9: Grade card game

Early in the morning, the students had already gathered in the classroom.

“Did you hear? Gong Ping will also participate in this year’s grade card competition.”

“Of course. The reward is a two-star character card, so he has no reason not to come.”

“In that case, won’t the first and second places be taken by Gong Ping and Shi Li? We’ll only be able to compete for third place.”

“That’s not necessarily true. What if Gong Ping and Shi Li meet before the finals?”

At this point, many people’s eyes turned to Shi Li’s empty seat.

That guy hasn’t been to class for two weeks, and no one knows what’s going on with him.

“Besides, it’s not certain that we’ll lose if we encounter Shi Li, okay?”

Someone mumbled quietly.

With the city-wide mock unified exam approaching, they were all working hard to get stronger.

Some students from better-off families had already started increasing their resource investment.

In just these two weeks, several Silver 3 students had emerged in the class.

As the class bell rang, Teacher Li, the homeroom teacher, walked into the classroom.

“Has Shi Li not arrived yet?”

His gaze swept across the room, and he frowned slightly.

“I called, but no one answered,” the class monitor replied.

“Alright then.”

Teacher Li didn’t say much and began to announce the rules for this grade card competition.

Due to various limitations, the Twenty-sixth High School’s scale had never really expanded.

Each grade in high school only had three classes, with about 40 students per class.

The total number of students in their current third-year class was 121.

Therefore, under the single-elimination tournament system, eight people would receive a bye in the first round.

The bye slots were not decided by drawing lots but were assigned to the top eight students in the last monthly exam’s overall scores.

So, even if Shi Li hadn’t arrived yet, he could still advance to the next round.

Aside from the byes, opponents for each round were decided by drawing lots.

After explaining all this, Teacher Li led the entire class in a grand procession to the gymnasium.

A total of 120 people participated in the first round of card games, making for 60 matches.

The gymnasium court could accommodate 10 card games simultaneously.

After settling the students, Teacher Li went to the teachers’ exclusive viewing area.

Besides teachers from other subjects, the homeroom teachers of Class Two and Class Three were also there.

“Old Li, this time your class won’t be dominating alone,” Teacher Zhao, the homeroom teacher of Class Two, said with a smile as he sat down.

“Oh?”

Teacher Li raised an eyebrow, his gaze sweeping towards Teacher Wang, the homeroom teacher of Class Three.

Class Three, where Gong Ping was, hadn’t even spoken yet, so why was this guy jumping in?

“Liu Yue from Class Two successfully advanced to Silver 4 yesterday,” the physical education teacher next to him explained quietly.

Liu Yue was the top student in Class Two, and she ranked second in the entire grade in the last monthly exam’s overall scores.

However, due to Shi Li’s presence, she had never achieved first place.

“Look at you, all smug. If you didn’t say anything, I would have thought a Gold tier student had emerged,” Teacher Li said with a laugh upon hearing this.

It was just Silver 4; his own student had already reached that two weeks ago.

“You…”

Teacher Zhao was about to retort but was interrupted by Teacher Wang.

“This time, first place belongs to our Class Three.

You two are just competing for second place, so talk less.”

“Old Wang, you don’t actually think Gold 1 is guaranteed to win against Silver 4, do you?”

“You’ll see then.”

Facing Teacher Zhao’s skepticism, Teacher Wang merely smiled slightly and said nothing more.

An ordinary Gold 1 indeed couldn’t claim to 100% win against a Silver 4.

But his student was no ordinary Gold 1.

Two hours later, the first round of matches finally concluded.

The top 64 were all determined, and a new round of drawing lots began again.

“Students whose names are called, please come up to draw lots.”

The teacher in charge, holding a microphone, called out names according to monthly exam results: “Shi Li.”

“Here.”

A few seconds later, Shi Li’s figure appeared in the center of the arena.

He had been too tired these past few days and had overslept.

It was only when the homeroom teacher found a student who had been eliminated early to knock on his door that he was woken up.

“Look, it’s Shi Li.”

“I thought he didn’t come.”

“Huh?! His rank!”

Someone quickly noticed the change in Shi Li’s rank.

Shi Li had been stuck at Silver 3 for a long time, and he finally broke through to Silver 4 for the grade competition!

Shi Li from Class One, Liu Yue from Class Two, Gong Ping from Class Three.

It seemed that this grade card competition would be exceptionally fierce.

“Not bad, Old Li!”

The physical education teacher clapped Teacher Li on the shoulder: “Shi Li from your class also advanced to Silver 4!”

“Hmph!”

Teacher Zhao from Class Two couldn’t help but let out a cold snort.

No wonder Old Li didn’t react much when he heard that a Silver 4 had emerged from his class.

The Round of 64 to 32 schedule was relatively short, requiring only three batches to finish.

Shi Li drew an early slot and would play in the first batch.

His opponent was a female classmate from his own class.

At Silver 2 rank, she posed no threat to Shi Li.

After both set up their respective decks, the card game officially began.

PVP card games had significant differences in some rules compared to PVE card games.

In PVE card games, all cards were revealed at the start, while in PVP card games, cards appeared face down at the start.

Both players could reveal one regular face-down card each turn until all regular cards were revealed.

“Come on, Shi Li, I won’t give up.”

As the game began, the female student already had her hand on the frontmost face-down card.

As a Silver 2, she could deploy 2+1 character cards, meaning 2 regular cards + 1 trump card.

Shi Li could deploy 3+1 cards, but he believed he only needed to play 3 cards to win against this opponent.

At this moment, both players’ decks were arranged in a single column, facing each other.

To win, one needed to defeat the opponent’s trump card.

However, because character cards had blocking properties, meaning front-row cards would absorb all incoming attacks from the enemy.

Therefore, in single-column confrontation card games, to attack the trump card, all regular cards in front of it must first be cleared.

Additionally, each turn in a PVP card game was mainly divided into two major phases: the [Reveal] phase and the [Action] phase.

Both phases were conducted and resolved simultaneously by both sides.

Actions and operations of the same level had no precedence.

Therefore, who revealed first or last, or who attacked first or last, made no essential difference.

Some preferred to reveal first, to build momentum.

Some preferred to reveal last, to create suspense.

[Awoo awoo!]

The projection of the first-row card revealed by the female student was a short, stocky Stone Demon.

[Crude Stone Demon]

Steadfast, 20 points, One-star

Attack 20, 100/100, 0/40

[Defense - 40 Energy]: Crude Stone Demon enters [Defense] state this turn (T1)

Shi Li also had this card and also chose to place it in the first row to reveal.

However, the entries on the two cards were not the same; his Stone Demon’s entry was:

[Solid - Passive]: When Crude Stone Demon is in [Defense], damage taken -10

The superiority and inferiority were clear at a glance.

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