As a player, when he was the one mind-controlling others, he wanted to control everyone. But when someone else was doing the mind control, Pei Guang hated it to death.
Pei Guang looked righteously at Aventurine. "How can they do that? Mind-controlling others? Pathetic. Don't worry, it's just mental control, right? I've got a medicine that soothes the mind!"
While giving Aventurine some coffee, Pei Guang also thought of a funny question: since Harmony's Family share one mind and voice, if someone did that to the Harmony Aeon, and then the Aeon synced it to all Family members, wouldn't the whole Family… collectively ascend???
A cup of coffee was handed to Aventurine, and nearby Firefly, seeing it, couldn't help asking March 7th: "I always see Ah Guang pull out this coffee everywhere. What exactly is it?"
March 7th showed an awkward but polite smile. "This might sound embarrassing… but when we were exploring, we stumbled upon a cup of hot coffee. No one was drinking it, so we tried it… basically, we found it on the street…"
Firefly: "You can find this on the street?"
March 7th patted Firefly's shoulder. "Not just the street. Like trash cans! Containers of all kinds, totally usable. It just has a… tiny side-effect…"
The side-effect was simple and brutal: sometimes when you saw jars and containers, even if you knew they were empty, you'd still knock them.
Why? Players break jars, and you're asking me why?!?
If it drops something, great—you break for loot.
If it doesn't drop anything? Then you break it because you want to.
No deeper reason.
Aventurine stared at the coffee.
It looked plain, smelled lightly fragrant: just a cup of coffee.
Seeing him hesitate, Pei Guang thought very seriously, then reached out and gently pinched Aventurine's chin.
"I get it. You can't take care of yourself right now. No worries, leave it to me. I love helping others. But remember, rewards must be paid properly."
While Aventurine was reflecting on life, childhood, and Harmony singing 'Good Luck Comes' loudly in his head, Pei Guang, one hand holding his chin, poured the whole cup of coffee into his mouth.
The chaos in Aventurine's mind cleared.
Questions like "Where does life come from? Where does death go? Why do birds fly? Why do fish get eaten?" all suddenly felt irrelevant.
He just wanted a nice, long sleep~
Aventurine closed his eyes.
Pei Guang: "Young people really do sleep well. Out like a light. But since you're asleep, don't blame me for being merciless."
Seeing Aventurine lying there, Pei Guang smiled.
The guy fell right in front of him: not looting would be a waste.
So right there on the street, Pei Guang shamelessly began searching Aventurine from head to toe.
While Pei Guang was patting down Aventurine, a little girl in the plaza happily recorded the whole thing on her phone.
"Damn you, Pei Guang, you actually stole my next scene? But it's fine, I forgive you. You've already given me a most delightful sight."
Disguised as a little girl, Sparkle's photography skills were excellent.
The scene she captured showed Pei Guang publicly groping Aventurine all over as if he were pulling something out, while the passersby around them remained cold and indifferent.
Such a beautiful scene: Sparkle decided she would invite everyone to appreciate this pampered little peacock in the future.
What? Taking it out of context? How could one say that about her? She simply photographed it from the current angle, she never said any misleading words.
If someone's thoughts aren't pure, that's their own problem~
While Sparkle secretly took photos, Pei Guang happily rummaged around all of Aventurine's pockets.
After searching for a while, Pei Guang's eyes lit up and he pulled out a five-pointed star from Aventurine's pocket.
The star was entirely yellow, sharp-edged, about the size of a normal person's palm.
From the outside, it didn't look like much, but after seeing the properties, Pei Guang felt shocked.
[Lucky Star: When used, raise the Lucky Star. After use, there is a 10% chance to gain one of the following random buffs for 10 seconds. Item cooldown: 10 seconds]
[No-Need-for-Others: This attack's damage doubles, attack range doubles, attack is guaranteed to hit, attack is guaranteed to crit]
[Life-and-Death Boundary: Restore all HP, remove and become immune to all debuffs]
[Butter Thrower: This attack will apply butter, butter attacks can forcibly control any unit]
[Invincible Lucky Star: If three consecutive uses do not repeat any effect, Invincible Lucky Star triggers — gain all buffs and become immune to all attacks for 60 seconds. Can continue to use Lucky Star during duration, stacking all effects gained.]
Seeing this Invincible Lucky Star, Pei Guang's eyes went blank.
Not exaggerating: if he triggered the final buff, even if an Emanator came, Pei Guang felt he could kill them.
As for the individual effects, they were also extremely powerful: whether it was overwhelming offense, invincibility, or hard control, each could change a battle.
But… this item relied too much on luck, and there was no guarantee. Even though each effect was useful, against weaker enemies this thing was just a toy.
Against evenly matched enemies, sure, it could change the outcome. But against enemies much stronger than him, only the final effect mattered.
And the final effect required three different results in a row: that probability was one in twenty-seven thousand, and required three uses.
Counting the item's cooldown, thirty seconds to use three times, then you still had to gamble on that one-in-27,000 chance?
Pei Guang's evaluation: this thing is fun as a toy, and in desperate moments gave a tiny chance to overturn everything.
Overall, a fun and useful item.
Pei Guang: "This guy actually dropped us a rare! Even if it's a gambler's item, it's too good! I wonder if he can drop more. If he can, he'd be absolutely perfect."
Firefly: "The stuff he drops… is it really that useful?"
Pei Guang nodded. "Very useful, even theoretically capable of curing your illness."
Not to mention anything else: just that second effect, used properly, indeed had a possibility to treat Firefly's condition.
But this idea was only a backup plan for Pei Guang; if possible, he still planned to follow the mission normally, find the Watchmaker's legacy, and try that first for Firefly.
March 7th: "It's that good? Then hurry and make him drop more!"
Pei Guang: "No rush! When he wakes up, I'll find a way to pat him down a couple more times, until he's completely clean."
Seeing Pei Guang so happy, March 7th and Firefly were happy for him too.
First time knocking someone out and getting something so interesting and useful… Pei Guang's gaze toward Aventurine became much softer.
This was treasure on the level of Sampo when it came to drops.
Along the way he'd met several people who could drop items, but aside from Sampo, he hadn't had an excuse or opportunity to make them drop gold yet.
But Aventurine was different. Thinking back to how Aventurine behaved earlier, Pei Guang instantly thought up over ten ways to make him drop gold.
Just then, Aventurine slowly woke up.
When he woke, his mind felt clean and empty, as if nothing was in it. He was enveloped in peace.
As he lifted his head to get up, he met Pei Guang's eyes.
His mind was refreshed, and Aventurine was happy—but then he saw Pei Guang's expression and his pupils shook violently.
What did he see? Pei Guang was looking at him with a tender, affectionate expression?
Wait… Pei Guang had two beautiful girls beside him and yet he was looking at him with eyes soft as water?
And the next thing Pei Guang said struck Aventurine like lightning.
Pei Guang: "You're so sweet!"
From March 7th and Firefly's perspective, that line made perfect sense: Aventurine dropped loot, and there were prior conditions, and getting drops from him was just too sweet.
But Aventurine had just woken up: while he slept, he really slept like a baby knowing nothing.
But just after waking up, seeing Pei Guang's gentle gaze, hearing him praise how "sweet" he was, and then seeing the two girls beside him with expressions that looked like excited anticipation… at that moment, Aventurine didn't just have widened pupils, he was ready to bolt.
He even had a strange thought flash through his mind: "He's not… trying to take my purity, is he???"
But in truth, Aventurine was overthinking it.
Forget Aventurine: even if it were a cute trap or a futa, Pei Guang had zero interest. He much preferred girls like March and Firefly—who might not have the biggest chests, but were sweet-smelling girls who felt wonderful to hug or be hugged by.
As for March 7th and Firefly's expressions? They weren't excited about any "shipping."
They were simply hoping Pei Guang could get more useful items.
If either March or Firefly knew what Aventurine was actually thinking, then before being recycled by Penacony, Aventurine would already have been sent to meet Qlipoth first.
Whether it was Pei Guang, Firefly, or March, none of them cared about Aventurine himself.
What they cared about was the coins he could drop.
If he couldn't drop coins, he'd instantly learn the meaning of "disposable."