Among the followers of the Hunt, the Galaxy Rangers are the most unusual branch.
Not every follower of the Hunt believes their duty is to exterminate the Denizens of Abundance at all costs.
There are also those who revere Lan's creed of fighting violence with violence, who admire the Aeon's decisiveness in slaughter and judgment, and who believe that kindness and justice in the universe must be upheld through one's own hands.
So the Galaxy Rangers formed a brotherhood of righteous wanderers.
They walked the Path of the Hunt, singing across the stars with the blessings of their Aeon.
They traveled from world to world, delivering justice for the people of each planet, hunting down evil, and then setting off once more for the next frontier.
Later, the Galaxy Rangers successfully assassinated one of the Lord Ravagers, and their name spread throughout the cosmos.
Years after that, another Ranger ruined an experiment conducted by Dr. Primitive, the 64th member of the Genius Society.
And after that, it was as if they vanished from the universe altogether.
That was why Dan Heng found Boothill's identity so hard to trust.
The Galaxy Rangers that people still knew of today were very few.
For example, the Xianzhou Alliance had long been searching for La Mancha, the leader of the Galaxy Rangers.
But he had already disappeared, and the Xianzhou Yaoqing was still trying to reestablish contact with him.
And then there was the planet where Silver Wolf had been born, where a legendary hacker named Shijian once rose to fame.
He was the pride of Scrap Mountain, and his rebellion against the Oasis District was a story known across the wasteland.
By a twist of fate, he became a Galaxy Ranger and spent long years roaming the Sea of Stars, witnessing countless strange people and stranger events.
In Amber Era 2155, Dr. Primitive of the Genius Society attempted to carry out his Atavistic Program, trying to force civilizations across the universe to regress back into a primitive state.
The Galaxy Rangers thwarted his plot and protected the Forest of Ten Thousand Trees on Ongvak.
But because of that, they were retaliated against by Dr. Primitive's followers.
Many Rangers were affected by retrogressive degeneration and regressed, losing their combat ability.
To care for those companions, the Galaxy Rangers were forced to reduce the frequency of their operations.
After Dr. Primitive vanished, the Rangers continued to track his whereabouts and destroy the laboratories of his followers.
But even so, their presence in the universe became increasingly rare.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
"Don't just walk away! I still need you to prove my identity!"
Boothill chased Dan Heng all the way back to the Astral Express.
It wasn't until Dan Heng took out a jade abacus token that Boothill finally accepted his identity.
Dreamflux Reef
At this moment, before the graves of Mikhail, Tiernan, and the third Nameless, Gallagher—under the identity of a Fictionologist—was recounting the story of the three pioneers, piece by piece.
Even though Evan already knew who they were and what their story was, hearing it spoken aloud by Gallagher still stirred something in him.
"So… that's the story of the three of them."
"It's a shame. Penacony today is no longer the dreamland Mikhail wanted to build."
"Gopher Wood betrayed his faith."
"He became a discordant note of Order."
"And everything Mikhail achieved was smeared, twisted… even turned against him."
"Honestly, if the old man were still alive, I wonder if Gopher Wood would even dare do all this."
"Penacony can't go back to what it once was anymore…"
"But I'm still glad you all came."
"Too bad the old man won't get to see this day."
In front of the three gravestones, the Astral Express crew lowered their heads and fell silent.
Even the ever-mischievous Fool stayed quiet this time, not interrupting.
As she listened to Gallagher speak, even Firefly's eyes brimmed with tears.
"So coming here really was the right choice," Black Swan said softly, savoring the memory lingering in the dream like a fine vintage. "Such beautiful memories… this is exactly the flavor we Memokeepers love most."
What remained of this sorrow was nothing more than the regret of an old man before his final departure.
Mikhail.
Legwork Charles Mikhail.
Looking at the enormous hollow of memoria ahead, then at the barren, desolate Dreamflux Reef, it was impossible not to feel it—
After Hanu departed, this legendary Trailblazer, this Nameless, had truly become the father of Penacony.
And yet after all his achievements, after everything he had built, his glory had been stolen from him.
No one in Penacony remembered Mikhail anymore.
No one knew his name.
Everything he had done had been twisted into another title.
The Watchmaker.
Yes—the existence of Clockie was meant to parallel the Watchmaker.
Everything about Penacony's true hero had been reduced to a cartoonish legend of a great tycoon.
His past had been erased in a single stroke.
The Family had flattened all of Mikhail's deeds into symbols and caricatures, turning the Nameless who spent his whole life blazing trails—who kept blazing trails even to his death—into nothing more than a symbol of wealth, fame, and status.
And the dream he truly held had long since been forgotten.
Back then, Penacony had not only been made up of the Five Great Families.
There had been others too.
For example, the Moth Family.
But now, even their existence had been wiped away.
And then there was Razalina.
She had clearly been one of the true founders of Penacony's dream world.
Yet in present-day Penacony, no one even spoke her name.
If not for Razalina, how could the dreamland of Penacony ever have existed at all?
And yet now, aside from a few materials she left behind, there was no trace of her left anywhere in Penacony.
"Sorry. Guess I had a bit too much to drink and started pouring my heart out."
"But everyone we needed for the plan is here now."
"And there are even a few actors who weren't part of the plan."
"Trailblaze, Hunt, Nihility, Preservation, Elation… and Finality."
"…"
"Tiernan?"
At that moment, Acheron's voice suddenly rang out.
Evan turned at once.
And then everyone else turned to look at Acheron as well.
A cyan bullet had appeared in Acheron's hand.
It carried the aura of the Hunt.
"I think…" Acheron said slowly, "I remember now."
The moment Gallagher heard that name, he whipped around in shock.
Not just Gallagher—even March and the others reacted the same way.
After all, in the original story, Tiernan had only ever existed in Acheron's memories.
And this was also one of the most important reasons Acheron had come to Penacony in the first place.
"Miss Acheron… where did you hear that name?" Gallagher asked urgently.
"Mr. Tiernan died very early during Penacony's pioneering days, in the disaster of the Swarm."
"He perished together with the entire Moth Family."
"That's why there are barely any records of him left in Penacony."
Acheron opened her hand, looking at the bullet resting in her palm.
Then she fell silent.
Only after a long pause did she finally speak again.
"His name was Bore Colin Tiernan…"
"He's already dead."
"When I met him, he was already dead."
"This bullet of the Hunt… was something he personally gave to me."
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