While Pei Guang was busy making wild guesses, Stelle pulled out her bat. "Let me just knock them all out."
Just as she was about to act, Pei Guang stopped her. "No, wait. If you don't knock them all out in one hit and they scatter, that's a total loss."
Stelle clapped her hands. "Got it! Let's use coffee! But… there are a lot of them, and there's just the two of us…"
One-on-one, or even two-on-one, coffee was definitely the best tool. If they had someone like Bailu around, someone who could control water, even taking on multiple enemies wouldn't be a problem.
But right now, the only ones here with solid "crowd control" experience were the two of them, and neither had Bailu's finesse. So coffee wasn't exactly the best choice.
Violence, then? Sure, that'd work, but Stelle's thoughts matched Pei Guang's.
With this many enemies, if even one or two escaped, or got knocked back into reality, that'd be a waste.
They'd already looted plenty earlier, sure, but any seasoned player knew that even with a full inventory, you never skipped a chance at more drops.
The loot might be useless, might have nowhere to go—but you still had to farm it.
Seeing Stelle hesitate, Pei Guang started giving her some advice. "Look, coffee was a powerful item we got early on. It's normal that it doesn't work well in a new map. But don't forget, we've picked up plenty of other tools since then. For example…"
Pei Guang pulled out a white plastic chair, the kind you'd see at a street-side food stall, and set it down on the ground before taking out a fire jar.
"As they say, to catch a thief, you catch the leader first. See that guy? Every time he says something, the others follow his lead. So if we take him out, the rest will fall apart."
Stelle's eyes lit up. "Oh? You've got a new trick in mind?"
Pei Guang nodded. "That's right. I'm not totally sure it'll work yet, but since you're the one doing the 'hero saves the beauty' act this time, I'll stay in the background."
"Hey, wait," Stelle said. "I don't know how to use your Savory Truefire technique, I can't pull that off."
Pei Guang sighed. "Blockhead. You do the saving. I'll secretly use the fire while you're using the item, got it?"
"Oh! That works? Then I'm going in!"
"Go for it."
Eager to act, Stelle grabbed the white plastic chair Pei Guang had brought out, set up the capture range, and placed the chair in a good position.
The moment the chair touched the ground, the gang leader suddenly turned his head, as if sensing something.
When his eyes landed on that white plastic chair, his heart clenched: he felt his pulse stop for an instant.
"Oh… what a perfect, pure, flawless chair. How can such a powerful thing exist in this world?"
Without hesitation, the man who'd been leading the group surrounding Acheron walked straight toward the chair. Without a second thought, he plopped himself down on it.
The slightly firm plastic pressed against him, giving him a strange, indescribable sensation of bliss.
Like a trashman diving into his garbage bin, this gang boss had to sit upon a chair brimming with power.
At the same time, Stelle appeared beside him holding the fire jar.
Following Pei Guang's plan, she stuffed an Emotional Manifestation into the jar. Under Pei Guang's control, flames flared to life inside.
Since the boss wasn't showing much skin, and Stelle was too lazy to strip him down, she simply pressed the jar over his forehead.
The instant the fire jar sealed onto his head, his eyes widened in shock. He felt a chill in his brain, like his very thoughts were being sucked away. ù
For a moment, he seemed to see a horde of zombies dancing before him.
Gangs, Penacony, the Charmony Festival, people stirring up trouble… none of it mattered anymore. All that existed now was the joy of dancing.
Meanwhile, the surrounding goons noticed their boss's strange behavior. "Boss! What's wrong?!"
Hearing the question, the gang boss snapped out of his trance, and the fire jar fell from his forehead.
When it hit the ground, a red, circular mark was left where the jar had been, just like a cupping bruise, but this one shimmered faintly and gave off an oddly enticing fragrance.
Smelling it, Sparkle seemed to realize something, but before she could think too deeply, the gang boss suddenly moved.
Standing up, he smiled faintly at his underlings. "Boys! Line up! We're going to properly welcome our honored guests—with a dance!"
Hearing the word "dance," Stelle, who had been planning to use her bat if the jar hadn't worked, suddenly looked serious.
"Oh? You want to dance? Funny thing, you might not believe this, but I happen to know someone who's very good at dancing. How about I let him lead you?"
The gang boss grinned. "Oh? Such a person exists? Hurry and invite him!"
Stelle called out, "Ah Guang! Time to dance!"
Pei Guang answered, "On my way!"
But just as he approached, Clockie Boy widened his eyes at him. "Why are we suddenly dancing?"
Pei Guang replied, "Huh? Isn't reconciling with the enemy and then dancing together the standard plot in kids' cartoons?"
Clockie Boy blinked. "Huh??"
Pei Guang walked up and looked at the gang boss before him. "You want to dance? Judging from your look, you're a gang member, but you don't seem to like fighting and killing. Let's keep it simple—how about a gangster shuffle?"
Gang boss: "We're not a gang. We're a legitimate organization."
Pei Guang: "Makes no difference. Whether you're a legit group or a gangster, you're still a gang."
As he spoke, Pei Guang took out a portable speaker, found the Golden Wind BGM, and set the speaker on the white plastic chair.
The moment the speaker touched the chair, the gang boss's expression changed.
A speaker placed upon such a powerful chair: surely the music it produced must be equally powerful!
As the music began to play, Stelle moved up beside Pei Guang. By now, she could easily perform any dance Pei Guang had taught her—she was already capable of leading alongside him.
Pei Guang and Stelle's bodies shifted left in rhythm, their arms extending forward as they leaned back, heads rolling smoothly with the motion. Then they spread their arms downward, spun in a full 360 degrees, and continued dancing with fluid movements and synchronized rhythm.
The beat—thump-tsk, thump-tsk—combined with the somewhat intricate but easy-to-learn choreography, created a strangely hypnotic feeling.
But the most mesmerizing part wasn't the dance itself: it was the way Pei Guang and Stelle's bodies began to bounce, their movements soft and springy, almost cartoonishly elastic.
And that day, the image of those bouncy bodies spread through every dreamscape of Penacony.
People had thought that "bouncy bodies" were already the peak of expression here: but now, someone was dancing like that?
At that moment, the gang boss's face grew serious. He could feel the mystical pull of the dance—his brain was screaming, his very DNA roaring.
His DNA: I have to engrave this moment into myself!!!
As his DNA howled, and Pei Guang began the second round of moves, the gang boss joined in.
Seeing their boss dance, the underlings hesitated only for a moment before following along. As loyal followers, they had to keep up with their leader's rhythm!
Music thumped, bodies moved, and soon the crowd's attention was drawn to the scene. Even though this was a dreamscape, a sudden, spontaneous group dance like this was still rare.
The spectacle caught the eyes of passersby and those who had gathered earlier because of the Masked Fool's chaos.
Seeing it, they couldn't help but cheer.
Among the cheering crowd, a member of the Bloodhound Family, responsible for keeping order, noticed the commotion. After a brief hesitation, he quietly stepped into the line of dancers.
The Bloodhounds weren't known for dancing, but this "gangster shuffle" wasn't hard for anyone. Especially with Pei Guang and Stelle leading: their moves had a kind of magic to them, something you could learn just by watching once.
Now, this Bloodhound thought to himself: I've got it! I can dance! Let me join this glorious dance troupe!
Many people simply watched for fun and moved on, but others, seeing the scene, fell into deep thought.
In large multiplayer games, when a single player starts dancing or marching through a busy city, it barely causes a ripple.
But once two or three join in, everything changes.
Most players might not care, but there are always some who, upon seeing something this synchronized and ridiculous, can't help but join in too.
What starts as a small group of dancers can, within minutes, swell into hundreds, sometimes even crash the server, because word spreads fast that "something weird but hilarious" is happening.
This strange ripple effect of player behavior now came alive in Penacony. Many left, but many others, finding it fun, joined in with laughter.
The trend spread like a virus and more and more people joined.
After all, as the saying goes: one person doing it is embarrassing, but a crowd doing it is fashion!
And in the dream world, everyone loved trying out the latest "fashionable" thing.
As more and more people followed Pei Guang and Stelle's lead in dance, on the other side, Acheron, the one who had been "rescued", watched the scene in silence.
She was grateful for Pei Guang and Stelle stepping in… but before she could even express her thanks, she realized the number of people around her had exploded.
Originally, she'd been surrounded by gang members. Now? She was surrounded by even more people, all with their backs to her—dancing.
Not only were they dancing: they'd completely blocked every exit in the area.
But as more and more people joined in, Acheron began to notice something strange.
Along with the growing crowd, a new kind of energy appeared: the power of Harmony. It wasn't strong, but it was unexpectedly pure…
At that moment, not only Acheron, even Sparkle didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
On the territory of a Family that followed Harmony, having Pei Guang, a Trailblazer, actually draw forth the power of Harmony himself?
In her opinion, the Family ought to just make Pei Guang their patriarch.
Who knows: if he really became the head, the Aeon of Harmony might just pack up and move their home straight to Penacony overnight.