Chapter 50: Everyone Fights For Favor, But I Don’tÂ
The scout shuttle ignited its thrusters, hurtling through orbit toward Aihua.
Aihua also realized who was inside—it was her sister!
She quickly shook the vile, mangled insect off her paws, but to her dismay, her hands were slick with dark green blood. She wiped them against the hull a few times, but they remained hopelessly stained. Even her sleek silver armor was covered in a heavy splatter of Zerg fluid.
This is going to get my sister all dirty…
Feeling a bit helpless, she tried to scrape the blood off her chest plates with her massive claws, but it only seemed to smear further.
The moment the shuttle docked and the airlock hissed open, Su Wudeng, clad in an orbital pressure suit, came running straight toward her.
“Don’t—it’s dirty—”
Before Aihua could finish her telepathic warning, Su Wudeng had already thrown her arms around her. She hugged the giant panda fiercely, entirely ignoring the grime on her armor, clamping her arms around her neck as tightly as she could.
“Aihua! I missed you so much!”
When they were separated, Su Wudeng could bury herself in administrative tasks and terraforming projects to distract her mind. But the exact millisecond her eyes locked onto Aihua in the flesh, her composure shattered, and tears overflowed her mask.
“Did you sustain any injuries out there?”
“Are you eating properly on the front lines?”
“Have they been letting you rest?”
“You must be exhausted, right? Fighting the Zerg vanguard is never easy!”
Su Wudeng fired off her questions like a rapid-fire cannon until she noticed Aihua simply staring back at her with a massive, goofy grin. Only then did she remember the thick, soundproof visor of her pressure suit meant the panda couldn’t physically hear her voice.
But a telepathic bond didn’t require sound waves. Aihua could read every single word through her sister’s frantic, loving expressions. Her sister was clearly suffocating her with worry, her features knotted with absolute affection.
Aihua had hesitated to reciprocate the embrace out of fear of staining her clothes, but she abandoned her caution, extending her massive claws to wrap Su Wudeng into her chest.
Her sister would never care about a little dirt; her love was absolute.
Aihua tapped her sister’s back with extreme, delicate care, terrified that her war-forged strength might crack the suit’s life support. She projected a gentle reassurance through the link: I’m perfectly fine, Sister. Completely unharmed.
She extended another massive paw, intending to carefully wipe the tears from Su Wudeng’s face. But as her arm moved, she remembered her combat gauntlets were outfitted with razor-sharp, molecular-edged alloy claws. She froze her paw mid-air, looking incredibly lost and clumsy.
Su Wudeng realized what was going through her pet’s mind and burst into a bright, tearful laugh. She tapped the transparent polymer of her visor, shaking her head.
Aihua was a force of absolute, lethal precision when she was tearing through a Zerg vanguard, yet the second she faced her sister, she became a giant, bumbling softie.
Su Wudeng reached out, taking hold of Aihua’s massive paw. The panda immediately retracted her alloy claws as deeply as the mechanics allowed, though the tips still peeked out slightly.
Su Wudeng leaned her head against the armored paw, her eyes sparkling through her visor. “Sister understands, Aihua. You would never hurt me.”
Aihua processed the immense trust flowing through the link, nodding her round head over and over again. Her chest swelled with pure emotion—she just wanted to cuddle her sister forever!
But just as she opened her arms to pull Su Wudeng back in—
“Ying-ying!”
Yingying had already slipped away from her sector, bounding across the zero-gravity field with an excited flick of her long tail. She launched her massive, fluffy body directly into the group.
Aihua! You’re finally home!
“Woof! Woof!”
Amber came charging in right behind her, his propulsion nodes flaring as his tail wagged at a dizzying velocity. Aihua!
It’s been entirely too long!
Neither of them had anticipated they would cross paths with the legendary panda out in the orbital trenches. It was an extraordinary reunion.
Suddenly, a massive, heavily armored human battleship dropped out of warp, locking its positioning arrays directly before their shuttle. Amber and Yingying instantly snapped back into defensive formation, their bodies bracing to shield Su Wudeng from a potential threat.
Aihua, however, extended her massive paws, casually pulling the dog and leopard back down into a loose embrace.
Relax, guys. They’re on our side. Safe.
The dreadnought’s primary docking bay opened, extending a pressurized transit corridor toward their shuttle’s airlock. Aihua took the lead, gesturing over her shoulder for the rest of the pack to follow her inside.
Su Wudeng observed Aihua’s relaxed, trusting posture, and a realization struck her. “…Could it be General Chu’s flagship?”
“So Aihua didn’t just wander into our sector by chance; she’s been actively hunting down these Zerg splinter cells under General Chu’s command?”
Sure enough, the moment their boots touched the deck of the capital ship’s reception bay, a towering silhouette stepped into view. The man wore the pristine, tailored white uniform of an Ether Front Supreme Commander, a calm, charismatic smile gracing his features as he extended a hand.
“An absolute privilege to finally meet you in person, Governor Su.”
“I am Chu Tianhe, Supreme Commander of the Eastern Theater of the Ether Front.”
“The pleasure is entirely mine.”
The second Su Wudeng’s eyes locked onto the real General Chu, her brain suffered a brief processing delay. Based on the wild gossip and frantic rants she had read in her livestream chat from soldiers like Lei Jing, she had envisioned General Chu as a rugged, weather-beaten trench veteran—someone with leather-hard skin, a volatile personality, and eyes that projected pure, terrifying lethality.
But the commander standing before her completely shattered that stereotype. His complexion was flawless, his gaze was remarkably bright and intelligent, and he wore a gentle, refined smile. Even his voice was incredibly pleasant, carrying a deep, rich, magnetic baritone. He bore absolutely zero resemblance to the bloodthirsty madman his subordinates claimed would throw himself into danger just to get mauled by a bear!
She snapped out of her daze, quickly extending her hand to return the gesture. “Hello! General Chu!”
“Your reputation precedes you! It’s an honor!”
Chu Tianhe’s smile deepened, a playful glint in his eyes as he leaned in slightly. “Am I a bit of a departure from your psychological profile?”
“Don’t worry about it, that’s the standard reaction I get from core-world civilians.”
He glanced down at the Zerg fluid and dirt staining Su Wudeng’s gear and the pets’ fur, offering a highly practical solution. “Why don’t we get everyone processed through our decontamination suites first? I’ve already programmed our warp drives to transition us back to your planet. By the time you wrap up your cleanup cycle, we’ll be entering your atmosphere.”
“That is incredibly accommodating of you, General. Thank you,” Su Wudeng replied, feeling a bit self-conscious about her presentation.
Aihua couldn’t resist chiming in, letting out a loud, telepathic growl. Awooo~
Hey, Chu pervert, authorize an immediate high-tier catering order. My sister’s metabolic reserves must be entirely depleted.
Oh, and introduce yourself to my friends, Yingying and Amber.
Their calorie consumption metrics are massive, so double the portions!
Sister, Amber, Yingying—I, Aihua, am treating the entire squad to a legendary feast today!
The panda proudly puffed her chest out, patting her silver armor plates.
My current military merit balance is astronomical, and the flagship rations are top-shelf!
Chu Tianhe, having his private nickname broadcasted to a civilian governor, nearly choked on his breath. “…Aihua, please…”
He fired a frantic, pleading look at his familiar. Can you preserve a fraction of my professional dignity for once?!
His carefully cultivated aristocratic image before the governor was dissolving in real-time!
Aihua cast a deeply judgmental look back at him. You literally spend every off-duty hour hidden behind a camera array secretly watching me chew bamboo. If that doesn’t fit the clinical definition of a pervert, what does?
Chu Tianhe’s face turned an impressive shade of crimson. “…Alright, let’s terminate this discussion immediately.”
“You want a feast, correct? I’ll personally authorize the premium manifests for the squad right now!”
She’s just so incredibly cute, he justified to himself internally. What kind of monster wouldn’t want to watch a beautiful panda eat her lunch? Is that a crime?!
…No, it wasn’t!
Su Wudeng emerged from the guest quarters, having changed into a spare, high-tier Ether Front officer’s uniform.
The advanced fabric utilized a localized smart-weave technology, automatically contracting the dimensions to wrap her frame in a flawless, tailored fit. She looked at herself in the mirror, understanding completely why General Chu always appeared so tall and striking in his press photos; the uniform’s silhouette was designed to enhance a soldier’s proportions, making her legs look impossibly long. Shifting her shoulders, she felt remarkably heroic and commanding in the military whites!
Meanwhile, Aihua, Amber, and Yingying had been ushered into a state-of-the-art automated decontamination chamber engineered specifically for high-tier combat familiars. They didn’t have to lift a finger as the advanced machinery handled the entire grooming process from claw to tail.
Su Wudeng stood outside the viewing glass, her eyes wide with tech-envy. As an outer-rim civilian, she had never witnessed military-grade sanitization hardware of this caliber.
The fully automated, nano-level molecular cleansing matrix initialized, executing a thorough top-to-bottom scrub. Every square millimeter of their anatomy was precisely mapped by the scanners, ensuring even the microscopic debris hidden within their digital claw-wells was identified and vaporized.
Next, an intelligent nozzle array distributed a specialized, synthetic lipid-cleansing fluid, the molecular particles instantly bonding with and dissolving the stubborn Zerg fluids without stripping the fur’s natural protective coat.
Finally, a customized array of fragrance molecules and nutrient-rich conditioning essences was injected directly into their coats via an advanced ion-diffusion matrix, signaling the completion of the cycle!
Following the ultra-premium care routine, the trio emerged from the chamber looking entirely transformed. Their coats were incredibly fluffy, dense, and soft to the touch, their skin perfectly moisturized, radiating a subtle, clean fragrance. They looked ridiculously cute.
Su Wudeng couldn’t contain her maternal instincts, dropping to her knees to scoop them into her arms one by one, peppering their faces with kisses.
“Oh, my sweet Aihua smells absolutely heavenly!”
She ran her fingers through the panda’s fur over and over again, marveling at how it felt as smooth as premium satin and as light as spun clouds. The perfectly round, furry ears were impossibly soft—gone was the cold, apocalyptic aura of the orbital executioner, replaced entirely by a giant, cuddly teddy bear!
Amber was leaning heavily into his conceited personality, executing a series of dramatic, heroic poses before the full-length mirror.
Look at that silver sheen! My coat is literally radiating cosmic energy!
Su Wudeng gave his back a firm pat, assessing his condition. “Amber, are you sure you haven’t put on a few pounds during our terraforming shifts?”
The fur was remarkably dense, but the muscle density beneath was rock-hard; she could barely make a dent when she squeezed his shoulders.
She extended both hands, and the husky instinctively lowered his heavy head right into her palms. Su Wudeng leaned closer, inspecting his irises. “Did your eyes shift into a deeper shade of sapphire? Or is it just the contrast against the white fur on your mask?”
Amber tilted his chin up proudly. My ocular resonance has reached a new evolutionary tier!
Within the Sword-Heart Husky lineage, the intensity of the blue light within their pupils was the absolute metric used to gauge their connection to their inner blade path. It was irrefutable proof that his combat stats had escalated!
Finally, she turned her attention to the snow leopard, Yingying. Her luxurious coat was naturally a pristine, brilliant white, and after the nano-scrub, the pale sections were completely spotless.
The big cat was currently staring blankly at her own reflection in the mirror, blinking her silver eyes as if she couldn’t believe her own eyes.
Is that truly me? I look spectacular.
She gave her long, luxurious tail a soft flick, then nimbly caught the tip in her jaws, spinning in a slow, hypnotic circle before the glass. The fur on her tail was so incredibly dense and fluffy that it filled her entire mouth, making her sleek leopard face look tiny and intensely adorable by comparison.
Her paws were thick, heavy, and cushioned with massive pink pads. Su Wudeng couldn’t resist reaching out to squeeze them.
Yingying immediately leaned her entire body weight against Su Wudeng’s leg, letting out a deep, rumbling purr as her smoky silver eyes looked up with pure anticipation.
Su Wudeng’s heart melted. “Do you want some more rubs, beautiful girl?”
She enthusiastically massaged the cat’s shoulders.
Amber watched Yingying’s shameless display of submission with a look of absolute disgust. …Your level of psychological manipulation is disgusting! Have you no pride as a leopard?!
Aihua, realizing she was losing her monopoly on her sister’s attention, let out a competitive whine.
Sister! Look at my paws! They are completely immaculate and pink! Squeeze mine!
Hearing the panda call out, Su Wudeng immediately swerved to her left, lifting Aihua’s massive paw to give the pads a firm squeeze. “They’re absolutely perfect, sweetie! And so incredibly soft!”
“Come here, give sister a giant hug!”
Yingying, sitting on the right, noticed her master’s focus had drifted. She immediately deployed her ultimate weapon, using her long, fluffy tail to elegantly wrap around Su Wudeng’s waist—
“Ying-ying~” Sister… my lower tail vertebrae feels slightly tense~ Could you evaluate it?
What?! Her tail?!
Su Wudeng whipped her head back to the right. “Oh, let me see! Let sister check it out immediately to ensure there’s no joint inflammation!”
The second her torso pivoted, a massive, cloud-like white tail was dropped directly into her lap. It was long, thick, perfectly groomed, and carried a crisp, invigorating scent of high-altitude frost.
Su Wudeng’s eyes literally transformed into stars!
She buried her hands in the fur, carefully inspecting every inch. “A magnificent tail like this could never catch a disease, but let sister do a thorough diagnostic check just to be safe.”
Aihua: …Sister, my ears feel slightly chilly… look at them… Yingying: …Sister, my pupils require an optical clearance check… look into my eyes…
Su Wudeng was practically spinning in circles, her hands flying left and right to satisfy both demands. Amber watched her frantic, chaotic scrambling, his two dog eyes completely glazed over in sheer bewilderment.
“???”
Aihua, you’re an elite frontline vanguard… Yingying, you’re a mother of three wild cubs… Where is your dignity?! Both of you are absolute frauds!
He could only curse his own rigid, stubborn nature for being as unyielding as a piece of iron! He simply lacked the genetic capacity to act cute. He couldn’t compete—the psychological warfare was far beyond his tier!
Chu Tianhe had personally supervised the arrangement of a massive banquet table packed with premium, high-energy military rations and rare core-world delicacies.
But after waiting in the formal dining salon for nearly an hour, there was still no sign of the planetary governor or the animals.
“What is taking so long?”
“Are they still stuck in the decontamination cycle?”
He stroked his chin, confused. That shouldn’t be the case. Whenever Aihua uses that chamber, she’s usually dried and out within ten minutes.
Curious, he stood up and walked down the corridor toward the familiar care wing. Thanks to the massive political leverage wielded by the Saber-Toothed Warlord dynasty in the Northern District, combat familiars were treated with absolute reverence across all military sectors. It was safe to say Aihua lived a life of total luxury on this flagship.
But the exact second Chu Tianhe pushed the airlock door open, he froze solid.
He stared blankly at Aihua—the terrifying, cold-blooded executioner who regularly terrorized him and swatted his hands away whenever he tried to watch her eat—and found her acting like an absolute toddler!
She was rolling on her back, bleating softly, and flashing her paws in an display of pure, unadulterated submission. She was leveraging every single cute behavioral trait in her genetic code to its absolute limit! She bore zero resemblance to the ruthless war-beast he commanded on the front lines!
Watching two legendary, commander-tier combat familiars deployment childish yet devastatingly effective strategies just to secure a fraction of a civilian governor’s undivided attention…
Chu Tianhe felt a cold numbness wash over his soul. The disparity in treatment…
It is violently obvious!
His heart wept for his own tragic existence. That is my familiar! I pay for her upkeep!
But as he analyzed their movements, he realized that neither Yingying nor Aihua actually possessed a conscious malice or a toxic concept of jealousy. Every single action was merely an instinctual, raw drive to confirm that Su Wudeng loved them unconditionally. They were having the absolute time of their lives.
After a few minutes, Su Wudeng noticed the supreme commander standing awkwardly at the entryway. She quickly used her forearms to gently pin the squirming pets down. “My deepest apologies, General Chu. I’ve completely disrupted your schedule. We made a mess of your salon.”
“Are you waiting on us? We’ll transition to the dining room immediately!”
Having fostered animals her entire life, how could she not decode what Yingying and Aihua were doing? She flashed a helpless, amused smile. “When your household hosts multiple high-tier pets, this level of attention-hijacking is an absolute certainty.”
Good lord! Both Aihua and Yingying are typically so independent and fierce! Yet the second they’re in the same room, they turn into absolute prima donnas!
Chu Tianhe pressed a hand against his chest, his expression one of profound emotional damage. “…Your words are a sharp blade to a commander who doesn’t possess a single affectionate familiar bond, Governor.”
Su Wudeng lowered her head in genuine embarrassment. “…I am incredibly sorry. I’ll dial back the flexing.”
The Pet Home, Hangar Command Center.
A heavy silence filled the room as the staff and incoming masters rewatched the raw orbital combat telemetry Su Wudeng had uploaded to the system.
Yu Lan’s silver eyes were vacant, her mind spinning as she stared at the data frames. “Is… is that the verified baseline strength of the 7th Zerg Vanguard?”
Lin Yue was even more structurally bewildered, her hand freezing on her console. “From what my visual diagnostics are showing… the insects didn’t even manage to bypass Yingying and Amber’s initial defensive layers?”
Uncle Lan had spent his entire life in the outer rim, and this was his first time reviewing live telemetry of an elite Zerg skirmish. After a long moment of calculation, he offered a highly cautious, academic hypothesis. “Perhaps our structural data models have consistently underestimated the baseline combat metrics of Yingying and Amber.”
“The terrifying reports we read on the public networks originate entirely from core-world media syndicates, which are naturally prone to dramatic inflation to secure defense budgets.”
“Because our colony had never benchmarked an elite combat pet firsthand, our evaluation suffered a massive scaling error.”
He paused, staring at the screen where Amber was casually bifurcating a starship-sized bio-vessel.
“…No… I can’t keep a straight face through this explanation.”
Uncle Lan wiped his face with both hands, letting out a raw, unrefined curse. “This is cheating! This is absolute, mechanical hacking!”
They were fully aware that Amber and Yingying were the elite protectors of the property, but they hadn’t anticipated their combat thresholds were apocalypse-tier! The two of them had essentially executed a two-man blitzkrieg against a legendary Zerg legion!
Chu Yansen was also deeply shaken, his corporate analytical brain frantically trying to locate a logical, scientific variable to explain the slaughter. “Could the outcome be driven by absolute elemental attribute counters?”
“Yingying’s pure ice-attribute Frost Blade art operates as a long-range kinetic bombardment paired with total absolute-zero crowd control. That specific profile perfectly bottlenecks the short-range, matter-devouring mechanics of the Zerg’s tentacles…”
“And Amber… Amber’s sword trajectory relies entirely on relativistic speed and raw, hyper-dense kinetic cutting force…”
He froze as the husky on the screen executed a multi-directional silver slash that turned an entire Zerg division into mincemeat.
“No! I can’t force this logic either…”
Amber is just straight-up broken!
Shu Can was vibrating with such intense adrenaline he wanted to leap onto the central table and roar at the sky. “Devastatingly handsome! The Sword-Heart Husky lineage is the absolute pinnacle of existence!”
“My Hashuai is going to evolve into an absolute god of war! What Zerg?! We’ll just slice them into sashimi!”
“Who cares about the elite 7th Vanguard?! A single sword strike—clean in half!”
He suddenly grabbed his sleepy husky pup, planting a dozen aggressive kisses across its mask. “Hahahahahaha!”
“Hashuai! We are going to conquer the galactic rankings together!”
Chu Yansen cast a look of deep, aristocratic fatigue at his friend. “I am begging you to shut your mouth.”
So childish. The secondhand embarrassment is suffocating.
Zhong Huihui was equally ecstatic. She lifted her dry, fluffy snow leopard cub into the air, her voice shaking with excitement. “Did you take notes, Baiyun?! That is the absolute zenith of the pure ice-and-snow attribute path!”
“You are genetically preprogrammed to become exactly that powerful!”
“Baiyun, we are going to break the simulators during our training shifts!”
Baiyun let out a fierce little mew, aggressively rubbing his cheek against Huihui’s face to signify absolute agreement. I will break every machine in the complex to protect my master!
Huihui couldn’t contain her love, showering the cub with kisses and even squeezing his soft, pink paw pads with fanatical adoration.
Xia Xiyao stood slightly apart from the group, her mouth slightly unhinged as she stared at the screens in total, clinical shock.
What? What am I looking at???
Your definition of a household pet and my family’s definition seem to exist on completely different planes of reality…
Why did the elite, multi-trillion-credit Emerald Serpents cultivated by her ancient clan struggle for hours just to neutralize a low-tier, basic Zerg drone? Yet Yingying and Amber were out here treating an elite vanguard legion like an automated bonus round?
The playback showed the first two leviathans being effortlessly turned into cosmic debris, but as the tracking array focused on the third beast initiating its long-range slipspace warp, the atmosphere in the room turned tense.
“Is that monster going to clear the warp sector?”
“Damn it, it’s actually going to escape!”
Hearing the creature’s telepathic threats echo through the sub-titles of the recording, the command center fell into an absolute, icy silence.
It’s over. Our planetary coordinates have been logged by the hive mind. We’re marked for eradication…
But right at the precipice of their despair, a colossal, monolithic silhouette dropped out of warp, completely intercepting the beast’s trajectory.
Zhong Huihui and the staff screamed in unison: “!!! Aihua!”
The second the panda materialized, she delivered three thunderous palm strikes clean across the Zerg’s cranium, before casually crushing its entire starship-sized mass into scrap metal with a single claw!
“Aihua! Aihua is an absolute queen! So cool!”
“Wuwuwu! It’s her! The panda queen has returned to her throne!”
“Beautiful! Magnificent! Flawless!”
“The entire vanguard has been thoroughly eradicated!”
“The governor is absolutely invincible! I knew she held all the cards!”
“Hahahahaha! This is absolute tactical dominance!”
Suddenly, Yu Lan’s expression sharpened, her eyes tracking a second high-mass signature manifesting on the long-range radar. “Hold on. What is that vessel arriving from the deep sector?”
Lin Yue quickly analyzed the unique transponder signature of the heavy dreadnought. “General Chu’s flagship!”
“The planetary master! Ah, apologies—I mean, the former planetary governor!”
Chu Yansen’s corporate intellect quickly reconstructed the operational timelines. “So General Chu and Aihua were already actively hunting this specific Zerg splinter cell across the sector, tracking their slipspace vectors straight to our coordinates.”
“Aihua didn’t just stumble into the fight; she was the vanguard of a military extraction team.”
“And that massive capital ship belongs entirely to General Chu!”
Yu Lan let out a long breath, her shoulders relaxing. “That’s an incredible relief. Wait… did General Chu just escort my sister on board his flagship?”
“Is he transporting her back to the surface?”
Lin Yue cleared her throat. “…In that case, I need to open an immediate channel to Chu Feng.”
That poor guy was currently redlining a heavy battleship through orbit, desperately trying to locate his missing governor.
A short while later, General Chu’s massive flagship smoothly breached the lower cloud layers, its landing arrays locking onto the primary Pet Center pad.
The hangar doors slid open, revealing Su Wudeng stepping onto the deck, flanked tightly by a fluffy, fragrant Aihua, a pristine Yingying, and a narcissistic Amber—all three of them completely crowding her space to maintain physical contact. General Chu trailed several paces behind them, looking remarkably isolated and pathetic in his own landing bay.
But the supreme commander possessed an ironclad professional composure, stepping forward to offer a polished, diplomatic nod to the gathering. “Good evening, everyone.”
“Salute! Welcome back, General Chu!”
The staff and incoming masters immediately snapped into a formal salute. This was a five-star supreme general of the active front lines—the kind of legendary strategic figure an outer-rim civilian would only ever see across historical network broadcasts. To stand within arms-reach of him on their own soil left them vibrating with intense excitement.
Chu Tianhe took a slow look around the central zone, noting that the infrastructure had undergone a complete, high-tech revolution. Sleek, cutting-edge facilities and monolithic structures he had never logged during his tenure were now proudly established across the territory.
He hadn’t been back to his old coordinate for a few months, and the world had completely rewritten its landscape!
He turned to Su Wudeng, his tone full of sincere admiration. “Seeing our planet undergo a structural transformation of this magnitude… Governor Su, you and your staff have executed an extraordinary feat. Your dedication is commendable!”
The cohort waved their hands frantically in modest denial. “Oh, we don’t deserve the credit, General! Not at all!”
“The entire structural blueprint and development vector originates solely from Governor Su’s brilliance. We are simply execution units! We have absolute faith that under her sovereignty, this world will break galactic records!”
“Yes, General Chu, our governor is a reality-warping genius!”
Chu Tianhe’s smile widened. This absolute loyalty verified that his executive decision to transfer the title deed to her had been a stroke of absolute genius!
And these personnel… His sharp eyes scanned the line of faces, a silent shock registering in his mind. Governor Su’s human resource acquisition metrics were terrifying. Within a handful of weeks, she had successfully headhunted an elite cadre of specialists to run her world.
He systematically cross-referenced their faces with the intelligence profiles in his database. Finally, his gaze locked onto a specific young girl at the flank. Xia Xiyao?
The ancestral lineage surname, Xia?
Could she be a prime scion from the legendary Elite Beastmaster Dynasty of Athens?
He allowed his gaze to linger for a mere two seconds to avoid breaking protocol, before smoothly pivoting back to the governor. “Are you available for an immediate executive briefing? I would like to conduct a private conference within the planetary command vault.”
He held a monumental, world-altering piece of corporate news to deliver to her!
Planetary Command Vault
The primary holographic projection array hummed to life, rendering a flawless, real-time map of the cluster.
Su Wudeng tilted her head, her curiosity piqued. “What critical variable did you uncover, General Chu? State your case.”
General Chu extended his slender, elegant fingers, manipulating the interface to smoothly expand the localized planetary view outward, revealing the macro-mapping of the entire Scott Galaxy.
“Governor Su, analyze the economic and luminosity metrics of our home cluster.”
Across the holographic galaxy map, the stark disparity in development was rendered clear. The high-tier main worlds blazed with brilliant, intense round light, while the secondary colony stars flickered with dim, pathetic numbers. Far below them in the darkness sat the unmapped, condemned rocks that had been completely abandoned by corporate transit paths—and their planet sat right at the precipice of that dark tier. It was an isolated coordinate bypassed by the universe.
“Chongai’s facility has shattered every projected growth metric, but our development remains entirely un-monopolized by the core-world syndicates,” Chu Tianhe explained, his fingers generating localized data streams. “Their current tactical response is to keep us locked within this geographic dead zone, choking our economic traffic until we flatline.”
“The core issue is structural logistics. A colony world cannot generate an internal market without high-capacity transit corridors; it is the most foundational law of planetary economics. They don’t need to engage in military hostility—as long as they maintain a regulatory blockade over our air routes, they can starve our development indefinitely.”
“But their monopoly has officially cracked. The Mo family has delivered their opening collateral proposal to secure the cure.”
Chu Tianhe snapped his fingers, a grin breaking across his handsome features. “Your asset evaluation was flawless!”
“The core worlds have presented us with two distinct executive solutions to settle the bounty.”
“Option One: The immediate authorization and construction of direct, unrestricted interstellar flight corridors connecting our coordinate to every single major main world within the Scott Galaxy. They will fully fund the infrastructure.”
“Option Two is far more drastic…”
General Chu’s tone dropped into a heavy, serious register. “A total planetary relocation asset swap.”
He locked eyes with Su Wudeng. “The Mo family’s corporate board has stated that if you are willing to forfeit this specific coordinate, they will legally transfer the deed of a premium, fully developed Tier 3 planet—or higher—directly to your name.”
“They guarantee the asset will be packed with verified natural resources, boast a premier geographical location close to the core markets, and feature an established, high-capacity commercial transit network.”
Su Wudeng’s analytical mind processed the parameters instantly. “So Option Two technically fulfills both environmental and logistical bottlenecks simultaneously. It drops a luxury planet and an infinite transit network right into my lap.”
She stared intently into General Chu’s amber eyes. “But corporate syndicates never execute a transaction at a net loss. State their hidden riders.”
General Chu nodded, a hint of disdain in his smile. “The contractual rider stipulates that for all future yields of high-tier healing and neurological spiritual plants cultivated by your facilities, the Mo family syndicate retains absolute, uncontested right of first refusal. They promise to match standard market valuations so you never suffer a fiscal loss, of course.”
Su Wudeng raised an eyebrow, a cold laugh escaping her lips. “I see.”
“A corporate surrender disguised as a golden parachute.”
“But,” she couldn’t help but chuckle at their audacity, “to think they can buy an absolute monopoly over the galaxy’s future medical supply chain for the price of a single Tier 3 rock… do their analysts honestly take me for an agrarian peasant?”
General Chu burst into a rich, shared laugh. He looked deeply into her eyes, his tone full of immense professional respect. “It appears your executive evaluation aligns perfectly with my tactical recommendation.”
“Without a doubt,” Su Wudeng confirmed instantly. “We are entirely discarding the second option.”
Did they honestly think they could hustle her out of her sovereign realm?
“Excellent,” General Chu said, his demeanor turning intensely focused. “As long as the Eastern Division commands this sector, you have zero security concerns. Execute whatever industrial roadmap you desire.”
“I’ve already finalized the preliminary text for Option One with their corporate lawyers. Our baseline price for saving their heir is the immediate opening of independent commercial corridors connecting your planet straight to every core hub, paired with the total construction capital for a Class-AAA Interstellar Terminal on your territory.”
“Furthermore,” he flashed a brilliantly smug grin, “we extracted one billion corporate credits in liquid cash!”
“And we forced a clause permitting us to liquidate that cash to purchase any tightly controlled industrial hardware or infrastructure assets their family controls at standard market value!”
Su Wudeng’s eyes snapped wide open, her jaw dropping. “Holy crap! General Chu, you are a absolute corporate predator!”
“You literally doubled our original extraction metrics, didn’t you?!”
The baseline bounty was fixed at one billion credits, but forcing them to build a Class-AAA Interstellar airport and clear regulatory blockades across the entire galaxy meant the actual asset value of the transaction was closer to tens of billions!
“How on earth did you break their legal board?!”
The life of that arrogant Mo heir truly is the ultimate leverage!
General Chu waved his hand with relaxed nonchalance. “The exact mechanics of the leverage session are classified military protocol.”
“Governor Su! Your immediate administrative crisis is figuring out how to allocate one billion credits of immediate capital!”
“I am intensely eager to witness what your administration executes next.”
Hearing the figure, all traces of residual fatigue vanished from Su Wudeng’s mind. Her operations had undergone a massive, reality-warping upgrade during his absence; it was time to show the former owner what his world was truly capable of.
Su Wudeng offered a mysterious, brilliant smile. “I presume our supreme commander hasn’t conducted a structural survey of the surface since his arrival?”
“How about…”
“I act as your personal executive guide for a field inspection?”
Chu Tianhe didn’t hesitate for a single second. “Lead the way!”
Su Wudeng navigated the shuttle, bringing General Chu directly to the boundary of Experimental Zone 001.
The second the commander stepped off the ramp and took in the landscape, his analytical mind suffered a massive processing error, his features freezing in pure shock.
“Greenwind Grass! An entire, high-density field of viable Greenwind Grass!”
“Governor Su… is your administration genuinely planning to scale this biological matrix to carpet the entire surface of the globe?”
Visualizing a dead, gray rock transformed into a boundless, vibrant green paradise, General Chu felt a sudden wave of vertigo. Am I locked inside a high-fidelity simulation right now?! This is impossible!
Su Wudeng casually shook her head, her smile smooth and relaxed. “No. The baseline grass is merely a pioneer species to stabilize the soil. My long-term roadmap is to transition the entire acreage into high-tier spiritual plant cultivation.”
General Chu’s expression completely locked up. “…My tactical imagination is entirely too conservative for your operation.”
Good lord! He was reeling from the impossibility of basic grass, and the governor was already treating the entire planet as a multi-trillion-credit medical agricultural hub!
If they successfully scale spiritual plants across an entire planet, this world’s GDP will outclass core hubs within a decade!
“Ultimately, my core objective is the total ecological restoration of the biosphere,” Su Wudeng continued, her gaze turning soft as she looked out over the emerald waves. “Once the biomes are self-sustaining, I will systematically introduce diverse wild pet populations to rebuild a natural, un-monopolized ecosystem.”
“The final evolution of this coordinate will be a boundless, planet-sized ecological sanctuary where familiars can live, hunt, and evolve in absolute freedom.”
“Citizens from across the universe who genuinely love animals can immigrate here to observe them, study them, and earn the privilege of establishing a life-contract based on mutual respect.”
“I want to scale this brand until the entire Scott Galaxy is transformed into a pet-themed sovereign cluster.”
“And once we command that leverage, we will institute absolute, ironclad galactic legislation regarding familiar welfare. Anyone who dares to harm, abandon, or exploit a pet for corporate greed will face absolute, severe criminal prosecution.”
This was the very first time Su Wudeng had plainly outlined the absolute scale of her ambition to another soul. She shifted her boots, a bit self-conscious. “General Chu… do you think my roadmap is the delusion of a madwoman?”
Chu Tianhe slowly shook his head, his features turning intensely serious as he met her gaze. “Had any other governor in the galaxy spoken those words, I would have signed a clinical mental evaluation voucher for them on the spot.”
“But standing here across from you, Governor Su… I have absolute faith you will bring it to fruition.”
“The foundation of the miracle is already resting beneath my boots. And more importantly, the optimization curve is accelerating every single day.”
“I am deeply honored you chose to share this vision with me.”
Only at this exact moment of proximity did Su Wudeng register that General Chu’s irises were a distinct, deep amber color—bright, intense, yet radiating a profound, comforting warmth.
She blinked, clearing her focus. “In that case, General Chu, would you care to evaluate our newly materialized Advanced Training Complex next?”
“The honor is entirely mine.”
If the green meadows of the agricultural fields had stretched General Chu’s composure to its limits, stepping through the airlocks of the Advanced Training Facility completely shattered his professional restraint.
“Holy crap… are my visual implants misreading the density metrics? The environmental realism is absolute!”
“These trees… this grass… the molecular density of the water… those clouds…”
“This snowfield matrix… the ambient sub-zero temperature… the structural integrity of these mountain peaks is flawless!”
“What?! This centralized data nexus can automatically compile and recommend a comprehensive, hyper-optimized combat training regimen for individual pets based on real-time telemetry?!”
Su Wudeng: “…”
Aren’t you a five-star supreme general? Control your output parameters a bit.
Although General Chu deeply regretted that his administrative duties barred him from anchoring a personal familiar contract, his decades of frontline warfare meant his tactical instincts were premier. He integrated into the facility’s coaching interface with seamless efficiency, reviewing the ongoing training files of the staff and providing master-tier strategic input.
“You cannot program a developmental roadmap relying strictly on the familiar’s physical baseline metrics; you must systematically factor in their individual psychological traits and innate elemental skill latency…”
“Beastmaster mechanics! Beastmaster mechanics! Your core duty is tactical synergy, not cowering behind your pet’s flank…”
“The master requires identical physical conditioning to match the pet’s movement loops…”
“Shu Can, your current kinetic load is causing muscle fatigue across your husky’s joints; authorize an immediate rest cycle…”
“Xia Xiyao’s data profile is remarkably balanced, but a total equilibrium means you lack an absolute breakthrough vector. Identify your primary advantage and sharpen it…”
“Keke… Keke, you’re still in your foundational growth phase; your core metric must remain psychological bonding and sensory expansion…”
“Chu Yansen…”
The supreme commander was entirely in his element, shifting into his natural persona as a master strategist as he mapped out tactical coordinates and optimized routines for every single person in the complex.
Su Wudeng watched the session from the central hub, her eyes blazing with elation. What an extraordinary, unexpected human capital jackpot!
General Chu has commanded elite armadas against the Zerg swarms for decades; his reservoir of real-world combat data and tactical mastery is unmatched in the cluster.
To have a strategic mind of his caliber personally oversee the initial conditioning and command dispatch of our scions is going to push our baseline combat readiness to an elite tier!
However, upon cross-referencing her secure logs, she noted that Aihua and the flagship detachment were legally required to clear orbit and return to the Ether Front command sector by tomorrow morning at the latest. They had successfully vaporized a rogue Zerg vanguard splinter cell, but military protocol demanded an immediate in-person field report, a comprehensive post-war arms audit, and logistical replenishment. They were going to be buried in paperwork.
Su Wudeng tapped her chin, her mind spinning with logistical planning. I can’t let General Chu execute this much high-tier training optimization for free. I need to deliver a premium payout.
The operational window is perfect. I can venture back into the valley with Nuannuan tonight to oversee the massive harvest of medical and healing flora I promised to deliver to his logistics department.
Furthermore, according to Amber’s environmental scans, the thick, toxic miasma choking that hidden valley should have entirely dissipated by now, right?
It’s time to launch an exploration trek!
I’ll pack Aihua and her younger cubs along for a much-needed family vacation in the woods!
Xiao Sanhua and her little orange knights have cleared their clinical recovery metrics; they can finally return to their natural habitat!
And as for those two rebellious Husky pups who are fiercely determined to maintain their nomad freedom and refused to sign contracts with human masters? I’ll pack them along too and relocate their rowdy behinds straight to the property’s wild sanctuary branch!
…Wait, scratch that. It wasn’t a wild branch anymore—from this day forward, it was officially designated as the Pet Home Ecosystem Reserve!
