64: Chapter 64 The Big Shots' Collective Change of Face

[ Three-Person Card-Making Mutual Aid Group ]

[ Zhao Dahai ] : [ Su Bai, did you see that?? War God Temple!! Frost Throne!! Blade of the Polar Night!! They're all damn top-tier guilds!! They're all saying "You're great, but I'm not buying"!! Did they plan this?? This is absolutely planned!!! ]

[ Lin Xiao ] : [ It's not planned. It's herd mentality. ]

[ Lin Xiao ] : [ After War God Temple made their stance known, if the other guilds didn't follow, it would be equivalent to admitting they have "less backbone" than War God Temple—in the circle of the strong, face is more important than life. The first person to come out and say "I won't wear a dress" won face, and the second one to state their position is just a follower. But if they don't state a position—that's admitting they're willing to undergo a sex change. That's even more humiliating. ]

[ Zhao Dahai ] : [ ??? What kind of bullshit logic is that? ]

[ Lin Xiao ] : [ The logic of the strong. ]

[ Zhao Dahai ] : [ Then what do we do?? Su Bai's card just got an SSS yesterday, and today it's being boycotted by the whole internet?? This reversal is too fast, isn't it?? I was just messaging my dad yesterday saying I was going to do quality control for Su Bai, and this morning the forum is full of posts against Su Bai—my dad must think I've been scammed again!! ]

[ Su Bai ] : [ I'm thinking about that too. ]

Su Bai leaned back in his chair. His fingers tapped lightly on the table.

Midnight.

The forum's heat continued to rise. Every one of those thirteen guild declaration posts had thousands of comments. Most were just watching the fun—magical girl cards unsellable, Rainbow Card crashed, a genius Card Creator fell from the peak to the bottom in just twelve hours.

[ The subsequent public opinion trend might look even worse. ] Lin Xiao sent another message, [ I asked my sister, and she said the Lin family's media department detected a batch of internet trolls mass-posting negative comments. The keywords are concentrated on "cross-dressing," "sex change," and "cannon fodder." ]

Su Bai frowned: [ Internet trolls? Can you trace the source? ]

[ Can't trace it. They're using overseas relay servers, jumping through at least four proxies. This isn't ordinary trolling; it's a professional intelligence operation. ]

A professional intelligence operation.

Su Bai chewed on these words in his mind several times.

He remembered what happened last night. The Li family's secret room. The Abyss tumor. The five death-sworn who volunteered for sacrifice. Li Haoran's words: "Once Su Bai dies, the Lin family's expansion will be directly cut off."

The Li family had already been sealed off by the Truth Sanctuary guards. Li Chengyuan and Li Haoran were in custody.

But what about the Li family's intelligence network? What about the Li family's masters in the Abyss?

These were still there.

"...Interesting."

Su Bai muttered to himself.

Then he opened his phone. Not the group chat, but the Truth Sanctuary guild channel.

[ Sanctuary Disciple · Su Bai ] : [ Good morning, seniors. ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ Morning. Li Qingyue sent me a brief version of your Rank 9 Kyubey plan last night, and I'm currently frame-by-frame—no, I'm currently line-by-line analyzing it. The structure of the Seven-Axis Circuit is very interesting, especially those two independent time axes— ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ Qi Yuan, hold off on the analysis. Haven't you seen the forum? ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ What forum? ]

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ The Card Creator Union Forum. This morning, War God Temple took the lead, and thirteen top-tier guilds jointly boycotted Su Bai's magical girl card. ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ ...What? ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ Are they crazy? A Rank 1 Rainbow Card, system core, independent spellcasting, Law of Time—which of these stats, if picked out, wouldn't be enough to make them place crazy orders? ]

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ The stats are enough. The face isn't. ]

Phantom Sovereign threw a few screenshots into the channel. War God Temple's statement. Frost Throne's statement. Blade of the Polar Night's statement.

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ Tsk. ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ What does 'tsk' mean? ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ 'Tsk' means—I encountered this kind of thing decades ago. At the time, I invented a new type of heavy armor circuit that could double the armor's defense, but it made you look particularly fat after putting it on. Not a single general in the entire army was willing to equip it. ]

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ ...Isn't this exactly the same? ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ Exactly the same. The face-saving baggage of the strong is harder than the teeth of an Abyssal monster. ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ So, Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen, how did you solve it back then? ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ I found the Sanctuary's Military Research Department and had them forcibly equip a vanguard battalion under the official name. After the combat data came out, those generals who complained about looking fat all shut up. Between staying alive and getting fat, most people will still choose to stay alive. ]

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ Then we can use the same method now. Isn't Deputy Commander Xiao Hongyan from the military already having placed an order for ten thousand cards? ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ Deputy Commander Xiao Hongyan is Deputy Commander Xiao Hongyan. She is a Rank 9 deputy commander; no one in the military dares to refute her. But guilds are different—the decision-making level of a guild is on the same level, the guild leader's word doesn't count, the Council of Elders has to vote. And such votes have always been face-saving votes. ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ Right. Especially since thirteen guilds have already publicly stated their positions, whoever changes their tune first loses face. One wrong step leads to all wrong steps. ]

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ So I had the Intelligence Department check just now. The first-post servers for these threads indeed have traces of residual Abyssal magic. I'm not sure if it's direct manipulation—the means on the Abyssal side are more covert than before—but at least it's certain that someone is fanning the flames. ]

Su Bai looked at Phantom Sovereign's line of text.

A scene from after the Monthly Exam flashed through his mind. Li Qingyue standing under the rift of the miniature world saying, "Live broadcast to the whole network, thirteen million people saw your card, and also saw your face."

Su Bai's back broke out in a cold sweat.

Kyubey was right. It wasn't a cat's intuition—it was a judgment at the level of the Causality Contract.

[ Su Bai. Hostility is concentrating in your direction. ]

He hadn't had time to reply.

Phantom Sovereign sent another message.

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ And one thing to remind you. Since the Abyss side has made a move, their follow-up won't just be internet trolls and smear campaigns. According to past experience, the next wave is— ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ Knockoffs. ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ Knockoffs. Unsurprisingly. Your Kyubey Card was fully broadcasted publicly. Although the core circuit is protected by copyright, the conceptual framework is public information. The underlying logic of the Magical Girl system has already been seen by thirteen million people. Any high-rank Card Creator, as long as they are willing to spend the time to reverse-engineer it, can create a copycat that has similar functions but bypasses copyright protection. ]

Knockoffs.

This word made Su Bai's frown deepen.

It was unlikely for the opponent to replicate his card because the core of Su Bai's card creation was conceptual distortion, which was an ability granted to him by the system.

But it was disgusting for the opponent to use it as a smear campaign.

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ Your Rank 1 Kyubey's core barrier has two layers. First is the Seven-Axis Circuit—this layer can barely be blocked by copyright protection. Second is the Magical Girl's Causality Contract framework—this layer must use Kyubey itself as a medium to take effect. But copycats can bypass these two layers and make a castrated version that "transforms but doesn't sign." ]

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ The combat power boost of the castrated version is only about thirty to fifty percent of the original. But the castrated version doesn't need to pay the price of becoming a soul gem. So there's no need to face the "sex change" problem. ]

No need to change sex.

Su Bai chewed on these four words in his mind several times.

Then he slapped the table.

"This is ridiculous!"

Kyubey was shaken half a centimeter off his shoulder, landing on the desktop, its red glass eyes looking at him.

[ Su Bai. Your heart rate— ]

"I'm very calm."

[ The force of that palm just now was enough to shatter the sternum of an Iron-Armored Bull. ]

"That's because the table is of poor quality."

Su Bai took a deep breath and started typing in the Sanctuary channel.

[ Sanctuary Disciple · Su Bai ] : [ Seniors, can you estimate the time for the knockoffs? ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ Based on my understanding of the card-making efficiency on the Abyssal side, if it's a castrated version, they can produce a prototype within a week at the fastest. But the effect is hard to say. After all, not everyone can draw that Seven-Axis Circuit of yours. ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ But if the Abyss provides direct technical support, such as the help of an existence at the level of a Shadow Demon to draw the circuit, the time will be shortened to three days. ]

Three days.

Su Bai thought of the little ball still emitting black smoke in Deputy Commander Xiao Hongyan's pocket.

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ So you only have one thing to do now. Fast. Before the castrated version comes out, flood the market with the original. Let everyone—including those who are still hesitating—first recognize the complete combat power of the original. As long as the original's combat data crushes the knockoff version, public opinion will naturally flip back. ]

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ Right. And you have more trump cards in your hand than the knockoff version. First, Time Stop—this is something the castrated version absolutely cannot do. Second, the immortal body of the soul gem—the castrated version doesn't have the Causality Contract and cannot achieve true soul gem transformation. Third, the personal endorsement of a 9th-tier Supreme—your master just broke through the Three Laws Fusion last night. In the whole world, what other Card Creator can have a Rank 9 peak say "This is my disciple"? ]

Su Bai was silent for a few seconds.

Time magic. soul gem. Rank 9 master.

These three cards put together—what can the knockoff version use to fight him?

[ Sanctuary Disciple · Su Bai ] : [ Understood. I will finish the mass-production design draft today. I'll send the first batch of templates to Lin Weiwei by tomorrow. The shop my master helped me open on the Truth Sanctuary Mall is also online, so I can use the Truth Sanctuary's internal channels for traffic entry first. ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ Truth Sanctuary Mall? ]

[ Sanctuary Disciple · Su Bai ] : [ Yes. My master stayed up all night to help me decorate it. ]

The guild channel was quiet for a full five seconds.

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ Li Qingyue. You're lurking, right? I know you are. You decorated an online shop for a Rank 2 disciple's stray cat??? ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ A peak Venerable of Three Laws Fusion. Doesn't sleep in the middle of the night. Is photoshopping. ]

[ Li Qingyue ] : [ The shop's header image was cropped by me from yesterday's live stream recording. I chose every frame myself. ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ ... ]

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ ... ]

[ [ Deconstructor of All Things ] Qi Yuan ] : [ Li Qingyue, you haven't even been this attentive to your own card-making room. ]

[ Li Qingyue ] : [ Do you have an opinion? ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ No. Dare not. Dare not have any. ]

[ [ Phantom Sovereign ] Phantom Sovereign ] : [ Su Bai. Your master has probably helped someone decorate an online shop for the first time in her life. Cherish it well. ]

[ Li Qingyue ] : [ Stop discussing the online shop, what do you all think about this matter. ]

[ [ Heavy Armored Dharma Emperor ] Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ I still stick to the conclusion just now, the Abyss is fanning the flames. ]

Su Bai was about to type when he saw this sentence.

But he suddenly stopped.

The Abyss is fanning the flames—he can understand that. The Monthly Exam was broadcasted to the whole network, the Li family's secret room was raided, and the Shadow Demon was captured. Abyssal retaliation is logical.

But the guilds are not the Abyss.

War God Temple, Frost Throne, Blade of the Polar Night, etc., these are the top combat forces of the human faction. Their vice-presidents, logistics ministers, card-making consultants—these people are not puppets of the Abyss. Why would they cooperate?

Su Bai typed this question out.

[ Su Bai ] : [ Seniors, I can understand the Abyss fanning the flames, but the guilds are not subordinates of the Abyss, why would they follow the rhythm? ]

The Truth Sanctuary channel was quiet for a few seconds.

[ Qi Yuan ] : [ Good question. ]

[ Qi Yuan ] : [ The Abyss is just the pusher. The root cause is not in the Abyss. It's in interests. ]

Su Bai stared at these two words.

[ Qi Yuan ] : [ Your Kyubey Card is a Rainbow Card, system core, independent spellcasting, Law of Time. The data is so strong that even a 9th-tier Supreme is tempted. But conversely—it is also a new type of weapon that has never appeared on the market. A weapon that can double the combat power of low-level soldiers, allow mid-level officers to break through bottlenecks, and give high-level powerhouses an extra life. If you sell this card normally, it can sell out directly. Do real combat personnel really care about the sex change problem? Impossible. For the sake of strength, those people can do anything. But, this is not what they want to see. ]

[ Phantom Sovereign ] : [ Because you are the sole supplier of this card! ]

[ Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ This is a monopoly, the thing guilds fear most. Oh, not just guilds, but all Card Creators. Su Bai, can you understand? Peers are enemies. Your Rank 1 card is so awesome that other peers' cards can't be sold. Once your card appears on the market, it's equivalent to smashing their plates. No capital wants to see this situation. ]

[ Qi Yuan ] : [ War God Temple was the first to post a rejection, and the other twelve followed suit. It's not because everyone hates skirts. It's because the more neatly the rejection statement is issued, the lower the bargaining power of your card in the market. The more anxious you are, the more they can suppress the price. The more desperate you are, the more they can force you to sign a long-term supply agreement that is favorable to them. ]

[ Phantom Sovereign ] : [ To put it bluntly. This is a collective price suppression. The Abyss's public opinion manipulation is just pushing the boat with the current. The guilds are not being manipulated—they are acting with the trend. Anyway, the cost of refusal is zero. If they win, they get a Rainbow Card at a cabbage price. ]

[ Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ And if the price suppression doesn't work, they won't wait for death either. Knockoffs will definitely appear. Not necessarily from the Abyss—the guilds themselves have card-making departments. The castrated version doesn't need soul gem transformation, doesn't need sex change, and the cost is lower. The original sells for three million, the castrated version sells for five hundred thousand. You are the guild leader, which one do you choose? ]

Su Bai looked at the last line of Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen's text on the screen.

Then he slowly typed a question mark in the group.

[ Su Bai ] : [ ? ]

Not for Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen, but for himself. Because he suddenly realized one thing—from the Monthly Exam until now, he only thought about how to make cards. He never thought about how to sell cards.

[ Su Bai ] : [ Seniors, then what should I do? ]

The other side was silent for a few seconds.

[ Phantom Sovereign ] : [ Think of a way yourself. ]

[ Su Bai ] : [ Ah? ]

[ Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ Haha, this is an assessment, kid. The selling of cards by a Card Creator is of paramount importance. You must convince others. Our group of people went to write papers because we couldn't follow the path of selling cards, so we can't give you advice. Come on! ]

[ Qi Yuan ] : [ Li Qingyue helping you decorate the Truth Sanctuary Mall is already an exception. But having said that, in fact, this is also a kind of suppression of Card Creators. If a Card Creator's cards can be sold, the power of faith will automatically gather, converted into a large amount of attribute blessings. At that time, the Card Creator will be the most powerful profession in the world, bar none. However, those people are not willing to see this situation. ]

[ Armored Mage Emperor Lu Chen ] : [ That's right. The Truth Sanctuary is the pinnacle of theory, but when it comes to selling cards... there is a bunch of die-hards here. If we could have competed with those guilds back then, we wouldn't be Card Creators who only know how to write papers, but a group of professional daddies! ]

Su Bai leaned on the card-making table.

He looked down at his hands. Distinct knuckles, no soul gem. But the two-colored halo left by Li Qingyue on the back of his hand was still rotating slowly.

First lesson.

Interests, price suppression, knockoffs.

Everyone is waiting to see how he will handle this round.

[ Su Bai ] : [ ...So that's how it is. ]

Outside the window, the first complete daylight of Jinghai City was brightening up.