3: Chapter 3: I drew Kyubey, and this is supposed to be an Armed Card?!

Su Bai felt that his life was going through a rather bizarre turning point.

Five minutes ago, he was a loser transmigrator with a balance of fifty bucks, a chaotic mess of card-crafting knowledge, and was about to be sent to the Abyss Front as fodder.

Five minutes later, he was a transmigrator who had bound a cross-dimensional card-crafting system and possessed two heaven-defying privileges—Concept Construction and Critical Refund—but was still a loser with a balance of fifty bucks and a chaotic mess of card-crafting knowledge.

But the nature of the situation had changed.

The former was called a hellish start. The latter was called a hellish start with a cheat.

The difference between the two was roughly equivalent to being "thrown into a goblin nest empty-handed" versus "being thrown into a goblin nest with a Gatling gun with infinite ammo."

Both were hell, but the latter hell was for the goblins.

So, draw cards first!

Su Bai pulled up the system interface from the depths of his consciousness.

On the translucent light screen, an icon labeled "Newbie Gift Pack" was flashing. He tapped it with his mind—

[Newbie Gift Pack claimed]

[Obtained: Dimensional Blueprint Card Draw Ticket × 1]

[Obtained: Basic Card-Crafting Tool Kit × 1]

[Obtained: Newbie Guide (Automatically loaded)]

[Dimensional Blueprint Card Draw Ticket: Can randomly draw one conceptual blueprint from the ACG dimensional card pool. Scope limited to — "Armament" type concepts that match the host's most urgent current needs.]

Su Bai looked at the last line, his heart beating a few beats faster.

Armament type.

ACG dimension.

With these two keywords combined, a series of breathtaking images instantly appeared in his mind:

Gate of Babylon. Countless legendary Noble Phantasms emerging from golden ripples, each a god-forged armament capable of destroying the world.

Ea. A cylindrical, three-segmented red blunt weapon that, when rotated, tears through the laws of the world and can shred space itself.

Gundam mecha. A steel giant dozens of meters tall; with one swing of its beam saber, mountains evaporate.

Zanpakuto. Aizen's Kyoka Suigetsu, Ichimaru Gin's Shinso, Yamamoto Genryusai's Ryujin Jakka... Just give him any one of these, and wouldn't a mere Monthly Exam for an Armament Card be a piece of cake?

Su Bai took a deep breath and clicked the "Draw" button with his mind.

Come on!

No matter which one it is, as long as it's not too outrageous, as long as it's even slightly related to a "weapon"!

The system interface shone brightly.

It wasn't the cold, metallic color of clashing swords.

Instead, it was—

Pink and white, soft and fluffy, reminiscent of cotton candy and strawberry milkshakes...

Light.

The light dissipated.

A blueprint appeared in Su Bai's consciousness space.

The blueprint depicted a creature.

Its entire body was white and fuzzy, with two long ears drooping on the sides and a tail as fluffy as a ball of cotton.

A smile hung on its face—the kind that showed no emotion, existing only because the expression "smile" was set as the default value. Its red eyes were round, like two glass beads.

No.

Those were literally just two glass beads. The construction of such cheap dolls surfaced in Su Bai's memory: plastic eyes, cotton stuffing, with an ex-factory price of maybe a few bucks each.

[Blueprint: Tier 1 · SSS-Rank Contract Card · Incubator Kyubey]

[Description: This is a mysterious creature capable of turning humans into a Magical Girl. After transforming into a Magical Girl, human attributes will receive a massive boost, and the user can use magic.]

Su Bai fell silent.

The silence lasted for about ten seconds.

Then, he used his mind to flip through the blueprint in his head over and over again, trying to find any hidden blades, gun barrels, armor plates, or anything that looked like a weapon.

He didn't find any.

This thing was just a ragdoll.

A low-quality ragdoll that looked worse than something from a roadside stall.

"System."

Su Bai spoke in his mind, trying to keep his tone as calm as possible. "I have a question."

[Please speak.]

"The requirement for the Monthly Exam is to craft an Armament Card. An Armament Card. Do you know what 'armament' means?"

[Yes. Armament, meaning tangible weapon equipment with practical combat value.]

"Then explain this to me." Su Bai pointed his mind at the Kyubey blueprint. "This thing. Which part. Counts as a weapon."

The system replied coldly:

[As a contract medium, Kyubey can provide the user with a full set of Magical Girl combat attire and a heart-shaped magic wand. The magic wand is a dual-purpose strike and bombardment magic armament, and the combat attire possesses basic defensive properties and magic amplification functions. Comprehensive judgment — fully meets the definition of 'tangible armament'.]

Su Bai fell silent.

An even longer silence than the last.

"...Magic wand. Are you talking about that—pink, with a bow, with a heart decoration on top—"

[Yes.]

"—that thing. Counts as a tangible armament."

[Yes. At the same time, the combat attire includes a pink lace tutu, ribbon gloves, a bow hair accessory, and magic high heels. Together, they constitute a complete tangible armament set.]

Su Bai felt his temples throbbing.

"System. Let me ask you. What is your standard for determining an armament?"

[Tangible. Possessing attack or defense functions. Can be worn or held by the user.]

"...So in your view, a pink lace tutu and a heart-shaped magic wand are the same category of thing as a Gundam mecha."

[On a functional level, yes. On an aesthetic level, there are aesthetic differences.]

Aesthetic differences.

Su Bai chewed on these four words in his mind a few times and suddenly really wanted to ask the system's developers—what on earth did you go through when designing this system to write the words "aesthetic differences" into the underlying logic?

But he didn't ask.

Because asking was useless. The system had already provided the judgment criteria, and according to this standard—outrageous as it was—Kyubey was indeed an "Armament Card."

Tier 1. SSS-Rank. Armament Card.

"...Fine."

Su Bai put the blueprint away. Then his gaze fell on another line of small text below the blueprint.

Material list.

He tapped it.

Then he fell silent again.

This time, the silence was longer than the previous two combined.

[Required Materials]

[Tier 4 · Phantom Demon's Resentment Crystal × 1: Represents the distortion of deception and desire. Core catalyst.]

[Tier 3 · Abyssal Dream-Weaving Spider's Ultra-Tough Silk Thread × 3: Used to construct the shell of an immortal body. Basic skeleton.]

[formless spirit sand × 5 grams: An extremely expensive soul-bearing material. The base of the soul gem.]

[Several basic auxiliary materials: Including blank card paper, stabilizer liquid, guiding engraving knife, etc.]

Su Bai stared at this list, feeling his blood pressure rising at an unhealthy speed.

Phantom Demon. Abyssal Dream-Weaving Spider. formless spirit sand.

Su Bai could find corresponding information for all these things in the original owner's memories.

Phantom Demon is a Tier 4 Abyssal monster, extremely skilled at mental attacks and disguise; its resentment crystal is extremely rare on the market because hunting a Phantom Demon is itself a suicide-level difficulty task.

The Abyssal Dream-Weaving Spider is also a high-tier monster; the silk thread it spits out has a toughness exceeding that of an alloy steel cable of the same diameter, and a single thread is worth thousands.

As for formless spirit sand... that is a basic material for crafting high-tier soul-type cards, priced by the gram, much more expensive than the same weight in gold.

Su Bai quickly did the math in his head.

Phantom Demon resentment crystal: At least twenty thousand.

Abyssal Dream-Weaving Spider silk threads, three: Fifteen thousand.

formless spirit sand, five grams: According to market price, about twelve thousand.

Other auxiliary materials: Not counting them for now.

Total — Forty-seven thousand.

Su Bai felt his pocket.

One silver coin. Two crumpled banknotes.

Fifty bucks.

He suddenly wanted to laugh. The reason he wanted to laugh was simple—between this shitty system's material list and his savings, there was a gap of about forty-six thousand nine hundred and fifty bucks. And he only had seven days.

No.

Now there was only six days left.

"...System. Are you sure these materials can't be replaced by other things?"

[Concept Construction enabled. Theoretically, it can be replaced by cheaper materials that fit the conceptual logic. But the current blueprint is a newbie-limited edition from the first draw; the system recommends using standard materials to ensure the card success rate and quality cap.]

"Standard materials. Forty-seven thousand."

[Yes.]

"I have fifty bucks."

[Host's financial status recorded. Would you like to view the installment payment plans in the system mall?]

"...I'll loan your grandpa."

[Please mind your language, Host.]

"...I'll loan your grandpa!"