159: Chapter 159 Can you use a second card?

"How on earth did you manage to forge this kind of thing into a card?"

The Empress's voice drifted from behind the beaded curtain.

Su Bai did not answer immediately.

He rested his chin on his hand, his gaze passing over the railing of the private box and landing on the figure in the arena, who was enveloped in a dark golden aura.

Kyubey lay on his shoulder, its tail sweeping across the back of his neck.

[Su Bai. Their Mental Power waveforms have changed.]

"Mm."

[They aren't running anymore.]

"After all, they are all geniuses."

Su Bai shifted the lollipop in his mouth to the other side.

"If you get beaten up enough, you'll eventually find a way."

In the arena, the Stand had just eliminated its tenth opponent.

The dark golden humanoid emerged from the lingering white light of a teleportation effect, its two-and-a-half-meter frame completely free of scars.

The gears at its joints turned unhurriedly, and its eyes, burning with dark golden flames, swept over the remaining contestants one by one.

Twenty-three left.

In less than ten seconds, the group in Purgatory Mode had been reduced from thirty-three to twenty-three.

Han Ce stood in the center of the battle formation.

A tiny crack had appeared on the silver-white monocle over his left eye.

Just now, the Stand had crossed time frames seven times in succession, forcibly breaking through their defensive network.

He had recorded the data generated by every single movement in full via his Eye of Omniscience.

It was too fast.

So fast that it wasn't that their bodies couldn't keep up—it was that their consciousness couldn't keep up.

From the moment Qin Ye activated her ability to the moment the Stand appeared beside its target, there was no movement process that could be captured by conventional perception.

In one frame, it was still in the center of the battle formation.

In the next, it was already right in their faces.

If this continued, twenty-three people wouldn't be enough.

Even if twenty-three more came, it would just mean a few more flashes of white light in the arena.

"Everyone, stop attacking!" Han Ce suddenly shouted.

His voice transmitted through the remaining Mental Power network and into everyone's minds.

The ranged contestants preparing to launch a new round of magic stopped in their tracks.

The defense-type warriors quickly closed ranks.

Instead of trying to expand the formation, they formed a layered circle, protecting Han Ce, the support-types, and the ranged damage dealers in the center.

Qin Ye did not pursue.

She stood dozens of meters away, the Stand behind her slowly retracting its right fist.

Han Ce raised his hand, his fingers swiping rapidly across the surface of the Eye of Omniscience.

Complex streams of data were organized into trajectories and projected into the Mental Power network.

"Her Time Stop isn't without intervals."

Everyone's spirits lifted.

"Each time she exits the current time frame, she must return to the normal timeline before she can perform Mental Power conversion again."

Han Ce enlarged two of the frames.

In the first, the Stand was still to the left of a summoner.

In the second, the Stand had already appeared behind another mage.

There was nothing between the two frames.

However, at the very edge of the second frame, a speck of glass dust floating in mid-air showed an extremely subtle shift.

It wasn't blown by the wind; it was the vibration caused by the displacement of air the moment the Stand returned to reality.

Han Ce pointed to the speck of dust.

"After Time Stop ends, there is a return node."

"As long as we lock onto that node—"

"We can hit her!"

A space-type contestant frowned.

"Theoretically possible, but we can't keep up at all. That interval won't exceed one ten-thousandth of a second. By the time you transmit the coordinates to me, she'll have already activated the next Time Stop."

"That's why relying on our current cards isn't enough."

Han Ce took a deep breath.

He raised his right hand, and a second card appeared in his palm.

It was entirely silver-white.

On the face of the card was a mechanical eyeball encased in countless rings.

A Tier 5 SS-rank support card— [Secondary Eye of Omniscience · High-Speed Calculation Core]!

The moment they saw the card, several of the remaining contestants immediately understood what he meant.

"Adding a homologous card?"

"Yes."

Han Ce pressed the card in front of his left eye.

A burst of silver-white light exploded.

His monocle, which had already been cracked, rapidly extended outward, splitting into three layers of nested silver lenses.

Each lens rotated at a different speed, and dense streams of data radiated outward from the center of his pupil.

His complexion turned visibly pale.

But his calculation speed—it had increased more than tenfold!

"Purgatory Mode allows the use of a second homologous associated card!"

Han Ce's voice transmitted into everyone's minds.

"Stop holding back!"

"If you don't use it now, are you waiting to be picked off one by one by her?!"

The silence lasted only half a second.

The next moment, card after card appeared in the contestants' hands!

The defense-type warrior standing at the very front gave a low roar and pressed his second card into his chest armor.

"[Mountain Fortress]—Add [Earth Veins]!"

Boom!

The vitrified sandy ground beneath his feet shook violently.

Countless earthy-yellow patterns spread outward along the ground, connecting the six defense-type warriors in the front row into a single, unified whole.

Any attack received by one would be dispersed by the Earth Veins.

To knock down one of them was now equivalent to attacking all six at once!

The space-type contestant clasped his hands together.

"[Space Anchor]—Add [Coordinate Nail]!"

Twelve entirely transparent long spikes unfolded behind him, each one etched with shimmering silver-white spatial scales.

The summon-type contestant bit his finger and smeared blood onto his second card.

"[Crimson Blood Lion King]—Add [Blood Pact Symbiosis]!"

The crimson lion, originally over ten meters long, let out a roar as its body split into three.

The three lion kings landed simultaneously, their Mental Power fluctuations perfectly synchronized with their master.

"[Ice Soul Longbow]—Add [Absolute Zero Arrow Quiver]!"

"[Wind King Wings]—Add [Atmospheric Sensing Array]!"

"[Mental Barrier]—Add [Thought Acceleration]!"

"[Holy Light Codex]—Add [Group Recovery Technique]!"

One card.

Two cards.

Ten cards.

Twenty cards!

The light from cards of various colors rose from all corners of the arena, intertwining in mid-air to form an energy network that nearly blotted out the sky.

As each second card was activated, the event system performed a check.

Data scrolled frantically across the main screen: [Same creator.] [Core circuit correlation: 74%.] [Meets criteria for additional use.] [Activation allowed.] [Core circuit correlation: 81%.] [Activation allowed.] [Core circuit correlation: 69%.] [Activation allowed.]

The entire audience was stunned.

Chief Commentator Lu Ming was also taken aback for a beat.

Then, as if he had finally remembered something, he gripped the microphone tightly.

"A second card!"

"The group has finally started to utilize the true rule advantage of Purgatory Mode!"

"Purgatory Mode not only allows for joint casting! It also allows every contestant to append an associated card from the same creator and the same lineage without deactivating their main card!"

"This is the complete multi-card combination!"

"Before, they were just using numbers to fight Qin Ye!"

"But now—"

"Twenty-three people, forty-six cards! Forty-six sets of synergistic abilities!"