1: Chapter 1: A bewildering transmigration, and a crisis involving monthly exam cards!

So-called transmigration.

According to the laws of the hundreds of light novels Su Bai had read back on Earth, it should have come with the following standard features—a romantic death by being sent to another world by a truck (at the very least, it should be a traffic accident).

When you open your eyes, there would be a beautiful girl looking down at you with a gaze like you were trash.

At the very least, there should be a system notification sound dinging in your ears.

However, the reality was—no truck. No beautiful girl. Not even a system notification sound.

Su Bai had simply taken a nap during class, opened his eyes, and found himself sitting in a completely unfamiliar classroom.

Then, a sharp pain struck.

It was the memory fragments belonging to another person, like shoving broken glass violently into his brain.

An eighteen-year-old youth named "Su Bai," a second-year student at the Jinghai Card Creator Academy, from a poor family, with mediocre talent, ranked one hundred and sixty-ninth out of one hundred and seventy students in the grade—the only reason he wasn't dead last was because the one hundred and seventieth student had been expelled on the third day of school.

"... You've got to be kidding me." Su Bai pressed his temples and said in a low voice.

No one noticed his abnormality.

Because at this moment, everyone in the classroom was doing the same thing—staring fixedly at the person on the podium.

More accurately, staring fixedly at the piece of paper in that person's hand.

The man on the podium was named Deputy Commander Zhou Mu.

Forty-two years old.

Former Deputy Commander of the Seventh Division of the Abyss Front crusade army.

After retiring, he transferred to the Jinghai Card Creator Academy to serve as an instructor for practical combat theory.

There were many rumors about this man.

For example, he had once survived alone in the territory of a ninth-rank giant dragon; for example, three fingers on his left hand had been bitten off by monsters while covering his teammates' retreat; for example, the red ink he used to grade assignments was concocted from the blood of Abyss creatures.

At this moment, this man surrounded by rumors was slowly scanning the classroom with that pair of eyes said to be able to see through lies and fear.

He spoke: "I am announcing one thing."

His voice was not loud.

But the classroom instantly quieted down.

The fat boy sitting next to Su Bai, Zhao Dahai, quietly swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"Next week, Monthly Exam."

Deputy Commander Zhou Mu threw out these two words in an extremely short sentence.

The tense air in the classroom seemed to be slashed by a knife—and then wails rang out in unison.

"Shut up."

The wailing instantly vanished.

Deputy Commander Zhou Mu continued expressionlessly: "The theme for this Monthly Exam."

He turned around and wrote two large characters on the blackboard.

—Armament.

The sound of chalk hitting the blackboard was like a pebble thrown into stagnant water.

"First-rank Armament Card." Deputy Commander Zhou Mu's voice sounded like he was reading a technical specification sheet, "The exam requirements are as follows—"

"First, independently design and create a magic card with the function of physical summoning."

"Second, after the card is activated, it must allow the user to successfully summon a physical armament with practical combat value. Knife, sword, shield, hammer, gun—the type is not limited, but it must be a 'usable weapon,' not a piece of scrap metal."

"Third, the finished product will undergo three tests: armament degree, versatility, and magic power conductivity. If any item does not meet the standard, it will be considered unqualified. In other words, the quality rating must reach D-grade or higher."

As he finished speaking, the lingering lucky thoughts in the classroom that "this Monthly Exam shouldn't be too hard" shattered all over the floor like broken glass.

The color completely drained from Zhao Dahai's fat face.

"Ar-Armament Card?!"

His voice cracked; this was a first-rank Armament Card!

The iron law of this world—cards are divided into first to ninth ranks, corresponding to the user's first to ninth-rank job transfer levels.

Each rank is further subdivided into seven quality levels: D, C, B, A, S, SS, and SSS. Among them, even the lowest first-rank card, as long as the quality reaches A-grade or higher, is enough to cause a frenzy in the black market and sell for tens of thousands or even higher prices.

Of course, for students, being able to make a card with quality... was already extremely, extremely difficult!

Especially with something like an Armament Card that involves so much, overall, this assessment was quite terrifying.

Deputy Commander Zhou Mu ignored the reaction from the audience.

This man never cared about the students' reactions in class. His teaching philosophy was simple: I am only responsible for telling you what is right; as for whether you can understand it—that is your business.

He continued: "You should understand the difference between an Armament Card and an Element Card."

"Element Cards are essentially energy releases—fireballs, ice spikes, wind blades; you only need to outline the basic energy flow circuits. This is something that should have been mastered in the second semester of the first year."

"But Armament Cards—" He paused. "Are material manifestation."

These four words were like a nail driven into the air of the classroom.

"It's not just about shooting magic power out. It's about using magic power to construct an entity out of thin air in reality that has a stable structure, can withstand impact, and can conduct force. This involves three major technical difficulties—"

He held up one finger. "First, structural simulation. You must use Mental Power to engrave the precise three-dimensional internal construction circuits of the weapon on the tiny card carrier. The curvature of the blade, the thickness of the sword spine, the ratio of the center of gravity between the hilt and the blade—if you make one wrong stroke, the magic power flow will be blocked, and the entire card will be scrapped on the spot."

He held up a second finger. "Second, spatial stability. Material manifestation is not magic tricks; it involves the Space Folding formation which is extremely prone to collapse. You must make the weapon come out 'completely' from the card, rather than shattering into iron scraps halfway through summoning. During last year's Monthly Exam, an idiot summoned a longsword that shattered on the spot on the testing platform, and the flying iron shards sent three classmates next to him to the infirmary."

He held up a third finger. "Third—" Deputy Commander Zhou Mu's gaze swept across the class. A hint of pity, like looking at poor people, appeared in those eyes. "—Materials."

"To create an Armament Card, you absolutely cannot use ordinary spiritual ink. Ordinary spiritual ink has insufficient magic power conductivity; the weapons manifested are either too brittle or too dull, breaking upon the slightest touch on the testing platform. You must use rare monster blood containing high concentrations of metal elements to concoct the card-making fluid."

"The essence blood of an Iron-Armored Bull. Melted liquid of star mineral powder. Extract of red copper dragon scales. Any one of them will do—as long as you can afford it."

A sound of gasping for air rang out in the classroom. Iron-Armored Bull. That was a quasi-third-rank monster on the outskirts of the Abyss, covered in an exoskeleton with hardness comparable to alloy. Its essence blood was the most common raw material for Armament Card-making fluid on the market—but 'most common' did not mean 'cheap.'

A small bottle of standard-dose Iron-Armored Bull essence blood started at a market price of three thousand yuan. And one Armament Card required at least three to four bottles to guarantee the success rate of the card. This didn't even count the losses from failures.

"Think it's expensive?" The corners of Deputy Commander Zhou Mu's mouth pulled into a cold, hard arc. "If you think it's expensive, don't be a Card Creator. Card Creators don't need trash who create scrap. The cards you make are to be sent to the front line for warriors to use. A warrior takes the weapon you made to slash at monsters, the blade breaks, and their life is gone. Do you think the monsters will give you time to say 'I'm sorry, I will definitely do a good job next time'?"

His voice was not loud, but every word was like a forging hammer hitting an anvil. "Therefore. This Monthly Exam—those who rank at the bottom and those who cannot complete a card will have their Card Creator apprentice status directly stripped and be forcibly assigned to the Abyss Front logistics unit."

"You should know what that means." Of course they knew. Everyone knew.

Losing the protective status of a Card Creator apprentice and being forcibly conscripted to the Abyss Front to serve as logistics cannon fodder—that was not a punishment, that was a suspended death sentence. Abyss monsters did not recognize any apprentice qualification certificates. In the eyes of those monsters, those wearing uniforms and those not wearing uniforms were all two-legged sheep.

Even the sound of breathing in the classroom became a few shades lighter. "One week." Deputy Commander Zhou Mu closed his lesson plan, turned, and walked toward the door. "Figure it out yourselves."

The sound of the door closing rang out. And then—inside the classroom, sounds of gasping for air rang out one after another.