Free Web NovelChapter 862: Chapter 511: Surrender? Sorry, I Refuse
Shen Sui actually did value Li Zichuan quite a bit.
After all, this Demonic Cultivator from a cultivation world was his key to opening the door to that cultivation world, and also one of his main targets in this whole Dueling game. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
If this guy got taken out by some random passerby before running into him, that would be a real joke—kind of like finally grinding a Magical Beast down to low HP, getting ready to capture it, only for your own Magic Pet to land the last hit and take the kill.
Fortunately, judging from Li Zichuan’s brimming confidence, Shen Sui figured this guy probably wasn’t going to die anytime soon.
Thinking about this, Shen Sui started chatting with Xinyuan Tanchun on his phone.
His match for advancing to an eighth-rank Life Card Master was more or less about to be scheduled.
According to the new rules, he would be facing three eighth-rank Life Card Masters arranged at random by the Exploration Bureau; as long as he won any two of those matches, he could officially become an eighth-rank Life Card Master. freewebnσvel.cѳm
An eighth-rank Life Card Master was already a very high tier in the professional system.
Even with Huaxia’s massive population, there were only around one to two hundred eighth-rank Life Card Masters, and that count included retired ones, those who no longer competed, and those who basically lay flat once they reached that tier and just lived off state subsidies.
In reality, there were only a few dozen eighth-rank Life Card Masters who were active on the tournament scene.
At this level, Life Card Masters generally wouldn’t go all out to participate in every possible match; they usually chose their appearances carefully.
Some high-rank Life Card Masters even held to the belief that as long as they didn’t enter tournaments, they would never lose, and deliberately cut down their match frequency to maintain their image in fans’ hearts so they could sell merch and cards.
Compared to those late-stage novel settings where high-rank powerhouses are everywhere, the number of eighth- and ninth-rank Life Card Masters really couldn’t be considered large.
However, with the Extraordinary Invasion, these high-rank Life Card Masters, as the main force in the country’s hands against the Extraordinary Invasion, were also the first group the Exploration Bureau would talk to and requisition.
Since they were taking that much in state subsidies every month, it was about time they fulfilled their obligations.
—Of course, that’s the logic, but the Exploration Bureau wouldn’t put it that bluntly, and the corresponding task rewards were substantial as well.
You had the right to refuse the Exploration Bureau’s summons, but then you could kiss those national subsidies goodbye.
That said, by the time someone reached high-rank Life Card Master, they’d basically already achieved financial freedom and didn’t really care about subsidies anymore; their own little life was far more important.
As far as Shen Sui knew, it wasn’t just high-rank Life Card Masters—at every rank there were plenty of Life Card Masters who refused deployment orders.
Not everyone had ideals; humans are instinctively selfish. This kind of thing didn’t only happen in Huaxia—Life Card Masters all over the world were pretty much the same.
The Exploration Bureau also didn’t force it, since if they pushed too hard, plenty of Life Card Masters might really flip sides and join the invaders.
In Huaxia’s case, probably due to cultural reasons, there were still quite a few high-rank Life Card Masters who cooperated deeply with the Exploration Bureau; there were even many enthusiastic Life Card Masters who formed volunteer teams to sweep up troublemaking Extraordinary in the cities. On top of that, the Exploration Bureau opened up the national card library as a reward system for fighting the Extraordinary, which more or less gave every city a basic level of self-defense capability.
But different countries, due to cultural differences, handled this matter in different ways.
In some countries, because their governments had no official card libraries, they couldn’t use the freedom to pick Life Card rewards as bait to attract Life Card Masters into service, so they simply completely lifted control on Life Cards and Life Card Masters, letting civilian-organized Life Card Masters handle the invading Extraordinary, while the state only provided a safety net—meaning that, when necessary, they would directly obliterate cities that showed too strong traces of Extraordinary Invasion with overwhelming firepower.
You might think this approach is unbelievably cruel, but you have to admit that, at this stage, it’s still very effective.
After all, we’re still in the early phase of the Extraordinary Stage. Most of the invading Extraordinary have entered this world by occupying human bodies in the real world, so if you really choose full-firepower coverage and destroy the flesh, the results are actually pretty remarkable. Their souls may already be those of Extraordinary, but their bodies have not yet fully undergone Extraordinary transformation.
By the way, among the people being possessed, the proportion of Life Card Masters actually isn’t that high. In some remote countries where the Dueling Device hasn’t become widespread, a large number of Extraordinary have appeared via soul invasion alone.
Just like Vivian said, the Extraordinary Invasion is a chronic disease of this world itself; it’s not a problem caused by Life Card Duels.
However, this method will probably stop working soon.
Just like those Dominators from World No. 8, these soul-occupying Extraordinary can, through various means—be it sacrifice, summoning, or just flipping the table—directly establish a channel connecting to an Otherworld. At that point, the ones invading the real world will be Extraordinary whose bodies and souls both wield powerful Extraordinary Power.
Extraordinary of that type have already appeared in certain backward little countries.
Rumor had it that You Wenqi was sent out on business because of this issue, so for the past month Shen Sui hadn’t really heard much about him.
He had to admit, You Wenqi really might be the type suited for this line of work; a Duel against the Extraordinary Invasion was hardly some tournament finals.
