Alice Launches a Sneak Attack

"Congratulations to my first student, Shen Sui, for winning the Heaven's Chosen Cup!"

That evening, back in his dorm, Shen Sui sat helplessly on his chair, watching Xin Yuan Tanchun across from him open a can of cola for herself.

"I mean, as my coach, I didn't see you at all during my match. The moment the match ended, you show up to pop champagne for me, right?"

Xin Yuan Tanchun had actually brought a bottle of champagne, but under Shen Sui's strong objection, she reluctantly switched to cola.

Of course, the champagne wasn't wasted. She opened it anyway and poured herself a full glass.

Shen Sui was already an adult and wasn't against drinking. However, after the Heaven's Chosen Cup, the first Tianyi Academy PK Competition was scheduled for the following week. Shen Sui needed to use this time to strengthen his deck, especially the issue of having too few Follower Cards.

The reason he won against Yuan Youxin was purely due to good luck, drawing Anna at the start. Otherwise, with his forty-card deck heavily skewed towards only five Follower Cards, drawing five spell cards at the start was commonplace. If he went first, it would be fine as many of his spell cards had search effects, but if a deck like Yuan Youxin's went first, bad luck could truly make it impossible to recover.

Should he buy some Follower Cards to randomly fill his deck?

Shen Sui immediately rejected this idea. Not to mention that effective Follower Cards were generally expensive, even if he were to buy them, he might not find ones that fit his deck's characteristics.

That would truly lead to a dead hand for a long time.

Therefore, on the way back to the academy, Shen Sui had already planned his next steps.

First, he removed the regulator's restriction, allowing the time flow read by his Duel Instrument to return to normal, meaning eight days passed for Alice while one day passed for him.

With Alice's ability to cause trouble, two months would be enough for her to create a lot of incidents for him. Coupled with his intentional guidance, he should be able to quickly acquire enough Follower Cards.

Since he needed to quickly acquire Follower Cards in a short time, the favorability route was naturally out of the question. He would take the capture route instead.

However, Xin Yuan Tanchun's appearance interrupted Shen Sui's plans.

Looking at Xin Yuan Tanchun's still messy attire, Shen Sui got straight to the point: "So, what's your purpose in coming to find me? With your personality, you probably wouldn't come all the way here just to celebrate a small Heaven's Chosen Cup, right?"

The prize money for the Heaven's Chosen Cup was indeed generous, but it was ultimately just an amateur competition held in a park with a promotional and performance nature. It wouldn't catch the eye of a Tier 6 Soul Card Master like Xin Yuan Tanchun.

Xin Yuan Tanchun was only two years older than Shen Sui. Of course, Shen Sui couldn't treat Xin Yuan Tanchun with complete respect as if she were an elder. Xin Yuan Tanchun also wasn't the type to care about seniority, so she was quite accepting of Shen Sui's tone when speaking to her.

"You saw through me." Xin Yuan Tanchun scratched her messy hair and finally revealed her main purpose. "I came here this time at someone's request."

Saying that, she drew a card from her Duel Instrument, placed it on the table, and continued, "My foolish sister in Jing City felt very guilty after hearing that your Star Super Magic Array was listed on the forbidden card list, so she asked me to bring a card to give to you."

"Oh?" Shen Sui frowned, instantly feeling something was off. The July forbidden card list hadn't been released yet, so how did Xin Yuan Tanchun's sister, who was far away in Jing City, know that his spell card was going to be on the forbidden list?

Shen Sui looked up, meeting Xin Yuan Tanchun's eyes, hoping she could provide a reasonable explanation.

"It's probably another dirty trick from that old hag," Xin Yuan Tanchun said disdainfully. "To make her daughter a national idol, she'll use all sorts of normal and abnormal methods. Reporting your Soul Card is probably just one of her many tactics. Otherwise, how could you, a newly enrolled student, be subjected to the Soul Card Association's forbidden card review? Even if there were many reports, they probably wouldn't care."

"Oh~ Xin Yuan Ying Xue?" Shen Sui said the name, although he had already guessed it.

"Yeah, a little idiot, she'll drown in that fake mother-daughter affection sooner or later," Xin Yuan Tanchun said. After a pause, she spoke to Shen Sui, "But don't worry, the Xin Yuan family can probably only do this much. That old hag doesn't have the ability to order the Soul Card Association around. This bit of favor has probably been used up."

"Alright." Shen Sui shrugged and then picked up the card Xin Yuan Tanchun had placed on the table.

This was a Follower Card that Shen Sui urgently needed. Clearly, Xin Yuan Ying Xue also knew that the pain point for most novice Soul Card Masters was the lack of Follower Cards.

******

Card Name: Lucky Puppet Shali

Category: Follower Card

Star Rating: 4 Stars

Effect: ① During the opponent's main phase, if your spell card is sent to the Graveyard after resolution, you can discard this follower from your hand to activate this effect, returning one spell card from your Graveyard to your deck;

② When a follower on your field becomes the target of a card effect, you can banish this follower from the Graveyard to negate that effect.

Spirit Value: 0

******

This card was clearly carefully selected by Xin Yuan Ying Xue. It wasn't a product of her world, World 19. It should be a fantasy-type Follower Card she obtained from somewhere else.

On the card's illustration, a beautiful puppet lay quietly in a display case, as if waiting for its owner to arrive.

A very good card.

Although it couldn't replace the permanently effective Star Super Magic Array, it had a special Graveyard effect.

To send this card as compensation, putting aside the fact that Shen Sui didn't care in the first place, even if he did, seeing this compensation would have already made him forgive this girl he had never met.

Of course, he still couldn't forgive the culprit.

To actually use connections to ban a new student's card.

Do you know how much psychological damage a forbidden card can cause to this weak and pitiful new student?

"Since that's the case, I'll forgive her then." Shen Sui very straightforwardly put the card into his deck.

Xin Yuan Tanchun rolled her eyes and said, "Look at your face. You also had a hand in that card being banned, alright? Okay, enough talk. This card has been decrypted. You can circulate it at a Soul Card Shop later and use it as your Soul Card. I should be going now."

After delivering the compensation, Xin Yuan Tanchun didn't stay long with Shen Sui. She said goodbye and left with the champagne she had drunk a little of.

She was indeed very busy. The Tier 7 Tier-up Tournament wasn't as simple as it seemed. She came this time purely to help her sister deliver the Soul Card.

Shen Sui rested on his bed for a while and brought the opened bottle of cola back to his bedroom.

"Seriously, opening cola? Can't she buy her own? Saying it's to celebrate for me, but opening the cola from my fridge, what the heck?"

While speaking, Shen Sui was already lying in bed.

Although the day's duels were exhausting, the prize money had completely washed away his fatigue.

Excellent!

Soul Card World activated!

Let me see what Alice is doing.

[Alice encountered the Lord of Thunder's knight order.]

[Alice launched a sneak attack~]

[Anna unleashed her power, and Alice successfully snatched a treasure chest from the knights.]

????

Weren't you supposed to be looking for my treasure chest? Why did you go and snatch a treasure chest?

PS: Tomorrow, please be sure to contribute to the follow-up reads! I beg you, dear readers! Please!