In a tavern in the largest oasis on Agyha's equator, Dan Lei was complaining to his unreliable guide.
"I'm telling you, Ashley, we've been on the equator for almost half a year now, and I've found you every local map in the area. Have you actually found your home yet? Surely I don't have to take you all the way around the equator to look for it."
Ashley was embarrassed. She'd known Dan Lei for half a year, and was truly grateful to the "Sir" who'd rescued her from danger and provided her with food and clothing. It was just that finding your way through the desert was hard. After a sandstorm, many landmarks changed, and it wasn't unusual for them to disappear entirely.
So Ashley could only answer awkwardly,
"Sir Dan Lei, I really can't find my home with just these maps...
"I only remember that, back then, the visitors from beyond the stars erected metal pillars near our tribe that reached straight into the sky.
"But they dismantled and took all of those pillars with them when they left, so there aren't any particularly obvious landmarks now."
Dan Lei was genuinely getting a headache. He was already considering whether to drop Ashley off with a local tribe and simply find a large oasis on the equator to set up his formation.
Although he had plenty of time, he'd been on Agyha for half a year, and the Holy Grail could still only absorb a trickle of Ley Line energy from the trinket he'd made out of Nezuko's hair. That was already going against his original intentions.
But while Dan Lei was nursing his headache, a sharp-faced, wiry-looking space drifter suddenly came over. He didn't dare get too close, though, and only called out from a distance,
"Butcher, I just heard you talking about the detection devices the IPC set up on this planet. I've got some information. Interested?"
Butcher was the nickname the people of this oasis had given Dan Lei, because he killed people at the slightest disagreement—and when he butchered people, he slaughtered whole groups. He didn't bother with reason.
Of course, Dan Lei did it on purpose. He knew that reasoning with these people, who were much like space pirates, was a waste of time. It was easier to kill his way through until nobody dared provoke him.
Now, for instance, as long as he didn't go to the headquarters of the local gangs, no one in this oasis dared stop him. He could exchange materials with merchants, and no one dared give him a hard time.
So Dan Lei flicked out a Magecraft Thread and tied the space drifter up in midair. Then he pulled out a thick wad of Credits—the spoils from wiping out the gangs—and asked,
"If the information's useful, this money is yours. If it's not, you'll be the Horned Beast's dinner tonight."
The space drifter had prepared himself before daring to speak to Dan Lei. He'd noticed that Dan Lei was the sort of person who left you alone as long as you didn't bother him.
So he immediately shouted,
"My boss has the IPC's original plans for the detection devices they installed on Agyha.
"They're completely useless now. They were sold at auction by the IPC under the pretense of being declassified documents, which is how they got out.
"My boss got his hands on them. If you're interested, I can put you in touch.
"My boss isn't on this planet. If you kill me, you won't get the plans!"
When Dan Lei heard that, he released the man and pulled a pill from his pocket, shooting it straight into the man's mouth. Then he gave him a third of the Credits in his hand and said,
"Think of this as your fee for running errands. What I made you swallow is a poison that acts intermittently. When it does, your whole body will itch unbearably. You should get to experience it in about an hour.
"After that, it'll flare up about once a day, until it kills you three days from now.
"Get the job done, and I'll give you the antidote. Otherwise, that money can cover your funeral."
Dan Lei wasn't lying. All the poison pills in his pocket had been prepared by him on the Luofu, using medicinal ingredients from the Luofu.
The space drifter could go to the IPC to ask for help, but even they wouldn't find it easy to cure the poison. If they couldn't manage it, he was as good as dead.
Still, it fit Dan Lei's current reputation perfectly. The man grabbed the money Dan Lei had given him and ran off. He'd probably bring back good news soon.
Sure enough, in less than a day, the man returned with what Dan Lei wanted. He'd clearly taken a beating, but he'd evidently managed to convince his boss.
So Dan Lei didn't make things too difficult for him. He confirmed the plans were genuine, gave him the money and antidote, and let him go.
Once Dan Lei had the IPC's plans for the detection devices, he immediately began studying them.
His first thought when he saw the plans was that the members of the Genius Society who'd come to Agyha probably understood science, but not planetary Ley Line studies.
Well, in the Star Rail Universe, Ley Line studies were a science, too. The Genius Society's Armed Archaeology School had actually researched the subject.
They couldn't rely on brute force alone to explore the most dangerous ruins in the universe.
If they destroyed a ruin just because they couldn't find its treasures, what would even be the point of exploring it? That would just be vandalizing cultural relics.
In any case, judging by the plans, the Genius Society had planted rows of planetary detection devices across Agyha to scan the planet, without adjusting their positions to account for the actual flow of Ley Line energy.
Still, that made it easier for Ashley to find her home.
The plans included topographical maps of the area around each detector. All they had to do was search among the hundreds of detection pillars along the equator to find Ashley's hometown.
Ashley truly did want to go home. It took her only half a day to find it on the topographical map.
Then Dan Lei could only stare in speechless disbelief at the coordinates, which were almost on the opposite side of the planet. He had no choice but to spend money to take Ashley straight up into space, then fly across the planet.
You had to hand it to the space drifters—they were bold. They'd even dared transport a Horned Beast.
And this Horned Beast had already become Dan Lei's familiar. When he told it to sleep, it slept. Otherwise, Dan Lei would have to give up on the familiar and make use of its remains by refining it into a life crystal.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly after that.
After they got off the ship, Ashley ran into her uncle, who was working at the airport. Then she happily welcomed Dan Lei back to her tribe.
There, Dan Lei saw the real evidence that had convinced the Genius Society to make such a fuss on this planet in the first place.
A helmet, made from the carapace of a Sub-Drone.
To be fair, Sub-Drone carapaces weren't particularly rare in the universe. After all, the Swarm was still one of the universe's calamities at the time.
The disasters brought by the Antimatter Legion came after the Swarm.
After all, there was practically no chance of negotiating when you ran into the Swarm. If you couldn't escape, you had no choice but to fight.
And the Swarm usually appeared in great numbers. Sweeping through a planet or two was as easy as play to them.
But the IPC had investigated Agyha long ago, and there'd been no signs of Swarm activity in the nearby star systems for hundreds of Amber Epochs.
Everyone knew that Sub-Drones never acted alone. Wherever one appeared, there was bound to be a Swarm.
As for the possibility that the object had simply drifted through space before ending up in the hands of the locals, according to Ashley's parents, the older tribes on Agyha all had similar objects.
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