15: Star Upgrade Mission

It was already after school when Shi Li left Old Ban's office.

As soon as he got home and stepped through the door, his phone received a message.

"[Your account ending in 6831 has received a transfer of 5000.00 cubic coins from Teacher Li. Balance: 14168.54.]"

"Old Ban is efficient; it was much faster than I expected."

Looking at his re-enriched savings, he knew that this Star Ascension quest was secure.

After eating dinner and resting for a bit, Shi Li locked himself in his room.

He opened his Card Player panel and clicked into his item card library.

"[Star Ascension Token Card]: Can be used to perform a Star Ascension quest on 1 one-star Berserker Character Card (unique)."

When used on the Red Blade Maiden, light immediately surged around the card.

Eventually, the light covered the entire panel screen, and text information popped up.

"[This quest is named: Crimson Blade (Star Ascension).]"

"[Lin is studying in the Northern Wastes and successfully defeated the strongest guardian, the Northern Wastes Bear, in the annual assessment.]"

"[Now, as the top student of her year, she is about to embark on one of three paths of experience.]"

"[Please help her make a choice.]"

"[A. Academy Trial Cave First Floor; B. Northern Wastes Bandit Stronghold; C. Royal Capital Guard.]"

"Another multiple-choice question."

Shi Li rubbed his temples.

Through so many refresh experiences, he knew that these options ultimately pointed to one goal.

And the process of taking different branches was essentially a roguelike mode.

Choosing different options provided different aids, but the ultimate goal was always to defeat the Boss.

The key was which aids were more suitable for countering the Boss.

In this Boss battle, only the Character Cards from the quest itself could be used.

However, the hand cards owned by the Card Player themselves were not restricted, so generally speaking, Card Players with higher ranks and more hand cards would have an advantage in simulated quests.

"Since I chose the Northern Wastes Academy for my first clear, I'll choose Northern Wastes again this time."

Shi Li was not very cautious about his first attempt; his main goal was exploration.

"[The desolate land of the Northern Wastes has harsh living conditions, and its people revere martial prowess, leading to the proliferation of many bandit groups that live by plunder.]"

"[Lin's quest is to eradicate a small bandit stronghold.]"

"[Accompanying her is the fifth-ranked second-year student, Senior Gu Lala, who chose the same training quest.]"

"[Gu Lala has joined your deck.]"

"Not bad, I've already recruited a companion so quickly."

"And she's a Healing card."

After looking at Gu Lala's panel, Shi Li expressed his satisfaction.

In card battles, a Healing card could greatly increase the margin for error.

After choosing various options and overcoming many challenges, the character controlled by Shi Li finally arrived before the final Boss.

What appeared before him was a 4-row, 3-column card grid.

The first 3 rows and 3 columns could accommodate a total of 9 regular cards.

The last row was called the Ace Row, where an Ace card could be placed in any of the 3 empty positions.

"Amazing, it's actually a 9+1 card game."

This was his first opportunity to personally experience a 9+1 setup.

One had to know that this was a card game that only Card Players who had reached at least the Platinum peak line [Platinum 10] were qualified to experience.

However, looking at his own deck, including the NPC Character Cards collected along the way and the protagonist, there were only 6 Character Cards in total.

"I can't even fill the card grid, so I definitely can't win this time."

"But I can at least scout out the Boss's capabilities."

After he arranged his deck, the Boss on the opposite side also descended onto the card table.

This was a four-legged land dragon without wings, with a massive body and thick, battle-hardened scales, exuding powerful combat strength just from its appearance.

"[Lord Horned Dragon]"

"Chasing Wind, Attack 500, 10000 / 10000, 0 / 100"

"[Dragon Scales - Passive]: Lord Horned Dragon gains 100 points of [Healing] (T5) each time it takes damage."

"[Dragon Fangs - Passive]: The target attacked by Lord Horned Dragon gains 50 points of [Poisoned]."

"[Dragon Flame - 30 Energy]: Lord Horned Dragon attacks 1 target and applies 100 points of [Diffusion] effect."

"([Poisoned]: Takes unavoidable damage next turn.)"

"([Diffusion]: Deals damage to 1 adjacent target on its left and right respectively.)"

"No, 10,000 HP is too much, how am I supposed to fight this?"

Shi Li was momentarily stunned after reading the opponent's panel.

The strength of monster cards in simulated quests often far exceeded normal, and it was said that high-difficulty Bosses could even have seven or eight modifiers.

In response, Card Players would gain some temporary powerful hand cards or temporary buffs, similar to "plot kills," during the quest options.

But even so, this Boss was ridiculously strong.

The combined attack power of his 4 Character Cards, even with temporary buffs, was only 200 points.

Even if the Boss stood still and let them hit it, it would take 50 turns.

What's more, this guy also had 300 attack, and his own Character Cards could at most stack their HP to 500, enduring a maximum of two hits.

"Is this the difficulty of Star Ascension for a Unique Character Card? It's too high."

Before officially starting, he had looked it up online.

Generally speaking, the success rate for Star Ascension quests of ordinary one-star cards was roughly 60%.

The level of completion upon success would affect the quality of the modifiers obtained after the card's Star Ascension.

If the modifier quality was not good enough, it could only be enhanced through later card-making methods.

The difficulty for [unique] one-star Character Cards was higher, but it would still be around 30%, as this was only a one-star to two-star ascension after all.

And unlike acquisition quests, which only had 0% or 100% completion, unique card Star Ascension quests allowed for low-completion clears, requiring only 60% to pass.

However, looking at the Boss's panel now, Shi Li suspected that the possibility of passing this Star Ascension quest might not even be 10%.

In other words, if someone else tried, they might have to spend more than ten token cards to clear it, and the completion rate might not even be high.

"[Unfortunately, this quest failed.]"

"[Yes / No to reset this quest for 1200 cubic coins.]"

"The price went up again."

When the first quest failed, Shi Li couldn't help but complain as he looked at the pop-up text.

Fortunately, he had plenty of ammunition today, so refreshing it 10 times was not a problem.

"Again."

So he clicked refresh.

Half an hour later, after repeated exploration and attempts, Shi Li finally assembled a complete 9+1 deck.

But even with a full deck, he was still no match for the final Boss.

When he clicked [Refresh] again, he felt the world spin around him.

"[Insufficient mental energy detected. Please try refreshing again in 12 hours.]"

"No way, are the mental energy requirements for a two-star quest this high?"

He knew that refreshing simulated quests consumed a lot of mental energy.

However, when he refreshed one-star quests before, at most he just felt noticeably tired; it was never this severe.

Strictly speaking, he had only refreshed this quest once.

There was no other way; he could only rest for now.

During the following period, Shi Li would hunt for materials at the training ground during the day to sell for money.

At night, he would go home, rest for a few hours, then refresh the quest and continue to explore the strategy.

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