Ziye had never seen such exquisitely crafted mecha in her life; she was nearly weeping with joy. Just moments ago, she had restrained herself from immediately dismantling it for research because An Junlie was present.

Now that her master had collapsed, hmph.

For the first time, she felt a surge of gratitude toward the Violet Star hanging above this planet.

The light of the Violet Star carried a natural gamma baseline that promoted mental fatigue. Consequently, the period when the Violet Star hung in the sky was the night on Silver Emblem Star, a time when everyone simply washed up and went to sleep.

The native residents were fine, but most outsiders couldn't last two hours before passing out. An Junlie, whose physical constitution was excellent, had only managed to hold out for three hours at most.

As for her, she had been on this planet for two years and was completely unfazed by the gamma baseline.

The most crucial task now was to disassemble this mecha and reassemble it before the Violet Star set. Otherwise, if An Junlie woke up to find debris scattered everywhere, he would likely fly into a rage again.

Although that man was a bit petty, his things were certainly quite good. Ziye, in high spirits, hummed a tune while committing mischief, systematically taking apart the ten-meter-tall mecha piece by piece.

Little Sprout mischievously slid from her head to her shoulder, then coiled for a leap, landing squarely on An Junlie's chest. It extended the two small leaves atop its head and gently touched An Junlie's body, deliberately lowering its voice to sound profound. "Ziye, do you remember the first time you met An Junlie?"

Ziye was still immersed in her mecha fervor and replied without turning around, "Met who?"

Little Sprout, displeased with her perfunctory answer, shot a thin arc of photoelectric energy from its tiny sprout, giving her a slight jolt, and exclaimed excitedly, "Look!"

The electric shock was mild, enough only to cause a slight numbness, but Ziye’s hand still twitched. She turned around angrily. Little Sprout immediately poked An Junlie's pectoral muscles like it was presenting a treasure, giving her no chance to speak, and launched into its excitement. "Look, what beautiful muscle definition!" As it spoke, it scanned An Junlie’s body. "Tsk tsk, these physical statistics are even more powerful and refined than the Federation's Feiniao (Flying Bird) model. Indeed, the human being is the most perfect individual! This guy's body completely meets Platinum standards. If we could build a mecha based on his data, it would surely surpass the Feiniao!"

The Feiniao was the apex mecha of the Interstellar Federation, and its manufacturing technology remained unreleased to this day. But in Little Sprout’s view, no matter how advanced the machine, it was still just a machine; only humans served as the best blueprints for mecha.

Ziye frowned and glared at it. "You are too noisy."

"Ahhh—how could you say that to someone?" Little Sprout leaped off An Junlie. Seeing the mecha’s optical brain in her hand, its eyes immediately lit up. "The optical brain is mine!" With that, two leaves sprouted from its head, and with a whoosh, it snatched the brain away.

Little Sprout was an intelligent optical brain, created by some unknown entity, possessing incredibly powerful functions. In the network, it moved as if through open territory; in programming, it was clearly an expert; even in hardware, as long as there was energy, it could control everything.

Its body was made of grayish-white fluff, its eyes were black glass beads, and a single green stem stood atop its head, bearing two vivid emerald leaves. When Ziye first saw it, it was being sold on a street stall as an ordinary plush doll.

At that time, Ziye only had five credits. Thinking she should buy something since she was out, she haggled with the stall owner for a long time until they settled on three credits.

To this day, Ziye still believed that Little Sprout was the best value purchase she had ever made in her life, bar none. Of course, Little Sprout protested being called "something" and grandly declared that it being with Ziye was Ziye’s fortune!

Now, as this expert-level Little Sprout absconded with the optical brain, Ziye didn't even glance over, letting it have its fun. She instead summoned Robot A110 to scan the mecha.

Silver Emblem Star was a planet full of pitfalls.

The first pitfall was its backwardness: no military bases, no modern industry. This was all due to the lack of any naturally good environment or rare minerals; the Interstellar Federation had no desire to develop it.

The second pitfall was the poor navigation. This didn't just refer to the roads on the planet but also the interstellar lanes. Some small planets, like Orion Star, despite harsh conditions and few resources, were fortunately surrounded by major planets, ensuring smooth interstellar channels and turning them into vital transport hubs. Silver Emblem Star’s tragedy was that it had no interstellar passages!

Thirty thousand meters above Silver Emblem Star floated a massive wormhole, encircling the planet like Earth’s natural atmosphere, acting as a natural barrier that blocked the interstellar network and prevented outsiders from entering, thus ensuring Silver Emblem Star’s isolation.

The third pitfall was the lack of a network. The wormhole blocked the interstellar network, making Silver Emblem Star the only planet unable to connect. Even within the planet, the Interstellar Federation had blocked signals using magnetic light waves. Only two years prior did the residents finally develop a particle wave capable of penetrating the magnetic light waves, establishing a network and using Silver Signals for communication.

The fourth pitfall was its mixed population. The true native inhabitants of Silver Emblem Star were extinct, courtesy of some long-gone Interstellar developer. The current residents couldn't truly be called citizens; they were prisoners. Yes, Silver Emblem Star’s harsh environment, coupled with no network and no interstellar lanes, created a unique condition: a penitentiary.

Silver Emblem Star = Prison, and a high-end one at that.

The residents here were either scientists convicted of high-tech crimes or notorious space criminals who had wiped out dozens of planets in a single night—names that would make other planets tremble.

Of course, there were exceptions to everything.

Ziye was one of them.

She had merely been an ordinary student at the Feilü Academy’s junior division. No matter how serious her crime, she wouldn't have been exiled alongside these scientists, especially since she hadn't committed any crime.

When she first saw An Junlie, she momentarily assumed he had been exiled here too. As the commander of the Interstellar Federation's strongest legion, committing high-tech crimes would be effortless for him; destroying a planet wouldn't be too difficult either.

However, she quickly dismissed that idea.

An Junlie would never commit such crimes, and judging by his expression, he didn't look like someone who had been exiled. The most likely scenario was that, like her, they had both fallen in by accident.

She glanced back at the man collapsed beside the corridor, a pang of pity rising in her heart. No matter how powerful a person was, they only had two paths here: adapt or die. Whether they adapted or perished, all their skills would be wasted.

Such a talented man, reduced to this place, Ziye shook her head with a bitter smile.