As the group stepped outside the hotel, a stern Silvermane Guard barked, "You there! Commander Bronya is waiting for you downstairs. Go meet her at once, and don't try any funny business!"
Dan Heng said calmly, "Mr. Shen Wan was right after all. It seems Cocolia has already been corrupted by the Stellaron, or she wouldn't have resorted to such shameful betrayal!"
"Huh? Wait, what? What betrayal?" asked March 7th, with her characteristic clueless innocence.
"If it weren't a betrayal, Belobog's official personnel wouldn't be treating us with such hostility. This can only be an order from the Supreme Guardian, Cocolia," Stelle chimed in right on cue, proving her intellect surpassed that of March 7th.
"So what do we do now?" March 7th panicked a little.
"It's all the same to me. It just depends on whether you folks are willing to risk your lives against the local authorities, or if the Astral Express crew, in pursuit of peaceful development, prefers to find a peaceful resolution," Shen Wan said, completely unfazed. After all, he had the ability to upend the whole table—why worry so much?
"Hey, stop chattering away and get down there to see Lady Bronya!" Unable to take it any longer, the Silvermane Guard interrupted before the trio could reply to Shen Wan.
The group walked down the stairs and spotted the very figure who had been arguing with Cocolia yesterday.
"Hey, aren't you that person from Qlipoth Fort yesterday..."
The figure seemed not to recognize them at all, speaking with absolute impartiality, "I am Bronya Rand, acting commander of the Silvermane Guards. In the noble and supreme name of the Amber Lord, and by order of Supreme Guardian Cocolia Rand, I have come to apprehend the infiltrators who intend to incite a rebellion."
"Here, in my capacity as acting Supreme Guardian, I temporarily strip you of your rights to movement and speech. When the tribunal tries you, you will be given the opportunity to present your defense."
Bronya concluded her speech with a sharp, commanding summary: "Give up pointless resistance and come with me."
Upon hearing this, March 7th immediately retorted with indignation, "Hold on, this isn't what we agreed on! She clearly said she wanted to discuss important matters with us."
Hearing this, Bronya didn't reply. Instead, she signaled with her eyes for the surrounding Silvermane Guards to close in and make the arrest.
March 7th let out a despairing sigh, "Ugh, we're getting arrested again. We get captured every three worlds."
Dan Heng couldn't resist a jab at March 7th, "That's because you always act on impulse without any plan." (How harsh—how could he blame our dear March 7th?)
Yet March 7th quickly put her brain to work. "I'm growing, you know! I've got a plan now, I've got it..." Her gaze drifted to a narrow alleyway near the hotel guarded by the Silvermane Guards.
"Sigh, get ready. Draw inferences from one instance—" Dan Heng quickly caught March 7th's drift. He readied himself to slip away and initiated the Astral Express crew's secret code.
"Half-hearted!" Stelle, who had just boarded the Express, still looked bewildered, assuming they were playing a game of chain idioms.
"Hey, that's actually a secret code on the Express! We'll make our move when we count down to 'one'."
"First strike?" Stelle misheard it as 'first strike' and decided that must be what it meant—well, a kid not even a year old was bound to be like this.
Dan Heng continued the special countdown: "A sovereign's command admits no second—"
"Rely on the city and borrow one!"
At the sound of "one," Stelle instantly drew her baseball bat and swept it backward, beating back the guards behind her. Dan Heng also whipped out Cloud-Piercer and swept at the legs of the guards beside him, felling a whole row of them.
Seeing that slacking off was no longer an option, Shen Wan sprang into action. Raising his left hand, a virtual screen materialized before him. His fingers flew across the screen at lightning speed, and in less than a second, a swarm of drones materialized out of thin air. They unleashed a ferocious barrage of firepower, achieving total suppression and leaving the guards with no time to capture anyone as they were forced to scramble and counter the drones' bullets and lasers.
Seeing the guards pinned down by the drones, Shen Wan shouted, "Let's go!"
The group broke through the guards' encirclement and dashed into the narrow alley.
As soon as everyone cleared the perimeter, the drones rapidly vanished right before everyone's eyes.
Seeing all the drones disappear, Bronya immediately hurried over to check on the guards injured by the drones. A short moment later, she let out a long sigh of relief: among the several casualties lying on the ground, not a single one was dead, and even their injuries were only minor.
"It seems they truly had no intention of hurting anyone," remarked Pela, the intelligence officer standing nearby.
"Resistance is still resistance. And to think they actually charged blindly into the dangerous Fragmentum—it seems Mother's judgment was correct," Bronya shook her head, stood up, and continued, "Everyone, secure all checkpoints in the Outlying Snow Plains. If you encounter them again, you are authorized to shoot on sight."
From their appearance, the Silvermane Guards' firearms resembled medieval matchlocks, but in reality, aside from being just as slow to reload, their firepower was vastly superior because the ammunition they used was extremely special. The official Pathstriders used a unique method to store Path Energy within specially crafted metal bullets. Though immensely powerful, this also meant the ammunition could not be mass-produced. When Bronya authorized the use of live fire, it meant the young woman was truly angry and no longer cared about the consumption of strategic resources like ammunition.
Meanwhile, having broken through the encirclement, the group entered the Fragmentum-corroded Outlying Snow Plains.
After clearing out a wave of Fragmentum monsters, March 7th started celebrating prematurely: "Ha, look, they really didn't follow us in."
Stelle launched into her daily routine of teasing March 7th, "That's only thanks to Mr. Shen Wan's drones providing cover; otherwise, breaking through the encirclement wouldn't have been nearly this easy."
March 7th replied with brimming vitality, "Luck is part of one's strength, you know!"
"All right, cut the chatter. Mr. Shen Wan, what do you think we should do now?" Dan Heng, the exterior brain of the trio, gave up thinking altogether.
"If you're asking me, why don't we—" Shen Wan pulled up his virtual screen again and summoned a swarm of drones, unleashing a furious bombardment on a small shack not far away.
Before long, a disheveled figure scrambled out from inside. Taking a closer look, wasn't this our good old Uncle Cold-Legs?
"Yo, isn't this old Sampo? What do you think our best next move should be?" Shen Wan flashed a cheeky, mischievous grin as he looked at Sampo.
"Uh, I do have a plan, though I'm not sure if I should share it." Feeling the weight of Shen Wan's gaze, Sampo started playing hard to get once again.
"Spit it out," Stelle said, drawing her baseball bat and tapping it against a roadside stone once more.
"I know a way down to the Underworld. Right now, the biggest problem is that neither Cocolia herself nor the other Silvermane Guards believe us. As far as I know, that's because information about the Stellaron hasn't been made public. If we can find documents proving that there's a problem with the Stellaron, we'll naturally win their trust."
"And just how do you know there are documents about the Stellaron down in the Underworld?" Dan Heng—the trio's brain—came back online.
"Heh, let's not sweat the small stuff right now, shall we?" Seeming to realize a flaw in his own words, Sampo began playing dumb.