Chapter 37

Chapter 37

When the number of applicants was announced, even the Aries Division itself was stunned.

Good heavens…

They’re going this big?!

Ning Zhu was also surprised. She indeed felt that there were quite a lot of people in the Aries Division applying, because everyone around her had signed up without exception.

For example, Lu Xianle and Lin Ting, as well as Li Leyang’s entire dormitory, plus those preparatory class students who often attended classes together… even Cai Xinji was included.

After the last incident, Cai Xinji treated Ning Zhu like a mouse seeing a cat, avoiding her every day.

A perfectly fine three-star [Spirit Energy Card], yet afterward he went home and cried for a long time, yelling and demanding a recheck, only to be severely beaten by his own father.

The Cai family foundation wasn’t deep; they had only risen in recent years through making [Pet Cards].

[Pet Cards] were not highly difficult, but the competition was extremely brutal. They had always wanted to transform and try making [Character Cards], but they had never managed to recruit a truly outstanding card maker.

Every year, the top graduates of the Spirit Card Academy became targets fiercely competed for by major card corporations. Because of this, those companies desperately built good relationships with the academy, especially with the heads of each division…

For example, the Libra Division head was not only someone with students all over the world, but also an extremely outstanding card maker himself.

Was there even any need to question the answer given by Libra Sequence Two?

Was “fairness” fake, then?!

Cai Xinji actually questioned the conclusion he gave, and Boss Cai was so angry his teeth itched. He pulled out a [Vine Whip Card] and lashed Cai Xinji furiously.

Cai Xinji’s nerves were already in pain from the [Spirit Energy Card], and then he got another beating from his own father…

This time, he behaved obediently.

For nearly two months, he didn’t even dare look at Ning Zhu once.

He actually didn’t want to participate in the freshman cup selection, but… he didn’t dare not register.

As a student of the Aries Division, if he didn’t register, it would be too embarrassing!

And… if he didn’t register, his father would beat him again.

So it went: not all Aries Division students were “brave little sheep.” There were also plenty of “cowardly sheep” and “lazy sheep,” but they simply couldn’t resist the overall atmosphere of the division.

Everyone around them had registered; not registering yourself would be far too shameful.

Besides, it was just registering. If you were really poor in skill, you could just take any card and go fight a match anyway.

And so, this enormous number of applicants came into being!

The upperclassmen of the Aries Division were extremely excited, finally able to hold their heads high on the campus forum and fiercely mock the Libra Division.

The upperclassmen of the Libra Division scoffed at this, saying, “What’s the point? Just a mob produced by herd mentality!”

The result of the registrations gave the teachers of the Aries Division a massive headache.

So many people… yet the competition time was extremely limited.

The freshman cup officially begins in December. Although there is still a month left, in reality the time left for internal selection is not much at all.

Only about three to five days. After selecting the seeded players, there is still a one-month specialized training period. Not to mention improving individual strength, the coordination and teamwork within groups must also be rigorously forged.

The Spirit Card Academy placed great importance on the freshman cup, almost wanting to take first place in both singles and doubles events.

Who would have thought that the Aries Division alone would have over a thousand applicants?

How were they supposed to select from that?!

Even if it were a knockout tournament, the first round alone would require more than six hundred matches.

After six hundred matches, the students might be fine—but what about the refereeing teachers? Their eyes would truly be spinning and their brains going numb.

There was a limited number of referees, and they couldn’t do without them, nor could just anyone act as one.

This competition was no joke; if handled recklessly, it could cause personal safety issues!

At that point, even calculating sixty matches a day, it would still take a full ten days just to finish the first round.

Don’t even think a simple “big crowd = big problem” stops there—this only gets worse.

Second round has three hundred matches, third round has one hundred and fifty…

The teachers of the Aries Division were first happy, then ended up with a headache so bad it felt like it had doubled. But they couldn’t dampen the students’ enthusiasm after all… they were all “passionate little lambs,” weren’t they!

Li Suwen urgently called a meeting.

Senior-year teachers still had to give classes, so they could only squeeze out spare time to act as refereeing teachers.

First-year teachers were relatively fine. Aries Division students who hadn’t signed up could go audit Libra Division classes anyway. The academy already used a flexible class system, so adjusting schedules wasn’t a big problem.

Even so, the manpower was still far from enough.

The third-year grade director said, “How about a free-for-all?”

Li Suwen looked at her. “Explain.”

The third-year grade director was called Yan Jingyao, a woman in her forties or fifties wearing glasses. She cleared her throat and said, “My daughter plays that game every day—what’s it called, Chicken Dinner? I think it’s just a bunch of people airdropped onto an island, then they all fight in chaos…”

A younger Aries Division teacher said, “Ah, that? You only need a hundred-person [Scenario Card] for that!”

Li Suwen had always been single and didn’t interact much with ordinary people, so she had limited understanding of their things. Curious, she asked, “Explain in detail.”

Yan Jingyao directly projected her phone onto the screen and opened the game, carefully introducing it to Li Suwen.

Li Suwen listened very seriously and said, “This format is quite interesting. If so, then we only need… to prepare twelve rounds of matches first. In each round, over a hundred students compete at the same time, and we see who survives until the end.”

Another teacher said, “This format depends too much on luck. Wouldn’t it be unfair?”

Li Suwen replied, “Luck is also part of strength.”

“What if seeded players get eliminated…”

“Then they aren’t seeded players.”

The sixth-year grade director was also quite young, and it seemed he himself played these kinds of games. He said, “I have an idea.”

Li Suwen looked at him. “Go on.”

The sixth-year grade director said, “For the first twelve rounds, we can let more people qualify each round—say, eight people. Then those ninety-six qualified students enter a thirteenth round, and finally two students are selected from that thirteenth round as the finalists.”

Yan Jingyao’s eyes lit up. “Good idea! That way, students in the thirteenth round will likely form teams on their own, and the last two standing will already have some level of tacit understanding. That will help a lot in the later duo competition!”

Another teacher still raised doubts. “But what if someone stirs trouble? Like forming factions to target specific students?”

Li Suwen said, “That’s easy. We can set the rules in advance, and the arena will be monitored. Anyone violating rules will be directly disqualified.”

“Mm… but how do we ensure safety? So many people together isn’t a small matter.”

“And we still need them to be able to display their full strength.”

“Mainly, with so many people fighting at once, if something goes wrong and the teachers can’t rescue them in time, it would be very risky.”

“Exactly. If we could fully supervise everything, we wouldn’t need this much trouble—we could just run six hundred simultaneous 1v1 matches.”

The discussion looped back again.

It really wasn’t easy.

Card master competitions carried risk; in past years, there had already been cases of serious injury.

However, there were dedicated medical-type card masters on-site who would immediately provide treatment. Although pain was unavoidable, it generally wouldn’t leave lasting consequences.

The students were still young and their combat ability was average, so most teachers could keep things under control. But if the number of participants was too large, any accident would become something no one could handle.

For children from card master families, this was manageable—they were familiar with such competitions and mentally prepared.

But for those from ordinary backgrounds, it was different. In peaceful times, which parent could accept their child getting injured at school?

The first lesson of the semester used [Illusion Cards], where all bleeding scenes were fake and no one was actually hurt.

But if [Illusion Cards] were used in an official competition, then the match would lose its meaning entirely.

Yan Jingyao suddenly said again, “How about trying… [Perception Cards]?”

This was the latest project from the technology R&D department of the Spirit Card Academy. It was developed by layering additional functionality onto the [Scenario Card], mainly for practical combat training of card masters.

At present, this type of card was still in clinical testing. The technology was already mature enough, but it had not been widely promoted.

The reason was simple: the cost was slightly high. Ordinary card masters couldn’t afford it, and even major aristocratic families didn’t have an urgent need for it yet. After all… life was too peaceful, with no real need for “troop training.”

Li Suwen decided, “Approved! The principal also happens to want to promote these cards… I’ll apply to the R&D department. We should be able to get quite a few finished cards.”

—

After seeing the number of applicants, the little Aries were no longer anxious.

Too many people…

Too few slots…

When it’s just about participation, what’s there to be anxious about!

Lu Xianle said even more happily, “Brilliant! If everyone is embarrassing themselves together, why not enjoy it!”

Yes, her biggest worry was that she was too weak and would embarrass herself beyond redemption.

Now there were over a thousand people to embarrass themselves together with her…

No need to be anxious anymore—this is just pure entertainment!

The “fun sheep” also completely gave up.

His worry had been failing to make the cut. Now…

Worrying was pointless. A thousand people crossing a single log bridge—just compete.

The next day, after the Aries Division announced the selection method, the entire academy was in an uproar.

The Libra Division stared wide-eyed: “What is this thing?!”

“Damn, this is like a card master version of a battle royale!”

“Ahhh, this batch of freshmen is way too lucky, I want to play too!!!”

“Why does only the Aries Division get this? Our Libra Division…”

“So annoying, we can’t even gather a hundred people.”

The Aries Division freshmen were confused at first. Only after someone on the forum explained did they understand.

They were already extremely familiar with the [Scenario Card]; their first class at the start of school was still fresh in their memory.

And this selection system using the [Perception Card] was an auxiliary card layered onto the [Scenario Card]. Card masters did not need to actually enter the [Scenario Card] themselves. Instead, through the [Perception Card], they would directly sync perception with their [Character Cards], allowing the [Character Cards] to fight inside the [Scenario Card] as substitutes.

This actually increased the demands on card masters.

Not only did they need to create sufficiently powerful [Character Cards] themselves, but it also tested their perceptual ability. If their synchronization level was insufficient, they might not even be able to control their [Character Cards] to walk—they would be eliminated immediately.

Someone asked, “What about [Spell Cards]? And [Equipment Cards]?”

Someone who understood explained, “Simply put, you treat your [Character Card] as your avatar fighting inside the [Scenario Card].”

“This…”

“Don’t underestimate it, this is very difficult! If you can get your [Character Card] to successfully cast [Spell Cards], then doing so in real life becomes even easier!”

“I participated in the development of [Perception Cards], so I can clearly tell everyone—this is a card designed specifically for training card masters. The difficulty is definitely high.”

The little Aries became even more excited.

The selection was set for two days later, with a total of twelve matches. Teachers would assign groups based on admission tri-column rankings and monthly exam results.

In other words, each match would include high-achieving and high-talent students, average-achieving and average-talent students, and those who were just… average in everything.

Ning Zhu received her assigned match.

Just then, Li Leyang sent her a message asking, “Which match are you in? I’m in the first match, holy crap!”

Ning Zhu paused for a moment, then replied, “I’m in the twelfth match.”

Men’s dormitory.

A Fun Sheep fainted from crying on his bed.