KC Cup Preparations, Spirit Companion Research and Analysis!

After returning to the preparation room, You Chen immediately checked the results of the draw.

He realized he didn't have anything else to do for the morning after his duel.

He would have to wait for the elimination rounds to conclude, so his next match wouldn't be until the afternoon.

"Typical of you, getting a good start."

"For a moment there, I almost thought you were going to lose."

"But thankfully, you're meticulous enough."

"You must be the most meticulous man."

Hua Ningning walked up to him and said softly.

"?" You Chen couldn't help but feel like Hua Ningning was insulting him, no matter how he heard it.

But he had no proof, so he was helpless.

"I checked, you're in the third match, which isn't bad. Just wait until you're done before you leave," You Chen said after looking at the schedule. He saw it wasn't far off, so he decided to wait.

For 500,000, what was an hour's wait?

"It seems you do have some chivalry after all," Hua Ningning said, her eyes glinting with a mischievous sparkle, teasing him.

"If you pay more, I can have even more chivalry," You Chen replied.

Only then did Hua Ningning realize that he was simply after the commission.

She had to admit, she had met all sorts of men, but without exception, they would all pretend to be generous and gentlemanly in front of her. None had ever expressed their desire for money so unreservedly.

"I'm going to prepare now, Mr. More Money," Hua Ningning was also quick to pick up on and play along with the joke.

Since Hua Ningning was in the third match, she had to go prepare, so she didn't say much more and turned to leave.

This was also why You Chen didn't dislike chatting with Hua Ningning.

If someone had a "princess complex," You Chen might not even bother with them, no matter how much money was involved.

After You Chen sat down alone, with nothing to do, he simply took out his phone to browse news and short videos.

However, after watching for a while, You Chen's face scrunched up like an old man on the subway.

The news he was reading looked like prank videos from a meme compilation.

"Recently, researchers in Ba Country discovered an ancient interdimensional battlefield near the Dead Sea, the Sea of Death Domain. It includes ancient battlefields like the Lighthouse of the Sea of Death Domain, and they've also filmed many new types of spirits, achieving a major breakthrough."

"Beautiful Country has successfully breached a Level 8 Secret Realm, acquiring abundant resources."

"In the Dragon Kingdom, national-level researcher Mo Tianheng proposed the concept of Spirit Companions. He found that some duelists undergo significant changes in personality, and even strength, before and after duels."

"It also mentioned that spirits and humans can coexist, and spirits can even become human Spirit Companions."

"Research is currently underway, so stay tuned."

"The new domestic KC Cup tournament is in full swing, scheduled to begin in May. Prizes include rare cards and substantial cash. Come and claim them!"

You Chen scrolled through a lot of news in one go and realized how bizarrely pure this world was.

In his previous world, news was diverse, never so uniformly focused.

All the news was about cards and dueling.

It seemed that if it wasn't related to these things, no one paid attention.

However, it had to be said that dueling was indeed very important in this world. As the first news item showed, if you encountered spirits, conventional weapons were useless. Only dueling could save your neck.

And the first news item also reaffirmed the rarity of cards in this world. These cards couldn't be manufactured on demand; they required exploring unknown territories.

What was mentioned in the news were actually human activity zones.

If it was an unknown territory, it was almost exclusively inhabited by spirits.

Among these, the most representative were undoubtedly the secret realms.

Secret realms were the world of spirits, which could also be understood as the world depicted in card art stories.

They were also where You Chen's current chat group was located.

What he admired even more was that Dragon Kingdom researcher, Mo Tianheng!

After all, in a world without anime or card art stories, Mo Tianheng was able to put forth the concept of Spirit Companions and boldly propose the theory that humans and spirits could actually coexist.

He was undoubtedly a genius.

You Chen strongly agreed with this.

As a Card Player, there was a common saying that Card Players don't find partners.

In reality, it wasn't that Card Players didn't find partners.

It was that spirits were simply too appealing, making it difficult for humans to catch a Card Player's eye.

If one could have fish roe with mermaids and make sushi, who wouldn't want a partner?

He even wished he could become the Underworld God, and that spirits would choose him as their partner.

You Chen also realized that this world held too many existences to explore.

No matter what, he needed to have enough strength.

Only then could he do more.

And while the Underworld Deck was certainly fun and satisfying, it wasn't a long-term solution.

So You Chen wouldn't be content with the status quo.

He had already started preparing a new deck, one that was both soulful and powerful, to protect himself.

Soul! It would never go out of style.

The KC Cup was still about three months away, so he had plenty of time to prepare.

The KC Cup was arguably the highest-level competition in the Dragon Kingdom. At that point, it wouldn't be child's play like this. Those who made it into the KC Cup were undoubtedly professional duelists.

Relying on the Underworld Deck to win everywhere wasn't realistic.

At this point, You Chen had already closed the news and noticed a message notification on Kaiba Magazine.

"Huh, what's going on? 99+ unread messages?"

Could it be that this paper got trending?

You Chen clicked into Kaiba Magazine and was immediately shocked to see a red "99+" for unread messages on the bell icon in the top right corner of the app.

He felt a little excited.

After all, when he submitted this short paper, he never expected it to go viral.

Clicking in, he found, as expected, a lot of comments.

"This paper is indeed very unique, completely different from those that just churn out garbage for money."

"The insights are completely different, and even the deck building ideas are explained in great detail. I feel like I learned something."

"Pfft! Just another armchair strategist, deliberately using different viewpoints to seek attention. But how many people can actually win with a deck built this way?"

"Let your dueling do the talking, all this talk is useless."

"Agreed! Probably a cloud duelist."

"This build can actually be played? LOL, not a single high-level monster, all low-level."

As expected, there was a small portion of supporters, but a large number of the audience were critical keyboard warriors.

To show off their expertise, they would even deliberately use a lot of jargon and deck-building theories to refute the flaws in his paper.

You Chen didn't care; no matter the world, there were always people like this.

Of course, there were also supporters who argued with those people.

And when there were arguments, it meant something was popular.

What You Chen was more interested in was one particular message.

"Your insight is very unique, and I really agree with it. I wonder if we could exchange contact information?"

The other party directly provided contact information, a QQ number.

You Chen raised an eyebrow. He understood the supporters, as they simply resonated with his ideas, but he hadn't expected someone to ask for his contact information.

However, You Chen didn't add them.

Simply because there were many online scammers, and these scammers would always start by agreeing with your views, asking for contact information, and then gradually drawing you into their trap.

There was another message, sent by an editor from Kaiba Magazine.

"Hello, your paper has passed the review. We can proceed with the signing process."

Only then did You Chen realize he hadn't even signed a contract yet. How did it get trending?

That's strange.

So it wasn't trending for that reason. But then where did all this traffic come from?

Did this just turn into a ghost story?

I went out today, so the update is a little late.