Chapter 1 What Does This Mean?

Intrepid's face showed astonishment.

"There's no reason you wouldn't understand Interstellar Common Language, right? It means exactly what it says. You're coming with me." Han Xiao stared at Intrepid with interest.

"You must be joking. Go with you? Where would I be going?" Intrepid was puzzled.

"I'm not joking. My help comes at a price. Since you asked for my help, in exchange, you will become a member of the Black Star Army and become my subordinate."

"We never agreed to such a condition!" Intrepid's expression changed drastically, and he suddenly stood up.

"...Why would you think I need to discuss conditions with you?"

Han Xiao raised an eyebrow. "I'm giving you help, so of course I get to decide the conditions. And my condition is you. You belong to me now."

Intrepid's face twitched. He hadn't expected that they were after him!

For a moment, he was filled with mixed emotions, a combination of shock, anger, and even a hint of flattered surprise.

Intrepid's mind was a little chaotic, and he said in a deep voice, "I appreciate your high regard, but I won't sign a life contract."

"Why would you think you have a say in this?"

Han Xiao couldn't help but chuckle.

Unlike combat potential, management ability doesn't have a quantifiable standard, no direct judgment, and can only be assessed based on past performance. This person was indeed talent worth digging up.

Not that he particularly valued him; the army had no shortage of management talent. But since he'd encountered a talent, he might as well take him along. Han Xiao's thinking was in line with China's nine-year compulsory education—since we're here, we should always dig something up.

"...If you force me, I really can't resist, but would the famous Black Star do such a thing as kidnapping?" Intrepid felt helpless and could only try to provoke him with words.

"Tsk, you've misunderstood something."

Han Xiao slowly walked behind Intrepid, pressed his shoulders to make him sit down, and casually said,

"If it were a normal recruitment, I wouldn't force someone who refused. But it's different between us. You intended to take advantage of me and have already received the benefits. And in the future, you'll need to rely on the Black Star Army to secure your position, so the control is on my side... To be precise, I am now your creditor."

As he spoke, Han Xiao turned back to face Intrepid, leaned against the table, and looked down at him condescendingly. He restrained his smile and said lightly,

"Since I'm a creditor, then collecting debts must be done according to my standards, not based on how much money you have in your wallet."

Intrepid was speechless. Even though this was obviously a forced transaction, he had no way to resist the wishes of a big figure like Black Star.

Gritting his teeth, Intrepid said in a low voice, "You want me to work for you; you should have told me this condition earlier, so I wouldn't..."

Han Xiao interrupted him with a faint voice.

"Don't forget, you took the initiative to ask me for help. You didn't ask about the conditions yourself."

Hearing this, Intrepid had nothing to say, and a sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart.

It was supposed to be an implied invitation; how could he openly ask about conditions? Was he supposed to add a note saying you can't force me to work for you? That would be too shameless! Who knew Black Star would take a fancy to him!

Now that things had come to this, Intrepid had no way out. Black Star had completely taken control. If he really insisted on refusing, he had no doubt that the Black Star Army would turn around and cooperate with the big families. The situation was different from when he was running for election. During the election, he had nothing to lose, and even if the situation worsened, nothing would change. But now that he had been elected as the leader and achieved results, Black Star's attitude determined whether his position was secure, and even determined his life, completely taking hold of him.

At this moment, Intrepid had only one thought—

What exactly did you see in me? I'll change, okay!

Seeing Intrepid's troubled expression, Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and deliberately made his tone heavy:

"Just being objective, is the Black Star Army so repulsive to you?"

Hearing this, Intrepid was stunned, frowned, and thought for a while, before finally shaking his head.

Putting aside the resistance brought about by his rebellious psychology, Intrepid had to admit that the Black Star Army's future was indeed much brighter.

Being a leader on an ordinary colony planet was nothing compared to being personally recruited by Black Star.

"I'm not actually opposed to joining the army. It's just that I ran for leader not for my own future, but because I wanted to do something for my home planet..." Intrepid sighed and simply explained his ambition.

He was born into an ordinary family, built his career from scratch, and after becoming successful, he became increasingly dissatisfied with the corruption of his hometown. So he chose this method to try to break the big families' corrupt monopoly on power. He was quite a character with deep feelings for his home planet.

Han Xiao remained noncommittal. "While working for me, you can still continue to be your planet's leader."

"Then I can't leave with you even more. I was just elected, how can I leave?" Intrepid was troubled. "Can you give me a few years to arrange things here?"

"You're not in a position to negotiate with me." Han Xiao shook his head and smiled. "Even if you're not on Laderbudo Star, you can still manage remotely. With my support, even if you're not here, no one can shake your position."

Seeing that he was about to say something, Han Xiao stopped arguing with him, stood up, walked out of the room, and threw down a sentence:

"I don't care how you handle it. I'll give you three days. When the time comes, you'll come with me. That's it."

Watching Han Xiao's departing figure, Intrepid silently sat in his seat, his face growing increasingly bitter.

His worst premonition had come true. It was indeed easy to invite a god but difficult to send him away. He hadn't even warmed up the leader's seat before he had to move his ass and sell himself out.

His heart was so tired, so regretful... He shouldn't have provoked such a big figure.

...

Three days later, the surface spaceport.

Intrepid, carrying his luggage, stood in front of the spaceship's hatch with a complex expression.

Secretly sighing, he turned back to his reluctant female secretary and said helplessly, "I'll have to trouble you while I'm gone."

After three days of arrangements, Intrepid finally decided to leave his trusted female secretary behind as his representative to help him manage Laderbudo Star remotely. With the support of the Black Star Army, her personal safety was guaranteed.

Although he was very unwilling, he had no choice.

The female secretary couldn't help but step forward and give Intrepid a hug. She could only watch helplessly as things turned into the current situation, unable to stop Intrepid from being taken away.

"You... take care of yourself." The female secretary looked worried.

Hearing this, Intrepid couldn't help but smile bitterly. Following Black Star, putting everything else aside, at least he wouldn't have to worry about safety.

Turning back to look at the spaceship, Intrepid took a deep breath, suppressed the complicated emotions in his heart, picked up his luggage, and walked towards the hatch along the ramp, embarking on a future of unknown destiny.

...

The Black Star Army's fleet, hovering in the outer space orbit, left Laderbudo Star. The newly promoted planet leader also left with them. This news was not concealed, and the big families were all extremely surprised when they found out.

Elected for three days, and then he ran away? What kind of operation is this?!

After some investigation, the big families finally found out the situation. They learned that Intrepid had become a member of the Black Star Army and had been taken away, leaving his female secretary to manage remotely, trying to continue to control the leader's position.

With the support of the Black Star Army, the big families couldn't resist Intrepid. But Intrepid's approach didn't follow the rules. Normally, the local ruler of a colony planet couldn't openly join other forces or organizations. This was to prevent the local ruler from being controlled by other forces.

The big families secretly discussed it and simply used their connections to report the matter to the civilization's central government. They couldn't deal with Intrepid, but the civilization government could. As long as they used Intrepid's sensitive identity as a reason, they could activate a special plan to revoke his position as leader and replace him with an officer parachuted in to manage.

In their eyes, although the Black Star Army was powerful, it wasn't qualified to interfere in the internal affairs of a galactic civilization. This method was worth a try.

Since they couldn't afford to offend Black Star, they could only make a fuss in this regard.

This civilization's progress had stagnated for many years, and many officials were just warming their seats. They were easy to deal with. The big families couldn't do anything about Intrepid, but they were quite confident in winning over the parachuted special envoy leader. The situation wouldn't be worse than it was now.

The central government of this civilization was immediately troubled when they learned about this situation.

This violated their regulations, but they couldn't afford to offend Han Xiao. After discussing it, they could only take measures against Intrepid and give him a choice—either give up his identity in the army and come back to be a good leader, or give up the position of Laderbudo Star leader that he had just obtained not long ago.

Intrepid did want to go back, but he had no choice and was unwilling to give up the position of planet leader. He could only report the whole situation to Han Xiao, who was on the same ship.

Since he had dug the person up, Han Xiao didn't mind increasing the loyalty of the new recruit. He turned around and made a call to the Crimson Dynasty.

This call was very effective. A few days later, this galactic civilization silently withdrew its order, acting as if nothing had happened, and acquiesced to Intrepid's identity.

This time, the Laderbudo families were completely helpless. Black Star's power made them powerless and obediently accepted their fate.

This galactic civilization was a vassal of the Crimson Dynasty and accepted the dynasty's management. With Han Xiao's status in the dynasty, a phone call was enough to have the dynasty come forward to solve this problem.

However, Han Xiao was also clear that this trick was only useful for civilizations that were vassals of the dynasty. If it were a neutral, normal galactic civilization, they probably wouldn't buy his story.

Outsiders arbitrarily interfering in the internal management of a civilization had the suspicion of supporting a puppet. This violated the Interstellar Common Law and touched the bottom line of the civilization. As the dynasty's Beyond Grade A ally, his status was indeed detached and deeply respected by galactic civilizations. But respecting him was one thing; it didn't mean that civilizations would retreat and compromise without principles.

However, the vassal civilizations within the dynasty were different. The political system was deliberately formed to be loose and only followed the lead of the Crimson Dynasty. The extent of this matter wasn't enough to make the dynasty disregard his face.

The dynasty wouldn't affect the relationship between the two sides for such a small matter. This could also be considered Han Xiao's privilege in the Crimson Dynasty.

...

Black Star's flagship, living cabin, Han Xiao's office.

Intrepid had been on the ship for a while and had adjusted his emotions. Now that things had come to this, he had also accepted his fate. Since he couldn't resist, he might as well enjoy it. Coming to a completely new environment, he decided to work hard for the army.

Today, he finally received Han Xiao's summons. Coming to the office, the first thing he said to Han Xiao was to correct his position and ask about his work.

"Your Excellency Black Star, what do you need me to do for the army?"

Han Xiao put down the communicator in his hand, looked up at him, and smiled. "You started from scratch and have good management skills, management skills, and business acumen. I have a job related to a consortium for you."

"This is my old profession." Intrepid breathed a sigh of relief.

"Before that, let's meet your future superior first."

As he spoke, Han Xiao pressed the communicator, and a remote projection appeared in the room. It was Sylvia.

"I'm Sylvia, the chief affairs officer of the Black Star Army. You're the Intrepid that the teacher mentioned?"

Sylvia sized Intrepid up and down, her eyes scrutinizing.

"Yes."

"Well, I've already seen your resume. Your ability is not bad." Sylvia nodded and said politely.

At this moment, Han Xiao tapped the table, causing the two to look over.

"Alright, let's talk about business. I'm preparing to establish an affiliated consortium, which is still in the preparatory stage and will invest a lot of the army's talent."

The Black Star Army had developed to its current state and was too redundant and huge. It needed to reform its structure. After thinking about it, Han Xiao decided to develop some subordinate forces around the army as the core.

The first subordinate force was to use the resources of the Black Star Army to create an affiliated organization with pure consortium attributes, which would be more convenient in terms of commercial operations.

This idea was partly inspired by the example of the Endless Financial Group's many sub-brands, and on the other hand, it was also to deal with the competition from the Endless Financial Group.

The methods of the Endless Financial Group had exposed the weaknesses of the alliance of interests. Therefore, Han Xiao wanted to establish an affiliated consortium, integrate the army's complicated affiliated businesses, digest the business channels of its partners, and turn them into its own businesses. In this way, he could curb the Endless Financial Group's malicious acquisition methods and compete with them.

Sylvia nodded, looked at Intrepid, and said in a capable tone:

"I'm temporarily serving as the highest leader of the consortium. Although you are a newcomer, you are a talent personally recruited by the army commander, so I'll give you a chance. You don't need to start from the bottom, but directly lead a team and compete with other teams. As long as your performance ranks at the top, I'll give you a high-level management position in the consortium... Whether you can be promoted depends on your own performance."

The army had a lot of talent, and Intrepid was just a newcomer. Han Xiao wouldn't let him parachute directly into the management. Only by proving his ability step by step could he be promoted.

"I understand, that's very fair."

Intrepid nodded calmly. He had a lot of confidence in business and wasn't afraid of competition.

After thinking about it, he couldn't help but ask:

"Then what's the name of this affiliated consortium?"

Hearing this, Han Xiao raised an eyebrow and a mischievous smile appeared on his face.

"Let's call it... Sprout Financial Group."