"Hey, hey, stop hitting us, stop hitting us…"
Before long, the drifters started begging for mercy.
This fit Nero's stereotypical impression of people like them perfectly.
Neither Nero nor Stelle had any intention of completely crippling these people.
For Stelle, there was no need. For Nero, this group of drifters was so full of energy, they were rare labor resources.
Once the Fragmentum creature industry started running in the future, these guys could be thrown in there to work.
It could be treated as a free ideological reform program for them.
If they didn't want to work, they wouldn't have a choice. No work meant no money and no rewards. If they didn't reform themselves, they wouldn't be released.
As for treatment, it could be about the same as Sampo Koski's. If their attitude was bad, it would be lowered another level. If their attitude was good, their treatment would be raised to the same level as ordinary human employees.
A smile appeared on Nero's face. He was very satisfied with this idea of his.
He believed that by then, these people would all thoroughly reform themselves and become useful members of society.
After that, Nero returned to Seele's side and handed the scythe back to her.
Seele blankly took back her weapon.
Meanwhile, the miners who had watched the drifters get taken down with a wham wham relaxed a lot and then walked over.
The female miner who had been confronting the drifters earlier swept her gaze over everyone present, and finally let it fall on Seele.
"Seele! Thank goodness you came. Otherwise we would have, "
Seele snapped back to her senses and said, "Just a few hooligans, no need to worry about it. But this time..."
Before Seele could finish, Nero spoke first to the female miner, "But this time, the ones who stepped in weren't Wildfire. It was us!"
"Huh?" The female miner froze for a moment, then turned to look at Nero. "You all…"
"You're feeling relieved too early. Our help isn't free," Nero continued.
Stelle stood behind Nero and added, "So you have to provide some kind of payment for this help."
The female miner frowned, her tone turning unpleasant. "Are you here to take advantage of the situation too?"
Then she looked up at Seele for help. "Seele, they…"
Seele shook her head.
"Don't worry," Nero said. "We won't go overboard and take a lot of things from you, leaving you seriously hurt. We also understand the situation in the Underworld. You could even say that the reason we're helping is to ease this situation."
"You all…"
The female miner looked at Nero with suspicion. She didn't even quite know how to deal with the scene in front of her.
"There's no need to rush to prepare payment for us. After all, I haven't even said what we want yet. Even if you prepare in advance, it might just be a waste of effort."
"The reason I'm telling you this now is just to let you be mentally prepared ahead of time."
Nero spread his hands and didn't directly say that they had come to take ownership of the geomarrow vein.
Anyway, whether others accepted it or not, they would have to accept it. If a fight was needed, then they'd just have a good fight at the end. Besides, the few people in front of them clearly didn't have much strength.
On top of that, these people had run out from the mining area. They might know where Oleg was. It wouldn't be good if they got hurt.
Fighting these people was far too boring for Nero.
"Antonina, have you seen Chief Oleg?" Seele didn't let both sides dwell too much on the matter of "payment" and instead asked the female miner if she knew where Oleg was.
"Oleg?" Antonina blinked. "He took a group of people into the inner ring, saying he planned to drive away all the invading robots.
"They've been gone for a while now." As she said this, Antonina snorted coldly and glanced sideways at the drifters who had been beaten down by Nero and Stelle. "Hmph… If Wildfire weren't away, how would these hooligans dare be so arrogant?"
"Looks like the core of the problem is still Svarog's robots…" Seele said.
"We should talk about this big shot," Stelle said, remembering that when she and Nero went to capture the Fright Maze before, this kid had mentioned knowing the enemy and knowing yourself to win every battle, so she spoke up, hoping to learn more about Svarog.
Seele lowered her gaze slightly and said, "This big shot… He appeared suddenly after the Silvermane Guards were transferred away, and quickly became the local tyrant of the Underworld."
"Svarog claims to be the protector of humanity. All ownerless robots obey his orders. They've occupied the Furnace Core and won't allow anyone to approach."
"In that case…" March turned her head to look at Findie. "Findie's actually pretty impressive then. After so much time has passed, it probably doesn't count as owned anymore, right?"
"After all, it's a company product," Dan Heng said.
Seele continued, "No one knows why Svarog is doing this… He rarely leaves the Furnace Core, but if any disturbance happens anywhere in the Underworld, he always gets involved."
"A human protector… who can command robots? I've never heard of something like that…"
Bronya's voice suddenly came from nearby. Everyone followed the sound and saw the commander of the Silvermane Guards walk out from another mine tunnel.
The girl looked a bit disheveled at the moment, with quite a bit of dust on her.
Just from her appearance, it was easy to guess that this disturbance had prevented her from successfully meeting Oleg.
And Seele had definitely just pointed in a random direction and told the girl to go look for Oleg inside the mining area, while she herself waited outside for the Trailblazer squad.
From their previous interactions, it was clear that Seele was the kind of person with a sharp tongue but a soft heart. People like that were usually pretty tsundere.
Seele glanced at Bronya and spoke directly. "Hmph, looks like you so-called Architects aren't all-knowing after all."
Seeing this scene, Stelle muttered quietly, "Why do those two start arguing the moment they meet?"
Nero shrugged. "Maybe it's fate or something? They're kind of destined to clash."
Dan Heng, 'Fate…'
March put her hands on her hips and said, "Do you two have to bicker over every sentence? At a time like this, shouldn't we talk about business first? The inner mining ring is so dangerous, can we even get in?"
"I want to meet Svarog and his lackeys," Stelle said.
"I can fly," Nero said succinctly, and as his words fell, he was already floating up.
Seele curled her lips. "Hmph, just a pile of scrap metal robots. We're not afraid of them."
"Oh~ looks like Miss Seele is starting to acknowledge our strength?" March said rather smugly.
"I'm just telling the truth. Your skills really aren't bad." Seele tightened her grip on the scythe in her hand.
"If Wildfire's people all had your level of skill, they wouldn't be suppressed so badly by Svarog."
Then Seele said to Antonina, "Antonina, can you lead the mining team back to the entrance and meet up with Natasha?"
Antonina nodded. "No problem. It's just that you all…"
Antonina originally wanted to remind everyone to be careful, but she suddenly recalled the somewhat terrifying scene of Stelle and Nero beating up the drifters earlier…
Thinking of the white-haired boy smashing the ground with a single scythe strike, she found herself unable to say it.
"Ahem… There are a lot of robots ahead. Good luck!"
In the end, Antonina changed "be careful" to "good luck."