Chapter 16: The Player Without a Conscience

For any one of them, defeating this creature one-on-one would take quite a bit of effort. But with the three of them working together, the Distorter found itself in a very frustrating situation: the most frustrating part was fighting against Pei Guang and Stelle, because they never engaged in a direct fight.

When it moved, Pei Guang dodged and then struck it in the rear.

When it got angry, Stelle circled around and smashed it over the head with her bat.

When it charged, Pei Guang blocked and March 7th fired a barrage of arrows.

In its fury, charging and rampaging, it unleashed its final burst of strength, becoming nearly invincible. It wanted to vent its rage, to show these foolish ants what true power was. It locked onto Pei Guang, targeting this man who lacked morals, bottom lines, or warrior's honor, and prepared to unleash a powerful strike.

Faced with this powerful attack, Pei Guang reacted even faster, parrying, countering, and rolling. He got back on his feet and delivered a swift sword strike to its rear—a fluid and seamless set of moves.

No honor, no noble bearing of a strong warrior, just a willingness to do whatever it took to win. Speed? The narrow room and various obstacles slowed it down. Strength? Against proper blocking, all physical attacks were equal.

At the entrance, March 7th drew her bow and froze it in place, preventing its escape. Inside the room, random attacks were parried, turning its back lead to an inevitable stab, while its head got smashed with each counter. The narrow doorway at the front prevented its escape, while March 7th covered the broken entrance and sealed it with ice, slowing it down and trapping it inside.

As a relatively rare entity within the Antimatter Legion, it possessed the wisdom of a warrior combined with the strength and agility of an ancient beast. But it had never been so humiliated!. First, it was covered in garbage, then lured into a small room and tormented. It wanted to die a warrior's death, but they wouldn't give it the chance. Its final strike failed, and it had no strength left to fight.

For Pei Guang, killing the enemy meant victory. As for honor? Isn't it honorable enough to kill it fairly? With only two other people and cameras watching, how much more honorable could it get?

Unlike the other marauders, it died a humiliating death, but its suffering brought joy to Pei Guang and his companions.

Looking at the fully defeated enemy, all three of them showed expressions of excitement.

March 7th cheered, "Yay~!"

Stelle exclaimed, "Awesome!"

Pei Guang added, "The three of us are just too strong!"

All three cheered together. The losses from this battle were minimal: a wall, a bunch of tables, chairs, benches, and some consumables. The room Pei Guang had broken into was just a standard office, with nothing particularly valuable inside. Plus, when he charged in, he managed to stuff a few items that seemed important into his storage backpack, further minimizing the losses.

March 7th, watching the scene, commented with some emotion, "This is the first time I've experienced such an easy fight. How about, Pei Guang, you keep luring the enemies from now on, and I will handle the attacks. Don't worry, I'll protect you well! I'll give you the thickest shields—nobody will be able to break them!"

Pei Guang replied earnestly, "Of course, you and Stelle are the team's main damage dealers and support. I'll take care of taunting the enemies while you guys do the damage. We need to maximize your output. The three of us together will make 1+1+1 greater than 3."

Stelle added, "If we go by the results of this fight, it's definitely greater than 10!"

Pei Guang said, "With this momentum, let's finish off the rest of the enemies. I still have some grenades left, plenty to keep them busy."

As they said this, bright smiles appeared on all their faces.

Their enemy's pain was their joy, and their enemy's anger was their smile. Smiles wouldn't disappear; they would just transfer to others, making someone else's smile even brighter. The pain of the Antimatter Legion was the source of joy for the three of them.

An hour and a half later

Asta looked at the trio returning together and asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

The three of them exchanged glances, and finally, March 7th and Stelle pushed Pei Guang forward.

March 7th, smiling brightly, looked at Pei Guang and said, "Ahem, we had so much fun that I don't know how to summarize it. Why don't you do it?"

Stelle nodded, "Exactly!"

Pei Guang spoke up, "We've eliminated all the Antimatter Legion members in the space station. Here are some items we recovered during the battle that seemed important to you."

Asta didn't know how these three fought, but she was quite surprised to hear they were so efficient: "You eliminated them all? Sorry, it's not that I doubt you, it's just surprising. So many enemies, in such a short time, that's really amazing. We'll send people to inspect and clean up. Thank you so much."

Asta was about to hand out the rewards they had agreed upon beforehand, but Pei Guang wasn't in a hurry to receive them: "There's no rush for the mission rewards. By the way, do you have any showers here? If so, could we use them?"

Hearing about taking a bath, March 7th nodded along, "Count me in!"

Stelle added, "Me too…"

Although the battle went very smoothly, the process was, well, a bit unpleasant. Even though they didn't smell at all, they wouldn't feel comfortable without a good wash.

Hearing their request, Asta covered her mouth and laughed, "Of course, but do the three of you want to bathe together? Although the showers are divided by gender, if you request it…"

"No! No!!"

March 7th quickly interrupted, "What we mean is, we want to bathe too, but not together with this guy!"

Asta replied, smilingly, "I see, I misunderstood~"

As they reached the bathroom door but before entering, Asta casually asked, "Can I show your battle footage to others as a learning resource? If it's okay, I'll have someone pull some surveillance footage for everyone to learn how to fight enemies."

Upon hearing this, March 7th became a bit shy and froze. Stelle also had a contemplative look on her face. Both of them weren't quite sure what to say. So they both looked at Pei Guang, as the battle had been somewhat unorthodox, and they feared it might be embarrassing to show it.

Under their gaze, Pei Guang calmly responded, "A highlight reel? I didn't expect that feature. I wonder who got the MVP of this battle."

After a moment of thought, Asta understood what Pei Guang meant: "You want to keep the highlights of the battle? No problem. If there's any recorded footage, I'll edit it and send what I think are the best clips to Himeko. You can get them directly from her later. Rest assured, your battle footage will only be used for internal defense training and will not be released casually."

Pei Guang said, "No problem~ feel free to use it. Himeko might as well see our highlight moments."

March 7th cheered, "Yay~ Anyway, I don't have any embarrassing moments, hmph~ You're the only one with embarrassing moments."

Stelle added, "I don't have any either."

Pei Guang replied, "It's no big deal!"

Seeing that Pei Guang didn't find it embarrassing, March 7th and Stelle were naturally indifferent as well.

As for Pei Guang, he didn't think there was anything shameful about the battle. Even March 7th and Stelle didn't find anything wrong with it. Reflecting on the battle process, it was filled with joy and laughter. If there really was good footage of their fight, having a copy for keepsake wouldn't be a bad idea.

To March 7th, the most embarrassing part of the battle was Pei Guang. Throwing trash to hit the enemies and taunting them—could there be anything more embarrassing?

To Pei Guang, this was standard player behavior. As a player, as long as you achieve your goals, what's the harm in using some tactics?

Stelle, on the other hand, felt her combat style was very cool and definitely deserved some admiration.

However, the three of them clearly had beautified their memories a bit. After all, when people recall things they did while they were happy, they tend to subconsciously beautify them, which makes it easy to forget certain details, even if they just happened.

The three entered the bathroom for a shower, while Asta, as she reviewed the surveillance footage, fell silent.

Unusual taunts? Unscrupulous sneak attacks? These weren't major issues to Asta. As long as the enemies were defeated and their own people weren't harmed, she believed there were lessons to be learned.

Pei Guang's tactics weren't hard to summarize: first humiliate to enrage the enemy, then lure them into a trap. In conventional battle thinking, strong warriors disdain sneak attacks, but in the surveillance footage, Pei Guang, as a "strong warrior," used sneak attacks to easily win. She wasn't going to learn everything as is, but she wanted to study the battle approach. After all, the combat personnel in the space station were quite straightforward, and learning flexibility could indeed improve their fighting.

The real surprise came from a particular piece of footage from a surveillance camera near the containment chamber. Because the containment chamber held dangerous items, there were several hidden cameras known only to the higher-ups in addition to the obvious ones.

And one of these cameras had a great angle, not only capturing the trio's battle but also their post-battle celebration!