The gang members and bystanders were happily bouncing and dancing, their bodies jiggling like gelatin.
After dancing for a while, Pei Guang felt he had played enough and quietly stepped out of the crowd.
Watching the growing number of people, he couldn't help but sigh. "As expected of the City of Dreams: everyone really knows how to let loose!"
At first, the people had been following along with the gangster-like shake, but as more joined in, they began doing whatever they pleased.
Stelle said, "Yeah! Oh right—what were we supposed to be doing again?"
Pei Guang replied, "We were supposed to rescue Acheron and Misha. Look—both of them seem perfectly safe now."
Stelle turned toward the direction of Acheron and the Clockie Boy.
The two of them were staring back in stunned silence. Acheron had seen plenty of absurd things in this universe, but nothing quite like today…
The Clockie Boy's jaw dropped to the floor at what Pei Guang and Stelle had done. Misha, however, blushed deeply as he looked at Pei Guang.
He remembered the image of Pei Guang wearing only those loose shorts in the dream—the flawless physique, the… everything.
Just recalling it made Misha's heart race uncontrollably.
When Pei Guang first entered the dream, Misha was supposed to guide him—but upon seeing him like that, Misha became so flustered he simply threw Pei Guang straight into the Golden Hour.
Thinking back on it now, Misha felt both embarrassed and ashamed… yet, despite that, his gaze once again wandered toward Pei Guang's figure.
He hadn't realized before how attractive Pei Guang's body looked beneath his clothes.
Though Misha had seen a few people with a "special preference" for not wearing clothes, he could confidently say: none of them could compare to Pei Guang. This was the physical charm of a player's body, something no ordinary being could rival.
Misha's bashful expression caught Stelle's attention. She looked at him, then at where his gaze rested, and turned to Pei Guang with a teasing grin.
"As expected of you. So now you're not satisfied just charming cute girls? You're going after cute boys too?"
Pei Guang frowned. "What are you talking about? You know me—I build affinity with everyone! Gender, race, it doesn't matter! How could you slander me like that?"
Appearance was one factor, sure—but as far as Pei Guang was concerned, if he could, he'd even try to "win over" a trash can just to see if it worked.
Despite his embarrassment, Misha still politely greeted Pei Guang.
"We meet again, guest. Were you the ones who helped us resolve the crisis?"
Misha's tone was very courteous.
The Clockie Boy looked up at him curiously. "Misha? What's wrong? You know these two?"
Misha turned to him. "They're distinguished guests. I mentioned them to you not long ago…"
After their brief exchange, Acheron, who seemed to sense something, began explaining why she had been surrounded.
Apparently, the Masked Fools had caused trouble here, and she'd been mistaken for one of them and detained for questioning. However…
Looking around at the swelling crowd, Acheron realized the chaos caused by Pei Guang made the Masked Fools look tame in comparison.
Those troublemakers only ever caused small disturbances: half the time people didn't even know what was going on.
But Pei Guang… there was no need to say more.
The fact that members of different Families, and even bizarre-looking trash cans, had somehow joined in proved this was far beyond what any Masked Fool could manage.
Sure, there were Fools who liked to spread laughter and fun, but none of them could so effortlessly pull countless people into their antics like this.
After hearing Acheron's explanation, Pei Guang nodded seriously. "I see. By the way—can you see the Clockie Boy standing next to you?"
"Clockie Boy? If he really exists… that would explain a lot of things."
Acheron turned toward Misha.
To her eyes, there was no one there: but she could sense something peculiar beside him.
Feeling her gaze, the Clockie Boy put his hands on his hips, surprised. "Huh? You can see me too?"
Acheron shook her head slightly. "I can sense it. Something half-real, half-illusory lingers near you. Unfortunately, I can't communicate with it as you do."
Even as she spoke, her eyes remained fixed on Misha. Seeing this, Pei Guang glanced at Misha, then at the Clockie Boy.
"Interesting… A Clockie Boy that only we can see. Could he be some kind of special existence, like a Memokeeper, or maybe…"
Pei Guang reached out and patted the Clockie Boy's head.
The little one puffed up proudly, hands on his hips. "If you can see me, that means you're honest, pure, and still have a child's heart!"
Stelle crossed her arms. "Ah Guang, he's complimenting us. I am honest, pure, and full of childlike wonder—but do you really fit that description?"
"What do you mean I don't? When I say I'll wipe out someone's whole family, I do it—how's that for honesty?"
No one around understood what the Clockie Boy had said, but Pei Guang's response made everyone break out in cold sweat.
Even Firefly thought his words were a bit too aggressive.
After some playful banter, Pei Guang turned back to Acheron. "Right, there are a few things I'd like to ask you—if it's convenient?"
Acheron nodded. "Go ahead."
Pei Guang continued, "You seem to know something about the Clockie Boy—and more importantly, about this world. I want to ask: aside from the surface-level dreams we can reach through normal means, does Penacony have any deeper layers of dream? If so, how do we get there?"
Acheron was momentarily taken aback: she hadn't expected that question. Coincidentally, she did have a clue.
"There are," she said after a pause. "But as for how to reach them… I'm not certain yet."
Pei Guang said, "I see… so it really is like Inception, with multiple layers of dreams. If that's the case, maybe the Penacony we're in right now isn't the real Penacony. Maybe only after descending several layers deeper can we reach the true Penacony?"
Hearing Pei Guang's analysis, Firefly and Sparkle both looked surprised.
Sparkle then leaned in curiously toward Pei Guang. "And how did you come up with that conclusion? Tell us~"
"From the clues in the previous mission. That old man mentioned that there might be deeper dreams within dreams. I just combined that with my own experience and made a guess. Besides, come on! The idea of multiple dream layers is everywhere! If a dream world doesn't have a setup like that, I'd say it's kind of a failed dream."
Pei Guang had played games, watched anime, movies, and read novels: he'd seen every kind of dream-related story there was. Not every story used the "dream within a dream" trope, but all the good ones usually did.
So his theory was just based on experience.
To Pei Guang, the future of this "game" was unknown. Whether he guessed right or wrong, it was all part of the fun: if he was right, he'd be proud of his genius brain; if wrong, he'd enjoy a classic plot twist.
As long as the story was interesting, he'd savor every moment of it.
Stelle, standing nearby, added seriously, "Don't let Ah Guang fool you. He always says he's just guessing—but every single time, he guesses right! See? Isn't our Ah Guang amazing?"
Firefly blinked. "Our?"
Sparkle immediately cut in. "What do you mean your Ah Guang? Why can't he be my Ah Guang as well?"
Pei Guang waved his hand dismissively. "Don't start. I'm just guessing based on experience. Like I always say, relying on experience alone isn't a good idea, but since we don't have many clues right now, we might as well use what we have."
Since arriving in this world, Pei Guang has been burned by "experience-based assumptions" more than once.
As the saying went, once bitten, twice shy. He'd made a conscious effort not to rely too much on his so-called experience.
But still—this was a fully immersive game world. Only by testing his gaming instincts could he truly enjoy it to the fullest.
"It seems you already have a direction…" Acheron said softly. "Do you still need me? If not, I'll take my leave. Once again, thank you for your help. I wish you pleasant dreams—I won't disturb you further…"
She paused for a moment, looking at the group of four, then swallowed back whatever she'd meant to say. The composition of this group was clearly too chaotic: it was better to say nothing.
Pei Guang waved. "Bye-bye~ See you around~"
Acheron nodded. "See you around."