10: Chapter 10, Phase 1, Complete!

[Wang Shaotian]: "Haha, I'm not afraid to tell you all, I've already received news. The judge for our Monthly Exam this time is no ordinary person; this is a truly big shot. Li Qingyue, do you all know Li Qingyue? The absolute expert in the field of space-time, the founder of the Armament Card system! Furthermore, she is the first person in history to completely resolve the boundary between life and death!"

[Wang Shaotian]: "You can think carefully about how prestigious this assessment is! Work hard!"

[Zhao Dahai]: "Wang Shao is awesome! To be able to leak this kind of news, it's just too awesome!"

[Zhao Jiangfeng]: "I heard that the great one has already achieved eternal youth?"

[Lin Xiao]: "Heh, men!"

...

"Li Qingyue?"

Su Bai looked at the late-night commotion in the class group chat and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Who is this again?

Forget it, it has nothing to do with him.

In any case, he was about to start his experiment!

It was currently two in the morning, and as a young person with rich experience in staying up late, Su Bai was in a state of high mental energy.

Moreover, he didn't need to go to school for the next week, and completing the card creation was his core requirement, so he felt no burden about staying up late.

At this moment, on the card-making table, Su Bai opened the material box.

High-grade Phantom Demon resentment crystal fragments, Abyssal Dream-Weaving Spider King silk, and high-order formless spirit sand were placed one by one on the card-making table, with the purple-black crystal fragments refracting a dim phosphorescence under the light.

The silver-white luster of the spider king silk looked like a strand of solidified moonlight.

The formless spirit sand lay quietly in the magic-sealing bottle, each grain of sand emitting a faint soul fluorescence.

Forty-five thousand worth of materials.

Only one chance, no room for error!

If the first experiment failed, then obviously, he would be completely finished; he would not only owe Lin Xiao fifty thousand but also be unable to complete the school's Monthly Exam.

Therefore, this time, there could be no mistakes.

Su Bai took a deep breath.

Then he picked up the card-making pen.

The system unfolded the card blueprint of Kyubey deep within his consciousness.

On that blueprint depicting a pink and white ragdoll, every single line was emitting a light that only Su Bai could see.

It was not ordinary light—it was the light of knowledge.

It was the card-making plan re-integrated by the system after it had chewed and digested those three master-level textbooks from just a moment ago.

Su Bai began to draw.

When the first stroke fell, his hand was shaking.

Not because of nervousness—it was because the original owner's muscle memory was too weak.

A poor student who couldn't even draw a stable two-dimensional circuit for an Element Card was suddenly tasked with drawing a three-dimensional construction circuit plus a Space Folding array; naturally, the muscle memory couldn't keep up.

But the system didn't care about his muscle memory, nor did it need to.

Because Su Bai's card creation was completely different from others; others copied, invoking core circuits already completed by high-order Card Creators, but Su Bai was different.

His circuits were all original!

Even without any card-making experience, just a moment ago, Su Bai had evolved it countless times on draft paper. Despite how much his hand shook, the moment that spontaneous circuit took shape in his mind, Su Bai's brushwork instantly became different.

It was as if a brand-new brain had taken over this hand.

The tip of the pen slid across the draft paper.

It was not an ordinary way of sliding.

If someone were watching, they would find that every stroke Su Bai drew was so precise it didn't seem human; the thickness, curvature, and spacing of the lines were all kept within an extremely small margin of error.

Among this, there was the effect of hand stability, and also another effect: Mental Power.

One of the core skills of a Card Creator, Mental Power, would be infused into the card through the tool in hand, forming specific rune circuits. These circuits would be born out of thin air based on the fine adjustments of Mental Power.

Just like now, with just a light slide of Su Bai's pen, his Mental Power instantly caused the straight lines to spread out.

It was an extremely slender "brushstroke" that the naked eye couldn't see.

To be precise, it was one tiny Kyubey after another, whose outlines could only be seen under a microscope.

The outline of each Kyubey was composed of thousands of micro Space Folding runes.

These runes were nested, intertwined, and connected to each other, forming an extremely complex network of causality.

If you were to take any single rune apart to look at it, you would find it perfectly complied with the highest-order soul displacement theorem in "High-Dimensional Armament Structure."

If you then connected adjacent runes to look at them, you would find they constituted the 720-degree heteromorphic isomorphic framework mentioned in "Non-Linear Spatial Geometry."

And if you stood from the perspective of the entire card and looked down, you would find that all these tiny Kyubey together formed a larger pattern.

A life-sized Kyubey.

This was Su Bai's card-making plan.

Using micro Kyubey to compose a macro Kyubey.

Each micro Kyubey was an independent causality node, carrying a small part of the concept of "contract and deception."

And when all the micro Kyubey were connected together, the macro Kyubey they formed—was the thing itself.

It was the entity of the concept of "Incubator."

It was that devil—smiling, watching humans with glass-bead-like red eyes, waiting to say that sentence, "Come and sign a contract with me."

"Tsk."

Su Bai rubbed his sore wrist.

Although the system helped him stabilize his muscle control, the consumption of Mental Power was real.

He had only drawn about thirty percent of the micro Kyubey, and his Mental Power had already bottomed out several times.

A strange aura permeated around the card-making table.

It wasn't the kind of magic fluctuation common in card-making laboratories.

Nor was it the mineral stench of low-level Armament Card production.

Instead, it was a—pink-black.

Twisted.

Like a mist—a mixture of cotton candy and abyssal mud.

The mist slowly rose from the card-making table, swirling around Su Bai.

A strange, sweet, cloying scent drifted in the air, mixed with faint, almost inaudible whispers.

It was as if someone in a very distant place was whispering in an unrecognizable language.

Su Bai shivered.

But he didn't stop.

The fifty thousand wasn't taken for nothing.

The three-day agreement wasn't made for nothing.

Moreover—he really wanted to see just how far this magical girl card, built with master-level theory, could actually go.

— — 72 hours later.

The door to the card-making laboratory was pushed open again.

Sunlight shone in through the window, illuminating Su Bai, who was slumped over the card-making table.

He had fallen asleep.

His head was pillowed on his left arm, and he was still holding the card-making pen in his right hand.

There was a little drool mark at the corner of his mouth.

Empty bottles of magic and Mental Power potions were scattered at his feet.

In front of him.

A card lay quietly.

The card face presented an ominous dark pink color.

Under the light, one could vaguely see countless extremely fine silver-white lines—that was the causality network formed after the spider king silk was integrated into the circuit.

In the very center of the card was a smiling Kyubey.

Or rather—an empty shell of Kyubey.

No soul.

No contract ability.

There was no core personality capable of inducing a girl to offer up her soul, because at this moment, with only the lines on the card, Kyubey was still just a concept.

If one wanted to realize the complete card function, one would still need to create a physical Kyubey in reality and fold it completely into it, communicating the connection between the card and the entity.

But even with only the construction of the card circuit, this "Magic Card" was already as complete as it could be.

Space Folding circuit—complete.

Soul displacement array—complete.

Negative energy conversion circuit—complete.

Causality contract framework—complete.

All theoretical functional modules were completely engraved; this was already a completely functional card that could directly invoke magic.

"It's a pity that there is no physical Kyubey yet, but the collection of negative emotions is very stable."

Su Bai stroked his chin and said: "Theoretically speaking, if this card is activated at this time, and the holder has enough negative energy, it can convert the energy into 'magic,' though the magnitude of the power varies from person to person..."

Yes, that was it.

It was already a pretty good result!

Su Bai couldn't help but nod with satisfaction.

As expected of himself.

The only thing left was to create a real Kyubey and then seal him into the card; not bad, not bad!

However...

The complete card, because it forcibly converts a human body into a Magical Girl, would be equivalent to directly annihilating the person's physical body.

If this effect were to be spoken aloud, would anyone really use his card?

Su Bai fell into deep thought.

But soon he was too lazy to care.

Anyway, the goal of the Monthly Exam was to create a Tier 1 D-grade card, and he had already created it; passing wasn't guaranteed?

Who cares if anyone uses it!

Thinking of this, Su Bai couldn't help but feel greatly relieved; he put the card into the card box and then glanced at his phone.

Thirty-seven unread messages.

All from the [Three-Person Card-Making Mutual Aid Group].

[Zhao Dahai]: [@Su Bai, are you still there! Are you still alive!! It's been three days!! You've been out of contact for three days!!]

[Zhao Dahai]: [Do I need to help you call the police!!!]

[Lin Xiao]: [Today at 3 PM. Third Training Room. If you don't come, bear the consequences.]

[Lin Xiao]: [Don't think about running away. I can check your dormitory access records.]

Su Bai looked at the time.

2:58 PM.

It was time to go out!

— —