Alice on the Offensive

But I was willing to make a deal with you.

Alice understood that you had saved her life, so she was willing to accept your proposal, even if it meant losing everything. For gratitude and revenge, the girl was willing to give up everything.

"Will you take over my body?" the girl asked curiously.

"No. I'm a man. I wouldn't enter a woman's body that way."

"But my chest is very small. Everyone in the village says that if I cut my hair short, I'd look exactly like a pretty little boy."

"Uh... men and women aren't distinguished by that."

You had a friendly discussion, but seemed to have forgotten that villains still existed.

The leader of these villains, Lin Fu, followed the rule that every enemy had to be confirmed dead. He came to the foot of the hill to search for Alice's body. He found Alice, lusted after her beauty, and attacked her.

You taught Alice the first-tier Fireball Spell.

Ding! You obtained a Spell Card: Fireball Spell

Alice's Fireball Spell was far too clumsy, and Lin Fu easily dodged it.

Alice remained very calm. She pretended to panic, took a step back, and fell into a pile of pebbles. Lin Fu was overjoyed and pounced on her, intending to violate her.

Alice cast Fireball Spell at close range, striking Lin Fu in the crotch. Lin Fu collapsed in agony.

Alice drained all of her magic power and her Magic Ring, firing three Fireball Spells at Lin Fu. They struck his vital points, and Lin Fu died.

Ding! You obtained a Spell Card: Feigned Weakness

Ding! You obtained a Spell Card: Desperate Resolve

Alice was freaking awesome!

You were my god!

In just one battle, Alice had farmed two Spell Cards for Shen Sui. Her efficiency was absolutely incredible.

Shen Sui immediately opened the two cards to inspect their effects.

Desperate Resolve was a card similar to Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Fellow Traveler. When one of your Followers was destroyed, it took one of your opponent's Followers down with it. Although it was a targeted effect, it was still quite good in the current Soul Card Duel environment.

Shen Sui was somewhat dissatisfied with Feigned Weakness. I've reduced one of my own Followers' Spirit Value to 0, and all I get is that my opponent can't battle?

Was that reasonable? It wasn't reasonable!

You expressed dissatisfaction with the card's effect. You obtained the right to modify the card.

Shen Sui immediately began modifying Feigned Weakness's effect.

Choose one Follower on your field as the target. Reduce its Spirit Value to 0. Until the end of this turn, your opponent cannot activate the effects of Spell Cards or Follower Cards...

Before Shen Sui could finish writing the effect, a modification failure notification popped up.

It seemed a 5-star card frame couldn't support that effect.

Left with no choice, Shen Sui could only start adding more restrictions to the card's effect. He had originally wanted the card to be usable during his opponent's turn as well, so he could directly choke off the opponent's setup. Wouldn't that be satisfying?

Shen Sui loved card effects that brought smiles to his opponents' faces.

However, this was more difficult than Shen Sui had imagined. If Feigned Weakness had been a 15-star card, Shen Sui could have modified it however he wanted. Unfortunately, it was only 5-star.

After a long period of effort and experimentation, Shen Sui finally printed a card he found relatively satisfying.

Card Name: Feigned Weakness

Type: Spell Card

Stars: 5-star

Effect: Can only be activated at the start phase of either player's turn. Pay Half of Life Points and discard one card from your hand, then choose one Follower on your field as the target. Until the end of the duel, reduce its Spirit Value to 0. After that, until the end of this turn, your opponent cannot activate card effects of the same type as the discarded card.

To add restrictions, Shen Sui had turned the effect of a 5-star card into a whole essay. Unfortunately, it was not as strong as the first version of Shen Sui's effect, mainly because of the activation timing restriction. In the version that had failed modification, Shen Sui could activate Feigned Weakness during the main phase. That way, he could summon a Follower on the first turn, then activate Feigned Weakness and discard a Follower Card to prevent his opponent from using Hand Traps to hinder his setup.

The second version could not pull off that kind of play, but its flaws did not overshadow its strengths. At the very least, this card could definitely bring smiles to his opponents' faces.

Shen Sui became increasingly confident about his Duel Exam.

Alright! Let's see what my darling Alice has been up to this time!

Shen Sui eagerly returned to the main page, only to find long strings of text. It seemed that Alice had done quite a lot while Shen Sui had been busy printing cards.

Alice had exhausted her magic power, but she refused to rest and recover because the surviving villagers were still in the villains' hands. She called out to you, hoping to obtain some usable spells.

You did not respond.

Alice did not lose heart. She climbed the hill west of the village and used the little magic power she had just recovered to cast Fireball Spell.

Alice set the forest on the hillside ablaze.

With great effort, she dragged Lin Fu's corpse up the hill, then tied it to a boulder.

Accompanied by the roaring blaze, Alice pushed the boulder down the slope. Lin Fu's corpse and the boulder charged toward the villains who were still celebrating.

Damn! What was she doing? Was this something a sixteen-year-old girl could do?!

The villains saw Lin Fu's brutally mutilated corpse and the distant inferno. Believing that the Empire's army had come to wipe them out, they decided to leave first with several young, strong girls.

The villains planned to kill all the remaining women.

Alice overdraw her magic power and unleashed her final Fireball Spell at the villains.

The villains would not normally have been so frightened. However, heat from the burning forest rose into the air, forming a cumulonimbus cloud above the village. Through natural forces, a thunderbolt descended, followed the trail of magic power, and struck Alice's fireball. The power of thunder instantly killed several villains. Believing that knights from the Church of the Lord of Thunder had arrived, the villains scattered in defeat.

Ding! You obtained a Spell Card: Lightning Strike

???

Shen Sui suddenly had the feeling that perhaps he did not even need to guide this girl. She might accomplish great things on her own.

However, this sequence had not ended yet.

The villains had left, but Alice was not happy. She endured the intense agony of magical backlash, yet failed to find Anna among the survivors. Her best friend Anna had been taken away by the villains.

The Lord of Thunder's knights arrived belatedly. They did not mind claiming the credit for driving away the villains, and demanded enormous salvation fees from the villagers.

The knights seized the villagers' land and the vast fields of wheat that had just ripened. Having lost all their men and all their land, the village no longer had any reason to exist. The surviving women decided to go to Andrew City and seek refuge with their respective relatives.

Alice's aunt did not take Alice with her. Alice lost all her family and friends.

What a miserable girl.

Seeing this, Shen Sui deeply empathized with her. He had clearly had family, yet lost all of them. That was also why he could accept being transported to another world so easily.

Compared to having gambling-addict, abusive parents, being an orphan was far more comforting.