185: The twelfth card

Chapter 185: The Twelfth unique Card

However, with the strength of 8 evolutions, Shi Li was quickly defeated.

To be honest, although the numerical panel wasn't as exaggerated as in Cicada Wing Crisis,

the strength of 8 Characteristics was enough to compensate—no, it wasn't compensation, but rather far superior to the fifth and sixth stages in Cicada Wing Crisis.

Shi Li was beaten without any power to retaliate, utterly battered.

He continued to diligently farm, still automatically reaching 6 evolutions, then switching to manual.

When his luck was good, he could reach 8 evolutions; when it was bad, he would be eliminated directly at 7 evolutions.

"I feel like if I had enough time for trial and error, I could defeat the 8th stage.

But the problem is that the number of deployed cards is no longer increasing. Do I still have hope for the 9th and 10th stages?"

Shi Li expressed his concern.

"Even if the 9th and 10th stages are similar to the current situation, their time-based trial and error cost will definitely be higher than the 8th stage.

If we add that up, wouldn't the success rate approach infinitesimally small?"

Assuming his individual chance of passing the 8th stage is 1%, and his individual chance of passing the 9th stage is 0.1%, multiplying these probabilities would result in 0.001%.

With such a probability, is it even possible to succeed?

After all, in a short period, Shi Li didn't know how else to enhance the strength of the 9 cards on his card table.

If it were a long period, Star Ascension from three-star to four-star would be possible, but the problem is, he doesn't know when he would reach Emerald or have enough four-star character cards.

Can Abyss 68 wait that long?

"Forget it, I'll just focus on clearing the current stage first."

Shaking his head, Shi Li decided to temporarily focus all his attention on the 8th stage.

He shouldn't think of himself as some unique savior; just because he can't clear the 9th and 10th stages doesn't mean others can't.

After grinding for 5 days, Shi Li finally encountered an enemy that seemed relatively "reliable."

This time, the 8-evolution Abyssal Kind was a 9+1 lineup from a series of deck sets.

The 9 cards on the field all shared the same tag.

The ace card was a humanoid demon wearing a purple-black cloak.

Pointed ears, smooth skin, sharp and brutal eyes.

[Abyss Count]

Berserk, Attack 60, 400/400

[Blood Poison - Passive]: Abyss Count converts every 10 points of attack into 10% of the target's maximum health as Fixed Damage.

[See the Light - Passive]: Abyss Count loses 40 health each round.

[Leader - Passive]: When Abyss Count serves as the ace, its health is doubled.

[Abyssal Skin - Passive]: Abyss Count has Overlord and Magic Immunity effects.

[Greed - Passive]: When Abyss Count participates in eliminating a target, it gains 30 Healing.

[Bloodthirsty - Passive]: Abyss Count gains 10 Healing with each attack.

[Madness - Passive]: When Abyss Count's health is less than or equal to 50%, its attack power is doubled.

[Brutality - 30 Health]: Abyss Count attacks 1 target and inflicts 100% Lifesteal.

[Gaze - 30 Health]: Abyss Count causes 1 target to fall into Petrification.

(Lifesteal: Gains corresponding amount of Healing)

(Petrification: Cannot act, damage -10 when attacked)

Originally, when the opponent first evolved the "See the Light" Characteristic, Shi Li was both puzzled and relieved, wondering why the opponent could evolve a negative Characteristic.

But when "Blood Poison" immediately appeared in the next evolution, he realized that "See the Light" was a negative Characteristic that balanced the strength of "Blood Poison."

This "Blood Poison" must be admitted to be very powerful. For a typical 100-health card, 30% of its health is 30 points.

So, for the Count and his subordinates, whether 30 attack points convert to 30% damage, or 60 attack points convert to 60% damage, there isn't much difference.

Only when attacking character cards with over 100 health does this percentage-based conversion mechanism truly show its value.

The key now is Fixed Damage.

It grants the opponent a heaven-defying mechanism where all attacks convert to Fixed Damage.

In other words, Defense is completely useless.

When Defense is completely useless, the card player's advantage in the Abyss will be greatly weakened.

Because one of the card player's biggest advantages in the Abyss is the ability to use hand cards.

A very important part of hand cards is Defense.

However, Shi Li felt that while others might not be able to try, he could give it a shot.

In this round, he deployed a peculiar front-row card combination.

Withering Dragon + Tao Tao Mo + Bouncing Guard.

While Withering Dragon and Bouncing Guard were understandable, Tao Tao Mo appearing in the front row seemed a bit out of place.

The fundamental reason for this was Blood Poison.

30 attack points converted to 30% of the target's maximum health as Fixed Damage means 30 points for a 100-health card.

But for a 50-health card, it's only 15 points.

Numerically speaking, this serves to reduce the damage.

Of course, two issues need to be noted here.

First, Bouncing Guard's health is 100 points, just divided into 2 segments; its 30% is still 30 points.

Second, the total base attack power of the opponent's 9+1 cards is 330 points, converting to 330%.

And the health of Shi Li's 3 front-row cards is undoubtedly 300%.

This means that although the numerical value is reduced, the actual proportion is not.

Leaving aside the Bouncing Guard with its special mechanism for a moment, let's put it in more concrete terms.

The opponent would originally need to deal 200% output to eliminate Shi Li's other two front-row cards, which have a combined health of 200 points, excluding Bouncing Guard.

Now, if it's Withering Dragon + Tao Tao Mo, with a combined health of 100 points, the opponent still deals 200% output to eliminate them.

However, Shi Li had already noticed the two issues mentioned above.

Right from the start, he took the initiative.

Tao Tao Mo's Blindness, Lotus Succubus's Defection, Bouncing Guard's Taunt.

He immediately controlled three of the opponent's front-row cards, effectively reducing the opponent's output by 90%.

330% - 90 = 240%

Then Shi Li played an LV2 Shield.

LV2 Shield: This round, negates 20 damage for 2 cards each.

For Withering Dragon and Tao Tao Mo, which have 50 health, 20 Shield points are equivalent to 40% of their health.

In other words, this LV2 Shield is enough to negate 80% of the opponent's damage.

240% - 80% = 160%

Then the opponent's remaining output is only 160%.

Even considering the bonus from some of the opponent's damage skills, the opponent can at most eliminate only 1 of Shi Li's front-row cards.

And Shi Li's output is enough to eliminate 3 of the opponent's front-row cards.

The gap became apparent with this back and forth.

Crucially, in this first round, he was also quite lucky.

The opponent dealt excess damage to Bouncing Guard, which prevented Withering Dragon and Tao Tao Mo from being instantly eliminated.

The most satisfying part was that Withering Dragon was back to full health next round.

Shi Li playing another LV2 Shield was enough to secure victory for the entire card game.

"2,000,000, here I come."

He seemed to already see the prize money waving at him.

[Congratulations, you have cleared Abyss 68 Stage 8.]

[Number of people who defeated 8-evolution in this stage increased to 1]

[You will receive 300,000 cubic coins.]

[You will receive 1 Four-star Extreme Quality Random Material Card]

[You will receive 1 Four-star Extreme Quality Random Material Card]

[You will receive 1 Four-star Extreme Quality Random Material Card]

"This time's reward is a bit small—"

Shi Li was slightly disappointed.

Last time, clearing Stage 7 was 150,000, and this time it merely doubled.

Compared to the official 2,000,000, it was considerably less.

Then Stage 6 gave a unique card token, and Stage 7 gave a three-to-four unique Star Ascension token.

This time, it only gave 3 extreme quality material cards.

Of course, in terms of price, extreme quality material cards would certainly not be low.

High-quality ones could sell for around 300,000, so extreme quality ones would be at least 500,000, and some specific ones might even be close to a million.

It's just that these couldn't be cashed out, because just like the high-quality material cards, Shi Li planned to keep them for his own use later.

"But it doesn't matter, the official reward is enough for me to spend."

He was quite content.

Durian City, Show Card Hall.

"Director Hou!"

A staff member rushed into the office in a panic.

"What's with all the fuss?"

Director Hou, who was busy with work, frowned: "Xiao Li, didn't I tell you to calm down in any situation? If you're like this, how will you ever achieve anything?"

"Shi, Shi Li! Shi Li challenged Abyss Stage 8 and suc-succeeded!"

"What?!"

Director Hou, who had just been complaining about others making a fuss, suddenly stood up and shouted.

He knew that Shi Li had entered the Abyss.

It had been so many days without news that he originally thought it had come to nothing.

He never expected him to succeed!

"Cancel all my subsequent appointments today."

"But—"

"Hmm?"

"Okay, I understand!"

Xiao Li could only grit his teeth and agree, muttering to himself as he left.

Director Hou was no longer in the mood to work.

His own hard-earned achievements were far less than what Shi Li brought him!

Half an hour later, Shi Li arrived at the office.

"Brother Hou."

"Amazing, kid!"

Director Hou patted him hard on the shoulder and told his subordinate to quickly bring a cup of coffee.

"Speaking of which, a lot of people have been looking for you recently."

As soon as he sat down, Director Hou complained.

"Looking for me?"

"Yes, they don't know how they found out I could contact you, and they don't know how they got my phone number.

In short, they call me every other day, begging me to introduce them to you. I've refused them all."

Director Hou waved his hand.

What was his status now? How could he be ordered around by those nobodies?

"Let's not talk about that for now. I've already applied for your subsidy. Have you received it?"

During the half hour he waited for Shi Li, Director Hou also conducted multiple verifications.

After confirming that Shi Li had indeed successfully challenged Stage 8, he submitted the subsidy application to the official channels.

"Received it."

Shi Li nodded.

With 2,000,000 in his account, plus the Abyss rewards, his account had reached 2,300,000.

This money would certainly be enough to complete Red Blade Maiden's three-to-four Star Ascension task.

"Good, that's good."

Director Hou also nodded: "Besides the official prize money, the rewards from the main hall will certainly not be small."

With that, he handed Shi Li a card.

"However, the reward for Stage 8 isn't prize money, but 1 unique token card."

"1 card?"

Shi Li raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, we wouldn't shortchange you. You'll know when you see it."

Director Hou chuckled, keeping him in suspense.

"It's the 'one-shot success' kind, right?"

"Huh? How did you know?"

However, Shi Li had already had similar experiences, so the suspense didn't quite work.

Last time, the Demon-Defeating Dark Hunter given by the Banlan Tribe's Sacred Fire Baptism was a 'one-shot success.'

Indeed, when the card was in Shi Li's hand, it was exactly as he had thought.

[Token Card (One-star)]: Consuming this card immediately completes the simulation task [Listen to the Wind and Act]

"Thank you, Brother Hou!"

After thanking him, Shi Li took the card to the private lounge downstairs.

A unique token card that guaranteed 100% success without needing to spend money was indeed worthy of the Stage 8 clearance reward.

He immediately clicked to use it, and several lines of text popped up.

[This mission is named: Listen to the Wind and Act.]

[The animal world is full of the cruelty of the strong preying on the weak.]

[Especially the animals in this world, all possess superpowers.]

[Though the meerkat clan is weak, they have secured a place here with their unique abilities.]

[Vigilance is an essential skill for every meerkat.]

[They usually stand guard, looking around alertly, spotting every predator that tries to approach.]

[Today is Mongmong's first day standing guard alone. She seems to have noticed something unusual.]

[Please help her make a choice.]

[A. Shout out to warn her clan.]

[As a novice, even if she gives a false alarm, she will be forgiven by everyone.]

[B. Observe further, waiting for the target to get closer.]

[She doesn't recognize the species of the other party, so perhaps there's no malice.]

[C. Pretend not to see it.]

[Even if she doesn't raise the alarm, other sentinel clan members should soon discover it.]

Shi Li didn't need to choose; the option directly skipped to C.

The story then continued to progress.

[Obtainable character card: Fox-eared Mong Girl (One-star) x 1.]

[Obtainable hand card: Charge (LV1) x 1.]

[Do you want to reset this mission for 7000 cubic coins? Yes/No.]

"No."

After Shi Li clicked no, the card fell into his hand.

[Listen to the Wind Resonance]: 60% → 80%

This character card is a Listen to the Wind card, so it seems his Listen to the Wind Trial will soon be able to begin.

"But what happened to the 'animal world' that was promised?"

Looking at the card's projection, Shi Li couldn't help but complain.

In the simulation mission, it was clearly a fox, but when it materialized, it turned into a girl with fox-eared meerkat ears. Her primitive tribal-style attire was somewhat similar to Snail Walking Lady.

"However, the effect of this card face is indeed what I need; it came at just the right time."

But this didn't stop Shi Li from being very pleased with this card.

He had found a way to further enhance his deck strength beyond the 9+1 base.

[Fox-eared Mong Girl]

Listen to the Wind, 0 points, One-star Attack 0, 100/100, 0/30

[Stand Anywhere - Characteristic]: Fox-eared Mong Girl can be placed in the Ace Row, increasing the number of allied deployed regular cards by 1.

[Small Animal - Passive]: Fox-eared Mong Girl does not consume reveal slots when acting as a regular card.