Inside Stelle's room aboard the Astral Express, she lay on her bed, fuming and staring off to the side. anwhile, next to her, Pei Guang casually sat in a chair, leisurely munching on an unfamiliar Xianzhou fruit.
"Oh~ You can't move, huh? Tsk tsk tsk, let tell you, this fruit is super sweet."
Due to overexerting her Stellaron's power during the cooking competition, Stelle's body had been completely drained, leaving her unable to move. Seeing her like this, Pei Guang was practically beaming with delight.
Hearing his taunts, Stelle clenched her fists. "Ah Guang! Just you wait! Once I recover, I'm gonna beat you up so bad your face will swell like a pig's!"
Pei Guang smirked. "No need to wait, co at now! Go on, hit ! Right here, right on my face!"
March 7th, watching the two bicker, chuckled. "I swear, you two are sothing else. First, you ate yourselves into a coma, and now you've worn yourselves out competing over food. You've faced real high-stakes battles, and yet sohow, this is where you crash and burn. Honestly? It's kinda hilarious."
Pei Guang grinned. "No worries, next ti it'll be your turn."
Stelle imdiately agreed. "Yeah, March, you're next!"
March 7th folded her arms. "Oh, I see how it is! Here I was, sticking up for you, Stelle, and now you're teaming up with Ah Guang against ? Fine! I've decided—I'll team up with Ah Guang and take you down instead! Ah Guang! I'll boost your affection points! Let's work together and deal with this troublemaker!"
Pei Guang turned to Stelle and spread his hands. "Sorry, it's not that I want to betray you, but March's reward is just too tempting."
Stelle's eyes widened. "I'll boost your affection points too! I can do that!"
Pei Guang chuckled darkly. "Heh heh heh… Affection points between players can't be increased—unless they get married. But too bad! My first marriage slot definitely won't be with you."
March 7th's eyebrows shot up. "Wait a second—"
Pei Guang blinked. "Huh?"
March 7th leaned in, smiling chillingly. "You just said your first marriage slot wouldn't go to Stelle. So that ans… she's your second objective?"
Pei Guang: "???"
Just as the three of them were laughing and teasing each other, a knock sounded at the door.
Pei Guang called out, "Co in~"
Stelle turned her head toward him, annoyed. "This is my room! I should be the one saying that!"
Pei Guang shrugged. "Well, you're all weak and exhausted, so I figured I'd do you a favor. Think of as your designated mouthpiece~"
As the two continued their lighthearted banter, the door swung open, revealing Welt with a grave expression.
"Ah Guang, we have a problem."
Pei Guang straightened slightly. "Huh? A problem?"
He was confused. They had just had a great ti in Aurum Alley, made connections with a bunch of NPCs, and even had a proper player-versus-player showdown with Stelle. Sure, the ga chanics had left Stelle temporarily weak, but overall, things had gone smoothly.
Why was there suddenly bad news?
Frowning, he glanced at his mini-map. Everything looked normal—no red dots indicating combat, no sudden drop in health bars for people he had marked. Even Earth seed relatively stable.
But then, as he focused on Earth, he noticed sothing off. A bright yellow exclamation mark hovered over it.
The mont he saw it, his expression hardened.
Pei Guang looked up at Welt. "Old Yang… sothing happened on Earth, didn't it?"
Welt nodded solemnly. "It's bad news. Thanks to your intervention, Earth successfully fought off a wave of Antimatter Legion voidrangers and the Doomsday Beast. But now, the Lord Ravager of that star system has noticed the anomaly in the Solar System. And following Nanook's revelation… it's taking action."
Welt's voice grew heavier. "Several stars near the Solar System have already been detonated. By harnessing the energy of these exploding stars, they've managed to accelerate ti itself.
"On top of that, a Calamity Vanguard has already arrived in the Solar System.
"It looks like the Lord Ravager has just issued you… a personal challenge."
While Pei Guang and his group were having fun in Aurum Alley, Lord Ravager had already tampered with the stars surrounding the Solar System. Under the influence of Pathstriding forces, the entire Solar System had entered a state of accelerated ti—essentially, a massive temporal acceleration.
This was a common tactic used by the Legion. In the past, they did this to mass-produce more pawns, as countless were born within these accelerated star systems before being sent to wage war on regular systems.
Externally, only a few minutes or hours might pass, but within the affected regions, days, months, or even years could go by.
At first glance, this acceleration might seem advantageous, but in reality, it simply hastened the inevitable—bringing destruction closer at an alarming rate.
However, the thod had significant drawbacks: it required the detonation of nurous stars across multiple systems to alter the surrounding field, and it also needed direct intervention from the Pathstrider's power. The process could only be carried out in star systems where there were no opposing forces to resist.
This ti, the effect had spread across hundreds of star systems near the Solar System, forcing an entire region into an accelerated tiline.
Within the Solar System, only Earth remained shielded by the power of Preservation. However, when faced with a force capable of influencing entire star systems, that protection could only prevent Earth from being outright obliterated—it couldn't stop everything else from being affected.
At the sa ti, Lord Ravager of the Milky Way had learned of the player's presence in the Solar System. The goal of accelerating ti within the Solar System was straightforward: to personally witness the destruction of all life on Earth, to wipe out every last trace of resistance from that planet, and to watch as Earth was torn apart bit by bit.
Yes, the power of the player was unusual, but as a Lord Ravager under the command of the Aeon of Destruction, it had no reason to fear the player. And in recent days, just like Phantylia, this Lord Ravager had received an even greater blessing from Nanook.
It had grown stronger.
With more of Destruction's power flowing through it, the Lord Ravager had decided to carry out Nanook's will—to grant Pei Guang, his rising faction, and his howorld equal destruction.
And, of course, it had its own personal reason for acting: it was ti to wash away the humiliation brought upon the Legion by Phantylia.
Right now, the reputation of the Lord Ravagers was at an all-ti low.
In the past, they were feared across the cosmos—beings of pure terror and destruction. But now? Thanks to one of their own, Phantylia, the entire Legion had beco a joke. If they didn't do sothing to redeem themselves, how were they supposed to maintain their fearso reputation?
What, were they supposed to destroy a planet, only for the survivors to laugh and say,
"Oh yeah, we once took a shit on a Lord Ravager's head."
No, that was simply unacceptable!
Neither Welt nor Pei Guang knew all the details yet, but Welt was sure of one thing: the Solar System had fallen under the Lord Ravager's influence.
He wasn't sure if Pei Guang would fully understand the situation, so he tried to simplify the explanation.
After listening to Welt's description, Pei Guang nodded. "I see, I get it now. Basically, the world has been put on fast-forward, and a new raid dungeon just got unlocked. If I don't clear this dungeon, my adorable assistant and my own territory are gonna get wiped out, huh?
"Pfft. So second-rate boss actually thinks it can challenge ? I swear, I'm gonna crack its skull open and soak it in liquor."
Welt remained serious. "Do you have a plan?"
Pei Guang smirked. "Plan? What plan? A boss has shown up right outside my doorstep—obviously, I need to gather resources and start grinding until I can stomp this thing into the ground!"
At that mont, Stelle—who had been lying exhausted on her bed—suddenly sprang up.
"That's right! We've got work to do! Just like Ah Guang said, we're gonna crack that Lord Ravager's skull open and soak it in liquor!"
Weakness? Fatigue? Who cared! One top-tier consumable later, and her body was back in peak condition.
What? Why didn't she take the item earlier?
Because she was enjoying being taken care of by Pei Guang, of course! If she had healed up too soon, then what was the point? But now that there was an actual mission to take on, there was no ti to waste—she couldn't afford to miss out on this level of fun!
March 7th: "Ew~ that liquor's definitely gonna taste awful… but if it's Earth we're talking about… I think I wanna help!"
Earth was Pei Guang's property, after all. She still vividly rembered what he had said back in Belobog—how they'd develop a planet together and treat it as their ho. If the day ever ca when they lost their mories, at least she and Pei Guang would have a place to return to.
This wasn't just Pei Guang's planet. It was their ho.
And now so bastard had set their sights on it?
They had to fight back!
What if they lost? Then they'd talk about losing after they lost! With Pei Guang's absurdly broken abilities, even if they couldn't save Earth, he could at least evacuate the majority of its population. There was no way Earth's civilization would be completely wiped out.
Besides, they still had the ability to travel back and forth freely. And with ti running differently on Earth, they didn't even need to worry about missing the train's departure. It was a win-win!
March 7th had even thought ahead—if things settled down, and they ever found themselves without a clear destination, they could just ask Pom-Pom to steer the train toward Earth. Imagine if Earth beca part of the Astral Express route! How great would that be?
Seeing the determination on his companions' faces, Pei Guang stood up.
"Alright, then! We're heading out! That Lord Ravager thinks he can set foot on our turf? He's got another thing coming! We'll crack his damn skull open! Let's move!"
Pei Guang's group prepared to depart.
This ti, Welt wasn't going with them—not because he didn't want to help, but because he had already done everything he could. Thanks to the ti dilation, he had actually spent several months on Earth before returning to the train.
During that ti, with the help of Herta's puppets, he had worked alongside them to purge so of Earth's more problematic individuals—those who would only hinder their efforts. Now that he was back, he decided to remain on the train and observe.
With the Solar System essentially cut off from the rest of the galaxy, if everyone rushed in at once, and sothing did go wrong, they wouldn't even have anyone left to retrieve their bodies.
…Not that Welt really believed their bodies were the ones that would need retrieving.
No, if any corpses were getting cleaned up after this, it'd probably be the Lord Ravager's.
Still, even though he had faith in Pei Guang, proper preparation was necessary. He also needed to relay the information to Hiko and Pom-Pom.
After so thought, Welt looked at Pei Guang.
"Alright then, you all go ahead. I'll explain the situation to Hiko and Pom-Pom. If anything happens, I'll be there as soon as possible."
Pei Guang grinned. "No problem~ If I need you, I won't hesitate to yank you in!"
Welt nodded. "Understood."
Pei Guang then added, "Since ti runs differently there, I won't waste too much ti chatting. I'm gonna check on my territory first. Oh, and ask Dan Heng if he wants to co along for so fun~"
Welt chuckled slightly. "I'll let him know."
Pei Guang turned to March 7th and Stelle.
"Alright then—let's move out!"
Pei Guang, Stelle, and March 7th then returned to Earth.
However, due to the massive ti acceleration affecting the Solar System, by the ti they arrived, Earth's leadership had already undergone a drastic transformation.
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