"******!!!"
Staring at the drink with only a few sips left, Sparkle felt her blood pressure spike, cursing a few times in her heart without meaning to.
If the God of Fun wanted to snatch it, why not from Pei Guang's hand? What's the point of grabbing it from hers?
But helplessly, when the God of Fun borrows something, even if she doesn't want to lend, she has no chance to refuse. She could only stare at the bottom of the bottle, thinking about how best to use what little was left.
"Ah~"
Sparkle sighed, resigned, as she led Pei Guang and the others to Dr. Edward.
Dr. Edward was Penacony's dream-selling store, where people could experience all kinds of dreams through him, even though on the outside he just looked like a big eyeball.
Originally, Sparkle's plan was to disguise herself as Sampo, use his identity to mess around with the Trailblazers, and give them a little reminder.
But now, there was no need for this dream to remind the Trailblazers. On the contrary, she was very curious to see what Pei Guang would do inside this dream.
This dream was a reflection of reality. She wanted to know in advance how Pei Guang would break the game in a situation full of schemes and calculations.
Arriving before Dr. Edward, he greeted Stelle: "Welcome to the Dreamscape Sales Store. Dr. Edward is at your service! Trailblazer of the Astral Express, we meet again. Haha, and you've brought three very interesting friends with you."
His gaze swept across Pei Guang, Firefly, and Sparkle.
Sparkle looked at him and said: "Hey~ Dr. Edward. I'd like to let my friends experience something… fun, you know what I mean."
Dr. Edward: "Of course. Dr. Edward welcomes all customers seeking excitement! May I read your memories, madam?"
Sparkle: "Mhm~ use mine."
Dr. Edward began extracting Sparkle's memories.
Watching this, Pei Guang asked curiously: "What's going on here?"
Hearing his question, Dr. Edward kindly explained: "Allow me to explain. This is a service for veteran customers. You can give me a dream you've recently experienced, and with the help of emotional archetypes, I can make a personalized Dream Bubble that you can relive again and again."
Sparkle: "No need to worry about the emotional archetypes. I've already prepared them. Just relax and enjoy this unique dream world."
A smile spread across Sparkle's face, though it carried a hidden meaning.
Pei Guang didn't care about hidden meanings. He just wanted to hurry up and experience the adults-only content.
The wait didn't last long. Soon, Dr. Edward generated a special Dream Bubble using Sparkle's materials.
"Generation complete. Please close your eyes and press your forehead against the Dream Bubble."
A Dream Bubble appeared before him. Sparkle looked at Pei Guang: "Go on~ you first~"
Pei Guang nodded and touched the Dream Bubble with his forehead. The moment he touched it, his vision went black.
Not only his: everything went black.
The darkness only lasted a few seconds. When it cleared, Pei Guang found himself inside a room—a familiar room.
"This is… Natasha's clinic?"
He looked around. The layout was exactly the same as Natasha's clinic.
At the same time, outside the dream, Sparkle was surprised to see Pei Guang suddenly vanish. What shocked her even more was that the usual function to communicate with someone experiencing a Dream Bubble was gone.
The outside world couldn't reach Pei Guang at all: they could only watch what he went through inside the Dream Bubble.
That wasn't the main issue. The main issue was that the Dream Bubble itself had completely changed the instant Pei Guang entered it.
Normally, a Dream Bubble created from memory was fragile, but now this one was as stable as Penacony's dreamscape itself!
What the hell?! At least Penacony's dreamscape had countless people maintaining it.
How could a freshly created Dream Bubble reach the same level?
Sparkle felt a headache coming on. But that was her problem—inside the dream, Pei Guang was overjoyed.
Because on the desk, he found a piece of advice.
[Become the King of ***]
[Even if *** has long since shattered]
The moment he saw it, Pei Guang's expression turned grave.
"I didn't think… they actually stitched in a Souls-like game… and directly at that?"
Just moments ago he had been curious about what adults-only content would be, but reading this message sent a chill from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
If this really was a Souls-like game, then yes, that was very adult.
"Damn it. If this is a Souls-like, where's my starter gear?"
He searched the room and found a [Beginner Wand].
But this wand was bizarre: normally, a wand was just a little stick. What he picked up was a huge club. And yet, it really was a wand.
[Novice Wand: A wand commonly used by beginner mages. Equipping it allows the use of beginner magic.]
Pei Guang looked at the so-called beginner magic and couldn't help but exclaim "Good lord!"
The beginner magic had several categories: Enchantment, Shield, Buff, Debuff, and Ranged Magic.
Enchantment, as the name suggests, could add various attribute attacks to weapons: fire, ice, lightning, wind, quantum, imaginary. After adding attributes, you could target enemies' weaknesses and deal tons of damage.
Shield was even simpler: cast a shield on yourself, with the shield's limit depending on the user's maximum health.
Buff spells were all simple beginner's magic, things like speed boosts, strength, HP recovery, stamina recovery: very basic spells. Hm! Not a single point of magic power scaling.
Debuffs, though, had slightly harsher conditions: the wand had to hit the enemy full force for it to trigger, but once triggered, it could inflict stun, slow, limb-break, and all sorts of powerful negative debuffs.
And then there was the last one, the ranged spell, which was even more interesting: [Stone Fling Magic]. No description at all, but just from the name, and then looking at the beginner's wand in his hand, Pei Guang felt this spell wasn't simple.
"This spell? Now that's interesting. Good—starting from now, I am Gandalf!"
Pei Guang, holding the wand he'd found, walked out of the room.
Meanwhile, outside the dream, Sparkle, who had been watching Pei Guang's movements inside the Dream Bubble, was dumbfounded.
At first, Pei Guang had been searching around the room. Watching him search, Sparkle had been a little curious.
"What is he looking for?"
Stelle: "Equipment, probably? According to Ah Guang's theory, when you first arrive at a new map, there's always some starting gear hidden that helps with the rest of the exploration."
Sparkle shook her head. "No way, there's only an inscription here, there's no…"
She knew this dream well, but before she could even finish speaking, what Pei Guang did inside the dream froze her expression.
Because she saw it clearly with her own eyes: Pei Guang rummaged left and right in the room, then found a wooden stick inside a cabinet.
And when he swung it a couple of times, the stick suddenly emitted Imaginary energy? Stable Imaginary energy… coming from a plain wooden stick?
Stelle, on the other hand, wasn't surprised at all and said matter-of-factly: "See? Told you. When you reach a new map, the first thing you do is explore. Obvious. You clearly don't get it."
Sparkle: "I don't get it? But this Dream Bubble is—"
She fell silent.
This Dream Bubble had come from her memory, with her emotions. She knew exactly what was inside. She even knew the process inside and out. But despite that, Pei Guang had somehow managed to dig up a stick that could channel enchantments.
Now she didn't feel like talking anymore, just quietly watching.