"— The next world will be about…" Seravion paused dramatically. "Football."
Philip stared at him in silence.
"…Football?"
"A long time ago, humanity lost Earth because of environmental destruction, wars, and climate collapse."
Philip immediately nodded.
"Yeah. Humans really do destroy everything."
"Exactly. So humanity had to migrate to another habitable planet: Gargorro."Seravion paused."The problem is… Gargorro wasn't uninhabited."
Philip closed his eyes instantly.
"Oh no."He pointed tiredly."I already know exactly where this is going."
Seravion sighed.
"Yes. Exactly what you're thinking. The Gargarros welcomed humans peacefully… but over the centuries, humans took economic and political control of the planet."
A golden image appeared in the air.
Gigantic futuristic cities clearly divided into two sections: luxurious skyscrapers for humans and decaying industrial districts for the Gargarros.
Philip stared at it for a few seconds.
"Ah, fantastic. Space colonialism."
He crossed his arms."Humanity really never runs out of creativity when it comes to ruining things."
Seravion continued:
"Currently, the Gargarros are treated as second-class citizens on their own planet."
"Of course they are."
"However… there is one exception."
Philip raised an eyebrow.
"Football."
The image shifted again.
Colossal stadiums appeared, alien crowds screaming, players running across glowing fields.
"Football is the most popular sport on the entire planet. And the best players have always been Gargarros. Humans have never been able to compete with them physically or intuitively in the sport."
Philip tilted his head.
"So football became the only way for Gargarros to gain money and status."
"Exactly. For many of them, getting into a professional league is their only chance at social mobility."
Philip sighed.
"This gets worse the more you explain it."
Seravion slightly looked away.
"Because I haven't reached the worst part yet."
"Oh, wonderful."
The Solaris took a deep breath.
"The Luminarch sent to Gargorro ended up bonding with a human named Lion."
A new image appeared.
A young human wearing a white uniform, smiling at cameras.
That smile immediately made Philip suspicious.
"I already hate him."
"His Luminarch possesses a rare ability: talent theft."
Silence.
Philip blinked.
"…Excuse me?"
"Lion can gradually absorb the abilities of players around him. Coordination, creativity, reflexes, spatial awareness… everything."
The image shifted again.
Now it showed Gargorro players failing simple plays, tripping, missing absurdly easy passes.
Meanwhile, Lion appeared stronger and stronger.
Faster.
More famous.
Philip slowly frowned.
His mocking tone faded a little.
"So he's stealing the only path those people have for social ascension."
"Yes."
"And nobody notices?"
"They notice that something is wrong. But Lion became a symbol for humans."Seravion paused."'The first human capable of mastering Gargorro football.'"
Philip let out a dry laugh.
"Oh, so on top of supernatural theft there's racist sports propaganda too. Excellent."
The image changed once more.
This time, a Gargorro player appeared.
Dark hair, golden eyes, a cold expression.
Even standing still, there was something threatening about him.
The entire stadium seemed to chant his name.
"This is Kaien Rourke. The best player on the planet."
Philip narrowed his eyes.
"And let me guess… Lion wants to steal his talent too."
"He's already trying. But Kaien resists the system."
"Why?"
Seravion remained silent for a moment before answering:
"Because he deeply hates humans."
Philip stayed quiet.
Then:
"…You know the worst part?"He pointed at the image."Depending on the level of oppression, I'd probably side with him."
"That is precisely the current narrative problem."
Philip massaged his temples.
"Alright, let me organize this: you people created a system that's empowering a colonizer human by stealing the only social resource of an oppressed alien species… and now you want ME to fix it?"
"Correct."
"My God, you people are terrible at your jobs."
Seravion ignored the criticism.
"Your mission will be to prevent a social collapse between humans and Gargarros… while finding a way to neutralize Lion and his Luminarch without destroying the structure of the planet's sports culture."
Philip stared into space for a few seconds.
Then he crossed his arms.
"Okay. But I want to go there as a Gargorro."
Seravion blinked.
"…What?"
"You heard me." Philip pointed at him. "Turn me into a rich-poor Gargorro or whatever. Figure it out."
"Philip, that would complicate—"
"No." He immediately shook his head. "Humans destroy their own planet, colonize another one, turn the natives into second-class citizens… and then some enlightened human shows up to save everything?"
He started pacing around the celestial office again.
"That's annoying as hell!"He pointed at Kaien's frozen image."Let one of THEM save their own people. I'll just help. I'm technical support, remember?"
Seravion remained silent.
Philip continued, now genuinely irritated:
"It's always like this in these stories. The oppressed group suffers through the entire book, and then in the end some special protagonist from the oppressor group shows up to fix everything and become the hero."
The Solaris watched the human for a few seconds.
Philip kept staring at the golden map of Gargorro floating in the air.
The separated cities.The poor districts.The massive stadiums.
His mocking tone softened a little when he spoke again:
"I want this world to be different, at least."
Seravion remained silent.
"I don't know what the original story of this world was supposed to be…" Philip continued, crossing his arms. "But right is right. Humans ruined their own planet, arrived somewhere else, and ruined other people's lives too."
He pointed at Kaien in the golden image.
"So I'm going as a Gargorro."
The celestial office stayed quiet for a few seconds.
Seravion finally asked:
"Even knowing that this will make your mission more difficult?"
Philip let out a short laugh.
"Brother, I worked at a call center for six years. 'Difficult' stopped meaning anything to me a long time ago."
This time, Seravion ignored the joke.
"You will experience prejudice directly. Human hostility. Political pressure. Gargorro sports media is extremely racist."
"Even better." Philip shrugged. "How am I supposed to help them if I don't understand what they live through?"
The Solaris slowly lowered the golden scroll.
Philip continued:
"I don't want to be 'the good human who saves the aliens.' That's weird."He made a face.
"It feels like those movies pretending to be about minorities, but the protagonist is always some sad white guy learning empathy."
Seravion blinked a few times.
"That reference was… surprisingly specific."
"I consumed way too much media when I was depressed."
Silence.
Then Philip took a deep breath and spoke more quietly:
"If this world is that broken… then someone from there has to stand up and fix it."He looked at Kaien again."I can help, but I don't want to steal their place too."
The golden bell in the office rang softly.
Once.
Seravion slowly raised his eyes.
"The Creator is listening."
The golden scroll glowed on its own.
Letters began appearing slowly.
Seravion read them silently first.
Then he took a deep breath.
"Hmm."
Philip narrowed his eyes.
"That 'hmm' never brings me peace."
The Solaris looked up.
"Request approved."
Silence.
Philip blinked.
"…Approved?"
"You will be sent as a Gargorro."
Philip instantly broke into a grin.
"NOW we're talking!"
"However…" Seravion continued, "the Creator added a note."
Philip was already losing happiness.
"Of course he did."
This time, Seravion read directly from the scroll:
"'The human continues to be irritatingly correct sometimes.'"
The office fell silent.
Philip slowly placed a hand on his chest.
"I just received a passive-aggressive compliment from God."
"Yes."
"Does that count toward a raise?"
"No."
"Damn it."