The afternoon tea was simple: coffee paired with Star Cakes. Ziye didn't particularly care for coffee, so the robot had thoughtfully prepared her an extra-rich cup of milk, much to her quiet exasperation. Fortunately, enjoying Star Cakes remained her enduring pleasure. She finished them happily, clutching Little Sprout, and bid farewell to her "colleagues."

What soured the mood was the chime of the comms system.

Recently, she had developed a distinct phobia of incoming calls. She shuddered slightly before answering. It was the front desk: "We have an interviewee named Jiunian here. Do you have time to see them now?"

Ziye sighed dramatically. "Oh, the misery. I haven't even had a chance to rest yet."

Blackbeard laughed heartily. "Go on, go on! It's rare to get someone applying to the Design Department. Isn't this what you wanted?"

Ziye popped a piece of Star Cake into her mouth. "I wanted someone to apply, but I didn't expect it to be this fast. Wait—what did the front desk say the interviewee's name was?"

Blackbeard replied, "Jiunian? Yes, Jiunian."

Ziye was stunned. She dropped her teacup and rushed out, her footsteps clattering. "Jiunian is here for an interview? This is a huge honor!"

Who was Jiunian? Most people might not know. But Ziye was perfectly clear, and for good reason: they were peers!

Jiunian was one of the lead designers at Cocoa Group, known as an eccentric talent. His designs were unconventional; the tiger-shaped stealth bomber they used to pick up Silver Crest back from the Red-Haired One was his creation.

He was applying for a job?

Was this some kind of sabotage attempt?

When Ziye reached the conference room, she coincidentally met the receptionist leading the candidate down the hall.

Their eyes met. Ziye froze for half a second. "Your appearance utterly betrays my imagination!"

In her mind, a quirky designer capable of creating plump, beast-shaped mechs with ears that actually moved shouldn't look so utterly normal. Why did the designer standing before her have two hands, two feet, one mouth, and two eyes—all perfectly standard? Although, he did seem mixed-race, with various traits blended in a way that surprisingly created an unexpected harmony.

How many bloodlines had he mixed? The second striking feature was his outfit, straddling the line between high fashion and 'sharp dresser'—it gave absolutely no hint that he was a designer.

"Ziye, it’s wonderful to finally meet you!" As soon as Jiunian saw her, he bypassed the receptionist and walked toward Ziye, his tone earnest. "The moment I heard you were hiring, I rushed over."

Ziye blinked rapidly. "Rushed over in what?"

Jiunian said sincerely, "To interview, naturally."

Ziye didn't believe his nonsense for a second. "Aren't you a designer at Cocoa Group? Are you defecting?"

Jiunian nodded. "You got that right. I am defecting."

Ziye was perplexed. "Why?"

Jiunian was about to answer when the receptionist smiled politely from the doorway of the small conference room. "Please, come in and take a seat."

Ziye instantly felt mortified. She had actually stopped the interviewee in the doorway to chat—what a public embarrassment. Once inside the meeting room, Ziye suddenly noticed that Jiunian’s posture was even more exaggeratedly relaxed than hers.

After sitting down, he promptly flopped his torso onto the table. Ziye asked, "Are you not feeling well?"

Jiunian lifted his eyes. "Isn't sitting up straight exhausting?"

Ziye: ...

Better stick to the topic of job hopping.

Jiunian skipped the pleasantries. He activated his comms screen, found three sets of hand-drawn drafts, and sent them to her. "These are my concept pieces. You can see if I meet your requirements."

One file contained over a hundred drawings, detailing everything from the hull exterior of a battleship down to the control interface in the captain’s quarters. His work favored an utterly adorable aesthetic, with soft lines. One design, the Cobra, actually featured a pair of spectacles perched on its head!

Ziye felt a strange mix of amusement and profound shame. Jiunian was indeed Jiunian; a top-tier designer was not easily surpassed by ordinary people. She suddenly realized that if Jiunian actually joined Sprout, her position as Director might be in jeopardy!

Seeing her silence, Jiunian opened another file and sent it over. When Ziye opened it, she saw his resignation application from Cocoa Group. Cocoa Group had already approved his departure, promising a full handover within a month.

Meaning, he was truly resigning!

Jiunian smiled faintly. "What else do you want to ask?"

Ziye was speechless for a long moment before asking, "Why did you decide to come to Sprout?"

Jiunian paused, and his eyes seemed to sparkle with countless tiny stars, shining brightly. "Ziye, I have admired you for a long time!"

Ziye: (⊙o⊙) Ah!

Someone admired her? Such a low-profile person? Time for a moment of self-admiration.

Jiunian continued, "I really admire Sprout Group's operational style. You react swiftly to competition and challenges, and you handle things well. I like that a lot. Of course, the most critical reason is you. If nothing unexpected happens, in ten years you will definitely rise to be a designer like Mr. Tang Wen, or even surpass him. I want to come here, watch you, and see if I can surpass you! Will you give me a chance?"

Ziye: ...

Part of that was true, part was exaggeration, but it was delivered with enough sincerity that she couldn't tell which part was genuine praise and which was flattery. Still, having him join wouldn't be a bad thing, so she agreed: "Fine. You can start work once the handover is complete."

Jiunian leaped up and hugged her. "Thank you so much, Ziye!"

Ziye instinctively stepped back a few paces. She suddenly felt she had made a terrible mistake.

After Jiunian left, she carefully analyzed his words. Something had felt off, and now she finally understood: he said she would become a designer like Tang Wen, but she was explicitly studying Mecha Repair!

She couldn't help recalling the holiday assignment Tang Wen had given her: hand-drawing ten battleships in one month. He didn't require her to design them herself, but she had to use her hands. In this era of galactic travel, very few people actually used hand-drawing; they relied on software and digital interfaces. But Tang Wen insisted that truly high-end designers must understand hand-drawing to sketch out their vision with the greatest speed.

As someone who was practically drawing-challenged, she hadn't dared to touch that assignment yet.

She looked at the hand-drawn drafts Jiunian had submitted, then at the samples Tang Wen had shown her, and concluded one simple truth: Top-tier designers all used hand-drawing.

She opened Jiunian's portfolio, took a deep breath, activated her drawing tablet, and began her holiday homework.

The hand-drawn ships looked exquisite when viewed, but the pain of drawing them herself was immediate. On the first attempt, Ziye hadn't placed her starting point correctly, and the lines looked like something a dog had gnawed on. Halfway through, the shape was unrecognizable. Angrily, she closed the drawing interface without saving.

Little Sprout sat above her virtual screen, watching her drawing efforts, and burst into laughter. "Little fool, little fool. How come you haven't learned even a shred of what that big jerk Tang learned?"

Ziye was overcome with bitter frustration.

After taking stock of her misery, she prepared to attempt the second drawing, but the next interviewee arrived.

Reluctantly, she tucked everything away, resolving to fight another day.

Three days passed in a blur of interviews. In the evening, she packed up and flew via shuttle toward the Water Cloud Galaxy.

The Wolf's Den was scheduled to officially launch the next morning!

Ziye's greatest joy was that while the launch involved countless tasks, she barely had to do anything. There were two reasons for this: in everyone’s eyes, she was still a child, especially with the dark circles under her eyes from the stress of the last few days. Those heavy chores should be left to the adults. Secondly, her position in the Wolf's Den was purely nominal; everyone knew she was busy with Sprout matters, so they handled all the work except signing documents.

She signed a few papers in the conference room and then headed out exploring with Iron Hand.

The rear of the Water Cloud Galaxy marked the edge of the known star charts.

Before the Wolf's Den was stationed here, no one had ever explored what lay beyond; it wasn't yet charted. In other words, as soon as the Wolf's Den developed that space and established a Star Gate, that territory would officially belong to them. Ziye had chosen this galaxy precisely because of its infinite potential for expansion!

Sitting in the mining vessel, she felt incredibly excited looking ahead. This was her chosen system, and she had chosen correctly!! Visibility ahead was exceptionally high, with very few nebulae, indicating it wasn't an edge system—meaning it held vast potential for expansion.

In the star-strewn night, logistics and transport ships zipped past each other.

"Is this preparation to build a space station?"

Ziye had checked: constructing a space station required forty million cubic units of transported material. Rushing the launch now, amid interference from certain factions, didn't seem like the best timing for a station.

Iron Hand shook his head. "No, we're preparing to build Star Gates."

Ziye was surprised. "Aren't non-sovereign legions prohibited from building Star Gates?" Before the Queen-type event, Red-Haired and Old Dog had already started preparing materials to petition the Integration Council for Wolf's Den Legion status, but approval remained pending. Red-Haired had mentioned the matter was quite thorny.

A legion required recognition from over two-thirds of the sovereign legions across the galaxy to gain sovereignty. The Wolf's Den currently lacked those votes.

A Star Gate was a declaration of sovereignty. If the Wolf's Den built one without sovereignty, they couldn't claim compensation or appeal if the gate was dismantled or destroyed.

Iron Hand explained, "I don't know the specifics either. Brother Dog instructed me not to attend the launch ceremony but to stay here and take orders. As soon as the ceremony begins, we must immediately deploy all the Star Gates. I have ten prepared here, and all the mining company personnel are also stationed here. No rest tonight."

Ziye immediately understood. Old Dog indeed had a clever plan.

If they couldn't build Star Gates without sovereignty, establishing them immediately after the launch ceremony—which symbolically granted them initial sovereignty—followed by Old Dog applying to the Integration Council for a vote to secure actual sovereignty.

If actual sovereignty wasn't secured, any other legion wanting to bombard the Wolf's Den Star Gates would have to pass through the Hope Legion or the Angelic Domain. Since the Wolf's Den had stationed personnel on those two legions' territories, if an attacker tried to force a route, they would be intercepted mid-way, guaranteeing the safety of the gates.

This approach was extremely risky, but if the Wolf's Den didn't launch and remained perpetually stateless, being crushed by other powers would be an even greater tragedy.

Ziye said, "Show me the locations for the ten Star Gates."

Iron Hand opened the Wolf's Den internal star chart for her view.

Ten Star Gates, each separated by 5 AU, meant the Wolf's Den autonomously controlled all systems within a 50 AU radius!

The Wolf's Den finally had its own territory!