Butler W glanced at Dou Zai, removed his white gloves, swapped them for medical ones, and expertly forced Dou Zai's jaws apart, casually shoving a metal chew toy from the coffee table into the creature's mouth.

Dou Zai instantly quieted down.

Butler W inspected Halley's wound. "Please come over here; I'll give you an injection and apply the dressing."

Halley waved it off. "It's fine, I can just put some ointment on it myself."

Butler W's smile was impeccable, offering no room for critique: "You must let me treat the wound. Dou Zai's saliva contains over five corrosive agents and residues of more than thirty different metals. If not dealt with promptly, it will have adverse effects on your body."

Halley scoffed. "Is it really that dramatic?" But as the words left his mouth, the bite area erupted in unbearable itching, burning like fire, the skin around the wound already turning scorched black.

He looked back at Butler W, suddenly finding the smile utterly grating.

So irritating!

Butler W treated the injury with professional precision—injection, medication, and bandaging. Once finished, he replaced the medical gloves with his standard white butler gloves, activated the robot's dedicated light screen, presented it to Halley, and stated solemnly, "Welcome. You must adhere to the rules for approaching Pet One, Dou Zai, or face the consequences."

Halley stared at the dizzying, sprawling list of rules and was momentarily dumbfounded.

Some were similar to those for ordinary pets, so he breezed through them, but what in the universe was a "metal chew toy"?

Butler W pointed to the ten or so specialized metal chew toys arranged on the coffee table. "These are Dou Zai’s exclusive necessities."

Halley: "..."

He was reading when something lightly bumped the top of his head—no pain, no malice.

He looked up to see a winged sphere hovering overhead. The sphere grinned mischievously, "Hi there, little Halley, did my son bite you?"

Halley: "..." Did he just somehow wander into an alien world?

Butler W tapped the screen. He smiled softly. "Welcome. These are the rules for approaching Pet Two, Little Sprout..."

Little Sprout bristled in the air. "I was clearly the first one here! Why am I Pet Two? Shouldn't I be Pet One?"

Butler W explained calmly, "Two is greater than one, thus you are Two."

Little Sprout pondered this. "Fine, I'll forgive you for now. But now that he is here, I’m no longer Two, I'm Three. List the rules for Pet Two, Halley, for him."

Halley finally understood: arguing with non-humans was a losing battle.

Their intellect was an inherent flaw, and for the first time, he felt quite satisfied with his own human species.

Ziye emerged from the shower. Since they were going out shortly, she was fully dressed, though her hair was still damp. Seeing the two pets, the butler, and the assistant standing in the living room, she couldn't help but ask, "Halley, are your domestic affairs so unmanageable that you need to borrow Butler W?"

Halley nearly snapped. "Do I look like someone who can't handle his own chores?"

Ziye remained placid. "It's alright. I won't mock you." She turned to Butler W. "Lend him F431."

Butler W entered a room and soon returned with another robot, F431.

Ziye instructed, "F431 has been with me for many years. I’m lending him to you; treat him well."

Halley genuinely had no idea how to communicate with them further, so he simply led F431 back with him.

Ziye settled onto the sofa, drying her hair. "When we have time, let's get Halley a couple of robots. Consider it a welcome gift."

Butler W acknowledged this, logging it onto his schedule.

He paused, then began drafting the Assistant Protocols.

Halley's good days were officially over, hehe.

Little Sprout cackled from mid-air, "That assistant is so weak, and so dull, hahahaha! Tang Dahundun is still the cutest!"

Just as Ziye was about to retort, Butler W interjected, "Tang Dahundun and Madam Tang Wan have arrived at the Xilian Space Station."

Ziye thought for a moment, pinged Tang Wan's com-link, and smiled sweetly, "Hey, you guys reached the Xilian Galaxy? Want to hang out this afternoon?"

Tang Wan had been quite unhappy since leaving the Xilian Space Station; she felt Ziye was too distant and had abandoned her.

Now that Ziye had messaged her, the recent unpleasantness vanished like smoke. She beamed, "Wonderful! We’re coming to find you now."

Ziye calculated the time—it would take Tang Wan ten to twenty minutes to arrive. She instructed Butler W to prepare a meal and opened the report had sent her, beginning her work.

The report included detailed star charts of the Xilian Galaxy, site surveys for the space assembly workshop, station construction layouts, and funding budgets. Ziye flipped to the budget sheets and brought Little Sprout closer. "What do we do?"

Ziye counted on her fingers. "Red Hair is putting in five hundred billion. Sprout Group can invest a maximum of two hundred billion. I’ll contribute one hundred billion. Twisted Freak will contribute one hundred billion. And Iron Hand's Steel Group should also manage one hundred billion. That only totals one trillion—we're short by exactly half."

Little Sprout nodded the small sprout on its head. "Wolf's Den's small and medium enterprises should yield about two billion. The treasury expenditure can secure a maximum of two billion in allocation. Venture capital might bring in about ten billion. Bank loans... Wolf's Den has too many current loans; the major legions' banks are trying to collapse Wolf's Den's capital chain, so no loans are possible right now. Next month, the Unification Department holds a Legion Assembly, and there should be some subsidy for the Suffering Legions, estimated at fifty billion. Compensation from the Interstellar Federation is expected to be around twenty billion..."

The one person and one sprout tallied for a long time, arriving at one conclusion: a mere drop in the bucket.

Ziye wrestled with the dilemma for a while, then sent a com-link message to Black Beard. "I have several hundred Dreadnoughts sitting in the Angel Legion's space assembly workshop. Help me sell them."

Black Beard understood immediately upon hearing this. "Still not enough money?"

Ziye replied mournfully, "Not nearly enough."

Black Beard was also worried.

Since leaving Silver Crest Star, he had been working overtime to earn money. If Wolf's Den grew slowly, it wouldn't be an issue.

But Wolf's Den had expanded too rapidly, annexing a legion four times its size, instantly reducing all their assets to one-fifth.

He pondered for a while. "Sprout Group putting in two hundred billion is already the limit. It will be difficult to raise this much through normal corporate channels. If we don't borrow from other legions, we can only..."

Ziye urged him, "Only what?"

Black Beard stated, "The most lucrative trades between stars are: one, planet sales—we don't have many planets, so let's avoid touching those unless the situation is dire; two, the Asteroid Merchants Guild—renting out asteroids and coaxing the Guild Master into investing. Three, casinos."

Ziye's eyes welled up pitifully. "I don't know anything about those three things!"