"Hm?!!"
Chrollo's eyes narrowed, and he prepared to dodge, but at that moment…
"Don't move."
Luke grabbed him with a calm voice.
"This stone is actually very easy to deal with."
The moment those words left his mouth…
Tap.
Chrollo felt like something had lightly tapped his mind.
His entire brain went icy calm.
All alertness, wariness, and fear evaporated instantly.
Whoosh!!
The radiant light enveloped Chrollo and Luke, yet it did not affect them at all.
It brushed over them like a gentle breeze.
"If the Stone of Seven Emotions and Six Desires works by controlling emotions..."
"Then..."
Luke spoke with complete composure: "As long as you remain perfectly calm, refusing to let emotions sway you, even eliminating emotion entirely, that is enough to defend against it."
He looked at the glowing stone and at Kute, who appeared mentally frozen.
"In this world, nothing is absolute. Once you identify the restraint and understand how it works, you can always find a way to counter it."
As long as one is a person, or rather, as long as one is a living being, there will naturally be emotions and desires.
Even at the very least, after hearing the explanation and introduction about the Stone of Seven Emotions and Six Desires, when faced with the sudden radiance that burst forth from the stone… anyone would become alert and guarded toward the light emitted by this stone.
And once that happens, emotions have already been produced, just as the stone intended.
As long as emotions appear, this stone can easily take control.
That was exactly how Kute, who first discovered the stone, fell into its trap and became its puppet.
Now, the stone wanted to repeat the same trick to deal with and control Luke and Chrollo.
It had been preparing for so long, even revealing the truth about Kute being turned into a puppet.
All of that was to incite Luke and Chrollo's emotional fluctuations at this very moment… and seize the opportunity to control them.
It had to be admitted, for a stone, the strategy of this Stone of Seven Emotions and Six Desires was not inferior to that of some intelligent living beings.
Unfortunately, it was still one step short.
Under normal circumstances, its method would likely have succeeded.
But it could never have imagined that Luke had a small invention that perfectly countered it.
It was a small metal ball that tapped Luke and Chrollo's bodies.
In that instant, all emotions within them were completely erased.
Invention: Calm Ball
Origin: Doraemon World — Future Tech Company
Function: A tap from this small ball instantly calms a person.
Yes, the effect was extremely simple, even singular, removing all emotional disturbances.
Just a simple tap on the body, and one becomes completely calm.
Right now, using it to resist the Stone of Seven Emotions and Six Desires is just right.
"The humans are emotional creatures. It's hard to be free of all desires..."
Luke spoke calmly: "That's why, at times like this, we need to rely on external tools to achieve it."
"Just like you need emotions to control others..."
At that, Luke shook his head, not even bothering to glance at the stone.
"If you really want to control people, there are far too many methods."
When it comes to Nen abilities that control people, Luke could list quite a few.
The most typical type would be the Manipulation type; once conditions are met, they can easily take control of their target.
A representative Nen ability is that of Baise, who later applied for the Nostrade family along with Kurapika.
Her Nen ability is called the Instant Lover.
The conditions are simple: just be kissed by her, and the person kissed will become her slave.
Then there's Shalnark's ability, Black Voice (Mobile Fate Director); the name itself implies control.
These abilities are direct, simple, and effective.
Aside from Nen abilities, Luke himself possesses many inventions for controlling others.
For controlling someone through emotions, there's the Friendship Capsule.
Invention: Friendship Capsule
Origin: Doraemon World — Future Tech Company
Function: A small heart-shaped tag paired with a controller. Once the tag is attached to someone through physical contact, the controller user becomes their absolute best friend, and the target obeys them completely.
The target retains their original memories and personality.
Aside from controlling through emotions, Luke also has inventions that directly control the body.
Such as the Human Control Machine, installed on people to control their actions via buttons (ballet, marathon, wrestling, etc.).
Drawback: Very difficult to control precisely, often causing unexpected actions.
Nobita once used it on his father because he felt his father was too lazy, which led to family conflict.
What a good kid.
He also has something extremely similar to Shalnark's ability, Black Voice (Mobile Fate Director).
It's a remote with direction buttons and speed settings.
Press start, and a signal shoots out to control whoever it hits.
It can also be switched to auto-control, where a computer decides how the person moves, though only the lower body can be controlled.
Or even simpler, the Rank Badges.
They represent ranks in the military.
Stick a rank badge on someone, and lower ranks must obey higher ranks.
Only the highest rank, the General, can remove the badge.
The hierarchy includes: General, Lieutenant General, Major General, Colonel, Lieutenant, and so on.
With these badges, making people obey is blatant and simple.
For the always-oppressed Nobita, it was like medicine for his soul.
But if stuck on clothing, all one has to do is remove the clothing to break the effect.
In short, Luke has far too many control-related inventions.
He simply never has a reason to use them.
For powerful people like Netero, Ging Freecss, or Pariston, they are always on guard.
Luke's methods would likely fail before they even start.
For ordinary people, using these inventions would be a waste.
To obtain information, he can just use Pakunoda's memory-reading Nen ability.
Or Luke also has the Truth Sticker, which forces people to speak honestly.
Compared to these, the Stone of Seven Emotions and Six Desires is simply mediocre.
Not useless, but nearly pointless.
To Luke, something that looks dangerous but is weak and easily replaceable is worthless.
He even felt like destroying it, to prevent it from remaining in the world and harming others.
And as if sensing Luke's intent... The Stone of Seven Emotions and Six Desires immediately began to resist.
As a stone, it had very limited means of resisting.
Its most powerful and effective ability was to use fluctuations in a person's emotions to gain control over them.