"It really is a frozen wasteland." March 7th looked out across the vast, snow-covered landscape.
"It really is a frozen wasteland." A female voice rang out as Stelle spoke.
"Are you a broken record player?" March 7th was quite indignant at being parroted.
Stelle said nothing, just balled her right hand into a fist and quietly crept up beside March 7th, then hurled the snow she had just packed into a ball right at March 7th's face.
"Hey?!" Caught completely off guard by Stelle's sneaky behavior, March 7th took a faceful of snow.
And then, things escalated.
"Stelle, slow down, I can't keep up with you!"
"Nyah nyah nyah, no way! You definitely wanted to smack me in the face with snow just like I did to you!"
Just stepping off the spaceship, Dan Heng watched the two bickering and chasing each other, and pressed a hand to his bridge: "Sigh..." That single sigh seemed to express all the exhaustion in his heart.
"All right, cut it out. Our priority right now is to find a human settlement." Dan Heng put on his stoic face.
Hearing Dan Heng's voice, March 7th abandoned her offensive against Stelle: "Hey, in this vast expanse of white, which way are we supposed to go?"
The reliable Professor Dan Heng chimed in: "According to the coordinates, our destination is just ahead."
"What are we waiting for, then? Let's get moving!" March 7th was full of energy.
The three of them stopped horseplaying and instead walked forward step by step, chatting and laughing—well, mostly March 7th and Stelle were chatting and laughing.
"Stelle, this is your very first Trailblaze, you know. If you have any questions, make sure to ask your seniors. Don't keep them bottled up inside." At this moment, March 7th actually spoke like a grown-up, silently flexing her status as a "senior" over Stelle.
"Oh, dear Senior March, might I ask why we couldn't just land inside the city? Weren't there clear coordinates?" Stelle asked with wide, innocent eyes.
"Ah, well, that, uh, hehehe..." March 7th suffered a total system crash.
"We don't understand the intentions of this world's rulers, nor do we know the state of its ordinary citizens. Landing directly inside the city would inevitably cause a panic, and getting into a conflict would make things even more troublesome. It's better to land outside and walk over." Dan Heng took over the conversation.
"Right, exactly, that's what I meant," March 7th immediately put in, acting as though she hadn't just been completely at a loss for words a second ago.
"So Little March had no idea either, huh?" Even though she had only just been born (bush), Stelle still possessed enough adult intelligence to land a critical hit on March 7th.
"Ugh, as annoying as that is, I can't even refute it." March 7th took the L like a champ.
Not long into the journey, Stelle gave up entirely: "Teacher Dan Heng, how much farther do we have to walk? Didn't you say the destination was just ahead? Why aren't we there yet?"
"Actually, that's because you and March spent the whole time fooling around instead of making any real progress. Now that you're tired out from playing, you feel like you've been walking forever." Dan Heng ruthlessly exposed Stelle's lie.
"Th-that's not my fault! It's always March interrupting my progress!" Stelle started deflecting the blame.
"Huh? You're passing the buck to me now? Didn't you literally just spend the whole time trying to shove another snowball in my face?" March 7th refused to take the fall and tried to bounce the massive, murky burden right back where it came from.
In truth, what Dan Heng was thinking at that moment was: *Finally, someone who can keep up with March's antics.*
That thought didn't last long, however, because Dan Heng felt a strange gaze fixed on them and immediately said, "Stop messing around. Someone's watching us." Hearing this, March 7th and Stelle, still knowing when to be serious, both turned to look in the direction Dan Heng was staring. It was a steep cliff by the side of the road.
"Clap, clap, clap." A round of applause echoed from the other side of the cliff. A young man with black hair and black eyes, dressed in a Chinese-style suit, walked out.
"You're quite cautious. You noticed me even when I didn't make a sound." A clear voice rang out as the young man began to speak.
"Who are you?" Dan Heng did not lower his guard. He couldn't read this young man at all; standing before him felt instinctively like facing some primordial beast. Even though the other party was not displaying any overt strength or threatening aura, Dan Heng just felt that something was off.
"Greetings, members of the Astral Express. Would you mind adding another traveling companion?" Shen Wan didn't mind Dan Heng's wary gaze at all, offering a friendly invitation instead. According to the memories he was rapidly forgetting, the trio of the Express were about to meet the Silvermane Guards and get "invited" into Belobog. Since they were all heading to Belobog anyway, why not carpool?
Besides, it might even save them from getting scammed by Sampo.
"Hello. Mind telling us how you know who we are?" Although the stranger was extending an olive branch, Dan Heng was no naive innocent like March 7th or Stelle; if anything, his vigilance only increased.
"Who in the universe hasn't heard of the illustrious Astral Express? Let me introduce myself, I'm Shen Wan." Shen Wan had no intention of hiding his identity—he was an Emanator, what was there to hide? Even if the Express belonged to the Orderly Good faction, and even if the Trio actually harbored some ulterior motives, they were no match for him anyway.
"Whoa, you're the Sage?" March 7th was the first to react.
"Huh?" Shen Wan pulled a blank stare. What on earth? A sage? My last name isn't even Hu.
"So you're Mr. Shen Wan of Genius Society #50, my apologies. I am Dan Heng, a passenger of the Express, this is passenger March 7th, and that's Stelle." Although he had never seen a photograph of Shen Wan, surely anyone in the universe daring to impersonate a Genius wouldn't be someone the Trio could handle. Thinking this, Dan Heng finally relaxed his guard a fraction and introduced them.
Stelle looked slightly lost, wondering if he was someone on the same level as Herta. Why wasn't he a cute girl like Herta? Did Nous pick Geniuses regardless of gender? What a letdown. Even so, she forced herself to perk up and said, "Hello, I am the Galactic Baseballer—Stelle."
Before her voice had even faded, March 7th dragged Stelle away and covered her eyes in utter mortification. Why was this Stelle so shameless? She hadn't acted like this back on Herta Space Station or aboard the Express at all.
Dan Heng was quite curious about Shen Wan as well, and for the first time ever, he took the initiative to strike up a conversation: "So, Mr. Shen Wan, what brings you to Jarilo-VI? Could it be that your next target civilization is—"
"Yep. And since you guys showed up, I suppose I won't have to bother dealing with this world's Stellaron crisis." Shen Wan began radiating pure slacker energy.
*"Ding! I knew the host was a lazy mutt."* The system chimed in to throw shade.
Dan Heng continued, "Are you planning to pose as a Belobog civilian again this time?"
"Probably not. Now that I finally have companions, what kind of jerk abandons his friends to act alone?" Shen Wan actually never liked pretending to be an ordinary civilian. After all, once you entered the information age, forging an identity became a huge hassle. Even though he had hacked together some decent hacking skills, trying to breach a system and forge a civilian identity that could withstand thorough scrutiny was still a pain. He always had to fall back on the templates he'd compiled before, and doing that cost him precious brain cells.
The four of them continued onward, until they spotted a moving clump of snow... To be continued.