"So slow, what is Stelle even doing?"
At the Golden Hour, in front of the Clockboy statue, the already assembled Express crew was waiting for a certain stray Stellaron Hunter.
Looking at the constant stream of "wait" "soon" "almost there" messages on the panel, March 7th finally lost her patience.
March 7th: "Seriously, what are you doing? We've been waiting forever! Don't tell me you got distracted by another dumpster again?!"
Stelle: "March, trust me, I really did run into something unexpected."
In Penacony's sewer system, Stelle followed behind Firefly with a look of utter despair.
What was wrong with this space? Everyone else was quite close together, why was she thrown so far away? Talk about discrimination!
"Stelle, are you tired? Want to rest? We've been walking for quite a while." Firefly looked back at the girl behind her, asking with concern.
"I'm not really tired, but how far are we from our destination?" Stelle asked anxiously, looking at the complex network of pipes above.
She was genuinely worried that if she was any later, she'd end up being assigned not just this month's, but the whole year's duty roster.
"Stelle, are you in a hurry? In that case, let's speed up!"
Seeming to notice Stelle's anxiety, Firefly reached out and grabbed her arm. As if she had practiced many times before, she began running with Stelle at just the right pace.
To share her body's movement with a long-lost friend... this feeling was truly nostalgic.
"...She's coming?"
Above ground, feeling slight vibrations from below, Danheng slowly shifted position, covering his face helplessly.
"Huh? Who?" March 7th tilted her head in confusion at Danheng's cryptic words.
But just then, she noticed how everyone from the Express crew seemed to reach some unspoken agreement, quietly moving away from the statue.
"Little March, you'd better move away too."
"Oh... oh!"
Though still confused, thinking the Express crew wouldn't harm her, March 7th quickly left the area too.
Then...
BOOM!
Intense water burst from a nearby manhole cover, orange-yellow Soda raining down from the sky like a fountain, creating quite a spectacular scene.
And naturally, along with this tidal wave came Stelle and Firefly.
"Hi~ everyone, I'm here!"
"..."
"Who are you? I don't know you..." Looking complexly at the completely soaked girl in the distance, March 7th felt the stares from around them and wished she could stuff Stelle back down the manhole.
Shortly after.
Outside the temporary changing room Welt had created, looking at the now-dry Firefly, Danheng approached to apologize on Stelle's behalf.
"I'm sorry miss, my companion has troubled you."
"No... no, I was the one who led Stelle through the sewers." Seeing Danheng about to apologize, Firefly hurriedly stopped him.
"No, that's not what I meant." Danheng's eye twitched - he had just heard everything from Stelle.
"That final button, Stelle pressed it, right?"
"Ah well..."
Recalling the scene, Firefly couldn't help but laugh.
At the time, they were almost under Aideen Park. By all rights, they should have been able to return to the surface smoothly without incident.
But just then, a strange button suddenly fell in front of Stelle, with a paper clearly labeled [Don't Press] stuck to it.
And well... that led to their current situation.
"Uh hehe, it's fine really. The VIPs who come to Penacony all have their quirks, as a guide, I won't mind such small matters."
Firefly spoke awkwardly, barely finding an excuse that fit her role.
"Speaking of which, you must all be honored guests invited by the Family, right? Would you allow me to continue as your guide? Just think of it as me earning some extra money."
"After all, work like this doesn't come every day..." She smiled embarrassedly, truly looking like she needed the money.
"Sure, sure! We actually needed a local to show us around and have fun!" Hearing this, March 7th's enthusiasm was rekindled.
Having finally come to Penacony, even if it was fake, wouldn't it be too wasteful not to participate in any entertainment?
Or rather, precisely because it was fake, shouldn't they enjoy it more?
Creating a peculiarly styled pair of glasses with Six-Phase Ice, March 7th put them on her face.
This was her reward for answering correctly - [Greatly increases control over Six-Phase Ice, reduces creation cost, enables more varied designs.]
"Fine, I don't mind either." Looking at March 7th who was already completely hyped up, he sighed helplessly.
'Feels like I've been sighing more frequently lately... sigh...'
Sometimes he really envied their mindset.
Checking the faction quest exclusive to the Astral Express, Danheng felt a headache coming on.
Special Task (invisible to other factions)
[Astral Express] [Investigate the "world" hidden in Penacony's shadows, inherit the Clockmaker's will.]
The four original tasks were troublesome enough, and now they were involved with Penacony's darkness too.
This made their already tangled thoughts even more chaotic.
Of course, this was a virtual world - even if they just slacked off and waited for other factions to complete the tasks, it wouldn't be impossible.
After all, they already knew from those three girls that having zero contribution in tasks wouldn't matter, especially since they had answered correctly this time.
But that wasn't the issue.
As Mr. Welt said, their previous experiences were undoubtedly real, belonging to Welt Yang's past.
So what about this time? Whose future would this be?
Knowing that Penacony harbored great secrets, now they had a rare opportunity to learn more intelligence without affecting reality.
How could they pass up such an opportunity!
However, before that...
"Could you help Bronya?" Looking at the girl before them who had wrapped herself up like a dumpling, Danheng could clearly sense things were about to get more complicated...
Sure enough, just as the girl had hidden herself, a pack of hunting dogs arrived.
"Hello honored guests, have you seen a girl about this tall with Roman curls?" He examined them suspiciously, carefully gesturing with his hands.
Seemingly worried they hadn't seen her, he even sent Silver Wolf's wanted poster to everyone's devices.
"Oh right, I remember the Interastral Peace Corporation put out a bounty on her, worth 5.1 billion."