(Volume V: Love Triangle of Mo Wang, Elation, and Preservation)
Outside a planet blanketed in ice and snow, a truly incredible scene was unfolding.
A railway train, with no tracks to speak of, had suddenly materialized in the vastness of outer space.
Perhaps such a scene, steeped in both sci-fi and contradiction, was a marvel unique to this world.
"Hey! You! Don't you dare throw up! I just finished cleaning this floor!"
Aboard the Astral Express, the long-eared conductor, Pom-Pom, spotted Mo Wang looking like he was about to be sick and began shouting to stop him.
"I'll... I'll try... Ugh, I didn't think warping would feel like this... Nope, I'm definitely getting spacesick!"
Mo Wang fought back the urge to retch as he spoke to Pom-Pom.
"Are you serious?! Who gets spacesick in space?! Don't you do it! Now you're making me feel a little..."
"You two! Get to the restroom, now! You are not throwing up in here!"
Seeing March 7th beside them also looking like she was about to heave, Pom-Pom was on the verge of a breakdown.
Why did something so bizarre have to happen every single time they warped?!
"Cough, cough, I'm fine! Much better now. Cough, cough. Note to self: don't scroll through videos during a warp."
Mo Wang looked practically catatonic as he slumped back against his seat, though Pom-Pom still eyed him with suspicion.
They had a feeling this guy was going to hurl any second now.
"Honestly, I don't even know what to say to you. I mean, how long have you been on the Express? And you still get sick from something like this? Hmph, look at me. I'm totally used to it by now."
Seeing Mo Wang sprawled out, March 7th immediately stuck her nose in the air and spoke with a triumphant smirk.
"Oh, really? 'Cause I heard that you always fall over during warps because you can't be bothered to stay in your seat. And don't you have a habit of making a huge mess with your ice, leaving the conductor to mop it all up? How childish, March. You really are like a little kid."
"Ahem! Those were accidents! Besides, I am young! I'm a maiden in her prime! Eighteen years old!" March roared back defensively.
"Hahaha, really? Eighteen? I'd believe you if you multiplied that by ten. Auntie March 7th!"
"Alright, alright, that's enough you two. We've just arrived at our destination, can't you quiet down for a bit?"
Seeing the two clowns on the Express about to get into another squabble, Old Man Yang couldn't take it anymore and stood up from his seat in the back to intervene.
"You two have been traveling together for months now. Why are you still bickering like this?" he sighed.
"It's all his fault! Hmph! Questioning a lady's age! Don't you know how rude that is?!" March shot Mo Wang a fierce glare.
"Urgh~ Did I say something wrong? I mean, I'm only a three-month-old baby. Is it really so bad for me to call you 'auntie'?" Mo Wang shot back.
"What do you mean, 'three months old'?!"
Even Welt couldn't help but call him out.
If he didn't already know the guy, he might have actually fallen for his crap!
March was one thing—it was normal for a young girl like her to act this way.
But Mo Wang? Give me a break!
He didn't know how this guy ended up here, or how he'd gotten onto the space station, and he even looked a lot younger than the version he remembered. But claiming to be three months old? That was just absurd.
Still, Welt thought for a long moment and couldn't figure out how to properly scold him.
In his experience, it didn't matter which Mo Wang he was dealing with; they all had the same personality. They wouldn't rest until they'd turned the world upside down.
He supposed he was used to it by now. And this Mo Wang, he had to admit, wasn't even the worst version he'd ever met...
"Mo Wang, March 7th, you are Nameless now. You should try to be a bit more mature and composed."
After a long pause, Welt finally managed to squeeze out the sentence.
"See? Did you hear that? You need to be more composed. Why can't you be mature and steady like Uncle Yang?" March said smugly to Mo Wang.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. If I were over a hundred years old and raising a kid like Uncle Yang, I'd be mature and composed too, okay."
Mo Wang retorted, implying he was still a vibrant youth who couldn't be expected to act like an old man.
"Huh? Uncle Yang... is over a hundred? And he has a kid? Uncle Yang, you're married?!"
March's expression immediately turned curious. This was the first she'd ever heard about Welt's age or family situation.
"What else? In fact, Uncle Yang is technically playing hooky from his real job right now. He even left his kid to be raised by his boss."
"But speaking of which, Uncle Yang isn't actually married. That kid of his... is a clone of his old best friend..." (Idk about the "best friend" tho)
"Whoa! Is the tea really that hot?!"
March was completely floored by the bombshells Mo Wang was dropping. To think that the honest-looking Old Man Yang had so many secrets.
"Ahem! Mo Wang, please, stop talking. I'm begging you, okay?"
Old Man Yang couldn't take it anymore.
Dude, why are you telling everyone my life story? Can't a guy have some privacy? I haven't told a soul about any of this!
At this point, it wasn't just March 7th; Himeko and Pom-Pom in the background were also leaning in with interested expressions.
"Hey, wait a minute. How do you know all this?" March's eyes suddenly narrowed. Something wasn't adding up.
"What else could it be? We're from the same neck of the woods, of course," Mo Wang said with a shrug, implying he knew everything about Welt.
"Huh? So you were born on the space station? What happened to being three months old?"
"Seriously, you actually believed that? You don't even have white hair, yet you're so gullible. March, you're a hopeless case."
"You...!"
"Speaking of which, is this our destination, Jarilo-VI? It looks completely different from the records on the Express."
Just then, Dan Heng emerged from his room. Ignoring the bickering duo, he looked out at the completely white planet with a puzzled expression.
"Indeed," Himeko mused. "According to the Express's archives, Jarilo-VI should be a lush, verdant world. I didn't expect it to end up like this after a few thousand years."
While it was normal for things to change over millennia, for an entire planet to be completely frozen over... that was certainly unusual.
"How did this happen?" March wondered aloud, staring at the planet that looked like a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream.
"How else? Looks to me like the people down there couldn't handle the Stellaron and let it go critical," Mo Wang said with a nonchalant air.
"How do you know it's a Stellaron? And wait, are you saying the Stellaron down there exploded?" March instinctively took two steps back, looking at Mo Wang as if he were a walking bomb himself.
"It didn't 'explode.' You're thinking of it like a literal bomb, aren't you? I'm saying the Stellaron down there probably went berserk!" Mo Wang said, exasperated.
"Even if that thing's not a bomb, it's pretty damn close! Stay away from me. Don't drag me down with you when you blow up."
"Hah! You're testing my patience. If I go, you can bet I'm taking you with me!"
"What the hell, you want to take me to the grave with you?!"
Dan Heng, still ignoring the two clowns, turned to Welt. "So it really is the Stellaron that caused all this?"
"According to the data, yes. Another disaster caused by a Stellaron."
Honestly, as one of the Nameless, Welt had dealt with Stellarons many times before. But to see an entire planet frozen solid like this was a rare sight. Just looking at it, he knew this situation was going to be extremely dangerous.
"Well, looks like it's time for us to get to work again," March said, standing up and stretching.
"What do you mean, 'us'? Huh? I have to go too?" Mo Wang pointed to himself, a look of disgust on his face. "Can't I just stay here?"
"Oh no you don't! Are you trying to slack off up here? No way, absolutely not!" As soon as March heard he didn't want to go, she immediately shut him down.
"I'm the new guy, okay? You're throwing me into the deep end on my first mission. Aren't you guys worried about getting blown up?" Mo Wang pleaded as March started physically dragging him.
"Hey, we all have to start somewhere! Now get your butt down there!" March tugged with all her might, like a mother dragging her unwilling child to school.
"Mo Wang, why don't you want to go? Is something troubling you?"
Just then, Himeko asked, noticing his strong resistance.
"Well... I'm actually a little sensitive to the cold."
Mo Wang was unsure how to answer. He couldn't very well say he had 'Anti-Cocolia Syndrome,' could he? That just seeing Cocolia would trigger an overwhelming urge to kill her.
If he went down there, even he didn't know what he might do.
"If it's the cold, you don't need to worry," Himeko said with a gentle smile. "The power of the Trailblaze will protect us. Even in the blizzards below, we won't feel the chill too severely."
"Well, about that..." Mo Wang's eyes suddenly darted around as an idea struck him. "If we're going down, can we have Uncle Yang as our team leader? If he goes, I'll go!" he declared.
"Oh? Me?"
Welt, who had been singled out, pointed at himself in confusion. How did he get dragged into this?
"Oh? Give me a reason," Himeko said, her interest piqued.
"Well, how about you think of it as a special perk for the new guy?" Mo Wang said, gesturing to himself. "Look, Himeko, every team needs a leader, right? I'm the rookie, so that's out. But look at March and Dan Heng. Does either of them look like leader material? A ditzy sweetheart and a stoic pretty boy? That team composition is a one-way ticket to disaster! You don't want us to go down there and immediately piss off the locals, forcing us to run for our lives, do you?"
"That... is a valid point," Himeko mused.
She had wanted the three of them to learn to work together and build chemistry, but she hadn't considered the potential consequences of sending a team of pure rookies. And she couldn't really find a flaw in Mo Wang's reasoning.
"In that case, Welt, I'll have to ask you to accompany them," Himeko said without hesitation, turning to Welt.
"Huh? Me?" Welt was stunned again.
"Hm? What's wrong? Weren't you eager to go just before?" Himeko asked, confused by his reaction.
"Well..."
Welt looked over at Mo Wang's sly, knowing smirk, and for a moment, he was at a loss for words. He couldn't just say that Mo Wang's smile sent a chill down his spine and made him want to back out, could he?
A smile from Mo Wang, your fate is unknown.
From what Welt knew of the man, whenever he made a request with that smile on his face, it was guaranteed to be trouble. If he went down there, he was eighty percent sure he was walking into a trap.
"Yay! Uncle Yang is coming with us? That's great! With you here, the mission is sure to be a success!" March cheered, jumping up and down.
Even Dan Heng gave a slight nod of approval.
Seeing their reactions, the refusal on the tip of Welt's tongue was swallowed back down.
"Fine, I'll go. To be honest, I was a little worried myself," he said, forcing the words out.
Of course, the "worry" he was talking about wasn't for their safety. It was the thought of Mo Wang being out of his sight for any length of time that made him truly uneasy.
He really didn't want the three of them to come back and report that everyone on the planet below was dead. That would completely ruin the Nameless's hard-earned reputation, wouldn't it?
"Heheheheh! Uncle Yang, I look forward to a pleasant journey together."
Mo Wang couldn't suppress the wicked grin spreading across his face.
He simply couldn't wait to snap a picture of Welt's face when he ran into a few old acquaintances down there.
Oh, it was going to be priceless.