March 7th stared wide-eyed at Firefly. She never imagined that this girl, who looked quiet and gentle, would be so aggressive?!
March 7th: "You… I didn't expect you to be this bold! But… hmph!"
With hands on her hips, March posed smugly, as if victory was already in her grasp: "But you can't beat me!"
Firefly was about to respond, but Stelle, who had been watching the drama, suddenly walked to Pei Guang.
She pulled out a long bench, dragged Pei Guang to sit down, then lay across his lap, sipping juice through a straw and eating popcorn.
Stelle never expected her dream to come true so soon. Drinking juice, snacking on popcorn, and watching Pei Guang's love-triangle death match—wonderful!
This time, Stelle had learned from previous mistakes. She absolutely wasn't going to say the phrase "start fighting."
But she didn't know March 7th and Firefly were both watching Pei Guang closely.
Originally there was tension between March and Firefly, but once Stelle did that, the two who had been in opposition immediately turned to stare at Stelle and Pei Guang.
March 7th and Firefly walked toward Stelle at the same time.
Seeing them approach, Stelle sipped her juice and asked cautiously: "Um? Something wrong? I'm just lying here drinking juice and eating snacks. I didn't interrupt you, right? Don't mind me, I won't speak this time. Continue! Continue—play the music, dance the dance!"
Hearing this, March and Firefly looked at each other. In that instant, the two shared a mutual understanding.
The person must be fought for. But how to fight… that was each woman's skill.
However, no matter what, they could not allow this creature to sit back and reap the rewards. Before fighting each other, they needed to kick Stelle out first.
Even though this was their first time meeting, they unexpectedly had great chemistry. Each grabbed one of Stelle's arms and dragged her away.
March 7th: "Ah Guang! You continue talking."
Firefly: "I will go take care of something together with Miss March."
Stelle, straw still in her mouth, suddenly felt things were going badly. She tried to cry for help, but March 7th, learning from past mistakes, shoved a giant rye bread into her mouth.
With a giant loaf stuck in her mouth, Stelle turned to Pei Guang: "Mmmph mmmph mmmph!"
Seeing Stelle beg for help, Pei Guang sighed: "It's not that I won't save you. It's that I just can't save you. You brought this on yourself."
Pei Guang didn't feel much about March 7th and Firefly's battlefield. As a player, when he made a choice, no matter the temptation, he wouldn't waver.
Worst case, he'd just play the second run-through later. Since he wanted to pursue the pure-love route with March 7th, he intended to see it through.
With a clear goal, Pei Guang had zero reaction to the so-called love-triangle drama.
In his view, why was this type of situation hard? Because protagonists hesitate.
He was a player, so he would not hesitate. How could a love-triangle affect him?
But Pei Guang clearly forgot one thing: having a clear goal does reduce trouble, but a clear goal doesn't guarantee the result will follow your plan.
And in dating games, affection-raising often has limited consequences, but raise too many characters' affection too high, and you will enter… unforeseen endings.
After all, in a fully-branched game, triggering unforeseen endings was perfectly normal.
Pei Guang didn't even realize how terrifyingly high Firefly's affection had gotten.
In Firefly's eyes, in the only place she could move freely, she encountered someone who walked straight into her heart.
And influenced by her physical condition, Firefly was always direct about her goals. This was the dream world: if she couldn't fight in reality, then she absolutely wouldn't back down here.
Besides, after this interaction, she confirmed something: Pei Guang and March hadn't reached a point she couldn't pry apart.
Regarding stealing someone's love, Firefly could only tell March: "Sorry! This is all my fault. Blame Ah Guang for being too charming."
If there weren't so many people around, she would have already shown everything to Pei Guang.
As for Pei Guang having a clear goal? Well, they hadn't succeeded yet. If they weren't official yet, then everything was still possible.
Silver Wolf already said it: "If you swing the pickaxe well enough, no wall can't be dug through."
Maybe she couldn't win against March in reality. But here was the dreamscape. The dreamscape had nothing but possibility.
While Firefly was thinking this, outside Penacony, Elio was watching countless changing futures, wiping cold sweat. Compared to Kafka, he really didn't dare say another word to Firefly.
Firefly was great in every aspect—just a little too emotional. In many futures he saw, he tried giving Firefly just a bit more information.
Well, the moment he did that, Firefly leaked every script detail without hesitation. For a better future, Elio didn't dare say a single extra word to her now.
But looking at the countless new futures branching out, Elio could only quietly support Firefly in his heart. Firefly really did have a chance to win.
As for how she would win… that depended on her.
Back with Pei Guang, March 7th and Firefly brutally beat Stelle after dragging her away. Unfortunately, Stelle brought it upon herself, so even Himeko couldn't step in.
In fact, when Himeko imagined herself as March or Firefly, she felt she wanted to beat Stelle too.
On the surface, it looked like they were beating her up, but in reality they held back perfectly. During the process, Firefly and March 7th even started to feel a kind of mutual sympathy.
March 7th: "Cutiefly! Don't spoil her, go all out. Stelle's got thick skin."
Firefly: "Understood!"
Poor Stelle, because she was asking for it, once again became the focus of the beat-down.
Pei Guang glanced at Stelle's condition. At this moment, Stelle looked miserable, but in reality it was nothing serious.
Forget the dream: even in reality Stelle wouldn't get hurt.
The three of them looked like they were beating her, but when you looked at the big rye bread in their hands, and then the shrinking rye bread in Stelle's mouth…
Pei Guang felt he should worry less about Stelle's safety and more about whether March 7th and Firefly's rye breads would be eaten down to nothing.
By the time Stelle finished the entire loaf, March 7th and Firefly clapped their hands and came to stand beside Pei Guang.
March 7th: "Himeko~ Stelle's yours to watch~ I'm going with Ah Guang to find that Something Unto Death thing and discover Miss Robin's cause of death!"
Standing beside them, Firefly made a cool "hmph!" and then turned her gaze to Pei Guang.
The moment Pei Guang felt Firefly's eyes on him, he went silent: because her gaze was filled with a strange thought: "I want to have babies with the Trailblazer."
Even Pei Guang himself didn't know how he managed to read that thought from her eyes.
Originally, Pei Guang was treating this so-called love-rival battlefield as pure entertainment, but when he felt Firefly's gaze and then saw March 7th's gaze beside him, he suddenly felt a bad premonition.
He remembered: he completed every route, every romance in every game.
At the same time, another thing surfaced in his mind: in some dating sims, there's a setting where the player can freely raise affection with multiple characters, but if you raise too many at once, you might trigger a special ending.
Thinking of those endings, Pei Guang's pupils shook violently.