"The IPC is willing to give up Penacony on a single word from His Excellency Su Mo?"
Hearing Topaz's words, Sunday found it utterly unbelievable. As a high-ranking member of The Family, no one knew better than him how much the Interastral Peace Corporation coveted Penacony.
How could the IPC, an organization that has always been driven by capital and profit, possibly give up a top-tier project like Penacony, which could generate a massive amount of cash?
With the IPC's insatiably greedy nature, they would likely be willing to sacrifice one of the Ten Stonehearts to successfully seize sovereignty over Penacony.
To have them give it up with a single sentence was the most ludicrous joke imaginable. Even if Diamond, the Emanator of Preservation, were to speak personally, he could probably only stop the Strategic Investment Department, not influence the entire corporation.
Yet now, Topaz, one of the Ten Stonehearts, was brazenly saying such a thing. It was completely out of character for them.
And what she said next was even more sensational.
"Make enemies of both the Interastral Peace Corporation and the Xianzhou Alliance at the same time?"
How was that possible?
Aside from the three major galactic villains—the Denizens of Abundance, the Swarm Disaster, and the Antimatter Legion—not only was there no entity that could simultaneously oppose these two top-tier galactic powers, but it was even more impossible for any entity to force these two powers to join forces.
What a joke!
Although these two powers appeared to maintain peace with each other, they were in fact full of open and secret struggles. What kind of entity could make them join forces? Even an ordinary Emanator couldn't do it!
He was already confused about Su Mo's identity, and now with Topaz's words, Sunday was even more bewildered.
Just who was this person before him?
However, no one paid any attention to his utter confusion. Both Topaz and Aventurine ignored the head of the Oak Family, whom they had been actively trying to contact earlier, and focused all their attention on Su Mo.
Considering the close connection between Su Mo and the Express Crew, Topaz took the initiative to get closer.
"When Penacony sent out invitations, our company actually left a message in Lord Su Mo's inbox. It seems you didn't choose us. Is it because Miss March 7th is cuter?" Topaz, familiar with Su Mo's personality, said half-jokingly and half-plaintively, unlike the more reserved Aventurine.
So this is what it feels like to be a bootlicker?
"Inbox?" Hearing this, Su Mo was slightly taken aback. He had forgotten he even had such a thing.
Seeing his expression, Topaz gave him an "I knew it" look. "I knew you'd forgotten! During our last collaboration, I registered a company email for you to facilitate research funding applications and project development. As a top-tier partner of the company, we send you all sorts of free benefits on holidays and even on non-holidays. If you've never logged in to claim them, they've probably piled up into a small mountain."
For valuable collaborators, the company's style was always to suck up as much as possible. If simple credits could buy the goodwill of a being of Su Mo's level, they would never be stingy with money.
"Whoa! A mountain of gifts!" The little gray-haired girl's eyes immediately lit up, sparkling with stars.
"Are the company's benefits that good?" March 7th was also a little dumbfounded. While she was still happy about receiving an invitation, the company was already giving away invitations as gifts, not even caring if they were wasted.
"To be precise, Lord Su Mo's treatment is special. For others, only the benefits for official employees are decent," Topaz explained patiently.
"Oh, that's normal," March 7th nodded, dismissing the idea of getting a part-time job at the IPC.
"Wait!" Stelle suddenly raised her hand to ask a question, as if she had remembered something. "This Aventurine guy just said that you, Topaz, are already financially independent, and that my dad is even richer than you?"
Hearing Stelle's form of address, Aventurine was clearly stunned for a moment. Su Mo and Stelle look about the same age, how are they father and daughter? Are the powerful this playful?
But soon, he remembered the contents of Topaz's internal report and cleared up the misunderstanding. Ah, it's that incredibly abstract Stellaron host. Never mind then!
Topaz, on the other hand, was used to Stelle's way of addressing him and immediately nodded. "That's right! As a senior manager of the Strategic Investment Department, I've long since passed the point of living on a salary. Although I can't compare to the truly wealthy, it's enough for me to live on without working."
Even among working people, Topaz was a rare genius who had reached a management position on her own.
As one of the Ten Stonehearts, if she were still worrying about her salary, the employees under her wouldn't be able to survive. Her material desires were not high, and her savings were enough for her to live a life that others would consider extravagant.
"Of course, my wealth is far from comparable to Lord Su Mo's. Even just in terms of wealth, the rounding error of the interest generated by the credits in Lord Su Mo's account is enough to cover the cost of the most luxurious room in Penacony. If Lord Su Mo wished, he could even book the entire Penacony, though not for too long, of course."
"Huh?" Hearing this, both March 7th and Stelle were stunned. "Book the entire Penacony... how much would that cost!"
Penacony has millions of rooms. Even if the lowest room rate is a hundred thousand credits, that would be hundreds of billions of credits, right? Is Su Mo that rich?
"Daddy, hungry, hugs!" Stelle immediately reacted, leaning against Su Mo's chest and acting cute with starry eyes. She had just realized that she was a second-generation rich kid!
"..."
Seeing Stelle's complete disregard for face, March 7th, for once, didn't retort.
Looking at the little gray-haired girl's shining eyes, Su Mo tapped her on the head and then looked at Topaz. "How come I don't remember having this much money?"
In Su Mo's memory, ever since he became powerful, he had barely earned any money. Of course, he had never worried about it either. After all, he could create any currency with his own hands, so there was no need to collect it.
"Do you remember the properties under your name?" Topaz thought for a moment and asked.
Since Su Mo had never logged into his account, he probably didn't care about it and might not even know how much property he had to his name. A similar situation had occurred with Herta, so Topaz wasn't too surprised.
"Belobog and the Stelleron King Project," Su Mo said. With his current power, he naturally wouldn't forget things.
In the world of Honkai: Star Rail, he had started two projects and accepted the surrender of one faction. The result of the second project was the Aeon Ruan Mei, and the first project was the Stelleron King Project, established jointly with the IPC and Ruan Mei.
The latter was the foundation for the success of the former.
"The Stelleron King Project was a public welfare activity to clean up the aftermath of the insect swarm and had no income. So the source of the assets you mentioned should be Belobog." Su Mo quickly came to a conclusion.
"That's right! As expected of you!" Topaz immediately nodded.
"According to our initial agreement, the company has been assisting Belobog in reintegrating with the interstellar society and commercializing its resources. Now, thanks to its rich resources and resilient history, this planet has gradually become a wealthy civilization with abundant resources and a thriving tourism industry."
"Although our Interastral Peace Corporation played a role in resource positioning and publicity, the core credit actually goes to Lord Su Mo's subordinates and the members of the Express Crew."
"If it weren't for the system established by Miss Artoria, the execution by Miss Bronya and Lady Cocolia, Miss Seele's round-the-clock patrols, and Miss Stelle's tourism development, Belobog's economy probably wouldn't have flourished so quickly!" After briefly mentioning her own contributions, Topaz thoughtfully listed everyone else's. She even included the Stellaron host's contributions.
Hearing her name, the little gray-haired girl proudly puffed out her chest. "That's right! The museum in Belobog was built by this Galactic Baseballer, and it's been widely acclaimed!"
It had to be said that when it came to unconventional talent, the Stellaron host was indeed very strong.
Whether it was the museum in Belobog or the Aurum Alley in the Luofu, wherever she went, she basically managed to surpass the peak.
If she were to go into business, she might not be able to replicate the IPC, but if it were just replicating Penacony, her talent would be more than enough.
"Good job!" Seeing her smug look, Su Mo patted her head and praised her.
Then, he turned to Topaz and said calmly, "Even so, with Belobog in a state of rebuilding from scratch, it shouldn't have accumulated so much idle cash, right?"
What Topaz had said was enough for Belobog to go from poverty to prosperity, but it wasn't enough for it to accumulate so much capital so quickly. The planet had too many holes to fill now. Any surplus would basically have to be reinvested in construction.
Su Mo believed that with the policies left by Artoria and Bronya's character, they wouldn't do something like deliberately piling up tight funds into his account just to please him.
The only way the funds could be so abundant as to fill his account was if Belobog had received a massive amount of capital in a short period of time.
Capital that was enough to complete the reconstruction with a surplus. And an income of this scale was not something that could be achieved with ordinary mineral resources and tourism.
Hearing Su Mo's sharp question, Topaz scratched her head and said guiltily, "You're right, Lord Su Mo. Although the income from tourism was surprising, it was only the beginning. The reason Belobog developed so rapidly was mainly because a large amount of rare ores were discovered... I know you must already be aware of the will behind it, but please allow me to report the detailed situation to you in private."
She glanced at Sunday, signaling Su Mo to talk privately after they got a room. This coy attitude made Su Mo quickly guess the reason behind it.
The rare ores themselves were certainly not fake, otherwise it would be no different from just giving him money, and even less direct.
But Su Mo had seen before that while Belobog's natural mineral deposits were decent, they hadn't reached the level of treasures. It was impossible for a large amount of rare raw ore to suddenly be discovered.
In other words, someone must have intervened and raised the quality of Belobog's mineral deposits by several grades. And even in the entire galaxy, there were few who could do that.
And this time, was it the Emanator of Preservation, Diamond, who had acted, or was it...?