[Oddey]

The first time I played through the game and got to the reveal, I kind of forgot about this scene. My second playthrough though, I got here and wondered if this was Stranger hatching a ploy to cheat Sekto out of the money somehow. I didn't really put a lot of thought into how exactly he might do that.

I think I heard somewhere that it implied Stranger was willing to sell out one of his own to save his skin, and I adopted that theory, once again without thinking too much about it.

Thinking about it now though, I think a mix of those two and FennecFyre's interpretation is my favorite: Stranger never planned to have this conversation, but once he entered it, he figured he might be able to cheat Sekto or, if it came to it, even find and kill another Steef.

For me, the way he sighs looking at the bounty makes me think it's him reflecting about how persecuted his race has become and simultaneously also how he might have to make the call between him and another Steef.