"So it just… ran off on its long legs?"
Firefly opened her mouth and finally managed to mutter this sentence, while March 7th spread her hands.
"You'll get used to it, you'll get used to it. It's a dream after all: anything can happen in a dream."
Compared to the two who were stunned, Pei Guang remained calm as he waved his hand toward the perfect round table.
As he watched the round table leave, Firefly noticed that two letters appeared where it had been. She picked them up and handed them to Pei Guang.
"Look, there are two letters here. It's like… they dropped from it?"
Pei Guang said, "Oh? Let me see. Maybe they're related to our mission."
He took the letters and opened them. His expression turned curious.
"A list of victims? And… a list of suspects?"
They were a death investigation list and a list of suspects. But as he looked at the death list, Pei Guang fell into thought.
There weren't many deaths listed, and considering Penacony's population flow, such a few 'accidents' wouldn't even cause a ripple.
Just from the names and death descriptions, Pei Guang couldn't detect any common pattern. But when he thought about Robin's current state, these people were probably those who had reached deeper layers of the dream.
Thinking further along that line… could it be that in Penacony, more people had been attacked than just these?
That these people never returned from the deeper dream layers, resulting in their "deaths" being discovered only later through investigation?
If others had also been attacked but, for whatever reason, returned to reality with their memories erased, perhaps that was why they had never been investigated.
Then, looking at the suspect list, Pei Guang's frown deepened.
"This suspect list—why go into such detail describing each person's traits?"
Reading along, March 7th commented, "Maybe the real culprit is some kind of… fusion of all these traits?"
Pei Guang shot back, "You've got imagination, huh? A fusion? What, you want to take these people apart and stitch them into one body? And then that person disguises themselves in Penacony, controlling Something Unto Death to go on a killing spree?"
Firefly said, "That actually… sounds fitting for Penacony's style~"
March 7th chimed in, "It's a dream~ we can think boldly."
Pei Guang replied, "It is bold, but the problem is, we've never met these people. We don't even know their traits. Even if that person stood right in front of us, we wouldn't recognize them. Besides…"
He glanced at the minimap's marker for Something Unto Death, then at Robin moving elsewhere.
Robin's continued survival had already confirmed to Pei Guang that Something Unto Death's 'killings' weren't true deaths: it was just sending people to new map zones.
But that wasn't enough proof. He still needed to test it.
And since Aventurine was investigating the cause of death, and he even seemed interested in personally experiencing death himself, it would be perfect to let him try it.
That way, Aventurine could fulfill his task, and he'd get his test result.
But that experiment depended on first catching the target. The problem now was: he'd reached the room where Something Unto Death should be, yet it hadn't appeared—and he couldn't find it.
Pei Guang said, "Useful clues, but not very actionable. Let's think about how to bring Death out. That's the key to advancing our main mission for now."
March 7th stared at the minimap marker. "We know it's here, but we can't see it. Could it be hiding somewhere?"
Pei Guang said, "That's fine, as long as we know it's here. Because we have…"
He pulled out the miraculous four-leaf clover.
Seeing that clover, the Something Unto Death hiding in the shadows felt a chill.
At first, it had thought Pei Guang's arrival was just coincidence: after all, this was the Oak Family's territory, and he was supposedly here looking for Sunday.
So when he came, it didn't flee. It was only baffled when the table suddenly grew legs and ran away.
But as soon as it saw Pei Guang take out the four-leaf clover, its entire mind blanked.
It remembered clearly: Pei Guang had used that same item to deal with it once before.
The clover looked small, but the wind it produced was irresistible.
It tried to escape through the shadow, but as it prepared to flee, the wind had already begun to blow through the room.
As the wind rose, its feet left the ground.
The memory-domain meme was blown straight out of the shadows and crashed to the floor before Pei Guang and the others.
In just a day, its body had recovered, but it hadn't turned into the second-phase boss form. It still looked like its first phase: having wings and countless eyes.
The wind not only blew Something Unto Death out of hiding: it also blinded every surveilling eye in the room.
Forcibly dragged out and immobilized, Something Unto Death lay on the ground, unable to move.
Facing it again, Pei Guang felt none of the fear he had the first time.
For a player, once you've beaten a boss once, that victory brings unbeatable confidence. And he wasn't alone: both Firefly and March 7th were ready with their four-leaf clovers.
If the creature tried anything, the two would strike instantly.
Pei Guang said, "Yo, long time no see. Looks like your body's recovered, huh?"
At his greeting, Something Unto Death snarled furiously. It had only wanted to send them to the real Penacony, yet this man had devoured it—and now he was mocking it too!
Forget it, then. Let it be humiliation.
Not like it could win anyway.
Although it could not win, Something Unto Death still had to keep up appearances, and it let out a roar.
Looking at the roaring "Death," Pei Guang smiled. "Alright, alright, stop yelling. I know you can understand what I'm saying."
His words calmed Something Unto Death down.
Pei Guang continued, "I know you killed Robin for some reason you don't understand yourself, and I also know Robin didn't actually die after you killed her, but instead reached the real Penacony, right?"
This made Something Unto Death even calmer.
As a Memory Zone Meme, its "killing" was actually under someone else's control. As for information about the real Penacony, people outside shouldn't know anything, so how did Pei Guang know?
Looking at the black mist rising from its body, Pei Guang reached out and patted its head.
"About our attacks on you earlier, I apologize. I thought you were really trying to kill us back then. As the saying goes, you don't become acquainted without fighting. Now that I know your true purpose, I naturally won't hold a grudge against you."
Hearing this, Something Unto Death almost burst into tears.
As a death-type Memory Zone Meme, when had it ever suffered such grievances? But at least the person in front of it had apologized.
What? Ask for further compensation? Want to die? This guy could literally eat it alive! An apology was already enough: demanding compensation would be suicidal.
Yet just when it thought there would be no compensation, Pei Guang took something out: something that made all of its eyes go wide.
What he produced was a transformation rod synthesized from five Heliobi.
Heliobi could be synthesized into devices using 1, 5, 10, or 999 units. Every whole-number Heliobus had already been turned into transformation devices, and the three of them were currently playing with those.
The remaining Heliobi were not enough to make another full device, but five could be combined into a single transformation rod.
Its drawbacks were obvious: with fewer Heliobi used, the power cap was low, and it could not combine or evolve, let alone transform into a giant mecha.
Even with all those limitations, it was still a great tool overall. Pei Guang's thought was simple: earlier fights were his fault, so now he would give it a transformation rod.
It had better appreciate the gesture and quickly switch from hostile to friendly.
As a Memory Zone Meme, it had no idea what the transformation rod really was, but its intuition told it that this was a useful, valuable item.
In that instant, it no longer felt Pei Guang was that difficult to deal with.
Even though it had once sworn that, no matter how much Pei Guang and Firefly begged, it would never send them over, now that it had received this transformation device… that old oath suddenly felt negotiable.