Alice Gathers Intelligence

After modifying several cards, Shen Sui had roughly figured out the pattern for altering card effects.

Cards obtained from the Soul Card World had fixed star ratings, and the star rating represented the intensity of effects they could accommodate. If he wanted stronger effects at the same star rating, Shen Sui had to make himself bear some cost.

What costs seemed the most severe on the surface but actually didn't affect the duel's outcome as much as they appeared to?

Several terms flashed through Shen Sui's mind.

[Pay Half of Life Points], [Pay All Soul Points], [Discard All Hand Cards].

[Pay Half of Life Points]—paying half each time meant no real cost at all.

[Pay All Soul Points]—as long as you'd already played all the cards you intended to use, paying all your soul points wasn't unacceptable. You could even pull off a 15-star Soul Card activation with just 1 soul point.

[Discard All Hand Cards]—this term depended on the person. For an ordinary deck, such a cost was actually quite heavy, but if you were using a graveyard-stacking deck, this term was incredibly satisfying!

Shen Sui first changed the target count of [Multi-Chain Berserk Fireball Spell] from 5 to 3. This way, he could add more possibilities to the 2-star card's effect. Then, following his previous experience, he incorporated the three terms above.

After completing this modification, the Duel Instrument briefly stuttered, as if this operation exceeded the program's computational capacity—it couldn't determine whether the card's effect surpassed its 2-star rating.

Fortunately, after a long while, the Duel Instrument finally ran normally, and his card naturally succeeded!

******

Card Name: [Multi-Chain Berserk Fireball Spell]

Type: Spell Card

Star Rating: 2 Stars

Effect: Select up to 3 followers on the field as targets and activate. Reduce their Spirit Value by 500. Followers whose Spirit Value drops to 0 are destroyed. After that, you may choose to execute the following effects (each effect can only be executed once per turn) and activate this card's effect again:

① Pay Half of Life Points;

② Pay All Soul Points;

③ Discard All Hand Cards.

******

Perfect! With this, I have a spell card with some field-clearing ability. Though it's a bit weak, it's only 2 stars, so it should be enough to handle the Duel Exam.

Adding [Lightning Strike], [Crushing Blow Targeting the Groin], and [Arson], Shen Sui basically had the means to create practical space for Alice's Infinite Death Chain in combat.

Besides, our Alice still had her second form.

In Soul Card Duels, form transformation was exclusive to Soul Cards.

Soul Card Followers would inevitably acquire many forms as they grew, corresponding to their states and professions at different stages. Under the rules of Soul Card Duels, you could pay the cost for the corresponding form to transform a Soul Card Follower on the field into that star-rated form, or you could directly pay the cost to summon that form's Soul Card from your hand.

Not long ago, Alice had obtained her second form, [Novice Magician Alice], in Pa Yin Jia City.

A 2-star Soul Card, and one belonging to Alice, a magician without much heritage—naturally, it couldn't be a form with any effects. But who was her guide? Shen Sui.

Shen Sui quickly gave [Novice Magician Alice] a brand-new appearance.

Looking at the second-form Alice in his hand, amidst the flames of Zelai Mansion, the beautiful golden-haired girl rode a small white horse, holding down her wizard's hat, a gleeful smile on her lips. Her light blue eyes reflected the firelight, tinging the girl with a hint of seductive charm.

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Card Name: [Novice Magician Alice] (Form Transformation)

Type: Follower Card

Star Rating: 2 Stars

Effect: ① When this follower enters the field via form transformation, you may select one Spell Card from your deck and add it to your hand; when this follower leaves the field via form transformation, you may select one Soul Card on the opponent's field and destroy it;

② Once per turn, when this follower is destroyed by battle or effect and sent to the graveyard, you may pay Half of your Life Points to Special Summon this follower to the field, then transform its form into [Magic Apprentice Alice].

Spirit Value: 600

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This card was actually intended by Shen Sui to be used with [Friendly Fire]. [Friendly Fire]'s effect was to destroy one follower on your own field, then activate a Spell Card from the graveyard or deck. Originally a one-for-one trade, with the second-form Alice, Shen Sui could gain more.

Moreover, when modifying effects later, Shen Sui could treat the [Destroy one follower on your own field] term as a positive one.

After finishing all this, Shen Sui turned his attention back to the running Duel Instrument.

He had experienced Alice's troublemaking nature firsthand, so he didn't dare slack off even for a moment while printing cards.

Opening the homepage and finding no glaring alerts, Shen Sui breathed a slight sigh of relief. It seemed Alice could be quiet after all. He quickly browsed through Alice's recent experiences.

The flow of time in the real world and the Soul Card World wasn't the same. The Soul Card World was noticeably faster. In one day, Shen Sui could usually read through five or six days of Alice's actions, allowing the Soul Card Master's guidance to receive timely feedback.

[Miss Oshana Price thanked Alice for the rescue.]

[Alice held a barbecue, entertaining this beautiful noble lady.]

[Oshana grew fond of barbecue. She developed a favorable impression of Alice.]

"Damn! What is this, some fantasy novel protagonist using barbecue to build a harem?" Shen Sui couldn't help but complain when he saw this. But the next line on the Duel Instrument immediately snapped him to attention.

[Alice asked Oshana about Clyde Modena.]

Shen Sui, who had been half-lying on the bed, instantly sat up at these words. He was also curious—after a thousand years, how did the people of this game continent view the former Twilight Bishop Claude? In this Twilight of the Gods route, he had actually played the good guy for once, not doing anything the Fourth Calamity would do, and had seriously worked to eliminate the divine scourge from the Dawn Continent. Moreover, in this main storyline, he had actually refrained from being a scumbag. In this second playthrough, the only female character he had romanced was Vivian.

Vivian is my one and only sun!

[Oshana fearfully recounted Claude's deeds.]

[Claude Modena, the Twilight Bishop, the root of chaos on the Dawn Continent, had thrown the entire continent into turmoil for his own desires.]

[He was debauched and unrestrained, yielding to his base instincts.]

[He once stole the Empire's Empress from her wedding ceremony.]

[He once defiled the Goddess of Nature beneath her own statue.]

[He once violated a beautiful White Dragon to study the Dragon Race's bloodline.]

[He once slaughtered all the gods to curry favor with the Twilight Saintess.]

[.]

Slander! Pure slander!

Shen Sui was hopping mad.

He slammed his hand hard against the ladder of the upper bunk, making it bang and clatter.

"Shen Sui, are you okay?" The dorm matron's head poked through the observation window of the door, a hint of worry in her voice.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Shen Sui quickly forced a smile to reassure her.

He turned back to look at the Duel Instrument, and his anger flared up again.

Damn it, who the hell was slandering him?!

Shen Sui was absolutely certain he hadn't done any of this in this playthrough!

He hated doing repetitive things when playing games.

Anything he'd done in the last playthrough, he absolutely would not do again in this one.