77: Chapter 77 Purchasing Materials

"System."

[Please speak.]

"Deck components. Does this concept exist within your rules?"

[It exists. Deck components are multiple cards that form a closed-loop system with synergistic logic; each card is activated independently but shares a contract core. This model fully complies with the Concept Construction rules.]

The corners of Su Bai's mouth began to curl upward.

A Rank 1 Core Card cannot bear Rank 7 magic power.

But a Rank 1 Weapon Card does not need to bear magic power. The weapon itself is empty; the magic power is injected by the user. Chu Yin is a Rank 7 Sword Cultivator; her magic power is already strong enough. She does not need a card to generate magic power for her; she only needs a card to convert her magic power into a weapon.

Once the train of thought was opened, inspiration flooded out like water from an opened sluice gate.

[Zhao Dahai]: [@Su Bai, what exactly are you thinking? Stop keeping us in suspense!!]

[Su Bai]: [A deck.]

[Zhao Dahai]: [?]

[Su Bai]: [The Core Card handles the contract, the Weapon Card handles the output, and the Terminal Card handles the ultimate move. Four Rank 1 cards connected in a closed loop. Driven by Chu Yin's own magic power. Each one, when separated, is just an ordinary Rank 1 card, but when all four are combined—it becomes a complete Rank 7 combat system.]

[Lin Xiao]: [...Wait. Are you talking about that theoretical thing—deck components? The kind that requires a shared conceptual framework to link together—]

[Su Bai]: [Correct. The Magical Girl system is the framework itself. I just need to fill it with components.]

[Lin Xiao]: [Although I don't know what these components are, your tone makes me feel like my wallet is about to be empty again. Tell me, how much money do you need?]

[Su Bai]: [It's not your wallet. It's Chu Yin's wallet. She has already paid.]

Su Bai set his phone aside and pulled a stack of blank draft paper from the drawer.

The moment the pen tip touched the paper, those fragmented thoughts that had been circling in his mind for several days all gushed out. Like an opened sluice, they all rushed out at once.

First card. Core carrier.

Kyubey is the medium of the contract, and the soul gem is the result of the contract. If he could make a card to strengthen the soul gem—allowing the gem to be immune to corruption for a short time while increasing emotional conversion efficiency—then Chu Yin's magic power output in battle would jump a level.

The name would be [Causality Separation · soul gem Strengthening].

Rank 1. The effect is simple: for half an hour after activation, the soul gem's corruption is cleared to zero, and emotional conversion efficiency is doubled. The cost is that the soul gem will enter a short cooldown period after the effect ends.

This thing is not a weapon, but it can make all weapons stronger.

Second card. Weapon terminal.

Su Bai drew a sword on the paper.

To be precise, many swords.

Chu Yin is a Rank 7 Sword Cultivator. Rank 1 magic swords are as brittle as paper; she could shatter the blade with a casual wave. But what if he reversed that? What if this sword was designed to be disposable? One breaks, dozens more replace it. Another batch breaks, another batch comes. As long as there is sufficient magic power, the swords are infinite.

He thought of Miki Sayaka.

That idiot who wished to become a Magical Girl to save someone. Her ability is high-speed regeneration; her wound healing speed is hundreds of times faster than other Magical Girls. Using this logic in reverse—the weapon doesn't need to be sturdy; it just needs to be plentiful.

[Unlimited Blade Works · Sayaka's Rhapsody].

Rank 1. After activation, the user's magic power will automatically convert into tens of thousands of magic swords. The swords hover in mid-air, each one equivalent to the power of the user's full-strength strike. The blades are consumables; if they break, they break. As long as the user's magic power is not exhausted, the number of swords will not decrease.

At the same time, this card carries Sayaka's characteristic, increasing healing speed exponentially!

Third card. Output terminal.

Su Bai's hand paused.

The inspiration for this card was a bit outrageous. He flipped through the Magical Girl arsenal in his mind—Mami Tomoe's flintlock pistols, Kyoko Sakura's multi-section spear, Akemi Homura's time shield. But he didn't just need a weapon. He needed a [terminal] capable of carrying the full output of Rank 7 magic power.

Then he thought of a magic wand.

To be precise, that kind of extremely exaggerated ruby magic wand. The staff was taller than a person, the gem was bigger than a fist, and the design was so flamboyant that one would be embarrassed to carry it out. But that wasn't the point. The point was its mechanism—compressing all magic power into a single attribute, then cranking the output multiplier to the maximum.

[Crimson Magic Guidance · Explosion Staff].

Rank 1. After activation, the user is forced to switch to [Explosion Mage] form. All other cards and skills are sealed. In exchange, the power of Explosion Magic is increased tenfold.

Tenfold.

Not ten percent. Tenfold.

The cost is—except for Explosion Magic, nothing else can be used.

Come to think of it, this inspiration came from "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!" that Su Bai watched in his previous life. Megumin in that show loved using Explosion Magic, and this thing actually felt quite compatible with Magical Girls—squeezing out all magic power to become an ultimate magic; how useful!

Fourth card. Ultimate trigger.

Then Su Bai wrote the last card, incorporating Mami Tomoe's finale and Megumin's Explosion Magic into it.

Fusion. Mami Tomoe's [Finale] is pouring magic power into the gun chamber and firing it all at once. Megumin's [Explosion Magic] is chanting and then draining all of one's magic power to fire one shot. The two mechanisms combined—chanting, charging, and then one shot to empty everything.

Of course, this isn't about letting the user use Mami Tomoe's abilities, but using Mami Tomoe's magic as a medium to allow the Explosion Staff to successfully trigger Explosion Magic. After all, separated components can maximize strengthening; this is the charm of a deck—every card helps the others and serves the terminal.

This also leads to the power of the deck increasing exponentially!

[Finisher · Terminal Explosion Magic].

Rank 1. Trigger condition: The user must hold the staff high and recite the designated chuunibyou incantation in its entirety—the lines have been pre-etched into the circuit; not a single word can be missing, not a single syllable can be wrong. The moment the chanting is finished, a beam of magic power mixed with deep red and pink shoots out from the top of the staff, with an upper limit of power equal to the sum of the user's total magic power multiplied by ten.

There are three costs.

First, after one strike, magic power is completely emptied, and the recovery time ignores the user's rank—regardless of rank, they will likely need to lie down for a full day.

Second, the soul gem's turbidity is instantly maxed out. But since this is a Magical Girl who signed a contract with Su Bai, the corruption will be automatically purified, so this cost is effectively non-existent for Chu Yin.

Third, the user will collapse to the ground as if their bones had been removed, unable to move even a finger for at least ten minutes. This is commonly known as [splat, falling face-down on the ground].

Su Bai put down his pen.

Four cards. All Rank 1. Each one looks very specialized when viewed individually—extremely specialized. The strengthening card can only strengthen the soul gem, the weapon card can only release infinite swords, the staff card can only release Explosion Magic, and the ultimate card can only fire one shot. But if you connect them together—

The first activates, the soul gem enters high-conversion mode.

The second activates, Unlimited Blade Works spreads out the field; this stage is mainly for transition, as emotions need to accumulate slightly to be released, or if the user needs to handle situations with basic attacks, it's great for that.

The third and fourth activate simultaneously, the staff seals all other abilities, ten-fold Explosion Magic charges, chants, and sends them away in one shot.

Done and dusted. Magic power empty. Collapse. Battle over.

Su Bai looked at the four drafts in front of him, and the arc of his mouth could not be suppressed no matter how hard he tried.

"I really am a genius."

[Su Bai, your heart rate has gone up again.]

"Normal. Creative excitement."

The next morning.

Su Bai stood at the entrance of the Material Street in the underground black market of Jinghai City, holding Chu Yin's Star Card in his hand.

The [Three-Person Card-Making Mutual Aid Group] chat was still scrolling crazily.

[Zhao Dahai]: [@Su Bai, did you go to buy materials? You went alone? Didn't call Lin Xiao? Last time you bought three books of heavenly scriptures back alone; what are you going to buy alone this time? Ten books of heavenly scriptures?]

[Lin Xiao]: [He has a black card this time. He doesn't need me.]

[Zhao Dahai]: [It's not about the money! It's about his judgment! Last time he said 'it's just about two million' and then spent 2.05 million! This time he might say 'it's just about twenty million' and then spend 20.5 million!]

[Su Bai]: [Don't worry. I am very clear-headed.]

[Zhao Dahai]: [You said the same thing last time!!]

Su Bai set his phone to silent and stepped into the first material shop.