"Let's find Wildfire first. Dr. Natasha already gave us information about Oleg. As for the Mechanical Settlement, I don't think we can communicate effectively with a bunch of robots before we find that girl named Clara."
Most importantly, everyone appearing outside now was unscrupulous. Since the Stellaron wasn't controlling them, Dan Heng didn't think everyone was like that.
In other words, the people they had encountered might all have been abandoned by the two factions.
The remaining good people had all gone into hiding.
Why had they hidden themselves? Why had things become so sharply divided?
Was someone else behind the scenes pushing things along, trying to accomplish something?
"Let's go find Oleg."
"But how are we supposed to find him? We don't have any precise information."
"We can try finding Sampo."
Dan Heng took out his phone and contacted Sampo.
... "Interesting."
Lingchen watched the whole time. Though he didn't know what Dan Heng was thinking, that expression was enough for Lingchen, with his current intelligence, to guess that Dan Heng had probably grown suspicious.
"As a former High Elder, he certainly has some brains. Unfortunately, I've already made preparations."
He edited together some highlights, including Stelle's "'Trailblaze' spirit" as she agonized over whether to try the poop-flavored chocolate she had dug up.
"When the time comes, I'll give it straight to everyone in the Astral Express Crew as a gift for their adventure unraveling the mysteries of Jarilo-VI."
Meanwhile, Dan Heng and March 7th had already met Sampo.
He was the same as ever, positively radiating the air of a crooked merchant, as though he had been born to be one.
One look at him made people want to punch him hard.
"Hehe, old Sampo really does know that one. You're both regular customers, so how about this?