The Old Dog chuckled heartily and boomed, "Dog Sister, I know you wouldn't hold a grudge against your Dog Brother over something minor." Inside Ziye's mind, a hundred million grass-mud horses stampeded past. Who was his Dog Sister!

Seeing her puff out her cheeks, the Old Dog continued, "If you really don't want to give it, it's fine, I still have the 'Peace' model." Ziye angrily retorted, "The 'Peace' model was made by me too!" The Old Dog dropped his smile, becoming serious. "My Little Wolf was ignorant and offended your pet.

I offer you three bags of Ji-Tiger jerky as a small apology. What do you think?" Ziye's eyes lit up.

Ji-Tiger jerky! That was absolutely delicious snack food!

She coughed dryly, feigning magnanimity, "Fine then. I'll give you one Monarch model and one King model.

I'll even let you have the Silver Crest's Tiger-Type Stealth Bomber." Seeing the two of them stage such an exchange, the others all made retching gestures. Suddenly, upon hearing Ziye's generous 'gift,' their vomiting instantly turned into gaping astonishment.

Ziye reached out and tapped the small chin beside her. "Close your mouth, I can see your cavities." A'Can vehemently protested, declaring it unfair.

"The machines and equipment I need total over eighteen million! All combined funding, and I still have to borrow money!

Dog Brother, you make it look too easy! It's unfair!" Black Beard smoothly mediated, "The Group will cover all the equipment required by everyone." Only then did A'Can's mood clear.

"Now that's more like it!" The thirty-four people from Silver Crest Star primarily divided into three categories. One group, like Little Little and the Pervert, possessed unique proprietary technology.

They had spent years drilling down into their specializations on Silver Crest Star. Years later, stepping out into space, their technology wasn't obsolete; it was actually far more unique than what was currently on the market.

This group was immediately brought into the Budding Group to serve as technical experts. Currently, the technical team included Little Little, the Pervert, Iron Hand, the cartographer Dao Lao, and Ziye herself.

When more people emerged later, the team would become even more robust. Ziye was extremely happy; they had finally advanced by a huge leap!

The second group was like A'Piao—comparatively unfortunate. Lacking established platforms on Silver Crest Star, their technology had fallen significantly behind.

For three days, A'Piao had been attempting to infiltrate the Interstellar Federation's systems but found that tasks that used to be child's play were now completely beyond his capability. Seeing his gloom, Ziye said, "Spend a few days getting back into the groove.

The system overhauls for the robots will be handed over to you later." She was only in her first year of university and working alone, so she couldn't handle mass system customization for long periods; Little Sprout was certainly out of the question. If A'Piao could develop in this direction, it would be ideal.

A'Piao was renowned for his genius; Ziye had complete faith in him. The third group consisted of those like Big Head and the Old Dog, who lacked specialized technical skills but possessed unique talents in specific fields.

The Old Dog paired up with Red Hair to pursue the path of independent struggle, while Big Head joined Black Beard, heading toward management roles within the Budding Group. Big Head had navigated the darkest undercurrents of society and knew people from every industry and legion.

Pairing with Black Beard allowed them to perfectly complement each other. Black Beard focused on major merchants and bulk buyers, while Big Head connected with military legions and colluded with pirates to move products.

In just a few days, he had opened several sales channels, achieving astonishing results. With the division of labor complete, Red Hair announced, "Little Stinky, since you can handle passports, you get the quarter share of the workload." Excluding the Pervert's passport, which was already done, there were 33 people remaining.

Among these 33, many were capable of getting their own passports, but it required significant time and interaction with past acquaintances. Re-emerging into space, none of them wanted to reconnect with their past lives.

Thus, the heavy responsibility of passport processing fell upon Red Hair, Black Beard, and Big Head. Although Big Head was newly emerged, he was deeply familiar with the intricacies and could get things done without contacting his former associates.

They hadn't expected Ziye's efficiency to be even higher! Ziye smiled sweetly, "Report the names you want, and it would be best to give me your previous names as well.

If necessary, we can erase your old records." However, Ziye hadn't anticipated one thing: Little Sprout went on strike. Ziye coaxed gently, "Don't you usually love invading the systems of various factions?

Why don't you want to go today?" Little Sprout haughtily tilted its head up. "I want that stinking wolf to apologize to me." Ziye was speechless.

The Mane Wolf couldn't talk; how could it apologize? Little Sprout had been nestled obediently in her arms just moments ago; it was unfair to think it had come to terms with the situation.

She thought for a moment. "How about you go smash it ten times as revenge?

Would that work?" Little Sprout gave her a sidelong glance. "Am I the type of being who dwells on petty revenge?" Ziye sternly forced herself not to laugh.

"You're not a person." Little Sprout became furious and declared loudly, "If you don't catch it and let me smash it ten times, I absolutely won't help you." Ziye was genuinely afraid of that wolf and dared not capture it herself! She quickly found an excuse to deflect, "If you catch it, smashing it won't be as fun.

Little Sprout pondered, realizing that was also true, and agreed. Ziye added fuel to the fire.

"Bean Sprout can also eat metal. When it grows up, I'll have Bean Sprout bite it." Only then did Little Sprout become delighted.

With a 'whoosh,' it flew toward the Mane Wolf. The wolf thought it was coming over to play and happily jumped up, but Little Sprout flew higher.

Once the wolf lowered its head, Little Sprout landed with a 'thud' right on the wolf's head. Again and again, it smashed down with force.

Every time the Mane Wolf raised its head, Little Sprout would fly up. Due to its light weight, even forceful impacts didn't really hurt the wolf.

After it finally tired of playing, Ziye took out the list and instructed it to create passports one by one. Creating passports wasn't inherently easy, nor was it exceptionally difficult.

If taking the easy route, one could directly find a small military legion authorized to issue passports, tamper with a few data points inside, and add one more person. As for age and birthplace, they could be arbitrarily set to some obscure, remote planet.

Taking the hard route meant altering their past dark histories. Of course, this didn't mean changing the actions they had performed, but rather tampering with the data that could confirm their identities, such as DNA, iris patterns, and fingerprint data.

This way, even if they committed an offense in the future, others wouldn't be able to trace back their original identity! Little Sprout finished its play session and settled onto the sofa's cushion to create passports, while Ziye meticulously inventoried her robots and handed them over to the Pervert for skin implantation.

With the Pervert involved, she had nothing to worry about. She made the items, handed them to the Pervert, and the Pervert would then give them to Black Beard for sales or mass production.

The previous skin suppliers for the Budding Group were not only lacking in originality but also not as exquisitely crafted as those made by the Pervert. This batch, the Pervert painstakingly detailed each one, bypassing low to mid-tier quality and aiming directly for the top tier.

Black Beard would see which ones could fetch a high price and even select a few designs for limited editions. After finishing the inventory, Ziye pulled out the design drafts drawn by Little Little and began developing a new batch of robots.

She was deeply absorbed when Red Hair knocked and entered. "Little Stinky, are you heading to school?" Ziye blinked, looking up.

Red Hair was standing at the doorway, dressed in a crisp shirt, pencil pants, and heels, topped with a black vest—the very image of a respectable woman. "Well, have you gone straight?" Ziye turned off her optical computer and stood up, teasingly remarking.

"To be a teacher, one naturally needs to appear more presentable. Hearing what you said, I guess I chose the right outfit." Red Hair winked playfully and struck a handsome pose.

"Come on, let's go to Kaga?" Ziye suddenly remembered. Red Hair had mentioned she was going to teach.

Was this true? If she became a teacher, she would undoubtedly lead students astray!

Ziye pointed at her, in disbelief. "You aren't serious, are you?" Red Hair placed a hand on her shoulder and laughed, utterly amused.

"I completed the procedures before I even left Silver Crest. As a teacher, I have to report to the Education Center for meetings three days before the students." She added, "My identity is your older sister, named Zi Hong, and I will be teaching Combat at Kaga's foundational education courses." Ziye was rendered speechless.

She automatically pictured Red Hair teaching combat classes in miniskirts, then imagined that the students who enjoyed the class would primarily be the male students, especially those from the military academies. The future...

would likely be tumultuous. Red Hair bumped Ziye with her ample chest.

"Ah Stinky, don't look so sour." Ziye sighed and resignedly began packing her things. The messy drafts, the unfinished robots, and the order slips Black Beard had thrown over—she packed everything.

Upon seeing the new semester's course schedule sent by Bran, she suddenly realized it had been a long time since she had visited the Research Institute, so she initiated a high-frequency call. As soon as the connection was made, Bran’s relieved voice came through, "Ziye, we missed you so much.

Where have you been running off to?" (⊙o⊙)? Ziye was momentarily bewildered.

Since when did Bran miss her this much? She said somewhat sheepishly, "I went back to my hometown for a bit and just arrived at Cole.

How have you all been doing?" Bran's high-frequency call connected directly to the virtual light screen on the wall, so when Ziye displayed this expression, not only did Bran see it, but Tang Wen saw it with perfect clarity too. To Ziye's question, Bran looked at Tang Wen with a slight hesitation.

How should he answer? If he said he had been utterly frustrated by Tang Wen these past few days, would Tang Wen silence him on the spot?

Tang Wen remained silent. His gaze, when it landed on Bran, conveyed only one message.

Bran sighed silently, but his tone remained cheerful as he replied, "Much the same as before. When are you coming?" Ziye thought for a moment.

"I plan to return to school tonight. After the semester starts, I'll visit the Research Institute according to the schedule." Bran shot another sideways glance at Tang Wen.

Tang Wen ignored him, gripping the sofa cushion. Bran noted the tension in his grip and guessed his mood wasn't great.

It was known that Tang Wen had been demanding lately, almost wearing out Bran's old bones. However, regarding Ziye's plans, Tang Wen decided not to interfere for the moment.

"Okay, I've sent you the schedule. This semester's coursework is heavier, so prepare yourself in advance." Just 'heavier'?

She had looked at the schedule; it was practically double the amount of work from the last semester! -RS