Chapter 31

Chapter 31

As soon as this announcement was released, the school forum erupted into heated discussion.

Senior students were extremely envious:

“This batch of freshmen is way too lucky! A six-star card ring!! They’re set for life!!”

“Even so… does someone who can take first place still lack a six-star card ring?”

“True… noble families aren’t short on money anyway, and they’ve already been raising their family’s natal card rings for their kids.”

“Even if they don’t get the card ring, just qualifying already means full credits and an A+ rating for the semester!”

“Waaah why is there only a Freshman Cup, this is unfair, waiting for a Senior Cup!!”

The freshmen’s discussion was even more intense.

“Should we go for it?!”

“Go for what exactly? Read the conditions carefully. If you really qualify, would you still worry about not having enough credits or a low yearly rating?”

“Only allowed to use self-made cards, and only four slots… hehe, this is basically an early exam!”

Lu Xianle and Lin Ting already knew about the Freshman Cup. Ning Zhu had told them over the weekend.

Lu Xianle privately said to Lin Ting: “This sounds like something we can’t even participate in…”

But Lin Ting said: “Why not?”

Lu Xianle: “There are only four slots…”

Lin Ting glared at her: “So what if you don’t qualify? This is a rare training opportunity!”

Lu Xianle: “Uh…”

Lin Ting said: “If you don’t seize opportunities to train now, do you want to just be a spectator at the Card Master ‘Olympics’ two years later? Besides, the principal already told us—danger is right around the corner. We have to seize every opportunity to grow stronger!”

Lu Xianle: “!”

After Ning Zhu left Professor Li Suwen’s office, she went back to the Bubble Milk Tea Shop and found Li Liyang.

She returned the card ring to him and also told him about the Freshman Cup.

Li Liyang instantly became energetic and said: “I’m going to make a pre-match analysis right now. I’ll post it on the forum, and anyone who wants to join the selection can go all out. This time, our Spirit Card Academy must take first place!”

As expected of a representative student of the Aries system.

Li Liyang’s passion and enthusiasm spread across the entire school!

As soon as Monday’s announcement came out, Li Liyang immediately posted.

As soon as the post went up, the freshmen were once again—again—thrown into excitement.

When Ning Zhu clicked in, the first thing she saw was a flood of freshmen kneeling emoji memes.

Lu Xianle and Lin Ting also saw the post and sharply inhaled: “Student Li is so reliable!”

Not only reliable—the key point was generosity.

He didn’t hide anything at all; it was all solid dry analysis!

Not only Aries freshmen flooded in, even Libra students secretly slipped in anonymously and began carefully studying it.

Li Liyang analyzed the competition systems of previous Card Master tournaments and gave a rough prediction of the Freshman Cup format.

The most important would definitely be the arena matches—Card Masters 1v1, with only one ultimate winner.

Second was the duo matches, Card Master 2v2. Usually within-system team-ups, though cross-system team-ups were also possible—extremely rare, once in several decades.

The Freshman Cup would likely be similar, basically these two competition formats.

The matches were simple and brutal.

In randomly assigned or designated 【Scenario Cards】, Card Masters would engage in 1v1 or 2v2 battles.

The victory condition depended on the status of the 【Character Cards】.

One side of the Card Master completely destroys the other Card Master’s 【Character Card】, and if the side that loses their 【Character Card】 has no usable cards left, then the destroying side wins.

If both Card Masters’ 【Character Cards】 are destroyed at the same time, then victory is determined by the remaining cards in hand—the side with more remaining cards (including remaining usage counts) wins.

If both sides also run out of cards at the same time, then the Card Masters must engage in close-combat physical fighting, and the one who knocks down the opponent wins.

Lu Xianle looked at the competition rules and murmured: “That’s pretty intense.”

Lin Ting: “Think back to the first class of the semester.”

Lu Xianle fell silent. She clearly remembered Principal Yang’s words—Card Masters are warriors.

In the end, a competition is still a competition.

To ensure the safety of Card Masters, many rule restrictions have been put in place.

If it were in reality, Card Master duels would not only target 【Character Cards】.

Just like back in the underground parking lot, Li Jin didn’t even use a 【Character Card】.

At this moment, another post was bumped to the top. The poster’s ID was “Divine Officer”.

This ID, just like Li Liyang, was the kind where anyone with eyes could tell who it was.

Ning Zhu didn’t have a good impression of Shen Guan, mainly because she felt their auras didn’t match.

He also posted a “popular science” thread, but it was completely different from Li Liyang’s.

Li Liyang’s post was full of solid information while encouraging everyone to bravely participate in the school selection. Every line was full of passion and fiery enthusiasm, bursting with chuunibyou energy.

The freshmen reading his post were indeed stirred into excitement, as if they could immediately fight three hundred rounds, rush into the Freshman Cup qualifiers, win the championship for Spirit Card Academy, and bring glory to the nation.

Shen Guan’s post, on the other hand, immediately made people see reality. As expected of a top student from the Libra system, he came in with clear tables, listing the costs and risks of participating in the Freshman Cup selection.

At least three 【Character Cards】 were required, all self-made. The material cost ranged from 600 to 6000 (it could basically be confirmed that first-year students could not make three-star Character Cards).

At least ten 【Spell Cards】 were required, also self-made, with material costs ranging from 1000 to 10,000.

At least three 【Equipment Cards】 were required, self-made, with material costs also around 600 to 6000.

Not to mention that they also needed to prepare 【Spiritual Energy Cards】…

High card costs were one thing, but the key point was that they all had to be made personally.

The average success rate of card-making for first-year students was around 10%, meaning material costs effectively had to be multiplied by ten.

These points alone caused many freshmen to deflate.

Passion requires financial support.

Shen Guan also attached the course schedule for card-making this semester.

First-year students had limited card-making knowledge. The focus was mainly on introduction and basics. Essentially, they only systematically learned the creation of one-star 【Spiritual Energy Cards】 and one-star 【Character Cards】.

【Spell Cards】 would only be introduced in the next semester, while 【Equipment Cards】 would not be taught until the second year.

In other words, if they wanted to participate in the Freshman Cup, they would need to self-study how to make 【Spell Cards】 and 【Equipment Cards】.

Li Liyang’s post left everyone burning with enthusiasm.

Shen Guan’s post, on the other hand, was filled with sighs and complaints.

A White Aries student replied under Shen Guan’s post: “The school announcement clearly says that any cards lost in competition will have their materials compensated by the academy!”

“Divine Officer” pinned this reply and responded below: “First, the compensation is only for single-use materials; second, if you can truly make these cards, you could sell them for double the cost anyway.”

Someone still refused to accept it: “Stop being so pessimistic! I think you just don’t want others to register so you can secure a spot in the Three Academies Freshman Cup yourself!”

Someone immediately mocked in the thread: “The comment above is clearly from an idiot in the Aries system. The OP is just kindly reminding people—if you don’t appreciate it, fine, but don’t bite back. Do you even know who the OP is? He’s 100% going to qualify, okay?”

“Stop with the group insults. What do you mean Aries idiots? Are Libras all geniuses then?”

“Did I say anything wrong? Look at his ID—he’s definitely Aries system.”

“Who cares about the Aries system, your Libra system has even more idiots!”

The thread became even more chaotic, not because of discussion about the Freshman Cup, but because the two systems were now insulting each other, gradually losing all rationality.

After reading Shen Guan’s post, Ning Zhu actually changed her opinion of him somewhat.

What he said was quite objective, analyzing the situation of the Freshman Cup from a more realistic perspective.

First-year students were only sixteen or seventeen years old—an age full of impulsive enthusiasm. They tended to act on emotion and do things without thinking.

In the end, they might waste a lot of money, fail to even qualify for the competition, and also delay their studies. It was indeed a loss that outweighed the gain.

Even Lu Xianle and Lin Ting began reconsidering whether to participate.

After all, the cost really wasn’t small…

Unexpectedly, in the afternoon, another school announcement was released, providing more comprehensive supplementary explanations about the Freshman Cup.

The most eye-catching point was—

All students who register for the competition can receive free card-making materials from the school warehouse.

However, students must make their cards in designated card-making laboratories, and the finished cards may only be used for the Freshman Cup. If the cards are not used and are eliminated, the school will reclaim the corresponding cards.

At the same time, the school also emphasized that once students qualify for the December Three-Academy competition, all card-making materials will be provided for free. As long as the student understands card-making principles, even if their success rate is only 1%, material support will still be provided.

As soon as this announcement came out, the previously cooled-down freshmen were once again full of fighting spirit.

Those who had been criticized under Shen Guan’s post jumped around a bit again, but they were quickly mocked by the crowd.

“Stop hating on Shen Guanyin, this time there’s really nothing to criticize.”

“If it weren’t for his post, the school wouldn’t have issued this clarification.”

“As an Aries, I forgive Libra for one second. Shen Guanyin did well!”

“Who wants your forgiveness? And what Shen Guanyin? Our Shen Lord is ‘Divine Officer’!”

And so, the thread once again descended into arguments.

The forum administrators were used to it. They couldn’t delete everything anyway, so as long as it didn’t cross the line, they simply pretended not to see it.

Throughout Monday, even during class, freshmen couldn’t help but discuss the Freshman Cup.

Professors had to repeatedly call on students to focus and listen properly!

Only four people could qualify—everyone else would not enjoy the benefit of full credits!

Ning Zhu was distracted the entire day. She was also following the Freshman Cup, but after reading the two posts, she exited the forum.

She would definitely participate, and she would prepare properly for it.

Card-making was a discipline, and card combat required study and practice.

On top of that, her card ring was not fully compatible, so she also had to learn how to suppress spiritual energy. Fortunately, the competition was in December—otherwise, forget winning, even qualifying would be difficult.

What made Ning Zhu restless was the evening tutoring session.

Today was Monday. At 7 PM, she had to go to Jiang Binglun’s office to learn Libra system professional courses.

Just thinking about it gave her a headache.

One-on-one tutoring was already scary enough, and now she had to study with a teacher who disliked her. It was truly… like opening the door for fear itself, fear arriving home!

A knife whether stretched out or retracted still cuts—you get stabbed either way—but after dinner, Ning Zhu regained her energy.

After a video call with her parents, she marched energetically toward the Libra department head’s office.

What was there to be afraid of?

Director Jiang was probably even more stressed than she was!

Thinking this way, Ning Zhu actually felt much more at ease.

She arrived five minutes early. She didn’t want to go in too soon, so she waited in the corridor, planning to knock at most one minute early.

Just then, the door to Jiang Binglun’s office opened, and Ning Zhu’s heart suddenly lifted.

She immediately regretted going upstairs too early!

If she ran into him now, would she have to start class ahead of schedule?

As the thought flashed through her mind, she saw clearly who stepped out of the door.

It wasn’t Jiang Binglun—it was Li Jin.

Since the last 【Fate Conversion】 incident, they hadn’t seen each other again.

Ning Zhu froze for a moment upon suddenly seeing him.

“Senior Li!” she quickly greeted him.

Li Jin’s eyelashes were lowered, as if he was thinking about something. Only when he heard her voice did he slightly raise his gaze, his dark eyes landing on her.

Ning Zhu: “……”

He must have just used a 【Libra Card】—there was still a lingering, strange, radiant glow in his eyes!

“I heard your card ring exploded due to spiritual energy overload,” Li Jin said, looking at her wrist.

Ning Zhu tried to keep her distance from him: “It’s already fine.”

Li Jin lowered his gaze slightly and said: “Sorry.”

Ning Zhu: “???”

It took her a while to react.

Back at the Spirit Rhythm Land, Li Jin had gone to chase the person who stole the seven-star card ring, but ended up trapped inside a 【Maze Card】. He was apologizing for failing to retrieve the seven-star card ring.

Ning Zhu said, both amused and exasperated: “Senior Li, you’re saying the same thing as Professor Li. But this was just an accident—it has nothing to do with anyone.”

“Besides, I never considered that seven-star card ring mine.” She paused slightly, then looked at Li Jin and said: “Compared to that card ring, I would rather win a real one that belongs to me.”