Stelle looked the miner up and down, her expression a little subtle.
"…They even want this kind of junk?"
The miner spread his hands and complained, "That bunch has no moral bottom line at all. Once they go crazy, they'll grab anything! If it weren't for Wildfire, even control of this large mining area would've fallen into their hands."
"Uh… come to think of it, where are the Wildfire people? Did they go deeper inside? Those two groups wouldn't still be fighting, right…?"
Seele lowered her gaze slightly. "…Looks like Chief Oleg should be up ahead. You hurry back to the rest area and find Natasha. Don't get tangled up with those thugs again."
The miner let out a big yawn, then nodded. "Alright, thanks to you guys… uh, for waking me up! I'll go back and continue sleeping!"
That slightly abstract, rather carefree miner left.
The Trailblazer squad continued forward. When they reached the middle of the steel bridge, they spotted a woman ahead, also dressed like a miner.
"I know that girl over there," Seele said. "It's Elaine from the First Mining Team! Quick, let's go check how badly she's hurt."
Everyone picked up their pace a little and soon reached the woman.
Seele stepped forward and asked, "Elaine! Are you okay? Are your injuries serious?"
Elaine was clearly pleasantly surprised when she saw Seele. "Seele! Thanks, I'm okay. Just two sprained joints.
"You came at just the right time. Those drifters have been asking about the robots, but I really don't know anything…"
"We don't know either," Stelle spoke up.
Elaine reacted. "Ah, you don't know what's going on inside yet, do you? The inner circle of the large mining area has already been occupied by a group of robots! Neither the mining team nor the drifters can get close."
'Robots!'
Nero caught the key word.
March sounded a bit excited. "…A third-party faction, robots, has appeared! I knew it. If it were just people fighting people, this story would be boring."
Dan Heng asked, "Does no one know where these robots came from?"
Elaine replied, "At first, we thought the excavators had all malfunctioned at once. Later, we realized those machines weren't even assets of the mining team."
"They came flooding in from who knows where, chased both us and the drifters out in one go, and even blocked the main mining tunnel leading into the inner circle."
"Could someone be pulling strings behind the scenes?" Stelle offered her guess.
Elaine said, "It's definitely not the mining team… Just operating one mining machine is exhausting enough. Controlling so many at once? Impossible."
"Then there's only one answer." Seele said. "Boss Svarog…"
March frowned. "Svarog? That name sounds familiar…"
Nero reminded March, "Remember the robots that Dan Heng and I defeated at the boxing ring? They seemed to be provided by Svarog."
"Oh, right!" March suddenly realized. "Boss Svarog's robots! So who exactly is this Svarog?"
Seele said, "That's a long story. In short, he's not someone you want to mess with. Let's hurry and find the others."
Stelle spun her bat in her hand a couple of times and said, "No problem. We'll handle it."
Nero also nodded, hands on his hips. "Isn't it just beating up one more batch of people? Easy peasy."
The little Stellaron baby and the fake fool were clearly on the same wavelength.
Stelle looked full of confidence, wagging her finger. "No matter who it is, if they mess with the Express crew, they've messed with the wrong people!"
Nero looked just as proud, brimming with confidence. "We even tore the scalp off the Doomsday Beast. Robots or whatever, nothing to be afraid of!"
Seele narrowed her eyes at the two of them singing in perfect harmony, feeling oddly speechless.
Then she lifted her head and glanced at March and Dan Heng.
These two should count as elders, but… the reliable one was probably only that guy.
With a sigh, Seele ignored Stelle and Nero and instead asked, "Elaine, can you make it back to the rest area on your own?"
Elaine said, "I'll be fine. Seele, and everyone, you all must be careful too…"
Soon, the two sides parted ways. Before long, the group reached the end of the steel bridge.
There should have been an elevator here… When they arrived, two drifters were standing there.
The first drifter spoke. "Is this elev... elevator broken? Why is there no re, response at all?" His voice sounded a bit foolish and dull.
The one beside him was extremely irritated. "Why do you keep thinking about this piece of junk? You want to go down and become a live target for the robots or something?"
The foolish drifter sounded rather unwilling. "B-but if we just re, retreat like this, won't we end up with nothing at all?"
The irritated drifter lectured him, "Are you stupid or what? Go rob the miners! I saw it with my own eyes, they've already bagged some geomarrow. It's the perfect time to strike."
The foolish drifter nodded repeatedly. "G-great idea!"
The two of them clearly hadn't realized that Seele and the Trailblazer squad were standing behind them, having heard every word of their conversation.
"See that?" Nero said to his companions. "It's people like this that make me want to just kick them straight off. Too bad there's no Divination Commission or Ten-Lords Commission here, otherwise they'd definitely get a proper taste of punishment!"
As Nero spoke, Dan Heng had already, with great tacit understanding, begun explaining from the side.
"The Divination Commission and the Ten-Lords Commission are both departments established by the Xianzhou. The Divination Commission handles population statistics, resource allocation, ecological governance, legislative timekeeping, public security management, and firefighting; while the Ten-Lords Commission oversees life and death and the Prison of the Deep, and is responsible for detaining serious criminals and evil entities."
"What Nero probably means is that he wants these two to go keep company with whatever wronged spirits and vengeful ghosts people usually talk about."
"Exactly, just like Teacher Dan Heng said."
Seele bared her teeth in a grin, giving off a real big-sister vibe. "It's fine. There's no this-or-that Commission here, but there is Wildfire. These two shameless bastards who set their sights on the mining team… I'll take care of them."
As she spoke, that huge scythe was already in her hands.
Seele was someone with a straightforward personality, she did what she said she would do.
So before the Trailblazer squad could even react, the girl had already rushed forward the moment her words left her mouth.
She laid into the two drifters with punches and kicks, and in the end even pressed the blade of her scythe against one of their necks.
So much so that the drifter who had been stuttering suddenly became fluent.
Staring at the blade edge pressed tightly against his neck, hands raised high, legs trembling, he kept shouting, "I was wrong, sis! I was wrong, sis!"
As for the more irritable drifter, he was sprawled on the ground, curled up like a shrimp.
His face was flushed red, and the intense pain coming from below made his features twist as he opened his mouth in a soundless cry.
Life in the Lower District had never been good, and Seele, having grown up in such an environment and carved out a place for herself, naturally knew what kinds of moves worked and which ones struck straight at the vital points.
Nero was very much in agreement with her way of handling things.
Watching Seele's clean and efficient methods, both he and Stelle stood behind her, faces full of excitement, clapping nonstop.