Alice Was at Death's Door

Lin Ke'er waited anxiously at the entrance to the field. Nearly all the students from her class participating in this card draw had already come out, yet Shen Sui was nowhere to be seen.

Nothing happened to him, did it?

The moment she thought of Shen Sui insisting on choosing Dawn Continent, Lin Ke'er had a bad feeling.

Could it be that the follower he drew had already died in an accident?

If it was Dawn Continent, something like that really could happen! There had once been an unlucky lucky guy who had boldly chosen Dawn Continent as his Soul Card World. He had drawn a powerful twelfth-tier follower, yet before he could even leave the card-drawing room, his follower had been killed by Divine Punishment falling from the sky.

By noon, most people had already left Fourth High School's field. Collecting twenty cards in seven days meant that the examinees could not afford to waste a single moment.

Lin Ke'er kept waiting. At last, she spotted Shen Sui behind the dark green wire fence.

"How did it go?" Lin Ke'er asked cautiously, afraid of touching a sore spot.

She had already prepared a speech in her mind to console Shen Sui.

If the Duel Exam did not work out, they still had the regular college entrance exam.

"I drew a pretty good Follower Card," Shen Sui said with a smile. He was not the sort of person who deliberately hid his success even from those who cared about him.

"A Magic Apprentice? That's pretty good." Looking at Shen Sui's delight, Lin Ke'er did not voice what she was thinking.

In Dawn Continent, Magic Apprentices were at the very bottom. This card was not actually an exceptional draw.

"The card effect seems really good." When her gaze landed on Alice's effect description, her eyes suddenly lit up. Alice's effect was extremely powerful—enough to serve as the core of an entire deck. "I never expected a one-star follower to have such a powerful effect!"

Normally, it would not, so I made it myself.

Shen Sui quietly thought to himself.

"But don't let your guard down," Lin Ke'er quickly said. "A powerful effect does not mean your follower herself is powerful. Dawn Continent is very dangerous. You need to guide your follower and keep her from getting involved in dangerous matters."

"If she doesn't participate in events, I won't be able to obtain enough cards to build a deck," Shen Sui said.

That was why so few people chose this world. It was dangerous, but if they did not want to be directly disqualified, they had to make their followers engage in enough activities.

"As long as your Soul Card Follower is still alive, even if you fail the Duel Exam, you haven't completely lost the chance to become a professional Soul Card Master," Lin Ke'er said very seriously. After seeing Shen Sui's Soul Card effect, she felt that he truly had the potential to become a professional Soul Card Master. "Your Soul Card Follower is very strong. There's no need to risk her life for the Duel Exam. You can slowly accumulate enough cards over time, then debut through amateur dueling tournaments and become a professional Soul Card Master through the promotion matches..."

Shen Sui shook his head. "Too slow."

He was penniless now and could only live in the school dormitory. Even his meal expenses these past few days had been covered by Lin Ke'er out of pity. But he could not rely on Lin Ke'er forever.

"I have my own plan, Teacher Lin," Shen Sui said earnestly.

Lin Ke'er said nothing more. She handed Shen Sui the information she had gathered on Dawn Continent and told him to study it carefully.

Although few Soul Card Masters chose Dawn Continent as their Soul Card World, the world was vast, and there was never any shortage of reckless fools who refused to believe the warnings. The intelligence gathered by Soul Card Masters both domestically and abroad had roughly outlined this world where gods fought among themselves.

Shen Sui was also curious about what had happened in this world during the nearly thousand years since his save file had been deleted.

What concerned him most was Vivian's cause of death.

As a romanceable character in the game, Vivian's ideal was the main storyline of the Twilight of the Gods route in Dawn Link. This girl, who had sworn to destroy every god in the world and declared, "There should be no gods above all living beings," had ultimately been burned alive by the people she had saved.

What exactly had happened in between? Vivian had been the strongest character in the game besides him. During the mission to kill the Lord of the Blazing Sun, she had held back three chief gods by herself without falling behind. What could have made her willingly accept being burned to death?

With those questions in mind, Shen Sui returned to his dormitory. Considering Shen Sui's withdrawn nature and mental health issues, the school did not dare assign him to a shared dorm. Thus, he was the only occupant of this eight-person room. The dorm supervisor's room was right next door, and whenever Shen Sui was in his dorm, the supervisor came to check on him once every hour.

Shen Sui did not mind. After all, the school was afraid something might happen to him again.

His main task now was to quickly grind out twenty cards and qualify for the Duel Exam.

When Shen Sui activated the Duel Instrument, he discovered that Alice continued acting on her own whenever he was not looking at it. That made sense. Dawn Continent was now a real world, not a game. There was no pause button.

Alice had used magic to harvest a mu of wheat, but when she turned to look at the village, she found it already engulfed in flames.

A group of vicious criminals had stormed the village and slaughtered every man there. They gathered the women together and called out the name of the God of Sin they worshipped. They intended to take the women to the City of Sin for sacrifice.

Hidden in the grass, Alice saw it all. She saw her aunt crying in anguish and her close friend Anna's despairing gaze, but she could do nothing, because she was only a Magic Apprentice.

The leader of the criminals sensed someone watching him. He cast a second-tier spell in Alice's direction: Death's Favor.

Alice could not dodge. The spell struck her, and she tumbled down the hillside.

Alice was severely injured and at death's door.

Shen Sui's Duel Instrument immediately sounded an alert.

Fuck! I looked away for only a moment—how was my follower already at death's door?!

Save her, save her, save her!

Hurry up and save her!

Shen Sui immediately entered a command into the Duel Instrument.

You appeared beside Alice and cast the fifteenth-tier spell: Revival.

Ding! You obtained the Spell Card: Revival

Card Name: Revival

Category: Spell Card

Star Rating: 15 Stars

Effect: Target one follower in your graveyard and activate. Special Summon it to your field.

Alice regained her vitality. Sitting beside the stream, she thought of her aunt's anguished cries and Anna's despairing gaze. She began to weep. She had nowhere to go, had lost all her friends, and was powerless to do anything.

Excellent! This is exactly the moment to guide her!

Shen Sui immediately seized the opportunity and entered a command into the Duel Instrument.

You used magic to enter Alice's mage ring. Your voice rang out, startling the grieving girl.

O grieving girl! Do you desire power?

Who are you?

I am Clyde Modena, the Twilight Bishop. I can help you fulfill your wish and grant you great power.

What do you want from me?

Alice was very cautious. Ever since she was young, people had told her that nothing in this world came for free, and that every gift already had its price marked behind it.

Hey, hey, hey! I'm giving you cheats here, and you're asking what I want?

Do cheats need a reason?

Shen Sui grumbled inwardly, but he knew this was the key to gaining Alice's trust, so he immediately replied:

I was betrayed by my enemies and lost my body. I need you to gather materials to reconstruct it. In exchange, I can grant you great power and, when necessary, help you resolve certain troubles.

This was a lie!

Shen Sui's character could actually move freely, but Alice was his Soul Card Follower. He did not dare let Alice out of his sight.

In truth, Shen Sui was confident that the items in his inventory alone could turn Alice into a reasonably capable mage. But if he did that, he would not obtain many cards.

People had studied this before: the weaker the Soul Card Follower drawn, the more action-type Spell Cards one could obtain as that follower gradually grew stronger, and the higher the quality of those cards would be.

Of course, considering the survival rate of Soul Card Followers, most people still hoped their followers would be somewhat stronger.

Really? I don't believe you.

"Fuck! What's wrong with you?! You don't even want cheats when they're handed to you?!" Shen Sui saw Alice's response and jumped up in fury.