Dan Heng could not stand watching any longer. He stepped forward and jabbed with Cloud-Piercer, each strike landing true and drawing a string of screams.
"We're on the same side, don't hit me, same side, ah—!"
It was a stirring, melodious cry, full of twists and turns.
After venting like that, March 7th finally looked mercilessly at Sampo, who was lying face-down with his butt in the air. The corner of her eye twitched as she planted her hands on her hips from the high ground and barked, "What's a wanted criminal like you doing here?"
Surely he had not been driven into a corner by the changing situation, right?
Hahahaha...
March 7th suddenly did not feel like laughing anymore.
"I just wanted to say."
Sampo sighed, sounding utterly aggrieved.
"Sampo would never let a friend who helped us suffer a loss. The moment I heard you all seemed to have run into a little mishap and been harmed by villains, I rushed over enthusiastically to help~"
"Tell the truth, or I'll have A-Xing keep beating you."
March 7th was not the only one with her hands on her hips. Beside her, the Stellaron Spirit held her bat high in one hand and repeated ruthlessly, "Beat you."
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, don't hit me, don't hit me! I'll tell the truth. I've got a route here. It's a little risky, but the profits are huge. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. What kind of man is old Sampo? Fearless, brave as they come. Once it's done, the Underworld Fire in the Lower District gets three, I get seven. Your three is a small amount, my seven is the big amount. My creed in life is that everyone gets to eat..."
March 7th listened to Sampo's incoherent rambling. Three and seven? What was he trying to imply? A-Xing, beat him!
Getting the look, the Stellaron Spirit prepared to strike without mercy.
That was just how a cold and ruthless beautiful-girl duo operated.
Fortunately—
"The Lower District?"
Dan Heng's gaze sharpened. Was that not a little too much of a coincidence? They had just gotten into trouble in Belobog's Upper District, been advised to lay low in the Lower District, and then Sampo...
There had been too many coincidences before this as well.
"What is your relationship with Fang Jie?"
Cloud-Piercer cast down a shadow. His face, looming over Sampo, was filled with shadowed lines as well, making him look quite imposing.
"Who?"
Sampo's voice abruptly cut off. Cloud-Piercer was already aimed at his... butt.
"No, no, no, no, don't be so hostile, friend. Old Sampo can't take this. This time, you definitely won't hold back. I'll confess, I'll confess everything..."
He panicked, his voice tinged with tears.
"One last chance. State your identity and intentions."
Dan Heng was utterly cold.
"My name is Sampo, Sampo Koski. I already introduced my name before. As for my identity... well, actually, I used to be one of the Masked Fools."
Sampo spoke in a bashful, almost embarrassed tone.
"..."
Not only was Dan Heng silenced on the spot, but March 7th dropped her bow in shock.
Then realization suddenly dawned on her. "Aha! So you're one of the Masked Fools! That explains it, that explains it!"
I'll kill you!
—Yah!
She picked up her bow and immediately looped its string around Sampo's neck. She put every ounce of strength she had into it, making Sampo open his mouth, roll his eyes back, and stick out his tongue...
He was dead.
The Stellaron Spirit was deeply shaken. March 7th was so cold, so ruthless, so cool. So this was the kind of beautiful girl she was. A cold and ruthless duo all by herself.
Gepard remained expressionless. He was no longer a Silvermane Guard. He merely watched.
Dan Heng felt tired. Still, he explained, "There is a reason for this. The Masked Fools are... followers of the Elation. Fanatical worshippers of the Aeon Aha, they pursue the utmost pleasure and will stop at nothing for joy."
Which was why their bizarre obsession with the Astral Express was entirely understandable.
After all, why had Aha of the Elation secretly turned into a mortal, boarded the Astral Express, lurked there for an entire year, and only then found the chance to blow up half the train? In the Nameless's history, Aha still held the title of the worst Nameless from the bottom, according to Pom-Pom.
"Anyway, they're a bunch of weirdos... The conductor always tells us to be careful. If we run into one, poking them in the butt with whatever we have on hand is never a mistake."
March 7th loudly educated Xing. She did not even bother correcting her about not kicking people in the butt anymore. This move was perfectly fine against Masked Fools.
"I'll remember that!"
Xing's eyes sparkled, making Sampo's scalp tingle.
"Don't! At least spare me. Old Sampo is already a pitiful man whose mask was stolen, leaving me to scrape by as a lousy merchant. I'm just living out my retirement on this planet. Go find another Fool."
Dan Heng showed no concern and simply continued questioning him. "You still have not told me everything about Fang Jie. Tell me, and I'll give you a quick death."
"You can't do this, family. I really came to help you. Don't you want to go to the Lower District? I can lead you there, by a route guaranteed safe. A route old Sampo has taken many times."
"Enough nonsense! Tell us—Is Fang Jie also a Masked Fool?"
"But I really don't know... Who is Fang Jie?"
Sampo looked like he was about to cry. A down-and-out Masked Fool being persecuted by Nameless was something everyone would be delighted to see.
If it were true, that was.
Dan Heng did not lower his guard in the slightest. He especially had to stay vigilant against Masked Fools!
March 7th helped with the interrogation too. "Will you confess? Will you confess? Will you confess?!"
"Ah, cough cough cough cough cough..."
You're strangling me. I can't breathe...
Sampo struggled against the bat with his tongue hanging out, then finally confessed with all his might. "He isn't. He definitely isn't a Masked Fool! If he told you that, then he must be impersonating one!"
"That's not it. Fang Jie only said he wanted to become a Nameless."
March 7th was tired. She let go and motioned for the Stellaron Spirit to continue.
Xing put down the bat and picked up the bow...
So this was how a bow was used.
Let's see if I strangle you.
"Urgh—"
She was much stronger than March 7th.
Sampo slapped the ground desperately in surrender. "Stop, stop... Anyone, anyone can want to become a Nameless. Old Sampo wants to as well. There's... nothing wrong with that."
"You'd better stop wanting to. Tell us, what is wrong with it?"
Dan Heng remained cold, as did even Gepard.
Only now did he learn that this great thief and wanted criminal of Belobog was also an outsider from beyond the stars—a Masked Fool.
He did not need to understand exactly what Masked Fools were, but he knew Sampo had become even more suspicious.
"How do you think I'd know... Fine, I really do know. I'm just afraid you won't believe me if I say it."
With the look of someone plagued by terrible luck, Sampo said resentfully, "That guy calls himself Fang Jie, right? And he told you he wants to become a Nameless. That's fine, truly. Anyone can want to be a Nameless. But during one of my chance trips out to stock up on goods, I witnessed something old Sampo had never seen before—a miracle rare even across the galaxy. I saw how that kid crawled out. By Aha above, he might be a... Bloodsin Spirit of Nihility."
Looking like Xing was about to strangle him to death, Sampo became remarkably straightforward and said something that silenced Dan Heng again.
Xing kept strangling him. The child did not understand.
It still took March 7th. "Huh? You Masked Fool, you're trying to deceive clever, adorable little March? The conductor was right after all. We definitely have to show you Masked Fools what for."
"Spare me!!—"
Dan Heng fell into prolonged silence.
"Achoo—"
Fang Jie, who was in no hurry to head to the Lower District, suddenly felt an inexplicable tickle in his nose and sneezed.
"Who's talking about me? It must be them again. I'll remember this grudge."
He was still in the Goethe Hotel, reading a book—Belobog Martial Arts.
It was not merely one of those joke books from the game, at least not entirely. Besides recording the mysteries of up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, it also gave detailed explanations of how to use strength and train in martial arts.
Just as Belobog's automaton soldiers could trace their origins to the City Builder mining technology of the old civilization's Company, this martial art could be traced back to the Xianzhou's genetic martial arts.
Its level was high enough to enter the Interastral Peace Championship on the Xianzhou and compete on the same stage as Jing Yuan.
Of course, that contestant had long since modified his body beyond recognition, reinforcing himself with all kinds of dangerous cybernetic implants from the Company. Even so, winning the championship had still been almost impossible.
Overall, Fang Jie had gained a great deal from it. How could he grow stronger without learning?
Well, it was not strictly necessary.
Rin was also in the room. She lurked gloomily in the corner, radiating an air of I'm going to scare you to death as she glared fiercely at Fang Jie.
"Stop staring at me like that. I bought Sun Ribbons. Want to try one? They're really sweet."
"I tried one. Do you have no sense of taste? This is 'really sweet'?"
Rin glared at him furiously.
Fine, it was a little too sweet. As the signature snack of the Paskonja Festival, Sun Ribbons were something every household in Belobog knew how to make. They were so cloying that even March 7th could barely tolerate them.
"Then I'll eat it. Don't waste it."
Fang Jie thought it was fine. He simply took Rin's share as well and wolfed it down while continuing to read.
Belobog Martial Arts solemnly explained a certain idea: the deepest operating mechanism of the human body could generate energy out of nothing, an endless and inexhaustible supply of energy.
The human body was truly marvelous.
But Fang Jie believed it. Judging by how worn and damaged the book was, most people probably did not, but he did.
After all, Xianzhou people...
However, the theory came with a follow-up explanation: this energy was fixed per unit of time, and in most circumstances could only sustain low-level life activities. It could not support prolonged and intense exertion.
At the same time, life grew. The energy it required would always exceed the energy it obtained, so it would seek energy from outside itself, thereby increasing its own energy.
The essence of training was life expanding outward, was drawing from the outside world.
Once he understood this "principle," the rest of the book was all technique: left hooks, right hooks, how to adapt to enhancement from certain types of implanted cybernetics, how to identify and consume Path materials such as ores and metals, and so on.
"Pretty interesting, and it suits me well. Cybernetic implants... I'll just treat the altered parts inside my body as implants."
Across the galaxy, Pathstriders were ultimately a minority. Or rather, most people had never realized they were walking a Path, blindly and passively acting according to instinct.
For example, the universe's three great calamities: the Swarm, the Legion, and the Abundance denizens.
Did they count as walking a Path?
Of course they did.
But did they count as Pathstriders?
That was hard to say.
Fang Jie gave up thinking deeply about such philosophical questions of "the Way." There was no need to rush. What he needed right now was a richer grasp of "technique."
Thanks to Jizo Mitama, he could improve at an extremely high rate.
From the assorted scraps on the table, Fang Jie picked up a fragment. It was a component from an automaton soldier—a monomolecular sawtooth.
He had forgotten how the Stellaron Spirit had knocked it off, but he had casually kept it. Now, he examined and compared it closely.
"Stronger than my blade, but not by much."
He meant the Composite Blade: Willow Leaf.
Relying solely on the properties of its manufactured material, a monomolecular blade could easily cut through gaps between molecules. But material reinforced by Honkai energy was no less formidable. Both involved the construction of "fields," constraining particles and extending into high-frequency blades, chainsaw swords, particle beam weapons, and more.
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