Zero flipped to the very last page with practiced ease, and was immediately shocked by the dozens of signatures written in completely different handwriting.
'What was this? What had happened in Yaoqing again?'
Suspicious, he opened the system map, checked the satisfaction level, and after confirming there were no issues, flipped back to the first page.
At first glance, he almost gave up, put off by the overly refined classical style of writing.
He forced himself to keep reading, racking his brain to translate the archaic phrases, half-guessing, half-understanding as he went along. After a while, he finally got it.
Good grief. They had actually written a stack of documents as thick as a finger, urging him to ascend the throne…
Zero didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Before, he had always treated this as a joke from his subordinates. But now, it seemed he had to take it seriously.
Clearly, unless he gave them some kind of answer, they weren't going to let it go.
Smiling wryly, Zero tucked that finger-thick document into the system backpack.
'NPCs sure were pretty interesting.'
He thought for a bit, then took out the "Abundance" fruit Aha had delivered, which no one had touched yet, and borrowed a knife from UR.
Zero carefully put on gloves, then focused on slicing the fruit into small pieces. After cutting them, he put them back into the system backpack, using the system markers to check whether the sizes were suitable.
Honestly, he was terrified his subordinates would explode and die after eating it…
While cutting, Zero suddenly asked Lan, "I remember you bit me once, didn't your teeth get broken?"
Lan took a deep breath and shook his head, denying it.
Zero didn't press further. After repeatedly confirming with the system backpack, he finally divided the fruit evenly into a dozen portions.
Once eaten, his subordinates would become immortal, but not Emanators.
He placed all the neatly cut fruit onto a serving plate.
The first piece, he handed to UR. "Eat this, and you'll be immortal."
There were many technologies in the system's tech tree that could grant immortality. But since Yaoqing's resources were limited, there was no way to research them for now.
It wasn't that mechanical ascension wasn't an option, it was just that "Abundance" was more cost-effective.
What he hadn't expected was for UR to reject him without hesitation, and even warn him very seriously to think it through before making a decision.
Zero didn't mind, simply putting the fruit back into the system backpack.
After all, this was UR, having a bit of personality was normal. He refused to believe Lan would reject him forever.
Zero pulled off his gloves and turned to the Chief Strategist, "Here, you deal with these. Each person can only have one piece."
"Whether they eat it or not is up to them. Oh, and if they want to share with family or friends, just let them take more."
The Chief Strategist, holding the plate of fruit, shot him a massive eye-roll, sidestepped Lan who seemed like he wanted to speak, and walked off.
Zero, as usual, opened up his subordinates' panels, closely monitoring their health bars. Only when each one displayed debuffs like "immortal" or "ageless" did he finally relax.
By the time he closed the panels, his subordinates were already lined up neatly before him. Suddenly, one of them dropped to his knees.
Startled, Zero quickly rushed to pull him up, but right after, all the others followed suit, kneeling as well. Only the Chief Strategist and UR remained standing.
It turned into a tug-of-war between Zero and his men. He pulled and tugged, trying front, back, left, right, but not a single one got up.
He was utterly baffled, "What are you all doing?"
"General, no, Your Majesty..."
Zero, "…"
He rubbed his forehead with a headache, motioning with his hand for them to be quiet.
The subordinates hesitated, wanting to speak, but in the end kept silent.
Zero sighed. "Isn't this nonsense?"
Lan secretly let out a breath of relief.
Zero continued, "What's the rush…? As for ascending the throne, shouldn't that wait until I've conquered the entire universe first"
Lan, who had thought he'd refuse his subordinates outright, "…"
Some of the subordinates instantly looked enlightened, praising the General's foresight and deep strategy.
Others frowned, clearly unwilling to give up.
But not one of them doubted his words. To them, the universe itself was nothing more than something Yaoqing could casually reach out and take.
The Chief Strategist leaned over and whispered to the wide-eyed Lan, "You'll get used to it."
Zero bent down to pull his subordinates up again. This time, he managed.
They stood, thanking the General one after another. But one of them still seemed unwilling to give up, staring at Zero as if he had something to say.
Zero was silent for a moment, then asked, "You're not planning to imitate a fox's cry in the middle of the night, are you?"
The man's face filled with shock, "How did the General know?!"
Zero, "...Don't tell me you were also planning to hide messages inside fish bellies."
The man staggered back a step, awestruck, "The General truly is all-knowing! You even saw through our plan!"
Zero was so exasperated by their ideas that he actually laughed.
'What kind of behavior was this?'
He held his forehead, unable to stop his mind from wandering.
His subordinates, crying like foxes in the night, chanting, "The Xianzhou rises, Yaoqing King!"
His subordinates, writing messages on cloth strips, stuffing them into fish bellies, then pretending to be shocked when cutting open the fish, rushing to him while shouting, "Look, General!"
"There's a message inside the fish belly, 'The Xianzhou rises, Yaoqing King!' The Divination Bureau has calculated it, it's destiny, a great omen! You mustn't refuse any longer! Ascend the throne at once!"
Zero, "…"
Just imagining it was enough to make him collapse.
He was genuinely afraid that one day his subordinates would secretly make a dragon robe and hand-deliver it to him…
Taking a deep breath, Zero said, "Your idea is too much. Don't think about it again."
Worried they'd scheme behind his back, he repeated the warning over and over, only relaxing once they finally gave up their thoughts of making him ascend the throne.
Seeing that Yaoqing's satisfaction was maxed out and the Colossus Project was officially on track, Zero found himself with nothing much to do. So he started pestering UR to get promoted and take his place as General.
Lan, "…"
Compared to those Yaoqing people who flaunted even the smallest connection with the General, the boy stood out as completely different. He kept low-profile, and apart from his family, few even knew he worked in the General's Mansion.
But thanks to the General's antics, all of Yaoqing now knew. Whenever people saw Lan, they'd swarm over, "Isn't this Yaoqing's Little General?"
"Your Highness, why are you still personally working?"
"Please, persuade the General to ascend the throne soon, so you can be made Crown Prince earlier!"
The boy went to the General and poured out everything on his mind. But Zero hadn't listened at all. Instead, he was amazed, marveling, "You can actually say so many words?!"
He was used to his UR being quiet and reserved, so much so that sometimes he and the Chief Strategist would even bet on when Lan would finally turn into a chatterbox.
The Chief Strategist grumbled, "With the way you keep stirring things up, even a mute would be forced into becoming a chatterbox!"
Seeing Lan refuse, Zero didn't care in the least.
What player ever cared about an NPC's opinion? In the end, UR was definitely going to be his successor.
So he continued sending UR out, dispatching him to various Xianzhou, and whenever Yaoqing had trouble with Mara-struck people, Swarmspawn, or other pests, Lan would be tasked with leading teams to deal with them.
It was basically experience farming.
With Lan handling the work, Zero was free to enjoy a rare retirement.
One time, while out strolling, he came across a child.
The child, barely reaching his thigh, came running over and without a word shoved a fluffy little hamster into his hands.
Zero thought about it. Since he had nothing else to do, he accepted the special gift, brought it back to the General's Mansion, and began personally taking care of the pet, terrified it might suddenly keel over one day.
Then one early morning, after finishing paperwork, he stretched out a hand, and found the hamster suddenly motionless.
Regretfully, he placed it into a small box, buried it under a tree in the mansion, and reported the sad news to the Chief Strategist.
The Chief Strategist, "...The hamster isn't dead! The temperature's too low, it just went into false hibernation! Hurry up and dig it back out, ahhh!"
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