After realizing he had been tricked, Nero felt a bit unhappy.
Although Aha indeed had no obligation to give him any power.
This was basically like getting pranked by a good buddy. A fire was stuck in his chest, he needed to find a time to prank Him back.
Since His Aha could mess around, why couldn't he, Nero?
Set a small goal first, spread "Ah-trash-ha's" throughout the whole tavern.
As for the first target…
Nero looked up, his gaze landing on Sampo's face.
Sampo sensed Nero's gaze. He didn't know what this "colleague" was thinking, but it probably wasn't anything too excessive, so he continued immersing himself in the act.
Hearing that March and Stelle didn't know what Gepard or the Silvermane Guard were, he first showed an expression of surprise. After a brief instant, his expression shifted into smooth understanding, then finally curled into a grin. His fox-like, crafty eyes squinted a little, and even his tone became relaxed.
"Oh, you guys aren't Silvermane Guard? You should've said so earlier. Fighting your own people, what a pointless thing to do."
"Sampo Koski. Pleasure to meet you."
Seeing Sampo introduce himself, the "young and naive" Stelle nodded and said her name.
The gray-haired girl even smiled. Her golden eyes were so clear, it was practically written on her face, "You're actually pretty nice."
"All right, all right, I'll remember it. Honestly, didn't expect to run into people of the same trade in this frozen wasteland."
"Business has been tough lately, but don't worry, Sampo never hogs the profit. There's treasure everywhere out here; money's for everyone to earn together, hahaha."
Sampo put one hand on his hip, his tone humorous, his expression full of friendly charm.
"How about we team up? I have reliable intel, most of the Silvermane Guard elite have been sent to the front line. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity…"
When Stelle heard Sampo mention treasure, her eyes lit up.
The girl then raised a hand to touch her chin, looked at Sampo, and asked, "What business?"
But Sampo showed an innocent expression and said, "…That's going a bit too far, everyone. It's fine if you don't trust me, but you don't have to play dumb this hard, right?
"Fine, I get the rules, we're all in this line of work, having a bit of caution is understandable! Blame me, Sampo, for being too enthusiastic and pure-hearted…"
"A meeting is still fate. If there's anything you want to know, feel free to ask, I'll say everything I know! But to keep it short, the Silvermane Guard could show up at any moment…"
Dan Heng and Nero silently watched Sampo pretend to be impressive.
The former still didn't fully trust him. As for the latter, if he didn't already have some prior understanding of the plot, he probably would've been like Stelle and March, developing a certain degree of trust toward Sampo and becoming curious about the "treasure" and "business" he mentioned.
After all, Mr. Cold Feet did have real skill in this area.
But fortunately, Sampo wasn't a truly malicious villain; there was no need to worry about everyone being scammed down to their underwear.
Stelle listened to Sampo's words and immediately asked why he was hiding in the snow.
Sampo instantly revealed an expression that mixed innocence with a bit of grievance.
"Me? Wasn't it because you guys scared me… I was rummaging around here, looking for some ancient relics to make a small profit… then you all made such a huge commotion, I thought the Silvermane Guard had shown up."
"Take it as me begging you, next time, be gentler. Really. If the Iron Guard ran into you, they wouldn't hide in snow piles. You guys? You'd be squatting in jail…"
Nero shook his head and said, "From your words, you don't sound like someone with a proper profession yourself."
"The Silvermane Guard you're so scared of, on this planet, aren't they basically the police, law enforcers and such?"
As he spoke, Nero lifted the Flamespawn in his hand and gave it a little shake.
"If they're law enforcers, then seeing powerless travelers like us being attacked by a Rift Monster, they'd probably come help us, right?"
"Uh…"
Sampo was choked speechless.
"And seriously, you're this tall and look pretty strong. How much money can you even make rummaging through ancient ruins like this?"
Nero waved his finger at Sampo, then pointed toward the distance where the simulated bud was located.
"If you've got strength, why not go try the Simulated Bud? Maybe you'll get some coins out of it!"
"You're joking. I only look intimidating. How could I possibly fight the Rift Monsters around a Simulated Bud?" Sampo hurriedly waved his hands, acting like he was very weak.
"How could that be?" Nero leaned forward and peeked behind Sampo. "Walking on this not-very-solid snow, you didn't leave any footprints at all."
Hearing Nero's words, March and Stelle also leaned out to look.
They found that the footprints they had left earlier were still faintly visible, but from the snow pile to where Sampo had walked, he had truly not left even a single print.
"So amazing!" Stelle exclaimed.
Sampo's breath caught briefly; he immediately explained, "Haha… doing our line of work, you have to be careful. If you're not, and the Silvermane Guard catches you, you're done for. This is just one tiny little skill of mine. I can't fight head-on."
As he spoke, Sampo was frantically giving Nero eye signals.
'Colleague, friend, brother, dude, bro!'
'You interfering in someone else's stage is going too far!'
Whether thanks to Aeon of Elation's blessing or Sampo's own training, he could practically manipulate every nerve and muscle on his face at will.
Even while making such intense eye signals, his expression didn't show any strangeness, he seemed able to communicate purely through gaze.
Unfortunately, Nero couldn't understand any of it, wasting all of Sampo's effort.
After all, Nero wasn't a Masked Fool who understood hidden signals, nor had he interacted much with Sampo to build any rapport.
If Sampo didn't have such godlike control of his facial expressions, Nero probably would have directly asked if his face was cramping.
But even though he couldn't read the signals, Nero wasn't planning to make things difficult for Sampo.
Speaking of which, compared to their Trailblazer Squad, Sampo, being a local, should be able to reach inhabited areas much faster.
So Nero smiled and said, "I know, it's fine. Judging from how smooth you are at dealing with all sides, you must have plenty of connections, right? How about I talk business with you?"
The moment Nero said this, March and the others turned their heads toward him.
And hearing the word "business," Sampo also became interested and asked, "What kind of business?"
"This."
Nero lifted the Flamespawn in his hand.
"Huh?"
Three voices of "Huh?" came, one each from March, Stelle, and Sampo.
"Huh what? It's warm, right?" Nero asked.
The three nodded.
"Well, this place is freezing. Wouldn't something this convenient and warm as a heating device be very popular?"
Sampo looked at Nero, opened his mouth and lifted a hand several times, wanting to say something but stopping each time.
Finally, he said, "Bro, that's a Rift Monster. Normal people wouldn't dare use something like that. And besides, it'd be hard to mass-produce, right?"
"That's a matter of marketing and manufacturing processes. We can leave that to people who specialize in such things. But if we're talking business, doing it out here in the freezing cold isn't ideal, right?"
Nero's eyes narrowed slightly, a confident smile appearing on his face.
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