After discussing further details with Welt, the group entered the landing craft, their hearts a mix of excitement and tension.
Their landing zone was a sea area in the Far East, very close to Schicksal's Far East Branch, and especially close to St. Freya Academy.
As for why they didn't set the landing point within Anti-Entropy's sphere of influence… to be honest, he was still uncertain about a few things. From the current look of it, the Far East was indeed the best choice.
They activated the landing craft's stealth mode to minimize the possibility of exposure during atmospheric entry. After deploying the craft, the train would also enter a submerged silent running state, enabling its own stealth mode to avoid detection.
For any world that had not yet made contact with other civilizations in the universe, the train always hid itself first.
Because to a civilization being [Trailblazed], the [Trailblazers] were uninvited guests from the cosmos. No one could know the purpose of these "visitors from beyond the heavens," or whether their words and actions were genuine.
Therefore, hiding themselves would reduce a lot of unnecessary trouble.
These were the valuable experiences written down by previous crews in the Archives. Relying on this knowledge, the Astral Express had avoided many detours… except for that one time when March 7th and the others accidentally mixed up the coordinates during a landing and ended up smashing a local landmark.
A blue meteor streaked across the atmosphere, leaving behind a faint tail. But the landing craft then began to adjust its orientation, and its retro-thrusters fired, reducing the friction with the outside air so as not to become too conspicuous.
Finally, the group landed precisely in a forest in the Far East.
It was currently winter in the region. A thick blanket of snow covered the pine trees, concealing their greenery beneath the white expanse.
Thanks to Welt's personal piloting, the landing craft touched down smoothly, barely disturbing the snow on the ground.
"Ugh, is it winter here? It's so cold…"
March 7th rubbed her bare arms and shivered involuntarily.
"Here, put this on. It'll be much warmer."
Seeing this, Wende took out some clothes from the landing craft and draped them over March's shoulders. He then turned to look at Stelle's exposed long legs and her blank expression.
"Um, actually, I feel fine…" Stelle said, pulling her coat tighter and smiling a bit awkwardly.
"There's a kind of cold that's not when you feel cold, but when I think you feel cold."
Wende, with a perfectly straight face, handed a pair of thick, black stockings to Stelle, telling her to go back inside the landing craft and put them on.
He didn't need to worry about Dan Heng and Welt; their usual outfits were already quite thick. As for himself…
Wende bent down and scooped up a handful of snow.
"Mm… not a trace of cold."
Wende wore an "as expected" expression. After becoming an Aeon, his body's tolerance was far, far greater than before…
He casually squeezed the handful of snow into a snowball and tossed it behind him without a second thought.
Splat!
Stelle, having just put on the thick stockings, was still feeling a little awkward. She was so used to having bare legs that suddenly wearing these felt a bit restrictive…
Then, the snowball Wende had casually thrown smashed squarely onto her face.
"…"
Wende completely ignored the resentful glare from behind him and walked over to Welt and Dan Heng to ask what they should do next.
"Let's not rush things. We still haven't determined the objective of this trailblazing journey," Welt said, shaking his head.
He was right. They had originally come to deal with the "anomaly" near the star rail. If they couldn't even find the source of the anomaly, they would just be running around like headless chickens.
According to the Astral Express's detectors, the source of the anomaly was confirmed to be on Earth, but the detectors hadn't provided a specific location.
However, Wende already had a rough idea. If the source of the anomaly wasn't the Honkai of this world… then there were only two possibilities.
One: it was caused by the public beta of Honkai: Star Rail in the Honkai world, and the simultaneous public beta of Honkai Impact 3rd in the Star Rail world, which opened a direct wormhole due to their interoperability.
Two… it was probably Wendy.
Based on the source of the anomaly, he could basically rule out the Honkai itself. If the "anomaly"—that is, the wormhole—was truly caused by the Honkai, then the Star Rail and Honkai worlds would have been connected long ago…
In terms of probability, the first option was the most plausible. But Wende's intuition told him that Wendy was the most likely cause. Even if it wasn't because of her, he couldn't bear to leave her here alone any longer.
Certainly, she could find a way to start a new life, but… with him around, Wendy would not repeat the mistakes of her past.
"…"
Welt stood in the snow, then, under the watchful eyes of the others, took out his phone.
Mm… this was the same phone he had with him when he left. But later, because it was incompatible with many things in the universe, getting online was a huge hassle… After he gave it a complete overhaul, however, the phone retained its ability to communicate on Earth while also being able to receive messages during interstellar exploration.
Now, it was time to make a call to verify things.
Tapping on a name etched into his memory in his contacts, Welt took a deep breath. The warm air instantly turned into a puff of white mist in the icy world.
He pressed the call button.
Beep… beep… beep…
The sound of the phone dialing was particularly piercing in the snowy landscape, and it couldn't help but stir a flicker of anxiety.
But finally, the call connected.
"Hello? Hello?! What the hell are you doing, Joachim?! Why the hell are you calling in the middle of the night! Did becoming a teacher at St. Freya make you forget what a time zone is?!"
Hearing the familiar voice from the phone, a joyful smile involuntarily appeared on Welt's face. This made Stelle and March, who were standing nearby, exchange a glance. It seemed they had discovered something.
"Tesla…"
"Spit it out! I'm… wait a second? When did your voice get so deep? Did you catch a cold? Fuck! Don't tell me you can actually catch a cold? Back in Siberia, you were running around practically naked and I never saw you get cold! Don't you dare ask me to do research on you for something this trivial! I'm busy!"
On the other end of the line, Tesla clearly frowned upon hearing Welt's voice. That voice… it was Welt's, but why did it sound so strange? Could he really have caught a cold?