After wandering around the city for a while, the group sat down on chairs at a street corner and bought their preferred drinks.
"I have an idea..."
As soon as Aidan spoke, everyone instantly became alert.
"What kind of idea do you have?"
"Let's talk this through calmly; please don't blow up the planet."
Everyone looked as if they were facing a formidable enemy.
"Do I look like some kind of cruel, evil pervert to you? This is too much, way too much. The prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain!"
Aidan beat his chest in grief.
"No, I'm just afraid of your'sudden brainwaves.'"
Dan Heng voiced his concerns.
He wasn't afraid of Aidan thinking things through carefully, but Dan Heng was terrified of this guy having a flash of inspiration.
"I'm not going to blow up this planet."
Aidan waved his hand dismissively.
"Don't you guys think this place is too fragile?"
"Well, this planet's ecosystem has indeed suffered a devastating blow, so what are you planning?"
"I want to take this planet with me."
"Take this planet with you?"
The hot drink in March 7th's hand almost spilled.
"Calm down," Dan Heng tried to stop him, "you can't just smash the planet into pieces and take it away."
"Hey, what kind of image do I have in your minds?"
Aidan complained.
"Every time you talk nonsense with a straight face, it sounds like a joke, but it always turns out to be true..."
Aidan pressed his hand to his forehead: "What I mean is, miniaturizing this planet."
"You want to turn them into a landscape on the Astral Express?"
"What are you talking about?" Aidan scratched his head. "It's more convenient to nurture the ecosystem after shrinking it. Otherwise, with a planet this big, how are we supposed to help its ecosystem recover to its former state? Once it's recovered, we can just enlarge the planet again."
"..."
Everyone fell silent.
It could only be said that, as expected of Erudition, he could come up with magical ideas from unexpected angles that no one else would think of.
"However, with current technology... I can't shrink the planet as it is now."
"Then what's the point of talking about it?"
"I'll be able to once the Stellaron is dealt with," Aidan said. "The unstable frequency of the Stellaron would likely cause the compression to fail midway, so the Stellaron problem must be solved before we can help them restore the ecosystem."
"Then what about the people on this planet?" March 7th raised her hand to ask. "What happens to them? They can't be shrunk along with it, can they?"
"Of course they'll be shrunk together," Aidan nodded as if it were obvious. "People are part of the ecosystem too. And don't worry, people in a miniaturized state won't feel any discomfort. To them, life will go on as usual; it's just that the physical scale of the entire world has been compressed."
Dan Heng rubbed his temples.
"Have you considered how they would react if they found out they were put into someone's pocket and carried away?"
"That's why we have to communicate with them first," Aidan spread his hands. "I'm not some evil guy; I definitely won't do anything without saying hello. We just need to go discuss it with their ruler."
Although Aidan claimed to be kind and virtuous, everyone else clearly didn't think so.
"Let's go. We've collected enough information. The leader who governs this city is in that building. I'll go communicate with her."
— — —
"So what you're saying is, you are visitors from beyond the sky, and you've now helped us clear the threats frozen on the snow plains..."
"Correct."
"And you want to help us restore our environment?"
"Right."
The blonde ruler didn't buy it, instead expressing quite reasonable skepticism.
But Aidan preferred to let facts speak for themselves today, so the Hyperion avoided the city and fired a shot at the planet's surface.
"Now I should be able to prove that what I said wasn't a lie."
So, faced with a man whose opening move was like divine punishment, what was the choice of this ruler, the Supreme Guardian, the cold Lady Cocolia?
"I still need to consider it."
That's right, to consider it, of course.
After all, although the current Cocolia was already somewhat mentally unstable, it was impossible for her to simply trust a strange outsider like this.
"More than that, I want to know how you sneaked into the city."
"A little bit of simple camouflage."
"Are you trying to say the Silvermane Guards just let you stroll into this city? No questioning, no inspection, not even a report?" Cocolia raised an eyebrow.
"That's pretty much it."
"Belobog has Belobog's rules, outsider. No matter how clever your methods are, since you've entered this city, you must obey the laws here. The military force you've displayed is indeed astonishing, but for me to believe you're here to save this world, just this... is not enough."
"Well naturally, trust takes time to build," Aidan spread his hands, looking very easy to talk to. "We're in no rush. You can take your time to consider. We'll just wander around the city, and incidentally collect some environmental data, just think of it as doing some homework in advance."
Cocolia's gaze lingered on Aidan's face for a few seconds, as if trying to judge how much of his words were true.
"After all, conducting various inspections of this city is also an indispensable part of the process."
This young man spoke flawlessly, and his attitude was so good that one couldn't find fault, but she always felt something was off.
"However, the Rift monsters inside and outside the city haven't decreased at all."
"Based on my sampling, the Rift monsters do not belong to the Antimatter Legion. My warship's sterilization of your planet is only targeted at the frozen Antimatter Legion. Rashly adding targets might cause deviations in the strike."
Aidan folded his arms.
"Furthermore, the strength of the Rift monsters is relatively low compared to the Antimatter Legion. You should be aware that the Void Rangers of the Antimatter Legion frozen outside would come back to life as soon as they thawed. But now, all those ice sculptures outside have been dealt with."
"Since the problem of the Antimatter Legion is solved, you have no reason to let the Stellaron continue freezing this planet, and even less reason to watch the Rift spawned by the Stellaron continue to expand, right?"
They knew of the Stellaron's existence, knew the Everfrost and the Rift were both the Stellaron... Just who were these people?
"In that case, Belobog is naturally deeply grateful," Cocolia's tone softened slightly, trying to be vague about the Stellaron. "Also, about the Stellaron... I am not aware..."
"Yeah, if you say you don't know, then you don't know. That's not important. Let's just go seal the Stellaron now."
Aidan nodded.
"Now?"
Cocolia hadn't expected him to say that.
"Yeah, although the Antimatter Legion is gone, isn't the Rift still a threat to you? Why not solve it quickly? What are you keeping it for, a holiday?"
Cocolia opened her mouth but found herself speechless.
Wait for what?
She hadn't actually believed a word Aidan said; she just wanted to get him under control first and then squeeze information out of him...
How can you just go straight to sealing the Stellaron?
"We Trailblazers are just good people walking through the universe. This is our business card, please take it, thank you. From Stellarons above to pipes below, there's no job we at the Astral Express can't handle."
Aidan handed a business card to Cocolia.
Astral Express, Professional Services.
Scope of Business: Toilet unclogging, sewer maintenance, appliance repair, interstellar express delivery...