Zero tried to put himself in the other party's position and instantly understood the thoughts and decisions of the person and the entire family.
They were the most powerful family in the galaxy, the favored children of the star sea. Ordinary people might spend a thousand or ten thousand years of effort and still not stand on the same starting line as them.
After leaving the mother's body and letting out that first cry after being slapped by the doctor, that moment would probably be one of the few times in their lives when they felt pain.
From the moment they were born, they were destined to live freely and boldly.
Would people from such a family be simple characters?
Would their sons place all their hopes on becoming his adopted sons? Would their daughters grow up reading love fairy tales and only chase romance?
Whether sincere or fake, what they truly wanted was nothing more than profit.
Compared to the vague promise between ancestors separated by a thousand years, what they urgently wanted was a closer relationship that could not be separated.
That was exactly why this family was so persistent.
Of course, understanding was one thing, but Zero would never agree to them.
After thinking for a moment, he realized the biggest difference between this person and Hua was gender.
He decided to start from stereotypes.
In his eyes, gender and age were never problems.
But for business partners who insisted on tying themselves to him, this was a perfect reason to refuse them.
Personality could change, but how could gender change?
"You are very good, it's just that I think women are more careful and better at empathizing with others."
"Just losing because of gender?" The man sounded regretful. "That's really too unfortunate."
After the guest left, Pom Pom struggled onto tiptoe and reached up to tug on the corner of Zero's clothes.
Their conversation had contained an overwhelming amount of information, leaving the conductor dizzy. Still unwilling to believe reality, Pom Pom stammered for confirmation,
"What exactly did you make me sign just now? What do you mean by equity transfer agreement?"
Zero crouched down and said to Pom Pom, "I'm helping Akivili take back what belongs to Them."
Pom Pom put both hands on its hips and puffed up angrily.
"Don't use lines from novels to brush Pom Pom off!"
Zero laughed, "It's true."
He patiently explained to Pom Pom, "Look, if it weren't for the Astral Express, do you think the company could have obtained the creations of the Preservation Aeon?"
Pom Pom was deeply shocked for a moment.
This was clearly an accident caused by the train malfunctioning and going off course.
They smashed the Aeon's wall, so why would Its followers give them shares?
The worst and most unpredictable Nameless Pom Pom had ever seen was Akivili.
So it had never heard the twisted logic Zero was using, nor could it agree with his thinking.
Pom Pom said in confusion, "It shouldn't be like this."
Seeing this, Zero continued, "But Pom Pom, even without those stones, the Interastral Peace Corporation should have taken the initiative to offer shares. Without Akivili, would they have their current scale?"
Pom Pom thought hard for a long time but couldn't come up with a rebuttal. It could only say seriously, "Akivili and the train don't need credit points, and they don't need shares."
"You making decisions on your own like this… They will be angry."
Zero sighed, "It's exactly because I know They'll be angry that I only gave the Nameless one percent of the shares…"
The remaining eight percent, which the shareholder claimed was transferred to the Galaxy Rangers, was actually meant for Zero.
He had two plans.
Either Akivili and the Galaxy Rangers would split it equally, or he would respect his friend's wishes and give it all to the Galaxy Rangers.
Zero understood Akivili, and he knew his friend's attitude toward money.
Before he came to the Astral Express, he had given Akivili several sums of money.
Even when Akivili spent the budget freely at that time, They had never touched that money.
Zero could not bear to see people around him suffer.
Even Aeons were no exception.
Could he really only give one percent? Of course that was impossible.
He decided to settle the ownership of the shares before he died. Otherwise Akivili and Lan, those two Aeons who didn't care about money, would definitely keep deferring to each other until it turned into a complete mess.
In the end, it would only benefit the Interastral Peace Corporation.
Besides, the shares were exchanged for stones.
The stones were created by the Astral Express crashing into the wall, and this part of the assets originally belonged to Akivili.
Zero was willing to use a small portion of the stones to make a deal with the company…
Those fanatics of the Amber Lord would have to kowtow to him and Akivili several times.
Besides, without Akivili, could IPC employees have spread throughout the star sea?
Zero carefully watched Pom Pom's expression. Seeing that it still seemed unwilling to accept the shares, he decided to escalate the situation,
"How about letting the Interastral Peace Corporation have one more honorary director?"
Pom Pom blinked slowly and asked uncertainly, "Are you joking?"
Zero smiled without answering.
Pom Pom, "..."
That didn't sound like a joke at all.
After all, that guest had even talked about waiting for Eric to rule the star sea.
As if trying to convince itself, and also trying to convince Eric, it muttered, "One percent of the shares… that should be okay, right?"
When Zero served as Marshal, he had many affairs to handle, and he only read reports submitted by his own Ministry of Finance.
When Pom Pom asked about the company, he could only give a very conservative estimate.
"I don't know, but I think the yearly income should at least be more than the taxes of one planet."
"Pom Pom, your train pots can now be used once and thrown away."
"As for star-destroying ships… I suggest ordering from the Xianzhou. If you contact the company, you'll have to wait in line for a long time."
"As for vacation planets…"
"With the Nameless holding company shares, you can be considered among the most powerful in the star sea. Naturally you can vacation on the company's resort planets."
Pom Pom's eyes widened as it stood frozen in place.
If before it had been alarmed by the words "rule the star sea," now it couldn't think about anything else.
Zero couldn't resist and took the opportunity to reach out and rub the conductor's ears.
Not bad. The feeling was more comfortable than petting his Labrador.
Pom Pom was like an old device running at an extremely slow speed. It froze for a long time, and only after Zero stroked from the ear tips upward did it belatedly cry out, "What?!"
The conductor stomped angrily, "Eric, you've gone too far!"
Zero calmly withdrew his hand.
Compared to wasting words and time resolving conflicts, he preferred changing the subject.
"Pom Pom, the future of the Nameless is now yours to decide."
"Do you want Akivili to become an honorary director, or will you accept this one percent of shares on Their behalf and keep it secret?"
Pom Pom completely forgot that it could refuse and only focused on the two options Zero offered.
It opened its mouth, then said angrily, "I choose the second one!"
The conductor glared at Zero, cheeks puffed up in anger, looking very cute.
Before leaving, it did not forget to leave a harsh warning, "If Akivili finds out about this, They will definitely be angry!"
Zero watched Pom Pom leave and then returned to his room.
It wasn't a big problem. By that time, he would probably already be gone.
He originally wanted to use the Astral Express to locate the Imaginary Tree, but he hadn't expected Qlipoth to be building a subspace crystal wall nearby.
Mobilizing weapons could break through the Aeon's creation and reach the Imaginary Tree, but that would cause too much commotion.
If his subordinates noticed something was wrong, how would he find release?
To be safe, Zero decided to borrow Akivili's power.
If he couldn't use the Astral Express, then he would mobilize a ship and bring Akivili along, using the power of Trailblaze to reach the Imaginary Tree.
Akivili had said that the Nameless could tolerate the unknown but would never submit to the unknowable. No matter how dangerous the road ahead was, they would never give up.
Zero was very worried about this.
He couldn't change other people's thinking, so he placed his hopes on the item "Gnosis."
It just happened that he could use it one more time. Before departure, he would make a contract with Akivili, and after they arrived, he would knock the god unconscious and let the train or ship return along the original route.
However… this plan seemed very unfriendly toward Akivili.
Zero tried putting himself in Akivili's position again.
If Akivili used him to reach some place, then knocked him unconscious and sent him away, and when he woke up the god was gone…
That feeling would be no different from Hua bringing some yellow-haired punk riding a ghost-fire motorcycle in front of him and saying, once the punk finished training and came back, they would handle Xianzhou affairs together.
No, to be accurate, this was far more serious than Hua finding that punk.
Just thinking about it made Zero's blood pressure rise.
What he was planning to do… was somewhat cruel to Akivili.
So he could only try to compensate Them as much as possible.
The first thing Zero thought of was the Interastral Peace Corporation shares.
The Galaxy Rangers had the Xianzhou Alliance backing them. What about the Nameless? They only had an unreliable Aeon who would spend the train's entire budget.
Especially since this Aeon had friends all across the star sea. Whenever a friend ran into trouble, They would help.
After thinking it over repeatedly, Zero decided not to leave shares for Lan and to leave all the remaining shares to Akivili.
Nine percent of shares. Even if Akivili spent half and threw away the other half, it would be enough until the star sea collapsed.
Akivili wouldn't waste the money recklessly, but would donate it to those in need.
Rounded up, it counted as him and Akivili doing good deeds together. Not a loss.
As for who would sign the agreement…
Zero quickly came up with an idea. He began appearing frequently in the train's public areas, trying to rebuild Pom Pom's favor.
Perhaps that shareholder's words about "ruling the star sea" had frightened the conductor. Whenever Pom Pom saw him, there always seemed to be endless work to do.
Either cleaning the cars or going to the warehouse to inventory supplies.
Zero patiently built goodwill. He catered to Pom Pom's tastes and specially prepared the foods Pom Pom liked, feeding it several times in a row until it finally agreed to talk to him again.
Seeing the food, Pom Pom struggled to look away.
If Akivili hadn't specifically told it… if it didn't trust Akivili…
Pom Pom stared at Zero and said, "Speaking of which, Akivili's birthday is coming soon."
Zero froze for a moment.
When Aeons and subordinates celebrated Zero's birthday, he had asked Akivili.
Akivili had thought for a moment and given a date.
They said Their birthday was the day before Thanksgiving.
Back then, Zero had half believed it and half doubted it.
Was it because Akivili didn't want him to spend Xun-di celebrating Their birthday? So They deliberately said a date one year away, thinking that with his busy work he would forget?
Maybe it really was a coincidence? Or maybe one day Akivili thought it was interesting? After some years, Akivili began celebrating Their birthday according to that date.
Pom Pom thought for a moment and said, "You could tell Them about this on Their birthday."
Zero nodded, "A birthday… I'll think about it carefully."
He thought about it. If he told Akivili on Their birthday, They would definitely be angry.
Then after he died, if Akivili learned about the eight percent shares, They would be angry again.
Better to hide it first.
This way he could avoid arguments and let his friend have a happy birthday.
Of course, mainly to avoid pointless arguments.
Zero believed he couldn't change Akivili's views, so he tried to avoid disagreements as much as possible.
This was also the method he usually used when getting along with people close to him.
Zero had already picked out a gift for Akivili in advance. A few days later, the Nameless returned to the train one after another.
Compared to the others, Akivili looked especially conspicuous. They were hugging a coat, as if wrapping something inside it.
The Aeon looked left and right, moving step by step. When Their peripheral vision caught Zero, They sucked in a breath and hurriedly stepped back.
Such clumsy disguise made it impossible for Zero to pretend not to notice.
He walked over to the Aeon and asked, "What's wrong?"
Akivili stopped, carefully cradling whatever was inside the coat, and sighed, "Don't ask. You'll be angry."
Zero felt puzzled.
He clearly had a good temper. Except when dealing with non-humans and yellow-haired punks, he never got angry.
Zero thought for a moment and quickly reached a conclusion.
"You met the Abundance Aeon."
Akivili looked defeated and had no choice but to show what was wrapped in the coat.
Zero, "..."
He quickly glanced at the dozen or so golden fruits on the coat and then looked back at Akivili.
Zero said calmly, "I don't hate that Aeon."
In the end, it was just that he had made the wrong decision.
If he hadn't been thinking about getting benefits for free back then, so many things wouldn't have happened.
Compared to immortality, the Vidyadhara cycle of rebirth suited him better.
Weren't the Vidyadhara also a kind of eternal life?
If humans received the blessing of Permanence, would they gain immortality like the Vidyadhara?
Unfortunately the Permanence Aeon had died too early, and he had no way to verify the questions in his mind.
Zero came back to his thoughts and suggested to Akivili, "It's better to put them away, so no one does something stupid."
He paused and added, "Oh, and to prevent children from eating them by mistake."
Especially that troublemaker kid named Bacchus.
Akivili nodded repeatedly. They hurried back to Their room to store the fruits, then went to find the conductor.
"Pom Pom, how has Eric been lately?"
Pom Pom multitasked, sweeping the floor while carefully choosing its words. After a long time it only managed one sentence, "…He seems popular. Quite a few people come to the train looking for him."
"I knew it, it must be people he knew before." Akivili frowned and asked unwillingly, "Has Eric talked with the other Nameless?"
Pom Pom shook its head.
Akivili looked disappointed.
It had almost been a year… If ordinary people met suitable partners, they would probably already be dating or married by now.
But his friend? Not only had he never dated, aside from Akivili, Pom Pom, and Bacchus, he never started conversations unless necessary.
Akivili stayed silent for a long time, then took out a communication device.
They refused to believe it.
This time, surely the Aeon of Erudition could give an answer. Even if the Aeon couldn't, They could at least introduce a Genius Society member.