Meanwhile, Pei Guang was already feeling his gamer instincts kicking in.
"Firefly! Pin it down—use it to attack me!"
"Huh?!"
Firefly froze.
Pin down Something Unto Death… and attack Pei Guang with it? Was he insane?
Still, she didn't question him for long. She moved behind the monster and slammed it down toward Pei Guang.
Pei Guang swung his shield again, this time following up with his sword, driving it straight through Something Unto Death's body.
With a metallic clang-clang-clang, the creature froze completely.
Whether it was because of its low toughness, or because Pei Guang had become absurdly strong after his "trash power-up" in the dream, every parry sent Something Unto Death into another stagger.
It couldn't move: it just repeatedly smashed its head against Pei Guang's shield.
Firefly's expression went stiff as she watched the pitiful scene. Despite herself, she felt a twinge of pity for the creature.
But that pity was fleeting.
Watching Pei Guang control and beat the thing down so efficiently, she felt a little awkward just standing there.
"Ah Guang," she said, "should I… maybe do something else?"
"Of course," Pei Guang replied. "After I parry it, it'll go into a stagger state. That's when you can execute it. Execution counts as hard control: if you can execute it, it won't counterattack. But since you don't have a weapon, I guess your execution would just be… ripping out its heart?"
"…How do I do that?" Firefly asked blankly.
Pei Guang tilted his head. "Huh? Let me think… Punch through its chest, crush its insides, then pull your hand out?"
"…"
Faced with Pei Guang's description, Firefly felt it sounded a bit cruel. But when she looked at the monster before her and remembered everything it had done to her, that brief hesitation disappeared completely.
As Pei Guang performed another parry, she followed his instructions: her armored fist slammed hard into Something Unto Death's body.
She clenched tightly, then yanked her arm back with force.
Something Unto Death howled in pain. Firefly pressed down on its head again, slamming it once more into Pei Guang's shield with a dull thud.
After landing a hit, Firefly was momentarily pleased—but then she noticed something wrong. Her attacks didn't seem to be doing much.
After several rounds of strikes, Something Unto Death's body didn't show any real damage.
"Ah Guang," Firefly called out, "our attacks don't seem very effective…"
Pei Guang hissed through his teeth. "Tch—its regeneration's that strong? Or maybe we're not hitting it right? Wait a second… it's not regenerating—it's…"
He observed closely.
The creature wasn't healing fast: it was reassembling. The pieces struck off were flowing back to it, reforming into its body again. Like when Firefly had ripped its insides out, its flesh turned into memetic data and reattached itself.
From the side, seeing the two mercilessly "torturing" the monster, Acheron walked over.
"Do you… need my help?" she asked.
She had to admit: when it came to cruelty, these two were in a league of their own. But she was about to witness something even more horrifying.
Pei Guang waved her off.
"Not yet… I've got a new idea. Hey, Cutiefly~ since its body restores itself: what do you think would happen if we ate it? Can it climb out of our stomachs to heal?"
Firefly froze.
Beneath her armor, her eyes widened. "Eat… it? Is that even edible?"
"Guess we'll find out," Pei Guang grinned. "I'll take the first bite."
As a player, he was never one to be bound by "reality." According to the rules, only being killed by this monster would lead to death. But nothing said you couldn't eat it.
And even if you did, there was nothing in the rulebook about losing stats for eating it.
That's the logic of a player: if the rules don't forbid it, it means you can do it. Case closed.
Excited by this discovery, Pei Guang opened his mouth wide.
And as for taste… when did players ever care about that?
Still, after biting down, he paused thoughtfully, chewing slowly to savor it.
Firefly asked nervously, "So… how is it?"
Pei Guang tilted his head. "Huh? Not bad, actually. Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, it's like tasting all of life in one bite. The texture's weird though, like nothing and everything at once… kinda like chewing sheet metal. Huh? Wait a sec—it has a stat?"
He had only meant to try it as a joke, but the moment he swallowed, a system message appeared before his eyes:
[You have tasted the flavor of Death within the Dream. Insight into Death +1. Something Unto Death's fear of you +1.]
Pei Guang didn't know what "Insight into Death" did: but since it gave stats, that was all he needed to know.
"Cutiefly! Start eating: it gives attributes!"
"Huh?" Firefly blinked.
"Don't just 'huh'—move your hands and your mouth! This thing gives stats when you eat it. I don't know what they do, but who cares? We're eating it. Hey, Acheron! Want a bite? Stat boost!"
A short distance away, Acheron froze, her face stiffened completely.
She shook her head—wordless, but clearly refusing.
She was honestly stunned. He'd asked her to help him fight, and instead… he was eating the enemy?
Even with all her experience, she had never seen something this deranged.
"Aw, what a waste," Pei Guang sighed. "Alright then, let's dig in!"
He spoke cheerfully, parrying with one hand while taking another bite. The dream itself echoed with the creature's anguished screams.
Something Unto Death could feel its body being devoured and, for the first time, it knew true fear.
It had never imagined that the one who brought death to others… would one day be eaten alive.
And worse: they were eating it raw!
It wanted to scream: I'm a memetic entity, not a real organism! I taste awful!
But it couldn't speak, and being under control, it couldn't fight back either. It could only watch as its body was consumed piece by piece.
At that moment, even its empty mind started to question—Am I the embodiment of death? Or is Pei Guang the real one?
This man was beyond anything it had ever encountered. He'd mocked it, tortured it, and now he was eating it alive.
That left him utterly speechless.
As they ate, system data kept climbing—and then Pei Guang received another prompt:
[Player Pei Guang has devoured the memetic essence of "Death." Within the Dream, any unit killed by an enemy in your vicinity will grant you temporary attribute bonuses equal to all of that unit's stats.]
[The enemy that scored the kill will be marked. Damage dealt to marked enemies +1%. When a marked target is defeated, it will be struck by Something Unto Death's fatal blow. Temporary attribute bonuses vanish when combat ends or when marked units perish.]
[Note: If enough things die, you become invincible. You can even sacrifice a few teammates if you want.]
"…Huh?" Pei Guang blinked.
Pei Guang froze when he saw the skill description.
Beside him, Firefly, having eaten just as much as he did, also received a similar message.
Though she didn't have a system, she could feel something, and that intuitive understanding of the skill's nature left her momentarily stunned as well.
The two looked at each other, and in each other's eyes, they saw the same mix of complicated emotions.
Pei Guang honestly didn't even know how to describe this skill.
Even if it could only be used within a dream, it still felt absurdly overpowered. He could gain all of the attributes of a defeated unit? Even if they were only temporary, that was still enough to do a lot.
As long as the units he killed numbered in the tens of millions, his damage against them would multiply tens of thousands of times. Tens of millions of attributes, no matter if they were all weaklings, would still stack into terrifying numbers.
If even one or two of those were Pathstriders or Emanators… Pei Guang didn't dare imagine how powerful he and Firefly could become in a large-scale battle.
With both buffs combined, he and Firefly could probably wipe out an Emanator from the story.
But while the idea sounded nice, reality was far less kind. Even if it was just a dream, Pei Guang felt that he was more likely to go on a killing spree than the enemy was.
He kept trying to think of a way to use the skill effectively, but no matter how he looked at it, the attribute bonus seemed almost negligible in normal combat.
Firefly was busy studying her own strange new ability, and as they both got lost in thought, they completely forgot about Something Unto Death.
At that moment, only part of the creature's body remained. It feigned death, realizing that Pei Guang and Firefly had stopped moving for the moment.
During that brief pause, its body regained control.
Yet instead of striking back, it chose not to. Because in these two lunatics, it had felt something it had never experienced before: fear.
Yes, death itself was afraid of two living people.
Driven by terror, it made the best decision of its miserable existence: run.
In the blink of an eye, Something Unto Death vanished. It swore to itself that for the rest of its life, it would never cross paths with Pei Guang or Firefly again.
Even if one day Pei Guang and Firefly got down on their knees and begged it to take their lives, it would never show up!