “...” He’s so shameless about fleecing people. The boss is incredible! And then Chen Song landed on the wanted list. In a fit of rage, someone used money to build a whole revenge alliance, then declared to the big shots who could do nothing but manufacture two-dimensional foils and brainwash civilizations: “Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west. Don’t look down on a poor young man!” [An Alternative Version] War destroyed every civilization, leaving people timid. From then on, they lived beneath the shadow of the two-dimensional foil. Someone once said they hoped brilliant sunlight would shine into the Dark Forest. So, ten thousand years later, Nidhogg, deep in the cosmos, that haven for outlaws, had established an entirely new alliance. In the darkness, a young man raised the lightsaber in his hand and declared war on the lords of the Kingdom of Sequences, and on the friends he once knew: “My friend, you must understand that God is not omnipotent, and neither are you.”