Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Harmony and Friendship in Our Academy
"Director Wu, welcome, welcome!"
Dean Liang Hui of Tianyi Academy warmly greeted a tall, thin, white-haired old man.
Wu Ziqin, director of the Modu Soul Card Exploration Bureau, had fully taken over the professional progression system after the cheating scandal. Under his leadership, the changes to the PK tournament rules at each Duel Academy in Modu were being implemented in an orderly manner. Tianyi Academy, as one of the most regarded projects by Modu’s upper echelons, was naturally a focal point of this rule change.
In recent years, with more technology trees from the Soul Card World being applied to reality, countries have been increasingly focusing on exploring the Soul Card World, especially since many sci-fi Soul Card World settings have already begun interstellar wars. If a country lags even slightly in exploring the Soul Card World, it might face insurmountable gaps in equipment and weaponry, something that is unacceptable to any nation.
Therefore, the state has accelerated its exploration of the Soul Card World, placing increasing emphasis on the professional Life Card Master system capable of stably producing Life Card Masters, hence the monthly subsidies for professional Life Card Masters. However, what the state didn’t anticipate was that with the deepening of Soul Card exploration, a large number of Life Cards flooded the market, and Life Card Duels began to flourish. Those who receive subsidies turned to professional arenas to compete, without focusing on exploring the Soul Card World.
The state once considered whether to limit the development of Life Card Duels, thinking nothing else needed to be done other than imposing another video game ban.
However, this idea was quickly collectively denied. Since the production of Life Cards in the Soul Card World has its internal logic and the function of Life Cards was unclear, a blanket cut-off might cause Hua Xia to fall behind, in critical areas due to domestic restrictions on Life Card Duels leading to insufficient reserves of Life Cards. Who would bear that responsibility?
No one wanted to, and so it was dragged out until now. Those at the top wavered, leading those below to turn a blind eye to the chaos in the professional arena.
Unfortunately, though the professional arenas are chaotic now, in lower-level professional competitions, it’s still quite easy for an average professional Life Card Master to mix in. If they manage to win a place, the prize money is considerable. With the operation of clubs, they can become star players and make a lot of money by selling peripheral card sets, which is indeed much better than the dead salary at the Exploration Bureau.
Only when they hit their heads against the wall in the professional arena will they think of the Exploration Bureau, I suppose.
"Hahaha, Dean Liang, there’s no need to be so formal." Wu Ziqin patted Liang Hui on the shoulder and said, "I’m just here to see the effectiveness of the new competition system and to identify any omissions."
"I didn’t expect Director Wu to come personally." Liang Hui wiped the sweat off his forehead. Although he already knew that the Exploration Bureau would come to inspect, he did not expect Wu Ziqin to come personally.
"No choice, all the academies in Modu are holding PK tournaments now, and we don’t have enough staff in our bureau." Wu Ziqin sighed, "If Dean Liang could encourage students to apply for the Exploration Bureau, this old body of mine wouldn’t have to run around outside every day."
Liang Hui smiled awkwardly yet politely. If he were the dean of those public Duel Academies, he might have agreed, but he was the dean of the Youth Training Academy founded by the Tianyi Club. These students are valuable resources for the club in the future. If the club knew he’d encouraged students to apply for the Exploration Bureau, they’d probably scold him to death.
Although in recent years, due to the deterioration of the competitive environment, more and more students from Duel Academies have been applying for the Exploration Bureau, it was not yet mainstream; students attending Duel Academies were still mostly aiming for the professional arenas, with the Exploration Bureau as a last resort.
Of course, if those noble families shamelessly manipulated even the lower-level professional competition champions, then those civilian Life Card Masters who see no way out might prioritize the Exploration Bureau instead.
Wu Ziqin naturally knew Liang Hui wouldn’t do that, so he casually changed the topic, giving Dean Liang an out: "I’ve visited other Duel Academies these days, and frankly, the atmosphere inside these academies isn’t great. Many have issues with bullying among students. Tianyi Academy doesn’t have such issues, right?"
The first batch of students at Tianyi Academy had only been at the academy for a month, so even if such phenomena existed, a month was too short to become apparent. This comment was purely to change the subject for Liang Hui.
However, this issue that Wu Ziqin mentioned was indeed a fact—within various Duel Academies, the divisions among civilians, noble families, opposed Soul Card Worlds, identical Soul Card Worlds with different professions, etc., created unlimited divisions among student groups, leading to considerable bullying incidents. However, within Duel Academies and families and companies that live off duels, any conflict can be solved by a duel or, if not, by two duels.
I heard that a girl from the Xinyuan family single-handedly dueled her way out of the family’s control to completely break free from it.
Oh, this girl seems to be part of the Tianyi Club. Wu Ziqin met this carefree girl back then, hoping to ask her to provide information related to World No. 1, Dawn Continent.
No choice—the number of Life Card Masters in World No. 1 was too few, and the Soul Cards that survived long enough to gather more information were even fewer.
"No! Absolutely not." Liang Hui seized the opportunity to steer the conversation away, laughing heartily, "Our students love each other and get along very harmoniously."
While speaking, the group had already arrived at an open area where a duel was in progress.
On the field, two young men were dueling, and on the steps nearby, several people lay sprawled out, exhausted, with soulless eyes and expressions of numbness, as if they’d lost their very souls.
The two people dueling seemed to be students of Tianyi Academy, likely engaged in a PK competition match.
"Just in time, let’s see the demeanor of the academy’s students." Wu Ziqin enjoyed watching students duel. Compared to the national professional tournaments filled with formulaic routines and the same few players vying for the championship, the duels between spirited students in lower-level professional competitions and academies were more captivating.
Much like a certain major country’s past life, their village soccer was more interesting than domestic professional soccer matches.
"Pay 10 Soul Points to activate from my hand, the Spell Card [Barbecue Technique], targeting one of your minions to gain control until the end of the turn." During the duel, one party activated a Spell Card, gaining control of an opponent’s minion.
"Yo, your Soul Card is quite pretty." The guy chuckled as he saw his opponent’s Follower Card come to his field.
His opponent’s face turned dark, filled with disgust, fear, and despair—expressions Wu Ziqin rarely saw on a duelist during a match.
Then he saw the person open his opponent’s Soul Card form and once again exclaimed in delight, "Wow! Your Soul Card has quite a few skins!"
"Shen Sui! Don’t go too far!" His opponent shouted angrily, unable to bear it any longer.
Shen Sui chuckled, casting a provocative glance at his opponent.
At this moment, his opponent was also one of the names Yue Tao had provided him, one of the students who reported his cards.
In this PK tournament, Shen Sui really did what he told Yue Tao, sequentially spreading warmth to people on the list, exploiting loopholes in the rules to engage them in relentless duels.
Duel invitations in the PK tournament cannot be refused.
Shen Sui spent the whole day scoring over twenty victories from these people, securely sitting at the top of the leaderboard.
"What’s excessive or not," Shen Sui licked his lips and said, "Her control is now in my hands, you know!"
Unfortunately, if the control of the Soul Card is not with the owner, its controller cannot perform form transformations on it. Otherwise, Shen Sui would probably put on a show of card outfit changing in front of the opponent.
"Activate the effect of [Fairy Qingming·Cold Moon] on my field." Shen Sui activated the opponent’s Soul Card effect, "Once per turn, I can draw a card from the deck, then discard a card from the hand."
Shen Sui executed the effect accordingly.
Seeing the card [Armed Puppet·Soya] he drew, Shen Sui was slightly stunned. Soya’s effect is to transform a multi-form follower card once upon leaving the field, a transformation that can bypass Soul Card restrictions. In other words, he really could perform a change of outfit PLAY on the opponent’s Soul Card...
Forget it, forget it, let’s not add insult to injury.
I’m just too kind-hearted.
Thinking this way, Shen Sui raised his hand to liberate Fairy Qingming·Cold Moon on the field, exchanging for 6 soul points, then clicked his tongue and said to the opponent, "See, your Soul Card is really useful."
"Shen—— Sui——!!!!" His opponent glared with rage, trembling all over, clearly furious beyond measure.
This terrifying, malicious guy across the field clearly has some wicked pleasure. He forced a duel on his opponent’s Soul Card four times out of five!
Four times!
Simply inhumane.
"Hmph, really can’t take a play," Shen Sui felt the day was about enough, so he let Alice in the Flame Witch form make the final direct attack, draining the opponent’s Life Value, "Truly sorry, but I’ll be taking this victory."
As soon as Shen Sui finished speaking, the duel effects retracted into the dueling device, and his opponent clutched their chest, slumping to the ground in the same state as Yu Wenyuan’s group lying on the steps.
Such a pity, they might not be found tomorrow.
Shen Sui thought sadly. He quite enjoyed dueling with these amiable students, but given the high-intensity battles today, the opponents might just withdraw from the tournament tomorrow.
The first day of the academy PK tournament must take place, but on the second day, students without hope of qualifying are allowed to withdraw, as the PK tournament has become meaningless for them. Forcing them to stay would be too tormenting.
Thinking like this, Shen Sui turned and headed back to the dormitory. Although today’s duels were all overwhelmingly won, they still exposed several issues requiring deck optimization afterwards.
Watching Shen Sui’s departing back, Liang Hui looked again at the students lying around as if their souls had been extracted, wrinkles on his face trembling, "This... Director Wu, cough cough, it’s just a special way of student communication..."
"Hahaha, a duel, not a fight," Wu Ziqin waved his hand, looking at Shen Sui’s back, "This student is called Shen Sui, right?"
"Yes."
"Which Soul Card World is he from?"
"Dawn Continent. World No. 1." Liang Hui didn’t hide it, even if he hadn’t mentioned it, the Exploration Bureau could access the records.
"World No. 1, huh..." Wu Ziqin pondered, "In this year’s duel exam, a total of one hundred thirty-seven people nationwide chose World No. 1, sixty-eight successfully passed, how many Soul Cards are still surviving there?"
He asked the secretary behind him, as the Soul Cards in World No. 1 are exceptionally scarce, thus the Exploration Bureau pays close attention to these statistics.
The secretary, upon hearing, quickly looked up the information and soon provided an answer:
"Only one remains, named Shen Sui."