36: Chapter 36 Originality Bomb

The live comment feed completely lost its mind in this instant.

[ Crazy! Crazy!! Absolutely crazy!!! ]

[ Turning down an A+? That was an A+ given personally by Her Excellency Qingyue, and he still wants an SSS? ]

[ Impossible. Theoretically speaking, a Rank 1 card cannot be SSS. It's not just Rank 1 cards; in fact, cards from the lower three tiers cannot be SSS either. S-rank is already the ceiling. Even low-tier S-rank cards must be created by someone at least in the middle three tiers. By what right can someone in the lower three tiers make an SSS card? ]

[ Interesting. Don't you think this decision is insane? A Rank 1 Card Creator... making an SSS-rank card? ]

[ Does he not know what SSS means? Anything that reaches SSS-rank must represent the core of an entire system. It's equivalent to saying all of a Magic Card Master's cards need to be created around that series. Normally, who would build a core set of cards around low-tier cards? ]

[ F*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck!! My blood pressure is spiking!! 3S is a Rainbow Card, right? Does he even know the significance of a Rainbow Card?? ]

In the teacher's area, Deputy Commander Zhou Mu's face shifted from disbelief to absolute despair—no, it went beyond despair, reaching a philosophical state of "I have given up on trying to understand this world."

Li Haoran's mouth curled into an arc.

He said nothing, but the meaning in that smile was very clear.

—What a fool.

SSS-rank cards are also called Rainbow Cards. This item involves the card core and is the absolute construction core for a Magic Card Master. Every time one is deployed, it signifies the birth of an astonishing system.

From ancient times to the present, how many core cards have there been in total?

A complete system must be accompanied by the operation of a brand-new worldview. This thing isn't just something you talk about...

In mid-air.

Li Qingyue rested her chin on one hand, looking down at Su Bai.

That expression—

It wasn't anger.

It was disappointment.

"Su Bai."

Her voice returned to its cold indifference. The heat of seeing a promising talent from moments ago had completely vanished, as if she had been doused from head to toe with a basin of cold water.

"I understand the ambition of young people wanting to reach the top in one step."

"But greed has a price. The A+ evaluation is the fairest judgment I made based on the academic value of your Spatial Circuit. It will not change just because your ambition has inflated."

"And—"

She paused.

"My time is precious."

She turned around.

"Your principal said just now—I only have four hours."

"More than half has already passed."

"I don't have the spare time to play around with a greedy student."

She turned around.

Seemingly prepared to end this test.

The exam hall was filled with a silence that follows a final verdict.

An A+ is an A+, and it won't change. It was said by the 9th-tier Supreme herself.

Su Bai clenched his fists.

Nonsense, if it weren't for the system quest... an A+ would be fine, he wouldn't care about anything else! But the problem is, he must get an SSS to complete the quest, so...

Does he have to test it himself? But to be honest, he really doesn't want to bear the cost of this card. Because unlike the side-effect-free Magical Girl transformation for completing the quest, making a wish to Kyubey would come with an unbearable price.

One is that the soul gem will become tainted, and it must be constantly cleansed of witches to purify the soul gem. This is the core mechanism of Kyubey-style Magical Girls. Under Kyubey's worldview, Magical Girls are just laborers.

Of course, whether there are witches in this world is uncertain, and Su Bai doesn't even know how the subsequent Magical Girl mechanism will operate, but a side effect is a side effect.

Otherwise, Kyubey wouldn't be a Rank 1 card, but a high-rank card.

But how can he keep this 9th-tier Supreme here? Could it be that he really has to sell himself?

Just as this thought settled—

"Her Excellency Qingyue, please wait!!"

A voice exploded from the spectator stands.

Lin Weiwei stood up.

A Rank 4 intermediate Card Creator, the eldest daughter of the Lin family, and Lin Xiao's cousin.

As someone who had witnessed Su Bai's Magic Card Spatial Circuit before, she had gained immense benefits, so she didn't mind helping Su Bai out at this moment.

Especially when recalling Su Bai's various actions over the past few days, she felt more and more that this kid might not be shooting blindly, but actually had some real skill.

Li Qingyue stopped and turned back. There was no expression in those red pupils.

Lin Weiwei opened her mouth, her brain working at high speed—she knew that every word that followed could affect her entire career.

She took a deep breath and placed all her chips on the next sentence.

"I previously helped Su Bai test an unfinished Magic Card and have seen with my own eyes the space tide triggered by this card."

Li Qingyue's eyebrows didn't move.

"It is even more powerful than you imagined. My latest thesis was written based on the inspiration from this card—"

Li Qingyue still had no expression.

Because she had already guessed it from these two sentences; after all, she could naturally understand the entire Magic Card circuit.

Lin Weiwei swallowed.

"—The most important thing is."

This was the next sentence.

It was her last card.

And it was her biggest card.

"The Spatial Circuit of this card—"

She took a deep breath, "is original, created by Su Bai!"

The air froze.

This wasn't a figure of speech.

It was a literal freezing.

The sky in the miniature world cracked open. The clouds stopped flowing. The magic core in the Stone Demon's chest stopped pulsing.

The two golden pans of the universal balance trembled simultaneously—not due to an identification error, but due to high-dimensional law resonance triggered by the 9th-tier Supreme's emotional fluctuations.

Rank 1 Card Creator.

Original Spatial Circuit.

Between these two sentences lay a logical chasm that the entire modern Card Creation system could not cross.

And Lin Weiwei, right in front of Li Qingyue, connected them together!

An original high-rank Spatial Circuit!

This was something Lin Weiwei had learned during her previous interactions with Su Bai. Although she didn't know why this kid was so confident, one thing was certain: Su Bai was not truly stupid. Perhaps he had his own set of understanding that Lin Weiwei couldn't comprehend, but she didn't mind relaying Su Bai's words to Li Qingyue.

Whoosh!

Li Qingyue appeared in front of Lin Weiwei.

This wasn't teleportation; it was a zero-distance connection of Space Folding! Her twelve or thirteen-year-old figure stood in the air, level with Lin Weiwei's gaze. When she was looking down on everyone, the people present still dared to breathe, but this level gaze now made the entire space even more suffocating.

"Are you sure?"

Li Qingyue's voice was extremely light, but anyone could hear the surprise in it. However, accompanying the surprise was a hint of coldness in the young girl's voice.

"Misleading me is a capital offense."

Lin Weiwei gulped; this pressure was too intense!

"I, I, I saw it with my own eyes. The Spatial Circuit of that card is a brand-new structure I have never seen before. Also, Su Bai mentioned some of his concepts during the subsequent creation process... He analyzed it from three books he bought on the black market. Those three books are called 'High-Dimensional Weapon Structure and Material Collapse Analysis'..."

She was incoherent, but every word was true. And when Li Qingyue heard the names of the three books, her heart trembled, and she was even somewhat shocked.

These were indeed three books she had written!

And they were pioneering theoretical conjectures she had written before she became famous. They weren't even signed, so very few people in the world knew who the true author of these three books was.

But Lin Weiwei had said it herself... No, this Lin Weiwei had heard it from Su Bai...

Could it be?

A strange thought emerged in Li Qingyue's mind.

She didn't continue to press Lin Weiwei, turned her head, and those crimson pupils locked onto Su Bai.

This gaze was completely different from before; the red eyes were filled with confusion.

A layer of cold sweat seeped out on Su Bai's back, but he quickly reacted.

Well done, Lin Weiwei!

"It is original."

Su Bai said.

After a pause, he added: "This circuit itself was designed by me."

His tone was like he was stating something that was no big deal.

It seemed as if "creating an original Spatial Circuit that could move a 9th-tier Supreme" was, to him, a problem on the same level as "what to eat for dinner tonight."

The whole audience exploded.

"Original?? He actually has the nerve to say it's original?!"

"A Rank 1 Card Creator creating an original Spatial Circuit?! What kind of animal kicked your brain?! Who do you think you are?!"

"To put it bluntly, it's plagiarism. To put it politely, it's good luck picking up an ancient inheritance. But he actually says it's original?!"

"I don't believe you at all!!" Wang Shaotian was the first to shout, "The difficulty of your theoretical deduction is no less than climbing to the heavens! How could someone who is second to last in the whole class create it?!"

Li Haoran sneered even more.

The live comments were overwhelming.

[ A Rank 1 Card Creator creating a high-rank Spatial Circuit? Impossible. ]

[ People like this are called Jiahao where we are!! ]

[ No!! Jiahao takes other people's stuff and claims it as his own!! This guy is taking something copied from who knows where and saying he thought of it!! ]

[ The person above!! Is there a difference!! It's not his own anyway!! ]

[ A Rank 1 Card Creator creating an original high-rank Spatial Circuit?? Do you know how much Mental Power is needed to support a high-rank Spatial Circuit?? Is your Mental Power enough to draw the third stroke??! ]

[ It's blown up, haha, Master Li hates it most when others lie about academics. ]

Li Qingyue looked at Su Bai.

No one could lie under Li Qingyue's gaze. This was the consensus of the entire Jinghai Cardmaker Association. Those crimson pupils were said to come from a mysterious bloodline that had long since been extinguished—at the moment magic power is activated, it can penetrate all Mental Power disguises below Rank 9.

Su Bai met her gaze.

"You have one more chance to take it back."

Li Qingyue said.

"Take back the word 'original' now, and I can pretend I heard nothing. The A+ is yours, and the purchase price remains the same. You won't have any losses."

"But if—"

She leaned forward.

That youthful face approached the very center of Su Bai's vision.

"If you insist it is original, I will arrange a live card test. After the test, if the circuit is messed up by you, or if it is proven that this circuit was not thought up by you at all, you will face extremely severe assessment and punishment."

"And even if you luckily pass the testing phase..."

She paused, a hint of pity-like coldness flashing in the depths of her red eyes.

"—I still won't give you an SSS."