While Pei Guang was watching the view, the door to his room was pushed open by Stelle. "Ah Guang~ how're you feeling today?"
Pei Guang: "Feeling much better~"
After three days of rest, Pei Guang felt like he was recovering. Though the excitement had worn off, he was still feeling a bit drained, just not entirely wiped out anymore.
Stelle walked in and pointed her phone at him. "Ah Guang! Quit moping! Topaz helped set up an event for us. Oh, and Miss Qingque even sponsored one over in Belobog!"
Pei Guang: "Don't tell me… Celestial Jade?"
Stelle, hands on hips: "Exactly! And the prize pool is amazing. Wanna sign up?"
Pei Guang: "Of course! By the way, how's the Aetherium Wars coming along?"
These past few days, Pei Guang had been too burned out to pay attention to anything: he hadn't checked any updates or gotten involved in anything. Just laid on his bed like a pancake.
Because of that, he had no clue what had been going on lately.
Stelle looked down at her phone and muttered, "Topaz has been pushing it hard. The Aetherium Wars event is now active in multiple worlds. According to the event description, it's to thank us for our trailblazing efforts, so this event will use limited regional Aether Spirits.
Mainly Legion Voidrangers, Belobog's Silvermane Guards, Fragmentum creatures, and some of the mechanical units from the Xianzhou Luofu. The rules are easy—check them out yourself. Wanna come play?"
Aetherium Wars was incredibly popular across the universe, but to avoid excessive repetition each year, the Aether Spirits used in competitions would always be new and region-specific.
During the event, everyone would start from scratch: bonding with Aether Spirits, acquiring chips, and forming battle strategies based on the spirits' attributes and chip synergies.
Aether Spirits were restricted to lifeforms from designated regions. The Aetherium Wars officials would create official Aether Spirits using data collected from places Pei Guang had visited.
If someone was bored or a local resident of one of those three regions, they could also scan data themselves to create custom Aether Spirits.
Of course, anything involving sensitive data wouldn't be scannable. Besides, only Belobog was relatively safe to touch—Pei Guang couldn't afford to provoke the other two places. And Belobog… honestly didn't have much worth scanning.
So far, it had only produced one Overlord-tier Aether Spirit. If not for the need to balance data for the event, no one would probably bother using Belobog's spirits at all.
The competition format was also simple and direct. The organizers would set up four "Champion Paradises," each based on one of the event's key locations.
Each competition site would feature a championship contender. Defeat all contenders to qualify for the final round, where challengers would face the Four Elites and the reigning champion. Beating them would earn the ultimate title.
Reading the introduction, Pei Guang stroked his chin. Something about it felt oddly familiar. The more he studied the setting of Aetherium Wars and the mechanics of the Aether Spirits, the more he wanted to vent—but he wasn't even sure where to begin.
Stelle noticed how Pei Guang's expression was growing more serious as he read, so she asked curiously, "Ah Guang? What's wrong? Is there something off about Aetherium Wars?"
Pei Guang shook his head. "No, no problem… It just feels really familiar, but I can't remember where I've seen it before…"
Just as he was thinking, March 7th entered the room. "Oh, there you are! I didn't see you in your room—so this is where you went, huh?"
The first person March 7th looked at was Stelle. She'd just been to Stelle's room to look for her but didn't find her. So of course, she figured Stelle must've come looking for Pei Guang.
Sure enough, the moment she walked into Pei Guang's room, she saw Stelle's eyes glowing, practically glued to him.
"Wait a second? Why was that the first thing I noticed?"
March 7th felt like something was wrong with her. Obviously, Stelle and Pei Guang had always been close like this—so why did her brain suddenly go there?
She shook her head hard, trying to fling out the strange thoughts, then turned to Pei Guang. "Ah Guang! How are you feeling? What are you two looking at with those serious faces?"
Pei Guang clenched his fists. "I feel totally recharged! Honestly, I wasn't physically or mentally unwell these past couple days, just kinda…"
March 7th nodded. "Gotcha~ Just like when we finish exploring a new planet, you feel totally drained until you sleep it all off."
Pei Guang continued, "As for what we're looking at here~ It's about the Belobog holiday event~ The festival's still a ways off, but the Aetherium Wars event has already started. By the time the holiday comes around, Aetherium Wars will be at the finals. Plus, Qingque even brought over mahjong—Celestial Jade—and organized a tournament. All of it looks super fun~"
Pei Guang had still been a bit sluggish earlier, but now that he saw these events, he felt completely reinvigorated. Especially Aetherium Wars—at first, he couldn't remember what it reminded him of.
But now, it came back to him completely: wasn't this just Pokémon? Except the mechanics were simpler and more accessible, with only three elemental counters.
The Aether Spirits were region-locked, and while there weren't that many, considering the officially released chips, the gameplay was still excellent.
And if you didn't limit the game to just this tournament? The number of potential Aether Spirits would be practically endless. Looking at the available info, Pei Guang began wondering whether he could scan Phantylia's data and turn her into an Aether Spirit.