103: Chapter 103 An Unexpected Text Message

Su Bai felt a surge of excitement, but it was just a fleeting moment.

Admittedly, Stand abilities were incredibly overpowered. Beyond those Stands that relied on brute force, there were others with perverse rule-based abilities, some even capable of affecting the entire world.

But, in truth, Magical Girls weren't weak either.

Because to create a powerful card, the prerequisite was having sufficient materials!

However, it wasn't without its benefits. After unlocking the second stage, the rewards Su Bai drew were fundamentally different from those of a Magical Girl.

Simply put, with the same materials and the same techniques, Su Bai's finished products when creating a Stand Card would be slightly stronger than those of a Magical Girl.

The reason was simple: this was a product of the second stage.

Su Bai leaned back against his chair.

His consciousness had already retreated from the system void, returning to the living room of his mansion. Outside the window, the aurora sky was slowly shifting into the warm orange of dusk. Kyubey tilted its head, watching him.

"What did you draw?"

Su Bai projected the blueprint into mid-air. "Take a look for yourself. Does your civilization have something like this?"

Kyubey's red eyes scanned the description above. Its tail stopped moving.

"An interesting description. This is a magical ability, isn't it?"

"Magical Girls are the ones that are magic! This thing is more like a superpower, though these concepts are all pretty similar—they're all rule-based."

"Strictly speaking, the strength of making the Stand Arrow seems greater than just making a Stand directly."

"For one, it's a conceptual trigger medium, and for another, it's a card. In other words, when a Magic Card user activates this card, they can obtain a Stand, and this Stand is..."

"Random."

Su Bai took over the conversation, adding, "The system said that the Stand ability depends on the user's soul traits. And unlike the original work, where the Stand Arrow is a real object that has a chance to awaken a Stand whenever it stabs someone, now that I've made the Stand Arrow into a card, it's a system card. Its effect has changed: when the user activates it, they can randomly obtain a Stand. The duration is quite long, but the Stand isn't permanent."

"When the Stand Arrow is used again, the user will obtain another random Stand, and the previous one will disappear... Overall, it's hard to say what the lower limit is, but the upper limit... is extremely powerful."

Kyubey's tail slowly swept back and forth twice.

"So you've left yourself with a completely uncontrollable variable."

"Yes."

"Are you sure you want to use this on yourself?"

Su Bai thought for a moment.

Then, he said something that even he felt was a bit abnormal.

"I've said it before, haven't I? No one understands spatial theory better than me."

"You have."

"I was showing off a little bit back then."

"I know."

"But after showing off, I realized something." Su Bai looked at the golden beetle on the blueprint. "When you brag about something everyone thinks is impossible, and then you actually pull it off—that feeling is what you call positive reinforcement!"

He put the blueprint away into the system panel.

"So my idea now is very simple. Design a card where even I can't guess the result, and then see—what shape my soul really takes."

Kyubey was silent for a long time.

"Su Bai."

"Yeah?"

"You are becoming more and more like Kyubey."

"Shut up."

"Understood."

His phone vibrated.

Then a second time, a third time, a fourth time.

Notifications from the "Three-Person Card-Making Mutual Aid Group" were popping up one after another, and the red unread count was racing toward triple digits at a visible speed.

Su Bai opened it.

[Zhao Dahai]: "Su Bai, you're in the top fifty of Forbes now. When are we going to have that most expensive meal you mentioned before, the one you'll pay for with your black card?"

[Lin Xiao]: "He's probably counting his balance."

[Zhao Dahai]: "How long has he been counting?"

[Lin Xiao]: "Half an hour. My family's financial system shows his account is still growing."

[Zhao Dahai]: "Does a person in the top fifty of Forbes really need us to urge them to treat us to a meal!!!"

Su Bai typed.

[Su Bai]: "Old place tonight, my treat."

[Zhao Dahai]: "What do you mean 'old place'? The last time we ate together was in the utility room of the Convention Center. You call that the 'old place'???"

[Su Bai]: "Let's go somewhere else today. Three-star Michelin, all you can eat."

[Zhao Dahai]: "Big Brother, no, wait, Big Sister. No, wait—on the Forbes list, are you actually considered a Big Brother or a Big Sister?"

[Lin Xiao]: "Fatty, you can ask him to answer that question in person when we're eating."

[Zhao Dahai]: "Never mind then. Ahem, getting back to the point, what kind of card is Su Bai going to make for the National Competition?"

The group chat was quiet for about five seconds.

[Su Bai]: "A Stand type, I guess."

[Zhao Dahai]: "...What is a Stand? Like one of those death-substitute dolls?"

[Lin Xiao]: "That sounds very unfamiliar. Can a Stand be used in conjunction with a Magical Girl deck?"

[Su Bai]: "You've just made a shocking conjecture. The moment I imagine Madoka summoning a Stand, I can't help but lose it. But at the same time, I feel something's off; this seems a bit too powerful."

[Lin Xiao]: "??? What on earth are you talking about!"

[Su Bai]: "Secret!"

Su Bai stood up and put on his coat.

Kyubey jumped down from the armrest of the sofa and landed on his shoulder.

"Where are you going?"

"To eat. And to make Zhao Dahai shut up."

"When do you plan to start making the Stand Arrow?"

Su Bai walked to the door and looked back at the golden blueprint floating in mid-air. The beetle on the arrow was glowing with a faint red light in the setting sun, like a spark that hadn't yet been ignited.

"I'll be back after I eat!"

Just at this moment, Su Bai suddenly noticed that he had received a text message on his phone.