"First, assign Annie to the T2 Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship No. 2 to oversee the construction of the T2 Black Rhinoceros-class interstellar heavy assault frigate.
Her future assignments will depend on her performance.
As for her clan members, it seems she wants to observe us for a while longer.
Let her observe then.
It works out since we're not in urgent need of technical personnel at the moment," Zhao Chen instructed Secretary Officer Lilith.
Under Zhao Chen's successive "sugar-coated bullets," Annie ultimately chose to work for him.
"Understood," Secretary Officer Lilith noted the matter.
"Later, Lilith and I will take a Zero Blizzard and a T2 Black Rhinoceros-class interstellar heavy assault frigate back to the North Star Starship Military Academy. Charlotte, you continue handling matters here," Zhao Chen instructed.
"Alright," Charlotte acknowledged.
Currently, Charlotte and Lilith essentially served as Zhao Chen's right and left hands. With these two around, managing this fleet of fewer than thirty starships was more than sufficient.
As for why Zhao Chen was in such a hurry to return to the North Star Starship Military Academy, it was naturally to check his assessment credits after completing his tasks.
That was directly related to the Annual Mission!
Zhao Chen transferred from the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship to the long-unseen Zero Blizzard. Looking at the somewhat aged bridge, he felt a bit unaccustomed to it.
Before departing, he glanced at the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser still under construction, hoping this T3 starship could enter service as soon as possible. Then, this T3 starship could become his flagship.
Before setting sail back to the North Star Starship Military Academy, Zhao Chen opened his System Interface.
[Host: Zhao Chen
Occupation: Top Starship Engineer
Special Attributes: Fleet Luck Bonus, Eye of Insight
Points: 5720
Task Points: 34
Starship Count: 19
Mission: Annual Mission
Warehouse: T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship Technical Blueprint, T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser Technical Blueprint, T2 Black Knight-class Light Interstellar Combat Mech Blueprint...]
After the System Task rewards from that Escort Mission, Zhao Chen's System Points and Task Points had reached an unprecedented peak.
The System Points also included the 'Starship Points Income' from system rewards over the past few months, though it was still at a steady trickle stage.
"The T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship will be a key firepower output point in the future, but the current priority is completing the Quarterly Mission before the end of March.
So, I'll temporarily hold off on construction plans for now and revisit it after March.
The current Task Points and System Points are more than enough to exchange for T2-level starships, but T3-level starships are still somewhat challenging.
Moreover, constructing a T3-level starship now would require massive investments in resources and raw materials, which the current Fierce Dragon Fleet cannot support," Zhao Chen mentally calculated the fleet's upcoming construction plans.
Ultimately, Zhao Chen decided not to exchange for new System Starships for now.
While completing the current construction plans, he could produce a small number of T2 Black Knight-class Light Interstellar Combat Mechs.
These interstellar combat mechs could be deployed on starships and might prove useful in certain situations.
After pondering these matters, Zhao Chen closed the system interface and contentedly entered the hibernation pod.
When he opened his eyes again, they had already arrived in the outer region of the North Star Starship Military Academy.
The two starships began to dock at the starport berth Zhao Chen had reserved.
Upon returning, Zhao Chen immediately contacted Zhao Wan'er and Li Wei.
But unexpectedly, Zhao Wan'er was still unreachable this time.
"Could this girl have gotten into trouble again?" Zhao Chen muttered to himself.
However, Li Wei's communication was quickly connected.
"Old Zhao, you're back! I heard you completed a military mission and directly earned triple the assessment points for the fourth-year academic year!" On the video screen, Li Wei looked at Zhao Chen excitedly.
Since a student skipping a grade wasn't much of a secret, basically everyone would know about it soon enough.
"What about Zhao Wan'er? Why can't I reach her?" Zhao Chen inquired.
"Your sister? She joined an interstellar mission organized by the Academy—a joint interstellar mission with the Tianyao Noble Starship Military Academy.
It includes fourth-year, fifth-year, and even sixth-year students from both academies.
Even your sister's senior, Su Lan, is participating; it's led by the vice deans of both academies.
It's said that those who perform exceptionally well in this Academy interstellar mission will receive a T3 starship as a reward!
The top five can also get brand-new T2 starships as rewards!" Li Wei said enviously.
Being rewarded with a T3 starship was something even noble children would greatly envy.
After all, a T3 starship cost hundreds of millions of Star Coins, an amount even ordinary noble families could hardly afford.
So, this girl went off to do an Academy starship mission, aiming for that T3 interstellar warship or a new T2 interstellar warship.
Her competitive nature must have been spurred by my sudden rapid progress, Zhao Chen thought to himself.
"Oh, right... there's something... my sister..." Li Wei hadn't even finished speaking.
A video window popped up on Zhao Chen's end, showing Vice Dean Hong of the North Star Starship Military Academy.
"Li Wei, Vice Dean Hong is contacting me on my end. I'll hang up first." Zhao Chen ended the call.
Li Wei looked at the closed communication window helplessly.
Ever since half a year ago, his friend had been extremely busy, sometimes not meeting for months at a time.
He had originally wanted to tell him that his sister had come and hoped they could meet.
After all, his sister was still trying to find out the identity of the person who had made the deal with her back then.
Li Wei was quite principled and had kept his mouth shut all along.
In truth, he was suffering inside—he really wanted to tell everyone that his friend
was the starship designer who developed the popular T1 Wolf Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer!
Although he didn't know why Zhao Chen wanted to keep it a secret, Li Wei still chose to keep it for him.
So, he could only let his sister down.
Sis, it's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that Zhao Chen won't let me say it.
At this moment, Zhao Chen remained unaware that his business partner, Li Yaqi, had already arrived at the North Star Starship Military Academy in her quest to "uncover the truth."
Upon receiving Vice Dean Hong's communication, requesting him to come to the vice dean's office as soon as possible for a meeting, the matter naturally concerned his overstepping of authority.
Soon, Zhao Chen arrived at Vice Dean Hong's office.
He pressed the electronic doorbell at the entrance.
"Identity confirmed as student Zhao Chen, an invited guest. Please enter," a mechanical female voice came from the side of the door, which then opened.
Vice Dean Hong was sitting on the sofa inside the office and waved at Zhao Chen as he entered.
But as Zhao Chen approached, he noticed that across from the sofa where Vice Dean Hong sat, there was another person looking at him with a smile.
The eldest daughter of the Chu Family, Chu Xuan!
"Long time no see, Captain Zhao Chen."