Wearing a massive pair of earplugs, Mike finally returned to his grand mansion after walking past the bustling luxury boutiques on Fifth Avenue.
God knows how he managed to endure that walk.
In the most expensive shopping district in the city, the outwardly glamorous "socialites" harbored minds filled with lust, scheming, and vulgar thoughts as crude as mud.
...
Yes, during that walk, Mike discovered that physical barriers couldn't block out the women's inner thoughts; the voices seemed to transmit directly into his brain.
The good, the bad, the greedy, the sinister—everything flooded in all at once...
Knowing he couldn't go on like this, Mike started brainstorming a solution.
If he treated the ability to eavesdrop on women's thoughts as a form of "hearing":
A normal person's ears can filter out noise in a crowded environment and focus only on the sounds they want to hear.
By that logic, the mind-reading ability should work the same way.
Furthermore, Nick, who possessed the exact same ability, hadn't gone insane yet. This proved that there had to be a way to manage the "drawbacks" of this power.
So, for the next few days, unable to fully control his new ability just yet, Mike chose to hole up in his luxury mansion.
Then, using Lina and the other girls, he began trying to "tame" his new power.
Through this process, Mike discovered that among the girls he was intimate with, Lina and the little maid Carly had their hearts entirely set on him.
On the other hand, Jess, who worked at King's Investments, and Collins, who was studying at Columbia, both possessed traits of strong, independent career women.
While they loved Mike deeply, they also had their own ambitions. Or rather, they possessed a strong drive to realize their own self-worth.
And then there were the three girls from the Killer Figure group, who were currently prepping for the release of their second album. Their inner thoughts could be summed up in three words: sweet, silly, and naive~
Aside from wanting to spend more time with Mike, their thoughts mostly revolved around makeup, pretty clothes, and delicious food.
As for life goals or career planning? Absolutely zero.
Having already achieved their dream of becoming massive pop stars, the trio's main vibe was just doing whatever they wanted without much drive to improve.
"Mike, I feel like I'm getting more and more addicted to you."
After another intense, chaotic "free-for-all," Queen Bee Regina whispered sweet nothings.
The other girls felt pretty much the same way.
While they all felt Mike was becoming increasingly "irresistible" lately, they couldn't quite put their finger on exactly what had changed.
Meanwhile, having spent this time developing his mind-reading ability, Mike found that it was incredibly useful in certain specific scenarios.
For example, when engaging in "sports," using this ability allowed him to achieve complete mental sync with the girls:
If they wanted him to go deeper, Mike instantly delivered. If they wanted him to go shallower, Mike understood perfectly.
They were completely intertwined, moving in absolute, fluid harmony...
Regardless, whenever Mike used the ability, he became incredibly "understanding and empathetic" toward the girls' needs.
He had fully achieved the realm of ultimate harmony~
"You girls need to focus up. Right now is a critical time for the release of your second album. Whether you successfully transition your image depends entirely on this,"
Mike instructed the three Killer Figure girls, completely ignoring their sweet talk.
It was already early October, and the Killer Figure group's second "inspirational" album was currently rolling out.
Thanks to the massive success of their debut, the group only needed to maintain a "steady and solid" performance with this second album to cement their status as the queens of the new generation of pop.
It was safe to say that as long as this second album was a hit, they'd be set for the next decade.
Yet, despite having such a massive opportunity right in front of them, the three girls didn't seem to care. They were currently sneaking away from their promotional tour to have a "secret rendezvous" with Mike.
"We know, we know. We're heading back to prep for the next promo gig right now."
Having been thoroughly satisfied both physically and emotionally, Regina was very easy to talk to at the moment.
Plus, the three pop stars who had snuck out really did need to get back.
...
"Paige, what are you doing here?"
After sending off the Killer Figure trio, Mike spotted Paige acting "sneaky" in the living room.
"I-I just came out to get some water~"
Paige offered a guilty excuse, though her eyes were softly fixed on the man in front of her.
Having been tormented by the sounds of "battle" countless times, she didn't seem quite as shy as she used to be.
Just as the girl's mind started wandering into wild territory, Mike, having heard her inner thoughts, pulled a pair of earplugs from his pocket and said,
"Here, take these. They might be of some use to you."
These were the exact earplugs Mike had bought a few days ago when he was testing if physical barriers could block the mind-reading ability.
Now, he was just recycling them.
Then, ignoring Paige's slightly resentful gaze, Mike turned and left the living room.
It wasn't that he was oblivious to the romance; it simply wasn't the right time yet.
At the very least, he had to wait until her coming-of-age ceremony.
...
"Central Avenue, Residential Building 66. Fletcher should live right here~"
Another afternoon. Having finally gained control over his ability to eavesdrop on women's thoughts, Mike followed the files Father James had provided and tracked down the second "lucky guy."
This Fletcher was a highly prominent civil litigation attorney in the Big Apple. His silver tongue and ability to twist the truth had made him a massive success in civil court.
However, despite his booming career, the nature of his work had given him a chronic lying problem.
He lied in court, he lied in his personal life, and eventually, it got to the point where his own family couldn't pry a single word of truth out of his mouth.
Finally, after Fletcher once again broke his promise to show up at his son's fifth birthday party, his wife could no longer tolerate his endless lies and total neglect of their family.
So, Audrey packed up their five-year-old son, Max, and chose to divorce her husband, Fletcher.
And right at that very moment, Fletcher mysteriously lost the ability to tell a lie.
In the Church's records, they called this a "Curse" from God, specifically designed to punish those who habitually lied.
"Excuse me, beautiful, do you happen to know which floor Attorney Fletcher lives on?"
Approaching the elevator bank of the high-rise, Mike bumped into a stunning woman with an absolutely killer hourglass figure.
"Hi there, I'm Krista Allen. You can just call me Allen,"
The gorgeous woman introduced herself confidently before answering, "If you're looking for the Fletcher I know, he's on the eighth floor. Same floor as me."
"Thank you, Ms. Allen. You've been a huge help~"
Having secured Fletcher's exact floor, Mike politely thanked the beauty.
"It's no problem at all~"
Beauty Allen replied, subconsciously licking her lips.
A fresh, polite, and incredibly handsome young man was simply too much temptation for a mature woman in her twenties to resist.
As for the icy Needy standing right next to him, the woman completely ignored her existence.
Right at that moment, the elevator arrived.
Allen immediately took an enthusiastic step forward, gesturing for Mike to enter first. As the elevator rode up, she stood directly across from Mike, puffing out her chest to proudly display her "assets."
You had to admit, the valley was high, and the strait was deep~
Seeing Mike remain perfectly composed, showing none of the awkwardness a typical young guy would around a gorgeous woman, Allen grew even more intrigued.
"I'm actually a fitness instructor. You've got a great physique, but if you're ever looking for a personal trainer, you know where to find me."
As she spoke, the heavily endowed fitness beauty handed over a business card for her gym.
And as she passed the card, she made sure to subtly trace her finger across Mike's palm.
Mature, sexy, alluring, and heavily blessed...
Faced with a bombshell packing so many "advantages," what man could possibly resist?