For nine years, his entire being had been focused solely on mecha, so much so that he hadn't noticed falling into Ziye's trap. He exclaimed indignantly, "If I were the director, I certainly wouldn't hire only this few people; there should be at least ten fully capable teams to ensure a new product launch every quarter."

Ziye nodded in agreement, "That's the right way to think about it. Leave this matter to you."

Jiu Nian grumbled, "I came here to design, not to manage."

Ziye chuckled slyly, "Managing is just a better way to design..." Before she could finish, the little sprout lifted its tiny shoot and chimed in, "Strive onward, young man!"

Back in the office, Ziye mentioned Jiu Nian's idea to Black Beard, who immediately notified the HR Director to schedule a talk with Jiu Nian. Seeing that things were set, Ziye let out a long breath. "Sprout, you'll be my actuary from now on, alright?"

The little sprout scoffed, "I've been calculating your data all along, you know."

Ziye grinned sheepishly, "Yes, my esteemed actuary."

The little sprout puffed up its chest proudly, "Since you're so sincere, I'll gift you a system." As it spoke, a program light flickered in its eyes.

Ziye acted indifferent, but her eyes secretly darted to the light screen. The moment the system notification arrived, she opened it instantly.

It was the cost accounting system Jiu Nian had shown her. She quickly browsed through it and felt it was even more meticulous than Jiu Nian's version.

The little sprout boasted, "Pretty good, huh! From now on, if you spend even one extra dime, the system will sound an alarm."

Ziye: ...Will a designer who only focuses on cost have any prospects?

The little sprout seemed to read her mind, flapping its wings, circling around, and then plopped down squarely on her head, "There are filter conditions. If you don't want something, just remove the condition."

Ziye reached up and caught it. "Come on, let's test out our new machine!"

Her new machine was still saved on her optical brain—her only creation for the quarter. The inspiration struck her while discussing the sword-type design with Li Chunyu, and it was still unnamed.

She agonized, "Let's name the mecha, shall we?"

The little sprout hopped up excitedly, "Douban!"

Ziye sweat-dropped. "Are you planning to integrate the mecha into your family line?"

The little sprout shook the small shoot on its head. "True. Then I won't name it; you do it."

Ziye was also terrible at naming things, so she casually said, "Let's call it 'Little Dessert.' We can start a whole Dessert family later."

The little sprout looked disdainful.

Ziye grabbed it, "What's with that look? Get back to work!"

With the accounting system in place, she directly inputted the parameters, obtaining the mass, volume, and dimensions, which calculated the required metal. The little sprout instantly integrated the metal analysis system into the accounting system, scientifically calculating the direct cost after converting various pure metals into alloys.

It automatically compared itself against the standard values—

Ding! The system issued a warning: "Cost is too high!"

Ziye shrugged and began learning the slimming technique Jiu Nian used at noon. She shaved off everything possible while reinforcing the main components.

This kind of mecha had slightly lower overall capability but extremely strong specialized abilities—exactly the trending model on the market right now.

At noon, she had only found Jiu Nian's explanation curious, but now that she was doing it herself, she realized it was far beyond mere curiosity.

She felt like an artist meticulously sculpting her creation, not for the sake of cost, but for a better form, a more beautiful shaping.

The tool moved according to feeling, and then the shape became lovelier, the lines smoother; it was utterly exquisite.

Thump, the system sounded like a clock striking, "Cost requirements met."

Ziye, who had been lost in thought, suddenly snapped back to reality. Looking at the majestic mecha standing on the optical brain, she was immensely satisfied. Her mecha technology had finally advanced a level.

She uploaded the drawing to the design department's shared drive, leaving a note for the Design Director to review, then grabbed the little sprout and headed to the Ouguang Galaxy, the perverted Roses Garden.

She had intended to work on the Dreadnought, but she spent an extra day on the mecha. Better to go bother the pervert for some roses to refresh her spirit first.

It was already nine PM when she arrived at the Ouguang Galaxy. The pervert had just finished dissecting some small animal and was currently leading a G-class little girl in a square dance.

Good grief, the pervert was living younger and younger; he used to only act as the dance commander, but now he was also the team leader. Seeing her arrive, he gave her an "It's up to you" look and merrily returned to his dancing.

Ziye couldn't even be bothered to complain about him. Acting as if she were coming home, she headed toward the flower conservatory, ignoring everything else, planning to eat a few jars of rose jelly first.

However, the moment the door opened, a swarm of Kenken Stars rushed out like mice in a great escape. Ziye paused, then stared, dumbfounded, as they all climbed onto her.

Looking closer, weren't these Chen Yin's little pets, Douding? Why were there N multiples of them? What was going on?

The name Kenken Star was truly apt; they were a bunch of foodies who would aggressively gnaw at anything they encountered. Once they got onto Ziye, they tore, pulled, bit, and struck out in every way imaginable. No matter how she shook them off, she couldn't get rid of them. Panicked, she rushed into the pervert's dance circle, "Pervert, help me!!!"

The pervert kept his dance steps going, sighing helplessly, "I can't do anything about it, I starved them too long for an experiment."

Ziye was on the verge of tears.

It was the little sprout who proved reliable at this moment. It shot out several micro-currents with a swoosh-swoosh-swoosh, precisely hitting the Kenken Stars' claws. Unable to grip, they fell like raindrops.

For a moment, all that could be heard was the constant pff-pff of them hitting the ground.

Ziye finally escaped the demonic clutches of the Kenken Stars, but her clothes were shredded beyond recognition, covered in paw prints of various styles. She wore a mournful expression. "Pervert, you're bullying me."

The pervert finally finished a dance and stopped to catch his breath. "It wasn't me bullying you; you just went to the wrong door."

Ziye had planned to stay overnight in the flower room, but feeling utterly depressed, she decisively grabbed a few jars of jelly and rose jam and left, vowing before departing, "I'm never coming back again, sob."

But if she couldn't go to the Mengya Group headquarters or the pervert's rose garden, where else could she go?

Keli's Sprout Villa?

Ever since the incident last time, Keli's Sprout Villa had become a target. Everyone had moved their entire households to the Shuiyun Galaxy, and the villa had been empty since, though the basic facilities remained.

Ziye thought for a moment, stole the pervert's shuttle, and flew back to the Sprout Villa.

The hype surrounding the Mengya Group had died down over the past year, and the area had long since returned to tranquility.

Ziye openly returned to the Sprout Villa, opened a jar of jelly, took a picture making a very silly face, sent it to An Junlie, then took a shower and started researching the Dreadnought's jump drive, followed by how to utilize Douzai's droppings.

Douzai's droppings were so rare that very few people used that metal; Ziye couldn't figure out how to utilize it yet.

She simply set the metal aside and focused only on the jump engine.

A Dreadnought engine was more than ten times more complex than a standard battleship engine, let alone a mecha.

Ziye's mecha skills were just starting to hit their stride; the Dreadnought was like a cake that was only visible but unreachable—impossible to swallow, yet she couldn't give up.

She knew her own skill level, but there was no one else in the legion who could handle it; she had no choice but to bite the bullet and proceed.

Sometimes, she thought about finding a few like-minded people to research with, just as Jiu Nian suggested.

But she didn't know where to look.

In the end, she backed down: first master the knowledge about Dreadnoughts, find companions later.

She finished her work close to midnight and wanted to climb into bed, but the thought of the Dreadnought's engine structure kept her mind active, and she couldn't sleep at all.

She tossed and turned in bed, finally getting up when An Junlie’s ultra-comm buzzed: "Still awake?"

Ziye finally found someone to pour out her heart to, her eyes glowing green. "Alien, you're not asleep yet? Does your legion have Dreadnoughts? Do you have Dreadnought designers? Can you introduce me to one?"

An Junlie was bombarded by her barrage but replied calmly, "That's not a problem. If you want a Dreadnought, I can just send you one. As for you, you should be sleeping."

Ziye scoffed internally, Trying to buy me off with a Dreadnought?

A Dreadnought was worth maybe over three billion...

She puffed out her cheeks. "If you want me to sleep, why are you disturbing me with an ultra-comm?"

An Junlie chuckled, "I saw the jelly jar and remembered I haven't made jelly in a long time. Is the jelly from the Rose Garden's assembly line any good?"

Ziye nodded, then immediately shook her head, "Not as good as yours."

An Junlie felt a flicker of comfort. "Be good and go to sleep. I'll make some for you once I'm done with these last two days."

Ziye jumped up happily, "Really?"

An Junlie nodded, reassuring her like a child, "Really."

Ziye leaped out of bed. "But, I don't need you to send a Dreadnought. When I have the ability, I'll build one myself."

An Junlie laughed, "Good. When you build one, I'll buy it."

Ziye suppressed a smile, putting on a stern face. "That's more like it."

With that, she bid him good night and drifted off to sleep sweetly.

To give away a Dreadnought just like that—Alien, can you be any more generous?!

However, her relationship with An Junlie hadn't reached that point. Even if An Junlie dared to give it, she wouldn't dare accept. In this day and age, mastering the technology and building it yourself was the most reliable thing.

Although Dreadnoughts were expensive, their jump engines cost only tens of millions, and the blueprints were a few million. She had earned a substantial salary from the Mengya Group this quarter, so buying an engine and a blueprint was feasible, but after that purchase, she'd have to endure a period of eating radishes and greens.

Money just didn't stretch as far these days.

Earning so much money over a hard year-plus was only enough to buy one Dreadnought engine—how tragic.

Ziye silently pondered who she would borrow from if she ran out of money.

It seemed everyone at Wolf's Den was broke recently.

Or maybe, she could borrow from the Alien?

She heard his income as CEO was considerable; the interest rate should be lower than a bank loan...

-RS