211: Advance to [Jade 4]

Chapter 211: Promotion to Emerald 4

The first stage of the New Star Cup will be very fast-paced.

Over 5,000 participants from more than a thousand card high schools across the country are competing.

The tournament will only switch to an offline format, held at Qingchuan University's home ground, once it reaches the Top 128.

After Shi Li entered the virtual space, he quickly met his first opponent.

A male student at Platinum 3.

Virtual matches do not display names, only virtual avatars and ranks.

“Uh—”

When the male student saw Shi Li's Emerald 3 rank, he couldn't help but show a troubled expression.

His school only had one slot for the competition, and he was the top student selected within the school.

But at this moment, the rank difference between the two was a full major tier.

“Hello, let's begin.”

Shi Li had already instantly arranged his cards.

Facing an opponent of this rank, his deck was quite reserved.

His first row only had 1 unique card, bo shan, and all the others were two-star cards.

Because he knew that he would have to deal with many more opponents later.

The teacher said that a total of 4 S-tier contractors from the two major Card Halls were participating, but the truly threatening opponents were not limited to these three.

Before the official start of the competition, he had received statistics from the school; as of today, intelligence showed that approximately 200 participants had reached the Emerald rank.

This meant that even the slots for the offline tournament were not enough for these Emerald card players.

So Shi Li wanted to conserve his strength as much as possible.

He had no intention of easily using unique cards that had not been displayed in public, nor his newly promoted four-star cards.

After one round, Shi Li easily achieved his goal.

After all, the opponent's deck strength was not strong, not even possessing a single unique card.

Shi Li's victory was thanks to his hand cards.

Although it was a single-hand card rule, his three LV3 Recovery-type hand cards were equivalent to having 3 more Healing opportunities than his opponent.

Then there were also LV3 Counter, Defense, and Isolation.

So it was very easy to establish an unshakeable advantage.

Throughout the day, Shi Li encountered relatively average opponents.

The highest-ranked opponent he faced was only Platinum 9, who couldn't even put together a 9+1 set of three-star character cards.

Therefore, he smoothly advanced to the Top 256.

Now he only needed to win one more match to qualify for the Top 128 offline tournament.

However, in this round, he finally met a female opponent with a respectable rank.

Emerald 1, likely from one of the top thirty high schools.

A card player who could reach the Emerald rank in their freshman year certainly possessed strength that should not be underestimated.

Nevertheless, Shi Li still adopted a conservative strategy.

But as soon as bo shan was revealed, he was recognized by his opponent.

“Shi, it's actually you.”

After all, as Qingchuan University's freshman chief, his deck had long been widely circulated and studied among the participants.

Unlike his previous opponents, he didn't detect that sense of dread in her tone, at most just caution.

And when his opponent revealed her first row of cards, Shi Li also more clearly sensed that this opponent was extraordinary.

Among the 3 first-row cards, 2 were unique cards.

However, only 1 of the 2 was a Characteristic card, and the other carried an exclusive effect with an exclusive entry.

In terms of card strength, Shi Li had revealed 1 more cloud river than his opponent, so he wasn't worried.

In the second round, he still revealed a two-star card.

Subsequently, the battle between the two sides began to enter a state of evenly matched strength.

This made Shi Li suddenly realize that his deck was slightly lacking in “bench depth.”

That is, if he wanted to conserve his strength and not reveal new unique cards, he could only reveal two-star cards.

To put it bluntly, he didn't have many common three-star character cards on hand.

Actual combat was also a way to find and fix deficiencies; this point needed attention later, and he should spend some time and money to improve it.

Fortunately, Shi Li also had an additional 0-point Fennec Fox Girl, so even if half of the cards he revealed were two-star character cards, combined with his hand card advantage, he was still completely on par with his opponent's all-three-star deck, which also included unique cards.

Moreover, the pace of this round was quite fast; his opponent's deck style was one of Brute Force, a life-for-life playstyle.

By the end of the round when Fennec Fox Girl was revealed, Shi Li only had 1 regular face-down card left.

His opponent also had 1 regular face-up card and 1 regular face-down card remaining.

“Shi, you underestimated me too much.”

The girl looked at the board, feeling her chance had come: “You will pay the price for this.”

Saying this, she revealed her last regular card.

“I want to eat meat!!”

As the card was revealed, a half-dragon human with a gaping maw emerged from the card.

Its ten sharp claws were pointed, and its two legs were in an explosive, reverse-arched stance.

Bloodthirsty Dragonkin

Berserk, 30 points, Four-star Attack 30, 200/200

Thick Dragon Bloodline - Characteristic: Bloodthirsty Dragonkin's maximum Health +50

Craving for Blood - Passive: Bloodthirsty Dragonkin's attacks come with 50% Lifesteal

Robust Physique - Passive: Bloodthirsty Dragonkin's maximum Health +50

Wild Instincts in Peril - Passive: When Bloodthirsty Dragonkin's Health is 50 points or less, Attack +20

Dragon Claw Combo - 40 Health: Bloodthirsty Dragonkin attacks the target 1 additional time

“Impressive.”

Even Shi Li couldn't help but express admiration upon seeing this card.

The opponent had finally revealed her only four-star character card.

Moreover, the strength of this card was quite high; not only did it possess top-tier Abundant like Red Blade Maiden, but its Health was actually comparable to an ace card.

It also had powerful Lifesteal ability, plus the 2-hit active skill originally found only in Momentum System, which was an exclusive entry for Bloodthirsty Dragonkin.

The opponent's choice to reveal it at this position rather than as an ace card clearly indicated a desperate gamble to establish a huge advantage before both ace cards were revealed.

One should know that even if Red Blade Maiden was severely hit once or twice by Bloodthirsty Dragonkin first, it would very likely lose in a subsequent one-on-one fight against the opponent's ace card.

“I didn't underestimate you, you know.”

Fortunately, Shi Li was well-prepared.

The card he was about to reveal this round was also a four-star character card.

“Jump!”

As the card was revealed, a golden light representing a four-star character card burst forth.

The promoted Tiao Tiao had arrived.

Jumping Dragon Guard

Persistence, 30 points, Four-star Attack 30, 50/50+50/50, 0/60

Multi-Core - Characteristic: Jumping Dragon Guard's Health is divided into 2 segments, unaffected by any external beneficial effects

Indomitable - Passive: When Jumping Dragon Guard's Health reaches 0, it gains 2 rounds of Stasis

Stay for Five More - Passive: Jumping Dragon Guard's Stasis delayed departure until next round T0

Jumping Call - 50 Energy: Jumping Dragon Guard summons 1 Jumping Girl (T0)

(Stasis: Delayed departure)

Jumping Girl

Persistence, 20 points, No-star Attack 20, 20/20, 0/10

Jumping Love - Passive: When Jumping Girl departs, Jumping Dragon Guard gains 20 Healing

Tiao Tiao, after ascending to four stars, received a significant enhancement.

First, Stasis became 2 rounds, its strength definitely reaching that of an exclusive entry.

This could increase its theoretical minimum survival rounds from 3.5 rounds to 4.5 rounds.

Additionally, it gained a new summon entry.

Although Jumping Girl's Energy cost was high, it was definitely worth it.

Firstly, it had an attack power of 20, not inferior to low-point regular cards, and like Big Jump, it had a relatively high 20 Health for a second-tier summon card.

20 Health was a very significant improvement for a second-tier summon card.

Because with 20 Health, it wouldn't be instantly killed by those common 5-point or 10-point full-screen AOEs.

Then, if it was in Defense, it would require 40 Attack to defeat, meaning it could withstand one attack from a 30-point regular card without dying.

But most importantly, it brought the much-needed Recovery method to Jumping Dragon Guard.

The entry of a second-tier summon card also belonged to its own entries, so this death rattle effect could be considered an intrinsic effect of Jumping Guard, not an external one.

For other cards, 20 Healing might not be much, but for Jumping Dragon Guard, it was absolutely invaluable.

One should know that if Jumping Dragon Guard's Health bar was 0/50+40/50, then the 20 Health Recovery would be of great significance.

It could be equivalent to giving Jumping Dragon Guard a new Health bar, forcefully extending its survival by 1 round.

What's more, Jumping Girl was not like those super elite second-tier summon cards; it had no quantity limit.

Theoretically, several could be summoned, allowing Jumping Dragon Guard to gain more Recovery effects.

Moreover, its 20 Attack power was also a force not to be ignored.

Assuming there were 2 Jumping Girls on the field, and the opponent chose to ignore Jumping Girl and forcefully eliminate Jumping Dragon Guard.

Then, as soon as Dead's Talisman was played, Shi Li would effectively have 2 second-tier summon cards with 40 Attack.

The amount of damage they could deal was absolutely not to be overlooked.

As soon as this card was revealed, the direction of the game immediately began to develop as Shi Li desired.

Especially since he also had a Fennec Fox Girl, a card he had discovered to have an advantage in multiple actual combats.

That is, it acted as a power bank for Persistence cards.

Anyway, with 0 Attack, it neither dealt damage nor wasted output.

Even if it was used to attack his own Persistence cards every round, it was worth the price.

Just like that, Shi Li's ace card and his opponent's ace card were revealed simultaneously.

But the difference was that he also brought 2 Jumping Girls with 40 Attack.

His own ace card had 60 Attack, plus the 2 Jumping Girls, a total of 140 Attack.

In 2 rounds, he could defeat his opponent's ace card.

So, without much suspense, he merely exerted a little effort and successfully entered the Top 128 offline tournament.

After the match, he received a summons from Hu Lan.

He happened to have something to discuss with the academy himself, so he gladly went.

Coming out of Hu Lan's office, Shi Li already had an additional card in his hand.

That was the reward for being the chief in the previous ranking match, a three-to-four direct promotion token card.

In addition, he also received some intelligence and promises from Hu Lan.

The intelligence mainly concerned the deck data of the Top 128 offline participants; it had to be said that the school's actions were swift.

As for the promises, they were about the rewards for the New Star Cup results.

The New Star Cup already had tiered rewards set, and the school promised to provide identical rewards.

That is, it could be considered that Shi would receive double.

The reward tiers were:

Top 128 - 50,000, Top 64 - 100,000, Top 32 - 200,000.

Top 16 - 300,000, Top 8 - 500,000, Top 4 - 1,000,000.

Champion - 5,000,000, Runner-up - 2,500,000.

These tiered rewards only took the highest tier.

This meant that if Shi Li won the championship, he would receive double, totaling 10,000,000 cubic coins.

After bidding farewell to Hu Lan, Shi Li returned to his dormitory.

Today, A Ya Jun, as one of the top ten freshmen, also participated in the New Star Cup; Chang Zhun and Gong Ping had gone to class and had not yet returned.

Shi Li chatted with A Ya Jun for a couple of sentences; all 10 students from Qingchuan University who participated successfully advanced to the Top 128.

Then he took out the three-to-four direct promotion token card, a Rage System one.

He immediately used it on Lotus Succubus.

After all, this card was his unique among uniques, a one-of-a-kind Healing card.

Moreover, now that he had the Red Dragon Beastmaster, he should also strengthen his other two unique Berserk cards to prepare for continuing to conquer the Berserk Tower.

The reason for wanting to conquer the Berserk Tower so much had been mentioned before.

But now, Shi Li had an additional new reason.

Crimson Trial - Ultra: Usable after completing Crimson Trial - Extreme and clearing the Rampage Trial.

This was the new innate hand card token he obtained after completing Crimson Trial - Extreme.

However, clearing the Rampage Trial was, it must be said, an extremely arduous challenge.

According to the exploration of predecessors, the last stage of the Seven System Trials was 5-10.

And now he was only at 3-3, still very far away.

Temporarily casting aside distracting thoughts, Shi Li used the direct promotion token card, and a golden light burst forth from the card.

“You can obtain 1 character card [Lotus Succubus (Four-star)].”

“You can obtain 1 hand card [Healing (LV3)], 1 [Healing (LV3)], 1 [Recovery (LV3)].”

“Do you want to spend 65,000 cubic coins to reset this quest? (Yes/No)”

As Shi Li clicked “No,” a vibrant green light representing Emerald swept over his entire body.

Rank: Emerald 3 → Emerald 4

Stamina: 660/660 → 700/700

Energy: 660/660 → 700/700

“Comfortable.”

He couldn't help but stretch.

At the same time, new text popped up.

Rage System Resonance: 190% → 200%

Hell Trial has been activated

“Hmm?”

This made Shi Li quite surprised.

As just mentioned, the final stage of the Seven System Trials was 5-10.

After clearing it, no more rewards could be obtained from the Seven System Trials, but a new trial would be unlocked.

That is, the Hell Trial.

The Hell Trial also consisted of stages, and each stage featured 9+1 five-star demonic beasts.

And different card players would randomly encounter different demonic beasts.

However, this trial was actually not easy to clear, because, for example, someone who had only cleared the Balanced Trial could only use Balanced cards to challenge it.

If one cleared both the Balanced Trial and the Rampage Trial, then both system cards could be used in the Hell Trial.

“So, does this mean I've essentially skipped stages, and can activate the Hell Trial without clearing all Seven System Trials?”

Shi Li suddenly became curious.

However, before that, he should first look at the four-star Lotus Succubus's card face.