After borrowing Sampo's head (quite literally), Pei Guang led Stelle and March 7th down to the Underworld.
But the moment they arrived, they heard the sound of arguing.
"I told you to get out of the way! This is Wildfire's turf—don't make us get rough!"
Just as they reached the lower level of Belobog, the group heard someone shouting in anger.
March 7th said, "Huh? That voice… is that Seele?"
Stelle added, "Did something happen to her?"
Pei Guang replied, "Sounds like it. Let's go see what's going on."
The group immediately headed toward Seele. At the same time, Seele was confronting a group of company staff—employees brought by Donatan.
Acting on Donatan's orders, they were blocking access to all passageways in the Underworld, forbidding people from moving freely.
As for Donatan himself? He was preparing to meet with Svarog, the true controller of Belobog's automatons in the Underworld, planning to have a little "heart-to-heart."
But the lockdown in the Underworld was disrupting work and causing unrest, which was why Seele had stepped up to deal with it.
In the past, Seele wouldn't have hesitated to resort to force. But ever since she became a Trailblazer and visited the Xianzhou Alliance, she'd become more composed. At the very least, she didn't want to cause trouble for everyone on the Astral Express.
"Seele, what's going on?"
Hearing Pei Guang's voice, Seele looked surprised. "Ah Guang? What are you doing here?"
Pei Guang said, "Had some business to take care of. These guys are with the company, right?"
Seele gritted her teeth. "Yeah! These bastards suddenly showed up and blocked off every road down here. They even forced the miners to go back!"
Pei Guang gave her a knowing look. "Anyone hurt?"
Seele shook her head. "No one's seriously injured, just…"
Pei Guang stared at her with a piercing gaze. "So, was anyone injured?"
Seele was about to continue speaking when something suddenly occurred to her—her eyes lit up. "Yeah! A few of the Wildfire guys got hurt by their fancy weapons."
In that moment, the eyes of Stelle, March 7th, and Seele all gleamed with the light of intelligence. Everyone here was familiar with each other—they immediately understood what Pei Guang meant.
Pei Guang asked again, "And did any of your people hit them back?"
Seele's eyes shimmered with a similar brilliance. "Nope! You know how it is, our Wildfire gear couldn't even scratch those metal chunks on them."
Pei Guang pulled out a portable recording device and clipped it to Seele's chest. "Go on, get justice."
Seele responded, "Thanks, I know exactly what to do now."
Seele had always been quick-witted, especially when it came to fights, she had self-taught genius-level instincts. She instantly understood what Pei Guang was getting at: not only was he telling her to retaliate, but to make sure it was justified.
Pei Guang added, "Here, I placed Bailu's gourd in the first public storage slot. Use it sparingly, and make sure to put it back when you're done. Oh, and give this to your people. According to Bailu, this stuff will make it obvious that they've been treated with a high-quality healing potion. As for the injuries…"
Seele's eyes sparkled even more. "Got it."
Stelle looked a bit worried. "Are you sure this will work? Their tech looks pretty advanced, they probably have recordings, right?"
Pei Guang shrugged. "They used to. Whether they still do… that's another story."
March 7th added, "Stelle! Did you forget? Ah Guang can~"
Stelle: "Ehehe~"
March 7th: "Ehehe~"
At that moment, everything came flooding back to Stelle.
Meanwhile, the company employees on the side looked at Pei Guang's group with confusion. They didn't understand why that previously aggressive girl had suddenly gone quiet. Could this guy be someone important down here?
With that thought in mind, the team leader called out to Pei Guang, "Hey you over there, the company is conducting an asset evaluation. Unauthorized personnel are to stay back."
But Seele stepped forward, turned on the recording function, and said, "Watch your words. I'm recording everything."
Team Leader: "What?"
Seele: "What, what? I'm asking you—did your people hurt our people or not?"
Team Leader: "You guys were the ones who—"
Seele cut in: "I'm just asking if you injured our people. Be honest. I'm recording this."
One of the regular employees shivered. "We did! But—" He wanted to explain it was just an accident, a scratch, and that the company would compensate, but before he could finish, the team leader scolded him, "What nonsense are you spouting!?"
The leader immediately realized something was off. As a veteran in the company, he'd seen plenty of tricks and tried to shift the blame first. But the newbie had only just joined and didn't yet understand how twisted things could be—he'd just blurted out exactly what Seele wanted.
And that was exactly what Seele was after. She grinned. "Perfect! I don't care about lofty ideals—if someone gets hurt, someone pays. You hurt our Wildfire members? Don't blame me for hitting back hard. Disappear among the sea of butterflies!"
A pure burst of Hunt Path power erupted from Seele. The moment that terrifying pressure exploded from her, the team leader realized they'd kicked a hornet's nest.
He moved to contact reinforcements, but at that exact moment, Pei Guang snapped his fingers.
All the surrounding employees' devices were instantly hacked by Pei Guang. He wiped all video, audio, and file records related to the Underworld, and caused temporary short-circuits in their equipment.
For good measure, he even hacked their server and left a message behind: "Done by Silver Wolf."
In almost the blink of an eye, everyone present was knocked out by Seele.
If there was anything Seele had learned from traveling with Pei Guang, it was how to properly clean house: she beat up every employee on-site, then gave each one a drop of Bailu's special healing potion.
Even if someone's organs were failing, this potion could instantly restore them. Beat them up, heal them, then beat them again—if things blew up later, the only record would be that employees were beaten but suffered no injuries.
As for whether Wildfire members were hurt? Of course they were. If not for the Trailblazers using top-tier healing medicine, those scrapes wouldn't have recovered so fast. If an investigation did happen, the results would show Wildfire members were injured, and Seele lashed out in anger.
What kind of injury? Well, that was all healed. Nothing left to check. Do as you will.
And sure, some company equipment got busted—but Seele could pay for that. She was loaded these days. Plus, with her connections to the Xianzhou and the Express, she could easily handle the bill.
But if innocent company employees were injured? Well… who's going to compensate for that?
Besides, all their records were gone, while Pei Guang's side had a recording of the confession. With this setup, Pei Guang had handled both the optics and the logic. Even if things escalated, it would still look like the company was in the wrong.
Not only had they beaten people up, they also managed to do it in a way that let Belobog save face.
While Seele went wild on one end, Pei Guang glanced at the tracker he'd placed on Donatan. "Hmm, this guy's still in the Underworld. Looks like he's in the Robot Settlement… is he going to see Svarog?"
March 7th said, "Let's go! These company people are way too arrogant. We've got to give him a good beating."
But Stelle gave her a serious look. "Say… is there a chance… we're even more arrogant than them?"
March 7th shot back, "No way! We're the righteous Trailblazers!"
Stelle: "Righteous ambushes? Righteous group beatdowns?"
Pei Guang chimed in, "Just call it righteous justice. Speaking of which, since this is a just sneak attack, you all brought your masks, right?"
March 7th: "Oof—masks? Actually, I do have one~"
March 7th really did pull out a black ski mask from her storage space. When Pei Guang and Stelle saw the mask, their eyes gleamed with a strange light.
Feeling the looks from her teammates, March 7th scratched her head awkwardly. "Uh… back when you mentioned robbing a bank or something, Ah Guang, I did a little preparation. Just a tiny bit."
Pei Guang: "Well prepared. Let's move out!"
The trio set off for the Robot Settlement to find the company employee.