Just as Shen Sui had expected, he moved in directly after the Duel Exam.
The dormitories at Magic City Tianyi Academy were even more luxurious than Shen Sui had imagined, with facilities that surpassed some studio apartments.
As the first student to pass the Duel Exam that day—and the first student Tianyi Academy had welcomed—Shen Sui naturally received the right to freely choose his dormitory.
Though calling it freedom of choice was a stretch. It was really just choosing between a single room and a double room.
Shen Sui naturally chose the single room. He had no habit of comparing swordsmanship with other people.
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 academic classes, students spent most of their time operating within the Soul Card World and acquiring more new cards.
Tianyi Academy was a textbook youth training club. Aside from academic teachers, all the other instructors at the academy were professional players from Tianyi Club.
"Excuse me, how do I get to the Soul Card Shop?" Shen Sui asked.
"The Soul Card Shop? Are you planning to buy Life Cards?" The assistant coach, Wang Ming, was very friendly. This was the guy who had brutally defeated a fifth-tier Soul Card Master on a livestream, a future rising star without question. "True enough, it's hard to assemble the forty-card deck required for the Points Tournament by relying on your own Soul Card World alone."
"No, I'm going to sell cards," Shen Sui said.
"Huh?" Wang Ming gave Shen Sui a surprised look.
A freshman selling cards was rare even at more established Duel Academies, wasn't it? Newly awakened Soul Card Masters already had very few cards to begin with. He had finally scraped together twenty cards to pass the Duel Exam, and now he planned to sell them as soon as the exam was over?
"I need money." Shen Sui saw the confusion in Wang Ming's eyes and explained.
Wang Ming immediately understood.
"Your family has restricted your living expenses, right? I get it, I get it."
"No, I'm just plain poor." Shen Sui found it strange that Wang Ming had concluded he must have family. No, wait, shouldn't normal people all have families?
"Then that 15-star Life Card of yours..."
"Oh, I got lucky. Picked it up off the street." Shen Sui casually made something up.
Wang Ming's eyes suddenly shifted as he said, "If you want to sell cards, you don't necessarily have to list them through the Soul Card Shop's online channels. We can use the Soul Card Shop's offline channel."
"Offline channel?"
"Yes. It's specially prepared for Soul Card Masters who want to trade cards or make fixed transactions. It's a channel for buying or exchanging specific cards, so you won't have to worry about someone else snatching the Life Card you want first." Wang Ming explained.
"What card do you want to sell? Can I take a look?" After saying all that, Wang Ming finally revealed his real purpose. "I've actually been looking to buy some Life Cards recently so I can push for second-tier Soul Card Master."
Wang Ming planned to advance his rank at the end of the year and was currently doing everything he could to strengthen his deck.
Judging by Shen Sui's performance in the Duel Exam, the cards he wanted to sell should not be weak.
Shen Sui took out Greater Healing Spell.
It was a card that restored health. Shen Sui could use it, but there was no real need to. It wasted Soul Points, so he might as well trade it for something more valuable, like money.
"A 7-star Spell Card that restores 3,500 health?" The instant Wang Ming saw the card in Shen Sui's hand, his eyes lit up.
In a Soul Card Duel, values related to health generally followed the standard of 400 points per star. Theoretically, a 7-star Spell Card could restore at most 2,800 health.
The Spirit Value of Follower Cards also followed this standard. A 5-star blank Follower Card should have a standard Spirit Value of 2,000.
Of course, overpowered cards did exist, and Greater Healing Spell in Shen Sui's hand was undoubtedly one of them, exceeding the limits of common understanding.
In fact, the first Fireball Spell Shen Sui had sold was also overpowered, dealing 500 damage at 1 star. That was why someone had bought it instantly.
"Twelve thousand! I'll pay twelve thousand for this card. Let's be friends." Wang Ming tightly clasped Shen Sui's hand, as if afraid Shen Sui would leave the very next second.
Paying twelve thousand for a 7-star card was an absolutely outrageous premium.
The suggested price for a 7-star card was seven thousand. Twelve thousand was already the price of a 12-star card.
Of course, a suggested price was only a suggestion. A card's actual price was also related to its strength, rarity, and artwork. Domestic Life Card prices were generally low only because of national price controls.
If cards really sold according to suggested prices, a 15-star Life Card would cost only fifteen thousand. Did anyone really think fifteen thousand could buy a 15-star Life Card? Even one hundred and fifty thousand might not be enough.
Generally speaking, powerful cards sold for far above their suggested price, and handsome or beautiful Follower Cards were also more expensive.
But if a Follower Card was too ugly, then even if it was fairly strong, it would not fetch a good price.
Naturally, Wang Ming's premium was not only for the overpowered Greater Healing Spell. Part of it was also extra money he was willing to pay to befriend Shen Sui.
Shen Sui liked making friends like this—rich and straightforward.
Tianyi Academy's Soul Card Shop was enormous, so enormous that Shen Sui thought he had walked into a mall.
Unlike the cramped Soul Card Shop at his high school, which had been like an internet café, the moment he entered the lobby, he felt the comfort brought by the spacious environment.
A single Soul Card Shop occupied an entire floor. The bright, warm lighting made the atmosphere especially comfortable, while the clean and orderly displays gave it the feeling of an upscale private club.
"This is the largest Soul Card Shop in Magic City," Wang Ming introduced. "It isn't just the academy's Soul Card Shop. It's also open to the public."
"Do cards bought here come with a discount?" Shen Sui asked. "What's different from an ordinary Soul Card Shop?"
"There's no difference." Wang Ming lifted his chin and said proudly, "But it feels more prestigious."
Shen Sui stumbled and nearly fell to the floor.
What the hell were you proud of if there was no difference?!
"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 applications? Like notifications when you get a card?"
"More than that. There's also the Time Flow Regulator," Wang Ming said. "It lets you adjust the flow of time between the real world and the Soul Card World. When you have something important to do in reality, such as participating in a duel, you can use it to keep the Soul Cards in the Soul Card World from slipping beyond your control. You can also speed things up and quickly obtain more Life Cards. However, because there are multiple Soul Cards in the Soul Card World, the regulator only adjusts time around your own Soul Cards, creating something like a Spacetime Secret Realm within the Soul Card World."
"That sounds pretty good." Shen Sui's eyes lit up. He needed something like that. "How much does it cost?"
"Four ninety-nine."
"Per day?"
"Per hour."
"Fuck! Now I finally understand why Soul Card Shops are so rich." Shen Sui complained.
"What did you expect? But these paid services are exactly what widen the gap between ordinary people and the rich." Wang Ming spread his hands. Even someone like him, who could spend twelve thousand on a 7-star card, could not use the regulator for long periods.
"One more thing. If one of your Soul Cards has something important happening outside the regulator's range, you'd better not use it carelessly. There was once a Soul Card Master who slowed time while his Soul Card was on the way to save his lover, causing that lover's death. That Soul Card eventually died for love."
As they spoke, the two had already arrived at the transaction area.
The offline channel merely skipped the step of uploading the card to the online shop.
Shen Sui and Wang Ming found a machine. After the data transfer, Greater Healing Spell appeared on Wang Ming's Blank Card, while the card in Shen Sui's hand that had originally borne Greater Healing Spell became a Blank Card. In this world, cards could not be traded directly, because cards obtained by Soul Card Masters from the Soul Card World came with corresponding encryption. Only the owner's Duel Instrument could decode and use the card. If a card was handed directly to someone else, that person could not use it at all.
The transaction process involved decoding the card, transferring the data, and writing it onto a Blank Card the other party could use.
Therefore, the processes of erasing, transferring, and writing could not be skipped, whether the transaction was online or offline.
"Pleasure doing business with you! If you get more cards like this in the future, you can sell them to me." Wang Ming smiled. "My deck likes this sort of card."
Anyone who liked healing cards was either a Netherworld player or someone who enjoyed tormenting others.
The two exchanged smiles. They probably both understood what the other was thinking.
With twelve thousand credited to his account all at once, Shen Sui finally felt the pressure of poverty ease for the moment.
As a student of Tianyi Academy, his accommodation was free, as were water and electricity. As long as he ate in the cafeteria, he did not even need to pay for meals. For Shen Sui, at least during his years at Tianyi Academy, income from selling cards would be pure savings.
In a good mood, Shen Sui returned to his dormitory and lay down on the soft bed.
Come to think of it, Alice was really dependable. She kept producing cards for him like crazy, which was basically the same as making money for him.
All right, let's see what Alice is doing now.
Although only one day had passed in reality, several days had already passed on the Dawn Continent.
Thinking of Alice's talent for causing trouble, Shen Sui was a little worried that she might have gotten herself into something again.
He opened his Duel Instrument and went to the homepage. The moment he saw the final line of text, Shen Sui felt the blood rush to his head:
Alice had become the leader of the villains.
She would participate in the Sinful Festival as one of the festival's High Priests.
Alice was leading the villains toward Modena, the City of Sin.
Holy shit!
Alice!
What did you do?!
Before you continue