Lying on the ground, Aventurine didn't know whether his mind was too clear or too chaotic, but countless thoughts were spinning wildly in his head.
Just as he was lost in overthinking, Pei Guang grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up.
"What are you doing, lying there pretending to be hurt? Get up already. How do you feel?"
Aventurine, who had been buried in frantic thoughts, suddenly realized something was off.
The voices in his head… seemed to have disappeared? The influence of Harmony was gone too?
"What did you make me… drink?"
Pei Guang: "Coffee! Delicious coffee. Anyway, your mission's all done, right? Now then—the reward! Where's my reward?"
Seeing Pei Guang reach out expectantly, Aventurine smiled. "A reward, huh? Let me think."
He took out his phone and transferred some credits to Pei Guang. Hearing the familiar "credit received" tone, Pei Guang frowned and shook his head in dissatisfaction.
Credits were totally useless to him. Even if it was a few hundred million all at once, there was nowhere to spend them.
Aventurine: "Sorry~ other than a few credits, I don't have anything valuable on me~"
Pei Guang looked at the bag beside Aventurine. He didn't say anything, but his face clearly said few words:
"I don't believe you."
Aventurine chuckled. "Don't believe me? Go ahead and look. Just some ordinary gems, nothing else. Of course~ if you happen to like these ordinary gems, I'll give them all to you."
To show his sincerity, Aventurine opened the bag himself. Pei Guang leaned over to look inside: sure enough, there were only some gemstones.
But he also noticed among the intact gems a few small, broken fragments that most people wouldn't pay attention to.
Reaching in to touch both the whole and shattered stones, Pei Guang's eyes suddenly lit up.
[Aventurine Fragment: collect all fragments to synthesize a complete aventurine. When carried, it grants the power of Preservation.]
A good find! Definitely a good find.
Even if they were only fragments, Pei Guang was confident he could gather them all.
However, just as he happily took all of his "reward" from Aventurine's bag, a notification popped up that left him frozen.
[Congratulations, player: all aventurine Fragments collected. Synthesis complete. You have obtained one complete Aventurine.]
"Huh?"
Pei Guang was completely dumbfounded.
Aventurine really could drop loot, and good loot at that, but he hadn't expected the reward to be this crazy.
When he picked up the first fragment, he thought it would be like in all the other games he'd played before: collect the first shard, then go through ninety-nine trials to finally synthesize the item.
Sometimes, you'd even finish the entire game before ever getting the full set.
But never in his wildest dreams did he imagine Aventurine's bag would have the entire set already complete.
With a collection rate like that, Pei Guang didn't even care how powerful the aventurine (the gem) was: the thrill alone was worth it.
A quest item completed instantly: not even a game's gacha could dream of such luck.
Looking at the synthesized gem, Pei Guang's dissatisfaction vanished, replaced by a wide grin.
"Hey! You know what, this is something good. Maybe not valuable to you, but for me, this is perfect. Let's just call this my quest reward item!"
Before Aventurine could react, Pei Guang reached out and took all the gem fragments from the bag.
Watching Pei Guang's happy face, Aventurine had a creeping sense of dread. He instinctively looked down—and froze.
For the first time in his years as a gambler, he felt truly shaken.
Because what Pei Guang had just taken weren't ordinary gems—they were his Aventurine.
As one of Diamond's Ten Stonehearts, Aventurine carried a cornerstone bestowed by Diamond himself. That cornerstone was more precious than his life.
His cornerstone, like his name, was an aventurine.
To deal with the family's scrutiny and for his own future goals, he had broken it apart and hidden it in his bag.
To anyone else, those shattered gems looked ordinary. Only Diamond himself could recognize their true nature—and only when the fragments were pieced together could their power manifest.
But Pei Guang, while simply looking into the bag, had taken every last fragment: yes, every single one.
At that moment, Aventurine truly felt stripped of everything.
"Wait a sec…"
He opened his mouth to speak, but Pei Guang just patted him on the shoulder.
"Don't be upset. I know you're rich, but I'm a player, I've got special ways to make money, so credits mean nothing to me. These gems, though? Whole different story! My goodness, collect the fragments and they combine into a perfect gem? And you just happened to have all of them?"
Aventurine: "I…"
Pei Guang frowned. "What? Don't look so awkward. I'm not judging you. These fragments might look worthless, but when put together, they're unbeatable. Ah, forget it, you probably don't get it. Once I finish making it, I'll let you try it out."
Aventurine: "But—"
Pei Guang: "Hmm? What's wrong? You said I could take any gem I wanted—now that I've found something valuable, you're trying to take it back?"
At that moment, Aventurine felt a surge of killing intent. It wasn't strong, but it was pure.
Against an ordinary person, he might not have noticed, but facing Pei Guang, he felt like he'd swallowed bitter medicine he couldn't spit out.
He was already thinking about how he could possibly explain this to his companions. The cornerstone was taken by Pei Guang?
How? He helped me, then took my aventurine Fragments…
While Aventurine was busy panicking and formulating excuses, Pei Guang cheerfully brought the fragments over to March and Firefly.
"Look! This time we really hit the jackpot!"
March: "What did we get? Eh? Broken gems? What a shame…"
Firefly reached out to touch the shards. "Nothing special. Doesn't seem to have any Path power either."
Pei Guang lifted one shard with a mysterious smile. "You're both right! On their own, they're just broken, useless fragments. But! This time we've collected all the aventurine fragments. Now watch: I'll synthesize them right now and show you what this treasure can do."
Since these are fragments simply being synthesized, Pei Guang only had to reach out and touch them, and just like assembling machinery, the shattered pieces of aventurine instantly merged back into a complete, flawless gem.
Aventurine, who had been thinking about how to get the fragments back from Pei Guang, rubbed his eyes hard when he saw the fragments reform into a whole aventurine.
What the hell! Seriously—what the hell?!
So Pei Guang wasn't a follower of the Aeon of Harmony : he was actually the great Amber Lord?!
Maybe it was the lingering influence of Harmony's power, or maybe Pei Guang's actions had completely shattered his understanding of reality, but right now Aventurine actually found himself believing that Pei Guang was the Amber Lord.
Meanwhile, Pei Guang, having successfully synthesized a complete aventurine, began examining it carefully.
[Aventurine: When equipped, grants the power of Preservation.]
There wasn't much information, but precisely because there wasn't, Pei Guang decided to use it boldly.
"I'll show you the power of Preservation!"
Pei Guang gripped the aventurine and tried to activate the power of Preservation—yet nothing happened.
He swung his fist, jumped up, kicked twice—still nothing.
Pei Guang: "Huh? Didn't it say 'when equipped' you can use the power of Preservation? Am I doing the pose wrong?"
After thinking carefully, Pei Guang realized the problem: the item's requirement was to equip it, not just hold it in his hand.
Maybe he had to wear it somehow?
With that thought, Pei Guang cleverly took out his staff made of Ambrosial Arbor and glued the aventurine onto it. Thus, a stick "equipped" with the aventurine was born.
Once he'd finished attaching it, he started swinging the staff around.
"With the will to Preserve!!"
Whether it was the slogan or simply that he had finally met the correct activation condition, the aventurine suddenly emitted a dazzling light. The radiance enveloped Pei Guang entirely with the power of Preservation.
But just being surrounded by Preservation's power didn't satisfy him.
Pei Guang swung his makeshift staff down hard onto the ground, and at the point of impact, the earth within a 3×3 area instantly shattered.
Unlike when he smashed walls, the broken ground didn't vanish into nothingness. Instead, the debris turned into small, cube-like blocks that fell to the ground.
He picked one up and placed it back where it came from—and the crater instantly restored itself to normal ground.
At that moment, Pei Guang fell silent. After a few seconds of silence, he jumped up in excitement.
"Ehehe~!"
Pei Guang hopped in place like a kid regressing to his primal state, brimming with joy.