Pei Guang reassured Huohuo, "Don't worry, we've got this. Sure, we want to help Huohuo grow, to a point where she won't stab us in the back someday, but we've also built in failsafes in case something goes wrong."
As a competent player in a world where you can only revive once and might not get a second playthrough, Pei Guang always kept a few backup plans.
If it were anyone else, Huohuo wouldn't have trusted them so easily. Even when it came to Hanya or Xueyi, despite how long they'd been together, she often felt scared. But with Pei Guang… she felt like it might just work.
Especially after putting on that special effect Pei Guang gave her, Huohuo felt her mind sharpen and her body energized: before, she'd struggle just climbing to the fifth floor, but now she could sprint up more than ten.
Of course, this was all psychological. The special effect Pei Guang gave only enhanced mental strength and willpower—but hey, no one ever said mentally strong people couldn't still be scared!
Besides, Huohuo's fear right now was mostly self-inflicted.
On this point, Xueyi had the most authority to speak. Because Huohuo had a Heliobus inside her, she was actually completely immune to Heliobus invasion; over the years, she had specifically trained to deal with this type of enemy. It was difficult for her to handle powerful opponents, but when it came to regular Heliobi, she could deal with them easily.
It was just that over the years, she had scared herself so thoroughly that she lost all confidence. The kind of fear born from frightening oneself had little to do with mental strength or willpower.
Well, that's not entirely true: stronger willpower could lead Huohuo to imagine even scarier things to frighten herself with. But thanks to Pei Guang's influence and his words, she now believed that with this special effect, she wouldn't be afraid of Heliobi anymore.
That made her feel stronger.
The tail beside Huohuo also noticed the change in her. When it looked at Huohuo's adorably determined expression, it was completely stunned.
"What the hell did you guys give her? Why does she look… so cute now? Damn it! I actually think she's cute?!"
Tail was dumbfounded. How long had it lived with Huohuo? It knew exactly what she was like. And now, it actually thought she was cute?
Huohuo blinked. "Huh? Did I really become cute?"
Pei Guang nodded. "Of course. I gave you the Moe Filter effect. Even Dan Heng said it: if you slap that on someone completely expressionless, even they'll look cute. It's no big deal, just wear it during battle. Alright! Now that we're all geared up, let's go deal with those Heliobi! Today I'll teach you the first move in fighting enemies: infiltration."
Stelle added, "Ah Guang's infiltration skills… you won't believe it until you try it!"
Pei Guang continued, "Since this Furynox has already refined the entire Fyxestroll Garden, let's sneak inside!"
And so, Pei Guang led Huohuo toward the garden, preparing to infiltrate.
Xueyi, watching from the side, was silently weighing whether to act alone or follow along. But after seeing Huohuo looking so adorably serious—and even squatting down to pull out her plunger weapon—Xueyi took a deep breath and looked at the others.
"Everyone, I'll go in from the other side. Let's regroup inside the Fyxestroll Garden." Without giving Pei Guang time to respond, she turned and left. She knew that if she didn't go now, Pei Guang might just drag her into his madness.
While Xueyi took the other path, Pei Guang led Huohuo into the Fyxestroll Garden and began giving her detailed instructions.
Pei Guang said, "First, I'm going to teach you the very first skill I learned: Stealth. See those people ahead? They look like they've been controlled by Heliobi. We'll sneak over and quietly put them to sleep."
Huohuo asked nervously, "We're just… walking straight over?"
She looked at the controlled people ahead, her legs trembling. Pei Guang patiently explained, "You think enemies are that dumb? If we walk straight over, of course we'll get spotted. We sneak. As long as we're sneaking, they won't see us."
As he spoke, Pei Guang crouched down and crept toward the people ahead. Huohuo swallowed hard. "That's stealth?"
Pei Guang replied, "Yep! Come on!"
Stelle, who had been silent until now, also confirmed, "That's stealth. Just look: they can't see us."
As she spoke, Stelle crouched and followed Pei Guang, weaving around the controlled people up ahead. None of them noticed her at all.
Seeing this, Huohuo steeled herself and crouched to follow.
Tail watched all this, puzzled. "This actually works? It doesn't look very reliable…"
Huohuo whispered, "Mr. Tail! Keep your voice down! If they hear us, it's all over!"
Tail replied, "Okay okay, I'll keep quiet. I'm your tail now~ I won't move a muscle. But these people aren't blind… Holy crap, they really can't see us?!"
As Huohuo copied the movements of Pei Guang and Stelle to approach the Furynox-controlled people, they really didn't react at all.
Tail was tempted to screw around a bit to test it, but seeing how Huohuo had finally gathered some courage and was learning from capable people, he decided not to disturb her.
There was always time to mess with Huohuo later. But right now, this was serious business. And even though he constantly bullied her, he wouldn't allow others to bully her.
Of course: if Huohuo was the one doing the bullying, that was a different story.
Huohuo followed Pei Guang forward, only to see that he had circled behind one of the controlled people and was motioning her over.
She carefully approached, and once she was close, Pei Guang instructed, "Now that you've learned stealth, next I'll teach you how to ambush!"
"Ambush?" Huohuo repeated.
Pei Guang nodded. "Exactly! If you're sneaking up on an enemy, of course you ambush them. Take this one for example: she's in our way and could mess up our next steps, so we ambush her. But she's being controlled by a Heliobus, so we can't hurt her. That's why we'll use this."
He pulled out a cup of coffee and explained, "This coffee puts someone to sleep for ten minutes. They can't be woken up by any method and there are no side effects. We usually use this for targets we can't harm. But while we're at it, let me teach you another technique: a critical hit method.
When you're dealing with enemies that need to go down, stab them in the butt with your weapon. I've tested it. Whether it's an Antimatter Legion Voidranger or an Abominations of Abundance, stabbing the butt causes a crit. But hey Tail, do you even know where a Heliobus's butt is?"
Tail was dumbfounded. "How should I know? Damn it, do we even have butts?!"
Pei Guang replied, "If you don't know, how would I? But seriously, Huohuo's weapon crits from the butt are something else."
Tail agreed, "No kidding! That plunger of hers gives me the creeps just looking at it."
Pei Guang grinned. "No big deal! Huohuo, go subdue her!"
"Me? I'm the one doing it?" Huohuo asked.
Pei Guang looked at the enemy in front of them—back facing them—and confirmed, "Of course it's you. This is your training, not mine. Don't worry, until you've mastered this, I've got your back!"
With that reassurance, Huohuo felt a surge of motivation. But just as she moved, something snapped in her brain. She stared at the coffee and made a strange decision.
"I don't have that coffee, so I'll have to go with an ambush. I have no choice. I'm sorry, but this is to save you!"
Then, without using Pei Guang's coffee, Huohuo simply jabbed the flag she was holding at the back of the Furynox-controlled warden.
In that instant, the entire space fell silent.