"Are you okay, Leon?!"
Stelle and March 7th, hearing the commotion, immediately realized what had happened.
Leon shook his head nonchalantly.
"I'm fine. A group of robots surrounded us—numbering no fewer than thirty."
Over half were capable of ranged attacks, so it seemed they'd need to strike first.
Clara, seeing this, hurriedly jumped off the chair, spreading her arms to block the Express crew.
"Stop! Don't attack them—they mean Clara no harm!"
Guard Robot: "Received Clara's command. Threat neutralized. First-priority defense mode disengaged."
March 7th was stunned.
"Clara, these robots…?"
"I'm so sorry, big brother and sisters. They… they protect Clara, but their intelligence isn't high…"
Clara's face was full of apology, looking like she might cry.
"You're unfamiliar faces, not in the guard system's identified data."
"They saw us in close physical contact, so they attacked…"
"It's all Clara's fault. I'm sorry…!"
Sensing no further attack signals from the robots, Leon's expression softened.
"No need to take it to heart. We're not hurt—no point getting mad at low-intelligence robots."
As he spoke, several loud explosions suddenly echoed from deep within the mining area.
Leon looked toward the source, quickly forming a judgment.
The ground began to tremble faintly.
Something heavy was moving at high speed—definitely not a Belobog human.
An unknown robot.
Based on his knowledge of the underground, Leon had a guess.
Svarog.
Leon generally avoided looking at the script.
Like a fortune-teller who rarely predicts their own future.
The time and life he'd lived through were far too long.
He could be an actor in this life, but not a puppet on strings.
Otherwise, what difference was there from the numb days of collecting faith, living like a walking corpse?
An actor is a living person.
A puppet has no emotions or life.
The Nameless of the Astral Express were not puppets.
They were real companions in this life.
Even setting aside emotions and everything else, just for the sake of the thousands of years of kindness Akivili had shown him,
Leon couldn't treat them as passersby or tools for gathering faith.
Once you're a Nameless, you carry the Nameless' spirit.
The system's script wasn't something he had to follow—he could make his own judgments.
After weighing multiple factors, Leon glanced at Svarog's script for the first time.
Starting with scaring off the rogue vagrants at the mining area entrance, a butterfly effect had begun.
Originally, Svarog wouldn't have appeared here.
[Father, your child dares to remind you: now is not the time to reveal everything with Svarog.]
The system, usually silent, popped up at this moment.
[If a major battle breaks out now, it will skip a large portion of the underground storyline.]
[Calculations suggest a permanent loss of 40% of the faith available in this life.]
[Of course, this is merely a reminder. The decision is yours.]
"I know."
Leon had already made his choice in his heart, needing no system prompt.
Clearing the mining area entrance and taking the shortcut had earned plenty of faith points.
But it also caused some future events to occur early.
This wasn't the ideal moment yet.
Certain people were still missing, and it was unclear how long it'd take for them to arrive.
Let the bullet fly a bit longer.
There was another reason not to overlook.
The original storyline.
Originally, the companion for this Trailblaze journey was Dan Heng.
This storyline still existed in the players' perspective, with players able to choose freely.
No matter how many chose it, after the story ended, comparisons in the community were inevitable.
Ending it here would make it feel far more abrupt compared to Dan Heng's storyline.
It'd make the cohesive, fun Trailblaze journey feel jarring.
A good experience in his storyline would yield more faith from players in parallel worlds.
With this in mind, Leon dismissed the idea of questioning Svarog about Stellaron information.
While Leon was deep in thought, Svarog appeared in the players' view.
"Analyzing targets…"
"Analysis result: Not affiliated with Wildfire. Unknown background, unknown classification, race: likely human."
"Target threat level analysis… Conclusion: unknown."
"Searching database for similar information. Search complete. Targets not native to Belobog lifeforms. Reassessing threat level…"
Hearing this, Clara's small face grew anxious.
"Mr. Svarog, they mean no harm. This big brother even healed Clara's injury."
Svarog: "Received Clara's guarantee. Search terminated. Outsiders, what is your purpose here?"
Leon remained appropriately silent.
Now wasn't his time.
Stelle: "We're here to resolve the mining area conflict. Are these robots your subordinates?"
Svarog: "Yes. At Clara's request, I dispatched them to prevent disputes in the mining area."
"The mining area is currently under preliminary control. Barring unforeseen variables, no large-scale mechanical conflicts will occur within thirty days."
"Outsiders, I understand your purpose. The mining conflict has subsided—you may leave."
March 7th: "But we have friends who went deeper into the mining area. Where are they?"
Svarog: "All vagrants, miners, and Wildfire members in the deeper mining area have evacuated via the D and F transport routes."
Leon asked the key question: "No casualties?"
Svarog: "Based on mediation records, no deaths recorded. Insufficient data on injuries, estimated near a hundred."
"We're leaving. Clara, the Furnace Core needs guarding."
Seeing Svarog bend down, Clara bit her lip but climbed onto his mechanical arm.
"Big brother, thank you again for your help, and thank you all for mediating the conflict. Clara has to go…"
March 7th thought she misheard.
Clara was leaving with this big robot?
What was her relationship with Svarog?
Stelle instinctively wanted to stop her, but Leon intervened in time.
"Don't worry about Clara. Her relationship with Svarog is special. Let them go—we have other things to do."
Surrounded by a crowd of robots, Svarog and Clara quickly vanished from sight.
"Go to the deeper mining area to find Bronya and Seele."
Leon didn't say much about Clara and Svarog.
March 7th: "They haven't evacuated yet?"
Stelle: "Even if they have, we need to catch up. What, head back the way we came?"
March 7th: "Fair point."
The Express crew moved quickly.
Upon entering the deeper mining area, the two girls were stunned by the scattered wreckage.
So many robot remains.
No deaths despite such intense fighting?
March 7th: "Which way do we chase? We don't know which transport route Bronya and the others took."
Leon gave a faint smile.
"No need to chase now—they're back."
…
…
Image of Leon and Jiang Wuxian/Ah Xian