Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: The Card Master's Gamble
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[I cannot determine the status of your other guild members. However, given the structure of the tower, it is highly likely you will encounter those who entered through other entrances as you ascend.]
It was a mechanical female voice, but its tone was different from the one Players usually heard during quest descriptions.
Park Chang-ho, who had moved to a corner to survey the room while Asuka treated Choi Yu-ra, replied in a very quiet voice.
“Understood, Aegis.”
[I wish you the best of luck, Park Chang-ho.]
The moment the voice ceased, the feeling of connection also vanished.
Aegis.
A being similar to Iris, who was with Kang-seok's party.
But there was a clear difference.
While three members of Kang-seok's party—Kang-seok, Seong Yu-jin, and Choi Yu-ra—were connected to Iris, Park Chang-ho was the only one in the Seven Sword Knights connected to Aegis.
Furthermore, no one else in the Seven Sword Knights knew of Aegis's existence.
He concealed his special ability.
Even if an opponent could not acquire the ability, its value would be halved the moment they learned of its existence.
It was a philosophy completely opposite to Kang-seok's, who sought to create synergy by sharing Iris with his trusted companions.
About a month had passed since Park Chang-ho began communicating with Aegis.
From the moment proper conversation became possible, Aegis had cited 'information restrictions' and was reduced to providing only minor additional explanations, but Park Chang-ho was satisfied with just that.
Moreover, the existence of Aegis instilled a certain conviction in him.
*‘It was never equal to begin with.’*
The one who initiated the Great Summoning did not have perfect control over the 'quests'.
This world was reality, not a game.
Therefore, there was no reason for all Players to be equal.
Was Park Chang-ho the only one to have approached a being like Aegis?
That couldn't be.
With over nine thousand Players, there must have been many who, like him, had attempted to converse with the voice that gave out quests.
And among them, a few must have succeeded in establishing a dialogue.
Those who achieved such an encounter were bound to get ahead of other Players, whether by a large or small margin.
The value of Aegis.
Due to the 'information restrictions', the amount of information he could obtain had drastically decreased after their first conversation, but even that was enough.
Even if the information was trivial, more was always better, and simply having someone to talk to in an unexpected situation provided a sense of mental stability.
Players, each with different aptitudes.
Even if they came from the same game, the level of their abilities varied depending on the Player.
*‘The one who initiated the Great Summoning wants Players to become stronger.’*
The remaining survival time existed for motivation. It wasn't a system designed to torment and annihilate Players.
That was why it was understandable that this world didn't pursue equality among Players like a game would.
What the initiator of the Great Summoning wanted were powerful Players.
He could also somewhat guess why the games of origin were so diverse.
Increase the variables.
Secure diversity to heighten unpredictability.
On the day of the Great Summoning, about 380,000 Players were summoned.
Among them, between nine thousand and ten thousand passed the tutorial.
A rate of less than 3%.
But was this really the end of it?
Could the tutorial have been, quite literally, just practice?
It was possible that the initiator of the Great Summoning didn't need nine thousand Players, but a select few chosen from among them. No, from Park Chang-ho's perspective, that seemed more realistic.
Since Park Chang-ho was the only one connected to Aegis, he couldn't check on his other guild members like Kang-seok's party could.
It seemed that at guild level 4, they could use something called a guild message, but even the Seven Sword Knights, the first Player guild ever created, was still only level 3.
But Park Chang-ho wasn't anxious.
*‘I'm worried about Khalid, but that guy's luck is ridiculously good.’*
The other guild members were the elite of the Seven Sword Knights.
Other than Hoshino Asuka, whom he kept by his side because she somewhat lacked the ability to handle unexpected situations, he wasn't particularly worried about the others.
They were the kind of people who would survive even if thrown into a pit of fire worse than this.
After a quick glance at the upward staircase at the end of the wall, Park Chang-ho returned to Choi Yu-ra's group.
They were wiping the blood from Choi Yu-ra's stomach. Only her white, smooth abdomen was visible; the wound where the fragment had been embedded was nowhere to be seen.
Park Han-yeong and Go Min-gu let out a great sigh of relief, and Choi Yu-ra, despite dripping with cold sweat, reached out and stroked Asuka's head.
“Thank you. Your ability is amazing. Those ears and tail… you’re from Exa Online, aren’t you?”
Asuka, nodding a few times shyly, quickly got up and scurried over to Park Chang-ho.
Normally, she was too scared to even go near him, but perhaps because she had survived the black fruit bombardment thanks to him carrying her, she felt less hesitant than before.
As always, Park Chang-ho patted Asuka's head as if she were a pet.
“Well done.”
Nodding repeatedly, Asuka stood quietly beside Park Chang-ho.
Having recovered some of her strength thanks to the potion, Choi Yu-ra straightened her disheveled clothes and stood up. Park Han-yeong watched her with anxious eyes, but she had no trouble walking on her own.
Choi Yu-ra met Park Chang-ho's gaze.
“I’m Choi Yu-ra of the Adamas guild. We’re in your debt.”
“Park Chang-ho of the Seven Sword Knights. As I said before, I’d like for us to cooperate.”
Without answering immediately, Choi Yu-ra looked into his eyes for a moment before nodding. Now was the time for cooperation.
***
“So, it’s kind of a hybrid between a summoner and a mage. I use cards to summon monsters and cast spells to attack opponents.”
Kim Ha-neul, his voice rising in a somewhat excited tone, showed Seong Yu-jin a few cards.
[Valkyrie]
[Unit Card]
[Light Attribute / Cost 4 / Upkeep 2]
[ATK: 6 / DEF: 2 / HP: 4]
[Solar Flare]
[Trap Card]
[Light Attribute / Cost 1]
[Temporarily blinds the enemy with an extremely bright light.]
One card depicted a lovely woman in a winged helmet—what could be called the stereotypical image of a Valkyrie—while the other showed a bald man grinning.
Perhaps because of his explanation, they didn't feel like simple paper cards. Moreover, the illustrations on the cards were even moving, albeit very slightly.
Seong Yu-jin's cheeks flushed with excitement as she made eye contact with the winking Valkyrie.
“So you can cast spells just by having the cards? And summon monsters too?”
A positive reaction from a beautiful woman was always delightful.
Feeling pleased, Kim Ha-neul cleared his throat a few times before answering.
“Well, it’s not quite that simple. To use a card, you need resources, which means you first have to set ‘resource cards’. And since the cards in the deck are shuffled randomly, there’s no guarantee you’ll draw the one you need when you need it.”
To summon the Valkyrie, four Light-attribute resource cards had to be set.
Furthermore, the biggest problem was that even Kim Ha-neul, the one who built the deck, had no idea which card he would draw at any given moment.
It would be perfect if all fifty cards in his deck appeared exactly when needed, but no matter how well the deck was constructed, problems were bound to arise sometimes.
For instance, he might draw plenty of unit cards but no resource cards, or vice versa—endless resources but no units.
As Seong Yu-jin let out another impressed 'Heeh' at the explanation, Khalid raised his hand slightly, as if requesting permission to speak.
He, too, had enjoyed ‘Magic Masters’ back in the day.
“Magic Masters is a turn-based game… How does that work here? I doubt you can just draw cards whenever you want.”
The Players Khalid had encountered in this world were all based on 'real-time online games'. He wondered how Magic Masters, a game where players took turns making moves like in shogi or chess, was implemented in this world.
Kim Ha-neul scratched the back of his head and replied.
“Uh, it’s time-based. Forcing an opponent to take a turn is obviously impossible… I can draw a new card from my deck once every two minutes. The maximum number of cards I can hold in my hand is six.”
“Huh.”
It was a massive drawback, enough to swallow up all the advantages he'd heard so far.
If he couldn't respond immediately with the first six cards he drew, he could die instantly.
If he held onto a good card out of reluctance to discard it, given the six-card hand limit, he might fail to secure a proper card even after two or four minutes.
Magic Masters was a game with users distributed all over the world.
Despite that, he now understood why its rarity was 'Rare'.
There must have been a flood of summoned Players who failed to pass the tutorial.
If one became proficient and the card draws were good, it had the potential to display immense power, but the risk was equally great. It was a typical high-risk, high-return type of ability.
“Um, then couldn’t you just summon a monster beforehand and bring it with you?”
Just from the conversation between Khalid and Kim Ha-neul, Seong Yu-jin had grasped the flaws of a Magic Masters Player.
If summoning at the right time was difficult, why not summon in advance and keep it around?
Kim Ha-neul shook his head.
“Outside of a continuous combat situation, there’s a limit to how long a card monster can be maintained. And as I mentioned, there’s the resource cost for summoning and upkeep. If I tried to maintain one for hours on end, I, the master, wouldn’t be able to handle the fatigue.”
The more they heard, the more it seemed like an ability suited for party play rather than solo play.
He was an all-purpose class capable of monster summoning, magical attacks, and ally support all by himself. If he just had companions to protect him until his cards were set up, his combat power would multiply severalfold.
They were in a situation where they had to form a party with Kim Ha-neul immediately and tackle Raum's tower together.
Kang-seok, who had been quietly analyzing Kim Ha-neul's story, asked.
“How do you get more cards? Do you buy them with Kron?”
“Yes, just as you said, I can buy booster packs containing cards with Kron. Since I’m buying them with Kron of all things, my heart pounds every time I open a pack.”
Almost all TCGs replenished their cards by purchasing booster packs containing random cards.
With good luck, one could get a great card from a single booster pack. With bad luck, one could open dozens of packs and not get a single usable card.
“Uh… then is something like this possible?”
Seong Yu-jin raised her hand slightly like Khalid had, but this time she seemed full of embarrassment.
“Like what?”
“Well… what should I call it… d-dealing from the bottom of the deck? Rigging the hand?”
If he was worried about not knowing which card would come up, why not just rig the hand?
Being the diligent and honest person she was, Seong Yu-jin looked extremely awkward openly suggesting they cheat.
Kim Ha-neul shook his head.
“I thought about that too, but it’s impossible. When I try to use the deck, the cards inside get shuffled automatically.”
Based on what they had heard so far, it was a truly incredible ability.
However, the part that relied on 'luck' was by no means small.
While a TCG player's skill was determined by how well they constructed their deck and utilized the cards they drew, it felt lacking when applied to real combat.
As Seong Yu-jin looked disappointed as if it were her own problem, Kim Ha-neul shrugged. He thumped his chest and said.
“There are a lot of restrictions, but if everything lines up right, it’s an all-powerful ability. You’ll be surprised when you see me fight.”
Kim Ha-neul smiled confidently.
But for some reason.
An inexplicable sense of foreboding prompted Kang-seok and Seong Yu-jin to exchange a glance.
***
The square room was filled with sticky, green liquid monsters.
They were slimes, liquid-type monsters that dissolved any object that entered their bodies as if they were hydrochloric acid.
Pushed into a corner of the room by the slowly advancing creatures, Seong Yu-jin swung Almas, its chilling energy awakened, and shouted.
“Ha-neul! Are you ready yet?!”
“Aaargh! I’ve got a bad hand! The resources, the resource cards aren’t coming out!”