CHAPTER 6: CHAPTER 6: LIFE CARD STORE

Upon waking up, Shen Sui felt refreshed and clear-headed.

He opened the dueling device and found that Alice was still on her way to Lake Paiyiga.

He took out all the Life Cards he currently had from the dueling device.

In this world, the Life Card Duel industry has developed very comprehensively, with a very well-established system for trading Life Cards. However, duel examinations do not allow examinees to use externally purchased Life Cards, and before the exam, it’s necessary to check whether the cards have transaction codes.

Therefore, the rule of having twenty Life Cards is a strict requirement for the exam, which tests the examinee’s abilities to the extreme.

Today, Shen Sui planned to go to a Life Card Store responsible for trading Life Cards, but he wasn’t going to buy cards; he was going to sell them.

The [Fireball Technique] as a direct-damage Spell Card no longer fit Shen Sui’s current deck style, and Shen Sui needed some funds to cover the series of expenses for the upcoming duel examination in Modu.

Lin Ke’Er is a good teacher, but ultimately not family, so Shen Sui couldn’t bring himself to freeload constantly.

In this world, Life Card Stores are even more numerous than lottery shops, and these stores are directly operated by the Life Card Association to better facilitate Life Card transactions for Life Card Masters.

There’s one right on campus, where some wealthy examinees intending to participate in the duel examinations choose to purchase some Life Cards in advance to train their duel skills. Although these externally purchased Life Cards cannot be used in the duel exams, the dueling skills developed from them still make them stronger than ordinary students.

Of course, ordinary students are not without ways to train their dueling skills; they can use playing cards to make their own training decks.

Perhaps because the duel examination was approaching, there were not many people in the Life Card Store, aside from some first and second-year students familiarizing themselves with Life Cards in advance.

The Life Card Store looked more like an internet café, with rows of computers neatly arranged around the shop.

Lin Ke’Er once said that with the current network development, many Life Card transactions can already be conducted directly online. However, the Life Card Store is a "lifeline for millions of dock workers," and it would never be easily eliminated.

Shen Sui took a number and walked to an empty computer.

Unlike ordinary internet cafés, there was a card-inserting device in front of the computers at the Life Card Store, where Life Card Masters could insert the Life Cards they wanted to sell. The system would wipe the data from the card and upload it to the Life Card Store’s online marketplace, while the card being sold would become a Blank Card.

If you decide not to sell, you can download the data of your Life Card back from the marketplace.

If you want to purchase someone else’s Life Card from the Life Card Store, you need to insert a Blank Card into this device. Then, online, you can purchase your desired card, and the system will print the data of the purchased Life Card onto your Blank Card, completing the transaction.

Shen Sui entered the online marketplace and registered his account.

His account nickname was naturally the one he was most familiar with: Warm Inside the White Dragon.

After completing the real-name verification and inputting a pre-prepared bank account, Shen Sui obtained a Life Card Master account for transactions.

The transactions in the Life Card Store are completely anonymous; only the Life Card Association knows who the sellers and buyers of the cards are, ensuring complete safety for both parties.

Shen Sui inserted the [Fireball Technique] into the adjacent device, and the computer instantly read the card’s data.

Upon clicking sell, the system popped up an information box to input the selling price and suggested a price below.

The suggested price for selling Life Cards is generally Life Card star rating * 1000, with a fluctuation of 10% up or down, meaning the suggested price for a 1-star Life Card is around 1000 yuan.

The scarcity of origin suggests that the Life Card’s price should be very high. However, due to the large number of Life Card Masters in Huaxia and the fact that many have chosen the Soul Card World, where peaceful Soul Cards pose no life-threatening risks, a large number of Life Cards have flooded the market.

Most importantly, the Life Cards in this world have not yet shown traits of Extraordinary Power, so the national stance is that if capital floods an industry of speculative Life Cards that produce no tangible value, it is unacceptable, hence the Life Cards in the country are price-capped.

Abroad, the price of Life Cards rises exponentially with star rating and strength; there was even a bloody incident where a Sapphire Dragon sold for 400,000.

Price discrepancies also led to the birth of some black market industries.

Of course, suggestions are merely suggestions. If you have enough confidence in your card, you don’t have to accept the system’s recommendation. You can set a high price for a low-star Life Card, but the domestic market may not respond.

For instance, Shen Sui’s 5-star Spell Card, [Show Weakness], definitely couldn’t be snagged for 5500 yuan; the price would have to at least double.

The damage inflicted by the Fireball Technique is 500; for a 1-star Spell Card, such direct damage is actually quite considerable. However, considering the current Life Card Duels rarely use decks that focus on straight-up direct-damage strategies, its liquidity is relatively low.

After careful consideration, Shen Sui entered the price: 900.

This amount was enough to cover Shen Sui’s round trip expenses and the accommodation costs for his exam in Modu.

[Ding! Transaction Successful, Your Account Received 900 yuan.]

Unexpectedly, as soon as Shen Sui uploaded the card data, the system notified of a successful transaction.

Dang! Sold at a loss!

Shen Sui instantly realized that the price of 900 was too cheap and felt deep regret.

But there’s nothing he can do; Life Card transactions are all about "once it’s sold, it’s sold." Once a transaction succeeds, there’s no turning back.

Sighing, Shen Sui began browsing the Life Card Store.

Although the cards in the Life Card Store might not necessarily be the strongest cards of the present age, they somewhat reflect the current trends in the dueling environment.

Clearly, the current Life Card environment is quite mainstream, with everyone earnestly competing with Follower Cards.

Dull! So dull!

Mainstream duels bring no joy to people!

Then let me change this world!

Let the people of this world know what a true duel is!

Filled with ambitions and aspirations, Shen Sui closed the computer, pulled the Blank Card from the device, and casually inserted it into the dueling device.

The dueling device came with twenty Blank Cards sponsored by the Life Card Association, but a standard deck actually consists of around forty Life Cards, so the extra Blank Cards naturally had to be bought out of pocket.

Shen Sui was pretty broke; at least for now, he had no plans to replenish Blank Cards.

A Blank Card priced at 500 yuan wasn’t something Shen Sui could afford at the moment.

The sudden income of 900 yuan gave Shen Sui the illusion that money seemed pretty easy to earn.

That’s probably why so many people aspire to become Life Card Masters.

Yeah, I hope Alice can be a bit more awesome and get more cards for me. That way, instead of relying on prize money from contests, just trading Life Cards could earn Shen Sui a significant amount of money.

Of course, Shen Sui doesn’t sell his cards randomly. He wouldn’t sell those cards that are useful to him.

Shen Sui returned to the dormitory. During the seven days waiting for the duel examination, all Life Card Master examinees were actually on vacation; they could go wherever they wanted, so suddenly, there were a lot fewer people on campus, as many chose to go home to prepare for the exam.

With nowhere to go, Shen Sui could only return to the dormitory, which was quiet.

Alright, let’s see how our Miss Alice is doing.

Shen Sui opened the dueling device and went to the main page to check the Soul Card Followers’ records.

[Alice bypassed Paiyiga City, and her beauty caught the eye of Fern Zelie. Fern ordered his butler Zod, who had level 3 strength, to capture Alice.]

[Alice sensed the danger and launched a sneak attack from behind.]

[Alice killed Fern.]

[Ding! You obtained a Spell Card: Crushing Blow to the Groin]

[Alice looted all of Fern’s assets, obtaining 3 medium-grade Magic Crystals. She absorbed the crystals’ magic and advanced to a level 2 Mage. Your Soul Card Follower gained a new form: Junior Mage Alice; you can switch the Follower Card form by paying the corresponding Star-level Soul Points.]

[Alice set Fern’s mansion on fire.]

[Ding! You obtained a Spell Card: Arson]

[Alice’s actions drew Zod’s attention, and she engaged in a fearless battle.]

[Alice activated Show Weakness, Alice activated Dying Faith, Alice unleashed a Crushing Blow to the Groin.]

[Alice was gravely injured, but she managed to kill Zod.]

[Alice’s Little Mare carried Alice away from the scene, continuing toward Lake Paiyiga]

[Ding! You obtained a Spell Card: Little Horse Knows the Way]

[The level 6 Mage, Rein Zelie, expressed fury over his grandson’s death and vowed to kill the murderer of his dear grandson.]

???

Wait! I was only gone for a while, and you’ve already gotten into trouble again?

And what the heck is this [Crushing Blow to the Groin] card! How exactly did you turn the tables on the enemy?