Snowflakes drifted down like feathers scattered from the sky, silently blanketing the mountains.
Even without actively drawing upon the power of their Path, those who walk these ways receive a certain degree of its protection. Simply put, it's like a permanent faction buff. The inherent blessing of the [Trailblaze] Path allows one to adapt to all sorts of harsh environments.
Even so, as the bone-chilling wind howled past, March 7th couldn't help but rub her little hands together and exclaim, "Brr! It really is a world of ice and snow!"
"Brr! It really is a world of ice and snow!" came the echo, perfectly synchronized, from Stelle and Caelus who stepped out of the skiff right behind her.
Without any prior communication or even eye contact, they'd sighed out the exact same sentiment in the exact same tone. This overly perfect synchronicity made White Seele, who was just stepping out of the cabin, freeze in her tracks. Blinking her large, innocent eyes, she glanced at March 7th, then tilted her head towards Stelle and Caelus. Finally, prompted by an urge from Seele, she tentatively ventured, "I-It really is a world of ice and snow, huh!?"
Seele didn't wield the power of a Path; she possessed the versatile Honkai Energy.
March 7th's arched eyebrows froze. Her retort meter overloaded, causing the intended comeback to fizzle out before it could launch. Her mouth hung open, type-O shaped, as she stared blankly at the trio. Three echo machines? Were they serious?
Dan Heng watched this scene unfold, expressionless and silent. Wordlessly, he retrieved the prepared supplies from the skiff. Tapping a pre-compiled command sequence on his phone, the skiff's hatch slowly closed, and it floated upwards, vanishing in a flash of pale blue light.
Although the Astral Express had teleportation capabilities, directly teleporting passengers could be risky, and the amount of supplies it could carry was limited. Himeko had specifically designed this type of skiff to make warp jumps between the Express, parked in orbit, and the planet below. To return, they could simply call Himeko or Pom-Pom, who was always on the train, for a remote pickup.
"Alright, let's head out—" March 7th puffed herself up with the air of the Trailblaze team leader, stepping forward confidently. But then she looked left, looked right, and saw nothing but an endless expanse of white. All paths looked the same. Her bravado deflated instantly. With the same polite deference Liu Bei showed his strategist Zhuge Liang, she turned to Dan Heng.
"Oh, wise Teacher Dan Heng, which way is our target?"
"Oh, wise Teacher Dan Heng, which way is our target?" came the perfectly overlapping voices again. Stelle and Caelus, their eyes shining with earnest sincerity, joined March 7th's pure gaze, focusing intently on Dan Heng.
Stare~~~!
"... " Dan Heng wondered what terrible karma he'd accumulated in his past life. Hmm, wait a second... Dan Feng did commit a major transgression. Hey, you know what? Actually! Thinking about it, Dan Heng felt a strange sense of release!
"Alright, you two, that's enough! Repeat after me again and I'll knock your heads together!" March 7th raised a small hand threateningly, her fierce expression like someone trying to scare naughty children.
Upon hearing this, Stelle actually pouted like a child. Caelus, however, wasn't quite so immature. He turned around, presenting his back. "Go on, can you hit me right here? It's a little itchy."
"Hey!" March 7th let out a cry of fury reminiscent of Cao Cao slamming his rice bowl in anger. Her little pink fists hammered down one after another. Just as she was about to land the fourth punch, Stelle suddenly grabbed her arm. "Okay, okay, that's enough. Two hits with that force felt pretty good."
"I..."
The three began to playfully scuffle around Dan Heng.
"That way." Seeing this perhaps as a blessing earned from a past life, Dan Heng waited for them to settle down before pointing in a specific direction.
"Okay! Everyone grab your packs! Trailblaze team, move out!" Praised and placated by the two gray-haired Trailblazers, Senior March 7th reassumed her leader role and air of authority. Shouldering her pink backpack, she waved towards the direction Dan Heng indicated.
"Say, Stelle, what did you even pack?" March 7th glanced at the bulging bag on Stelle's back. "Just in case, we need essentials like food and water, but if we can't find shelter today, we can always return to the Express for the night. Why did you bring so much?"
"Don't even ask." Stelle looked glum at the mention of it. "Caelus's stuff is in my bag too."
"Huh?" Only then did March 7th notice Caelus was traveling light, completely unburdened. Although she knew they were essentially the same person, their interactions gave no hint of it. Apart from moments when their 'illness' made them agree, their daily dynamic felt somewhat like twins, but only just. They were like twins of similar age, constantly bickering and fighting, yet also like dorm mates or close friends who constantly ribbed each other, and occasionally, they even looked like a couple. March 7th couldn't comprehend it, but perhaps this was just how 'oneself' interacted with 'oneself'. The real question was, why wouldn't either of them volunteer to help the other with a chore like carrying luggage?
"Originally, I planned to have a Herta puppet carry my luggage," Stelle explained, "but considering this is our first Trailblaze mission, I worried the puppet might get damaged if we ran into danger, so I scrapped that idea." Herta's puppets weren't that fragile, of course, but it was like how a geek treasures a new figurine, phone, or computer, or how a middle-aged man treats a new car – for the first few days, it's handled like a precious artifact. After some use, it's a different story.
"Neither Caelus nor I wanted to carry the pack, so we made a bet."
"What kind of bet?" March 7th's eyes widened like a curious child's.
"At first, we were going to settle it with rock-paper-scissors, but you know, we're one person. We can't beat each other."
"So, Caelus suggested settling it with a mini-game."
"With the adorable, absolutely fair, and beautiful little Seele as witness and host. She wrote down a number on a piece of paper, and we both had to guess. Whoever guessed correctly or got closer to the number more times would win."
"Loser carries the pack, winner travels light."
"Mm-hmm." March 7th nodded lightly. The rules sounded perfectly fair, with no room for cheating. The well-behaved little Seele would absolutely not show favoritism or rig the game.
"And... you lost?" March 7th stated the obvious conclusion.
"Waaaah~" Stelle hung her head low, crying exaggerated noodle tears, her voice choked with sorrow.
Striding forward with a gait that emphasized his own freedom, Caelus approached them with a smug, trollish grin. He patted the girl's shoulder, weighed down by the heavy backpack.
"Stelle, if you suck, just practice more~!"
Aha be praised, Seele showed no bias whatsoever; her judgment was fair throughout. He just answered his own questions normally. The main issue was the trashy system – the inventory could apparently only store system-issued items, offering Caelus no free storage space.
"You darn Caelus, don't get too cocky! Next time! Next time, I'll definitely beat you!" Stelle clenched her fists, her unwilling face gradually filling with fighting spirit, as if ready to throttle fate itself.
"Small fry~ Small fry Stelle, surely you aren't that lacking in self-awareness? Surely not, surely not?" That passive-aggressive tone, that expression dripping with faux sweetness – forget Stelle who was being mocked, even the observing March 7th felt her fists clench.
Dan Heng, already viewing these two ancestors as blessings from a past life, remained silent.
Walking quietly beside them with steps as soft as cotton, White Seele wore a subtle smile of empathy. It felt like being back in the orphanage, watching Lilia and Rozaliya bicker. As for the mini-game, even she, who sometimes shared Seele's first-person perspective, hadn't noticed anything unusual. Sister Stelle was probably just unlucky.
The cold air itself seemed to warm a few degrees from the cheerful laughter and banter.
Just as the group was advancing happily...
At a certain moment, Caelus's steps faltered slightly. He turned his head to look somewhere, his surprised gaze instantly sharpening.
"Hey, did you guys see that? Looks like something's over there..." An archer's eyesight was best. Second only to the combined senses of Caelus and Seele, March 7th had spotted something amiss.
Stelle looked in the direction March 7th indicated.
Thump!
That was the sound of a heavy backpack falling into the snow. Her eyes instantly became as sharp as Caelus's.
The next second, Stelle and Caelus sprinted forward in unison, Stelle deftly pulling a shovel from her pack as she ran. They reached a snowdrift, and Caelus whipped out his yo-yo horizontally. A dim blue light pulsed around it as it spun like a tire lying flat on the snow, scattering the snowdrift outwards.
Not to be outdone, Stelle gripped her shovel and plunged it forcefully downwards.
"Ouch! Sis, don't shovel my butt! Hey! My hair! It's caught! My hair! Stuck! It's gonna come off! Bro!" A rather slick male voice cried out in urgent lament.
Ignoring the cries of pain, Stelle continued to shovel forcefully. Sneaking around in a snowdrift in this frozen wasteland – this guy clearly wasn't up to any good!
Stelle dug a large pit in the snowdrift, only to find no treasure chest beneath. Instead, the alluring specks of golden light emanated from the chest of a blue-haired man buried waist-deep in the snow.
Caelus's brow twitched. Without hesitation, he reached into the man's chest area, rummaging around. He'd seen this person in fan-made videos; the name seemed to be Sampo, remembered as some kind of jester or merrymaker? Caelus wasn't sure. But burrowing into a snowdrift like a thief definitely wasn't normal behavior. Since he might be a kindred spirit (in terms of chaos), there was no need for courtesy.
"Ouch, hey, brother, what are you doing~? I'm not that kind of person!" Sampo clutched his chest like a maiden accosted by a rogue.
Caelus paid him no mind, but he couldn't pull any crystal or treasure from Sampo's chest.
Stelle and Caelus exchanged a look and nodded simultaneously. Stelle pulled a pair of black stockings, purchased from Herta Space Station, out of her backpack and handed one to Caelus. They poked a few holes in the stockings and expertly pulled them over their heads as makeshift masks.
With three-quarters of his body buried in snow, only his arms and upper body exposed, Sampo rested his arms on the snowdrift, watching the bizarre actions of the gray-haired pair with a look of terror.
Stelle planted her shovel in the snow in front of Sampo, placed her foot on the shovel's step, and rested her arm across her leg. Her posture was that of a mafia boss lady leading her crew through street fights.
Tick!
Tick!
Tick!
Caelus pulled an alarm clock from the backpack, wound it three times, and placed it heavily in front of Sampo.
"The money... spit... where's the treasure chest hidden? Talk." Caelus's posture was relaxed, his tone calm, but his words filled Sampo with dread.
"If you don't tell us before the alarm rings, you'll lose your head."
"Wha? Wha-↓ Wha-↑ Wha-↓ Wha-↑" Sampo's eyes widened, his heart pounding with fear like an ordinary person being mugged, letting out ghastly wails.
"Crying? Crying counts towards the time too," Stelle said sternly, pointing a finger.
The loud wailing gradually stopped. Sampo had a feeling like he'd been utterly screwed over. Seriously? Are these two gray-haired kids really from the Astral Express? Did I wait for the wrong people? Why are they acting like interstellar pirates?
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