From Seattle, one could take an interstellar bus for a direct jump to the Kira Space Station, and upon arrival, the station immediately captured their gaze. The station was planned with remarkable logic, all structures employing a reinforced composite of titanium and steel, granting it immense structural integrity. It was further equipped with an anti-harmonic stabilization device, allowing it to maintain its horizontal position and ensure the overall safety of the station. The entire facility’s exterior was sheathed in adaptive metal plating.

In short, every surface, inside and out, exuded a professional metallic sheen.

Ziye couldn't help but exclaim, "So much technology!"

Her voice was quite loud, and immediately someone nearby turned to look at her as if she were simple. Realizing her blunder, she hurried away. The little sprout was even more excited; countless programs had already streamed into its database the moment they flashed across its vision. After recording the data, it remained unsatisfied and exclaimed excitedly, "This is Station ①! Let’s go to Station ③!"

Ziye had never stayed in a space station for long before and felt a rush of excitement, not understanding the difference between ① and ③. She asked, "Why?"

The little sprout proudly shook its head. "Station ③ is the most completely equipped and commercially developed among Kira’s eighteen stations. We are going there."

Ziye felt an indescribable anticipation for her future life. Since they could go somewhere better, of course, they should go somewhere better. Ziye followed the little sprout’s advice and took the interstellar bus to jump to Station ③. Indeed, Station ③ appeared far more luxurious than Station ①. Without hesitation, she applied for permanent residency.

With the advancement of technology, space stations had developed to a highly sophisticated level, spanning the size of a city, complete with malls, markets, repair bases, customs offices, and various private enterprises. Over a hundred ships and mechs entered and exited the station daily.

Ziye bypassed the bustling main traffic areas and rented an apartment in a slightly quieter residential sector.

The apartment wasn't large, only about two hundred square meters, a small villa, fully furnished and tidily kept, ready for immediate move-in. However, the rent was steep. With her subsidy card, she got a twenty percent discount, and it still cost 1600 credits. Still, compared to her large home on Silver Rune Star, this place was tiny. A significant advantage was that every unit came equipped with a starship hangar and a mech hangar for convenient docking.

After receiving her meal card, Ziye immediately retrieved robot parts from the mech hangar for assembly: A110, A120, and F431. F431 belonged to the all-purpose robot series. Since she had gifted the 430 model to An Junlie, she simply replicated a 431 to help her with chores.

With three robots assisting, the room was quickly cleaned.

Ziye pulled open the curtains, swung open the floor-to-ceiling window, and sat down at the round table on the balcony, placing the little sprout on the table. She instructed a robot to brew a cup of white rose herbal tea and settled in to enjoy some peaceful leisure time.

Apart from the standardized architecture of the buildings, there was a two-meter-wide stretch of lawn downstairs, with roads branching out in all directions, allowing a clear view of the traffic flow.

There were few pedestrians; residents moved about in grav-cars. The skies were always more lively than the ground below.

Whenever Ziye saw people entering or leaving, she felt connected to the populace, a sensation that was profoundly comforting. After finishing her rose tea, she set the cup aside, retrieved her optical computer, and went online.

She always regarded the little sprout as sentient and therefore never input any commands directly onto its screen; everything was handled independently by the sprout. Consequently, she usually used a separate optical computer for her own tasks.

Her intention was simple: find a job!

The monthly allowance of three thousand credits, without employment, was barely enough to subsist on if she stayed indoors, but she had no intention of merely eating and waiting to die; she had too many things she needed to accomplish.

The Interstellar Federation had regulations preventing corporations from employing minors as labor. Therefore, her only option was to search online.

"Earn over ten thousand a month just by sitting in front of your optical computer..."

"Online PR needed, beautiful women required, only chat companionship..."

"Hiring gorgeous live streamers, must send personal photos before the interview..."

Ziye frowned, closed the webpage, and let out a deep sigh.

Meanwhile, the little sprout was beside itself with excitement. "Ziye, the network here is fantastic! No interference whatsoever. I'm surfing with extreme pleasure!"

Ziye glanced over and discovered the thing had infiltrated the mech research lab of the Interstellar Federation military headquarters. A jolt of terror went through her. That place was one of the most secure locations in the world, where any communication with the outside was under intense surveillance, let alone the general network. She hastily said, "Don't mess around! Get out now! If you get caught, you'll be finished."

The little sprout chuckled, "I'm not that clueless. In the network, I’m like a ghost passing through empty territory. What’s there to fear?"

Ziye rolled her eyes at it and ignored it, focusing instead on searching for websites related to mech design and manufacturing. Just then, the little sprout tossed over a URL. She opened it and saw it was a non-profit, professional mech forum called 'Mobile Forum.'

Unlike general forums riddled with meaningless chatter, the Mobile site radiated professionalism from its core outward. Regarding topics from quantum engines to energy shields, over 90% of the discussions displayed an ability to independently analyze a mech. Most importantly, there was a dedicated section for analyzing the advantages and drawbacks of new models released by various corporate groups.

Ziye had never even heard of some of the theories discussed there.

She bookmarked the URL and browsed for a while, then noticed a Bounty Section and navigated into it.

Upon seeing it, her face broke into a grin.

There was a way to earn money!

The Bounty Section primarily featured requests for help from people whose mechs had malfunctions. The bounty amounts ranged from 100 to 5000 credits, depending on the difficulty and urgency of the problem. There were usually resident experts available to provide solutions, and those who answered well received 80% of the bounty; the remaining 20% covered website maintenance.

Even 80 credits from a 100-credit bounty was something!

Ziye excitedly reviewed the rules.

Bounty questions were divided into five levels, Level 1 being the easiest and Level 5 the hardest. She looked at the Level 5 questions; most were highly specialized, and many required personally inspecting the mech to devise a countermeasure.

She returned to the Level 1 questions and found one that had just been posted by someone named Xing Bao: "The naval variant of the second generation from the Weixin Group started exhibiting ballistic deviation after two years of use, with a firing error reaching 4%. It has become completely useless. Are there any methods to improve the current situation?"

The bounty was 200 credits.

This problem wasn't difficult.

Ziye paused to think. As she registered her account and filled in the nickname, she saw the little sprout contentedly shaking the leaf on its head and couldn't help a small smile. She entered the three characters: "Meng Ya Ya."

After registering, she posted her reply: "This model does not utilize an independent ballistic control system. You could consider adding one to counteract the trajectory deviation. However, this action will increase energy plate consumption, requiring the addition of an energy diagnostic program in the mech's optical computer to ascertain the energy consumption status and augment the energy system as necessary."

After answering, she picked two more unanswered Level 1 questions and replied to them before logging off to eat.

The little sprout had searched the website for a heap of recipes, converting them all into programs installed in the F431 all-purpose robot’s system, and laughed, "Ziye, I’ve solved your eating problem. How will you thank me?"

Ziye scratched its head. "Good boy."

The little sprout accepted the praise with a happy roll but acted coy verbally. "Hmph, don't think you can bribe me that easily!"

When she logged back onto the forum, she saw an email from the administrator: "Welcome to the Mobile family. Your answering skills are noteworthy. If you are interested, you may proceed to the Task Area to complete assignments. The rewards are generous." A link to the Task Area was appended below.

Ziye took a look and navigated to the Task Area.

Upon entering, a sea of assignments surged towards her. Ziye couldn't help but widen her eyes. If the little sprout hadn't verified that the site's backend belonged to the Mech Alliance, she would have thought she had walked into a student examination database.

Tasks in the Task Area were also categorized from Level 1 to Level 5, with Level 5 being the hardest. However, claiming tasks required accumulated credit. Once a task was taken by someone else, no one else could touch it, so what remained were usually very tedious or bizarre assignments. Furthermore, the compensation for completing these tasks was significantly lower than answering bounties; a junior task only paid 50 credits, and it had to be finished within a set time, otherwise, one only accumulated credit but received no payment.

Ziye calculated: If she could complete 10 tasks a day, that would be 500 credits—which wasn't bad at all! At this rate, her monthly income would double, not to mention the extra spending money she could earn in the Bounty Section.

It was perfectly suited to her needs!

Ziye immediately immersed herself in completing the tasks. She was currently focused on studying mech damage control, so she took on all the related problems and began analyzing them frantically.

She soon discovered the benefit of doing assigned tasks. The requirements demanded comprehensiveness. While Ziye understood many aspects, she didn't recall the finer details clearly. Thus, it was the best possible arrangement: strengthening her knowledge while earning money. If she encountered a problem, she could directly ask the little sprout.

By the end of the day, she had actually completed twenty-five tasks!

If the little sprout had helped, the number of tasks would surely have quadrupled, pushing her into the ten-thousand-credit-a-month bracket within a month. However, the little sprout was a light-brain with strong principles and absolutely refused to assist.

It looked haughty. "If I do it for you, will you ever truly understand?"

Ziye sighed helplessly. She understood the sprout's behavior, but what she couldn't understand was why the number of required tasks kept increasing?

Moving from Level 1 to Level 2 required completing one hundred tasks!

Ziye was thoroughly buried in this sea of tasks, striving for money because she had her eyes set on the Level 5 problems—one task alone offered five hundred credits, a fivefold increase!

After three days of hard work, she finally completed the required one hundred tasks. She submitted them all at once, awaiting review so she could claim Level 2 tasks. Just then, another email landed in her inbox.

"Big Brother, I'm Xing Bao. You solved a problem that had plagued me for half a year, and I really admire you. I weakly ask, could you take me as your apprentice?" A flattering emoji followed the text.

Ziye's brow furrowed. This person was too familiar. Calling her Big Brother? She immediately replied to the email with a single sentence: "You called me Big Brother?"