1: Chapter 1: Kick Me Out of the Team?

The first future teammate to grace the cover.

Reversal Movement - Li Murou

Dragon Kingdom, Jiangcheng Professional University.

"I finally camped it out!"

Chen Xi clutched a package in his hand and shouted excitedly.

Inside the package, a piece of shoulder armor glowing with a steady, earthy yellow light lay quietly.

He took a deep breath and gently placed his right hand over the shoulder armor.

"Card Creation!"

As the words fell.

The [Rock Shoulder Armor] inside the package began to turn illusory.

Complex and mysterious golden patterns spread out from Chen Xi's palm, entwining the shoulder armor like living creatures.

The shoulder armor slowly decomposed within the golden light, turning into a sky full of light specks.

Buzz—

After a slight hum, the light dissipated.

A card shimmering with a heavy, earthy yellow glow floated quietly in Chen Xi's palm.

On the front of the card was an exquisite pattern of the Rock Shoulder Armor, while the back featured intricate, profound patterns.

[Ding! Obtained Material Card—Heart of Bedrock (Grade B)]

Chen Xi pumped his fist in excitement and tucked the card into his pocket.

Then he turned around and walked quickly toward his squad's base.

His steps were light, even carrying a hint of a skip.

"Fang Yue's class is Frost Knight, and his core card is [Frost Heart]. Although its defense is decent, he still struggles when facing high-intensity fire-attribute attacks."

"But this Grade B [Heart of Bedrock] is different; its ultimate earth-attribute defense is exactly what he needs to cover his weakness. With the two cards perfectly merged, a Grade A card will be born—[Frosty Heart of Bedrock]!"

At the thought of that soon-to-be-born Grade A card, Chen Xi's heart couldn't help but throb.

"When that time comes, our Shenfeng Battle Team's tankiness will go up a whole level!"

...

Chen Xi was a transmigrator.

A month ago, he was still a corporate slave struggling under the '996' blessing. An accident caused him to transmigrate to this world where games had manifested into reality and everyone could awaken a class.

Here, he awakened the class—[Miracle Card Maker].

This was a class that had never appeared in history.

His talent allowed him to turn everything in the world—whether it was equipment, items, or materials from monsters—into cards with various magical effects.

These cards could provide powerful attribute boosts for teammates, greatly increasing the team's combat power.

However, precisely because it was an unprecedented class, during the free team-up season for First-Year University Students, he, a "Miracle Card Maker," received no attention.

In those mainstream 'Warrior-Mage-Priest' iron triangle configurations, he was like an anomaly.

No one knew his value, and even fewer were willing to gamble their future on someone with unclear support abilities.

In the end, he could only join a similarly obscure team—the Shenfeng Battle Team.

But it was such an underestimated team that, over the past month, performed a shocking reversal.

With the enhancement of Chen Xi's cards, the Shenfeng Battle Team's dungeon clearing efficiency was outrageously high.

From an unknown small squad, they hacked through all obstacles, and their point rankings soared.

Now, they had become a star battle team ranked third in dungeon points among the entire first-year class!

And today, having scavenged the key card [Heart of Bedrock].

In Chen Xi's eyes, it was another puzzle piece for their squad's journey to the summit.

With this excitement and vision.

He took the stairs two at a time and soon arrived at the Shenfeng Battle Team's base on the third floor of the school's club building.

"I'm back! Good news!"

Chen Xi shouted excitedly, pushing open the familiar wooden door of the base.

However, the expected cheers of surprise from his teammates did not occur.

In its place was a deathly silence and emptiness.

The scene before him caused the smile on Chen Xi's face to instantly freeze.

The room that originally held a tactical sand table and a long conference table was now completely empty.

The dungeon tactic boards on the wall, the golden trophy symbolizing the Monthly Elite Squad they had just received two days ago... everything had vanished without a trace.

The entire meeting room was left with only bare walls and a mess of dust on the floor.

"Where is everyone?"

Chen Xi stood frozen on the spot, an ominous premonition surging in his heart.

"Captain Lin? Xinyu, Fang Yue, Xiao Lin?"

He tentatively called out his teammates' names, his voice stirring a faint echo in the empty room, but there was no response.

Just as he was filled with confusion and preparing to take out his phone to contact them.

Four familiar figures slowly walked in from the hallway behind him.

Leading them was none other than Captain Lin Feng.

The other three members of the team followed closely behind.

Seeing them return, Chen Xi's tense nerves relaxed.

He asked curiously:

"Where did you guys go? What happened to our base? Did we get robbed?"

Lin Feng stood at the front, glanced indifferently at the room, and spat out two words:

"No."

"Then this is..."

Chen Xi pointed at the emptiness, the confusion on his face deepening:

"Everything is gone—the tactic boards, the conference table... even the trophy we just got is gone!"

A mocking sneer curled at the corner of Lin Feng's mouth:

"Yes, because we are moving bases."

"Moving bases? Moving where?"

Chen Xi was stunned:

"How come I didn't know?"

After asking, his gaze swept over Zhang Xinyu and the others behind Lin Feng.

He found that they all avoided his gaze in unison, their expressions complex.

A chill rose from the soles of Chen Xi's feet without warning.

Lin Feng sneered again, the sound particularly piercing at this moment:

"Because we became the Monthly Elite Squad for the first-year class, the school has upgraded our base."

His tone shifted:

"However, we feel that with your current level, you can no longer keep up with our pace. Therefore, after a unanimous discussion, we have decided to have you leave the team."

He paused and spoke in a patronizing tone:

"Of course, we were comrades after all, so to save you some face, you should go to the system and apply to leave the team yourself."

Boom—!

These words were like a thunderclap, exploding in Chen Xi's mind.

The color instantly drained from his face as he looked at Lin Feng in disbelief, his voice trembling slightly:

"Apply to... leave the team? You... want to kick me out?"

Zhang Xinyu, standing next to Lin Feng, seemed unable to bear it. She took a step forward and said softly:

"Yes, Brother Xi. To be honest, your role in our team is really no longer significant."

"Usually in dungeons, you just throw some cards from the back; you have no actual combat power at all. Now we are all Level 10, and the dungeons we'll challenge next will be extremely difficult with more complex BOSS mechanics. If we keep bringing you along... it will affect us greatly."

"No... combat power at all?"

"Bringing me along will affect you greatly?"

Chen Xi slowly repeated Zhang Xinyu's words, finding them incredibly absurd and laughable.

He felt as if his heart were being squeezed hard by an invisible hand, the pain making it almost impossible to breathe.

His gaze passed over Zhang Xinyu and locked onto Fang Yue and Sun Lin behind her.

"You guys think so too?"

Under his gaze, Fang Yue and Sun Lin were even more afraid to look up.

Their silence explained everything.

"Heh..."

Chen Xi suddenly laughed, a laugh filled with endless coldness and disappointment:

"So you really think I'm useless?"

His voice suddenly rose, his tone saturated with suppressed fury:

"Have you ever considered! Before I joined, you were just an anonymous squad that couldn't even gather five people and struggled even with beginner dungeons!"

"Without the core card enhancements I gave each of you, could our combat power have increased so quickly? Could we have fought our way through to become the third-ranked elite squad in the first year?"

Chen Xi's questioning was like a heavy hammer, striking hard at their hearts.

Zhang Xinyu and the others turned pale, their eyes darting around, clearly remembering the scenes from the past.

However, Captain Lin Feng's expression remained cold.

"Your cards did indeed have an effect on us; we don't deny that."

He coldly interrupted Chen Xi:

"But I believe the utility you can provide ends here. A pure support has too low a ceiling; it's far less of a contribution than adding a new powerful damage dealer."

As he spoke, he pulled a stack of brand-new dragon coins from his storage bag and casually tossed them on the ground.

The bills scattered across the floor like the ultimate insult to Chen Xi.

"We won't let you work for nothing during this time. Here is 10,000 dragon coins; consider it a buyout for those core cards."

Lin Feng crossed his arms, looking down at Chen Xi:

"Those four core enhancement cards you gave each of us before, from now on, they belong to us."

Chen Xi looked at the dragon coins scattered at his feet in shock, then snapped his head up to look at Lin Feng's cold and heartless face.

"Kicking me out of the team and then using a mere ten thousand dragon coins to forcibly take the core cards I spent countless efforts to tailor for you?"

At this moment, the last shred of sentiment and illusion in Chen Xi's heart was completely crushed to pieces.

Boundless rage, mixed with a bone-chilling cold, suddenly erupted from his chest—