Alice! What are you doing?!

Shen Sui, as expected, moved in immediately after the Duel Exam.

The dormitories at Magic City Tianyi Academy were even more luxurious than Shen Sui had imagined, even slightly better equipped than some single-person apartments.

As the first student to pass the Duel Exam that day, and also the first student the academy had welcomed, Shen Sui naturally had the freedom to choose his dormitory.

Freedom of choice, in practice, meant picking between a single room or a double room.

Shen Sui naturally chose the single room—he had no habit of sparring swordsmanship with others.

An assistant coach from the academy was assigned to receive him.

Many duel academies in Huaxia were more like youth training clubs. Aside from the necessary cultural courses, students spent most of their time operating within the Soul Card World to obtain new cards.

Tianyi Academy was a textbook example of a youth training club. Apart from cultural classes, all the other teachers in the academy were professional players from the Tianyi Club.

"Excuse me, how do I get to the academy's Soul Card Shop?" Shen Sui asked.

"The Soul Card Shop? Are you planning to buy Soul Cards?" The assistant coach, named Wang Ming, was quite friendly. This was the guy who had obliterated a five-segment Soul Card Master in a livestream—a future rising star. "Indeed, relying solely on your own Soul Card World to gather the forty-card deck required for the Points Tournament is very difficult."

"No, I'm here to sell cards," Shen Sui said.

"Huh?" Wang Ming shot Shen Sui a surprised look.

A freshman selling cards—even in other well-established duel academies, that was extremely rare, wasn't it? Right after becoming a Soul Card Master, card count was already low. He'd barely scraped together twenty cards to pass the Duel Exam, and now, right after the exam, he wanted to sell them?

"I'm short on money," Shen Sui said, seeing Wang Ming's puzzled expression.

Wang Ming immediately understood.

"Your family's limiting your allowance, right? I get it, I get it."

"No, I'm just plain broke." Shen Sui found it strange how Wang Ming had jumped to the conclusion that he had a family. —Wait, shouldn't most people have families, though?

"Then that 15-star Soul Card of yours..."

"Oh, lucky find. Picked it up on the roadside." Shen Sui made up a casual excuse.

Wang Ming's eyes suddenly flickered. "If you want to sell cards, you don't necessarily have to list them on the Soul Card Shop's online channel. We can use the offline channel at the Soul Card Shop."

"Offline channel?"

"Yes, it's a channel specifically for Soul Card Masters who want to trade or exchange cards. It's for buying or swapping specific cards, so you don't have to worry about your desired Soul Card being snatched up by someone faster." Wang Ming explained.

"What card are you looking to sell? Can I take a look?" After all that talk, Wang Ming finally revealed his main intention. "I've actually been looking to buy some Soul Cards recently to push for the second rank."

Wang Ming planned to advance by the end of the year and was currently doing everything he could to strengthen his deck.

Given Shen Sui's performance in the Duel Exam, the cards he was selling should be decent.

Shen Sui pulled out the [Greater Healing Spell].

It was a card that restored health. For Shen Sui, it was usable but unnecessary—a waste of Soul Points. Better to trade it for something valuable, like money.

"A 7-star spell card that restores 3500 health?" Wang Ming's eyes lit up the moment he saw the card in Shen Sui's hand.

You see, in Soul Card Duels, health-related values generally followed a standard of 400 points per star. A 7-star spell card could theoretically restore up to 2800 health at most.

Similarly, the Spirit Value of Follower Cards adhered to this standard—a 5-star blank Follower Card's standard Spirit Value should be 2000.

However, you couldn't rule out the existence of over-standard cards, and the [Greater Healing Spell] in Shen Sui's hand was unquestionably one of them, exceeding conventional expectations.

In fact, the first card Shen Sui had sold, [Fireball Spell], was also over-standard—1 star, 500 damage—which was why it had been snapped up instantly.

"Twelve thousand! I'll give you twelve thousand for this card. Let's be friends." Wang Ming firmly grasped Shen Sui's hand, as if afraid he might leave the next second.

Twelve thousand for a 7-star card was an outrageous premium.

The suggested retail price for a 7-star card was 7000. Twelve thousand was already the price of a 12-star card.

Of course, the suggested price was just that—suggested. In reality, a card's price also depended on its strength, rarity, and artwork. This was also due to national price controls keeping domestic Soul Card prices generally low.

If you went by the suggested price, a 15-star Soul Card would only cost 15,000. Do you think you could buy a 15-star Soul Card for 15,000? You couldn't even get one for 150,000.

Generally, high-strength cards far exceeded their suggested prices, and handsome or beautiful Follower Cards also sold for more.

If a Follower Card was too ugly, even decent strength wouldn't fetch a good price.

Of course, Wang Ming's premium wasn't just for the over-standard [Greater Healing Spell]—part of it was an extra gesture to make friends with Shen Sui.

Shen Sui liked making friends like this—generous and straightforward.

The Soul Card Shop at Tianyi Academy was huge, so huge that Shen Sui felt like he'd walked into some kind of mall.

Unlike the cramped, internet-cafe-like Soul Card Shop from high school, stepping into the lobby immediately brought a sense of comfort from the spacious environment.

A single Soul Card Shop occupied an entire floor. Bright, warm lighting made the atmosphere feel especially cozy, and the clean, tidy displays gave the impression of entering an upscale club.

"This is the largest Soul Card Shop in Magic City," Wang Ming introduced. "It's not just the academy's shop—it's also open to the public."

"Are there discounts for buying cards here?" Shen Sui asked. "What's different from a regular Soul Card Shop?"

"No difference." Wang Ming lifted his chin, speaking with great pride. "But it feels more prestigious."

Shen Sui nearly stumbled and fell flat on his face.

If there's no difference, what are you so proud of?!

"Actually, large Soul Card Shops do have one special feature," Wang Ming explained. "You can upgrade your Duel Instrument there and add some paid applications."

"Paid app? A reminder service when you obtain cards?"

"It's more than that. There's also the Time Flow Regulator." Wang Ming said. "It lets you adjust the time flow between the real world and the Soul Card World. When you have something important in reality, like participating in a duel, you can use it to prevent your Soul Cards in the Soul Card World from slipping out of your control. You can also speed things up to get more Soul Cards faster. However, since there are multiple Soul Cards in the Soul Card World, the regulator only adjusts the time around your Soul Card, creating something like a Spacetime Secret Realm phenomenon in the Soul Card World."

"That's pretty good." Shen Sui's eyes lit up. He needed something like this. "How much?"

"499."

"A day?"

"An hour."

"Fuck! Now I finally know why the Soul Card Shop is so rich." Shen Sui complained.

"You think? But it's precisely these paid services that widen the gap between commoners and the rich." Wang Ming spread his hands. Even someone like him, who could drop twelve thousand on a 7-star card, couldn't afford to use the regulator for long.

"By the way, if your Soul Card has something important happening outside the regulator's range, it's best not to mess with it. There was once a Soul Card Master who slowed down time while his Soul Card was going to save his lover. It caused the lover's death, and that Soul Card ended up dying for love."

As they talked, the two arrived at the trading spot.

The offline channel simply skipped the step of uploading to the online store.

Shen Sui and Wang Ming found a machine. After the data transfer, the [Greater Healing Spell] card appeared on Wang Ming's Blank Card, while the card in Shen Sui's hand, which originally held [Greater Healing Spell], became a Blank Card. In this world, directly exchanging cards wasn't possible, because every card a Soul Card Master obtained from the Soul Card World had its own encryption. Only the owner's Duel Instrument could decode and use it. Handing the card directly to someone else rendered it completely unusable.

The trading process involved decoding the card, transferring the data, and writing it onto a Blank Card the other party could use.

Therefore, the steps of erasing, transferring, and writing were unavoidable, whether online or offline.

"Pleasure doing business! If you get any more cards like this in the future, sell them to me." Wang Ming said with a smile. "My deck loves this kind of card."

Loving recovery-type cards—either a Netherworld player or a torturer.

The two exchanged a knowing smile, each probably guessing the other's thoughts.

With a lump sum of twelve thousand coming in, Shen Sui finally felt the pressure of life ease for now.

As a student of Tianyi Academy, accommodation was free, utilities were free, and as long as he ate in the cafeteria, even food costs were covered. For Shen Sui, at least during his years at Tianyi Academy, the income from selling cards was pure savings.

In a good mood, Shen Sui returned to his dorm and lay down on the soft bed.

Thinking about it, Alice was really pulling her weight. She kept churning out cards for him, which was basically making him money.

Alright, let me see what Alice is up to now.

Although only a day had passed in the real world, several days had gone by on the Dawn Continent.

Knowing Alice's talent for stirring up trouble, Shen Sui was still a bit worried she might cause some mess for him.

He opened the Duel Instrument, went to the main page, and read the last line of the text description. In an instant, he felt blood rush to his head:

[Alice has become the leader of the villains.]

[She will participate in the Sinful Festival as one of the High Priests of the festival.]

[Alice is leading the villains toward the City of Sin, Modena.]

Holy shit!

Al! ice!

What have you done?!