CHAPTER 55: CHAPTER 55: TIME FOR AN EXHILARATING DUEL!

The moment Shen Sui woke up the next day, he checked on Alice’s status first and found that they were already nearing Paiyiga Lake. Calculating the time, they should reach Paiyiga City by tonight.

Good, it seems they’ll make it in time.

Under the new rules, the PK matches span two days total, with the leaderboard score being settled at 5 PM on the second day. The top ten automatically qualify for the certification duel, after which the Exploration Bureau assigns you a corresponding dueling coach. On the third day, you’ll undertake the certification duel. As long as the coach gives you a passing evaluation or if you outright defeat the coach, you gain eligibility for the Ranking Tournament.

Shen Sui checked out the current leaderboard.

First place: Shen Sui, Matches: 27, Wins: 27, Win rate: 100%

Second place: Song Feiyu, Matches: 25, Wins: 25, Win rate: 100%

Third place: Gu Yong, Matches: 24, Wins: 20, Win rate: 83.3%

....

Song Feiyu?

Is there really such a strong student at Tianyi Academy?

Shen Sui’s interest was immediately piqued, and he quickly opened the newly established school forum to glance at the comments under the leaderboard, wanting to read about Song Feiyu. Instead, he saw debates about himself among the students.

[Wow, the God of Age is really awesome, how did he manage 27 matches? Isn’t he exhausted? And all wins—truly someone who defeated a fifth-tier Life Card Master during the entrance exam.]

[Awesome, my ass! Do you know how he managed those 27 matches? I saw it yesterday; he cornered a few students and kept dueling them to boost his count. They were all his defeated subordinates, so of course he could crush them.]

[What? You can repeatedly duel the same person in the PK matches?]

[Tested and verified, yes.]

[In that case, I could just find a friend and keep playing matches to get to the top by the next day.]

[You can try that. Just a heads-up, the top is cracking down on cheating, and if you’re found guilty after your results are audited, you’ll face more than just expulsion—you could get thrown in jail.]

[Never mind then. But those students who got cornered really had rotten luck. They must have been weaker players; otherwise, how would you pull off a 100% win rate?]

[I saw them too. They weren’t weak; there was one called Yu Wenyuan, whom I dueled against and lost badly. I even heard he participated in the Chosen Cup and reached the top eight.]

[Fun fact, the God of Age won the Chosen Cup, defeating the trickster Yuan Youxin.]

[Wow, even without cornering them, God of Age’s results wouldn’t have been too shabby. Why did he corner Yu Wenyuan and the others?]

[I know. I overheard them saying that the God of Age’s "Star Magic Array" is going on the Forbidden Card List next month, and they were happy about it.] Commented LowHeadMoon.

[They knew ahead of time that it was going to be banned, damn, did they report the God of Age’s card? Serves them right.]

[Serves them right, support the beatdown.]

[Serves them right, serves them right. Where’s Yu Wenyuan today? I want to corner them too.]

The students immediately became very agitated, considering reporting a fellow student’s card—and successfully at that—as something incredibly vile and infuriating.

[No need to think about it; they withdrew today. I already looked for them early on.]

....

So they withdrew?

Shen Sui sighed a little disappointedly.

Honestly, why is their psychological tolerance so poor? It’s just losing a few duels.

Checking the time, Shen Sui put on his clothes and prepared to leave. He was only estimating the pace at which Alice’s group was moving, and to give himself ample time for preparation, he decided to finish the PK matches quickly.

The second day saw most students who believed they had no chance of advancing withdraw, making the required matches to maintain leaderboard ranking much less intense than on the first day.

Shen Sui simply stopped picking and went from bottom to top of the leaderboard.

As long as I defeat all fifteen players in the top rankings, even if unforeseen events on the Dawn Continent result in fewer matches, I can maintain a top ten ranking through win-loss ratios.

With a clear target, Shen Sui was incredibly efficient. After all, PK matches don’t require you to invite your opponent to duel face-to-face; you only need to enter the opponent’s name in the Dueling Device PK match plugin, then arrange a location for the duel. All the opponents on Shen Sui’s challenge list were well-known on the leaderboard, so there was no issue with not knowing their names.

By morning, Shen Sui rose from 15th to 4th on the leaderboard, having won all eleven matches.

After all, they were all students, and while the noble heirs at Tianyi Academy weren’t exactly favored or very strong, their card set’s strength was limited even with elders feeding them cards.

In a month, apart from the anomaly Shen Sui, very few students managed to build a powerful deck, so Shen Sui won quite easily.

After lunch, the top three places remained unchanged: Shen Sui held the top spot with 38 matches and 38 wins, while Song Feiyu closely followed with 36 matches and 36 wins.

Song Feiyu seemed to be following Shen Sui’s strategy, moving up the leaderboard since many students with a perfect win rate but few matches had their loss count increased by two.

Interesting.

Shen Sui grinned; he knew there was bound to be a match between him and Song Feiyu in this PK tournament.

But both deliberately left each other until the end.

No one is willing to challenge the two undefeated monsters at the top.

After eating, Shen Sui didn’t rest. He immediately issued a duel invite to the third place.

"God of Age! Spare me! Stop chanting!"

Shen Sui’s spell-binding storytelling successfully drove Gu Yong to the brink of collapse.

"It’s my turn, after all," Gu Yong said miserably. "At least let me play a card."

"Oh, you didn’t chain a resolving card. How’s that my fault?" Shen Sui lamented, feeling a bit helpless; once a chain had started, stopping felt suffocating.

"Is your chain over yet?"

"Almost, only two effects left."

Gu Yong breathed a sigh of relief, finally preparing to play a card as he poised his hand over them, ready for action.

"At this point, the effect of [Twilight Saintess’s Protection] triggers, negating this effect, and I take 1000 points of damage," Shen Sui said. "Then, the effect of the Equipment Spell Card [Gale Cloak] activates; when I take battle or card effect damage, I can send this card to the graveyard, transferring that damage to the opponent, so you take 1000 damage."

"Alright, let’s see how much Life Value you have left," Shen Sui looked at Gu Yong.

Gu Yong, Life Value 900.

"...."

"Ah!!!!" Gu Yong clasped his head in his hands, utterly devastated.

"Damn it, it’s my turn!!!!"

"Ah... sorry about that," Shen Sui coughed twice.

"God of Age, you should just go pro already and stop fishing in the PK matches," Gu Yong, tears streaming down his face, said.

"It seems this duel is over," a man’s voice came from behind Shen Sui at that moment.

Shen Sui turned to face the voice and saw a stranger, a clean-looking guy with a confident smile, sweat on his forehead as if he had rushed over upon hearing Shen Sui was here.

Even though they had never met, Shen Sui knew the man’s name well.

Song Feiyu.

"Then, duel with me, Shen Sui!" the man issued his challenge.

His face brimmed with the spirit of challenging a powerful opponent, exuding confidence and determination.

This was the first duel invitation Shen Sui received since the PK tournament began.

"Alright!" Shen Sui agreed without hesitation.

Sometimes, playing cards can be straightforward and blunt.

No planning or vendetta needed; the duel itself is reason enough.

Both dueling devices lit up, marking the invitation as valid.

The duel begins!