Stas rubbed his chin, grinning slyly. "Don't you find it strange why I'd abduct you all the way here?"

Thinking of it, Ziye also felt puzzled. No matter how idle Stas was, he couldn't possibly haul her across light-years to the Galun Space Station just for a tour of the United Command headquarters.

But Stas wasn't saying, so she wouldn't ask. If he intended to speak, he naturally would.

Now that he finally opened up, she immediately grew interested, looking forward to it. "What is your objective?" Stas suddenly pulled her into an embrace, his tone laced with both anger and sorrow. "Do you know how hard it was for me to make the decision to kidnap you? Do you know how much pain it caused me? Do you know..."

Ziye was momentarily stunned, pulling away from his hold, confused. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

Stas seemed taken aback that Ziye pushed him away, his expression resembling a man abandoned by a girlfriend of seven years. "Surely, you don't trust me?"

Ziye couldn't stand a grown man putting on such an act and snapped, "Enough!"

Stas's attempt at playing the victim failed, and his face grew even more distressed. "Little miss, you don't know. Coffin Face took some kind of medication—he was absolutely insistent that I beat you up soundly! Do you know that? When I heard that, I was nearly floored. I couldn't fathom why he’d tell me to hit you!"

Ziye froze.

"Tang Wen is that petty?"

Tang Wen wanted Stas to beat her? Tang Wen wanted to hit her because he was angry? Holy stars, was this some interstellar joke?!

Seeing Ziye's complexion dim slightly, Stas cheered inwardly. So, a random fabrication could actually hit a nerve—this was fun! He immediately seized the opportunity, declaring righteously, "Of course, a gentleman like myself would never strike a defenseless girl. But if I refused to obey him, he threatened to tell everyone about the time I peed in the fish tank when I was little. I was truly helpless; that's why I brought you here. You have to believe me. Everything I said is true."

Ziye's expression recovered from its gloom, and she squinted at him, viewing him as if he were the detestable Tang Wen.

Stas grew anxious. "Girl, do you trust me or Coffin Face?"

The tension on Ziye's face suddenly broke, and she let out a burst of laughter that she couldn't contain. It grew louder and louder until she almost tumbled off her seat—if there had been space, she might have rolled a few times.

Stas looked utterly bewildered. "What are you laughing at?"

Ziye laughed for a long time, clutching her aching stomach. "I really didn't mean to. But I think you have a real talent for writing tragic melodramas. Brother, you've worked hard."

Stas couldn't help feeling a bit deflated. So, Ziye had been teasing him all along!

Ziye patted his shoulder. "Practice more. You still have room for improvement."

Actually, hearing that Tang Wen was angry with her did make her feel a little sad. For Tang Wen to give her a hard time over something so trivial was utterly incomprehensible! However, upon deeper thought, she felt it was impossible. Tang Wen might lack emotional intelligence, but he wouldn't do something like that. Based on her understanding of him, the worst he would do was simply ignore her from then on. Therefore, this must have been something Stas fabricated entirely on his own.

Seeing that she genuinely didn't believe him, Stas stopped acting. He shrugged, reverting to his smiling-tiger demeanor. But he wouldn't reveal the real truth to her either.

In fact, part of what he had just said was true. Tang Wen had indeed asked him for a favor. But it wasn't to abduct her; it was to ask him to look out for Ziye.

The catalyst was Bai Lanxue setting her sights on Ziye. Anyone targeted by Bai Lanxue either served the Interstellar Federation or met a miserable end. Tang Wen had been entangled with the Federation for some time due to certain affairs and couldn't break free; he didn't want Ziye to follow in his footsteps. Now that Bai Lanxue was involved, it was inconvenient for him to act directly, leaving him no choice but to ask Stas for help.

Stas recalled Tang Wen's exact words: "Ziye deserves a better life. I don't want her stepping into this murky place called the Interstellar Federation." At the time, Stas had been genuinely moved! To make the act convincing enough to fool Bai Lanxue, he had pushed the severity a bit further. As for scaring Ziye a little—he would never admit to that.

When Ziye mentioned the boy she liked earlier, he felt Tang Wen had essentially raised an ungrateful whelp. He sighed internally: Coffin Face, oh Coffin Face, you gave so much for her, yet she falls for another man...

Stas never let his inner thoughts show. These private musings quickly died within him as he casually steered toward other topics. "Let's drop the jokes. Let's talk business."

Ziye scoffed. "You even have 'business' in your vocabulary? Rare, truly rare."

Stas frowned slightly, feeling a touch of irritation. Why couldn't this girl just speak normally? What did Coffin Face even see in her? If Tang Wen were here, he'd demand to crack open his skull to see what kind of person he was attracted to!

However, Stas was an old fox and didn't let his true feelings show much, though his tone became noticeably cooler. "A shipment of robot business, interested or not?"

The moment 'robot' was mentioned, Ziye's eyes lit up. "You want to buy robots?"

Stas didn't even bother trying to hide his disdain anymore. "The K Beauty robot you gave me last time—what's the wholesale price?"

Ziye pondered for a moment. "K Beauty is a high-end custom model. If we mass-produce it, the performance will drop by at least 10%. The wholesale price is 250,000. For you, a friend's price, 180,000."

Stas stared at Ziye without expression. Ziye rarely saw him look like that and couldn't quite gauge his reaction, so she quickly added, "Our robots have always targeted the high-end market; the selling price has never dropped below 200,000. K Beauty is the best robot we have ever built, bar none. This price is quite reasonable."

Stas looked up towards the dome ceiling of the space station. "Can we be realistic?"

Ziye looked confused. "How am I being unrealistic?"

Stas smiled, holding up two fingers with one hand, gripping his wrist with the other. "Take off another 20,000."

Ziye shook her head. "No can do."

Seeing her firm stance, Stas guessed she couldn't reduce the price further, and since he was familiar with robot pricing, he didn't push. "170,000, final offer. I want sixteen thousand units."

Ziye blinked. "Sixteen thousand units?"

Stas nodded. "And Coffin Face’s W0889 model—four thousand units of those."

Ziye stared at him dumbfounded. This was a massive order! If she had known he wanted over ten thousand, she wouldn't have hesitated at 170,000, or even 160,000! Ziye felt the sound of cascading numbers and zeros flash before her eyes, and she beamed, "Deal."

Stas mulled it over for a moment. "They can't be as beautiful as K Beauty. Adjust the appearance down by 15%. The W0889 models too."

That was easy; Ziye made a note of it.

Stas grinned. "If the looks are dialed down, can the price drop a bit more?"

Ziye patted his arm. "Brother, don't push your luck. If you want to adjust the appearance, it'll cost us extra effort. It's a favor we aren't raising the price!" She suddenly remembered something, activated her sub-comm screen, navigated to the Wolf Den's shared files, and pulled up the list of robot exteriors made by the psycho designer. A dazzling array of beauties immediately vied for attention. "Or do you want to pick from here?"

Stas stared at the beautiful images, his eyes wide. Cute little lolis, seductive yujie types, pure girl-next-door types, dignified and noble queens... all sorts, every kind imaginable, and without exception, all were stunning women.

Stas instantly located the mastermind designer and offered a firm handshake. A kindred spirit! A man in his lifetime truly desires only two things: One, to defeat all other men and become king; and two, to defeat all other men and possess all the beauties in the galaxy! Currently, as a general in the United Command, he had already bested the vast majority of men in the stars, so his current goal was the second—to have beautiful women! If all these robots could be manufactured and placed at his service, life would be complete!

"...I want them all." Stas looked at Ziye with a hungry gaze. "Can we do high-end customization? One of each type?"

Ziye extended her hand generously. "No problem. High-end customization is 500,000 each, with a two-month advance booking required."

Stas reluctantly pulled his gaze away, forcing a dry laugh. "Actually, I can't bear to let those brats have such beautiful robots to ruin."

Ziye was surprised. "You’re buying so many just to give them away?"

Stas gently shook his finger. "Nope. Twenty thousand robots—one for every member of the United Command personnel. That's basic welfare."

Ziye looked on with envy, jealousy, and hatred. "The United Command is amazing! The benefits are too good!"

Stas immediately started flirting. "Want to join us? Our United Command has four thousand beauties!"

Ziye turned her face away. "Not going." She sighed. "No wonder you ordered four thousand W-series handsome men. But is it really okay to give male companions to the female soldiers?" In her impression, military personnel were extremely strict in their conduct; having robots with such suggestive charm running around, was that really permitted?

Stas smiled slyly. "Think about it. If I gave the female soldiers female robots, what would they think of me? That's not even the main point. When female soldiers are placed next to female robots, don't you think they'd get mixed up easily?" Ziye scratched her head; it did seem to make a kind of sense.

Regardless, that wasn't the key issue; the key was that she could sell her robots.

Stas deliberated for a long time, painfully deciding to forgo the most seductive K Beauty and the cutest, softest G-series loli. He settled on the H-series girl-next-door model, which had the worst sales performance since the company's inception. In truth, the H-series wasn't unattractive, but unfortunately, all the other robots were simply more beautiful.

Stas tried to haggle. "Considering I'm ordering twenty thousand robots, how about you throw in two high-end custom ones for me? One G-series and one K-series?"

Ziye was displeased. "Two units cost a million, brother! Are you going to ask for anything more outrageous?"

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