CHAPTER 3: CHAPTER 3: ALICE AT DEATH’S DOOR

Lin Ke’Er anxiously waited at the gate of the playground, almost all the students in her class participating in the card drawing had already come out, yet Shen Sui was still nowhere to be seen.

Could something have gone wrong?

The thought of Shen Sui insisting on choosing the Dawn Continent gave Lin Ke’Er a bad feeling.

Could it be that the follower Shen Sui drew has already died unexpectedly?

If it’s the Dawn Continent, such things could indeed happen! There was once a lucky yet unlucky person who adventurously chose the Dawn Continent as his Soul Card World. He drew a powerful 12-level follower, but even before he walked out of the card drawing room, his follower was struck down by divine punishment from heaven.

By noon, the playground of Fourth High School had almost emptied out; collecting twenty cards in seven days meant that the candidates couldn’t afford to waste any time.

Lin Ke’Er kept waiting and finally saw Shen Sui’s figure behind the dark green wire fence.

"How is it?" Lin Ke’Er asked cautiously, afraid of touching Shen Sui’s sore spot.

In her heart, she had already prepared words to comfort Shen Sui.

Even if the duel exam doesn’t go well, we still have the regular college entrance exams.

"I drew a pretty good Follower Card." Shen Sui said with a smile, not the type to pretend to be modest in front of those who care for him.

"A Magic Apprentice? That’s pretty good." Lin Ke’Er looked at Shen Sui’s joyful expression and didn’t voice the thoughts in her heart.

In the Dawn World, Magic Apprentices are the lowest beings; this card isn’t exactly a top draw.

"The card effect seems pretty nice." As her gaze fell on Alice’s effect, her eyes suddenly lit up; Alice’s effect was very strong, enough to be the core of a deck. "Didn’t expect a 1-star follower to have such a powerful effect!"

Usually, they don’t, so I printed it myself.

Shen Sui thought to himself.

"But don’t get complacent." Lin Ke’Er quickly said, "A powerful effect doesn’t mean that your follower herself is powerful. The Dawn Continent is very dangerous. You must guide your follower not to get involved in those dangerous things."

"If I don’t get involved in events, I won’t be able to collect enough cards to form a deck." Shen Sui replied.

This is why very few people choose this world. It’s dangerous, but in order not to get disqualified directly, you have to make your follower participate in enough activities.

"As long as your Soul Card follower is still alive, even if you don’t pass the duel exam, you haven’t completely lost the chance to become a professional Life Card Master." Lin Ke’Er said earnestly. After seeing the effect of Shen Sui’s Soul Card, she believed Shen Sui had the potential to become a professional Life Card Master. "Your Soul Card follower is strong. There’s no need to risk her life in the duel exam. You can accumulate enough cards over time and then debut through amateur dueling competitions, eventually becoming a professional Life Card Master through promotion matches..."

Shen Sui shook his head and said, "Too slow."

Right now he was penniless, only able to stay in the school dorms, and even his meals for the past few days had been sponsored by Lin Ke’Er out of sympathy. But he couldn’t rely on Lin Ke’Er forever.

"I have my own plans, Miss Lin." Shen Sui said seriously.

Lin Ke’Er didn’t say anything further and handed over the information she had collected about the Dawn Continent to Shen Sui, asking him to study it well.

There may be few Life Card Masters who choose the Dawn Continent as their Soul Card World, but the world is vast and always full of bullheaded individuals who defy convention, and the information collected by Life Card Masters from both home and abroad more or less gives a general description of this warring world of gods.

Shen Sui was also curious about what had happened in the world over the nearly thousand years since his save file was deleted.

What he cared most about was the cause of Vivian’s death.

As a character for strategy in the game, Vivian’s ideal was the main storyline of the Twilight of the Gods line in Dawn Link; this girl, who vowed to eliminate all gods in the world and shouted "There should be no gods above all beings," was ultimately burned to death by the people she saved.

What exactly happened in between? Vivian was supposed to be the strongest individual in the game besides him. During the task of killing the Master of the Fierce Sun, she alone could hold back three Main Gods without losing ground. What exactly made her willingly get burned to death?

With these questions in mind, Shen Sui returned to the dormitory. Considering that Shen Sui was a loner and had mental issues, the school didn’t dare assign him a multi-person dorm, so he was the only one in the eight-person dormitory. Next to the dormitory was the room for the dorm manager, who would come to check on Shen Sui every hour.

Shen Sui didn’t mind; after all, the school was just worried he might have another incident.

His main task now was to quickly grind out twenty cards to qualify for the duel exam.

Opening the Dueling Device, Shen Sui discovered that when he didn’t look at the Dueling Device, Alice continued to move on her own. That’s reasonable, as the current Dawn Continent is a real world, not a game, with no pause button.

[Alice used magic to harvest an acre of wheat, but when she turned back to look at the village, she found it was already engulfed in flames.]

[A group of vicious bandits attacked the village, killing all the men. They gathered the women, calling upon the name of their God of Sin, intending to take these women to the City of Sin for sacrifice.]

[Alice hid in the bushes, witnessing everything. She saw her aunt’s painful sobs and her best friend Anna’s hopeless gaze, but she was powerless because she was merely a Magic Apprentice.]

[The bandit leader sensed someone watching and cast the second-level spell: Death’s Favor towards Alice’s direction.]

[Alice couldn’t dodge, was hit by the spell, and rolled down the hill.]

[Alice was severely injured and on the brink of death.]

Shen Sui’s Dueling Device immediately issued an alert.

Damn! I only looked away for a moment, and my follower’s already at death’s door???

Save her, save her!

Quickly save her!

Shen Sui immediately inputted command text into the Dueling Device.

[You appear beside Alice and cast the 15-level spell: Recovery on her.]

[Ding! You have obtained the Spell Card: Recovery]

******

Card Name: [Recovery]

Category: Spell Card

Star Level: 15 stars

Effect: Choose a Follower in your own graveyard as the target to activate, and Special Summon it to your field.

******

[Alice regained her vitality. Sitting by the brook, she thought of her aunt’s pained cries and Anna’s hopeless eyes as she began to sob. She was homeless now, having lost all her friends and was powerless to change anything.]

Great! This is the moment for my guidance!

Shen Sui immediately seized the opportunity and inputted a command into the Dueling Device.

[You used a spell to enter Alice’s Mage Ring and made your voice heard, alerting the grieving girl.]

[Sad girl! Do you desire strength?]

[Who are you?]

[I am the Twilight Bishop, Clyde Modena, and I can help you fulfill your wish and grant you great power.]

[What do you want from me?]

[Alice was very cautious since she had been told from a young age that nothing in the world is free, and all gifts have their prices marked on the back.]

Hey, hey, hey! I’m giving you cheats here, and you’re asking what I want from you?

Does using cheats need a purpose?

Shen Sui mentally complained but knew this was crucial to gaining Alice’s trust, so he quickly replied:

[I was plotted against by an enemy and lost my body. I need you to help me gather materials to reconstruct my physical form. In exchange, I can grant you great power and help you solve some troubles when needed.]

This was a lie!

Shen Sui’s character could actually move freely, but Alice was his Soul Card follower, and he couldn’t dare to let Alice out of his sight.

Actually, with just the items in his backpack, Shen Sui was confident he could make Alice a fairly strong mage, but doing so wouldn’t yield him many cards.

In the past, someone studied that the weaker the Soul Card follower initially, the more Action Spell Cards one could obtain as they gradually grew stronger, and the higher the quality of the cards would be.

Of course, considering the survivability of Soul Card followers, most people still preferred a slightly stronger Soul Card follower.

[Really? I don’t believe you.]

"Damn! Are you kidding me?! You don’t even want cheats?!" Shen Sui saw Alice’s answer and jumped up in anger on the spot.