Post-Match Conversation

[Holy crap! 666, this guy only played one card, right?]

[It's still the fish-frying monster who was greedy. He dared to FTK without understanding the effect and was caught and counter-killed.]

[Honestly, I'm dumbfounded. If this card is sent to the Graveyard, how should one deal with it?]

[Wow! What a beautiful nun sister! Evil and holy, I want to confess to her and tell her about me and the fish...]

[The one before, elaborate! Elaborate!]

The barrage went wild.

"Juniors are truly not to be underestimated." After both sides finished arranging their decks, Yuan Youxin walked up to Shen Sui, sizing him up and down, and said, "Perhaps, you can really stir up some waves in the professional arena."

If you weren't greedy and insisted on pushing through my trap, it would have been quite difficult for me.

Thinking back now, if he hadn't drawn Anna in his opening hand, facing Yuan Youxin's setup, Shen Sui actually didn't have many good options. At most, he could have used Fish King and Flame Witch for a hard clear.

Soul Card duels are sometimes like this. Just before the duel, they were almost about to fight, but after a duel, they can talk calmly.

After the award ceremony, Yuan Youxin invited Shen Sui to dinner at a restaurant.

Shen Sui, of course, wouldn't miss the opportunity for a free meal. He was actually very curious about the professional circle of Soul Card dueling in this world. Although Yuan Youxin wasn't a professional player, since he chose to stubbornly stay in amateur competitions to fry fish rather than participate in the Ranking Tournament, he must know some information about the professional circle.

This kind of thing, general coaches wouldn't tell their students. On the internet, you can at most search for some keywords written in letters, which are completely incomprehensible.

What the knowledgeable know.

What someone with connections has hidden.

You don't even know what they are talking about.

Therefore, Shen Sui wanted to take this opportunity to get a good understanding of the industry news.

Although the Soul Card dueling industry is booming in this world, because the Soul Cards in the real world do not possess supernatural power, for most countries in this world, Soul Card dueling itself is a prosperous industry, similar to the entertainment industry and e-sports industry in his previous life.

This refers specifically to Soul Card dueling, not the Soul Card world.

The exploration of the Soul Card world is what the country's top brass cares about most.

It has long been proven that the Soul Card world is a real world. Although the barrier of reality prevents those worlds with supernatural power from invading the real world, even a seventeenth-tier expert from World Number Two cannot break through the world's barrier, sometimes you must be prepared for the worst, just like nuclear bombs are aimed at other countries at any time.

The top brass also monitors the movements of various Soul Card worlds in real time.

There are quite a few so-called dueling families who were all sent in for attempting to introduce the supernatural into reality.

Also, some sci-fi Soul Card worlds with similar technology trees to reality can also inspire and guide the technological development of the real world. Much of the technological explosion in the real world over the past century relies on the knowledge and information from those Soul Card worlds.

The strong support for the Soul Card dueling system by these countries may also be due to the reason of cultivating more talents to explore the Soul Card world, just like scientists using games to let players all over the world help them decode DNA.

In addition, the inability of power to invade does not mean that thoughts and malice cannot invade the real world.

If World Number One is simply a Soul Card world with a high death rate and is extremely unfriendly to Soul Card Masters, then Soul Card worlds similar to World Number Eight are taboos for all peaceful countries. In these countries, you cannot choose World Number Eight and other forbidden Soul Card worlds when drawing Soul Cards for the Duel Exam.

World Number Eight is a world that obtains strange power from unknown existences through rituals and sacrifices. This world is full of strange and bloody religious rituals and mysterious and powerful unknown existences. These powers naturally cannot penetrate into the real world, but Soul Card Masters infected by the ideas within will learn the rituals from the Soul Card world in the real world to try to sacrifice to their beliefs, which has led to several tragic incidents. Subsequently, this world was forbidden by most countries.

Actually, Shen Sui really wanted to say that there are also many similar rituals in the Dawn Continent. After all, this famous patchwork game wants to stitch in all the popular elements that can be stitched in, such as Cultist Simulator, Cthulhu, etc., all stuffed in. In the worldview of the Dawn Continent, these are collectively called evil gods—however, this part of the content was harmonized in a certain game update.

"So, when you achieve results in Soul Card dueling competitions, the Exploration Bureau might recruit you to help them do some tasks to understand the Soul Card world you have chosen," Yuan Youxin introduced. "Of course, you can also apply to become a full-time member of the Exploration Bureau, but because you are a confidential personnel, according to our country's regulations, you cannot participate in dueling competitions, because some of the Soul Cards you use may involve state secrets."

"Oh? Are there many people who switch to become members of the Exploration Bureau?"

"Not many. With that fixed salary, how can it be faster than earning prize money from dueling competitions? But there are always people who apply every year, especially when their professional path is not ideal. After all, it's an iron rice bowl. Even if your Soul Card dies, you will be arranged to other work positions. By the way, this position has an official establishment. The difficulty of the Exploration Bureau staff exam is much simpler than the civil service exam." Of course, what Yuan Youxin didn't say was that the difficulty of the Duel Exam was much higher than the civil service exam.

Okay, no matter which world he goes to, he can't escape the civil service exam and official establishment.

Shen Sui shook the glass in his hand and suddenly asked, "So, if I do some exploration tasks for the Exploration Bureau, will there be any rewards?"

"Generally speaking, this kind of task will only look for relatively famous Soul Card Masters to do, because if the deck is strong, it means that the other party's Soul Card is also doing very well in the Soul Card world, unless your Soul Card world only has a few Soul Card Masters." Yuan Youxin glanced at Shen Sui and said, "It seems you are very confident in making a name for yourself."

"I think after I defeat you this time, I will be famous for a while."

"News like yours is basically a flash in the pan. The people in the Exploration Bureau are old-fashioned and rigid. They only recognize the results of professional competitions," Yuan Youxin said. "As for the task rewards you mentioned, I'm sorry, there are none."

"Voluntary labor?"

"Anyway, they definitely won't give you any rewards or prizes."

"Then will anyone still do these tasks?"

"In fact, many professional players are eager for the Exploration Bureau to come to them and ask them to do tasks," Yuan Youxin said with a smile.

Shen Sui was a little surprised. Are the people in this world so noble?

Yuan Youxin seemed to see through Shen Sui's thoughts and said, "Don't think of people as too noble. Not many people are willing to do things without benefits."

"Then are there any hidden benefits to these exploration tasks?"

"Yes." Yuan Youxin nodded and said enviously, "Tax deductions."

Shen Sui gasped.

The prize money from Soul Card dueling competitions is subject to a 20% income tax.

Shen Sui's 500,000 prize money, after tax, was 400,000, a direct deduction of 100,000.

And for professional competitions with higher prize money, the amount of tax deducted is even more.

Shen Sui crossed his hands and rested his chin on them, having to admit, "That's a condition that's hard to refuse."