Pom-Pom could tell at a single glance the dangerous aura of Nihility clinging to Mei, but that was fine. Such was the way of the Nameless—as long as they shared the same pursuit, anyone was welcome aboard.
The Express never turned anyone away.
"Hello there! I'm March 7th. We didn't get to say a proper hello last time!"
March 7th bounded over with a bright grin to greet Mei. Since they were all going to be fellow Nameless from now on, it was only right to get along. Besides, this Miss Acheron was even stronger than Sylvia.
She was a certified powerhouse, someone with thighs way thicker to lean on than Uncle Yang's.
"Hello. Just call me Acheron."
Mei nodded at March 7th, letting their hands meet for a brief, fleeting handshake. While it didn't matter with Sylvia, she preferred to keep physical contact with others to a bare minimum.
It was better that way, lest she bring misfortune upon them.
"Hehe, I'm going to add you to the Express group chat right now~"
Leaving the trio to their devices, Sylvia squatted down to look at Pom-Pom. "By the way, Conductor, I just saw you shut off the power grid. Does our train have enough energy to make a warp jump right now?"
"Don't worry! I brought some energy reserves over from Himeko's side. But it's true that we are running a bit low. Do you have a solution, Passenger Sylvia?"
Pom-Pom stood with hands on hips, laying out the current situation for Sylvia.
The energy reserves were not looking good.
"If we set out right now to Trailblaze the new worlds Mei passed through before, how much energy can we replenish?"
"Really?! That would solve our energy crisis in one fell swoop!"
"Alright then! The first goal for our departure: solve the Express group's energy crisis!"
As the primary person-in-charge of this train, Sylvia made the executive decision.
Though truth be told, because Acheron had already scouted the path ahead, their Trailblazing expedition was going to be significantly easier than a normal one.
Ordinarily, the act of Trailblazing an unknown world was like veering off a well-paved highway and driving straight into a trackless wilderness. The destination was a mystery, and the direction to take was equally unknown.
It was highly probable that even after warping multiple times, one would still be staring into a barren, empty expanse of stars.
To put it plainly, on a cosmic scale, celestial bodies like planets were incredibly scattered. A proper Trailblazing expedition often involved hacking out a path with everything you had, only to end up running a massive distance into absolute nothingness. And even if you did stumble upon something, it was hard to say whether it would be a golden opportunity or a catastrophic disaster.
Perhaps that was why an entire fleet of Astral Expresses eventually crashed and burned in the past.
When people spend day and night chasing adventure, they can't possibly survive every single brush with death.
Sylvia's brand of 'Trailblazing', however, was a bit of a cheat code.
Relying on her sheer, overwhelming strength, Acheron had managed to map out sections of the unknown star charts on her own. Knowing the distances and even what lay at the destination made the difficulty trivial.
Even Pom-Pom couldn't help but feel that this kind of 'Trailblazing' was pushing the boundaries of fair play. But since Acheron was now a Nameless too, there was no reason not to chart the stellar map locked inside her head.
Thus, neither Pom-Pom nor Himeko raised any objections.
In fact, Himeko even asked for a copy of the map, planning to top off the energy reserves for her own train as well.
Spending too much time clearing out pre-existing interstellar space routes severely diminished the Trailblaze power they could harvest, leaving them somewhat strapped for energy.
As for Sylvia's route, it naturally pointed toward Separius.
Sylvia hadn't forgotten that Mei was planning to steal the invitation from the Ever-Flame Mansion, intending to disguise herself as a Galaxy Ranger to infiltrate Penacony.
Since they were now people sailing through the cosmos on an Express, they were practically branded as Nameless. So, out of courtesy, Sylvia gave Himeko a heads-up in the group chat.
Upon hearing the news, March 7th and Stelle instantly perked up.
Sylvia's train was still an Astral Express, wasn't it? Besides, the Ever-Flame Mansion was notorious across the universe, with a reputation even more foul than that of the Stellaron Hunters.
The Stellaron Hunters only targeted Stellarons; as long as your planet didn't have one, you didn't really have to worry about what they would do even if you crossed paths.
The Ever-Flame Mansion was a different story—encountering them almost always guaranteed bloodshed.
[March 7th: I wanna go, I wanna go! Besides, aren't we already on Sylvia's train right now anyway?]
[Stelle: The Galactic Baseballer will descend upon Japella with her army of justice!]
[Stelle: [Smug Pom-Pom Sticker]]
[Dan Heng: ...]
On the other train, Dan Heng fell silent for a moment. He was a bit worried about his new companions, and whether March 7th and Stelle could handle that kind of raw, unadulterated slaughter.
The Ever-Flame Mansion operated under the banner of Destruction; they were not good people.
[Himeko: March, Miss Acheron has official business to attend to, and this operation does not fall under 'Trailblazing'. Welt and I object to the two of you joining.]
[Welt: March, Stelle, you two should take the Xianzhou starskiff back instead.]
As the Navigator, Himeko knew Acheron had a complicated past, and she wouldn't pry too deeply into a crew member's private affairs. But it was clear that with more than enough combat power on hand, there was no need for the other Nameless to tag along.
Welt felt the same way. They followed the path of Trailblaze; combat was merely a last resort. Acheron and Sylvia's goal for this mission was purely to fight and seize an invitation. It was neither Trailblazing nor civilized.
With the two parental figures of the Express group speaking up, March 7th instantly deflated.
Clutching her phone, she cast a pitiful look at Sylvia, who was standing right next to her.
"Sylvia~"
"Don't look at me. Himeko is the Navigator. If she doesn't agree, I'm definitely not taking you two along."
Sylvia cut March 7th off before she could even finish her sentence. Beside her, Stelle looked like she wanted to speak up too, but Sylvia shut them both down in one go.
Standing close to Sylvia, Mei nodded silently. She didn't want to drag these two kids into this kind of mess either.
Well... though their actual ages might not be small, how could two pure, amnesiac girls not be considered children?
"Ugh... stingy!"
March 7th stuck her tongue out at Sylvia with a huff, then sullenly typed a 'Got it' back into the group chat.
Once the two girls were sent on their way, Mei looked around the cabin, which now held only the two of them, and let out a soft laugh.
"Destiny really is a wondrous thing. I never expected a day would come where I'd be traveling with someone like this."
"You're saying that now?"
Sylvia shot Mei a sideways glance. Mei was the one who had insisted on tag-along, yet she made it sound like Sylvia had forced her to stay. What a character.
"Let's go. Let's say goodbye to Asta and make our move."
"Mm."
Though they possessed the capability to warp, Trailblazing new worlds still required a fair bit of time. With Sylvia away from Penacony lately, Robin was left to investigate things all on her own.
Sylvia couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy. The main issue was that Robin lacked any real combat capability, which always triggered Sylvia's phobia of insufficient firepower.
As for Sparkle, that little Masked Fool... it was incredibly hard for Sylvia to view her as anyone 'reliable'.
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL