"Sorry, I missed the shot, haha."
The team member scratched his head and pulled out another round of ammunition, loading it into the rocket launcher.
"Little girl, you're gonna have to reimburse us for this. We're just a passing caravan— these flares aren't free!"
Kiana blinked and nodded:
"Got it."
"Mm."
Soon.
Another streak of light exploded from the muzzle and shot into the sky.
"Biu—boom!!"
Multicolored fireworks slowly drifted down.
Falling along with them was the other half of some statue's face.
The headless Dan Heng statue: "…"
The team member slapped his forehead, stuck out his tongue in a cute pout: "Oops, missed again! Sorry sorry!"
The man beside him widened his eyes:
"You had to stand right under the statue to fire it—of course it hit! "
"Oh, that's why."
The flare-firing teammate suddenly understood:
"But now the head's gone anyway, so it won't affect the vibe anymore. No problem, no problem!"
"…"
Immediately after, another flare grazed the broken neck of the Dan Heng ice statue and soared upward.
"Biu—boom!!"
…
Morning.
Inside Belobog city.
Dan Heng bid farewell to the two nobodies and arrived alone at the museum entrance.
Suddenly, a group of Silvermane Guards rushed out.
"Mr. Dan Heng, sorry—please step aside."
"Mm."
Dan Heng stood to the side, silently watching as the Guards fully withdrew from the museum.
After leaving the museum, they flowed like streams into the sea, merging with the large contingent of Silvermane Guards already gathered in the plaza.
A grand, solemn assembly.
Watching the scene in the distance, a question arose in Dan Heng's mind:
"What are they doing?"
Pela leaned nearby and explained:
"A passing caravan released flares deep in the snow plains. Probably in distress."
"Belobog's trade has only just started picking up, so the Supreme Guardian takes this very seriously. The number of Silvermane Guards Gepard brought is actually quite conservative."
Dan Heng looked into the distance and nodded:
"I see. That's how it should be. We need outsiders to see Belobog's attitude toward merchant caravans from this incident."
"But I still have one doubt."
"What is it?"
Dan Heng turned to Pela and asked:
"Don't the caravan people have phones? Why use flares?"
"…"
Pela was silent for a few seconds before explaining:
"Maybe… they don't know our contact information."
…
On the other side.
"Boss, don't you have the phone numbers of the relevant personnel? Why just watch him launch the flares like that?"
"Don't you think launching flares in a situation like this has way more atmosphere?"
"…"
After a moment of silence, the man turned to Kiana nearby, puzzled:
"Little girl, about the person you were chasing—you really didn't call back to ask? Or do you not have a phone?"
"Oh, phone? Yeah, I do."
Kiana pulled out her phone from her coat, unlocked the screen, and immediately saw messages from Zeig.
[Yesterday 14:32]
[Ultimate Slacker (Note: Captain): Where the hell are you?]
[————————]
[Above are all unread messages.]
"…"
Kiana squatted on the ground and silently typed back to Zeig.
[Me: I, I went to catch a thief for the museum, but didn't catch him.]
The message had just been sent.
A few seconds later, a reply came.
[Ultimate Slacker: Museum? Thief? Oh, got it. Go find Dan Heng. It's not my shift today—I pushed him onto you.]
[Ultimate Slacker: (Pushed contact to you: Cold Dragon Young)]
[Click to add friend]
"…"
[(Cold Dragon Young has accepted your friend request. You can now start chatting.)]
[Cold Dragon Young: "Who are you?"]
Kiana hugged her phone and silently added a note for Dan Heng.
"Didn't expect the phone the Captain gave me to have such good signal even in this frozen wasteland."
Kiana typed while sighing in admiration.
[Me: Hello, Mr. Dan Heng. I'm Kiana, the one who helped at the museum yesterday. The Captain should have mentioned me.]
[Cold Dragon Young: Mm, I think I understand.]
[Cold Dragon Young: He just messaged that you're chasing a thief? And you've been after him for a whole day and night?]
[Me: Yes. I lost him now, but I ran into a caravan.]
[Cold Dragon Young: Caravan?]
Inside the museum hall.
Dan Heng held his phone, deep in thought.
Earlier, Pela had told him that the ones who launched the flares were the caravan.
Could it be that this girl was currently with the caravan?
[Cold Dragon Young: You're with the caravan? How are things on your side right now.]
Kiana squatted on the ground.
Typing:
[Me: We launched flares.]
[Cold Dragon Young: Mm, I know. I mean, are you all in any trouble?]
[Me: Oh, yes. The caravan said the one I'm chasing is most likely a Stellaron Hunter, so they helped me launch flares to call for reinforcements on this planet.]
[Cold Dragon Young: Stellaron Hunter!]
Kiana stared at the exclamation mark at the end of Dan Heng's message and could immediately feel his shock and suspicion.
She continued typing:
[Me: Yes, they said I ran into a Stellaron Hunter.]
[(The other party is typing…)]
[Cold Dragon Young: Alright, I understand. Who exactly did you encounter?]
Kiana thought about the person's appearance and typed:
[Me: Male, long hair, looks very crazy, really fast, strength probably not low.]
…
"Miss, you're probably contacting someone from this planet, right?" At that moment, the man who had just fired the flares walked over.
Kiana hugged her phone and looked up:
"Mm, yeah. What's up?"
The man scratched his head awkwardly:
"Well… I just blew up part of a statue, right? That statue's so big—it must be something pretty valuable on this planet. Could you keep it a secret? Consider it thanks for me helping you launch the flares."
After hearing that, Kiana immediately hesitated.
"This… if it's just a statue, sure, I guess. How should I help? Say it was crushed by heavy snow?"
"Nah, how could heavy snow crush something like that? The snow's so light now."
"Just say the Stellaron Hunter chopped it up. They're infamous anyway—one more bad deed won't matter."
"Uh… alright. He did steal something from the museum anyway."
So.
Kiana lowered her head.
Continued typing:
[Me: By the way, that guy also seemed to have chopped off the head of a statue here… the one with a flower in its mouth, smashed it to pieces on the ground.]
…
Inside the museum.
Crowds of people.
Dan Heng leaned against the wall, staring gravely at his phone.
A flood of keywords surged up.
Long hair.
Male.
Very crazy.
Chopped the head off his own statue.
"…"
A face slowly emerged in his mind.
Dan Heng's expression grew even more grave.
"…It's him."
…