Another stealth bomber was captained by Old Dog, with Big Head as the co-pilot. Ziye nestled beside An Junlie, obediently serving as a passenger. The Pervert sat next to Ziye, and after the stealth bomber took off, he couldn't stop looking back. "Goodbye, my darlings. My dear Rose babies, I'll be back."

Having lived there for so long, they had already come to consider Silver Charm as their home; stepping out into space felt like leaving home for a distant world.

Yet, despite their reluctance, they had to leave.

While they could move freely on Silver Charm Planet, the word "prisoner" would forever be the shackles chaining their spirits. Until those chains were broken, true freedom would remain unattainable.

Perhaps one day, when they were weary, they might return to Silver Charm to retire, but that was a matter for the future...

Tears welled in the Pervert’s aged, cloudy eyes. He snatched a tissue, wiped them away, composed himself, and turned to An Junlie. “I should have had Jelly make all the roses into jelly and brought them aboard. Now I regret it, what should I do?”

Ziye laughed heartily, pulling a bottle of White Rose Jelly from the case they had brought onto the stealth bomber, and offered it generously. “Have some, brother.”

The Pervert adopted an old-fashioned tone. “You call me brother?”

Ziye rubbed her nose, asserting herself boldly. “We’re all on the same ship, naturally we’re brothers.”

Just as the Pervert was about to retort, Ziye immediately darted behind An Junlie, burying her head against his arm. “Alien, the Pervert is bullying me!” she declared, sticking out a face at the Pervert.

Everyone present was amused by her act of borrowing authority and burst out laughing.

In truth, almost everyone present had spent five years or more on Silver Charm; some had even been there for ten. Stepping out into space so abruptly left them all somewhat uneasy, but Ziye’s antics managed to dispel that faint anxiety.

If even someone as young as Ziye could thrive in space, surely they, seasoned veterans of decades, couldn't fare any worse!

With four seasoned captains at the helm, the stealth bomber returned safely to Cole’s villa, and even the eight mechs following behind arrived without incident.

To welcome them, Black Beard had arranged everything in the villas. Since only Ziye and Red Hair were female, they were temporarily sharing one residence. The rest, except for An Junlie and Lan Li, were housed in the other villas. As for the Wolf Den villa, Black Beard, with utmost speed, transformed it to resemble a military barracks.

Only the "Wolf Den" plaque remained unhung; everything else was complete.

As soon as Ziye passed the signal blocking zone, she immediately sent a Hyper-Signal to Black Beard. The sharp and capable Black Beard had calculated the exact time the stealth bomber would arrive, preparing a feast large enough for thirty-eight people.

It truly gave them the feeling of being right at home.

Looking at the gleaming, spotless villa and the array of fragrant, colorful dishes, Ziye mused with deep feeling: Black Beard was indeed a superb steward!

After dinner, An Junlie and Lan Li, being outsiders, felt it inappropriate to linger. Having spent several days on Silver Charm Planet, they could no longer stay at the Sprout Villa and decided to take their leave promptly.

Ziye wanted to bid An Junlie farewell, but he was busy greeting over thirty people. She let out a dissatisfied "Hmph" and hurried back to her own villa to check on Little Sprout.

When An Junlie finished talking with everyone and turned back to find Ziye, she was already gone.

He glanced at the time; he couldn't delay any longer. He could only give up, shake his head with resignation, board the shuttle, and depart.

On this day, no one was more excited than Black Beard.

Thirty-four people had arrived at once!

There were talents from every industry and field imaginable—it would be hard for the Budding Group not to develop rapidly now!

Black Beard was beaming, unable to close his mouth in delight. “I’ll give you three days to get familiar with the environment. After three days, we’ll get down to serious work!”

Little Sprout returned to its villa. As soon as it descended from the airship, it burst out from inside, colliding with Ziye’s head with a loud thwack. Ziye saw stars, staggered back two steps, and managed to brace herself against the doorway to stay upright.

Ziye reached up and yanked the creature off her head, asking, “You little rascal, what do you think you’re doing?”

Little Sprout tumbled into her embrace, weeping. “Ziye, Ziye, you’re finally back, waah... I was so worried these past few days.”

Ziye remembered how difficult it must have been for the little thing to be cooped up alone at home, and her heart softened. She stroked its fur. “Good boy, were you very bored staying here?”

Little Sprout nodded, aggrieved. “I toured the Fia Family estate three times, and you still hadn't returned. I was so sad.”

Ziye’s eye twitched involuntarily. “You went to Fia?”

Little Sprout flapped its wings happily. “That’s right! I hacked into their space station system, cracked their firewall, planted a virus, destroyed their servers, and watched them run around like headless chickens—hehe.”

Ziye sighed, picked it up, and kissed its head. “You worked hard.”

Currently, she lacked the power to seek revenge, so Little Sprout occasionally caused trouble to cheer her up. She walked into the room and switched on the interstellar television. Sure enough, the news was reporting on Fia.

“It has been 28 hours since the Fia space station system collapse. With the exception of the three most severely affected stations on Fei Lu Star, other stations have resumed operations and are accepting entry and exit requests. The Fia spokesperson has apologized to all captains and pilots, and they are prepared to compensate for direct losses incurred due to the system collapse. It is estimated that the collapse caused Fia direct economic losses amounting to…”

Ziye switched off the TV and said to Little Sprout, “Don’t play around like that anymore.”

Little Sprout was a bit disappointed by Ziye’s reaction. It had thought that by doing this, Ziye would be overjoyed, but Ziye’s thoughts seemed different from its own. “Why?”

Ziye sighed. “Fia suffered losses, yes, but it also implicated many innocent captains and pilots. Our target is Ilya. Next time you go, investigate their pharmaceutical research—that’s what’s truly terrifying.”

Little Sprout’s eyes lit up again. It flapped its wings. “Roger that!”

Ziye flopped onto the sofa, languidly asking, “Did you take good care of your son these past few days?”

Little Sprout froze instantly, spreading its wings as if to fly away, but Ziye caught it with sharp reflexes. “Don’t even think about escaping. What did you do to it?” Little Sprout pulled a mournful face, lowered its head, and dared not meet her eyes—a classic look of guilt after committing a misdeed, anticipating a scolding.

Ziye pinched its cheek. “Speak up! Did you raise it to death?”

Little Sprout whimpered, tugging at the corner of her clothes. “I didn’t raise it to death, but I raised it into a monster!”

Ziye raised an eyebrow. Little Sprout dared not look at her and hastily avoided her gaze. Ziye assumed it was exaggerating, but when she walked over to the cultivation tank, her hair stood straight up—it was horrifying!

The embryo had only been the size of a thumb a few days ago, but now, in their short separation, it was bigger than a fist!

The small rearing container could no longer hold it.

“Has it been mutated?” Ziye exclaimed in disbelief. “Did you inject it with cell proliferation agent?”

Little Sprout vehemently shook its head. “I didn’t! I really didn’t! I was just too bored and wanted to feed it. Its metal tolerance is incredibly high. Every time I dripped in liquid metal, it absorbed it immediately. I kept dripping, and it kept absorbing... and it turned into this!”

It hesitated to admit that some of the liquid had accidentally spilled in.

Ziye’s eye twitched. “Just how much did you drip in?”

Little Sprout mumbled weakly, “It wasn’t a lot. Maybe two cups? No, three cups. One cup is 200cc.”

Ziye’s face turned green.

To pour 600cc of liquid metal into an embryo the size of a thumb—it would be considered a good outcome if the embryo wasn’t completely submerged and drowned! She seriously considered plucking out every strand of Little Sprout’s fluff.

“What type of liquid metal was it?”

Little Sprout pointed to the three empty cups on the table, weakly stating, “The three cups of liquid metal you were using to develop the new mech.”

Ziye was stunned silent.

The concentration of these three batches of liquid metal exceeded 90%. Was Little Sprout sure it was nurturing an embryo and not trying to end its life?

Ziye looked at the small embryo. Its body was tender pink, its abdomen alarmingly large, and it even sported two small horns on its head—it truly had become a monster!

Ziye was horrified for half a minute, then decisively declared, “I’ll take it to the pet hospital—no, wait, I can find the Pervert.”

She quickly gathered a few things, packed the three empty cups that had held the metal fluid, grabbed Little Sprout, and carried the cultivation tank to the neighboring villa to knock on the Pervert’s door.

The Pervert’s address was easy to spot.

She wouldn’t be wrong if she just knocked on every door starting with 4.

She started knocking at 04. 04, 14, 24, 34, 44. When she reached 44, she finally found him. The Pervert was currently directing the G-series little girls in a dance when she interrupted him. He snapped irritably, “What?”

Ziye ignored his tone and thrust the cultivation tank in front of him. “Hurry up and check it, or I’ll skin every one of your little girls alive.”

The Pervert’s eyes widened. He had been about to lecture her, but when Ziye shoved the tank right under his nose, his expression immediately changed. “This is absolutely a rare species!” He roughly pushed the little girls aside and moved to the experimental table, sweeping everything off with one hand. “Put it here quickly.”

Ziye was too exasperated to offer any comment. She set the tank down and produced the three empty cups. “A thumb-sized embryo drank three cups of liquid metal and turned into this. Here are the cups. Help me see what exactly happened to it.”

The Pervert nodded vigorously. “No problem, no problem. I’ll give you the results immediately. My payment will be one copy of all the cells, hair, and DNA for my records.”

Ziye knew that even if she refused, he would secretly scrape some samples anyway, so she didn't bother arguing.

The embryo was the first rare species the Pervert had encountered since leaving space; he treated it as if it were a priceless global treasure while taking it to the lab for study. As soon as he entered the research room, G0342, the little girl unit, immediately closed the door to visitors. “Master is busy. Please return another time.”

Ziye looked at the little girl’s delicate pink face and felt an urge to pinch it. How infuriating—a robot made by her dared to turn her away! Hmph, she needed to install a robot identification system so her creations couldn't attack her! -RS