One bite at a time, one step at a time.
Though Pei Guang had set his sights far ahead, he knew these kinds of things couldn't be accomplished all at once.
According to the usual progression, he needed to gather a large number of companions and eventually challenge beings that were like demons or gods.
So, for the sake of his ultimate goal, Pei Guang began taking action from the starting planet.
Since human traits were too lacking, he shifted his target to beings like androids—and wouldn't you know, after catching a few, Pei Guang realized that whether androids or pure robots, their traits were pretty decent.
Various trait bonuses, even traits like [Military] that boosted team cohesion, and through constant experimentation, Pei Guang also discovered something that might seem terrifying to the average person.
"So it turns out I can make my pets go catch other pets for me..."
Pei Guang tested it: if he handed a pet ball to someone else, they could also use it to capture others, and the captured targets would still belong to him. Only if he personally ordered them freed could they regain their freedom.
Otherwise, they could only act according to his commands.
Because the lowest-tier pet balls were incredibly easy to make, Pei Guang started from the birthplace, mass-producing pet balls.
Then he handed them to the androids, machines, and regular humans he'd already captured, ordering them to go around the city and catch all kinds of talent.
He had no interest in regular people with poor traits, but some people were different, like the employees of the IPC that controlled this planet.
And so, on this day, the planet's administrators became Pei Guang's new hunting targets.
Since capturing ordinary people yielded no traits, Pei Guang raised the bar slightly. And sure enough, he proceeded to infiltrate the administrative body of the planet.
As for how he infiltrated it... Everyone within ten meters fell into social-death mode.
To avoid any accidents, Pei Guang even kindly tossed a pet ball to each person: after capturing any potentially dangerous individuals, he kept moving forward.
It didn't even take a full day for Pei Guang to take down the planet's governmental structure.
His pace was just too fast!
Sure, there were a few disturbances here and there, but with pet balls on hand, anyone who encountered them ended up becoming one of his own. And once someone's "one of us," a quick explanation and report up the chain ensured there was no issue.
And if there's no issue, then it's not a problem.
In most games, conquering an entire planet this fast would seem absurd, but to Pei Guang, this was just a tutorial experience for a new event mode in a small side instance.
Just a minigame disconnected from the main story—no need to overcomplicate it. Making it too difficult would only annoy players.
After taking control of the political system, everything else was much simpler. He summoned the high-ranking officials for a meeting, and without even activating Holy Light, Pei Guang used pet balls to easily take them down.
Of course, some among them had stronger willpower or faster reactions and managed to dodge the first wave of surprise attacks, but that only meant they got to experience a real nightmare.
The ones who resisted the first pet ball got it slammed straight into their heads by Pei Guang. According to his calculations, even the most strong-willed person on this planet would go down after ten throws.
And those who were good at running? Too bad!
Refusing to be caught was the same as disrespecting the player. Full-efficiency Holy Light was immediately activated.
Total physical loss of control plus a brain crash: even if you were a Pathstrider, today would be your end.
Once Pei Guang had captured every possible target, he looked at the data on the important figures displayed on his system panel, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.
"Excellent, really excellent. Only in event instances can I enjoy this kind of skill-spamming fun."
Previously, when Pei Guang figured out the latest method of using Holy Light, he found there were too few situations where he could actually use it. Since the start of the main story, there had only been a handful of enemies.
Usable, sure, but not enjoyable.
And judging by the game's pattern, there wouldn't be that many future enemies either. If they weren't living beings, they couldn't be controlled, and in that case, this skill might as well be trash.
But here, it was genuinely satisfying! Use it however he wanted. Morality? He was morality itself.
Starting from the government, Pei Guang began capturing all the powerful individuals on this planet. Like he'd said before, he wasn't interested in ordinary people, they were just friendly NPCs who could provide resources.
But these specialists from various fields were a different story. Pei Guang didn't care whether they wanted to follow him or not: they were becoming his talent, today.
As Pei Guang was acting, his system had already begun logging his behavior. Since this was a memory world and not the real one, he could carry out things here that would be impossible in reality, even with player abilities.
And while Pei Guang was happily running wild all over the place, the system log continued recording every single one of his actions.
[Congratulations, player, for collecting 100 pets. However, some believe your actions in capturing humans are inhumane.]
[Congratulations, player, for collecting 1000 pets. However, many now believe you are no longer human for treating humans as pets.]
[Congratulations, player, for successfully capturing the ruling authorities of this planet. You have redefined what it means to be human.]
[Over 80% of the player's pets are mechanical units. Player has obtained the achievement "Master of Machines." Capture success rate for mechanical units increased.]
Pei Guang's system was furiously recording his every action, while Pei Guang himself was taking the concept of "no longer acting human" to its extreme.
That said, compared to capturing humans, Pei Guang still preferred catching all kinds of androids and robots. When it came to humans, even the high-level figures he caught only granted one or two positive achievements: most were negative ones.
Things like [Embezzlement], [Corruption], [Infighting]... on a planet fully colonized by a corporation like the IPC with no freedom left, its political structure was completely riddled with these traits.
Still, there were quite a few people with traits that all players liked to see: [Integrity], [Clean Governance], [For the People].
These didn't provide much personal stat boosts, but whenever someone had them, Pei Guang would promote them based on their individual attributes.
Even though the planet's entire administrative system now belonged to him, having these people around made things much easier until he could unlock more systems at his synthesis station.
Besides, even after unlocking new tech, he'd still need managerial talent.
To players, judging an NPC's capability was never just about stats, it was about traits. And if someone had a good trait, wasn't that just a sign of great potential?
Besides regular people, Pei Guang also managed to capture several Pathstriders. And he absolutely loved these guys.
On this planet, Pei Guang had captured a total of ten Pathstriders. But when he looked at their primary traits, he felt like something was off.
Three out of ten were on the Path of Elation? Wasn't that a bit much?
"Seriously? I run one event and end up with a bunch of Elation Path weirdos. Are you guys targeting me?"