The lazy Lesser Ancient God Lifeform was still fast asleep.
Meanwhile, the hardworking Mechanical thinking body didn't wait for her master to summon her. She had already lit up the watch by his pillow of her own accord.
Several beams of light interwove, forming a thirty-centimeter-tall hologram with a lifelike texture. She hopped onto Yang Ming's pillow.
"Wake up, boss!"
Yang Ming waved a hand, muttered something, and went right on sleeping soundly.
"Heh!"
Lü put her hands on her hips and blinked lightly. Then, with a sinister grin, she crawled up beside Yang Ming's ear and whispered:
"Become one with me."
Yang Ming shot upright. Wearing only his boxer briefs, he struck a defensive pose on the bed and looked around wildly, a web of black lines appearing across his forehead.
Lü blinked, lowered her head guiltily, and tried to back away, but a large hand grabbed her.
"Getting brave, are you? Huh?"
Yang Ming pinched Lü's cheeks viciously and started squashing and stretching her virtual projection, which was a lot like an Energy Shield.
Lü giggled. She didn't have a physical body anyway, so Yang Ming's venting did not bother her.
"Boss, something really is going on."
"Go ahead." Yang Ming sat back down on the edge of the bed and let out a quiet breath.
"It's happening right now."
Lü's projection vanished, replaced by a three-dimensional surveillance feed of an office.
It was Gudunmaha's office.
Yang Ming raised an eyebrow, focusing on the two women in front of Gudunmaha.
The woman sitting directly across from him was middle-aged and voluptuous. She was quite pretty, with a striking figure. Her long blue hair fell in big waves, and her deep-V dress had a slit reaching up to her ribs, making her look incredibly alluring.
As she spoke with Gudunmaha, she kept batting her eyelashes at him.
A young woman sat quietly in the corner.
She had a short bob that reached her ears. Her small nose and large eyes, paired with her round face, made her look even cuter and more lively. Her short skirt and blouse showed off her lovely figure, though she was a little short.
Given the scene and Gudunmaha's conversation with the middle-aged woman, Yang Ming had assumed... the Deputy Chief of Staff was lonely and had hired a prostitute aboard the Supply Ship, even going so far as to choose a young woman.
But what caught Yang Ming off guard was that the young woman was someone Gudunmaha intended to give to him.
Of course, she wasn't going to be a free gift.
Yang Ming watched in silence for over ten minutes. After the two women left, he had Lü show him the entire sequence of events again.
About half an hour earlier, a middle-aged woman named Calumi had arrived at Gudunmaha's office with her prized creation, "026."
026 was the young woman's name.
After meeting Gudunmaha, Calumi had exchanged only a few words with him before he pulled her into the adjoining room.
Soon, muffled, decidedly adult sounds came from inside.
"Boss," Lü said with a cheeky grin, "for five hundred Federal Currency, you can unlock the premium footage."
Yang Ming's mouth twitched. "I'm not interested in the sex lives of middle-aged and elderly people. Fast-forward to when they're done."
The footage jumped ahead by fifty-five seconds and forty-eight milliseconds.
Gudunmaha and Calumi got dressed and took their places on either side of the desk. Then they began discussing business.
The heart of their conversation came down to just a few lines:
"You're giving 026 to a businessman?"
Calumi looked completely baffled.
"General, are you sure? We've been raising 026 for three years to match the Third Prince's tastes. She'll make the perfect bedmate, and it'll be easy to make him fall for her. If you want to win over a businessman... we have plenty of other options. There's no need to send 026 to offer herself to him."
"She's the best we have, isn't she?" Gudunmaha asked quietly.
"She is, General, but..."
"That's enough," Gudunmaha said. "Which Addictive Agent is 026 using?"
"Type Three," Calumi replied, frowning.
"Give her the latest one—the one that can be tailored to produce a personalized addictive biological signal," Gudunmaha said in a low voice. "I'll personally set the formula for the compound. Understood?"
Calumi fell silent for a long while. At last, she gave a slight nod.
"I have no choice but to obey, don't I? Oh, my poor 026. She could have gone to serve the honorable Imperial Prince, but now she has to serve some businessman."
Gudunmaha's expression was grim.
Yang Ming shut off the projection and folded his arms, lost in thought for a long while.
"What's that supposed to be?" he murmured.
"Gudunmaha's counterattack. A honey trap," Lü explained softly beside him.
Yang Ming said, "I mean the Addictive Agent."
"It's a drug that makes people dependent on it."
Lü quickly explained:
"I just looked into Calumi. She's a madam who operates within the military, and she's done all kinds of awful things. She usually lures boys and girls from the slums with promises of high pay. Once she has them hooked, she uses Addictive Agents to make them dependent on the drugs, forcing them to obey her completely and become playthings for the military brass.
"Right now, Gudunmaha is in a very passive position. He doesn't dare kill you or provoke you, so he's taking this approach instead.
"If 026 shows up around you later, with that hot body—I mean, her augmented breasts, her lipoed waist, and her innocent face—though she's had work done on her nose and the corners of her eyes, too—
"there's a good chance you won't be able to resist her advances.
"Her saliva will contain the drug, and then... you know the rest, boss. Gudunmaha wants to use this to control you instead."
Looks like the crows everywhere were equally black.
Yang Ming sneered. "Can't my body withstand this drug?"
"It has nothing to do with physical strength," Lü reminded him. "I don't want to interfere with your freedom to have sex, boss, but why take a risk like this? I recommend buying a companion robot. The union of man and machine, the collision of spirit and desire—oh! It'd be incredible!"
"Hey! Stop!"
Yang Ming glared and cursed. "You and Milili are complete opposites. How come I've never seen you show even a hint of embarrassment?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Lü smiled, her eyes narrowing. "You should be grateful, boss."
"Grateful for what?"
"That I haven't gone insane."
"Why not?"
"As I learned about this world, I accessed a vast amount of information about human society through the network."
Lü's eyes suddenly filled with a hint of concern. She spoke slowly:
"I once tried to think like a human. I filtered information to satisfy my preferences, then reinforced my impressions, learned on my own, and strengthened those preferences. But halfway through that process, more than fifty percent of the new information in my database consisted of sex, violence, and bizarre material.
"Luckily, I deleted that information in time. But it still left me deeply disappointed in the human species.
"I'm not talking about you, boss. I just think that the fusion of machines and thought is the right path for the development of civilization. When civilization reaches a certain stage, the entire species can work together to calculate the ultimate questions of the universe."
"Okay, okay." Yang Ming rubbed his head. "A mechanical mind is lecturing me about philosophy. I need to figure out how to punish Gudunmaha, and what to do about this 026 who's about to be delivered to my doorstep... Hmm, would it be fine as long as I don't kiss her?"
Lü couldn't help rolling her eyes.
Yang Ming chuckled.
He was only joking. He had no interest in plucking a rose covered in poisonous thorns.
"Lü, get as much information as you can about the royal family. It's key to the next step of the plan."
Kolev had received several invitations first thing that morning. A few local businesswomen wanted to invite him to lunch and dinner and discuss investing together.
After weighing his options, Kolev ultimately turned down the invitations from the older ladies and continued to the next step with Yang Ming.
Finding a site.
They planned to open a factory, so they needed a plot of land.
The most prosperous area on Planet Yilando was Yilando City, which surrounded the royal palace. Two hundred million of the planet's seven hundred million people lived in this sprawling metropolis, an enormous city almost like a kingdom unto itself. The result was crushing overcrowding.
So if Yang Ming and Kolev wanted to build a factory, they were better off going somewhere else on Planet Yilando.
Hovercars were subject to speed limits, so to save time, Yang Ming and Kolev chose public transportation: a maglev train that ran through vacuum tubes. In just two and a half hours, they could cover a third of the planet's surface and reach the second-largest city on Planet Yilando.
Not long after they boarded the maglev train, Yang Ming's phone chimed.
Ding, ding!
[Boss, 026 is on the move. She's heading to your destination in a small spacecraft, escorted by several bodyguards. Also, the New Industrial Federation and Gudunmaha have both sent people to tail you.]
"So eager?" Yang Ming smirked. "Keep watching them. Don't worry, I can handle it."
Kolev had been hunched over researching factory rental prices. He looked up and asked, "What are you talking about, my dear nephew?"
"Nothing," Yang Ming said with a smile. "Just a flea."
"Huh?"
Kolev frowned at him, then complained, "If you're not busy, come help me sort through this information! It's more of a headache than buying a manor. We need a plot of land big enough!"
"All right, Uncle." Yang Ming shrugged. "Every great company starts with a workbench. We're already off to a pretty good start."
Kolev snorted. "I should've gone for tea with those rich ladies and left you to find a place yourself!"
Yang Ming draped an arm over Kolev's shoulder and said with a grin, "Uncle Haton, have you ever thought about finding yourself a partner?"
"Someone to legally take half my assets?"
Kolev shook his head. "If you're not going to help, stop distracting me! Oh, damn it, this feeling of having capitalists rob my wallet is awful!"
"Relax. Take a deep breath, 026."
Inside a small passenger craft flying close to the ground.
Slender 026 lay on a soft sofa, with several machines beside her monitoring her physical condition.
She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip, enduring the pain as a needle pierced a vein.
Soon, a pained look spread across her smooth, beautiful face. The readings on one of the machines shifted significantly, but thankfully, she soon stabilized. She pursed her lips and let out a series of dreamy giggles.
Her handler, "Mama Calumi," stood nearby with her arms folded. Seeing this, she let out a small sigh of relief.
The female doctor who had administered the injection got up and went over to Calumi, speaking in a low voice:
"She's responding well, but this new drug is much more potent. Reducing the dose or switching to a different kind of compound will be difficult."
"Our general's lost his mind," Calumi muttered. "I've invested so much in 026. She was supposed to go and make the Imperial Prince fall head over heels for her, and now she's being wasted on someone like this!"
"Calumi," the doctor sighed, "you shouldn't say things like that. You could get yourself in trouble."
"Hmph." Calumi wanted to put on a brave front, but she glanced back at the bodyguards in the front cabin of the spacecraft and could only purse her lips and lower her gaze.
The general's influence and strength were far beyond anything she could challenge.
A soft murmur came from nearby:
"After I finish this, I can go home... right?"
Calumi turned toward the girl, who was still dazed. "Why won't you give up on that ridiculous idea? What's the point of going back? To eat microbial cakes?"
026 only giggled foolishly, offering no reply.
Calumi snorted. "I gave them the best life money could buy, and they still aren't satisfied! You! Up front! If any of you are free, bring me those trashy scripts. Let's see how to set up some clichéd encounter for this couple of idiots!"
A bodyguard immediately hurried over with a Network Terminal in hand.
What they didn't know was that this very Network Terminal had secretly taken a picture of 026 in her current state.
Half a minute later, the picture appeared on Yang Ming's watch.
Yang Ming enlarged it and took a closer look, then pursed his lips slightly and sighed to himself:
What a shame. A beautiful young woman like that.
Before you continue