Card exchanges between Soul Card Masters with similar Soul Card Worlds were actually quite common, because Life Cards from Soul Card Worlds with the same attributes were compatible with one another most of the time.
Shen Sui agreed to the trade with Yue Tao without hesitation.
This Element · Magic Conversion Wheel was an exceptionally powerful Life Card.
Just from its name, Shen Sui could more or less guess that Yue Tao was looking for cards from the same archetype to build a deck.
After parting ways with Yue Tao, Shen Sui picked up his delivery and returned to the dormitory. After fiddling around for a while, he finally had his first computer in this world.
The internet in this world was highly developed as well, with an enormous ecosystem built around the Life Card system.
There were also countless forums related to Life Cards online.
Logically speaking, in such a developed online society, trending events usually came and went quickly. Yet to Shen Sui's surprise, the buzz surrounding him showed no signs of fading.
The main reason was that the genius girl named Xin Yuan Ying Xue had become famous in one stroke by defeating a Fifth-Order Soul Card Master head-on. Under the Xin Yuan Family's promotion, she had been trending heavily these past few days—winning championships here, trading blows with a Sixth-Order Soul Card Master there.
The sheer intensity of her trending presence gave Shen Sui the vague feeling of watching an internet celebrity from his previous life.
Naturally, this behavior drew dissatisfaction from some netizens.
What we want to see are world-class duels and information about world tournaments. Why is some unranked little girl constantly shoving herself in our faces?
A genius?
Are geniuses really that rare in this world?
Over in Little Japan, even a high school student has already won a National Champion title. You're not even a professional, and you still have the nerve to dominate the trending lists?
And so, the criticism came pouring in.
Then some troublemaking netizens dug up Shen Sui and compared him with Xin Yuan Ying Xue.
You both defeated Fifth-Order Soul Card Masters. If she's a genius girl, then Shen Sui is a genius too!
Watching the barrage of arguments, Shen Sui felt like he had been caught in the crossfire and could neither laugh nor cry.
Still, Xin Yuan Ying Xue.
Xin Yuan Tanchun's unkempt appearance immediately surfaced in his mind.
The surname Xin Yuan was exceedingly rare in Huaxia. Other than descendants from Ryukyu, there were only a few in the Northeast. So seeing the same surname and immediately associating the two of them was hardly surprising.
Sisters?
Shen Sui scrolled his mouse wheel.
Just as Lin Ke'er had said, information about World Number One was the scarcest in the world.
Although its highest combat power was inferior to the Mythical World, World Number One, Dawn Continent, was renowned throughout the Soul Card World for its danger and chaos. Even those apocalyptic zombie worlds were nowhere near as terrifying as Dawn Continent.
Shen Sui stroked his chin and glanced at the current world rankings.
First place was T.S. Malfoy from the United States. Not long ago, he had defeated You Wenqi, a Ninth-Order Soul Card Master from Huaxia, and claimed the championship of the latest Thor Cup.
Second place was You Wenqi, the Thor Cup runner-up and currently Huaxia's strongest Soul Card Master. Yet although You Wenqi dominated the vast majority of national-level events, he became a perennial runner-up whenever he reached the world stage. Call him weak, and he could always make it into the finals of world tournaments. Call him strong, and after all these years, he had not won a single world-class championship. Instead, during the few months he took off because his wife gave birth, a Ninth-Order Soul Card Master named Tan Song unexpectedly won the world-class Azure Dragon Cup, making You Wenqi's runner-up status shine even brighter.
Third place was Dongye Youzai from Little Japan. As a powerful Soul Card Master who had won two world-class championships last year, he had fallen silent for more than half a year after half his deck had been made into Forbidden Cards. At last, he had returned, and through his performances in several recent world tournaments, he had climbed back into the top three of the world rankings.
As a world where Soul Card Duels thrived, countless tournaments were held every day.
Store tournaments, amateur cups, professional leagues, and professional cup tournaments.
Among them, world-class events were all Category A Tournaments, while national-level events were divided into Categories A and B depending on their intensity and entry restrictions. Smaller regional professional events were all Category C Tournaments.
The prize money for these events was all extremely generous.
And because of the strong grassroots dueling culture, hosting dueling competitions had become the fastest and most effective form of publicity. Major corporations poured money into tournaments, and some amateur events even offered higher prizes than Category C Tournaments. This had also given rise to a group of professional amateur duelists who specialized in competing in amateur events for prize money.
After all, amateur tournaments were generally not very intense.
These professional amateur duelists usually possessed the strength of first- or second-order professionals, making them practically smurfing in amateur events. The most famous of them seemed to be someone named Yuan Youxin, whom netizens called the Amateur Duel King.
Of course, all that was still very far away for Shen Sui, a newcomer without even a rank.
What he mainly wanted to find out was where the Heaven's Chosen Cup was being held—yes, Xin Yuan Tanchun had told him everything except where he was supposed to compete.
The next day, when Shen Sui emerged from the subway station, the sight before him startled him.
It was a crowd stretching as far as the eye could see.
They had all come to watch the competition.
Could an amateur cup really draw this many spectators?
Perhaps it had something to do with the Heaven's Chosen Cup being free for spectators. But it was enough to show just how passionate people in this world were about Soul Card Duels.
After exerting tremendous effort, Shen Sui finally squeezed through the crowd and reached the event guidance desk.
Though it was only an amateur cup, Tianyi Park's organizers had arranged the venue according to major tournament standards. From the guidance service to the arena's style, everything emphasized professionalism and prestige.
The qualifiers consisted of ten matches in total, and whether one could advance to the elimination rounds depended on the number of victories.
A total of eight competitors would advance to the final elimination rounds.
If more than eight competitors went undefeated, they would continue being paired off to duel until only eight remained.
Most of the participants were duel enthusiasts. Against these opponents, Shen Sui's nearly perfected deck made winning relatively easy. He won nine matches in a row, averaging three turns per match.
He sat at the dueling table, toying with the Soul Point Card in his hand.
"Are you Shen Sui?"
An unfamiliar voice came from nearby.
Shen Sui looked over. The man was handsome and well dressed, but he looked somewhat foolish.
Shen Sui found it hard to describe the feeling.
How should he put it? He looked like the kind of fool with too much money who would be very easy to scam.
"I saw your duel videos on a video site." The man smoothly sat across from Shen Sui, then took out his number plate.
He was Shen Sui's opponent for the final qualifying match.
"Your chains are very powerful. But I'm sorry." The man planted his hands on his hips and declared proudly, "I'm taking this duel today. Because my deck is far better than yours!"
"Oh?" Shen Sui grew curious.
"Take a look!" The man took out a deck from his Duel Instrument and carefully, reverently placed it on the table as though worshipping Buddha. "I bought it for a fortune—half of Dongye Youzai's banned deck."
"Every single card in here is a Forbidden Card!"
"Tell me, isn't it far better than yours?"
Before you continue