On the train, seeing the three Aether Spirits that Pom-Pom had prepared, Pei Guang shouted in dismay.
The good news: all his guesses had been correct.
The bad news: all his bad guesses had also been correct.
At that moment, not only Pei Guang, but March 7th and Stelle also felt unprecedented pressure.
March: "Ah Guang! Quick, think of something!"
Stelle: "The Aether Spirits Pom-Pom's using look totally unbeatable!"
Pei Guang: "Don't worry! Just give me thirty seconds."
Pei Guang took out his phone and opened the livestream for the Aetherium Wars: Interastral Tournament Festival. There were several cameras on the train broadcasting the match, and when Pei Guang saw their positions, a grin returned to his face.
"Perfect! The rules of victory are already set! Pom-Pom! Take this!" As he spoke, Pei Guang changed his position so that in the broadcast angle, Pom-Pom would appear on the left, and his team on the right.
Traditionally, those on the left lose in beam clashes—even though Aether Spirit battles don't have beam clashes, putting the enemy on the left can't go wrong!
March and Stelle had no idea what was happening, but they followed Pei Guang and shifted positions with him.
With preparations complete, Pei Guang's chosen Aether Spirits were released.
However, right as things kicked off, Pei Guang noticed something terrifying: his fastest Aether Spirit wasn't faster than Pinky Bunny?!
What kind of Aether Spirit was that Pinky Bunny?!
In the viewing room, Dan Heng, who was watching the stream, couldn't help but comment: "Ah Guang! Bet you didn't expect this! I uploaded its stats with Speed affixes. Its Speed is 135!"
Dan Heng hadn't realized how much he'd changed after spending time with Pei Guang. Though usually a serious person, when it came to Pei Guang-related matters, he'd somehow learned how to spit lines.
Pom-Pom, seeing Pinky Bunny act first, confidently extended a fingerless hand: "Pinky Bunny! Use Enhanced Basic Attack on the Trailblazers!"
Pinky Bunny: "Meow meow meow~ meow~!"
Pinky Bunny extended a nonexistent right paw just like Pom-Pom, and on it was a smaller, even cuter bunny. That smaller bunny flew toward Pei Guang's Phantylia Aether Spirit.
In that moment, the Phantylia Aether Spirit was struck, its body turning pink, letting out loud "meow meow meows."
Watching the scene, March hugged herself. "So—so scary! Is this what enemies hit by Dan Heng feel like? That damage is insane!"
The enhanced basic attack from Pinky Bunny took off a third of Phantylia's HP in one hit, and it had splash damage, too, chipping away over a third of the nearby regular Aether Spirit's HP as well.
Pei Guang: "It's fine! Just one hit! So what if Pom-Pom gets the first round? Once it's our turn, that'll be the moment of Pom-Pom's defeat!"
Pom-Pom stood with arms akimbo, looking at Pei Guang: "Pei Guang the Trailblazer, you know nothing of Pinky Bunny's power. Pinky Bunny, unleash your Ultimate!"
Pinky Bunny: "Pink Bun~ has arrived~ Delve-hidden moon, Pink Bunny Meow Attack~"
Pinky Bunny released its Ultimate. At the moment of activation, a sleek, graceful bunny launched at Phantylia, its body in close contact with it. Once again, Phantylia was bathed in pink light and cat noises.
After using its Ultimate, Pinky Bunny's action bar jumped forward by 100%. Pom-Pom, full of confidence, commanded: "Pinky Bunny! Use Enhanced Basic Attack again!"
Pinky Bunny: "Meow meow meow~ meow~"
The voice for Pinky Bunny was personally done by Dan Heng. In his view, if he didn't appear on-screen, who would ever know he voiced it? And even if someone did, they probably wouldn't be watching the stream anyway.
But reality had other plans: for various reasons, even Jingliu, who was currently detained and awaiting transfer to another Xianzhou, could still watch the Aetherium Wars stream.
When everyone heard that voice, whether it was Jing Yuan at the Seat of Divine Foresight or the imprisoned Jingliu, upon hearing Pinky Bunny speak human words, they all felt their minds go blank.
Though everyone had accepted by now that Dan Heng was Dan Heng, the moment they imagined that face saying those lines with a straight expression, Jing Yuan suddenly felt like he was one step closer to embracing his dark side and succumbing to the Mara.
Even Jingliu wasn't doing much better—she felt like her "cute side" had been completely flipped over too. But just as she was about to spiral, the auto-activated "moe expression" defense for serious offenders kicked in, and her sanity reeled itself back.
Meanwhile in Belobog, Himeko, who was watching the livestream alongside Welt, couldn't help but comment at the familiar voice: "Dan Heng… really has changed a lot."
Welt replied, "Spend enough time with a player, and even the most serious person can't stay serious forever."
These two were actually holding up fine. At most, Jing Yuan and Jingliu were left with a buzzing headache. But given that Dan Heng had already been battling alongside them using Pinky Bunny for a while, hearing his voice as the bunny wasn't exactly unbearable anymore.
Besides, it wasn't like everyone was seeing Dan Heng—they were only seeing Pinky Bunny. So it wasn't that humiliating.
The one truly losing face was Phantylia, who was watching the livestream from inside the Star Destroyer.
"Aaaahhh!!! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill all of you!!! Turn off the TV! Turn it off! I don't want to see this!"
Phantylia screamed in agony—she regretted everything!
One of her cellmates watching the livestream alongside her chimed in: "Don't be like that, this is hilarious! Look, the Trailblazers are using your former body as an Aether Spirit in battle. You should be honored!"
Phantylia: "Honored my ass!"
"In some ways, 'honored for your ass' is still being honored~"
Phantylia: "I was wrong! I really was wrong! I never should've targeted the Xianzhou Luofu. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have offended Pei Guang. If I hadn't offended Pei Guang, I wouldn't have ended up in this miserable place, and if I weren't here, I wouldn't be endlessly humiliated like this..."
Phantylia curled up in the corner, mumbling over and over about how she'd messed up, truly messed up. The other inmates and the guards on duty just burst into laughter.
After all, there was still a pecking order here—and until someone else got dragged in by Pei Guang, Phantylia was definitely at the bottom, and the most humiliated of all.
Back on the battlefield, Stelle tensed up as Phantylia's HP was nearly wiped out by a combo, leaving her with just a sliver of health: "Ah Guang! Are we about to lose? Pom-Pom's Aether Spirits are way too strong…"
March 7th: "So this is Pom-Pom's strength? S-So powerful! Practically invincible!"
Pom-Pom: "Heh heh!"
Seeing their shocked faces, Pom-Pom was extremely pleased. After all, to prepare for a chance to finally defeat Pei Guang, it had been working very hard lately: studying Aetherium Wars and Aether Spirit battles seriously, even watching every second of Pei Guang's matches during the finals.
From Pom-Pom's point of view, the Overlord-class Aether Spirit and the Silvermane Cannoneer were Pei Guang's core units. As long as it could take out those two, it was sure to win.
And if it won, it would mean blazing a new path: one where the Express's conductor could beat a player!
At that moment, Pom-Pom thought of Akivili, and remembered those times they talked about the concept of "trailblazing."
Pei Guang glanced at his team of Aether Spirits. Phantylia was barely hanging on. The Silvermane Cannoneer had been instantly wiped out. Piggy Hero only had a sliver of HP left—but should still have a chance to heal both itself and Phantylia.
As for the Voidranger? Since it had been placed in the corner, it was completely untouched.
Looking at the turn order, after Pinky Bunny's move, it would be Piggy Hero, then Arahato, then Phantylia. In Pei Guang's view, no matter how strong this Arahato was, there was no way it could one-shot Phantylia.
It seemed like everything was under control.
But as he looked at the action bar, Pei Guang noticed something strange.
"Wait a second… why doesn't that coffee have an action bar?"