Late afternoon settled over Solitude Spire with lazy, honey-colored light.
The mountain breeze carried the faint, sweet scent of clover and pine resin.
Felix Vance sat slouched in his wicker recliner, his bare feet resting comfortably upon the dragon-silk Imperial Tribute chests.
The two chests remained the greatest furniture upgrade of his life.
Their solid Sun-Gold cores provided the perfect counterweight, their silk embroidery cushioned his heels, and their fourteen-inch height kept his spine aligned in effortless comfort.
Over on the cedar railing, Barnaby the clockwork owl stood vigil.
The black rubber stopper remained wedged between his brass mandibles, the polished copper coin gleaming in the fading sun. His internal balance wheel ticked with the rhythmic precision of a quiet clock.
*Tick... tick... tick...*
Down in the garden, the Ghost King was carefully carrying his wooden bucket toward the compost pile.
The ancient terror of the Nether Abyss took small, delicate steps, terrified that a clumsy footstep might disturb Felix's rest. When a dry twig snapped beneath his skeletal heel, the Ghost King froze in sheer panic, casting a terrified glance toward the porch before exhaling cold mist in relief.
Out in the open clearing, the Thunder Gryphon lay on its side, snoring softly with one wing draped over wild dandelions.
Beside the path, the Sun-Lotus Cabbage glowed with warm yellow light, keeping the peak locked at sixty-nine degrees.
On the pine tea table, the Ten-Thousand-Year Primordial Soul-Pearl weighed down an empty ceramic mug and a napkin.
Inside the kitchen, the Sovereign Heart Seal anchored the table against the floorboards.
Everything in Felix's corner of the world was peaceful, quiet, and completely still.
Except for one infuriating detail: screen glare.
Felix stared at the dark obsidian surface of the AetherDeck, his left eyebrow twitching in mounting irritation.
The afternoon sun was sitting at an awkward angle in the western sky. Its golden rays bounced straight off the polished glass display, turning the screen into a blinding mirror that blasted Felix's retinas with harsh white light.
To read his current crop timers in *Pocket Garden: Cozy Harvest*, Felix had to hold his left hand above the slate like a sun visor.
When that failed, he tilted the slate sideways, squinting with one eye while twisting his neck like an owl with a pulled muscle.
"Unbelievable," Felix grumbled, shifting his grip on the brass casing. "Tens of thousands of lines of magical code, a literal celestial operating system, and the developers didn't bother to install a matte screen finish. The outdoor reflection is completely unplayable."
He squinted through the blinding white glare on the glass, struggling to see his pixel farm.
"If I wanted to stare into a mirror and admire my dark eye circles, I would have stayed inside," Felix muttered. "I just want to see if my virtual radishes are ready to harvest."
Frustrated, Felix tapped the home button.
He swiped away from the garden game and pulled up his daily task menu.
A glowing red notification dot blinked in the upper corner of the *Heavenly Vault Gacha* icon.
Felix opened the summon interface.
Felix stared at the numbers.
"Pull forty out of fifty," Felix murmured, his gamer instincts waking up. "Soft pity is sitting right there on the tenth pull."
He tapped his chin, debating the odds.
"Usually, rolling gacha when you're tilted is the fastest way to get ten duplicate iron daggers," Felix thought aloud. "RNGesus loves smelling desperation. But soft pity is hardcoded into the table. They legally can't scam me on pull fifty."
He looked back at the blinding patch of sunlight reflecting off the glass.
"Maybe I'll pull an umbrella hat," Felix sighed. "Anything that blocks this cursed reflection."
Felix pressed: `[SUMMON x10 (GUARANTEED)]`
The obsidian screen went pitch black.
For two seconds, the slate sat completely motionless in Felix's hands.
Then, a faint, golden spark ignited in the center of the dark glass.
The spark spun into a whirlpool. Golden runes spiraled across the brass casing, glowing with an intense, pulsing hum that vibrated through Felix's fingertips.
Pull 41: Gray light. *[Rusty Iron Dagger]* Pull 42: Gray light. *[Coarse Linen Bandage]* Pull 43: Blue light. *[Minor Spirit Salt]* Pull 44: Gray light. *[Chipped Stone Mug]* Pull 45: Blue light. *[Refined Copper Wire]* Pull 46: Gray light. *[Stale Ration Biscuit]* Pull 47: Blue light. *[Oak Wood Plank]* Pull 48: Purple light. *[Enchanted Hearth Spark]* Pull 49: Purple light. *[Silver Compass Casing]*
Then came Pull 50.
The AetherDeck gave a deep, thunderous chime that sounded like an ancient temple bell echoing through an empty canyon.
*BONGGGGG.*
The glass did not flash purple. It did not flash gold.
A blinding pillar of pure, nine-colored rainbow light exploded out of the screen!
*SHRAAAAAAA!*
The rainbow beam rocketed straight upward from Felix's lap.
It blasted through the porch awning, pierced the cloud ceiling, and shot fifty thousand feet into the stratosphere like a colossal lance of condensed prismatic lightning!
The skybox above the archipelago fractured into shimmering crystal hues.
Emerald green, violet, gold, and crimson waves rippled across the cloud sea for three hundred miles. The entire atmosphere hummed with a pure, resonant chord that rattled the windowpanes across all seven spires of the Radiant Dawn Academy.
Twelve miles away, in the Astral Observatory, Chief Diviner Moros dropped his brass astrolabe onto the marble tiles.
Moros pressed his face flat against the high glass window, pupils dilated in awe.
"The Nine-Colored Rainbow of Primal Origin!" Moros screamed, tears streaming down his cheeks. "The Slumbering God of Solitude Spire has woven the fabric of Creation itself! He is forging an artifact of the Upper Heavens!"
Over at the Discipline Bastion, Chancellor Valen choked on his ginseng tea, spraying hot liquid across his desk as the rainbow light flooded his office.
"Call off all patrols!" Valen shrieked, diving beneath his desk in panic. "Nobody breathe! The Sun God is rolling the dice of Destiny!"
Back on the porch of Solitude Spire, the cottage door was violently kicked open.
Lyra Ashford sprinted onto the cedar planks, silver rapier half-drawn, golden hair whipping in the prismatic gale.
"Senior Brother!" Lyra cried, voice trembling with protective fury. "An ancient celestial tribulation has struck the porch! I will defend—"
She stopped dead in her tracks.
The rainbow pillar was erupting directly from the palm of Felix Vance's hand.
Lyra's rapier slipped from her fingers, clattering onto the wood. She collapsed into a deep, reverent bow upon the floorboards.
*The Sacred Rainbow Forge of the Primordial Era,* Lyra's mind whispered in breathless worship. *Senior Brother is reaching through the River of Time to pluck a supreme divine relic from the Vault of the Stars! His idle contemplation has summoned the favor of the Great Dao itself!*
Meanwhile, in his wicker recliner, Felix was shielding his eyes with his elbow, wincing at the brightness.
"Gah! Turn down the summon animation!" Felix complained, squinting into his lap. "Why do mobile games always make the five-star animation bright enough to burn out your retinas? My eyes are watering!"
The rainbow pillar suddenly folded inward, collapsing back into the obsidian slate with a soft *ping*.
The screen settled. In the center of the display, an ornate golden card slowly flipped over, surrounded by shimmering rainbow sparks:
Felix stared at the golden card. He activated his Inspector HUD.
【Item: Solar Magnetic Shielding Coil】 【Grade: SSR Stellar Mod】 【Origin: Extragalactic Stellar Foundry】 【Inspector Note: A massive superconducting coil meant to be installed around a burning star. Prevents coronal mass ejections from vaporizing nearby planets. Also completely eliminates optical screen glare and reflections within twenty yards. Sells to vendors for 50 copper coins.】
Felix stared at the description.
He completely ignored the line about "coronal mass ejections." He didn't care about "planetary deflection fields."
His eyes locked firmly onto the final sentence:
*Also completely eliminates optical screen glare and reflections within twenty yards.*
A wide, slow smile spread across Felix's face.
"An anti-glare mod," Felix whispered with genuine emotion. "An actual anti-glare screen filter. RNGesus finally answered my prayers."
Beside the railing, Lyra remained prostrated on the floorboards, breath catching in her throat.
*He smiles,* Lyra thought, heart racing with terrifying reverence. *The artifact he has retrieved from the void must be an ancient super-weapon capable of shattering whole galaxies! The heavens themselves must be trembling!*
"Senior Brother..." Lyra whispered, full of awe. "What manner of divine treasure have you drawn from the Great Firmament? Is it the Sacred Crown of the Solar Emperor?"
Felix didn't even look up from his screen.
"It's an anti-glare coil," Felix said casually. "The sun was reflecting off my screen and giving me a headache. This thing has built-in light polarization."
Lyra’s breath seized.
*An... anti-glare coil?*
Her mind instantly spun through forty layers of high-level theological translation.
*The light of the heavens reflects upon his sacred slate... and he considers it a petty annoyance!* Lyra realized, eyes wide with shock. *The 'glare' he speaks of is the karmic observation of the Heavenly Dao! The High Heavens were attempting to spy upon his divine decrees... so he summoned an ancient cosmic baffle to blind the gods themselves!*
*He has cut off the gaze of Heaven so he may cultivate in peace!*
Lyra pressed her forehead to the wood, weeping in revelation. "Senior Brother's foresight is terrifying! Even the gaze of Heaven cannot pierce your sacred hermitage!"
Felix shook his head. "Yeah, whatever. The glare was super annoying."
He tapped the button on his screen: `[INSTALL INTO DANTIAN]`.
A low, resonant hum began to vibrate deep within Felix's chest.
Inside his dantian, the 1.0-Earth-Mass miniature star burned with flawless thermonuclear fusion.
From the virtual inventory of the AetherDeck, a colossal ring of woven superconducting alloy manifested, expanding outward until it encircled the burning sun like a majestic planetary ring.
The coil locked into place with a crisp *click*.
Instantly, the coil began to spin. A massive, stable planetary magnetosphere blossomed from Felix's chest, radiating outward in a smooth, invisible torus of protective electromagnetic force.
Around Felix's wicker chair, the light shifted.
The harsh afternoon sunlight striking the porch was instantly polarized and softened. The blinding white reflection on the glass screen dissolved completely, replaced by a smooth, deep matte finish with crystal-clear contrast.
Felix let out a long, happy sigh.
He could see every single pixel of his garden clearly. The green radish leaves stood out in vibrant color against the dark brown soil.
"Oh man," Felix said, leaning back into his cushions and wiggling his toes on the tribute chests. "Now that is clean. Zero glare. Perfect contrast. Best fifty pulls I ever spent."
He tapped the harvest button on his radishes.
Felix ignored the line about "excess magnetic flux venting."
"Finally," Felix muttered, tapping happily on his screen. "I can actually play my game in peace."
Down in the yard, the Ghost King emptied his bucket of weeds into the compost, bowed three times toward the porch, and tiptoed back to the cabbage patch.
Barnaby gave a gentle, rhythmic *tick... tick... tick...*
And on Solitude Spire, the Slacker of the Heavens kicked back his feet, basking in the cool, glare-free shade of his newly installed cosmic magnetosphere.