In a special room, a girl in a red kimono with a mask on her head, known as Sparkle, clenched her fists.
This was the first time she had been toyed with like this!
"No wonder they call him the famous player. Just one meeting and I almost embarrassed myself! But that was only because I slipped up this time. Next time, you won't be so lucky. Damn you, Sampo—why didn't you tell me he had that kind of ability? Were you just waiting to see me humiliated?"
As fellow Masked Fools, Sparkle had obtained plenty of information about the Trailblazer from Sampo, and she had even more regarding Pei Guang in particular.
Things like the strange-dream-inducing coffee, trash cans that permitted to hide away and made anyone impossible to find, or weapons that always had some sort of flashy special effects.
For all of this, she had prepared countermeasures in advance. But she never expected that within mere seconds of meeting, she would be forced to retreat to reality just to deal with certain physical problems.
As for whether it was "almost" embarrassing or already embarrassing?
Well, the slightly damp clothing beside her spoke for itself: "I don't know anything, don't ask me anything."
In truth, that was Pei Guang holding back.
After all, when they got off the train, both Pom-Pom and Himeko had reminded them to give the locals some face.
If people mistook him for a stowaway and tried to arrest him, then a light punishment was enough. If he really offended them, it wouldn't be good for their mission or exploration.
Had Pei Guang not held back, Sparkle would probably already be lying there with her eyes rolled back, completely immobilized.
Even so, for now, all she could do was spit out some harsh words while not daring to re-enter the dreamscape. The holy light's effect might have faded, but the peculiar sensation of fabric rubbing against her skin felt etched into her very DNA, leaving her too uneasy to act casually.
Her body still felt a little weak as well, so while she replenished her energy, she began thinking of ways to deal with this interesting man called Pei Guang.
In her eyes, all the "fun" happening in Penacony couldn't compare to the fun that surrounded Pei Guang alone.
A true player of this world—someone who could really do anything.
Whether she was the one playing him, or the one being played, either way it would be entertaining.
While Sparkle was making her preparations, in the dreamscape Pei Guang casually asked the silver-haired girl in front of him, "Miss, are you alright?"
"Thanks to you stepping in just now, I might have really been taken away otherwise."
Pei Guang proudly placed his hands on his hips. "Of course! Don't you know who I am? I'm the famous Trailblazer, Pei Guang!"
The girl softly introduced herself, "I'm not a stowaway, really~ I'm actually a local. Firefly, a memory of the Iris Family, …though I'm only an extra. When I don't have performances, I also do reception work around Glaux Avenue~"
Looking at this girl called Firefly, Pei Guang was genuinely intrigued. She had silver hair, and the green-white-black colors of her outfit gave her a kind of pure beauty.
Based on the usual logic of countless games, and his past experience in the Xianzhou Luofu, Pei Guang was convinced that people who looked this harmless always had hidden identities.
Whether it was Misha before, or Firefly now, he didn't believe either of them was ordinary.
Confident in this, Pei Guang declared: "If I guess wrong, I'll stand on my head and eat a cactus."
Noticing the change in his gaze, Firefly asked in a slightly different tone, "Eh? Um… is there something strange about me?"
Pei Guang nodded. "Yes! Your voice is lovely, your looks are stunning, your figure is captivating: when such a beauty stands before me, of course I can't think straight."
A smile appeared on Firefly's face.
Strange as Pei Guang was, flattery worked everywhere: what girl didn't like being called beautiful?
Still, his blunt praise made her blush a little.
Her smile didn't last long, though. She lowered her lashes and glanced around.
In the noisy crowd, members of the Bloodhound Family had spotted them and were closing in.
She hadn't even had time to get to know this new friend, much less take him for a walk nearby, sharing her favorite things with him like normal people did.
Because the Bloodhound Family was surrounding them.
They had already received reports from their companions: two extremely dangerous stowaways. Once the message was passed along, they had gathered in numbers.
Just like their family name, when facing an enemy, they always hunted in packs. While Pei Guang and Firefly were chatting for just a moment, they had already been completely encircled.
Seeing this, Firefly felt a headache coming on.
Meeting Pei Guang had been entirely unexpected—she had her own goals and things to accomplish. One or two people interfering was fine, but an entire Family interfering was truly troublesome.
Still, Pei Guang wasn't actually a stowaway. She figured she could step forward and explain things clearly.
But at that moment, Pei Guang had no intention of explaining anything. Instead, a peculiar bit of player-logic spun in his head.
These people claimed he and Firefly were stowaways. Yet he wasn't a stowaway: he'd been officially invited by the Family.
He had the Trailblazer' ticket, the one issued by the Astral Express itself.
So, he'd been invited by the Family and carried an official identity.
Logically, any half-aware person could recognize a Trailblazer like him, and yet they were calling him a stowaway?
What a perfectly "reasonable" excuse to arrest him.
As the region's security force, the violent enforcers, and especially at such a crucial time, could they really not recognize the people of different factions? Pei Guang didn't believe it.
That was why he concluded that their certainty in labeling him a stowaway was deliberate. If it was deliberate, then explaining was pointless.
That would only mean falling into their trap.
The so-called "true managers" of Penacony had welcomed them in just moments ago, and now he was being accused of being a stowaway?
Wasn't this plotline clearly designed to target him?
At that instant, Pei Guang's mind filled in no less than five hundred thousand words' worth of novel plots, covering family infighting, deep bonds between siblings, childhood sweethearts eloping… every trope imaginable.
Thinking of this, Pei Guang's gaze grew resolute as he looked at Firefly.
For a moment, Firefly was confused and a little stunned: why did this man suddenly turn so serious?
Pei Guang looked sternly at the Bloodhound Family members who had already sealed off every passage. His tone carried a hint of excitement.
"Looks like we've gotten ourselves into a strange event…"
Firefly glanced at the Astral Express ticket hanging at Pei Guang's waist. "Shouldn't we… explain? They're only here to catch stowaways. You're not a stowaway…"
Pei Guang shook his head. "No, no, no! Explanations won't work. We're already trapped in an event. By normal story flow, they'd arrest us on purpose, we'd claim it was a misunderstanding, then one plays the villain and one plays the good guy and finally they let us go.
But in truth, we'd have just become chess pieces for someone else's game behind the scenes. In the end, after all their scheming, I, the player, only walk away with some trash rewards!"
Firefly: "That sounds terrifying…"
"Reasonably speaking, usually there's no choice, so you can only play along. But now I do have a choice! We break out!"
Firefly looked at the people closing in from all sides.
When they tried to arrest her earlier, it was only three of them, but now more than twenty surrounded them, and this time there was even a leader among them.
Before, she might still have had a chance to run, but now she couldn't see any way out at all. But then she remembered Pei Guang's strange ability to force someone awake from a dream: maybe twenty people wasn't impossible?
Still, the Bloodhound Family was one of the major powers of Penacony. To offend them like this…
Before Firefly could even voice her concerns, Pei Guang was already making his move.
As he moved, he explained: "I get it, you want me to explain, avoid misunderstandings with words. But that only works in events caused by actual misunderstandings. Clearly this isn't one of them! Since it's not, then we strike first!"
Seeing Pei Guang had already made up his mind, Firefly swallowed back what she wanted to say. "Then… what do we do? I'll follow you."
Pei Guang: "Simple! Hold on to me."
"Huh?"
Firefly froze for a second, then saw something that made her mind tremble.
She watched as Pei Guang plopped down onto the ground, then slid his rear across the floor—while somehow moving at high speed.
Not only did Firefly's brain short-circuit, but the Bloodhound members seeing this for the first time felt their minds defiled. This was supposed to be the dream world of delights, where at least a bit of logic still existed.
Walking through walls was nothing strange here. Dreamweavers had set up places where tourists in Penacony could literally walk through walls.
But the problem was: others walked, while Pei Guang was scooting with his butt.
As if that wasn't enough, he was even able to scoot backward along a rope at high speed!
What kind of nonsense was this?!
Everyone stood dumbfounded.
Pei Guang, seeing also Firefly frozen in shock, called out: "Hey, hey, hey~"
Seeing her brain had shorted out, he pulled out a trash can, stuffed her into it, then hugged the trash can tight and used his special technique to dash off.