Clara

But just as he grabbed the boy and prepared to question him, the child in his grip suddenly shouted:

"Help! Murder! They're going to take me away!!"

At those words, the surrounding vagrants instantly fixed their eyes on Zhang Xiu. Several of them saw the boy being held and immediately crowded around:

"Hey, outsider, what do you think you're doing?"

"Looking for a beating? How dare you kidnap a kid in broad daylight?!"

"Enough talk! Grab them all first!"

Faced with this scene, Zhang Xiu didn't back down. Instead, he barked, "Shut the fuck up! Who gave you permission to speak?!"

His shout instantly silenced the crowd. Coming to their senses, his companions drew their weapons and warily scanned the surrounding vagrants.

"Now, tell them how you stole from us. Understood?" He stared hard at the boy in his grip, his voice full of menace.

"I...! I'll tell them! I was so hungry, that's why I stole! Don't kill me! Please don't kill me!"

The boy struggled to shield his face with both arms, his body trembling uncontrollably. A rank smell of urine rose from below his waist.

"So hungry? Heh, do you take me for an idiot? Those people who stepped forward are in on it with you, aren't they?"

His icy gaze swept over the people who had just spoken up to stir the vagrants' emotions.

Without Zhang Xiu needing to say another word, Dan Heng and Seele dragged those people out and brought them before the boy.

"Listen, I don't believe you did this because you were starving. Four adults should be able to keep themselves and one kid fed in the Underworld."

"Besides, this is Svarog's territory, isn't it? Clara's looked after you plenty, hasn't she?"

"Zhang Xiu, how do you plan to handle this? We still need to see Svarog," Dan Heng urged from beside him.

"Y-you! What are you going to do to us?!" One of the women they had dragged out trembled in fear.

"It's not a serious crime. I'll just make you suffer a little so the lesson sticks."

Zhang Xiu shoved half the boy's body into a snowbank, then planted the other four in it the same way.

"Stay right here for three minutes. Come out early, and you'll have something to cry about." With that, he clapped his hands and turned to the others. "Let's go."

They passed through the frightened crowd and continued onward, eventually arriving before an enormous iron gate.

It stood a full five stories tall, with cliffs rising even higher on either side, blocking their path like a giant.

March 7th reached out and pushed the gate in front of her, but couldn't budge it an inch. "Ugh... What a heavy gate... All right, watch this!"

She spread her arms and shouted, "O~pen~ se~sa~me~!"

Teacher Egg Yolk shook their head almost imperceptibly at this, while Bronya asked in confusion, "What was that? A password?"

"It's a passphrase from a fairy tale. There's no way it'll work here."

Zhang Xiu loosened up his limbs, preparing to smash the iron gate open. "Heh, a mere iron gate thinks it can stop us? Watch me."

"Don't act rashly, Zhang Xiu. There are still vagrants and robots watching nearby. We could cause trouble," Dan Heng said, stopping him.

"That's right, Brother Zhang Xiu. Don't worry, I've already figured out how this gate works. To get inside, we have to obtain certification."

"But isn't that too much trouble?" Zhang Xiu didn't want to follow the plot, talking to the vagrants one by one before finding the robots to obtain certification.

"I can make flowering trees grow to conceal us from view and lift us inside." Holding a red seed between her fingers, Yaoshi offered her suggestion.

"Well, that could work, but if we get in that way, Boss Svarog definitely won't be happy, will he? Still, if you've really made up your minds, old Sampo won't get in your way~ Hehe."

As he spoke, Sampo tried to slip away, only for Zhang Xiu's large hand to seize him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Uh, there's nothing left for old Sampo to do here, is there? If I come along, I'll only hold you back, won't I?"

"Cut the crap. You're part of the Underworld too, aren't you? For the sake of a brighter tomorrow, you can't back down, Sampo~"

"Th-then all right... But don't expect too much of old Sampo. I'm just an ordinary archaeologist, after all."

Looking at Sampo's face, plastered with smiles, Zhang Xiu didn't believe a single word he said. After all, judging by the clues in the latest plot developments, this fellow wasn't just one of the Masked Fools-he might very well be an Emanator of Elation.

"In that case, since we're here to cooperate, let's obtain certification." Dan Heng turned to Zhang Xiu as he spoke. "If you don't want to come, you can stay here and find something to pass the time."

"Nah... I'll go find Clara directly. With her help, our plan should go a little more smoothly."

"That works too. We'll see you later, then."

"Mm-hmm. Good luck, everyone. If anything goes wrong, call me at any time."

Hearing that he intended to find Clara, Stelle told him about what she, Seele, and Bronya had encountered in the town inside the Fragmentum.

"Maybe she's still in that town."

"Okay, let's go, honey."

After parting with the others, Zhang Xiu and Yaoshi hurried toward the Fragmentum. According to the plot, Clara would soon encounter a Fragmentum Creature: Flame from Outer Space.

Perkins, the Traffic Light who had protected her along the way as her "Amber Lord," was no match for it and was beaten nearly beyond repair.

The routes through the town inside the Fragmentum were far from simple. It was so much larger than the in-game map that anyone could lose their way wandering through it.

This left Zhang Xiu admiring Clara. Though she was only in her early teens, her kindness drove her to venture alone into the Fragmentum, where even adults feared to tread, searching for supplies and helping others.

After arriving, Zhang Xiu climbed straight to a high vantage point and scanned the buildings below.

Soon, he spotted Clara and her little robot being chased by an enormous monster.

"Faster, just a little faster! We can't let it catch us...!"

Ducking beneath the Flame from Outer Space's relentless barrage of fireballs, Clara panted as her little feet raced over the freezing streets.

She and the robot beside her used the surrounding houses to evade the Flame from Outer Space's pursuit, but as they emerged from an alley, they ran straight into the monster as it came smashing through a house!

"Protect Clara."

As fireballs erupted from behind the Flame from Outer Space, a barrier appeared around the Traffic Light that had followed Clara all this way, and he charged straight into the raging fireballs!

"Perkins-!"

Just as he was about to be blasted away, several budding branches descended from above and blocked the fireballs completely.

Perkins struck the branches and fell, and Clara caught him in her arms.

She looked up to see a black figure dropping from the sky, a Greatsword in his hands cleaving straight into the Flame from Outer Space.

The terrifying force split it clean in two. Both halves fell to the ground and dissolved into pinpricks of red starlight that faded into the air.

"Are you all right, Clara?" Zhang Xiu put away the Greatsword and hurried over to her.

"Y-you're the scary big brother from yesterday?" Clara's eyes widened slightly as she remembered who the person before her was.

"Uh... I didn't mean to be harsh with you and Svarog back then. Sorry, sorry..."

Zhang Xiu smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.