Pei Guang and the group were happily walking back to regroup when he suddenly stopped: something felt wrong.
Ever since arriving in Penacony, he had been marking everyone he encountered, color-coding them by threat level.
Even though he drove Something Unto Death away earlier, he never relaxed and kept tracking its marker.
After leaving, that thing had moved far away: its position showed in the Dream's Reverie Hotel.
Pei Guang thought nothing would happen. And the moment he thought that, something actually happened.
It didn't hide. It didn't attack him. It didn't even go after his teammates.
It went after someone he never expected.
…Robin.
Seeing its trajectory, and seeing Robin's icon on the minimap, Pei Guang's expression slowly hardened.
Firefly noticed his shift and immediately looked over. "Ah Guang? What's wrong? You look so serious. Did that creature… come back?"
Just hearing about Something Unto Death made Firefly perk up: she still remembered gaining a ton of buffs after eating it last time. If it came back, she absolutely wouldn't mind another bite.
Pei Guang shook his head with a sigh. "No. But one of my… acquaintances? Is doomed."
"A girl?" Firefly immediately caught the key point—acquaintance? And so far every 'friend' she'd seen Pei Guang have was a girl!
Pei Guang exhaled and nodded. "Yep. A girl. And you know her too."
"I know?"
He stopped teasing and said directly: "The famous superstar Robin. I met her by chance, we got along fine. Shame—this girl is going to be finished."
"Can we help her?"
Firefly's instinct was immediate: death meant Something Unto Death. And if someone was dying because of it, she wanted to help.
Pei Guang shook his head again. "It's too late. While we were talking, it already found her and…"
He sighed. On the minimap, the creature wrapped around Robin—and her icon vanished.
As her marker disappeared, the monster drifted away toward an unexplored zone.
The worst thing was: Robin died in an area he hadn't explored, so he couldn't teleport her out. He could only watch her get taken.
Still… despite regretting the loss of a pretty character, Pei Guang's heart barely stirred. A shame, yes, but only that.
But then his brows knit again. "…What?"
Stelle: "Did it attack someone else?"
"No. It's just—" He paused. "…Forget it. Let's go look."
Robin's icon disappeared, but Pei Guang realized she wasn't truly dead.
Black Swan opened her eyes, intrigued. "Oh? Going somewhere? If it's within this memory zone, I can send you quickly."
Pei Guang: "Her room—outside her door."
"Oh? So the songstress was attacked by that thing? I see. I can take you, but…"
Black Swan looked regretful. "My power can only send two people safely and quickly."
She wasn't lying: she could open a path for everyone, but for instant stable transfer, only two… and she had her own reasons for limiting it.
Pei Guang: "Just send me. Thanks."
Black Swan chuckled. "So polite~ I myself am curious who's behind all this."
She then placed her hand on his shoulder.
But before she warped them, Firefly spoke: "I'm going too!"
Pei Guang shook his head with a smile. "No need. I can handle it alone. You follow her lead."
He nodded at Stelle; she immediately grabbed Firefly's hand with a grin. "Don't worry! Ah Guang will be fine. We'll go right after him."
Firefly didn't know what secret code they were using, but she knew he was scheming.
She winked at him and he nodded back.
Seeing this silent exchange, Black Swan looked even more intrigued.
She warped him instantly to Robin's door—but someone else was already there. A certain "uninvited guest" looked at them with a mocking grin.
Until his smile froze. And even Black Swan's face shifted in shock.
Because in the once-empty hallway… Stelle, Firefly, and Acheron suddenly appeared.
They didn't teleport. They didn't ripple space. They simply appeared, as if they had always existed there.
Even Acheron looked stunned: there was no power fluctuation at all.
Black Swan turned to Pei Guang, a bit annoyed. "You already had such a convenient method… so why bother asking for my help?"
"This isn't some convenient trick. How should I describe it… I just use myself as a coordinate and pull people over. If I haven't been somewhere, I can't use this ability to drag someone from there."
Pei Guang didn't intend to completely hide the teleportation ability, but he still misled the people who saw and heard it on some key details.
This little misdirection could often play a crucial role.
"But I'm a bit surprised. I didn't expect to run into you here, Mr. Aventurine~"
Before entering the dream, Pei Guang had even taken a nice bath with Aventurine. Although Aventurine was a company employee and Pei Guang didn't have a great impression of the company, as for Aventurine himself, Pei Guang thought he was alright.
At the very least, they could bathe together.
Seeing Pei Guang greet him, Aventurine, who had been thinking about his next move, also smiled. "Hello! The famous Trailblazer. I didn't expect we'd meet here. And they are…?"
Aventurine politely looked toward Firefly and Acheron.
For him, the most troublesome one was Acheron. If he could, he would really like to get Acheron to leave so he could talk to Pei Guang alone.
But unfortunately, Stelle had directly teleported everyone here.
Pei Guang said, "My friends. Aventurine, I just saw Robin being attacked by a monster called Something Unto Death. Was that monster acting under your orders?"
Hearing Pei Guang's question, Aventurine immediately denied it: "Of course not. I don't have that kind of ability. Do you suspect me?"
Aventurine smiled as he looked at Pei Guang, and Pei Guang rubbed his chin in thought. "No worries. I was just asking casually. I believe you."
Pei Guang's words stunned Aventurine for a moment, then he smiled again. "You believe me? And what if I'm lying to you?"
That question stumped Pei Guang. But after thinking for a moment, he muttered, "Doesn't matter. It wouldn't be the first time I've been tricked."
Aventurine could tell from Pei Guang's expression that he wasn't acting. In fact, Pei Guang was not acting at all and he meant what he said.
Pei Guang thought back to all the games he had played.
No matter the genre, as a player he'd been fooled a few times in every one. It wasn't a big deal. Getting tricked was part of gaming. Now he had more freedom: as long as no one tricked his companions into danger, and only fooled him, he honestly didn't care.
As a player, he was very carefree. If someone really deceived him, at most he would just invite that person aboard his battleship as a guest.
After all, Phantylia lived alone inside the core reactor: maybe she was lonely. Sending someone in would probably make her happy.
As for how many pieces of that person entered… well, that wasn't something Pei Guang could control.
Battleships were too advanced: some malfunctions were normal, right?