Guyun Stone Forest

Sai watched from afar how the hoarders were smoothly dealt with. Once he thought it was safe, he approached Beidou cautiously. But barely three steps were taken before he was frozen in place.

It seemed like time had stopped running, for the exception of the white-haired fairy floating around Aether. She was looking west at something outside of Sai's field of vision for a moment.

He, who was petrified and completely susceptible to her wishes, saw her eyes turning towards him. And only her eyes, as if her head wasn't worth turning. As if he didn't deserve more than a look.

She was looking at him with the side of her eyes, without a spec of emotion, demanding fear and reverence from him. He blinked, and just like an illusion, she was gone.

Beidou started running somewhere, but Sai was still catching his breath.

Not long passed before Sai was teleported again, this time facing some hilichurls. He had no time to even curse the gods before he was forced by a strange power to attack them. Luckily for him, they were all aiming at Beidou, so he just hacked and slashed until his arms hurt.

It was a common team of hilis, led by the Wooden Shieldwall Mitachurl, a perfect counter for someone like Beidou who depends on hitting the enemies directly. While she focused on him, Sai kept slashing and slashing the others. The group of hilichurls was eventually dealt with.

"Thankfully their bodies disappear…" Sai commented after seeing the massacre. Or rather, after not seeing it.

But Beidou didn't stop after dealing with them. She kept running and dashing along the shore, her objective still unknown.

Sai had a few seconds to realize they were in Guyun Stone Forest, and that his next opponent was quite problematic. One of the most annoying opponents to face when you are a noob, the Fatui Agent, was casually walking along the sandy floor of the beach.

He was pushed by the strange power to run after Beidou and when he got closer, he distinguished a heated battle taking place.

"Argh, dammit."

Beidou dove into him head first, and Sai had to follow suit.

"Arrrrrghhhhhh!! Just quickly die for me, please!!!"

…

The agent had not even glanced at Sai, who nonetheless kept attacking him with all he's got. Who knows if it was because of her aggroing abilities or because his hits didn't hurt him at all, but that was the only reason why Sai was left alive.

After being carried by the tanky Beidou, the pair went around obliterating more enemies. It seemed like the player was doing some sort of quest…

Three Treasure Hoarders were thrown into the air from her strike, one of them landing right in front of Sai. Beidou had already dealt with several others, so he thought these three were the last.

Sai closed in on the redhead who was preparing some sort of lightning potion, having decided to help Beidou with the fight. He took quick but silent steps and just as he expected, a short sword materialized on his hand.

"That tingle?" His target threw a potion at Beidou.

As he was directly behind him, Sai would stay unseen up until the last moment, the moment he pierced the other side's back. But the hoarder must have noticed his approach, for he turned around in surprise.

Sai changed his thrust into a vertical hack, ready to strike at his opponent's head. However, they both met their eyes for an instant. It lasted less than a second, but it was enough for Sai to notice fear and despair. And thus, he hesitated.

The man's fear disappeared suddenly, and he slowly backed away from Sai.

"Heh… Another test subject!"

Unlike in the game, Sai could notice the hoarder's individualities. His hair was messy, he was particularly short, and his clothes were dirty. Really dirty, full of sweat and mud. Sai also felt his stink for an instant.

Sai just remained there, with a frown on his face, observing the opponent. Despite his peculiarities, his movements were just like treasure hoarder's from the game, so Sai wanted to analyze a little more.

Unlike his previous throw, the potion flew in a high arc before shattering behind Sai. Everything was just like in the game, except-

"Ughhh!"

Electricity flowed through Sai's body like raging serpents, the unique pain from being electrocuted followed it for but one moment. His knees faltered and brought Sai to the ground.

"Why? I am sure I was out of the range of the potion…"

Luckily for him, he didn't bear the brunt of the attack. Otherwise, things could have ended up badly.

He loosened his clenched hands, dropping his sword on the process, and looked ahead. The potioneer was readying another potion, and when he was about to throw it, Beidou sent him flying with the huge club.

In another couple of seconds, the fight was over.

However, it seemed that Fatty was determined to never leave the game again, for he made Beidou continuously dash through the now moonlit shores of the stone forest.

Sai mustered his strength once again, and managed to run after her. Staying alone in that place without any protection was no different than death, he imagined.

"Oh, another one of those mechas!" Richard's voice sounded from up ahead.

Sai crossed something that looked like the entrance of a cave. Some distance ahead, he noticed it wasn't actually a cave, as the stars could be seen shining on the sky again.

"This place…" He looked around, feeling like the place was familiar.

Although Tevyat's nights were well lit, it was only compared to the 'real world'. It was still not very easy to distinguish colors and shadows.

Sai stood beside Beidou, who was oddly standing still while looking at some rock formations on the shoreline.

"By the way, did he just say… mecha? What does he mea-"

*Clatter* *Click*

The sound of pebbles falling to the ground like a mini avalanche. Sai managed to discern movement from that very rock formation, no, that was not a rock formation at all.

"Bee-raa-bo-bop!"

A bright round yellow light shone, ominously illuminating the trespasser.