"Many wanderers are temporarily staying here. Their hometowns were taken over by Fragmentum monsters."
Seeing March's surprise at the scene of the mechanical settlement, Seele gives a brief explanation.
"Camping right under Svarog's nose, doesn't that feel dangerous?" March asks, puzzled.
"No." Seele shakes her head. "Although Svarog is domineering, he never attacks humans without reason. For people with nowhere to go, this place is actually safer.
"Heh... if I hadn't moved away early, maybe I'd be one of them now."
While they're talking, Dan Heng observes the situation in the mechanical settlement, while Nero squats down next to a snowdrift.
Nero reaches out and sticks his fingers into the snowdrift. The icy sensation is very real. Then he grabs a handful of snow and examines it carefully, it doesn't seem any different from ordinary frost.
So how exactly did this snow fall underground? If it's because the Stellaron's influence has fully permeated the planet, then why can't you see it in Boulder Town or Rivet Town?
Is it because there's enough moisture here? But this place is full of robots. Even counting the wanderers, the demand for water here should be far less than in the towns…
Nero feels puzzled by this situation. He turns his head to look at his companions. Thinking it over, it seems like no one else knows the reason behind this phenomenon either.
"In a way, this counts as a strange landscape. I should take a picture and send one to Mr. Yang and Asta."
Thinking it, doing it immediately, Nero takes out his phone and snaps a photo.
The activity he'd thought of before, about giving out Stellar Jades, had gone through the system's filtering. After removing the randomly snapped photos taken just to quickly claim rewards, the better-looking pictures were sent into Nero's phone. Nero saved those photos and also sent them to Asta.
This makes Nero sigh with emotion, his system really is useful, convenient, and capable.
After that, passing through the wanderers' settlement, Sampo leads the group to a large gate.
This pitch-black iron gate is controlled by intricate mechanical mechanisms.
"What a heavy gate…" Just looking at it makes March sigh. "Alright, watch this, Open Seseme~!"
However, after March says this magic phrase, the black gate doesn't move at all. It stands there unmoving, like a cold onlooker, staring at the pink-haired girl in front of it with a puzzled gaze.
Dan Heng, standing at the back, takes a deep breath, then slowly exhales.
Calm as he is, even he just felt a suffocating sensation, like being hit by a speeding dump truck.
Bronya blinks, looks at the unresponsive gate and March's back, and asks, "What was that? A password?"
"A fairy-tale password isn't going to work here." Dan Heng narrows his eyes. If he could, he really wants to tell everyone right now that he doesn't know March.
"March really worked hard, even doing this to liven up the atmosphere before a big battle."
Stelle silently turns her head to look at Sampo, who's standing nearby and swaying a bit. "Can you help us pry the door open?"
Stelle knows Sampo definitely knows how to pick locks, he just looks like the type.
Sampo turns his head too. In that instant, he suddenly looks much more alert, staring at Stelle with innocent eyes.
"Hey, hey, picking a door open in front of so many eyes, do you think the wanderers and robots are blind?
"Let me tell you, I've already figured out this gate's mechanism. Not just any Tom, Dick, or Harry can casually enter Big Boss Svarog's territory. Anyone who wants to see him has to get certified."
"Certified?" Seele sounds a bit confused.
Sampo nods. "That's right. Only certified gold prospectors can go in and out. Svarog's prospectors collect mechanical scraps all over the underground and bring them to him for repairs."
"To be honest, this is pure profit with no capital. If I'd thought of this earlier… heh heh, then I'd be Boss Koski…"
"But now I've found an even better business, so it doesn't really matter. When I strike it rich in the future, maybe I'll even give you a leg up, Miss Seele."
"Heh…" Seele's response is extremely cold. "Stop rambling. Where do we get this certification?"
"Easy, see..."
Before Sampo can finish, Nero interrupts him.
Nero smacks his lips and walks up with a swagger, his steps splayed outward.
The boy shakes out his arms and says, "Why make it so complicated? Watch me 'gently' open it!"
As he speaks, Nero bends slightly, taking a stance as if about to charge, while his right hand reaches back and gropes for the handle of the short blade stuck at Sampo's waist.
If nothing unexpected happens, this is going to be a jumping slash.
And the result would probably be the door getting split open. As for whether Sampo's short blade would get nicked after colliding with such a solid gate, that's hard to say.
But what can be foreseen is that once this act of destruction happens, a massive robot army will definitely come swarming over.
Sampo is very sleepy right now. He doesn't want to waste time on something like this, and he definitely doesn't want to be forced awake by getting surrounded by a robot army.
Of course, it's also for the sake of his beloved weapon…
Before Nero can jump, Sampo grabs his hand and hurriedly says, "Stop, stop, stop! Little ancestor, if you slash down like that, we'll completely fall out with Big Boss Svarog! We're here to negotiate, not to start a fight!"
"Fine. Then tell me your plan."
Nero lets go.
He just thinks this way would be simpler and faster.
Sampo gives a bitter smile and raises a hand to wipe nonexistent sweat from his forehead.
The little colleague is even harder to deal with than Sparkle.
If there's a chance, he really hopes the little colleague will go torment Sparkle instead of him.
Next time he has the chance to contact Sparkle… maybe he should give her something to look forward to…
After taking so many losses, and often taking them for inexplicable reasons, Sampo no longer believes that Nero would be at a disadvantage when facing Sparkle in a fool's duel.
Of course, that's assuming Sparkle doesn't blow up the board.
But considering that the little colleague can casually toy with even a selfie of the God of Merriment, plus that kind of personality, he probably wouldn't truly be afraid of Sparkle blowing up the board.
Hopefully, one day when Sparkle gets messed with, the little colleague will remember Sampo and send him a message, best if it's right away.
No need to say more. He'll rush over immediately to laugh at her.
Then Sampo speaks up, "The robots around the wanderers are all Svarog's eyes and ears. They follow his orders to maintain order here."
"Besides monitoring the hooligans' every move, their other duty is to provide trials. Anyone who wants to become a prospector has to pass the tests of these iron crabs."
Stelle thinks for a moment and asks, "Can you gacha?"
"How would I know? I wasn't planning to go in and go head-on with Big Boss Svarog. You're the ones going in, just find a robot and ask it yourselves." Sampo rolls his eyes.
With that, Sampo leads everyone back into the wanderers' camp to search around.
"The people here all feel like they're under mechanical control. That's hard to imagine on the surface, robots in the Overworld are just tools." Bronya sighs.
"So what? Outside Jarilo there are planets run by intelligent machines!" Nero says.
"Heh heh, this place has all kinds of people. Keep your eyes sharp, don't get scammed." Sampo laughs.
"If you don't scam us, we'll already be thanking the heavens." March says.
"I really want to throw that line back at you, you know?"
Sampo says something no one understands. The others don't take it to heart, just assuming Sampo has gone a bit crazy from not sleeping for too long.
Following the snow-covered ground toward a corner at the edge, they find a traffic light, one exactly like Perkins's.
"That's the one, right?" Seele says.
"It looks… really crude." March's expression is a bit subtle.
Seele looks down at the traffic light from above. "Is this piece of junk even awake? Don't tell me it's already broken."
Just as everyone is gathered around, discussing the traffic light, it suddenly makes a sound.
[Beep! Boop!]