2: Chapter 2, Your system is now bound.

"It's over, it's over, it's over, it's over!"

Zhao Dahai was the first to break down.

"Armament Card! It's actually an Armament Card! Isn't this supposed to be for the second semester of the second year? We've only been in the first semester of the second year for a month! Has the school gone crazy?!"

"The school hasn't gone crazy; the Abyss Front is tight on resources."

Lin Xiao, who was sitting in the front row, turned around.

She was one of the few in the class who hadn't broken down—because her family background was ridiculously good, good enough to turn something like this into a "trouble" rather than a "desperate situation."

"Last month, another wave of beasts came from the Abyss, and the Seventh Defense Line was almost breached.

The demand for physical armaments on the front line has almost doubled, so the school naturally has to increase the difficulty of the assessment.

Otherwise, what's the point of training a bunch of waste who can only cast fireballs and sending them to the front line? To keep the monsters warm?"

"I understand the logic, but—"

Zhao Dahai had an expression like he was about to cry.

"But Armament Cards are just too hard! Three-dimensional construction circuits! Space Folding arrays! I struggle even drawing two-dimensional circuits for basic Element Cards, and you want me to draw three-dimensional ones?!"

"And the cost of materials is not even on the same level."

Another classmate chimed in, "Element Cards only need ordinary spirit ink, which is a few dozen bucks a bottle.

Armament Cards? Iron-Armored Bull essence blood is three thousand bucks a bottle, and it's not guaranteed to succeed on the first try.

I tried making an Armament Card last time, blew through three bottles, and nine thousand bucks went down the drain."

"Nine thousand bucks? You should be laughing.

Do you know how much mithril powder smelting liquid costs? Twenty thousand bucks per gram.

One gram! Just a tiny pinch, more expensive than its weight in gold.

But if you don't use it, the weapon's mana conductivity won't meet the standards.

It's literally a card built out of gold."

"My old man is probably going to have to dig into his coffin money this time..."

The wailing sounds rose and fell.

And amidst these wails, another voice was mixed in.

"Iron-Armored Bull essence blood is too low-level; the armament made from it will be at most D-grade.

If you want to get a high score in the ranking, you need at least Red Copper Dragon Scale extract."

"Red Copper Dragon Scale? That thing costs tens of thousands a bottle, right?"

"That's only for C-grade cards.

I'm planning to try mithril mixed with star ore powder; the resulting weapon will have inherent mana amplification, so it should be able to hit B-grade."

"B-grade? You want to compete with Li Haoran?

He's planning to use Ninth-Order Phoenix Pattern Blood Marrow to prepare the card ink; that costs sixty-two thousand per gram.

If you compete with him, are you sure your dad's business can afford to burn that much?"

Li Haoran.

Su Bai turned his gaze toward the window seat.

That boy, wearing a well-tailored school uniform and an expensive dust-proof cape over his jacket, was unhurriedly organizing the material box on his desk.

The bottles and jars in the mahogany box refracted a breathtaking luster under the lights—materials of the Iron-Armored Bull essence blood caliber didn't even appear in his box.

Instead, there were high-level monster materials with auction house certification badges printed on the labels.

The boy named Li Haoran ignored the discussions around him.

He just closed the box and then looked up.

He smiled slightly at the people standing in the classroom in a daze.

The meaning behind that smile was very clear.

—Everyone can start discussing who will be at the bottom.

Zhao Dahai plopped back into his chair, his fat face as pale as a sheet of paper.

"It's over. I'm really done for.

My dad was injured and retired from the Abyss Front; his total pension is only eighty thousand bucks.

I can't possibly ask him to use the money he traded his life for to buy me any Iron-Armored Bull essence blood.

And even if I dumped it all in—Armament Cards, I just can't make them!"

He suddenly turned his head and grabbed Su Bai's sleeve.

"Su Bai, you also—"

The words stopped abruptly.

Because he saw Su Bai's expression.

Su Bai was checking his savings.

More accurately—it was the part of the original owner's memory, which had finished merging, regarding his "own financial situation."

His father's death pension had mostly been used to pay the first year's tuition when the original owner was admitted to the Jinghai Card Creator Academy.

Over the past year, the original owner had relied on the academy's meager subsidies and occasionally working at the materials warehouse to make ends meet.

As for card creation practice—he could barely manage the Element Card practice, which had the highest consumption, but Armament Cards?

The original owner had never even touched a bottle of Iron-Armored Bull essence blood.

It wasn't because he didn't want to practice.

It was because he couldn't afford it.

As for his total savings now—

Su Bai touched his pocket.

One silver coin. Two crumpled paper bills.

The value was equivalent to—

Fifty bucks.

Su Bai suddenly wanted to laugh.

There were three reasons he wanted to laugh.

First, he, Su Bai, an ordinary college student from the 21st century, had spent his days on Earth worrying about final exams and future employment.

After transmigrating here, the first thing he had to face was how to create an Armament Card that required thousands or even tens of thousands in material costs within a week, with a budget of fifty bucks.

Second, more fatal than the fifty bucks was—what Armament Cards needed wasn't just "money," but "card creation technology."

Three-dimensional construction circuits, Space Folding arrays, mana conductivity—these three terms belonged to the category of "heard of but never actually operated" in the original owner's knowledge base.

In other words, even if Su Bai suddenly inherited all of the original owner's card creation abilities, this pile of stuff wouldn't be enough to pass the Monthly Exam.

Third, and the point that made Su Bai want to laugh the most.

He had just transmigrated over.

About...

Five minutes or so!

"What kind of hell-difficulty start is this for a transmigrator?" Su Bai complained crazily in his heart. "When others transmigrate, they either get max-level talent or a system right at the start.

I transmigrate—fifty bucks in cash, card creation skills ranked last, a bank account balance that can't even afford materials, and an Armament Card exam question that is impossible to complete.

Author, did you mix up the protagonist's script with someone else's?"

"Su Bai?"

Zhao Dahai poked his shoulder carefully.

"Are, are you okay? Your expression is a bit scary.

I'm telling you, don't do anything rash. Although you don't talk much, you are one of the only two friends I have in this class. If something happens to you—"

"I'm fine."

Su Bai spoke.

His voice was unexpectedly calm.

Because his brain was running at a speed far exceeding normal.

That was the survival mode the brain automatically activates when pushed to a desperate situation.

One path after another was quickly screened, evaluated, and rejected—

Borrow money? Impossible.

The only person in the class who might lend him money was Zhao Dahai, but Zhao Dahai himself was worried about material costs.

Moreover, the material costs for Armament Cards were thousands or tens of thousands; it wasn't a problem that could be solved by borrowing a hundred or two.

Ask a teacher? With Deputy Commander Zhou Mu's personality, he would probably say, "If you can't even afford materials, don't be a Card Creator."

Apply for a subsidy from the academy? The process takes at least three working days—and the deadline for the Monthly Exam is seven days away.

Whether it's approved or not is still unknown.

Work to earn money? In one week, how much money can you earn?

Every path led to the same end—

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible.

Zhao Dahai was still saying something, his voice getting more and more urgent, seemingly mixed with naive fantasies like "How about we go ask the instructor for an extension together."

But Su Bai could no longer hear it.

Because he suddenly realized one thing.

All conditions were blocked.

All external paths were dead ends.

In other words, to solve this problem—

One could only rely on an "impossible method."

Just at the moment this thought settled—

Ding.

The sound did not ring in his ears.

But appeared directly deep in his brain.

[Detected that the host is facing a card creation crisis]

[Cross-Dimensional Card Creation System, at your service.]

[This system is dedicated to breaking the law of conservation of energy across planes.]

[Unlocked core privilege one: Concept Construction]

[——According to the material grade, you can extract the concepts of all things. As long as it conforms to "conceptual logic," a card can be formed.]

[Unlocked core privilege two: Critical Refund]

[——When the binder uses a card made by the host, the host will ignore any cost and 100% obtain its full combat power and attribute panel.]

[Current card pool: ACG Dimensional Concept Card Pool]

[Detected that the host is facing [First-Order Armament Card Monthly Exam Crisis]—]

[Suggested extraction direction: Dimensional cards with "armament" or "weapon" concepts.]

That was a series of cold, mechanical notification sounds.

Because at the same time as this mechanical sound rang out, a translucent light screen appeared in Su Bai's field of vision, displaying a line of text:

Binding completion countdown: 00:03

00:02

00:01

—Binding successful.

Welcome to use the Cross-Dimensional Card Creation System, Host Su Bai.

The purpose of this system is—

To break all [equivalent exchange].

Su Bai looked at that line of text.

Silent for a second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Then his mouth corners uncontrollably turned up.

"Su Bai?" Zhao Dahai looked at him in horror, "Are you really okay? Don't scare me! At worst, we can go ask the instructor together; if that doesn't work, I'll go discuss it with my dad and scrape some together for you too—"

"Fatty."

Su Bai interrupted him.

"I'll ask you one thing."

"W-what is it?"

"Armament Cards," Su Bai said slowly, "is it true that as long as you can summon a physical weapon, it's fine?"

"Yeah. But what does that have to—"

"No limit on the type?"

"No limit. Swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, forks, whatever. As long as the strength and sharpness meet the standard. But Su Bai, what about materials? Can you draw three-dimensional circuits? How many Space Folding arrays do you know? Besides, you don't even have enough to buy paper—"

"It's fine."

Su Bai stood up.

His eyes were still reflecting the translucent light screen that only he could see, and the screen was loading an interface—the card pool extraction interface.

"Just suddenly felt—"

"Felt what?"

Su Bai did not answer.

His gaze passed through Zhao Dahai, through the classmates who were still discussing, through Li Haoran, who was glancing at him with a look like he was looking at a dead person, through the classroom window, through the gray sky.

Fifty bucks.

Ranked last.

Couldn't even afford blank paper.

But these numbers suddenly didn't matter anymore.

Because—

The hell-difficulty Monthly Exam was just a baseline to measure how ridiculous his cheat was.

And his cheat had just arrived.