However, after doing the calculations, even that would still only net him a little over $20,000 in today's raw iron prices.
Aside from how cheap iron was, there were other materials, like iodine in particular catching his eye, that were listed for 10 credits per kg!
Not tonnes, but kilograms!
It seemed that some resources were still scarce even on a scale as large as the galaxy!
Suddenly, Ludo's hopes were up again.
While iodine was still relatively rare on Earth, it wasn't as exorbitantly priced as it was on the trading hub!
'Perhaps we underestimate the value of iodine on Earth, or is it simply just that rare in the galaxy?'
Ludo was left rubbing his temples, choosing to move on from this category for now.
Another category blinked into his view.
[Biology & Lifeforms]
Just the title of this one made him swallow nervously.
-> [Biological Enhancements]
-> [Medicine & Healing]
-> [Lifeforms (Slaves, Livestock)]
Ludo was highly disturbed when he glanced through the three different sections listed under this category
Not so for the first two, as those actually brought him great excitement, with things like 'Age Reversal Treatment', 'Whole Body Enhancement', and other wondrous items were listed, expensive though — for obvious reasons.
No, it was the third category that left him disturbed.
At first, he was enraptured with just staring at the preview images shown. Some aliens were bipedal, others quadrupedal, and some with more appendages than Ludo could count. One of them even looked so similar to humans, he would have believed it was if the description hadn't told him otherwise, leaving him pretty creeped out — while others looked exactly like what he'd expected aliens to look like.
As it turned out, hollywood was pretty spot on with their depictions.
'Turns out we're not so special after all, like humans had thought for the past thousands of years.'
Yeah, Ludo never believed in all that 'god's chosen' bullcrap anyway, but this just solidified that belief for him.
But the excitement of getting to see what actual, real alien races looked like wore off quickly due to the reality of what he was seeing.
'Slaves… I should have known that life in the rest of the galaxy couldn't be all sunshine and rainbows.'
This left a deep-seated feeling of anxiety lingering in his chest. Most of the listed lifeforms were unintelligent livestock creatures that were genetically modified for high value breeding purposes — with no other intent than to be used in farming.
But the less common slaves were genuine, real intelligent beings, just like himself. Most of their descriptions listed them as criminals, traitors who betrayed their own race for profits, or unwanted genetic defects.
However, there was one category of listed slaves that chilled him to his core.
Primitives, underdeveloped, non-spacefaring. Different listings had different names for them, but they all essentially came under the same umbrella.
Beings from weak civilisations that had been conquered, enslaved, and sold for profit.
Ludo had no doubt in his mind that Earth would fall under the category of 'weak civilisations.'
He now realised just how careful he had to be with using the Galactic Terminal. If he invited over some unwanted visitors, then that could be game over for Earth.
It took him a few minutes to calm down after realising just how dangerous the Galactic Terminal could be.
Though, after reading further into the descriptions of these slaves, he'd realised that the civilisations they originated from had broken some intergalactic laws, which had caused them to be conquered.
'I'll have to be careful not to fall into a similar trap then... I have to find time later on to read up on these it seems.'
After he'd eventually calmed down, he glossed over the last two options available to him.
[Cultural Exchanges & Knowledge]
-> [Entertainment]
-> [Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology]
-> [History]
[Technology]
-> [Energy]
-> [Transportation & Vehicles]
-> [Virtual & Computing]
-> [Weapons & Defense]
-> [Communications]
-> …
Ludo wasn't particularly interested in seeing what kind of cultural exchanges were on offer at the moment, especially after seeing how much of a commodity slaves were.
As for the technology section, that was what he was really interested in, and it had by far the greatest extent of sections and items on offer.
If he could purchase some of those for himself, and develop Earth into a civilisation that could no longer be considered weak, then one day when alien visitors did show up, he might be able to prevent a situation where the whole planet becomes enslaved.
As long as no laws are broken...
But Ludo knew that there were the equivalent of space pirates, thanks to reading a few descriptins of the captured ones turned into slaves, who cared little for these laws and were known for attacking weaker civilisations for cheap and easy profit.
Ludo chose Energy to take a look at first. Though, considering that Earth already had a lot of the technology available themselves, Ludo mainly focused on the ones he felt like they were behind in.
[High efficiency solar panels (80% energy conversion)]
[Offer Price: 25 credits per batch of 10 units, or 4000 credits for the technology.]
[Commercial small modular Nuclear reactor (fission)]
[Offer Price: 1000 credits per unit, or 70,000 for the technology.
[Experimental Fusion Reactor (Non-functional)]
[Offer Price: 3000 credits per unit, or 120,000 for the technology.]
[Lithium Sulfur battery]
[Offer 10 credits per batch of 100 units, or 2500 credits for the technology.]
[…]
Just the first options available left him speechless.
High efficiency solar panels? As far as Ludo knew, the current most commercially viable solar panels one could buy went up to 30% energy efficiency, with figures like 50% only being possible in the laboratory.
Yet this one had 80%??
However, just as the products themselves left him shocked, so did their prices.
They were all high, as expected for such advanced technology, but what intrigued him even more was the option to either buy the item itself, or purchase the technology itself, giving him all the schematics, blueprints, scientific theories and instructions of how to create the product himself!
All for an absurdly higher price, of course.
'It seems that even out in the universe, capitalism still reigns supreme…'
His perception of these alien civilisations started to lower. It seemed that they weren't so different to humans after all…
Now aware that he could buy the technologies themself, Ludo was curious to see just how much the technology for the Thermonuclear Bomb would cost him.
[Offer Price: 5000 credits per unit, or 5,000,000 credits for the technology.]
'Tsk, such a scam.'
The price difference left him disgusted.
Though, he didn't know why he was complaining — it wasn't like he could afford either of them anyway…
Nor did he have the need for it.
Earth already had the technology and resources to build even more powerful bombs than it, and in the event of an Alien invasion, the most powerful countries each had their own to use in a case of defense.
If Ludo wanted to buy weapons for defense, he would most definitely not do so from the Level 1 Basic Trading Hub.
'Speaking of which, I didn't see any fully functional Fusion reactors for sale, only the experimental one. I guess that's beyond the capabilities of a Level 1 Basic civilisation, and hence not on the Level 1 Basic trading hub?'
With great expectations, he moved on to the Level 1 Middle Trading Hub.