Steel railings connected into a barricade, sealing off the entrance to the alley.
A stern Silvermane Guard shouted at the man in front of him, "Step back! This is your final warning!"
"But…" the man pleaded, his voice desperate. "But my property documents are all in there! I don't have any..." His hands trembled as he reached out and grabbed the Silvermane Guard's wrist.
The strict Silvermane Guard cut him off, "The Fragmentum has already invaded this block! You can submit a materials recovery application to the Architects, but entry is forbidden to anyone who isn't an Silvermane Guard member!"
Not far away, the Trailblazer squad watched the situation.
Dan Heng only let out a sigh and said nothing more.
March, on the other hand, showed a hint of sympathy in her eyes. "The Fragmentum has already spread into the city. That alley is full of soldiers."
Stelle sounded a little emotional. "This world really is… full of disasters."
"Isn't it? But luckily, we're here. Once the Stellaron is sealed, they won't have to suffer like this anymore!"
March seemed to recover her mood pretty quickly.
Nero, like Dan Heng, quietly watched the scene without saying a word.
He had three choices, help the Silvermane Guard, help the old man, or do nothing. In the current situation, those three choices were, respectively, the middle option, the worst option, and the best option.
"Old sir, you should give up on this. The edge passages are very dangerous right now. We're doing this for your safety." A more gentle Silvermane Guard began trying to persuade the man to leave.
However, the man only stared helplessly at the sealed-off alley. He grew agitated, several times feeling the urge to push forward and shove aside the Silvermane Guard blocking him, but the last remnants of reason stopped him.
Faced with the Silvermane Guard's obstruction, he had no choice but to obediently listen. At this moment, all he could do was let out a wail that sounded like sobbing, "If I can't get my property documents, I might as well be dead! Let me through, let me go in…"
In response, the two Silvermane Guards could only sigh helplessly and continue standing their ground, dutifully blocking the way.
The Trailblazer squad didn't linger long and soon left, circling around the ring-shaped high wall and heading toward the Goethe Hotel.
Along the way, Nero's gaze was drawn to someone standing at the entrance of another alley blocked by iron railings.
That person had the same face as March, the same figure as March, and was wearing the same clothes as March, but had an extremely eerie little face.
She grinned widely, with no teeth, her eyes fixed on Nero as she waved at him.
Nero looked at this "March" behind the railing, then looked at the real March beside him.
He heard a voice. The March behind the railing called out to him, "Nero! Come here! There's something fun here!"
The voice was exactly the same as March's.
Smack!
Nero got a knock on the head. He turned around and saw Dan Heng and Stelle ahead, turned back and waiting for him, while March beside him asked in confusion, "What are you looking at?"
March looked in the direction Nero had been staring, and Nero looked again as well.
There was only a wall and a trash bin placed against it. There was no barred gate and no alley.
"Staring at a wall for that long… come on, let's go!"
March muttered quietly, but didn't dwell on it too much, pulling Nero along with her.
When they were about to go up the stairs, Nero turned his head to look there once more.
The alley was right there. The barred gate was there too.
"March" stood behind the gate, her dead-fish eyes staring straight at him. Her mouth was stretched in a smile that seemed unable to close, revealing darkness inside where no teeth could be seen.
That face looked like two dots and a line painted onto an egg with a brush…
"Ha… I'm really tired. I just want to lie down on a soft bed and pass out."
As the Trailblazer squad continued exploring, time slowly passed, and now evening had fallen.
March stretched hard, and the group arrived at the front entrance of the Goethe Hotel.
"It feels like every time we go on a trailblazing mission, the first day is always exhausting. Right, Dan Heng?"
Dan Heng pushed open the door and replied in his usual flat tone, "That's because you have too much energy. Also, this time the next period probably won't be easy either. Stay alert."
"Oh."
March responded. She really wanted to ask if Dan Heng was being overly tense, but he clearly wasn't that kind of person.
She felt that even if she were panicking, Dan Heng would probably still have that same calm expression.
Since Dan Heng said it, he must have noticed something wrong…
Teacher Dan Heng's long-standing reliability left March with no desire to argue back at all.
As Dan Heng pushed the door open, a staircase embedded in the center of the wall came into view. Going up from here led to the hotel lobby.
The Goethe Hotel's lobby was extremely grand. The large windows let in plenty of light, and the decor had a distinctly classical style. The front desk stood ahead, with small tables behind it for guests to chat and drink tea.
In addition, both sides of the lobby walls displayed valuable calligraphy and paintings for appreciation, and flower beds enclosed in glass on either side of the front desk held blooming flowers.
However, among the four members of the Trailblazer squad, the only one with enough ability and taste to truly appreciate such decor was probably the well-traveled and highly educated Teacher Dan Heng.
March's first reaction upon seeing the lobby was to shout in delight, "Wow! Such a bright lobby! Tonight we've got soft mattresses and bouncy pillows!"
Then, a sudden idea struck the pretty girl, and she turned around to ask, "Do you want to have a pillow fight tonight? Do you, do you? I bet the pillows in this hotel are goose down~"
"I think it could be fun." Stelle put on a very serious expression, but excitement was already shining in her golden eyes.
"I think we should consider compensation before playing."
Nero spoke up. "In such a lavish hotel, if we rip these pillows, the compensation probably won't be cheap.
"Cocolia only said she'd arrange a hotel for us. She didn't say she'd cover all the costs we might incur inside it.
"So if we rip the pillows, we'll definitely have to pay for them ourselves.
"I can't exactly use this thing to exchange for money right now. That's too unrealistic."
Nero shook the Flamespawn in his hand.
"I also really want to play, but I think it'd be better to wait until the reward money from catching Sampo comes in."
Dan Heng looked at March and said,
"March, back then at Qlipoth Fort..."
Before Dan Heng could finish, March cut him off, "Stop! I know what you're going to say, 'March, you talked too much back then,' 'March, you shouldn't have revealed our objective to someone we didn't know'… I know already! Who told you two to talk in riddles instead of speaking plainly?"
March half-lidded her eyes at Dan Heng and Stelle, then suddenly pulled Nero over.
"Besides, wasn't Nero the same as me back then?
"And look, didn't everything turn out great? We got VIP treatment, a super~ luxurious hotel, and full support from the local forces!"
"Looks like this trailblazing mission is going really smoothly!"
Dragged out to stand on the same side, Nero widened his eyes and tilted his head at March, looking utterly confused.
'Why does this scene feel kind of familiar?'
'Back at Herta Space Station, didn't you do the same thing…'
'You really are a great big sister, huh? Any black pot that needs carrying, I have to share it with you, right?'
But what Teacher Dan Heng wanted to say clearly wasn't that. Just looking at his helpless expression made it obvious that March's reaction was exactly what he'd expected.
The real Xianzhou native and the fake real Xianzhou native exchanged a glance, both seeing the same helplessness in each other's eyes.