After finishing their talk with Natasha, the Express crew went to look for Hook at her request.
Meanwhile, Natasha and Oleg were going to take Wildfire to spread the good news to the others underground and calm the people who had panicked because of the tremors from the battle.
The Express crew searched around Boulder Town but did not find any trace of Hook.
"Where did this kid run off to? Did she go out adventuring during the chaos? We can't find her anywhere!" March said.
"She's very close with Sister Natasha, so maybe she ran to the orphanage in Rivet Town," Nero said.
"Is that so?" March blinked a couple of times.
"Then let's go take a look," Stelle said. "I know where it is."
"Mm." Dan Heng agreed.
Mr. Yang walked over to Nero and asked in a low voice, "When can we go see Svarog?"
Nero looked at Mr. Yang, blinked twice, then suggested, "You guys go to Rivet Town. Mr. Yang and I will go to the robot settlement to see Clara."
"Mm, that works." March nodded.
"Then it's settled. See you later!"
Nero waved his hand, sat on Black Cut, and headed toward the robot settlement with Mr. Yang.
After Nero and Mr. Yang had gone far away, March poked her companion beside her. "See? I told you long ago, Nero and Clara have an unusually good relationship. As soon as he heard the news, the first thing he wanted was to go find Clara."
Dan Heng and Stelle half-lidded their eyes and looked at March.
"What kind of look is that?" March said, a bit annoyed.
"No, nothing, it's just that I think..." Stelle started to speak several times, then stopped.
Dan Heng calmly and plainly explained, "Mr. Welt really likes robots. The robot settlement has a lot of robots, and Svarog is there too."
"So we think Nero wanted to go to the robot settlement not because of Clara, but because of Mr. Welt."
"Is... is that so?" March scratched her head.
"Probably..." Stelle said. "Nero is really a good kid."
Dan Heng and Stelle headed toward Rivet Town.
After standing there in a daze for a moment, March hurried to follow them.
The robot settlement, on the bridge.
A traffic light stood guard in front of the iron gate.
Nero and Mr. Yang arrived on the bridge. Then Nero looked at the traffic light, blinked twice, and sped over.
"Perkins! Clara fixed you!"
Perkins looked at Nero, its visual module rapidly scanning.
"Outsider... outsider... Clara's... friend."
Nero narrowed his eyes. "Feels like your language module still isn't completely fixed..."
Mr. Yang walked up behind Nero. Light reflected off his lenses as he thought to himself, "A robot with a very high level of automation... speaking of which, this kid Nero... he can count the hairs falling off Pom-Pom with his naked eye, and he can also tell robots apart with his naked eye."
Perkins continued, "Tha... thank you... outsider... for saving... Clara."
Mr. Yang narrowed his eyes. "It can even express gratitude. So robots here that can simulate or even develop emotions aren't limited to just Svarog?"
"Oh, it's fine. Can you take us to Clara?" Nero asked.
Perkins replied, "Outsider... is... Clara's friend... fol-fol-fol... follow me..."
After that, Perkins turned around, walked through the iron gate, and began leading the way.
"Mr. Yang, let's go!" Nero said.
"Mm." Mr. Yang nodded.
The two followed Perkins inside and saw a few pairings of one person and one robot along the way.
Then, deep within the settlement, they saw Svarog and Clara staying together.
Svarog noticed Nero and Mr. Yang from far away.
Whether it was because of Black Cut, or because of Mr. Yang and the Star of Eden.
In Svarog's visual module, once the two were detected, warnings of high-energy reactions and danger kept appearing.
Fortunately, Svarog already knew Nero, and only said to Clara, "Visitors have arrived, Clara."
Clara raised her head, saw Nero, and waved her hand.
Svarog, "..." Given Clara's personality, this kind of action already counted as bold. It seemed that interacting with outsiders did have its benefits, but...
When he thought of how this white-haired boy had slapped him without a word before, his calculation core deleted all assumptions about deep interactions between Clara and outsiders.
Sure enough, too much contact with outsiders was still more harmful than beneficial for Clara.
"It's Nero! Huh... where are the Variable older brother and older sisters?" After Nero and Mr. Yang came closer, Clara looked around, then her gaze fell on Mr. Yang. "And... this uncle is...?"
"Another strange nickname added," Nero said, then introduced both sides.
After they got to know each other, Mr. Yang looked at Svarog and muttered, "It wouldn't be bad if there were a way to bring this onto the Express..."
Meanwhile, Nero and Clara moved a little to the side and casually talked about other things.
Nero told Clara about what had happened earlier on Herta Space Station.
With a look of longing, Clara said to Nero, "Clara remembers, you said you are travelers from other planets, right? Clara also wants to become someone like you. One day... Clara also wants to travel to farther places and make more friends!"
Nero sat cross-legged on Black Cut, looked at Clara, then turned his head to look at Mr. Yang and Svarog talking not far away.
At a certain moment, it was as if a faint, imaginary light bulb lit up above the boy's head.
"If that's the case, then..."
Nero grabbed Clara by the... collar and lifted her up.
"Eh?"
Clara blinked blankly a couple of times, still not sure what was about to happen next.
———
[Rivet Town]
Led by Stelle, the three climbed the stairs leading to the orphanage.
Before they even reached the top of the stairs, they could already hear Julian counting.
"...forty-eight... forty-nine... fifty!"
"Are you all hidden? Hehe, then I'm coming!"
"It's Julian!" March said in surprise.
But very quickly, the girl narrowed her eyes, because she remembered the Fragmentum monsters wandering around that they had run into on the way.
Although most of them weren't very strong, and compared to other Fragmentum-corrupted areas their numbers were surprisingly low.
But still...
"These kids are way too bold, playing hide-and-seek in a Fragmentum-corrupted area."
Even though she felt helpless, after finding Julian, March's tone was still very gentle.
"We finally found you! You actually ran to a place like this to play hide-and-seek. It's too dangerous!"
Julian blinked, badly startled by the sudden appearance of everyone, and stammered, "M-March big sis?! Y-you didn't go back to the Upper City?"
"Don't call me big sis!" The girl was always especially serious about certain things. "Where are Hook and the others? Hurry up and call everyone out."
Julian looked a bit unwilling. "Uh... the game just started. Ending it like this is kind of a letdown..."
Stelle stretched her arms and said, "Then let's catch them one more time, March. We should be pretty skilled at this by now."
Dan Heng looked at the two of them and said, "Seems like you've played similar games before..."
March immediately started arguing, "I-I didn't want to play! I was forced by these kids!"
Even though her mouth was stubborn, her body was very honest.
Together with Stelle, the two smoothly found Hook, then found the other kids as well.
After gathering everyone, she even had to show off that the Express crew had beaten the Moles two to zero.
March had completely forgotten Dan Heng's gaze behind her.
After that, they told the Mole kids the news of their victory in the battle.
But after listening, the children fell silent, leaving March confused.
"Eh? What's going on, why did none of you say anything?"